This transcript is from the February 5, 2024, Farmington City Council meeting. Please note that while your context list is dated 2026, the speakers in this 2024 footage include individuals who held different roles at that time (e.g., **Nick Lien** was a Councilmember in 2024 before becoming Mayor by 2026, and **Joshua Hoyt** was the Mayor during this session). [0:00] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** [Music] like wait well call the city council regular [0:47] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** meeting to order for Monday February 5th 2024 would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled Ali to the flag of the United States America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all call the role please [1:10] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** council member berat here council member lean here council member Porter here council member Wilson here mayor Hoy here [1:22] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** all right uh unless there's any changes to the agenda we'd look for a motion to approve [1:27] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** motion [1:28] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** second [1:30] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** uh motion by Holly second by Katie all in favor say I hi uh moving on to our announcements uh [1:36] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** item 51 is our resolution adopting toys for Town donations [1:47] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** Chief Mr Mayor members of the council if you'll indulge me for just a minute I know you're all well aware of the uh everything to do with toys for town but I'm going to review a little bit of that for the for the viewers at home uh this year year was our 36th uh year of doing toys for Town it started in 1990 or 1988 excuse me uh with Chief Dancy Boler initially served just a couple of families uh and it has grown year by year uh and sometimes exponentially kind of like it did this year um the program this year provided toys gifts meal kits and supplementary food uh to 146 families and 445 children that's a about a 20 21% increase in uh registered families over just last year [2:33] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** um which is a significant increase for one year um kids in the program children from infant up to 13 age each received toys and Gifts children 14 to 17 each received a Visa gift card and each family received a holiday meal kit from bourbon butcher as well as a supplemental food supply from the open door Pantry which was a new addition this year um and as previously noted um you're all well aware this is an unbudgeted uh uh program for the police department um we must uh administer this program ex exclusively with donations uh which is what we're here to do tonight is to formally accept the donations that we Reed for the program and there's three of them that we need to acknowledge um the uh the first one is for Enterprise uh ryal um we reached out [3:21] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** to them this year to each each year we seem to add uh uh toy collection locations and it's getting to be a lot um we had over 50 this year um so we reached out to them about uh renting a box truck we were going to rent a box truck for the week so um it would reduce the number of trips that we would have to make it was going to eliminate a storage problem for us we were just going to leave the toys in the truck park it inside the maintenance facility we were prepared to rent it they found out what it was for and they offered to donate the use of the truck for the entire week um at a value of 600 $675 so that's the first uh acknowledgement that uh we need to make our second one is the bourbon butcher um as you're all aware we purchase our meal kits from them for each family um it's a [4:08] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** pretty significant purchase uh but for the last couple of years uh the owner Tony donatell has in addition to providing those those meal kits that we buy he donates a $25 gift card uh to his series of restaurants uh to each family um and at uh 146 families we we bought 150 meal kits so 150 meal kits that uh he donated $3,750 worth of gift cards to his restaurants uh that's acknowledgement number two and our last one goes to our last acknowledgement goes to a long list of Farmington area residents businesses business owners Civic and fraternal organizations we anticipated increased cost due to inflation and increased need [4:53] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** and registration so we raised our fundraising goal this year uh to uh for last year was 35,000 we raised it to 40,000 we anticipated there was going to be a greater need we didn't anticipate the need was going to be as great as it was um I'm pleased to report that our community responded by donating an astonishing [5:28] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** $50,400 $6 donation all the way up to $10,000 um and every single one of them is is sincerely appreciated uh budget impact there is uh there is no budget impact for toys for Tom because it is funded exclusively through these donations any donation or portion of donation not used is held in our community engagement fund for future use uh action requested is ask any uh questions that you may have and then we recommend that you approve resolution 20249 accepting donations from Enterprise rental for use of the truck valued at $675 bourbon butcher gift cards valued at $33,750 and financial donations in the amount of [6:28] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** $50,400 just absolutely incredible so Steve [6:32] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** yeah Gary I have a question for you so I'm guessing that throughout the course of the Year outside of toys for town you might have residents say well boy I sure love that toys for Town program that you have going on is there any way I can help families in this community outside of toys for Town um you know do we do we have a um you know know do we have organizations that are top of mine that that would be a response to that type of question [7:14] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** for sure um depending on the time of year or how close in proximity Is it is to some of our other community engagement events usually during our [7:15] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** open house in May for example we collect uh food donations for the food shelf sure um towards the fall we accept uh we start soliciting donations of uh school supplies and hygiene products for uh the kidss at School outside of those areas we'll refer people either to the food shelf or to 360 communities um uh both very worthy um places to donate to help our citizens [7:53] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** yeah thanks for and and part of the reason I asked that question is because I am aware that the the police department along with other organizations do so many good things throughout the year I mean this by itself is incredible right but it doesn't really even stop there I mean your team you know continues to serve the community in this way throughout the year for sure so thank you very [8:02] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** much Nick no questions just another thank you like last time it's the best day of the year for me [8:06] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** holly um yeah I it's one of these things that makes Farmington special right it's it's an opportunity if if you're not involved um to mark your calendars every single year and make it a point to get involved and it it definitely takes a village so a huge amount of thanks to uh the police department for everything that you guys do behind the scenes around the scenes in the scenes to to make it happen certainly you know resident support community support and and all of the other entities that come together but I I know that this is a heavy lift and a and a big load for uh for your department so many thanks [8:48] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** thank you yeah it it takes a landing spot for the implementation the organization and the facilitation of the program right and and and without the police department's involvement in the program it wouldn't be as successful as it is but it is a shining example of the lift that this community does every single year and the list always surprises me right it it's not just how many families are served how many kids in our community are served but how many people continue to step up individuals families uh youth groups and organiz ations um the fire department nonprofits our local churches [9:34] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** like everybody is involved I think I don't I don't feel as if there's anybody who's not a part of this and um just that you know I want people to let that resonate that this this program exists because of the efforts of the masses but it has to be organized and facilitated through the PD like we um it wouldn't be possible without your team's tremendous lift every year and a huge um time commitment and so um I know this was your last year for this program um but it it couldn't go out for you it couldn't go out A Better Way being able to serve as many people as we did and and uh truly affect the the lives of [10:21] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** hundreds of people every year so um a deep heartfelt appreciation thank you it's my pleasure with that we would look for a motion to approve uh the attached resolution as presented [10:35] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** motion [10:36] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** second [10:37] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** motion by Holly second by Katie call the role please [10:41] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** council member lean yes council member Porter yes council member Wilson yes mayor hoit yes council member berett yes [10:53] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** thank you sir than our next item on the agenda is citizen comments if there's anyone in attendance that would like to speak at the this time if not we will move on item seven is our consent agenda would seek a [11:06] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** motion to approve the consent agenda [11:10] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** motion to approve [11:11] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** second [11:12] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** motion by Steve second by Nick all in favor say I I moving along swiftly here to new business item 121 is our fire department 2023 recap and 2024 goals Chief elvestad [11:34] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** thank thank you mayor and Council we're here tonight to present to you the 2023 recap and 2024 goals so just a year uh the review of the last year in 2023 the fire department had 1150 calls for service compared to in 2022 we had 1212 so we saw about a 5% decrease there then below is the breakdown of them by station um [11:53] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** station one responded to the most amount of calls 472 then our duty crew picked up 404 calls and then station two uh 285 and then the officer or so call outs those are just generally the one person on call our s so te numbers um 82 calls so here's the breakdown of the last 10 years we've been seeing that decrease um over the last 10 years 2020 we saw a little dip and then it's been kind of really skyrocketing um up since 2020 breakdown of the types of calls we're primarily responding on medical calls 62% of them are Medicals followed by 38 um we categorize as fire type incidents some of our top incidents [12:39] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** there um obviously the top four are Medicals Delta level Medicals being the second most serious and then the alpha Medicals are are least serious so those Alpha Medicals we generally run on those either if requested by police or ambulance or if we have a duty crew on and then our vehicle crashes 53% uh gas leaks there we are starting to see a little bit of an increase in the gas leak calls as we're starting to dig in the ground a little bit more around Farmington we're putting in fiber lines and more buildings we do have seen an increase in those types of calls of people hitting gas lines and then uh building fires we had 25 building fires last year um our mutual Aid so this has really shifted over the years since we um purchased the ladder truck um we used [13:26] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** to primarily call that in on every fire now we don't so our mutual Aid has shifted from our aid received being less than what we've given um so last year we provided mutually or received Mutual Aid 13 times and we provided it 21 times this is a picture of a fire over in Hastings and I just wanted to share with you the ladder truck and its capability um there's not a lot of ladder trucks that are set up for the rural type fires as you can see there the ladder truck is drafting off of its own water supply so that's pretty unique to our truck it's it's very multi-purpose we run that ladder truck just like a fire engine it has all those capabilities with the areal ladder device so this was a specific call for Hastings specifically for that truck in the rural area and then our second alarms this is [14:13] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** just kind of we we gauge this based on you know our initial response to see if we're sending enough units um if we see this number getting really high that might mean that we'not sending the right amount of units to the initial page um so our fire incident command on 30 incidents requested a second alarm meaning the initial page didn't have enough resources and then um 31 times by our paramedics and 36 Times by our Police Department so the Medics and police those are primary on primarily on those Medicals where they get there and the call is more serious than what it came in as and they need more assistance from us and then our 90th percentile response time so the green is showing our um Duty Crews so engine 11 um ladder one Engine [14:59] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** 2 engine 22 when we have a duty CW on that's what the that's from the time we get the call to those units arrive on scene so all the duty crews are within the National Standard except engine two is a little bit higher than that 9 minute and then if we're calling them out from home um you see those numbers increase quite a bit there on all the units and then um our firefighter of the year I always like to highlight our 2023 firefighter of the Year Heath Walker is one of our crew leaders um that word was a given at the banquet as all of you saw and then our Fire officer the year Lieutenant Bob ier and then our accomplishments of last year um the 150 years of fire service celebration that was a huge undertaking [15:44] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** for our department um the parade all the planning for the events at the fairgrounds the first time the 1926 hit the road in probably 20 some years the open house so that was a good fun event for everyone um last year we did update all of our paid on call job descriptions updated all of our policies and procedures and then continued all of our life safety inspections of our commercial buildings and multi-unit buildings and now Chief price will give you the public Ed review [16:21] **Fire Marshal Matthew Price:** good evening mayor and city council um I'm going to just speak briefly here on the um public education for the fire prevention Bureau so the department itself did 83 hours of public education in those 83 hours we were able [16:32] **Fire Marshal Matthew Price:** to reach four 547 community members there are engagements that we do that we can't count the numbers such as our open house due days where we interact continuously with individuals that number is a hard number of what we what we were able to count um part of it is also 441 life safety inspections that includes everything from Hydro flushing finals annuals all of the stuff that goes into the fire prevention our public relations that we do uh the community Expo as you can see Mighty Machines safety camps Easter egg hunt Relay for Life it's it's an endless list we're constantly being called out to daycares um for a truck to do everything [17:19] **Fire Marshal Matthew Price:** and that's goes into our public education for fire prevention and we reach everything uh the individuals from 2 years old to 88 years old to 97 years old and we have a education program for every age so that it fits those ages um and so that's one of the things that we do for our public relations which is part part of our fire prevention program thank you [17:49] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** all right so our 2024 goals our number one goal there is to increase our recruitment efforts that's a big deal um I'm sure you all know what the challange is in the fire service of recruiting retaining paid on call Members so that's that's one of our top goals this year to do everything we can we have some ideas of some programs we can Implement we're [18:05] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** going to try and get an ongoing recruitment effort throughout throughout the year we may not hire more than once a year but we want to just keep that recruitment stuff going throughout the year um get them on board and then train them you know in our fire academy at the next next time we hire and we really want to reduce the amount of false alarm calls we're having about 160 some false alarm calls every every year so um we want to get the word out on smoke alarms fire alarms um make sure that we're following up on any commercial buildings that we might have be having alarm problems with um we also want to update our mission the fire mission vision and core values and then um focus on firefighter Health the emotional cardiac and cancer that is a huge huge problem [18:50] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** in the fire service and then um plan for future St station locations and then our current St station needs needs with that we will stand for any questions you might have thank you s [19:04] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** yep nick uh go the other way again I had a question but I I lost it here [19:10] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** holly um no questions just uh a huge amount of thanks to the entire department for everything that you do um you know ultimately to the point that you are making recruitment efforts are are probably the greatest stressor when it comes to how you continue to maintain the level of of you know service that you're providing to to Residents so um you know [19:36] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** anything that uh can be done to support that effort I I definitely appreciate and and understand the necessity for so thank you [19:46] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Katie yeah I would Echo the thank you I think your your department certainly embodies the uh Work Hard Play Hard mentality and it's fun to watch the camaraderie and support that they have for one another is we've gotten to know different folks on the department um I think retention is is good you know comparably speaking and that's really great to see so I I love all the pr stuff you guys are doing I think our core services do amazing at that I think all of our staff does great with um public relations and those Community efforts that we make so um thank you loved the my my three-year-old still talks about every time we pass the fire [20:21] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** station across from Bachman and I can never remember is that one or is it two [20:26] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** one one okay [20:27] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** every time we pass we went there we went there for the so he remembers the 150th celebration obviously everybody remembers the fireworks quite well so um fun year for the department and keep up what you're doing thank you [20:41] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** thanks Steve yeah thank you for the really nice update um and I I like the fact that you pointed out all the different ways that you serve the community I mean I think all of us see that and I think the public sees it but it's a good reminder that you know this is time that all of you were taken away from your families and in most cases to do all these different volunteer efforts um Justin I do have a question so the disparity between calls out of station [21:07] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** one station two is that a function of Latter one or has it always been that way or [21:12] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** it's always kind of been that way so the demographics of the city and we respond to primarily more Medicals we see more Medicals in the station one area versus station two [21:24] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** okay so it is really a function of geography of where the call is [21:27] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** word yep yeah cuz the the dispatch system sends the closest unit so it it it's not like we have specific boundaries it's based off of the drive time it takes to get to the call and a lot more of the calls are down in station one's area the duty crew helps even that out the more often we have a duty crew on you know they can pick up a call in station one's area where we'not paging out the station [21:51] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** got it and [21:53] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** then with a false alarm component are you seeing that on the business side more are you seeing that on the residential side more [22:00] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** we're seeing it on both sides so we get a lot of the smoke alarms that are older than 10 years old and they just they just start alarming and people call 911 because that's what we tell them to do when their smoke alarms go off we get there and there's nothing wrong with the alarm other than it's older than 10 years State Fire code says at 10 years they need to be replaced so that's kind of the message that we try to get out there you we try to when we're in people's houses on Medicals try and take a look at them but that's not always the best time to kind of you know explain to somebody about that but we're just trying to to get that info out to everyone in the residential stuff the the commercial buildings we doing um inspections on so [22:42] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** those are a little bit less [22:44] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** yeah I would say you know work with our Communications team to help get that message out so we can get it get it out to our social media platforms and help that education part too because obviously if you're going out to a false alarm and then a actual situation comes up you you can kind of put two and two together to see what's going to happen there so yeah all right thank you [23:05] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** yep [23:06] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I forgot my original question but yeah to to Steve comment I've had two neighbors now who have moved out and then their smoke detectors go off after they've been moved out and I've had to call you guys to go basically get your way in there right we bust down the door you got to get in is what I've been told so um yeah that's helpful information to know but it be nice not to count those against your your Marks here but I [23:28] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** forgot what my original question was so I'll just leave that [23:31] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** so Nick did I hear that correctly that you're personally responsible for two of the F [23:37] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** two of those calls are mine in an in both in empty houses we might need a a council education they were not my house [23:46] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** are you able to go back to the graphic that showed the call times please uh will you take just a second and for those that are watching or will watch um will you explain what the duty crew is [24:02] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** yeah please so our duty crew a duty crew is when we have our paid on call staff actually physically in the station when that happens that truck that they're on is assigned in as a a duty crew in our CAD system so for instance you know a medical or like a [24:14] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** residential fire alarm or a car accident we only send that one that one engine that one unit so then we don't have to page out all the other paid on call staff to come back for that call so essentially a duty crew is a staffed fire station at that time so if you look at the Times the differences generally are the time it takes people to leave their job leave their home whatever they're doing and drive to the fire station and get on the fire truck you're adding you know pretty close to 10 minutes and that's really what it takes to get you know people get a full crew you know to the fire station to get on the truck to drive to the emergency [24:55] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** right I I appreciate you explaining that for uh anyone who's watching or you know we we hear the term Duty corrup often and maybe don't quite understand what that is but I think it's important and [25:02] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** hopefully we can show this graphic um for people to understand that the standard is 9 minutes correct [25:09] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** yes yep [25:10] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** and so we meet the standard with the duty crew right and with on call it is near impossible to meet that standard and specifically for uh life-saving measures for a medical um which can be rendered either with you know sometimes our Police Department or um you know the bus never beats fire police to the scene right um structure fires there are situations where the difference between a catastrophic loss God forbid loss of life something is is strictly predicated [25:47] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** on from the time that call comes through the p app or the 911 center it's catter dispatched out we can make it to the station and then get out when we have people there there we see the facts that we're getting there in half the time when we're meeting the standard um I say that because we have that ongoing recruitment effort and for our residents to understand that there's a lot of ways you can serve your community there's a lot of ways you can contribute and the fire department is a clear example of one that uh not only there's several benefits to serving your community but also you have you have pension right you have other ancillary benefits that come with the sacrifice over the years um but the nuts and bolts of it is you need people to get to the station to [26:34] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** get on the rigs to get to the calls and when we have people we make it to the calls when we don't have enough people the time is delayed and so as part of our ongoing recruitment efforts just an empathetic plea to our community that consider volunteering you know consider participating um at whatever degree you can and yes there's a lot of community outreach and there's some educational benefits but it it it literally comes down to the ability to do the job in the time that we need to do it to avoid the catastrophe and so um I just I hope people see that graphic and and helps maybe steer them more towards at least considering the recruitment efforts um but you you and your team are phenomenal I mean the the sacrifices that you and [27:19] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** your families make all of the the time that you spend training responding to calls community outreach um it is appreci and it does not go unnoticed so thank you very much [27:26] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** thank you [27:28] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** all right uh we will move on to new business item 122 uh which is our liquor store employee uniform payment and Leah this yes [27:46] **City Administrator Leah Miller:** thank you mayor and Council so um some of you may remember at the last meeting council member bernans abstained from approving the payment of claims for this payment of $623 60 for uh Farmington liquor store staff uniforms um her business is a design business that's been in Farmington and she previously had relationships with uh [28:07] **City Administrator Leah Miller:** different Farmington departments before being on the council in order for the city to complete its statutory requirements under the conflict of interest law um we need to uh staff is proposing that we uh approve resolution 20242 um which basically reiterates what council member Bernan said when she abstained from uh the last meeting's vote on the payment of claims and council member berance will also be abstaining tonight and it requires a unanimous vote to approve this resolution um and also any questions are welcome thanks [28:49] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** okay thank you Nick any questions or coms [28:51] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** nothing [28:52] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** holly any questions or comments [28:53] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** no no [28:54] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Katy questions or comments [28:55] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** none [28:56] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Steve [28:57] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** none [28:58] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** I have nothing to add uh we would look for a motion to approve the [29:04] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** motion to approve the attached uh resolution [29:09] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** [Music] member Wilson yes mayor Hoy yes council member Bernat abstain council member lean yes [29:32] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** thank you uh we will move on to agenda item 13 which is our city council Round Table Nick you want to start [29:52] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** now I have absolutely nothing right [29:54] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** holly sure Valentine's Day is coming up and uh you know this is just a reminder that we've got a lot of opportunities and establishments within the city of Farmington to be able to support Farmington whether that's taking your sweetheart or your kid or your best friend out for dinner or hanging out um and doing something fun in the community so uh if this happens to be your um Hallmark holiday of choice uh a great a [30:15] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** great way to support Farmington businesses is by you know keeping it sweet inside Farmington that's all thank you [30:23] **Councilmember Katie Porter:** Katie I got nothing [30:25] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Steve so many of you are going to be at Super Bowl part over the weekend and you might be gathering with friends who don't have a a lot of history with Minnesota Vikings you might be thinking gosh I wonder if the Vikings have ever been to the Super Bowl and the answer is yes they have four times and they've lost all four times so I just want to point that out because there are 30 other teams this year that are going to share the misery that we have to live through on Super Bowl Sunday um I did also want to point out that and I'm sure Gary would certainly appreciate me noting this because I will acknowledge that my family has potentially been guilty of this that with the nice weather it doesn't change [31:02] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** the fact that there is still no off or on street parking until we get to what April 1st 15th somewhere about there okay so I just want to point that out um in case folks are watching um to make sure that your cars are off the street um because at some point we will get a blizzard it may not be until May or June but at some point we will get it so you know I'm just sharing just happy news with you tonight so all I [31:36] **City Administrator Leah Miller:** Leah yeah Bleak council member Wilson but yes um so two uh Supreme Court justices have announced their retirement one is Justice chudi and the other is uh justice G Barry Anderson and actually you can toss your name in the Hat if [31:48] **City Administrator Leah Miller:** you're an attorney so um or if you know anyone who is an attorney who would be a good fit as well um you can just Google Governor Wall's uh Supreme Court vacancies and learn more about that uh really excellent branch of our democracy so thanks [32:10] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** thank you shirley election day for the presidential nomination primary is four weeks from tomorrow if you're unable to make it to the polling site you can vote absentee we currently have services available at City Hall and all County offices that's all [32:30] **Staff Member Julie:** thank you ma'am julie uh city offices will be closed next Monday in observance of President's Day so our next council meeting will be on Tuesday the 20th [32:41] **Public Works Director John Powell:** thank you John thank you mayor and council members uh a couple of items our wall five retaining wall repair is uh advertised for bids right now so we'll be uh opening those bids on February 15th we've also got what we're calling our winter EAB 2024 removal project out for quotes that's just under 300 trees that will be coming out related to our EAB management [33:05] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** thanks sir and if we do have a blizzard in May or June there may be a delayed response because we won't have the blades on the trucks unless we really see it coming [33:10] **Parks & Rec Director Kelly Peterson:** kelly good evening mayor and Council on on the consent agenda tonight you approved a couple donation resolutions so just wanted to point them out Min West Bank uh their $50,000 donation we received this second check for $117,000 so that was what was [33:19] **Parks & Rec Director Kelly Peterson:** approved tonight for the raming River Center outdoor patio so thank you to Neil and Min West bank and then want to thank Minnesota energy resources and Nicole McCarthy for the $5,000 donation to The schmidtz macki Arena to make some gas line reroute and safety improvements there uh since we won't be having our council meeting on February 19th it'll be on that Tuesday wanted to remind uh viewers that the open door food pantry is that day Tuesday February 20th at the ramling River Center from 3: to 4:30 so uh come on out and then uh summer jobs are posted so if you want to work in Recreation programs or in our maintenance team or at the arena uh please hop on to the city's website and apply today thank you [34:10] **Finance Director Kim Sommerland:** Kim um as I mentioned at the last meeting we were going to be starting our annual audit so um about two weeks ago we had three Auditors on site from mmkr and they reviewed various documents and interviewed staff regarding our procedures and that work is still ongoing [34:25] **Fire Chief Justin Elvestad:** thank you Chief we have our first of five recruitment informational meetings tomorrow night at Station 1 at 700 p.m. so anyone anyone slightly interested come down see what it's about anyone who knows anyone who might be interested encourage them to come out and check it out it's pretty informal no high pressure trying to get you on we just want to explain to people what the job is and see if they'll be a good fit for it so thanks [34:50] **Police Chief Gary Rutherford:** Sir Chief I have nothing sir [34:52] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** all right you get to break the rule that's fair uh the only thing I have to add is you know with it being unse seasonably warm uh there are a lot more pedestrians out on our paths and trails and not something we're used to this time of year so that Sun's in a little bit different of a position so our drivers please just be mindful that as you're uh commuting or traversing through the city uh keep your eyes peeled for bikes and Walkers and Runners and joggers and all the things uh because there are far more people out there now and uh the roads still are a little bit slick in the morning it does happen so just be mindful uh with that we look for motion to adjourn [35:32] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** motion [35:33] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** second [35:34] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** motion by Steve second by Holly all in favor say I I I we're adjourned at [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 7:34 [Music]