This transcript is from the Farmington, MN City Council meeting held on October 16, 2023. Based on the names of the officials provided and the context of the dialogue, I have identified the speakers below. **Note:** The transcript refers to "Katie" (Councilmember Katie Porter, who served in 2023) and "Lynn" (City Administrator Lynn Gorski). While your 2026 context notes a vacancy and different names, the 2023 transcript reflects the officials in office at that time. [0:00] [Music] [0:22] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Unbelievable. We'll call the City Council regular meeting to order for Monday, October 16th, 2023. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? [0:36] **Group:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [1:08] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Call the roll, please. [1:10] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Porter? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Lien? **Mayor Nick Lien:** Here. Any changes to the agenda? Nick? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Holly? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Katie? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Steve? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Lynn? **City Administrator Lynn Gorski:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Anyone? Seeing no changes, we look for a motion to approve the agenda. [1:42] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Motion. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Katie. Second? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Second by Holly. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right. Moving on, we have item six, which is our citizen comments. There's no one in attendance. We'll move on to item seven, which is our consent agenda. Look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. [1:57] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion to approve. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Steve. Second? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Second by Nick. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Nick Lien:** And moving right along, the next item on the agenda is a public hearing for the certification of delinquent Municipal services to 2024 property taxes. I'd like to open the public hearing at this time and we have—I'll be taking that item. Lynn's going to take it for Chris since Chris is enjoying retirement. [2:25] **City Administrator Lynn Gorski:** I'm going to take this item for him and it's the public hearing and certification of delinquent Municipal services to 2024 property taxes. So I'm bringing you the accounts that are delinquent for the municipal services that includes water, sewer, storm water, and street lights, and it also includes the past due accounts for code enforcement special assessments. When the memo went out at that time, we had 462 accounts that were past due. Since we sent the notice out and since the agenda has been published, now we're down to 420 accounts. So some residents and business owners have come in and paid their invoices, so we have removed them from the list. But what we're doing is in accordance with the Minnesota state statutes 444, 429, and 443, the delinquent amounts are certified to the county auditor for collections with property owners' real estate taxes. Those notices were mailed out on July 31st of this year and also they were advertised in the paper. The amount as of October 13th, which was Friday, was in the total of $223,100. [The request is] to close the public hearing and to adopt the attached resolution certifying the delinquent accounts as an addition to the 2024 real estate taxes of the appropriate properties. [4:18] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you, ma'am. Any questions for Lynn at this time? Nick? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** None. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Holly? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** No. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Katie? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** I have none. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Steve? [4:26] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Lynn, if you know, does this stay with the property? So if the property were to go up for sale, does it follow the property or does it follow the person? [4:34] **City Administrator Lynn Gorski:** Well, if it goes up for sale, usually the title company contacts the city to see if there's any assessments, and we would notify them at that time to get that taken care of before it’s sold. [4:44] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Okay, thank you. [4:45] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right, I have no questions, thank you. If there's anyone in attendance that would like to speak on the certification of the delinquent taxes? All right, if we have none at this time, then we will close the public hearing. Any further discussion or deliberation? Nick, Holly, Katie, Steve? None. All right, seeing none, then I would look for a motion to adopt the attached resolution certifying the delinquent accounts as an addition to the 2024 real estate taxes of the appropriate properties. [5:21] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Steve. Second? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Second by Nick. Call the roll, please. [5:27] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Porter? **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Lien? **Mayor Nick Lien:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** [Motion carries] 4-0. [5:34] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right, right on to the city council Round Table. Steve? [5:37] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** You know, I don't have anything today other than I guess I wish Mother Nature would have delivered rain at summer months as opposed to kind of coming all at one time in October. That would have been nice. But the other comment I want to make: John, it looks like you're probably on schedule or maybe ahead of schedule with hydrant flushing. [6:00] **Public Works Director John Powell:** Mayor and Councilmembers, we're on schedule. And you may recall that our final day of hydrant flushing is when school's typically not in session, so our final day will be Thursday or Friday of this week. [6:16] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Thank you. That's all I have. [6:18] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right, thank you. Katie? [6:21] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Yeah, I don't really like acknowledging that winter is on its way, but Mother Nature always wins, right Mayor? So, thank you to the Public Works department, Parks department, all of our departments for preparing the city for what is to come with snow. And everyone being cognizant of November 1st... November 15th when on-street parking is—overnight parking is November 1st, okay. So just reminding residents to be cognizant of winter coming and everyone be safe. That's all I have. Thank you. [6:59] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Holly? [7:01] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** I actually just have a note of thanks and a shout-out to the Farmington Fire Department. I live in the neighborhood where the structure fire was last weekend. And you know, their actions, the work that they do—the work that they did in that instance—kept the two structures next to that home from going up in flames along with it. So a devastating loss for that family, obviously. Anyone that knows, knows that there are support systems out there for the family, and I encourage you to look into that as you're moved to do so. But honestly, just a note of thanks to the people that run into those situations and really sacrifice their well-being in support of other community members. We're lucky to have them. [7:46] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Well said, thank you. Nick? [7:48] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Test your furnaces out now before it's too late. Good point—I've gotten burned by that and you're not wrong. I fired mine up last week, and with much objection across the rest of the house following that. Just another judicial update: Adam Johnson was just appointed to serve in the First Judicial District, which Dakota County is a part of, so he'll be in Hastings as a judge there. And then also Judge Perlo is retiring, so that application process is now open. If you just Google "judicial appointments Minnesota," you'll be able to find more information if you know someone who might be interested in something like that. So thank you, ma'am. Lynn? [8:36] **City Administrator Lynn Gorski:** I'd like to remind the community that the Open Door Pantry will be at the Rambling River Center tomorrow from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thank you. [8:42] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you. Shirley? **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Sorry, I don't have anything. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Nothing. Julie? **Staff Member Julie:** Nope, not tonight. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Deanna? [8:52] **Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen:** Thank you, Mayor and Council. Just briefly, I wanted to point out that in our third-quarter new construction report, you'll see that the Ecker project—the apartment building—shows up. Anybody who's driven by can see that there's activity happening there, so it's going to be fun to watch that project come out of the ground. But the building permit has been issued and it's progressing. There was also an action on there tonight on the consent agenda related to that project, so we're really excited to see that happen. Also moving forward, your new construction quarterly reports and annual reports might start looking a little bit different. We're analyzing the information that's included in the reports and what may be more beneficial to you. It's not saying that things will go away, but there are other points that we could be reporting on which may have more or different value to the Council as we move forward. So stay tuned for changes coming with that, and that's all I have. Thank you. [9:52] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you. Kelly? [9:54] **Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Gadsby:** Since this is the last meeting before Halloween, the annual Halloween Walk is Friday, October 27th. Weather permitting, it will be outside behind Dodge Middle School. If it is inclement weather, we will be in the gym at Dodge Middle School from 5:30 to 7:00. As of this morning, we have 20 businesses and organizations signed up to pass out candy, treats, you name it. So if there's a business who still wants to sign up, please reach out to the Parks and Recreation Department. That's a joint program between Community Education and Parks and Recreation, so we're excited about that. The following day, Saturday, October 28th, is the Rambling River Center annual breakfast and silent auction fundraiser. So for $12: egg bake, cinnamon roll, caramel roll, fruit, milk, coffee, and juice. There's going to be lots of baskets to bid on—typically we have in the amount of 70-ish. So thank you to all the volunteers who help put those baskets together, all the businesses who donate, all the people who donate—we couldn't do it without them as well. So hope to see you on the 28th. [10:59] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you. John? [11:02] **Public Works Director John Powell:** Thank you, Mayor and City Council Members. A few project updates. The 2024 Utility and Street Improvement project: you'll see surveyors out on Sixth Street and Maple Street gathering topographic surveys. You'll also see the geotechnical firm Terracon doing soil borings out in that area in the very near future. The Industrial Park drainage study: you'll see surveyors out in the Eaton Avenue area as well as the ditch to the east and north of Northern Natural Gas. They'll be surveying the ditch and parts of the industrial park development itself. And finally, we had a pre-construction meeting last week with the Meadow View Preserve developer. They will start grading that site this week. They received advantageous bids to do the site grading this fall, and they anticipate starting utility work in the spring. Thank you, sir. [11:58] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Chief? [12:00] **Police Chief Nate Siem:** Yeah, on the heels of Councilmember Porter's reminder that winter parking and winter is creeping up on us: usually around this time of year we start issuing courtesy reminders on the winter parking ordinance. The prohibition for parking on-street from 2:30 to 5:30 starting on November 1st. If you receive one of those courtesy warnings, it's just a reminder to make plans to have your vehicle off the street during those hours starting on November 1st. Weather permitting, we usually continue with the courtesy reminders well into November, and when we're getting ready to switch to actually issuing citations, we'll make that abundantly clear on our social media channels, on the city's website, etc. [12:47] **Mayor Nick Lien:** I anxiously await the year in which we are doing courtesy reminders in January. Good luck with that! That'd be cool, right? We've had some late years though. We've had a few Octobers recently where we've had multiple [snow] events, but we've also had where we've gotten close to winter break and not had one yet. So, hope it's one of those years. [13:13] **Mayor Nick Lien:** So, Chief Elvestad is not here and I would be remiss if I didn't mention Turkey Bingo because we only are going to have one meeting, Monday the 6th, before Turkey Bingo. But as we all know, it's a huge fundraiser for the Firefighters Relief Association. That’s Saturday, November 11th. Bingo starts at 6:00 p.m., doors open at 4:30. I assume like last year where they did some staging, if you're not there by 4:30 or 5:00, wait until you know, 8:00 and come a little bit later, because you are likely to not find a seat. So get there early or stagger your entrance till a little bit later. I believe that they're going to do the online silent auction items like they did last year as well, so look for that on their social media and also on the Farmington city website. Beyond that, we hit the winter parking regulations. We do have Patriotic Day which would be Thursday the 9th. That's going to be at the high school; the ceremony is going to start at 7:30. The free community dinner will start 5:00 or 5:30-ish. So as always, we'll be looking for people *wink wink wink wink* to help serve meals that night. But it's a great opportunity to celebrate our veterans across the community. Congresswoman Craig will be there, Senator Duckworth will be there doing a couple of presentations and keynoting, for lack of better terms. But it's a great community event to show up during the week of Veterans Day to show some pride towards our veterans and the patriots in our community. Everyone is welcome. Again, it's a free steak dinner—I think there's chicken nuggets or something for the kiddos, try to mix it up a little bit for them. Outside of that, I don't have anything to add. So we'd look for a motion to adjourn. [14:55] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Steve, second by Holly. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Nick Lien:** And we are adjourned at 7:14. [15:08] [Music]