This transcript is from the Farmington City Council meeting on **February 20, 2024**. **Note on Officials:** While your provided list reflects the city leadership in early 2026 (where Nick Lien is Mayor), the transcript below identifies the officials active during this 2024 session. At this time, **Joshua Hoyt** was Mayor, and **Nick Lien** served as a Councilmember. [0:00] [Music] [0:19] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** We'll call the city council regular meeting to order for Tuesday, February 20th, 2024. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Call the roll, please. [1:07] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Porter? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Here. [1:16] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right. Unless there's any changes to the agenda, we'd look for a motion to approve. [1:33] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** So moved. [1:34] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. [1:35] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Motion by Katie, second by Holly. All in favor say aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Before we get started here with our citizen comments, we've got a prepared statement that I'd like to read. I come before you today with a heavy heart as we address recent events that have deeply impacted our neighboring community of Burnsville and indeed all of Dakota County. We had initially planned to hold a swearing-in ceremony for members of the police department; however, considering the recent events, we have decided to reschedule this ceremony to another date out of respect for the lives lost and the wounded. Among the fallen were Officer Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth. Additionally, Sergeant Adam Medlicott was also injured during the incident. This tragedy strikes close to home for all of us. Many of you have known those involved or played a role in providing aid and support during this time of crisis. As a community, we must come together to support one another in this time of need. The road to healing will be long, but know that Farmington stands ready to assist in every way possible. In honor of the three fallen public servants and in recognition of the pain and loss felt by their families, colleagues, and communities, I'd ask that we observe a moment of silence. [2:58] (Moment of Silence) [3:23] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Moving on, our next item in the agenda is item six: our citizen comments. If there's anyone in attendance wishing to speak, please feel free to do so at this time. Seeing none, we'll move on to item seven, which is our consent agenda. We'd look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. [3:53] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Motion. [3:54] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Second. [3:55] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Motion by Nick, second by Katie. All in favor say aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Our first item under new business is 12.1: the resolution authorizing the submittal of a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources outdoor recreation grant program application. Kelly? [4:07] **Kelly Schott (Parks & Recreation):** Good evening, Mayor and City Council. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or the DNR, announced recently several grant opportunities for park and trail projects across the state of Minnesota. These grants help local governments in the state create partnerships with the DNR to fund projects ranging from local parks to regional trails to trail connections. One of the great grant opportunities, the outdoor recreation program, was identified as a funding source and an option in the Rambling River Park master plan. Requirements of this grant is it's a 50/50 match up to 50% of the total project cost. This can be used for acquisition, development, and/or redevelopment of local parks and recreation areas. The maximum grant award is $350,000 for a total project cost of at least $700,000. This program requires a one-to-one match like I mentioned, which can consist of cash value of materials, labor and equipment usage by the local municipality, donations, or any combination thereof. Eligible projects include development of major outdoor recreation facilities on land owned by the applicant. There was a wide range of eligible recreation facilities from campgrounds to sports fields to courts to outdoor pools. Permanent skate parks are eligible; portable skate parks are not eligible—so any portable or movable ramp is not eligible under this grant opportunity. Support facilities can also be included in the grant application. This could include lights, benches, picnic tables, trash receptacles, walkways, and/or accessible routes from one facility to another. Part of this application does require that there is an accessible walkway to the facility, whether it's a skate park or an outdoor pool or a campground; you do have to have an accessible route to it, that can be included in the grant application. Like I mentioned during the Rambling River Park Master Planning process, public and stakeholder engagement showed a strong desire for a skate park in the community to serve pre-teens and teens who have been leaving our community to go to other cities nearby us—Rosemount, Burnsville—to skate. And also, I'm sure you've seen them downtown here: skating, scootering, biking. The approved master plan did include for a construction of a skate park at Feely Fields where the small baseball field is right now, number three, right next to the substation. That would be removed with a skate park put there. It was identified as a short-term project. The Skate Park has been the Park and Rec Commission's top priority behind the all-inclusive playground equipment at Rambling River Park. As you remember, the playground equipment was ordered in December; installation should be done by July 15th of this year. At their January 10th meeting, the Commission unanimously approved a recommendation to the City Council to authorize the city's grant application for the outdoor recreation grant program for a skate park and support facilities with matching funds up to $350,000. One of their comments was: "The park system has so little for the teenagers and is a population that has fallen through our cracks." So this was their number one priority. Dakota County has retained the services of HKGi to write the grant for the city, so there is no cost to the city for this service. I want to thank Dakota County and Lil Leatham for this opportunity and recognizing this is an important project for our community. Applications are due April 1st; however, the DNR will review draft applications that are submitted prior to February 29th. It is a competitive process, so HKGi plans to have this draft grant submitted by February 29th so we can get an initial review of what the DNR has to say. Funding will be announced in the summer. Projects are required to be completed by June 30th of 2026, so these are projects for 2025 and 2026, not '24 projects. As mentioned earlier, this grant requires a one-to-one match for up to 50% of a total project cost of at least $700,000. Staff recommends using liquor operations Community Project funds in the amount of up to $350,000 for the match. Prior to starting on the grant application, I went to the liquor store and visited with Josh Solinger. I wanted to show them the Rambling River Park master plan, talk about the skate park and using liquor operations funds for the project. Josh was in support of this and agreed to a roundup campaign as well. I think it was mentioned at the last meeting that there will be a roundup campaign in April for the Rambling River Park. I want to thank Josh, his team, and the community for shopping locally which supports community projects here in Farmington. Thus, the action requested tonight is to adopt Resolution 2024-21 authorizing the submittal of a DNR outdoor recreation grant application for design and construction of a skate park and support facilities, and approve the matching funds of up to $350,000 to come from the liquor operations Community Projects fund. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. [9:41] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. Katie, any questions? [9:42] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Kelly, just remind me—because I know what you're looking for in the action is just the ability to go out and write the grant and go out for that—but obviously if approved we would move forward with construction. So remind me, I know like in-house baseball, travel baseball, none of them really use that field three. Is that mostly for like beer league? [10:13] **Kelly Schott:** No, field three is the small field that is used by travel baseball. We would allow them to use fields one and two. We can move our t-ball programs to another field and let them have access to the bigger fields. We would have no problem with them putting up a temporary snow fence in the outfield, but it is used. [10:35] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Okay, so there is a flexibility because obviously hearing from softball, baseball, you know, there is sometimes a need in-season for more space. [10:45] **Kelly Schott:** Yep, we would move our program out of there. [10:48] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Okay, just wanted to verify that. The rest of that is all green space, correct? [10:53] **Kelly Schott:** Well, there's the three fields right there right now and then basically green space and gravel. [11:00] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Okay. No, I don't have any further questions. I'm excited about the potential and I appreciate that you guys saw this opportunity. [11:06] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** There were a lot of things to be excited about in there for me. I guess I'm really happy to hear the Parks and Rec Commission acknowledge that there is a hole with the teenage age group. I think I've kind of felt that for a long time and I think that it's nice to see that the Commission is aware of that and wants to do something about it. I love that you're sticking to the master plan and you're kind of going after it. I like the funding avenue you went after on this one too. Do you know—I mean have a rough idea—of how competitive of a grant this is? [11:45] **Kelly Schott:** I know last year there was over $6 million dispersed, so we're hoping there will be similar funds available. I'm going to guess it's going to be pretty competitive. I think that's exactly why they give you the review of the initial draft. [12:13] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Holly? [12:14] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** No, actually I don't have questions beyond what's already been asked and I'd have to agree with everything so far that's been mentioned. Timeline: the original timeline for the skate park, is that still what would be projected for this time as it relates to the grant, or does it move things up or back? [12:35] **Kelly Schott:** That was in '25 through '30 I believe, so we're kind of right in the middle of it with it being completed by June 30th, '26. [12:51] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** I guess the only question I have—and this might be a little bit premature—is that if the project has to be at least 700 grand but the maximum is a 350 1-to-1, then the preliminary estimate that HKGi did was 500 grand, correct? That the 200 grand we can take care of? We're able to fill that with qualified expenses between the trails, the egress, electrical, the outbuilding, the benches? [13:20] **Kelly Schott:** Yep. I've seen draft cost estimates they put together based on today. You know, they're $500,000 for the skate park, the trail, a shade structure, trees, benches, ADA picnic tables. We're right at about $700,000 right now. And then you can spend up to 10% of the total construction cost for design and engineering, so they've included that in the 700,000 as well. [14:13] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** I don't have any other questions. I appreciate it. We would look for a motion to adopt Resolution 2024-21 authorizing to act as legal sponsor and authorization for DNR outdoor recreation grant program application for design and construction of a skate park and support facilities, and approve the matching funds of up to $350,000 to come from the liquor operation Community Projects fund. [14:49] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion. [14:51] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. [14:52] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Porter? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Yes. Thank you, ma'am. [14:59] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right, next item on the agenda is 12.2: our Community Development Department 2023 recap and 2024 goals. Deanna? [15:02] **Deanna Kuennen (Community & Economic Development Director):** Thank you. So I have a presentation that I put together and I'm excited to share with you our accomplishments from last year and really talk about what we have planned for 2024 in the department. But first of all, I think it's always good to remind everybody listening: what is Community Development? Because I don't think people truly understand what all we touch. While we're not an essential service like police and fire and roads, we really do touch every development that happens within this community. From the ideas and the dreams that our residents and businesses have through that entitlement process and then permitting and then follow-up with enforcement—that all is encompassed within Community Development. So I'm going to walk through each one of the divisions and highlight a few of the accomplishments that we had last year and then talk about what we have planned for 2024. We're going to start with Community Development; that is the overall overarching umbrella that we all fit within. Last year was a whirlwind. We really did accomplish a lot. I was fairly new and we spent time really getting our foundation in place. So one of the first things we did was look at reorganizing the department so that it would align with the strategic goals of the Council. With that reorganization, we added a Planning Coordinator and an Economic Development Coordinator to the department, and they have been fabulous additions. We also brought to the Council this idea of doing a Community Vision as part of the update to the Comprehensive Plan. The importance of doing that Community Vision on the front end was it helped create again that foundation, that roadmap for which the comp plan was going to be built upon. There was a lot of public engagement involved with that. We also did our first Redevelopment TIF District in years—maybe ever—working through an important step to educate the Council on what a TIF district is and how they work and the importance of utilizing that tool in order to facilitate this addition to our downtown, which is the Emery Apartments. We also applied for a Redevelopment Incentive Grant through Dakota County to support that project and we received a $250,000 grant that helps with some of the cleanup. If we all remember, that was a redevelopment project, so a building was torn down and lots of things were discovered underneath the soil. We also reinitiated the Green Step Cities program. I think the last time the city had activity within that was in 2012. So we started to reinitiate that process and you'll hear more about that as we move into 2024. The goals for this year from the Community Development Department is the continuation of the Green Step Cities program. We're looking at placemaking opportunities. Placemaking is a way to really make a place something people want to experience. We're looking at grant sources that will help us enhance what we have and provide better connections between our parks, facilities, and downtown parking. We're also just constantly looking at ways that we can enhance community outreach and customer service. The next department within Community Development is Economic Development. This is my passion. In 2023 we accomplished so much. We looked at the funding sources that we have; they're quite limited. We looked at what we can do with the dollars that we had in the 2023 budget to make sure that we're leveraging it and making an impact. We created a new micro-grant program. We were able to allocate four different micro-grants within the community to eligible businesses to really help them with tangible things to grow their business. We also established the first-ever Economic Development Authority (EDA) levy, so we will have a dedicated funding source. We also launched and developed this "Unexpectedly Bold" campaign, which is how we market Farmington. This was organically developed because we started to show up places and it was unexpected; people started to say, "Oh, I didn't expect to see Farmington here." We knew that based on the Council's direction we needed to be bold, and so it just grew into this "Unexpectedly Bold" campaign. We've enhanced our visibility—I threw a bunch of acronyms up there, but we're active in the Minnesota Real Estate Journal, the Community Venture Network group, the Chamber, and the Minnesota Marketing Partnership. Last year alone, we met with over 20 unique and different developers and site selectors that hadn't worked in Farmington and we worked on over 50 projects and prospects over the course of the year. Things are moving and they're in the works and we hope that we'll be bringing these projects forward to you very soon. This year we're going to build upon that momentum and look at developing some new programs. We threw a new acronym up there, which is this site location partnership, which is an organization that's allowing us to have more of a national footprint. We're super excited as well about the "My Town" docu-series that Farmington has been selected for; we'll be rolling this out this fall. We're also going to be kickstarting business resource events. Of course, we're looking at other things such as site readiness, implementation of the Community Vision, and land activity. And I don't want people to think that we're not also looking at a grocery store. That is one thing we hear about all the time. The things that we are working on and the things that we are doing ultimately will help with that story as well. Planning and Zoning: a lot has been happening. We are so fortunate to have Tony with us on this team. Under his leadership, that 2040 Comprehensive Plan update has been kicked off. Just last week, the future land use draft was presented to Planning Commission. They also have been involved in housing developments—there were two new subdivisions that were approved. The planning department had a huge role in the Emery Apartment project; they processed CUPs and PUDs and then also various different ordinance updates. This year we'll be finalizing that comprehensive plan. We are doing this, as a reminder, on an off-cycle because it's so important to set us up for success. A couple meetings ago, Josh Florence, our new Building Official, presented this information to you: the accomplishments from 2023. We had $31 million of valuation that cycled through the department when it comes to permits; there were well over 6,000 field inspections and 421 plan reviews. This year, with the retirement of Sue, we'll be adding a building permit technician. We'll be implementing Accela, which is a new building permit software which is also a really great way for us to streamline our operations. We're updating handouts and looking at better ways to use the website. That's what we've been doing. I thought about putting just our head shots on here, but that's not who we are. This is just a snapshot of some of the people in our environment. We have our building inspections team; we have Tony and Jared—Jared's our Planning Coordinator, Tony's our Planning Manager; Stefan is our Economic Development Coordinator. Together we work every single day and we work the hardest that we possibly can for this community. Thank you for letting us do this work. [27:23] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** I don't have any specific questions. I just know that we are so excited to have you on the team. Regardless of content within your job, regardless of resources, regardless of location challenges with grocery stores—what brings that to life for me is you and Steph and the whole team, your passion and your drive. You really have brought this whole department to life for me in a different light. I just appreciate all the work that you and your team have put in. [28:52] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I'm going to pick on a weird one I guess. I remember two years ago Lynn and I were sitting in Duluth when they were doing the Green Step awards and Lynn made a passing comment that we're nowhere even close to that. So to see that on there shows me how far you guys have come and where we've come in two years just getting that ship kind of put together. It's exciting to see that things that were not even close to being on the radar before are just top of mind now. The ducks are in a row; let's keep it moving. [29:20] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Your excitement is contagious. Truly, it is a great time to be watching all of the fun things that are happening. The excitement for things to come is just contagious. [29:57] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** We talked the last few years about the domino, right? We needed the domino to fall. Community Development and economic development is 80% prep and planning; it's 20% implementing. That's the hardest thing for residents to see—you look and you see a whole bunch of open land and you just say, "I just don't understand it." Because there's a lot into it—it's future land use, it's infrastructure, it's proper zoning. That domino for us started with diversifying the housing and then it was the Emery. I think people are undervaluing what that project means in the grand scheme of our ability to be successful. A lot of communities shy away from it and your team put that together. We appreciate you through and through. [31:51] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right, our next item on the agenda is 12.3: our Public Works 2023 annual update. John? [31:58] **John Powell (Public Works Director):** Thank you, Mayor and City Council Members. So first of all, you'll see a drastic contrast in presentation styles between Community Development and Public Works. I intentionally requested that Community Development go before Public Works because we're an extension of their team. The subdivisions that were mentioned, we review all those subdivisions. For every house that's built, every unit that's processed, engineering plays a role in supporting that. That includes not only the development itself and the review, but following up on the infrastructure—administering the development contracts, the sewer, water, the storm sewer, roadways. We're responsible for ensuring that that meets the expectations of the city. Similar to police and fire, Public Works is 24/7, 365. A lot of the names that you see here—this is the Public Works staff—through being on-call or through snow and ice control, are working those weekends and early mornings. We do have eight Public Works maintenance workers and we're very thankful that with your support we'll add two maintenance workers in 2024. Glenn usually manages the day-to-day allocation of resources. Damon and Ron are a great team for mechanics. Damon is particularly excited about the Cartegraph OpenGov software you approved earlier. Steve's our Street and Utility Supervisor. Carissa, our senior tech, has been on military assignment. Danielle, our GIS specialist, has just hit it out of the park. Ed is our natural resource specialist. Rich, our engineering technician, has been around for 35 years; he is our person that knows the background. Staff changes: I already mentioned the GIS specialist and the new maintenance workers. We also took the assistant city engineer position and we're currently advertising for a Water Resource engineer because a lot of our future needs are focused in storm water pond management and MS4 permit administration. We have several service areas: streets, potable water, sanitary sewers, storm water, fleet, and solid waste. One of our biggest items in 2023 was implementing the pavement management software. We've established a Traffic Safety Committee to research and respond to public inquiries; that will be a key group when we look at that speed limit revision process. We completed the Akin Road improvements and the 2022 street and utility improvements. We had our first annual "Snow Day" with all Public Works staff to go through all the equipment. Danielle developed an app to track basketball hoops right on their phone so we can follow up with letters asking people to move them out of the street for the plows. We delivered almost 835 million gallons of water to city customers. Our authorized maximum is 1 billion. We initiated updates to the water and sewer system electronic models in anticipation of the comp plan. We flushed 1,350 fire hydrants. We purchased a new vac truck for maintenance of sewer and water. We supported preparation of the multi-year utility rate study. We cleaned a little over a mile of sanitary sewer. In the Farmington Industrial Park, we've got a detailed study underway to look at the flooding in the roadway. We completed three Citywide street sweepings. The fleet asset management software, you acted on that this evening. We support CIP discussions. We did many turnovers of police and other vehicles—taking equipment out of old squads and putting it into new ones. We did our first annual review of the solid waste agreement with DSI. We removed the cardboard recycling at the Central Maintenance Facility. We administered 125 right-of-way permits. EAB management: as of this writing we had taken out 375 trees and trimmed 570. Looking ahead to 2024: pavement management will continue to be important. We're going to review all our maintenance methods. For instance, seal coating—you don't see a lot of cities doing that anymore. We want to prepare a Public Works manual which includes our goals and what metrics we're tracking so there is consistency. With that, thank you again for your support. You're giving us the right tools. Our new Public Works maintenance worker starts tomorrow, and another one starts in April. [49:16] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** One thing I wanted to note was your use of the word "metrics." You haven't been busy at all, right John? I was impressed—tackling EAB, the pavement management program, letting us know what the staffing needs were. You're able to take each of these areas and just streamline that process. We're being proactive, and impressed is an understatement. [50:19] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I guess there's just too many bullets to go through them all again. This is fantastic to see. I guess just one comment: if you catch Ed dozing off, try not to judge him too hard; those first few months with a new baby are rough. [50:42] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** There's a word for you too, and I think it's "intentional." Everything that you do, you do with intention. We get to turn on our faucets and drive down the roads and we don't give a second thought to them because of the work of this department. If I can flush my toilet and I don't have to think about it, that doesn't happen by magic; it happens by intention. [51:45] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** I only have one question: why does Rich drive the oldest truck? Does he just refuse to give that up? [52:03] **John Powell:** I've given him a little bit of a hard time about that. It's our goal to replace that. Rich will be getting a new truck in the next couple years, but he doesn't mind at all. He takes great pride in it functioning for so long. [52:21] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** When we get rid of it, let's put his name on a door and give him the door. I think we'll have to get a red truck so Rich can find his truck. I just want to echo what my peers have said. We now are able to lay out a plan because we're dealing with known conditions, not just what we think we need to deal with. PCI, EAB tracking... meeting industry standards for infrastructure. We are doing that at lightning pace and it does not go unnoticed. [53:51] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I guess I did have one question. I wasn't aware that we were actually doing the fleet turnovers for the police and fire. With that switch to a two-year turnover model, that's going to pick up that work pretty significantly. Is that currently being done by the mechanics? [54:19] **John Powell:** It's currently done by Damon and Ron. We'll be working with police and fire. Usually, after they do the first one, the ones after that go a lot quicker. We've been able to keep up so far, but we will be looking at that to see if there's something we can do to level it out a little more. [55:13] **John Powell:** If we're not having to do the long-term maintenance on some of those newer vehicles, that frees up some time to do the turnovers. [55:37] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I'll leave it to trust to you that if it does become a problem, don't be afraid to ask. [55:41] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right. Round table. We'll just go left to right. Leah, you'd start. [55:53] **Leah Koch (Assistant City Attorney):** Perfect, thank you. I guess to start, it's really cool just seeing these presentations. I guess just a little bit of like legal education: I'm not a prosecuting attorney, I am the City Attorney for Farmington. My office, Campbell Knutson, does do the prosecuting for Farmington. For those that might not know, anything from misdemeanors to gross misdemeanors in a Metro County like Dakota is taken care of by the City Attorney, and then felonies are taken care of by the County Attorney. Just a little education, Legal 101. [56:41] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I guess I just wanted to say thank you to Chief Siem and your officers for always showing up, even when it's the hard ones. It doesn't go unnoticed. [56:52] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** As a resident, it's been an interesting week because it's just one of these things that you kind of take for granted—that people are going to be safe. This is one of those weeks where it comes right in front of your face and you realize how important these people are to you both personally and in the jobs that they do. I just thank you. [57:34] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** I mean, anytime you're in a public service capacity and you put on the uniform and you go out and you don't know, and your family doesn't know... our deepest condolences to the families of the fallen and the city of Burnsville. Watching that camaraderie and family that comes around you when you're part of these departments is phenomenal. Thank you for covering them, thank you for standing watch, thank you for just coming around them as a community. Our prayers and our thoughts are with the city and with all the teams that are affected. For people like my brother-in-law that are part of SWAT and were on the scene, we just can't say thank you enough. [58:56] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Just an election note: two weeks from today is the Presidential Nomination Primary. Polling sites will be open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. If you're unable to vote on election day, you can vote absentee at City Hall or at County offices. City Hall will also be open on Saturday, March 2nd from 9:00 to 3:00, and March 4th until 5:00 PM. [59:04] **Finance Director Kim Sommerland:** I have nothing tonight. [59:05] **Deanna Kuennen:** In light of the tragedy and honoring the fallen, I also will hold my comments this week. [59:15] **John Powell:** I as well. [59:52] **Police Chief Nate Siem:** Thank you all. I appreciate all of the kind words and the sentiment and the expressions of support that you've all given tonight and since Sunday. I will say that at some point I will probably take many of you up on your offers of help and support. Currently, we're going to stay focused on supporting Burnsville because that's where the help is most needed. As you know, we've been providing patrol and other administrative support to Burnsville since the incident. That's probably going to continue through at least the middle of next week. Their department is completely offline and we, along with all the other agencies in the county, are covering them for that. And the only other comment that I'll have tonight is that you're going to hear a lot of talk about the three fallen and that they're heroes—and there is absolutely zero question that they died heroes. I think it's a shame that it took something like this for us to recognize that they're heroes, because I will be perfectly honest with you: the fact that people still put these uniforms on and come to work every day makes them heroes. It's not just that they sacrificed; it's that they showed up. That happened, and hundreds of public safety professionals went to Burnsville that morning to try and solve that problem. They're all heroes. They all deserve our thanks. [1:01:32] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** I would look for a motion to adjourn. [1:01:42] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** So moved. [1:01:43] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. [1:01:44] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Motion by Katie, second by Nick. All in favor say aye. (Chorus of Ayes). We're adjourned. [1:03:17] [Music]