This transcript has been rewritten to identify speakers based on the context of the Farmington City Council meeting and follows the formatting rules provided. [0:53] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: We will call the city council meeting to order for February 17th, 2026. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of 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. [1:22] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you. Call the role, please. [1:22] City Clerk: Council member Wilson. [1:22] Council Member Steve Wilson: Here. [1:22] City Clerk: Council member Bernatz. [1:22] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Here. [1:22] City Clerk: Acting Mayor Lean. [1:22] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Here. All right, we have roll. Uh unless there's any changes to the agenda, I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. [1:40] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Motion. [1:40] Council Member Steve Wilson: Second. [1:40] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Motion a second. All in favor say I. [1:40] Council Members: I. [1:40] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: I. And we have an agenda. Sorry. I I didn't say myself there. All right. I have a unique moment here and ahead of the announcements, I just kind of want to take a moment before I begin here tonight and acknowledge the changes to the this council that have occurred since our last meeting. Some of you who may be watching know me very well. Others may not. And I think now is an appropriate time to try to level set our residents on who I am, why I am here, and how I operate in a leadership capacity and what changes in tone you might see going forward. I promise this will be one of the only times I subject you to my life story. Oh, we got to go way back to 2018. I was uh hospitalized with acute and near total kidney failure from an undiagnosed immune condition that I have had and will have my entire life. I was told by my doctors that I was days away from my heart stopping if they had not intervened. I recovered after 12 weeks of chemotherapy and will now live the rest of my life as an immunesuppressed person. Six months after recovering from this, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and navigated that journey as well. While I'm happy to have made it through, anyone who's lived through medical scenarios like this know the mental toll that it takes on you and how it changes you as a person. Despite the pain of it all, I'm grateful that I gained a very different perspective on the nature of life, how I treat others, and how to acknowledge that everyone's life journey looks a little different. When 2020 rolled around, I watched federal and state level politics slowly start to creep into our local offices and school boards, a trend that is unfortunately still occurring today. This has led to a breakdown in communication and compromise at even our most basic forms of government, and I grew frustrated. When the opportunity to sit on the council presented itself in 2022, I told myself that even if I wasn't the greatest public speaker in the world, I could at least sit at a table and have a conversation about topics that have no business being partisan. I've tried to remain as true to that neutrality as possible throughout my entire time on council and will continue to do so as the acting mayor. I'm an engineer by trade, so it may come to no surprise to anybody here that I am an introvert. I generally prefer listening over speaking, which is typically why you do not hear me talking much during council meetings. I personally prefer that my words have weight than just having words to say at every opportunity. And I feel very strongly that a team is strongest when others besides me feel empowered to speak and suggest their own changes. The staff are the experts, not me. All of this is to say that it is my hope that people do not assume that my lack of words and speeches is a lack of caring. I am here to listen first and speak second. And I am fully committed to making Farmington a great place to live, work, and play, which is ultimately the same mission that every past council member and mayor of this city has strived to, regardless of whether you agree with their opinions or not. And with that, I could not be happier or prouder that my first official act in this seat is to announce item 51, which is the swearing in of our full-time firefighters and or Chief Price sorry. [4:58] Fire Chief Price: Good evening, acting mayor, council members, and city staff. Uh this evening we'll be conducting the oath of office and badge pinning for seven members of the Farmington Fire Department. Again, our first members conducting the ceremony will be the firefighter position that took effect January 5th of this year. Tyler Bowman is a four-year member of the department. Tyler uh Tyler is serving as our new candidate mentor and helping with the fire academy for the department. Tyler holds many uh state certifications as and is also a current member of the Dakota County special operations team. He is also an emergency medical technician. Tyler will be pinned by his girlfriend Kaylin. Matthew Jans is a five-year member of the of the department. Matt currently has been assisting also with the fire academy. Matt holds many certifications such as fire officer one, fire instructor one, incident safety officer, fire apparatus operator aerial, and is going to be testing for his emergency medical technician. Matt will be pinned by his wife, Caitlyn. Kayn Schaw is a three-year member of the department. Kaitlin serves as a subject matter expert on medical information along with best practices for the department and holds many certifications to include her paramedic license. Kayn also serves with the Minnesota Army National Guard. Kaitlin will be pinned by her fiance Spencer. At this time, I'm going to call the three up front to take their oath and their badge pinning. Raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I state your name. [6:38] Firefighters: I [Names], as a firefighter of the Farmington Fire Department, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of firefighters of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of firefighter to the best of my abilities. And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the fire department. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. And make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. So help me God. [8:15] Fire Chief Price: I will now ask the three members to come up and pin the badge, please. Go ahead. Uh the next three individuals I'll be introducing are for our captain position which also took effect on January 5th of this year. Brian Hansen is a 15-year member of the department and has held the ranks of firefighter, crew leader, lieutenant, and captain. Brian has served on commit on many committees of for the department over his career and holds many certifications such as fire apparatus operator aerial apparatus pump operations incident safety officer and is an emergency medical technician. Brian will be pinned by his mother Marsha. Matthew Denine is a 17-year member of the fire service and has held the ranks of firefighter lieutenant captain. Matt has served on committees for the fire service over his career and holds many certifications such as fire officer 2, fire instructor 2, incident safety officer, and is also an emergency medical technician. Matt will be pinned by his wife, Jen. Steve Carson is a five-year member of the department and has held the ranks of firefighter and crew leader. Steve has served as a full-time firefighter for the last two and a half years with other fire departments and holds many certifications such as fire officer 2, fire instructor 2, incident safety officer, and is also an emergency medical technician. Steve will be pinned by his daughters, Scarlet and Ella. At this time, I'll ask the three captains to come forward. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. [10:45] Fire Captains: I [Names], as a fire captain of the Farmington Fire Department, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of fire captain of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of fire captain to the best of my ability. And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the fire department. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. And I make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. So help me God. [12:07] Fire Chief Price: I'll now call the three individuals to come pin the badge, please. Way to go. You can do it at the end. And last in our ceremony this evening will be for the deputy fire chief. Caleb Bolton is a 15-year member in the fire service and began his position last year in December. Caleb brings seven years of full-time experience from rural Metro Fire along with new and exciting methods for training and standard operating procedures. Caleb is currently taking college courses to work on his degree in fire science. Caleb holds many certifications such as fire investigator, live burn instructor, incident safety officer, and is also an emergency medical technician. Caleb will be pinned by his wife Missy. Raise your right hand. I state your name. [14:23] Deputy Fire Chief Caleb Bolton: I, Caleb Bolton, as a deputy fire chief of the Farmington Fire Department, swear that I'll support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Mass. Constitution. I will faithfully, honestly, and partially discharge the duties of Deputy Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of the Deputy Fire Chief to the best of my ability. and I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the fire department. I recognize the badge of the my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. I make these promises solely, freely, and upon my honor. So help me God. [16:26] Fire Chief Price: So, at that time, this concludes the oath of office badge pinning. I'll stand for any questions or comments before we go get cake and ice cream. [16:32] Council Member Steve Wilson: I don't know how long I want to hold you for that, but you can go first if you want. [16:38] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Um, no questions really. Uh this is one of those moments like when the fire department came into being that I don't think that anybody is going to forget having um all of these individuals here and stepping up to this level of service and within our community at least committing yourselves um in these positions uh were the lucky ones. Our community is the lucky ones because um we're protected um by you and uh the deepest appreciation and absolute gratitude for everything that you do um for all that you sacrifice um for the time that you have invested and the time that you spend away from family to protect the citizens of this community and the surrounding townships. Um I'm very very grateful. So congratulations. [17:40] Council Member Steve Wilson: Yeah, I I could not be muted so people can hear my comments. Um, you know, what a what an amazing day. I I truly couldn't be more proud to be a resident of Farmington and see this um group of first responders out here. It's one of the really, you know, your team and the police team and knowing the folks with uh our ambulance crew with ALF is such an honor for me to get to interact with all of you guys and just congratulations to all of you on your accomplishment. [18:18] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you. I won't really hold you guys from your cake and ice cream by repeating everything they just said. But I do I say this every time you guys we have a pinning up here, but really it's the coolest shot is not from out there. It's from up here to watch your families and your significant others and all the people come with a big smile on their face and just how proud they are of you. So it's just thank you for sharing that with us. Like I said, it's this is one of those days that's probably in the history books of Farmington. I know we've said that about three times about this kind of moment, but this is like the big official one. So, super exciting to be here for that. So, thank you. [18:53] Fire Chief Price: Thank you. [18:56] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: I'm going to give a 60 seconds for them to all get out of here and run away. Okay, moving on. Item 52 will be the recognition of Mayor Joshua Hoit's city of Farmington service. And I think this one is Lynn. You are also muted on. [20:38] Staff Member Lynn: Okay. Um I think it's important for us to recognize Mayor Joshua Hoy's service within the city of Farmington. In in January 2019, he was a writing candidate and he served on the city council from January 19th through December 2020. In January 2021, he was sworn into mayor of the city of Farmington and served in that role until um recently on February 4th, 2026. So, I'd like to take some time personally for me to acknowledge uh Mayor Ho's ser. [21:15] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Sorry, now I see what I'm doing. Sorry everybody. That's me muting you. So, okay, you're do that again. [21:28] Staff Member Lynn: I won't take it personal. Okay. I I feel absolutely honored that I had the opportunity to work with Mayor Hoy. While serving on city council, Joshua was committed to progress and public service. There's no question that Mayor Hoy led with strength and compassion, which is what Farmington absolutely needed. His support for team Farmington has been sincere and we tremendously and are grateful for his leadership and encouragement over the years. there is no doubt that he supported the staff and um made sure we needed what we needed. So with that, I want to thank Joshua for his service and um I will ever forever be grateful for it. And with that, I'll turn it over to you, mayor, acting mayor. [22:06] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: And I'm gonna hand it right over to Steve. That's okay. [22:28] Council Member Steve Wilson: Yeah. So, obviously this is uh a little bit of a different day up here and um maybe a little bit of a lengthier comment and I did something I normally don't do which is actually type it out so I read it word for word and don't miss a few points I want to make here. City of Farmington honestly like every other city has experiences challenged over challenges over its history. We of course are the second oldest community in Dakota County. We can either choose to move forward in a positive manner or dwell on the past. I am choosing moving forward in a positive manner because I believe that is what you, the residents, expect of us. Going back to our meeting of two weeks ago, I've been walking through a range of emotions, probably no different than you. I think we can all agree that last meeting did not go as planned or predicted. Emotions were high and the conduct of last meeting did not meet the standard that we as a council have for serving you. So, I'm going to do something uh that I've never done before. I'm going to switch gears a little bit. I'm going to do a little bit of a wardrobe adjustment. Don't get worried. It's going to be an addition to my wardrobe. So, just give me a second here. And Lynn just mentioned this. This is our team Farmington shirt. Lynn gave this to all the staff in uh I think about two years ago and it's really who we are. Every staff member has one of these shirts and it's really a constant reminder of what connects us all. It's who we are, you know. So, you might be asking, you know, who is part of team Farmington? Is it just, you know, us and the council? Is it the staff? Well, it is, of course, the city council. It's our staff that works every day for you. And I just want to remind the public of that, too. Everyone that you see here to my right and all the people you don't see, the folks that plow the streets, that do the utility work, that uh you know are maintaining the parks, those are folks that are chose a career of public service to serve the residents of this community. And I think highly of all of them. Um, team Farmington is our business owners and our business leaders. And really, most importantly, it's all of our residents that call Farmington home. You're all part of team Farmington. Since we are last here, we are down a team member. Um, Josh Hoy, Josh was a tireless advocate for the city of Farmington and and passionate about everything he did. I'm going to highlight some of the ways I have seen firsthand where he has made an impact on team Farmington. Is he perfect? No, he's not. Was he was every decision he made popular? No. But honestly, who of us really is perfect? And had every decision in life be u popular for everybody they were around. I just want to share a few of my firsthand observations of Josh Hoy. As Lynn kind of noted, Josh looked for opportunities to promote Farmington. Sometimes this may have been mistaken for self-promotion. However, he always looked for ways to promote our great city. He loved the city as our mayor, and I know he loves the city as a resident. He spent many, many hours dedicated to the community celebration. His involvement along with those of many others including Holly Bernat and and Holly Shear and others positively impacted this event and ensured its success. Toys for Town. You know, you'll probably hear, if you recall, um former mayor Hoy was never shy about pointing out that he was a family that benefited from that. Um, I'm not sure that every person would would be comfortable sharing that they benefited from the program theoretically that his family wasn't able to provide, you know, the type of Christmas or holiday that they would expect. Um, he took that personal impact though and he spent countless hours with the police department, with the fire department, um, to ensure the program's success. He selfishly helped others. Joshua was actually a guy I could call and talk with, get ideas about my business, um, different life and business challenges I was facing and offer ideas. And I thank him for this. As Lynn pointed out, one of Josh, I think, is one of Josh Hoy's greatest characteristics was his potential to see what was possible with our staff, as all of us do. During work sessions and other meetings, he saw that potential for staff that they may not even have been aware of. He challenged staff to think big, to be bold, and to get uncomfortable as our city continued to grow. These are not frequent words that you'll actually hear in any level of government. And trust me when I say that. Most importantly though, I want to address a topic that has recently been a topic of our meetings, and that is mental health. In my opinion, Josh Hoy's advocacy for mental health awareness will continue to leave a positive impact in this community, and he is one of many that are trying to make impacts and dents in the mental health stigma. When we lost a member of our police department a few months ago, Josh Hoy intuitively knew how to pull the community together and make it about Pete and his family and our department. I remember talking with him probably about midafternoon. We had a ribbon cutting uh for our new rye apartments and I think both of us were just trying to fight back tears and I said to him, "How can we get to a place where we don't have to talk about first responder suicide, our police, our fire, our military? How can we get to that spot or or our neighbor, our friend?" And and I was frustrated by it because I was frustrated, I was sad, I was, you know, all the emotions when something traumatizing occurs. And he said, and of course, I'm not going to give his story, but I think many of you know that he was personally impacted by suicide. So, it's a life mission for him. Um, you know, I said, Steve, we have to continue providing all the tools and resources we do, but then added, ultimately, it is to a certain degree up to that person to reach out or for a family member or a friend or somebody that cares to be where the person is at and um to where the person is at to ultimately stop them if they are in that place. He added that as much support as we can possibly provide um you know all the different tools and resources to protect our mental health ultimately that person needs to make a decision to live or die which is kind of a sobering reality. It's tough to hear that. You know we all talk about mental health awareness and ending that stigma. I've heard it for gosh 15 20 years. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you've got a beating heart and you're alive today, which all of you are, at some point you've dealt with some kind of mental health challenge. May have been a passing of a friend, passing of a relative, a job transition. We've all been through it. And his advocacy for um Whoops. And I kind of lost my place there. So again, we all talk about mental health health awareness and ending the stigma of mental health. In the mayor's resignation letter, he cited his own mental health and caring for himself. When someone has the courage to identify their own mental health challenges, I'm never going to question that. I don't care who the person is, what my feelings are about them. I'm gonna I'm gonna take that in face value because I think it just takes a lot of courage for another human being to share with another human being what they're going through. And why I'm bringing this up is um excuse me, I'm lost my train of thought. Yeah. So again, because addressing this by itself is one small dent in ending the stigma. But over the past two weeks on social media, I actually read some comments that some people claimed, "Boy, what a convenient excuse to to resign." really a convenient excuse, you know, and I and I just again, I'm I'm not going to claim to be a preacher of any sort, but we cannot ever get to a place of trying to end the stigma of mental health if we, you know, um, persecute and ridicule the people that are to point it out. We just can't. And you know, we can talk about it. We can have eloquent speeches. We can go hear professionals talk about their personal experience. I don't have personal experience um with suicide. Um I know some that have. Um but I'm just asking us as a community to at least on this particular topic, if none other, rise above it. Please rise above it. And again, we are we are team Farmington. We're a community. I refuse to call Farmington a city. I look at us as a community of 25,000. You know, we had a young lady speak to us at a previous council meeting eloquently walk through what mental health means to her. Her words were impactful, but just as important. It is a reminder that our younger generation is listening. They're tuned in. They're watching what we are doing. These are our future leaders. There really is no alternative. There really isn't. So, Mayor Hoy, former Mayor Hoy, thank you for your tireless service to our community. I hope you were able to find peace and overcome your mental health challenges you are facing today. I truly enjoyed serving with you and appreciate the energy and passion you brought to our community. I hope you will find time in the future to get involved again. I know it may not be now, but we hope in the future um you bring your passion to our community and it is always welcome. So, thank you again. [33:44] Council Member Holly Bernatz: I have been asked a few times actually over the last several months and even more so in the last couple of weeks. Uh and it's not even a question. It was more of a statement and the statement was, "From my perspective, you look like you're afraid of our mayor. Uh, you look like you're afraid of speaking out." And much like Nick, I think the role that I have as I sit in this particular spot is one where I choose more to listen. Um, what I want to talk about here is the person that I have come to know in the last, oh gosh, six, seven, eight years, um, as our former mayor because I can tell you that I have not ever been, um, afraid of the mayor. In fact, quite the opposite. I respect him deeply as a person. I respect him deeply as a public servant. Um, we started working together, oh my goodness, probably about the the time that he came on council to begin with. And, uh, I got to know him a little bit there. And then we served much more closely uh, with one another when we were working on the due days um, festival and in the couple of years that we were pretty much side by side, literally side by side, till about 2 o'clock in the morning, emptying garbages. That was your mayor. Your mayor was the person who could sit to my right and uh preside over a meeting, who could have really difficult conversations about policy and projects, and was also the kind of person who would sit there in the middle of the night taking large garbages and dumping them even into a larger garbage receptacle right next to the people that were volunteering with him. He was the last man to leave, always. He was also someone that I had a chance to walk side by side with for 24 hours straight uh our former chief uh Rutherford and uh Joshua and I uh for the Relay for Life a couple years ago. I don't even remember whose idea it was. I'm pretty sure it was Josh's. I just kind of went along for the ride because I thought, well, if if he and Gary can walk for 24 hours straight, be danged if I'm not walking for 24 hours straight. Um the point in that though is that you really get to know people when you are walking in a circle for 24 straight hours. You do uh you there there is no distraction. There is no cell phone. There is no policy conversation. It is just real human beings side by side by side around the Bachman Middle School track forever. Um, I admire his heart. I admire his understanding of this community. And as much as I am proud to have called him our mayor, I'm more proud to call him my friend, which leads me to the next point. And I do want to be very forward thinking in this, but I also think that if we don't address history, then we're going to be in a spot where we're just going to end up revisiting this again. I don't believe that Joshua resigned because of a single meeting project situation. I don't think that we lost him because of one vote or a policy disagreement. I think that we lost him as our mayor after months of escalating hostility. There have been false storylines. There have been personal attacks and those things are turning disagreement into something that is way darker in this community and that is the need to create a villain. It's easy. It's really easy to clip a me a 10-second or 30 second moment from a meeting and replay it. It's a lot harder to acknowledge the 18 months that lead up to that and how we get to that point. I have a great and deep respect for him and I can also disagree with how he handled the meeting and I do I don't think that you can sit in this space and talk about decorum and then use colorful language but I don't think that that meeting was the best of anybody in this community even the ones that care the most about it. I think it's a boiling point and we can disagree with decisions and we can debate policy and that's a part of civic life. Um, but what's not healthy is this assigning motives without evidence or repeating narratives that aren't grounded in fact where you get to a point where people are even at the end of this making fun about the reason that he cited for taking a step back. That needs to be a reality check about the way that we handle disagreement. It needs to be a reality check about how we can come together and have opposing viewpoints on a topic or a project and still be respectful in that because the reality of the situation is is that nobody in this room, myself included, is in possession of facts. Facts float in an objective space. All we have is our opinion on those facts, our reality within those facts. And for me, they end up being colored by the role that I play in the same way that they are by the people that are sitting in other spaces and other sides, right? And those are called opinions. But when we go out and we present these narratives as absolute truth and this is a horrible human being and what they're doing individually is the downfall of our community, that is not fact. Fact is is that many projects many projects go through more than one governing body. They have multiple people that are looking at them that are evaluating them that are voting on them. And we don't always see eye to eye. But that work is done not always right up here. It's done through hours and hours and hours of prep preparation. It's done through work session. It's done through flushing things out. And I think what is saddest to me about this is that it's not really about shielding elective officials from criticism. It's about recognizing the difference between accountability and hostility. And we got to a point of hostility. I am deeply grateful for his service. I am grateful for the time that we work together and my opinion is that his resignation is a loss for our community. It's not a gain and that doesn't mean you have to agree with him. It doesn't mean that I have to agree with him. It just means that the the man that I came to know as our former mayor was someone who I would be hardressed in my lifetime to find another person that cared that much about this community. That's all I have to say. [41:09] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you, Holly. Uh, I guess I had written up things, too, but it's going to sound kind of repetitive to both of yours, but I do want to kind of just read through it just so I mean, Josh deserves to kind of hear this as well. So, um like Holly, I received comments recently um that there is this perception among the public that the council was afraid to speak over Josh or that he was a bully and that we none of us wanted to contradict his opinions. And regardless of whether you agreed with his opinions or leadership methods, I'm going to state here publicly too that nothing could be further from the truth. The absence of conflict amongst the council is a testament to Josh's character at fostering open communication. At no point have I ever felt like I could not just give him a call when I had a concern, nor would I even feel a hesitation when disagreeing with him publicly, which I did frequently during our work sessions. He understood the importance of addressing conflict quickly and directly, which is why you rarely see broken communication up here, and that is the definition of productive government. And secondly, I do want to acknowledge and commend the bravery required to state publicly that he wants to focus on his mental health for a lot of the same reasons that Steve mentioned. As most of you are aware, we spent the last few council meetings talking about this very topic and the importance of breaking that stigma. So, I personally feel that this is an amazing example of walking the walk. Josh has shouldered a lot in the last eight years and it is okay for him to need a rest. To Josh, I want to say thank you for being willing to talk, for filling in the blanks of the historical context to issues that preceded a whole lot of us up here, and for your commitment to this city and its residents. Thank you. Moving on to item six, which is citizen comments. And I'll see how well I can do it reading an out of order list of bullet points. Bear with me. Comments are a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda. Comments from speakers must be informational in nature and may not exceed five minutes. The city council will not engage in discussion or debate in those five minutes, but will take the information and issue a response to those requiring one by the next council meeting. When you come up to the podium, state the city or township that you live in. As part of the protocol, it is unacceptable for any speaker to slander or engage in character assassination or discuss personnel complaints at a public council meeting. As such, speakers will not be allowed to identify city employees either by name or position or to identify any other person by name during the public comment period. If one does, their comments will be deemed done. Please address your comments to the council as a whole. If decorum cannot be maintained during a speaker's time, the council will recess to allow decorum to be restored. Upon return from recess, citizen comments will resume provided order can be maintained. If order cannot be restored, the meeting may be adjourned. Is there anyone who would like to speak tonight? [44:18] Terry Pearson: Good evening. My name is Terry Pearson, 2475 225th Street West. And I'd like to read a letter to the editor that I think goes along with what you've talked about tonight, or at least part of it. This person said, "I wish Mayor Joshua Hoy peace and real healing as he steps away to focus on his mental health." And I mean that. Public service can be brutal and none of us should pretend otherwise. However, Farmington is still left with a mess, and the rest of us don't get to resign. For years, residents have carried the mental and emotional toll of fighting tracks enormous data center project, dropped between neighborhoods and treated by this mayor and council like it's no big deal. And apparently, we should suffer for the rest of the community and be silent. We should sit down and pay the ultimate price and accept this poor decision without complaint. We're the ones losing our quiet neighborhoods. We're the ones losing sleep, spending weekends reading research, showing up to meetings, and living with the constant stress and uncertainty. The pressure didn't land on one person. It landed on the entire community. However, we can't step back because the problem remains a city council that keeps plowing forward without regard with an attitude that poisoned public discourse discourse, shattered trust and created a hostile environment where citizens feel powerless in their community. We also have a developer whose good neighbor branding feels like double speak straight out of George Orwell's 1984. This city and the way it has handled this project has become a punchline at the capital. And yet our council members continue to advance a decision they knew was deeply unpopular and fundamentally flawed. And track continues to tarnish their reputation as a developer by showing no regard for the human beings that are impacting in their pursuit of profits. So if the mayor's resignation tells us anything, it's that this fight is harming people. The council along with tract needs to start confronting the human cost of their decisions. We the people will not stop. We will keep fighting for our families until this ends. Thank you. [47:00] Jeff Shler: I'm Jeff Shler. I live at 22420 Calico Court, Farmington. Um, not sure what to say or where to go. Had a big old argument tonight before I came here. Wife didn't want me to come here and talk to you guys anymore after the last council meeting. I understand that. It had a lot of lot of results. Um, good and bad. We lost our mayor. It's not good for our town. It's not good for you guys. It's not good for us. Um, I think everybody here knows that he's not he's not the sole person that brought this project to us. Um, he might have taken the brunt of it because he stood at the front of that team, though. You know, he held that shield to protect you guys of it. He's a good leader. He brought a lot of good things to this town. He represented it, right? He was able to work with council, staff, and residents. Um, decisions you make have consequences. Um, not saying that that this decision is the reason he's having issues, but if it's one of them, I feel bad, too. I do. I don't want anything I ever do or say to make somebody or put somebody in a position like that. I only commented on his situation one time and that was on the city's page. I truly hope that he's spending time taking care of himself with family, surround himself with loved ones to take care of himself and do what he needs to do. Maybe he can come back here and leave the city again, give some guidance. We don't all have that option. For me to leave, inherent cost of moving, realy fees, and the interest, you're talking $200,000. It's around that. That's a lot. That's my financial future. It's my security. I'm 47 years old. To pull 200, $250,000 out of that now to make sure I come home with the same mortgage or to extend my mortgage is huge. That's not the hardest part. It's leaving my neighborhood. So, even the people that I love, people that take care of my family, I take care of their families. They are my family. They have more rights to my home, my dog, my kid, and my wife than some of my family does. I'm in I I I'm in a corner. You guys have me in a corner. Okay. My new neighbor is tracked. They own the land behind me. 250. It's 278 ft. 87. I can't even think right is how far they want to build from my house. That's my new neighbor. And now track's reaching out to us, the coalition to try to figure this out and make it work. Why isn't the city reaching out to us? Why Why is track going to set the rules for this city so that this can come back up to you guys and happen again in another area of this town? Why is track trying to negotiate with us? I said, "No, I don't want to meet with them. They have nothing to offer me. Whatever they offer me, you guys offer me. This is your city. If they want to offer a footage that's safe and acceptable, that needs to come from you and be put in ordinance and zoning, not from them. It's so creepy to have tracked try to get to decide what happens in Farmington and not you guys, our leaders. Um, and yeah, you might not have come up with the plan. You might not have found the developer. You might not have written the contract. And there's a thousand companies, utilities, commissions making these decisions, but the five of you were the ones that had to vote to allow it. Everybody could have said, "This is beautiful, but you five had the rights to vote to allow it." What do you expect me to do when tracks my neighbor? They they're forcing a conversation that I don't want. That's advised by our lawyers that looks bad if we don't. What am I supposed to do? I'm in a corner. It's going to cost me a quarter million dollars to leave. Hours of crying, leaving the people I don't want to leave. What am I supposed to do as a resident here? You understand what you're doing to people? Do you know what how people react to this? You want to talk about mental awareness? I don't have a way to leave. This is a quarter of a million dollars to leave. and leaving people I love for no other reason but the desires of revenue. Does that make sense? I don't know what else to say to bring the reality of you. Think of what people do when you put them in a corner like that. The decisions that are made, the irrational thoughts that happen. I mean, I think about you guys more than I do about work. And how do I get my message to you? Thank you. [52:00] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you, Joe. [52:10] Casey Nelson: My name is Casey Nelson. I live on 224th Street West in Farmington, the neighborhood that's directly adjacent to the proposed data center. I, as most of us, uh, am here not in opposition to growth or economic development. I'm here because I deeply care about this community and want to and want to want development to occur in a way that protects the residents who already call this area home. My family chose this town and specific neighborhood not even four years ago for its quiet character, green space, and quality of life. The proposed development at its current scale and proximity raises serious concerns about whether those qualities can be preserved. As a mother of four elementary age school students, I constantly think about the environment that they're growing up in, not just physically, but emotionally. In recent months, the uncertainty surrounding this project has created significant stress within our neighborhood. I know I'm not alone when I say I wake up at night thinking about what this could mean for our homes, our finances, and daily lives. We have watched our community speak up about mental health challenges and it has underscored something important. Prolonged stress and uncertainty affects real people in real ways. I ask you to consider the mental and emotional impact this process is having on families living closest to this proposed site. First, property value impact is a real and measurable concern for most families. Our homes represent our largest financial investment. When an infrastructure is planned immediately adjacent to a residential neighborhood, it can negatively affect resale value, marketability, and long-term financial security. Second, there is quality of life impacts that deserve careful consideration. Data centers operate continuously and may have persistent mechanical noise, increased traffic, uh security lighting, significant visual changes. These fundamentally alter the living experience of a residential neighborhood. If this project proceeds, I urge the count the council to require clear enforceable performance standards, including increased setbacks and enhanced landscaping landscape buffering, birming screening, architectural treatments to reduce visual impact, sound reduction measures to mitigate continuous equipment noise, dark sky compliant lighting to prevent nighttime light spillover, traffic routing, and operational controls to minimize disruption. Like many others, I also encourage transparent review of environmental and infrastructure impacts, including energy demand, water usage for cooling systems, storm water management, long-term term sustainability considerations. Residents deserve to understand how this project may affect local resources and infrastructure capacity. In addition to continuous noise, lighting and industrial presence adjacent to homes can create long-term uh nuisance impacts if not properly mitigated and monitored. Any mitigation measures should be measurable, enforceable, and subject to compliance verification. Finally, I ask the council to prioritize transparency and meaningful public engagement. Residents should have clear access to project details, impact studies, and opportunities for the info input before final decisions are made. Maintaining public trust requires an open communication and adherence to established planning processes. We are not asking the city to reject progress. We are asking for balance development that res respects existing neighborhoods, protects property owner owners, and preserves the character of Farmington. We are all here because we love this community. I respectfully ask that decisions made here reflect the long-term well-being both physically and emotionally of the people who live, work, and raise families here. Growth should strengthen a community, not diminish the quality of life for the residents who already live here. Thank you. [56:13] Kathy Johnson: My name is Kathy Johnson. I live at 22280 Bearing Avenue. Um, let's be clear from the start. I'm speaking today because hyperscale data center developers are targeting Minnesota, particularly rural and small re residential communities like Farmington and attempting to insert industrial facilities into places where they simply don't belong. These companies see opportunity in small towns. They see limited state regulation. They see local governments without the technical resources to fully evaluate utility scale industrial projects. They arrive with enticing promises. Tax revenue, permanent jobs, which is not true, and economic transfer transformation. But their two simple requests are what really tell the story. Sign a non-disclosure agreement and guarantee long-term access to your community's domestic water supply. That is not responsible development. That's opportunism. That's carpet bagging. This playbook is being ex executed across the state. And Farmington must confront the reality of what hyperscale facilities are, what they cost, who bears the risk, and who ultimately pays. Why Minnesota? Because developers perceive rural communities and small towns as easy entry points. Because elected officials are often pressured to defer to developers and billion-dollar corporations rather than fully defend the residents they were elected to represent. Approval processes prioritize speed over scrutiny. Public notice is minimal. Impacts are diluted. It's called greenwashing. critical information about the scale, the 24-hour operations, the noise, the light pollution, vibration, diesel generator fields, fuel storage, massive water consumption. All this emerges only after the momentum is already underway, hidden behind NDAs. And that is not transparency. That is a predatory strategy at its best. And the consequences are real. Families who have lived in these communities for decades face the loss of quiet enjoyment of their homes. Property values are threatened. Children are placed next to industrial operations that run 24/7. Communities absorb the perfect the permanent infrastructure strain so that private corporations can retain their profits. Meanwhile, state policy compounds the problem because Minnesota legislators have granted uncax uncapped tax exemptions to hyperscale developers and end users lasting decades, giving money to the wealthiest corporation in human history. But guess what? The states that provide those billions in exemptions shifts the burden to taxpayers. An example is in Georgia where the auditor projected that the state tax incentiv cost 2.5 billion in one year the next coming year. They're further ahead in uh data center development than we are. The money is not available then for nursing homes, special education, road repair, public safety. Every dollar diverted the residents, us have to make up from somewhere else. In Farmington, the residents turned to the judiciary. Our lawsuit exists because our citizens were ignored, dismissed, overridden. The democratic process failed. So the courts become the safeguard. That's not obstruction on our part. That's asking for accountability. Communities deserve transparency before agree agree agreements are signed. and they deserve better environmental review than the AUR provides. Residents standing up are not radicals. We're protecting our homes, our children, our quality of life. This is not negotiation under pressure. This is all about who really governs Farmington. Will outofstate corporate corporations dictate where these industrial facilities go or will our elected officials and motans determine who, what, where, when, and if these projects proceed? Join us at the capitol tomorrow at 10 for a u statewide uh rally against demanding a moratorum on data centers. and do not use Farmington's resources, our water, our land, and our air as bargaining chips. They belong to all of us. They're public assets, and they deserve protection. Support our lawsuit at datacenterponsibility.com. Thank you. [1:01:16] David Pritzoff: David Pritzoff, 20255 Aken Road. I'll thank Josh Hoy for his service. As it's been said many of times, I've been in your shoes. Acting mayor Nick, I've asked you once before. And this is where it comes off. It has to be more transparent. It has to be more the council looking for taxpayers, looking out for them, and spending the time with them. two years ago when a road project was being done by my by my house. One person came out and gave me five minutes and that was you. That's all it ever ever happened out of that from this podium. I'll speak for myself, but I think it's been echoed by other people here is it's like talking to a brick wall, empty faces, deaf ears. It's just you have to give the residents your time. I've done it when I was up there. I had a contingency issue when I was up there, which was a school. I had people come up and ask me to resign. You grow thicker skin is what I was told. That's what happens. This putting the timer on people is not the way to do it. Council member Wilson, I think you're the one that said that there was a a young gal up here two weeks ago. I thought she was petrified. She did a wonderful job of talking to you. But when somebody sits at home and makes a speech and and and prepares herself and then comes up here and sees a timer, it's like she's standing behind the eightball. If she doesn't get done with her speech, it's all over with. This is crap. Get rid of it. More transparency. When I was on the council, I never heard of NDAs. I know what they were, but when it came to the school issue or anything else, that was never the realm of when I was on the city council. Now we have a a big thing like this with the data center going on. I know there's at least three NDA signed out there. That's not transparent. That's not for the taxpayers of this town. And it's like you you sign it NDA, you do so much behind the scenes. You lead people down a path so long that you can't say no. And that's where I when I was up there, I never my point was my point from the start to the end. I didn't lead somebody down a path when it comes up to the uh design standards of any project. We spent many hours all that was supposed to be commercial development out there by McDonald's and and the uh clinic out there. You know what we went through for the designs of that to protect the Vermilian River because of the trout stream? I can tell you names of the people that at the city at back then that worked diligently and what we had to go through to to make that, you know, what it was supposed to be. There was plenty of design standards. There was plenty of time spent on it. It was open to the public. It was taxpayers that were, you know, invited these into this stuff. So, you took an oath and it's to protect the protect and work with your with the taxpayers and giving them their money's worth. I mean, I remember one letter I got from when I was coming down here with a road project. A letter came back to me that we've spent enough time on his concerns with the road. That doesn't sit well with anybody. I pay my taxes here. I pay all my city bills. when I said last two weeks ago people should maybe pay a fifth of their taxes because if they only get a fifth of their time with the council and and and the uh the city that's what it maybe that's what they need to go with. But uh no, it it has to be more transparent and looking out for the taxpayers. I mean, putting something like this in a in a residential area, you you were just led down a path to where you couldn't say no. But I think you still have the opportunity to say no. And that's in May. do not give another extension to this group and put this thing to be put this thing to rest or restart it and have more people come to the table with more open minds, more transparency and and be clear about it. And like I say, it's the perception of what when somebody's at this po podium talking that you give them the the time to to open to listen to them. [1:06:45] Kathy Peragrino: Pardon me. I have a demonstration to give you. I tested it beforehand, but it takes a little bit of time. No worries. It'll be less than that, I believe. Um, my name is Kathy Peragrino. Um, I'm a former resident of Parkplace in Farmington. I now live at 17218 Finch Path in Farmington. And what I can tell you is that although I am also a plaintiff on the lawsuit, I also recognize that this data center affects all of our drinking water. It affects our entire aquifer and goes well beyond the boundaries of Farmington. Hope this doesn't blast you out to begin with. Okay, this is the sound of a data center a half mile away calibrated to 55 dB, which is what this particular person um who lives a half a mile away from an um the XI data center in Mississippi experiences. He lives half a mile away. So, this would be um an equivalent [Plays recording]: "It's 11:15 on January 9th. It's raining or lightly raining out here right now. And um the noise you're hearing is from the XA power plant in South Haven, Mississippi. I'm about half mile away, standing in my backyard." It doesn't end and it goes around walls. Started in August and this level stop the sound the low tone. I hear it in my house half mile away. This would have been me in Farmington Park. Now it's $7 million south has not helped. So while this goes on, I'm going to ask a few questions. Their next thing they're going to dump $14 million Farmington City Council which I had to do. What is your plan? When noise problems cause anxiety and depression barrier to mitate sound. What is your plan? when you have to deal with noise complaints from residents should try to help as well. That being said, what is your plan when we have regular brownouts? Because the amount of electricity this is going to require is more than the Monaceel nuclear plant. What is your plan when we have rolling blackouts? What is your plan when we have water s shortages and you hear from the farmers in the area that their wells no longer supply the water that they need for irrigation? What is your plan when the Vermilion Vermilion River can no longer sustain a trout population that the gentleman before worked so hard to, you know, to revitalize? What is your plan when the river is ruined with uh due to diesel part well due to metals and and um pollutants that get into the river? What is your plan when the river temperature is higher than can sustain wildlife? What is your plan when rare cancers appear due to diesel particulants and pollutants? What is your plan when home values plummet? And lastly, who side are you on? They said the burn whatever. [1:10:56] Resident Nick: Hey, good evening. My name is Nick. I'm a resident of Farmington. I don't think I'm going to need the whole five minutes, but uh a lot of my neighbors are a lot nicer than I am. They have a lot nicer, kinder words to use than I have in my head. I will censor myself so I don't get removed. You guys are an embarrassment. Citizens of Farmington, Dakota County, and Minnesota, we must disabuse ourselves that our city councils actually have our interest at heart. Very rarely have they taken action in people's interest. This is two years kicking off from a failure to notify the residents within the appropriate area which is a weak 200 feet. Not even executing upon that. And Nick, due to your recent rules, I will continue to have to further censor myself not calling each of you out specifically. One of you, one of you suggested prudence in this entire situation. You're sitting here now. I'm might be looking at you. The only person that counseled prudence is sitting here from the planning commission to the zoning commission. This was lock stock smoking barrel from the beginning and it's an embarrassment. You should be ashamed of yourselves. This whole self grandisement of recognizing the former mayor recognizing mental and emotional health. It's necessary. That's a press release. Don't take up these people's time for it. We know it. We got it. We know the former mayor's story. We feel bad for him. At least those with empathy. Somebody else sitting here works in a data center. And you are a classic nimi, not in my backyard. If this was your home, there'd be no way. You have young children, there'd be no way you'd have this built in your backyard. But because you might be a few miles away, I have no idea where any of you live. You don't care. But it will impact you. It will impact your electricity rates. What are you going to do with to people on fixed incomes when electricity spikes 200 300%. Whoever just said back here about our water, it's not Farmington's water. There are like four cities in several counties that draw on this aquaor. You're an embarrassment. All of you should resign. Most of you have been looking at your phones or something that's better to do instead of paying attention to who's up here. None of you belong in your positions. Whoever is in charge of new business development, I don't know who it is. I don't know if it's collective. I don't know if it's someone that's salaried and you're just happen to be here because you all have regular jobs. But you should resign. Who's ever in charge of new business development? Cuz somebody else mentioned you didn't find this project. You didn't attract this development. They seek rural communities, suburban to rural communities to abuse. Why? Because a multinational trillion dollar corporation can throw a ton of cash around. Either it's your will for ignorance or corruption, either of which are disqualifying factors for you to hold your seats, to hold any of your positions. That's all I have. Your embarrassment and you should all resign. [1:14:17] Nancy Arstead: Nancy Arstead, Bowont Avenue. Last meeting I said something that got called out and I want to clarify as nothing facitious was intended. After showing photos of light pollution around Meta, I ended by saying Rosemont gets 900 ft from the highway. We get 250 ft from a bedroom window. I was speaking in generalities, but the mayor thought I was being dishonest, so I'm going to restate it so it's precise and clear. Rosemont gets 900 ft from a highway. We get 250 ft from people's properties, where they lay their heads at night, where their kids play in the yard, and where they cook barbecues on a summer day. I hope that makes it sound better. My point was clearly missed. I actually pride myself on saying correct things when I say this project will use more electricity than the monos nuclear plant. You've all heard it. I looked it up first just to make sure and it's true. When I said tracked sent your city staff talking po points, that was true. When I said your staff distributed those talking points to the mayor and you council members before we even had our first public hearing, that was true. When I said a city staff member, someone we thought was sympathetic to us, who we did not know was city staff, was forwarding our emails to a higher city staff member for months and months. I counted 75 emails insider info subject line that was true. Then we sent in ethics complaints and the city sent back a letter that said nothing wrong here. The complaints were deemed unsubstantiated and dismissed. That was true. Where do I get 5 to 10 years of construction? Castle Rock Township minutes November 14th, 2023. One of your staff members went to the town board because the city wanted a data center on the 315 acre empty property. She stated the data center would be done in multiple phases over 10 to 15 years. So my estimate of 5 to 10 years is likely low. That's the truth. Last meeting, Jeff was called out for estimating the number of generators at 250. The mayor implied 250 was a false number. He said, "Show me." Page 48 of the AUR you approved says several hundred diesel powered backup generators. Several hundred. That means 200 plus. And for context, Becker's proposed data center requested 250 generators and it was 600 megawws, less power than ours. That's the truth. So 250 is not some wild number. It's actually conservative and the water. The mayor defended it last meeting and several of you have dismissed this concern. So let's be specific. What did you agree to? You signed a development contract with tract peak daily flow 2.93 million gallons. Did you put a limit on it? Is there a maximum, a cap? No. No. And no, we are told maximum water use will be handled down the road by the DNR. We are supposed to trust the DNR. After this meeting, I ask you all to pick up your phones and call the 75 people in Elco, New Market, whose wells were compromised after a pump test was performed under DNR oversight for the Niagara plant. They were told to trust the DNR, too. Now that there's problems, the DNR said this is the city's problem. So residents are now busy suing the city. Forgive us that we don't trust the DNR. All of you, I know you wouldn't want to live next to this thing yourselves with your families. And the CEO of Tracked, do you think he'd want to move to Farmington and live next to it, buy Jeff's house, and move in? Ask him when you see him. Tell track to go. Do not extend the plat for track in May. Amend the PUD. Remove data centers from your MUC codes and create design standards. Protect us. If you aren't willing to, please step down and let someone else do the job. We need people who care for all of us in this community sitting up there. Thank you. [1:19:13] David Seabourg: All right, I wrote this down. David Seabourg, 224th Street West in Farmington. I do not have a four-year degree or masters in urban or regional planning, but I did sim play Sim City a lot when I was a child, and I realized that I did say at several Holiday Inns growing up as well, so might make me overqualified to do the city planning job. In the video game from the '90s, they taught you that you can build industrial areas and your citizens can move towards them because they had a damn choice. Now, once you remove that choice, plop a industrial zone, nuclear plant, whatever else you want to build next to existing residentials, those little Sims, pesky little bastards, would all of a sudden grab pitchforks and start burning the town with red faces. Now, I don't condone that, but I do understand their frustration. Now, why the hell does a game for kids teach us civic planning and yet our own planning commission and council cannot understand that? It's beyond comprehension that we fail to do that. Now, besides the game, let's just, you know, I wanted to get used to my neighbor. So, I used chat GPT, asked it a few questions. First question I asked it, what would a data center be if it was 700 megawatts, 250 million gallons of water? Their answer, it's a hypers scale data center, not a standard data center, not an outdated code from 10 years ago where is 10,000 square ft. So AI is smart enough to know that a data center at 700 megawatt and 250 million gallons is a hypers scale data center. So then I asked her a follow-up question. Where should that be located? H located in heavy industrial. Holy nobody thought that. Designated industrial parks, areas already hosting power plants, large manufacturing substations, and water treatment plants. Okay, with no additional just scrolling down a little bit further, it said it should not, I repeat, should not be used in mixeduse commercial, light industrial or adjacent to homes or in residential transition zones. Huh. So once again, quick chat GPT tells us heavy industrial. So it knows itself is heavy industrial and it knows that it shouldn't be next to residential zones. Both have failed on this occurren. Now once again without asking any further questions it offered up some setbacks, some basic ones, you know, anywhere from 500 ft to 1,500 ft for standard size data center. um 50 to 100 feet worth of BMS, sound walls, trees with year- round foliage because in Minnesota we lose it for nine months out of the year. Now for did a little asterisk. It said for large campuses 2.5 million seems kind of large to me. They say it would prefer a quarter mile buffer. So that's 1,320 ft, not 250. All right. So then they went into best practices. Once again, haven't typed anything else at all. It said, "You know what? If there's existing residential neighborhoods and subdivisions, you know that that buffer should be a half a mile. You know what? You should also ask for a full environmental review, not an AUR, full noise study, traffic study, and everything else." Next attribute pulled up was that the fire protection requirement may stress smaller municipalities. Interesting that we all of a sudden now have a full-time fire department and an increase in tax rate of 12.9%. To support said fire department. Now, was that to protect its citizens or was it to protect a billion dollar, maybe even a trillion dollar investment? I know I'm running out of time here and I have some more stuff to say, but one of you said you're doing it for tax revenue. That's the city. What's the benefit to the citizens? You've already increased our taxes 12.9%. to and help support the fire department. Now, what will benefit? Will our taxes decrease or are you spending the money before you actually have it? Track record proves you're probably already spending it. Now, with that being said, Dakota County Electric said, "We could support the bandwidth of 700 megawatt." Yet, two weeks ago or 3 weeks ago, whenever it was, can you please conserve energy? We're having a tough time supplying power when it's freezing cold outside. Oh Don't mind us. Ignore when it's 100° in the summer and everybody's running their AC. We can we could ignore that. Just forget that. So add some other stuff, but we're talking about mental health. Okay. I wish Josh the best. He needs to focus on his health and make sure he gets the need care and he wants. What about the rest of us in here? I have a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old at my house. What about their mental health? What about mine? [1:24:37] Stefan Petrochek: I'll make this quick for you guys. My name is Stefan Petrochek. I live at 298225th Street in Farmington, but it's Castle Rock Township. Uh, I want to have a I have a question. I know you probably can't answer it, but feel free to nod your head. Do you know that Egan was voting on a one-year moratorum on data centers tonight? Yes or no? Okay. Do you know that they voted yes on it? [1:25:15] Nikita Clan: Evening, council members. Um, name is Nikita Clan. Uh, 3054 224th Street West. Um, it's nice to see that uh you guys have some compassion when you were talking about uh our former mayor and uh it's cool to hear all the stories of your guys's hard work and his hard work and all that. It just gets me really angry and frustrated that our elected officials are not putting the same work into our community, into our neighborhood that they claim they put work into everywhere else. That's extremely frustrating. You talk about hostility, right? Well, I'm sorry. We We've been here. We've been coming to these meetings for the last 18 months, as you guys say. We've been pleading with you, our elected officials, right? You're not a corporate board. You're nothing like that. You're elected by us. And what do we get? We have a lawsuit. So, we're essentially suing ourselves and wasting our taxpayer money to protect the decision that you guys made. I don't see that as a good use of my tax money. That is extremely freaking frustrating. It's good to see you have compassion. You really need to show compassion for what we have. I don't see you lining up to reszone your neighborhoods into an industrial location. Thank you. [1:27:13] Mary Johnson: Mary Johnson, 512 Elm Street. I know a lot of us are done dancing around all these questions. We're not getting answers. You claim we're team Farmington. Where's the team? No one's No, there is no team. We're paying for everything. Our health, our money, not an option for us to pack up and move. This is Farmington. We're supposed to be together on this. I'm not seeing it. Like I said, this is Farmington, not day to 10. You really got to think about everyone, not just what's sitting up there. [1:28:20] Nate Ryan: Nate Ryan, resident of Farmington. Um, I've got a few things to say tonight. One of the one of the things I'd like to start out with is revisit that moratorum talk. Uh I know that you know Egan just passed one but there's a few more details. They didn't do a blanket moratorum. They didn't say no data centers. They did say if they're 500 feet setbacks or or more that you know that so if it impacts residential areas within 500 feet then it has a moratorum. If it's 500 feet or more come build your data center in Egan. If it's 20 megawws or less come build your data center in Egan. They want it. And that's the power of what you have the opportunity to do now by enacting a moratorum. You can put it's not a blanket moratorium is no data centers. And that was never my request. I'll remind you all again I'm for data centers. It would be great to have them in Farmington. I don't share the some some of the same environmental impacts. I do encourage you in that moratorum to then be able to take time and update your city code. Using a definition of a data center from 2015 is ridiculous. We all know that this is a hyperscale data center. We all know that this is industrial. AI knows it. And if AR is that smart and it's telling on itself, don't you think that AI would want to hide it? Right? Don't you think they want to add more AI? Right? I come on guys have you have an opportunity you can enact a moratorum yes you're likely to get sued by tract a national billion dollar corporation which is better to get sued by them or to fight for your citizens I know that the lawyer said earlier I can't I would never recommend something that you know that that to get to get us sued I can tell you tonight in your work session she did I'll let you figure that out but what I can say is that you're going to get sued by someone and the only reason you get sued by tract is because they outsmarted you. They did a better job at negotiating and getting what they want and you were unprepared, wolffully unprepared to negotiate with them. You're worried because you got yourself into a bind and a moratorum is a way out of that bind. A moratorum for data centers larger than a 100red megawws. Imagine if you had to come back and say, "Gosh darn it." You know what guys, our moratorum says 500 feet, so we got you a bigger setback of 500 feet and instead of a 700 megawatt, they agreed to just do the 100 megawatt because they want to get it done. There is a race that we're under. We're under this tech AI race. They don't want to go through more lawsuits. They don't want it held up in court. They want clear parameters of how they can get this data center done. They they want that. They want those clear parameters. and by allowing and having a moratorum take effect before you um potentially not allow them or or if they agree to renew under the moratorum terms in May, that's even better. And your chances of lawsuits go down. Are they nil? Are they zero? No, they're probably not nil. They're probably not zero. But it allows you, my entire thing, the entire time is to get them back to the negotiation table, to bring them back. It's not to kick them out. It's not to come up here and bash any of you, although I do think your your t-shirt is wrong. So, we are team Farmington. Yes, you work for the city of Farmington. We, the residents, without us, you don't exist. Your council seat doesn't exist. Her position doesn't exist. Her position doesn't exist. Their positions don't exist. It happens from a growing population. The former mayor talked consistently about needing more commercial industrial space in Farmington because the tax burden is so great on its individual residents. What did you do last meeting? You took away commercial space that had been zoned that way and you turned it into residential. That is hypocritical. At at its very least, it's hypocritical. I'm out again to say please complete a moratorum. We know that this does not belong in MUCI. If it if if you so understanding that these other as you put it government entities are going to are going to protect us then why not zone it industrial then why not have it go through that all those and to say that you're not the ones who are ultimately responsible B is and BS is an S. You are the RGU. You are ultimately responsible. The RGU and every single document that the DNR puts out or anything else refers to the RGU and that is you. And if you're confused about that, please step down and let somebody else get up there who understands what they're doing. [1:33:27] Theresa Rain: Uh my name is Theresa Rain. I've live in Farmington at 100 107 Honeysuckle Lane. I oppose this. I've lived in Farmington for 39 years. I want to know why in the city when I started living here, we used to be able to vote on articles that affected us citizens. We don't get to vote on this massive data center. We don't get to vote on what kind of garbage service we get. We don't get to vote on anything. You just turn around and say, "You get this, you get that because we decide. You're you're supposed to be for us, not for just you and your pocketbooks and how everything runs. We used to get a say when we were citizens. We get nothing now. You just arbitrarily just decide what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. Where is our choices? You were supposed to be for us, not for your pocketbooks. Not to stand up there and say, "Look how good we are. Look what we've done." You're supposed to be listening to us that voted for you. Not for somebody to pat on the back or get a pat on the back. You're supposed to be for us. All of you, the school board, the planning commission, the police, everybody is supposed to be for the citizens that voted them in. Not for you. Not for a pat on the back. I'm tired of not getting a say about anything in my You took away our cleanup and you gave us, oh, it's too expensive. It's a lot cheaper than it used to be. I mean, people used to be able to get cleanup for all the stuff that was left over. Most of the time, people would come through and pick up more stuff than the garbage people would pick up. There was a lot less for them to pick up. And you use the excuse, it was too expensive. That was ridiculous. I saw more people picking up than the trash people. I'm done. I I just I think this is absolutely ridiculous. The one meeting I came to, you said, "Well, if it was in my backyard, I wouldn't vote for it." But you did. You all live in the north part of the city and it doesn't affect you. But if you live down here where the rest of us live, and the other thing that was said was, "Well, if you don't like it, move." Well, I've lived here for 39 years. I can't afford to move. I'm on a single income. everything that I can to live in a house that I've lived in for 39 years. So, tell somebody else that has big bucks to move. You live in a richy neighborhood in the north. Why don't you come down here and live and then tell somebody to move? I'm done with this. [1:36:33] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Anybody else wishing to speak? [1:36:44] Stephen Edris: Uh Stephen Edris. I live on 180th Court West in Farmington. Um I didn't really plan on speaking tonight, but there's been a lot of conversation about mental health. Um so I wanted to say a few things. Uh first, I want to thank uh Josh for everything he did for the city. Um what he did for me. Um, a lot of people maybe don't know he actually um went through the process of being kidney donor for me. Um, and that's not something I'll ever forget. Um, I certainly don't agree with everything he did, but he was he is a good man. I I I remember helping another Farmington uh city employee move. Uh Josh sent out a call because they needed help. I was there next to him moving boxes for someone that we didn't really know. Um, that's the person he was. And so I appreciate that. A lot of what I've said has been kind of misconstrued. Um, and I want to just clear the air. I don't I don't blame Josh for what I've gone through. Um, you know, and tonight's pretty emotional for me. I I've stood up here in front of a group like this and been pinned as lieutenant of the Farmington Fire Department. had everyone applaud me, cheer for me, right? Like, wow, how amazing are you, and and to be where I am now is devastating. Most of the people that were here wouldn't even look me in the eye because I'm speaking out about the way I've been treated. And I just hope that change is still possible. Josh had had had um offered to to um sit down with me, Lynn, and the chief of both the police and the fire department and have a conversation about how things can get better. I'm going to ask, and I know you guys can't answer immediately, but I'm going to ask city council, all of you, to sit down with me. I want to have a productive conversation about how we fix this. One of the things that was said tonight that Josh talk about was people have to reach out. That's something in mental health that they have to ask for help. But that's what I'm telling you guys. When a first responder asks for help, they're isolated and they're either terminated or forced to resign. That's the path. Period. So the moment my psychiatrist said, you're not safe to do this right now. You need help, I was immediately isolated. I was cut off. I was given no support. And that's that's terrible. So it's it's more than just saying people need to reach out for help. It's what do we do when people reach out for help? I my my words have been misconstrued. You guys talk about the things that have been said about Josh. I actually had someone reach out to me and go, "Did you write Kora's speech?" The 13-year-old that spoke last last council meeting. How offensive is that? Someone literally accused me of writing her speech. Like, she couldn't do that herself. And what what an amazing job she did. I've had people that are being defensive about this, trying to minimize my voice and say it's a one-sided story that's being heard. But I'm telling you, it's not. I've had I've said this before. I I bet you I'm up to three or four dozen first responders, not only here in Minnesota, but across the country that have reached out to me going, "This is what's happened to me, too. This is happening everywhere." And so I again just ask you guys to please consider having a meeting with me once once I'm able to. I'm I'm currently on a leave for my full-time job. I I can't even work my full-time job. I'm I'm driving to Rochester every single day to go to a partial hospitalization program. It's six month six weeks to eight weeks long, five hours a day, every day of the week. So, I'm not even able to work my full-time job right now, and I still don't have support. And all I'm getting is people trying to discredit my voice. And and what I'm telling you is what we go through is why people don't reach out. That's why people don't ask for help. Because they know the moment a psychiatrist says, "You're in jeopardy of doing this job safely, it's done. The brotherhood, the sisterhood, everything that they had is gone." and they're left to fight with the fight the battle by themselves. So, I just hope you guys will consider once I get through the program, I get myself in a little better spot, we can all sit down, have a very productive conversation about how this gets fixed. So, thank you very much. [1:41:43] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: ANYBODY else tonight? [1:41:56] Jeremy Stewart: Name is uh Jeremy Stewart. I live at 23110 Biscane Avenue West. This isn't something I would typically do. My job relies on me to make profits and money. Nobody understands data centers more than me. But in this public square, nothing leads me more than calling myself Christian. And I will wear that title above all else. And as a Christian, I'm called to be a steward of what God has entrusted me with. Right? So, with a quick search on the internet, look at the articles by the Minnesota DNR. A little known river just as close as others offers the only blue ribbon trout water with a majority metropolitan area in the entire country. Then this is right from the DNR, right? Gets finishing towards the end where it says, "But nowhere else in this great country will you find a trophy troll stream so close to home. Let me leave you with a reminder how important this river is, how delicate a fishery it is, and how our work here is not done. And that is our responsibility to continue to protect and improve this water. Right? We take uh other looks, right? Not long ago, this city was taking money to improve this river, the Prairie River. We are trying to protect the water quality. We're trying to protect wildlife habitat and to provide compatible recreational opportunities. Here you go from the Minnesota Trout Unlimited goes with the data centers. Their concerns you guys will be facing future lawsuits from them probably. What there are is high water use, right? Thermal pollution, groundwater depletion, energy demand, and climate impact, right? It's all right here for you guys to read of how this is going to destroy, right? Like I said, nobody understands this better. The NDAs, I understand that. But when you do a research of anybody that's put in the data centers already, the residents have always fought back, right? and and when it's done, Congress right now is talking about passing a bill to not pass on the energy costs to the citizens. Why are they going to pass that? Because they have been passed on to the citizens, right? So, like I said, you know, here's an article right here. Data centers researched by all the environmentalists. The fish are dying, right? Here's another one with the size uses up to two billion gallons of water per day. Right? All these people have said all this, the generators, the noise, it's all in there. do all I do is implore and like I said you represent this like I said first of all we got to remember as a society the rules that govern us and those are the rules of God. [1:44:24] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Scared to ask anybody else? [1:44:24] Kathy Peragrino: Can I ask a quick question I know I was up here earlier I think I had about five seconds left so I'll ask real quick I listed did um about 10 nine or 10 questions and the when we all started you said we'd answer the questions later. I would like a response for those questions that I asked publicly by the next meeting like you said please. [1:44:51] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Got it. Anybody else? Thank you everyone for keeping the quorum tonight and keeping it a little bit low-key. I understand it's all very high emotion, but I really appreciate that we've had an early meeting tonight. Moving on to item seven, which is a consent agenda. If there's any objections, I'd look for a motion to approve. [1:45:07] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Motion to approve. [1:45:07] Council Member Steve Wilson: Second. [1:45:22] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Motion by Holly, second by Steve. All in favor say I. [1:45:22] Council Members: I. [1:45:22] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Great. Moving on. We are on item 10. 10.1. And I believe I'm not sure who has Tony's walking up so we're gonna guess him. [1:45:49] Tony Wippler: Thank you, Hecking Mayor, council members. Uh before you this evening is the final plat and development contract for the Dakota Meadows Preserve. second uh edition. Uh this development is generally located towards the southeast intersection of Denmark Avenue and 220th Street West and is south of the Dakota Electric uh facility and west of the fairgrounds. Uh the uh Dakota Meers Preserve second edition uh plaque consists of 46 single family lots. Uh the 46 lots are part of the 134 overall uh lots that were approved as part of the preliminary plat uh back uh about a year and a half ago. Uh 42 lots were approved with the first edition. Uh the second edition final plat does correspond with that preliminary plat uh that was approved by the plan commission on April 8th of 2025 and the city council on April 21st of 2025. The lot sizes range uh from 4,261 ft up to 7,182 square ft with an average lot area of 5,219 square feet. The minimum lot width within this uh subdivision is 40 feet. Uh and it was done as a plan unit development as well. As far as setbacks, uh the front yard setback is 20 ft with a 25- ft uh setback on the sidewalk side of the street. Rear yard setback of six, sideyard of five, and then side corner yard of 15 feet. The plat does contain five outlots which are labeled A through E on the plat. Outlot A is a combination of storm water ponding and trail corridor. Outlot B is a remnant parcel and trail corridor. Outlot C combination of storm water ponding and trail corridor. Outlot D is the future development phase of the development. And then outlot E is remnant parcel and trail corridor. and out lots A and C will be deed to the city with this uh final plat. Uh this is just a copy of the final plat showing the 46 uh lots. Uh the original 42 are just to the will be to the west of this uh area. 223rd Street West will be extended east and will tie into Deep Water Path at T intersection. Deep water path will extend north and south and will provide future access to the joining property to the north and also provide the future access uh to the future development phases of the development uh towards the southern end. The roadway right ofway within the development will be 60 ft in width uh and then the roadway width of 29 feet uh face a curb to face a curb. The city will take a combination of cash in lie and land dedication with this plat. Uh the park that will ultimately service this development will be Westview Acres Park. A 5 foot wide sidewalk will be constructed on the north side of 223rd Street West and on the west side a deep water path. There will be an 8ft wide batuminous path uh that will be constructed between lots eight and nine block one and extend northwesterly from the sidewalk. That's within 223rd Street West. The trail will then follow the northern boundary of the plaid up to Ash Street. A park dedication credit will be given for that trail corridor. The engineering department has reviewed uh this plat and uh they do recommend approval upon satisfaction of all engineering comments related to construction plans for grading and utilities as well as the applicant entering into a development contract with the city and all security fees and cost paid. Plan commission did review the plat at their regular meeting on January 13th. The commission did vote 50 to recommend approval of the final plan as presented to you this evening. Uh also included in your packet is the uh development contract for the second edition. Uh the contract spells out the requirements for development of the land including timelines to complete the platting process defining development charges and fees addressing construction of public infrastructure required to serve this development uh together with the associated shities. Fees that will be collected with this contract are as follows. Surface water quality management fee of $1,334. Surface water management fee of $141,713. Water main trunk area charge of 55,489. Sanitary sewer trunk area charge of $29,746 and then the cash and loop part of the park dedication of $51,89 and then a seal coding fee of $6,57. The action that is requested this evening uh by separate motion approve the following actions. Letter A, adopt resolution 2026 tax 010 approving and authorizing the signing of the Dakota Meadows preserve second edition final plat contingent upon the following. Number one, satisfaction of all engineering comments related to the construction plans for grading and utilities. And number two, a development contract between the developer and city of Farmington shall be executed and security fees and cost shall be paid. Submission of all other documents required under the development contract shall be required. And then the second action would be to adopt the attached development contract and authorize its execution. I will stand for any questions. [1:52:00] Council Member Steve Wilson: Wants to go first. Um Tony, do we have the developer here tonight? Uh yeah. John, can I ask you a couple questions? So I um I appreciate the layout in, you know, kind of an un you know, we've it's definitely an unusual um you know, segment of property. the the question or concern I have today is kind of what I brought up I think about three months ago. So, we've got lot 139 through lot 161 of the future edition and then I believe as part of the second edition, we're talking about lots roughly 7 through 11. And of course, um, you know, that's obviously a direction we're going is having smaller lot sizes, having a denser neighborhood. No issue with that part of it, but the fact that we're backing up to the railroad track, you know, just it's it's concerning. Um, so what types of, you know, protections might be put in there, um, you know, or requirements maybe, for example, um, on a purchase agreement that where the property owner fully understands what's going on. Is there going to be any type of fencing? I mean, that's kind of the it's kind of all that stuff that I'm a little bit concerned about. [1:53:35] Tony Wippler: Um, so as far as the lots adjacent to the railroad track, we do have a landscape plan, uh, that there will be, you know, trees and different things planted in the rear yards of those lots. There is no fence, uh, proposed at this time that the builder has asked about or expecting to build. I know we have had discussions about fence along the north property line with the Dakota town homes that are there. Um, based on how that sets up there now, they have, I think, 18 homes under construction already in the first edition. I know they've had a handful of sales in there here over the last few weeks and are actually taking more lots down here I think next week to start more basements out there. So, um at this point the the only protection we're going to do is some screening with some landscaping at this point. And um you know there's other city uh neighborhoods within the city that also have that same situation where they back up the railroad tracks, right? [1:54:20] Council Member Steve Wilson: So, I mean it beyond probably the obvious are are, you know, homeowners going to have obviously an awareness when they're, you know, potentially building there that, you know, here's what it looks like. It backs up to a train track and there's going to be maybe not as big of a backyard as you're thinking about if a ball is kicked from a kid. You know, it could land on the track. You know, I'm just it's just all that stuff. you know, my my kids are 25, 23, and 20 at this point. Um, and maybe that's just kind of a, you know, a choice. Do I want to, you know, build here or look at someone different? I mean, I like the development. I'm just worried about the tracks, that part of it. And there's it is what it is, but I I just wanted to point that part of it out. [1:55:05] Tony Wippler: Okay. Any other questions? [1:55:22] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Uh, refresh my memory because we talked a little bit. The trail there with respect to the train tracks, there was no trail going behind along the railroad tracks or anything like that. Right. It's all on that north end. [1:55:42] Tony Wippler: Correct. We had originally uh looked at the possibility of having a trail along there um as part of the preliminary plat, but that got removed. [1:56:00] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Okay. Um, and then the trail on the north side does go all the way up to 220th. My road's right. Um, and it came out last time I think we talked about a crossing there. Uh, is that kind of something we'll talk about down the road? Maybe that's a John question. That has been discussed as part of the Dakota County project on County Road 74. That project won't be a full reconstruct, but there are certain things they're doing. Uh they do plan on a trail on the north side and an enhanced crossing where this trail would connect. I think that was my primary concern is just making sure that the trails aren't getting too close or conflicting with train traffic on that one. But as far as the lots and everything like that, it's consistent with the first development. So, it's mostly a continuation. But I would share I do share Steve's concern. But like I said, at some level we have neighborhoods like this all throughout the city. So when we don't have a standard of one, it'd be kind of difficult to start just enforcing it here. I think people just hopefully can use some common understanding when they're going to build a house that hey, you're right on a railroad track, right? Choose accordingly. So no other comments for me though. So let's see if I can do this part correctly. It said by a separate motion, we want to approve the following actions, which is the first one. I'd look for a motion to adopt resolution 2026 uh-10 approving and authorizing the signing of the Dakota Meadows Preserve second edition final plat contingent upon the following. Satisfaction of all engineering comments related to the construction plans for grading and utilities and a development contract between the developer and city of Farmington shall be executed and security fees and costs shall be paid. Submission of all other documents required under the development contract shall be required. [1:57:24] Council Member Holly Bernatz: So moved. [1:57:24] Council Member Steve Wilson: Second. [1:57:24] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Motion by Holly, second by Steve. Call the roll, please. [1:57:41] City Clerk: Council member Wilson. [1:57:41] Council Member Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:57:41] City Clerk: Council member Bernat. [1:57:41] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:57:41] City Clerk: Acting mayor Lean. [1:57:41] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Yes. And then I would look for a separate motion to adopt the attached development contract and authorize its execution. [1:57:57] Council Member Steve Wilson: Motion to approve. [1:57:57] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Second. [1:57:57] City Clerk: Council member Bernatz. [1:57:57] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:57:57] City Clerk: Acting Mayor Lean. [1:57:57] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Yes. [1:57:57] City Clerk: Council member Wilson. [1:57:57] Council Member Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:57:57] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you, Tony. And now item 121, a professional services agreement with WSB LLC for the 2026 street improvements. There you go, sir. [1:58:33] John Anderson (Public Works): Thank you, acting mayor and council members. Uh this is a presentation of the feasibility report for the 2026 street improvements. The project location is on Second Street from Ash to Spruce. Uh compared to last year's project, this is much more straightforward. Uh last year we did Sunnyside, a lot of curve linear and islands and things like that. Uh this is second street from the county road at the south end to spruce street on the north end. Back in July the feasibility report was ordered in September. We had a neighborhood meeting and open house and this evening we're here to move forward with final design and the bidding process. So the project scope from a roadway standpoint south of Walnut it's 36 feet north of there generally north of Walnut 32 feet wide. The city standard is 32 feet wide and we are proposing width of 32 feet throughout the project. As you may know uh we have a difficult time locating storm water ponding and retrainage on these uh reconstruction projects. One of the ways we can maintain compliance with our MS4 permit is to reduce the roadway width slightly and we've done that in in multiple other neighborhoods. Uh pavement condition index ratings were completed on this roadway in 2023. The entire project area had a PCI rating of 23 or below. That's out of 100. Uh so reconstruction is necessary. So the roadway scope is 32 feet wide face to face throughout the length. Soil boardings were conducted in August of LA of last year and the proposed paving section includes one and a half inches of workhorse, 2 and a half inches of base, 8 in of aggregate base and 12 in of sand layer beneath that for a total section of 24 in. And this is very similar to other sections we have for residential roadways. trails and sidewalks. Uh the adopted 2019 bike and ped plan identifies no specific improvements for implementation along this corridor. Uh parallel to this corridor on Fourth Street and First Street, there are recommendations, but not on Second Street. So, no new sidewalk is planned along Second Street. Parks and Rec has requested that replacement of the concrete walk within the depot way arts park be included in this construction contract. Uh given the proximity to second street and the potential for reduced construction cost, it'll be added to the contract scope. So it will be bid along with the rest of the project and we're very hopeful we could see a net savings in the construction cost because contractor will already be out there working. As this work was not included in the feasibility, those costs are not addressed in this presentation. From a storm and sanitary standpoint, all the storm sewer will be replaced as revised roadway slopes will accentuate the high points and low points. And in fact, if you look at uh Sixth Street near the ele elementary school, you'll see that as part of the reconstruction, many times we create high points and low points to improve the slope and to shed the water better. As part of the project through televising, it was identified that 280 feet of sanitary sewer between Honeysuckle and Beach will be removed and replaced to eliminate sags in the pipe. And any sanitary sewer services encountered during installation of water mane and storm sewer will be replaced from the main to the property line. That's a discussion we had at the council meeting work session about uh sanitary sewer responsibilities. But if we encountered them, they will be replaced from the main to the property line. Uh from a water man standpoint, all four and 6 in water man will be replaced with 8 in, which is our current city standard. And much of this water man dates back 50 60 years. All gate valves and hydrants will be replaced and individual water services will also be replaced between the new main and the right of way which is typically where the curb stop shut off valve is. Our natural resources specialist uh reviewed all the trees uh within the project site and 30 trees, three of which are ash are expected to be removed as part of the project in the next four to six weeks. He will be marking the trees identified for removal. So property owners will have the opportunity to meet them while well on site. This area will be included in a future tree planting contract. So Ben Humley, our natural resource specialist, is actually starting that process with our 2025 project area right now. Alistister Boulevard turf areas will be restored with top soil and sod. So here's just uh exhibits of the work uh from the feasibility report. So the blue line is the new water man, red line is the storm sewer and as you notice uh there's additional points where catch basins have been installed and the leads run across to the main on the west side. This is also the area uh where the sanitary sewer replacement will occur about 280 ft. Continuing on with the 32 foot wide section and increasing the number of catch basins and uh our design for these projects is typically a 10-year storm which is one of the more common storms uh such that the driveway or the roadway would shed the runoff to the storm sewer system and then terminating at the north end with some disruption of spruce street to tie in the water man. This is the tree inventory. little difficult to see, but the red spots are where the trees will be removed. The green spots are where they will remain. Uh when reviewing the trees, the natural resource specialist considers not only the construction activity, but also the tree health, its location, existing location from the roadway, and any other constraints on maintaining a healthy tree post construction. Project cost. The current capital improvement plan identifies 2.6 million for expenditures in 2026. They're added to the 200,000 that had been allocated for 2025. So the total project cost is 2.8 million. Last year uh you may recall bonds were issued for two years. So one and a half million was issued in GEO bonds for the project last year. In addition to that funding, the sewer fund has in the CIP $200,000, storm water 400,000 and the water fund which is complete replacement of the water system is 700,000 in the CIP. Based on the project cost and the feasibility report, the street is about 1.5 million. Sanitary sewer for that replacement and any services we expect to encounter 61,600. the water system nearly 800,000 and all the new storm sewer 362,730. All of that includes a 10% contingency. So with the 18% and indirect cost, the total project cost based on the feasibility is $3,230,320, excuse me. And consistently we've seen that cost actually come down once we get final design and then it's competitively bid. So there's a lot of cushion in here right now. Project funding sources based on the feasibility report geo bonds 1.787240 million sewer fund 72,690 storm water fund $428,20 and the water fund 942,370 totaling the estimated project cost. the proposed bidding schedule. We do plan to have another neighborhood meeting in early March just to update residents on where the project is at. um there may be questions that come up about the trees because we expect those will be marked by then. Uh in April, uh council would approve plans and specs and authorize ad for bid. A bid opening in late April with a contract award in early May. Prior to construction, we have a pre-construction meeting with the contractor as well as all the utilities. Once they've presented their schedule, then we have a pre-construction meeting with all the residents. And we invite the contractor to that meeting, specifically the foreman, superintendent or project manager that will be out on site that they may see on a day-to-day basis. We also have the inspector that will be on the project at that same meeting so the residents can meet those individuals before the work actually begins. Substantial completion end of September with final completion of mid-occtober and then as with all projects we have a two-year warranty inspection. The requested action is to approve the professional service agreement with WSB for the 2026 street improvements final design and bidding per the scope present in the feasibility report and the project work scope will be amended to include replacement of the concrete walk within the depot way arts park. With that, I'd be happy to respond to any questions. [2:08:27] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Your turn to go first. Uh so the actually the only question that I have Thank you so much for um a very clear and concise roadway process. Again um I I appreciate it because as someone who is not an engineer um I can't all be perfect. Um I like that there is uh a clear pathway forward and we're not just guessing where our projects are supposed to happen. So, the only question that I have related to this actually has to do with that concrete um depot way um addition. When we're looking at this from the standpoint of residents watching from home, does that increase the scope of this project and capital improvement? Do those funds come out of parks and wreck? How how is that handled both from a budget perspective? I mean, I I like that it's being done in a timely way, but for those that have questions about budget, um can you explain that with a little bit more? [2:09:33] John Anderson (Public Works): Thank you, Mayor and Council members. I'll lead off and Kelly can correct me where I'm when I'm wrong or if I'm wrong. Um there's a separate project identified in the capital improvement program to improve the depot arts park that has funding attached to it. So, we would be bringing that funding into this project to help pay for that concrete sidewalk replacement. [2:09:47] Council Member Holly Bernatz: So, we're we're not adding anything that it hasn't already been part of the pro or part of a project. We're just combining these two in order for it to make more financial sense to do them together. Correct. [2:10:05] John Anderson (Public Works): That's correct. We had put money in the uh CIP from the park improvement fund to make improvements to Deepaway Arts Park this year. So, the money is there. [2:10:05] Council Member Holly Bernatz: I appreciate you clarifying. Thank you. [2:10:23] Council Member Steve Wilson: So, John, we're um reducing the road from 36 feet to 32. Do the residents all know of that and any reactions, positive or negative, at this point? [2:10:37] John Anderson (Public Works): Yes, we did discuss that as part of the original neighborhood meeting and indicated that that was one of the things we typically do as part of the project. Um the reaction generally is positive when we do that. they get a little more yard and uh by narrowing the roadway, we're also improving the chances that any trees that are out there can be saved if we're moving two feet away from them. So, it's a generally generally positive response that we get to that. And 32 feet is not a unusually narrow roadway. It's our current standard. And we actually have had uh Sunnyside was reconstructed last year and we have had no concerns expressed and that also involved narrowing as did the prior year's project. [2:11:14] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: I don't have any further questions besides just saying like I said it's been so nice that this is fairly automatic each year and where we're going and I think after seeing it now for this is my fourth year I've seen this maybe third but starting to see that kind of noticeable buildup how we've reconstructed enough roads that you're starting to notice that the downtown area just kind of looks different in general with how smooth some of these uh much deteriorated roads have become. So I appreciate everything. [2:11:39] John Anderson (Public Works): Yes, acting and council. We have seventh street coming up in 2027, I believe, and uh First Street would be our state aid project that same year. So, we're we're uh making some progress. [2:11:51] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Just for I guess my own understanding is I mean, how much of the city would you say is under a PCI rating of say 50 at this point? [2:12:03] John Anderson (Public Works): Acting mayor and council I can't pull that out but I think the uh you know out of the numbers but I think our average is in the low 70s from 0 to 100 which is a pretty good target to have and with the reconstruction we've done recently uh we're we continue to make progress that together with our annual mill and overlay project. [2:12:26] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Just kind of curious how we're moving that overall number along. So thank you. So with that, we would look for a motion to approve the the professional services agreement with WSB LLC for the 2026 street improvements final design and bidding. [2:12:42] Council Member Steve Wilson: Motion to approve. [2:12:42] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Second. [2:12:42] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Motion by Steve, second by Holly. Call to roll, please. [2:12:50] City Clerk: Council member Wilson. [2:12:50] Council Member Steve Wilson: Yes. [2:12:50] City Clerk: Council member Bernatz. [2:12:50] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Yes. [2:12:50] City Clerk: Acting Mayor Lean. [2:12:50] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Yes. Thank you. Round table. Uh Amy gets to go first. [2:13:03] Staff Member Amy: Good evening, acting mayor and council. I don't have a report tonight. [2:13:03] Council Member Holly Bernatz: No comment. Um I just want to take a minute to highlight uh something fantastic that's going to be happening in the community coming up this weekend. Um FHS choir is doing their annual fundraiser and um their performance is for Cabaret which is not the musical. It is uh a musical theater and uh jazz variety show. So, if you and your family are looking for um a a great opportunity to experience local artists and um studentled uh and choreographed and um performed music and you want to support FHS choir, I would encourage um checking it out. And uh we should have tickets, I think, still available at the door. But if you don't want to take that chance, just go on to the website and you'll be able to um find your ticket that way. It's pretty cool. [2:14:06] Council Member Steve Wilson: Uh first, I want to thank all the residents of Farmington and possibly the township or other communities that spoke tonight. even though we sometimes uh may not like what you're having to say, I do appreciate that um you know that you are here uh providing your opinion and perspective on any variety of issues. So, thank you for that. Um secondly, we have I mean, geez, we have a lot of good hockey players in this community. So, we got the girls that are going to the state tournament on Thursday at I was about ready to say the XL Energy Center, but I can't say that. So, it's the Grand Casino Arena. Not endorsing gambling. That's just the name of the arena. And then the boys team um starts section play seated number one on Thursday as well. So, you know, uh have your enjoyment of the arts and uh great hockey as well. Uh coming up this week, I did also want to um thank Kelly and um everybody that was at the skate park kind of the second, what would you call it, Kelly? a second design workshop. I mean, we have a really good uh project manager consultant that we hired for that. Um super impressed. Um and Kelly, I would, you know, I don't want to put you on the spot, but when you know, you can either do it during your report, but would you mind just reviewing for the community the funding of that? Because I've had a couple residents say, "What in the world are you spending my money on a skate park?" And I just want to make sure that the community keeps getting reminded that um of of the really neat ways that this project is being funded. So that's all I have. So thank you. [2:16:01] Parks & Rec Director Kelly: Yeah, I can I can do it right now if you wouldn't mind. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, uh Steve. Um the $350,000 we got a grant from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and that was a matching grant. You could either match cash, labor, equipment, etc. Um city council, thank you. You approved $350,000 to come from the liquor store community project funds. So that's 700,000 and we are taking $300,000 from our park improvement fund to fund the remaining $1 million project. Uh park improvement comes um from developers. If they choose like tonight at uh Dakota Meadows Preserve, they were paying cash and loo. So with cash and loo for park dedication, you can't spend that on ongoing maintenance, replacement of playground equipment, replacement of shelters, replacement of trails. It has to be new amenities. So this is a perfect example of where we want to use developers cash and l uh park dedication fees. So 350,000 from the grant, 350,000 from the liquor store, and 300,000 from the park improvement fund. [2:17:11] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thanks, Kelly. All right. Um, tonight I'd like to give a brief update on the data center subject. Um, I'd like to encourage members of the public, anyone interested to visit our city website to see a step-by-step process that the city went through regarding the process. And rather than going to all the different pages on our website to find the minutes and videos and all that stuff, we have it in one location, uh, under the main page, you can click on project updates and development projects and then you can click on the data center piece of it. Um there are no discussions in front of council at this time or decisions to be had and the final plat and PUD that was approved identified the minimums and maximums of the project of possibility of a project. What's unique is that the final user has not been identified. So we don't know what those are yet. Um haven't had discussions on that. There are no applications in front of council or any pending specific data center projects. Um and due to current litigation like some of the members um during public comment talked about um we are very limited in what we can discuss and that's all I have. And again I want to thank Josh for his service to the city. [2:18:35] Staff Member Shirley: No comment tonight. [2:18:35] Staff Member David: Acting Mayor Lean, Council Member Bernantz, Council Member Wilson, you know, our role as staff is to use our uh experience, our professional expertise in our given fields, as well as our knowledge and care for this community to advise the city council, whomever sits in those seats. Um, in this room alone tonight, there's over 150 years of experience in local government, and that doesn't include the 20 plus years that walked out with Tony. Uh, several advanced degrees and lentures. Um, I know there's a lot of caricatures of government employees. Um, but I know that there's not a single member of team Farmington uh that desires anything but the absolute best for this community. Um, I I think I can say even we appreciate having a council that uh encourages us to do our best work to think outside the box and uh hears us out um even if you disagree which does happen even if it doesn't always show up during these meetings. Um I wish I could say that is the norm. So again I thank you uh to Mayor Hoy. At this point in my career, I've worked for nine mayors, and that doesn't include acting mayor Lean. Uh, not all have been a privilege, but I can say even in the year I got to work with you, it was a privilege. I appreciate your passion for the Farmington community, your willingness to think outside the box, and your support of staff, and your respect for professional expertise. Specifically, I appreciate the support that you gave me during the time I served as acting city administrator last summer. I wish you the best and look forward to seeing you around the community. You will always be welcome here at city hall. [2:20:38] City Administrator Diana: Thank you, acting mayor and council. Just to follow up with David's remarks to the mayor, I do also have a few things to say. In the last week or so, couple weeks. My phone has been ringing off the hook with developers reaching out to me, colleagues, mayors from other cities, city council people from other communities, um staff members from other communities, all expressing how much they respect Joshua Hoy and how um they wanted me to be able to pass that on. So, this is that opportunity that I'm able to pass that on to Joshua. So, I really hope that he is listening. He is respected across the state um by so many different people. He's loved obviously by many people here in this room and it was an honor to get to work with him. Every time he attended a meeting with me, when we would meet with developers, when we would meet with businesses, when we would attend ribbon cutings, everybody was just so the passion that he brought. It was authentic. That is not always what people bring. And he was authentic. And I will forever be grateful for the chance I had to work with him. And he has touched so many lives. and I again have so much respect for him. So I, you know, Joshua, if you're listening, thank you for the opportunity to get to work with you and for impacting me in so many positive ways. And that will never be forgotten. And I wish him the best. And I it's heartbreaking to know that people are trying to turn his situation into something else and trying to shame him for that. Um, that is heartbreaking and that's all I can say about that. Um, and outside of that, uh, thank you tonight for, uh, participating in some really great conversations at our EDA meeting. We have so many things going on and so much stuff to look forward to. Uh, we will be rolling out some new programming this year. So, thank you for, you know, a really, um, comprehensive conversation around that. Um, later this week, we will be celebrating the first Spanish immersion daycare in this community. I think that's a wonderful addition. Uh something that not every community has and so I hope that you can attend the ribbon cutting that we're going to be having and we are um hoping to have quite a few of those ribbon cutings this year. So um our community is very fortunate to have a lot of wonderful small businesses and those are things to celebrate. So with that, thank you again. [2:23:30] John Anderson (Public Works): Acting mayor and council members. I also want to thank Mayor Hoy for his past support of public works and everything we're trying to accomplish on behalf of the city and its residents, business owners, and property owners. Um earlier in this meeting, you approved the Devonshire 206 contract. Um that's one of our first pond cleaning projects uh that we're doing. The trees and shrubs have already been removed. We did that under separate contract. So, we look forward to the contractor mobilizing on site to actually upgrade that pond and restore the inlets and outlets and and contours of the pond. Uh, additionally, we had a pre-construction meeting last week on the industrial park ditch pond cleaning. Uh, that is the ditch that flows through Northern Natural Gas property, crosses XL Energy, and through the Murphy farm. Uh so the contractor expects to mobilize on site within a week or two to start that ditch cleaning process. So um pond and ditch projects are typically done in the winter time when we're less susceptible to raintorms and whatnot. So uh thank you for your support of that effort. [2:24:54] Parks & Rec Director Kelly: Also, I want to take the opportunity to thank uh Mayor Hoy as well. Um he was a a great leader and what he did over at the senior center. Um without his support, that grant would have never happened. um that project would have never happened for the for the seniors and and the people in our community. So, um thank you, Mayor Hoy, for everything he's done for parks and recreation. Um and also the staff. Um he was a valuable leader and we're going to miss him. Um with the warmer weather, we're excited to see people um in the parks and on the trails. Um if you drove by Ramy River Park on Sat or Sunday, it was busy. Uh it was great to see all the the kiddos on the playground equipment, but just want to send a reminder that all dogs must be keep kept on a leash at all times and owners are required to clean up up after their pets. Please help keep help us keep our parks and trails clean, safe, and enjoyable for everyone. [2:25:34] Finance Director Kim: acting mayor and council. Um I'm not as good as my fellow directors at winging it, so I wrote something down. Um just wanted to acknowledge um Mayor Hoy with the mayor's recent resignation. And I've spent some time reflecting on the level of dedication he brought to the role. From my own perspective, he invested an incredible amount of time understanding the city, its finances, its history, its operations. And that depth of knowledge came from a genuine effort and commitment. That kind of preparation and care matters. And I think it's important to acknowledge and appreciate his leadership and dedication to this city, to a thriving and vibrant Farmington. Tonight, I simply want to say thank you to our former leader for his years of service and his unwavering commitment to Farmington, and I wish him all the best. Thank you. [2:26:10] Police Chief: Acting mayor and council, uh, first I want to thank you for um on the consent agenda, the approval of Officer Katon Rubin's promotion to sergeant. Uh, he's going to be a great addition to the leadership team, and I look forward to presenting him to you in a pinning ceremony at the next meeting. Um, also I hadn't mentioned last meeting uh the success of our um movie with a cop night at the police department. Um, it was an experience uh that I think only maybe uh teachers can really understand having 25 to 10 year olds in a room. Um, we made it probably halfway through the movie before chaos erupted, but everybody had a great time and we had plenty of officers that had experience with kids there to help corral them and everyone made it home safe and we really look forward to doing it again here uh possibly in the spring or summer, maybe expanding to our yard and and getting even more children out there uh to experience this and come see our PD and meet our officers. And then lastly, I also want to um say a thank you to Mayor Hoy. Uh it's uh been clear to everyone here that he is incredible friend to the police department and he's been a part of just about everything we've done to engage with the community since I've been here at the police department. Um, and I I'm not going to list all of those here, but I I will say something that uh gives credit to his character is that uh Mayor Hoy never asked when the event begins or ends. He asks when does the work begin or end and he shows up for the entire event. Uh every single time to make sure it goes well and then make sure that we're supported. Uh and that's commendable. Thank you. [2:28:09] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: It's a lot of pressure to live up to. Just for the record, um I'm going to have to ask my wife for forgiveness when I use this example tonight. But I think if I when I argue with my wife, there's two pieces to it. She wants to vent and she wants to talk through it. If I don't do either of those two pieces, I'm usually going to be sleeping on the couch that night. I think when we get up here, we're running into the piece where we let you stand up there and you say your piece and that's hopefully some amount of your venting. Um, and I hope that's at least some sort of relief, even though I know that when we're sitting up here stonefaced because that's what we say we have to do. It looks like we're stonewalling you. I I think Josh for all of his efforts on it, it was we're trying to talk across something that like we literally can't cross each other too. So, it's not going to get solved in here. It's not an argument that can get solved in here. We're all just kind of talking over each other and with all these rules. I don't know what it looks like to get outside these chambers and fix this problem. It is very difficult to try and understand what that is when we're in the middle of litigation. But I can at least commit that in this limited time that I've been given that I can try and find some kind of path to have those conversations. I do not know what that looks like right this second. So please don't hold me to an exact plan, but I know where to find a person that can help me with that both sides and I can try my best at it. That's all I can offer you. I guess I don't have much to say beyond that. I guess the one other piece is you made the comment that tract wants to talk to you and track wants to work with you and do the things. If I know it seems preferential to have the city be an enforcer in that situation, but if I was just being realistic and trying to use my own situations, if I was building something and someone was building right next to me and the guy came over and asked, "How do you want me to build this house?" I don't think I'd waste the opportunity to try and speak with them and see what they would be willing to work with me on. If they're giving you a chance to try and hear you at least, then that's better than nothing. And I don't think I'd want to waste the opportunity just because you want it to come from here. I would rather cut out a middleman if I could. I know you may not want to hear that, but it's an opportunity. Please don't waste it. Okay, that's all I can say on that topic. And I guess that's all I want to really say tonight. So, like I said, I'm here. I will try my best to to bring that passion that Josh brought. It's really hard. He had a lot of it, but I I'm here for it. So, with that, I would look for a motion to adjurnn. [2:31:04] Council Member Holly Bernatz: Nick, I'm I'm just going to quick say I really appreciate your leadership tonight. I know that this was um probably a little bit stressful stepping into a new role and I think you did a great job. [2:31:04] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Thank you. I appreciate it. So, with that, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. [2:31:21] Council Member Steve Wilson: Second. [2:31:21] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: Motion by Steve, second by Holly. All in favor say I. [2:31:21] Council Members: I. [2:31:21] Acting Mayor Nick Lean: We are journed at 9:30.