**[0:02] City Clerk Heather Slechta:** Let's call the Faribault City Council for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 to order. First item on tonight's agenda is the roll call. Council member Barnes? **[0:15] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Here. **[0:16] Council Member Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Here. **[0:17] Council Member Royal Ross:** Here. **[0:18] Council Member John Rowan:** Here. **[0:19] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Here. **[0:20] Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Here. **[0:21] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Mayor Spooner here. **[0:23] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** And followed by 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. [0:45] Number three is presentation and introductions. We have none tonight. Number four is approval of the minutes of March 25th, 2025 city council meeting and April 1st, 2025 special city council meeting closed session. **[1:00] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** So moved. **[1:02] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Second. **[1:03] Council Member John Rowan:** We go back to number two. **[1:05] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Oh, number two. Can we approve the agenda? **[1:08] Council Member Chuck Thiele:** I make a motion to approve the agenda. **[1:10] Council Member John Rowan:** Second. **[1:12] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Moved by a motion by Thiele, seconded by Rowan. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[1:20] Group:** Aye. **[1:21] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All opposed? [1:25] Uh, no presentations, no introductions. Here we go again. Uh, number four, approval of the minutes. I already read it once, so I'm... **[1:32] Council Member Royal Ross:** Moved. **[1:33] Council Member Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second. **[1:35] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Ross, second by Doumbouya. All those in favor of the minutes say aye. **[1:39] Group:** Aye. **[1:40] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All opposed. Motion passes. Uh, no request to be heard. Number six, consent agenda items. **[1:45] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Hold for discussion? **[1:47] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Mayor Spooner. Yep. **[1:48] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** I make a motion to approve consent agenda items 6A through 6N. **[2:01] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Second. **[2:02] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Van Sluis, second by Barnes to approve 6A through 6N. All in favor say aye. **[2:08] Group:** Aye. **[2:09] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Opposed. Motion passed. No public hearings tonight. No items for discussion. We have one bid resolution 2025-096 accepting the bid for the water reclamation facility improvements. Director Travis. **[2:32] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Uh, thank you, Mayor Spooner, members of the council. Resolution 2025-096 is seeking to accept the bid for the water reclamation facility improvements. Uh, bids were received for the project on March 17th, which consists of laundry covers—uh, adding laundry covers to the uh, final clarifiers, digester uh, improvements, and an alternate to uh, replace the primary uh, splitter box. Uh, attempts were made to get multiple bidders uh, for this project. Uh, we did have—we hosted a pre-bid meeting where there were uh, two bidders present, but uh, when bids were received, there was only one of those bidders uh, chose to uh, submit a bid. **[3:18] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Just discussions with the consulting engineer, there's a possibility of just the amount of work and the type of work that's going on out there in the climate right now may have uh, led to that situation. So, the bid that was received was from PCI Roads in St. Michael, Minnesota in the amount of $1,619,000. Uh, that consisted of a base bid of 719,000 and an alternate of $900,000. And you can see on screen there before you that the engineer's estimate was 1,666,000. **[4:00] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Uh, funding for the project is being provided by the sanitary sewer fund with $530,000 budgeted for the base bid portion. Uh, making up kind of some of the difference between that and then going with the alternate that we are going to be recommending tonight. Uh, $175,000 is being provided by a budgeted project that is for roofing that uh, staff feels comfortable with doing some in-house uh, matter things that can extend that life cycle that we can get that a couple more years to uh, you know, take advantage of uh, doing this alternate right now which uh, is—is a little more pressing than—than that roof. **[4:45] Public Works Director Travis Block:** And then uh, $1,027,711 from cash reserves uh, then would be applied then to use—you know, make up for the funding gap that we need for that alternate. So you can see the total funding of—just over 1.7 million uh, with the budget impact for 2025 cost of just slightly over one. This is a screenshot before you that just kind of Administrator Kinser provided me with looking at uh, some of the cash reserves and that we have on hand and kind of some where we're going to be going in future years. **[5:10] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Uh, so you can see on the bottom there that's highlighted in green, the $1.2 million was what was available for cash for these type of improvements. Uh, the $210,291 that you see there being subtracted from that is for the uh, applying the cost for the jet truck that we recently replaced. So leaving the $1,027,711 on a schedule for the project. If we award the contract tonight, we'd be looking at a June start for construction and then looking for final completion of the project sometime in. So with that, I would recommend the approval of resolution 2025-096. **[6:01] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Questions for director? **[6:04] Council Member Royal Ross:** Uh, thank you, Mayor Spooner. Um, Director Block, any chance of us getting another bid or two in your estimation? **[6:14] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Council member Ross, uh, in discussions with the consulting engineer... Not likely. Just there has—I'm understanding there's a large project that the other person, the other contractor that attended our pre-bid, they were awarded which kind of likely led to them just not having the resources kind of being spread out throughout the state. Typically in this work, uh, there's kind of a handful of contractors that do perform wastewater and or water plant stuff. So with those larger projects, um, I'm not sure if that award was before they did that, you know, they attended our pre-bid, but then that's likely in my opinion what has happened. So in looking at getting another bid, it's not likely. **[6:58] Council Member Royal Ross:** Thank you. That's it. **[7:05] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Mayor Spooner, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2025-096. **[7:10] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Second. **[7:12] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Motion by Van Sluis, second by Barnes. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[7:18] Group:** Aye. **[7:19] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** All opposed. Motion is carried. I have one item I would like to read tonight. City council has conducted a one-year 360 performance review of Jessica L. Kinser, City Administrator for the City of Faribault. As part of the evaluation process, the city council and the leadership team evaluated Jessica in several areas of performance which include leadership and supervision. **[7:59] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** The process reached the following conclusions. Jessica L. Kinser's performance has been an average score that is above and exceeding expectations, goals, objectives, and areas of focus that were given to Jessica towards work. As per Jessica's employment agreement with the City of Faribault, by exceeding expectations, she will receive a one-step increase in the wage of grade V step 10 under the non-union compensation plan 2025 and receive 4 days of administrative leave. This will be effective on her anniversary date of employment, April 1st, 2025. Thank you. All right. Uh, are there any boards and commissions announcements? **[8:50] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** I have two actually. Um, so I'm with the Faribault Future class 2025 and we are going to host a fundraiser for "The Nest" which is through the district. The Nest is a program where they refurbish um, you can use clothing to donate um, to school items, hygiene items. It's—it's something that students can utilize in a room in each [building] who are not able to [afford] items. So our goal is $10,000 to give to The Nest. **[9:28] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** It's called "Fluff the Nest" and Faribault Future um, is hosting it. You can reach out to me or donate through the Faribault Foundation. Also, April 10th [and] April 15th, Godfather's and then Basilleo's is uh, hosting a dine-in or order out: Godfather's on the 10th, Basilleo's on the 15th. And then my second announcement is I noticed um, just on an app that comes through through Google, Faribault made the World Atlas 2025 "Most Underrated Towns in Minnesota." It was an article from April 6, 2025 and the author was Will Fleon. So I thought that was something to celebrate. Thank you. **[10:08] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Yes, Peter? **[10:09] Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Um, tonight on the 5:00 news at Channel 5 there was a little um, segment on Faribault Mill. First they said, you know—I'm not sure who saw this, but um—first they said Faribault, you know, the town where good things happen, veterans are recognized and Faribault Mill. And with the trade war going on right now, Faribault Mill, their uh, orders are skyrocketing, and people that normally get their supplies from overseas now try to get them from Faribault Mill. So that was good to hear. **[10:55] City Administrator Jessica Kinser:** Yeah, just a—a few things here. Um, the Viaduct Park survey, if for those of you who have not done it, if you could please do it. Um, Brad sent out a link, uh, and we're hoping to incorporate that into the April 29th retreat. Um, which April 29th retreat, we are right now looking at a 1:00 PM start time. Um, uh, Allison's going to be the one to kind of kick that off, um, with some strategic planning kind of related things. So, we'll talk with her about if—if she needs to move that back based on other stuff she has going on that day. Uh, but that's kind of what we're looking at. **[11:32] City Administrator Jessica Kinser:** And then the big thing to remind everybody of is the Council Chat for tomorrow night. Um, everything you will ever want to know about nuisances, really, in an open house style where we'll have um, Fire and Code Service staff, uh, Planning and Zoning staff, um, Police Department and, uh, Parks and—uh, Parks and Rec. Paul and—and potentially Keith um, to talk about uh, nuisance trees and dead and diseased trees and that special assessment option that we have right now. So 6:00 PM at the 310 Loft and yeah, we'll—we'll hopefully be able to share a lot of information. Thank you. **[12:18] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Uh, our next meeting is a work session. But for Second Gardens proclamation, get together with all the people that have put in pollinator gardens. There's also a ribbon cutting ceremony at Riverbend for their acquisition of land that day. I believe that's also Earth Day. So, very busy day for city council. Anything else? I'll take a motion to adjourn. **[12:50] Council Member Royal Ross:** So moved. **[12:52] Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Second. **[12:53] Mayor Thomas J. Spooner:** Second by Barnes. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[12:57] Group:** Aye.