[0:00] [Music] [Music] [0:48] Mayor Nick Lien: We'll call the city council regular meeting to order from Monday, June 16th, 2025. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? [1:01] All: 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. [1:18] Mayor Nick Lien: Call the role, please. [1:18] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [1:20] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Here. [1:21] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [1:22] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Here. [1:23] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [1:24] Mayor Nick Lien: Here. [1:25] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [1:26] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Here. [1:27] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [1:28] Councilmember Nick Lien: Here. [1:29] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. Any changes to the agenda? No. Amy, Nick, Holly. All right. Seeing no changes, I would seek a motion to approve the agenda. [1:35] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Motion to approve. [1:37] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Second. [1:38] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Jake, second by Holly. All those in favor say I. [1:40] All: I. I. [1:42] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. We'll move on to announcements 5.1 in our employee recognitions. David? [1:47] Assistant City Administrator David Chanski: Mr. Mayor Council, we have the opportunity tonight to recognize two employees and their service to the city of Farmington. Ron Lei has served the city for 24 years as the mechanic and then lead mechanic. Uh during those 24 years, I know there's not a single piece of vehicle that he has not maintained. But with that, I'm going to turn it over to public works superintendent Eric Whitmer, who will say share a little more on Ron. [2:30] Public Works Superintendent Eric Whitmer: Uh, good evening, mayor, council members. Um, I'd like to take a few moments to recognize the 24 years of service that Ron Lei has had with the city of Farmington. Ron has served in the fleet department with Farmington since June of 2001. It is difficult to express the amount of knowledge and experience that he's obtained in that during that period because of personnel changes throughout the throughout his 24 years. Ron was the only mechanic on staff for about two and a half of those years. Uh, one of the things he enjoyed about his time with the city was a variety of equipment he was able to work on. This also brought some of his biggest challenges with keeping the sanitation fleet on the road every day. The task that brought Ron the most enjoyment was updating the police cruisers. Since 2002, he has updated every police cruiser in service. Um, he enjoyed seeing the advancements in technology and reminiscing in a conversation recently um about his about the early police cruises he upfitted, he talked about how they only had lights, sirens, and radios back in 2002. um uh compared to the mobile offices they have become over the years. Uh his dedication and diligence in not only upfitting but maintaining the fleet of police vehicles led Ron to receiving the chief's award of merit back in October of 2024. Ron's professionalism and dedication will be missed. We wish him a happy and long retirement. [3:57] Assistant City Administrator David Chanski: Thank you, sir. [Applause] Ron's last day with the city will be July 3rd. And now the one I think we've all been not looking forward to. Lynn, I've been here the shortest, so I'm going to try to be the shortest because I know that there's others who have things that they would like to say as well. But to you, I want to say thank you. I want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of team Farmington. Working with you the last four month four months has definitely been a privilege and I wish it wasn't ending so soon. You have built something special here. Not many people can truly build a legacy in four years, but you have. I wish you the best and whatever comes next. And I know whomever is lucky enough to have you will love you as much as I we do. And if they don't, you know where we are. So with that, Mr. Mayor, Council, I'm actually going to turn it over to Deanna Kuennen because I know she has some things to say as well. [5:12] Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen: Thank you, David. Thank you, fair Mayor and Council for giving me this opportunity. Over the last month, when I learned of Lynn's departure, I have shared personally with Lynn privately how much she means to me and how amazing I think she is as a leader. All of that still stands. Everything I've said, Lynn, still stands. But today or tonight, I get to publicly share how incredible of a person she is with everybody. So, I came across a post by Brooke Williams and he is an author and a city manager and his words are a true reflection of Lynn. And I did have to write this all down. I can't just speak from my heart because I would be in tears tonight. But what he said was, "Professionalism isn't weakness." And Lynn is the utmost professional in all circumstances. He said, "Civility isn't silence. She absolutely is not afraid to speak up and to support her team in all situations." And he said, "Leadership isn't proven by who you tear down. It's measured by what we can build together." And if you look around over the last years, look what Lynn has built. Even in times that haven't when people have been trying to tear us all down. So with grace and grit, you have made us all feel seen and heard and you have empowered us to be the best people that we can be here for this organization. So for that, I thank you. And having a good boss truly is life-changing, which is some words I've shared with you previously. And so congratulations to our woman of the year on whatever is next for you. You would truly be missed and you have truly touched many lives. So, thank you, Lynn. [7:09] City Administrator Lynn Gorski: Thank you, guys. [Applause] Thank you. Can I say a few words? [7:23] Mayor Nick Lien: Absolutely. [7:25] City Administrator Lynn Gorski: And I'm going to hold it together here. Um, mayor, council members, team Farmington, and members of the Farmington community, as I prepare for my final day as city administrator, I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible journey over the last four years. Serving the city of Farmington has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life. We have been through a remarkable period of change and growth together. That in just a short amount of time we have built a strong foundation brick by brick. We've been steadily building forward upward ever since. That momentum we've created through strategic initiatives and strengthened partnerships. We have brought us closer to that top floor of excellence and accomplishments. None of this project progress would have been possible without each one of you. To city council, thank you for your unwavering support and your bold vision, strength, and your trust in me to help guide this organization. To team Farmington, you are the heartbeat of the city. Each and every one of you. Where would we be without your commitment, your resilience, your professionalism, and your service above self. Thank you for placing your trust and confidence in me. Thank you for consistently raising the bar, for continuing to show up and share Farmington's story while making a difference. I also want to extend many thanks and incredible people I've had the privilege to work with alongside in the Farmington community through the Farmington School District, Dakota County Chamber, the county Rotary, the Farmington Community Foundation, and so many others who have played a role in making this city stronger, more connected, and full of promise. Thank you for the memories, the support, and the opportunities to serve the city of Farmington. Thank you all. [Applause] [10:05] City Attorney: Amy, I get to go first. Keep it easy on the cameras, so we just move. Okay. Um next, David, I've been here the shortest amount of time. So, um when I started working here with you all in December, um, Lynn swung right into action to make me a part of the team, to give me the information and all of the the background that I needed to um, to step into Leah's shoes and do the best that I can to help all of you and to give the to give the best legal advice that I can about any number of topics. Um, so I am grateful for that. I'm sorry that our time working together has been so short. Um, and I said that when I I think I said something to the effect of when I started here that, you know, taking over for Leah is filling big shoes. And it's not just because she's a foot taller than I am. Um, but I think whoever is the next city administrator for Farmington um will have big shoes to fill because I've been I've been in city municipal law for a long long time and you are definitely a giant in this field. Um, and it's not just because of your professionalism, but it is because of that. Um, but it's also because you have a giant heart and a giant sense of integrity and you bring that to everyone that you that you bring into the city. So, I'm grateful for what you've built here and for the chance that I have to continue to work with everybody. So, thank you, and I do wish you all the best wherever you are. [11:28] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Thank you, Nick. Uh, I didn't write mine down, so this is probably going to be a disaster, but um it's a meandering story, but I'll get there. I promise. Uh like I think it was last weekend or two weekends ago, I my son had a uh lacrosse tournament up in Maple Grove and they won the pool and they were supposed to play for the championship and um through some kind of less than honest means they were denied the opportunity to play for it and you know the whole team was crushed and my son was asking me the whole way home you know why they do that what happened to it why you know this isn't fair um I didn't know what to say to him or anything like that and I you know I spent a long time trying to figure out what to say to him. I never really came up with anything, but I was looking up like quotes or things like I could say to him that would would maybe do something for him. And I came across one and knowing what day was coming, it kind of stuck with me as you, right? And it was said, "Fair play creates a legacy that outlives medals." Um, that describes you to me. Um, a legacy built on values like respect, honesty, and good sportsmanship. I read that and I said, "Well, it's Lynn." That's all I could say. And so, regardless of what other achievements come out or whatever we find out down the road, nobody would ever deny that you played honest, you played fair, and you were transparent in everything you did. I can't say I thank you enough for that. Um, I'm going to miss the hell out of you, but I'm so excited for what you got next. Thank you. [13:22] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: I wrote this all down and it's not going to help. And I'm really getting sick and tired of crying in front of everybody here. Um, so we need to pause on anybody else leaving Farmington for a little bit now. Um, like I sat at a blank page for a long time because I didn't have words for what you mean to the city of Farmington and what you mean to me personally. Um, everyone talks about your leadership. It is steady. It's thoughtful. It's rooted in love for the community, but it's rooted in love for people. I can't tell you how many conversations I had where people said, "I came for Lynn and then I fell in love with Farmington. I'm working here because of Lynn. And then I I found the people that I also connected with." And and that that doesn't happen every day. That doesn't happen every place. Um and so it's special. It's so special when it does. And it's special to be connected by to it, even if it's by proxy, right? Um yeah, we've had challenges, but you're always calm, you're confident. Um you celebrate wins with humility. Um, you make room for laughing and kindness and connection always, like always, always. And on a personal level, I just really value the friendship that we've developed in the last four years, three technically because you were here before me, but um, you're just you're the kind of person that makes me want to be better every single day at what I do in every way that I do it because I see you doing it. And and I appreciate that. And yeah, it's you leaving is going to it's going to leave a hole, but it's not a hole that we're supposed to fill. It's a hole that's supposed to be recognized and then another person is going to come up and that person will be the right fit, but it won't be Lynn because it can't be. Um, I've also joked that I've gone through all five stages of grief with this. I think I've been sitting in denial for a while because I argued up to the point of getting here that we shouldn't have to do it tonight and then I found out that it's a fifth Monday and so therefore we aren't meeting and we have to do it tonight. So whether it's denial or bargaining or you name it. Um the other feeling I have is joy and that is just for what you get to do next. Whatever that looks like, you deserve the next chapter. Everybody does. Um, so no, it's not, you know, conversations on a day-to-day or, uh, the late night email that I write that you hopefully don't check until morning. Um, but, uh, your impact, it's going to carry forward. It's not just policy. It's not just progress, but it's in the people that are here because you came first and they decided to come with you. Um, and so I'm just very proud and grateful that I've gotten to serve with you and just want to say thanks. Thank you. [16:22] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Um, first I would just like to thank Ron Lei for his over two decades of uh work on behalf of the community of Farmington. I think it was an incredibly impressive stat that he's touched almost every if not every piece of equipment in Farmington's fleet, but also upfitted all of the police uh cruisers since 2002. And you really don't see that long of a career in one place anymore. So, I think that's incredibly impressive and should be recognized. I did write down my thoughts tonight because I learned my lessons from previous meetings and I don't want to meander. Um, but I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to Lynn Gorski for her service to the city of Farmington. When Lynn stepped into this role of city administrator, you had big shoes to fill. Following a long-serving and well-respected predecessor, but from day one, you showed that you were not only up to the task, but you were the right leader for that time. This time, she brought her own strengths to the role, guided by a steady hand, a clear vision, and deep commitment to our community. Lynn operates with integrity and compassion in everything she does. Those of us who have the opportunity to work closely with her know just how thoughtful, fair, and principled she is. Lynn has always led with her whole heart, putting the needs of Farmington first and never shying away from the hard decisions when they needed to be made. On a personal note, I'm incredibly thankful to have gotten known Lynn over the last few years. I've enjoyed our time we spent together on the Rotary Club. Um, and I've planning holiday parades and the like. and I have truly cherished our working relationship over the last 6 months. Your professionalism perspective and genuine care for others have made a lasting impression on me personally. Farmington is better off today because of your leadership. Your legacy will be felt in the progress we've made, the challenges we've navigated, and the culture of trust and respect you helped to foster. Thank you, Lynn, for everything you've given to this city. We are deeply grateful for your service. And I promise to uphold my end and bring Oliver to your office one more time before you leave Farmington. [18:37] Mayor Nick Lien: Everybody heard it. Thank you. Should I bring my kids to see him? Sure. 22 and—well, no, one's in California, so I can't I can't really do that. I too want to uh acknowledge Ron Lei's service to the city of Farmington. As Jake noted, um you know, I don't know what the average tenure in the city is. I'm sure somebody knows that, but it is certainly a lower number than 24 years. Um, and I think we've seen over time so many people continue to serve in the city, uh, whether it's a mechanic, park and wreck, what have you. And I have no doubt that Ron continued to serve us, um, due to you being here, Lynn. Um, which leads into my comments about Lynn. Um, so again, thank you, Ron, for your for your dedicated service to our community. I think one of the one of the really neat things I have heard about Lynn in talking with so many different employees over the past couple years is it wasn't just the amazing team that you see right there that she essentially brought in um in totality. It's all the what you might call rank and file employees—which we certainly don't look at any employee as a rank and file employee. It's going to be all the folks that you don't see um that benefit the taxpayers. It's going to be the folks that do the roads. It's going to be the folks that plow the streets. It's going to be the folks that fix the trails or patch the roads or the men and women who come out um at any time of night and day, our police and all of our first responders. And you know, Lynn, honestly, that's one of the greatest tributes is um when everybody across the organization has such deep respect and gratitude towards everything you've done. Um I remember when David, who was sitting back there, first brought you in. Um I don't recall the exact words, David, but you were extremely excited to bring Lynn in. And I think you knew um the potential she had for the city of Farmington. And uh you're certainly right about that. Um I didn't make a ton of notes, Lynn. Um but I will say, you know, you look at this team in front of you, and I think with the exception of Kelly, who you came in a little bit before, you built this team, and I think as some of my peers pointed out, um that legacy, we sure hope and pray continues well beyond your departure here. And that's the greatest gift. Um these employees and everybody else that has come into the city is the greatest gift that you will leave. Um when you leave your service with us, um I don't know how you pulled it off, but it seemed like your finest hours were in the most challenging times over the past four years, and we've had a few of them. um your courage, your ability to um you know navigate the tough decisions um and to remain true to team Farmington and that's that's really become a motto. I mean everybody says team Farmington and it's who we are as a as a culture as a people. Um I see individuals from our boards and commissions here and they feel the same way. It extends to all of us and there's so much pride in being associated with the city. So, I just want to thank you. Um, you're an incredible leader. You'll you will leave a a lasting legacy and I wish you nothing but the best um for you and your family. [22:26] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Shirley, they say it starts at the top and I truly believe it because you have created an environment that is so wonderful. Everybody cares about each other. They pitch in when times get tough and I appreciate all your advice and support and I hope you have a wonderful new adventure. [22:52] Mayor Nick Lien: David, anything more to add? [22:54] Assistant City Administrator David Chanski: Thank you guys. John? [22:57] Public Works Director / City Engineer John Powell: Thank you. Council members um what we look for in leaders is honesty, openness to new ideas. Um an even keel because, you know, things can go from uh very serious to okay, I guess it wasn't so serious to oh well, that's something that happens on a regular basis. And you need someone who can understand and put things into context. uh when they come up uh and Lynn could certainly do that. Also um you know public works wouldn't be able to evolve as we have without Lynn support and there's been a lot of change. I mentioned last u in my update that 40% of the public works staff was new in 2024. We couldn't have accomplished that and be doing what we're doing without Lynn's strong support. And the other thing uh that I look for in a leader uh which is very much appreciated is um just listening and caring about people. Uh in amongst all the public works and activities that we do, all the technical stuff and whatnot, the underlying foundation was caring about people and that came through every day in dealing with Lynn. And I really appreciate it and and public works appreciates your support. [24:21] Parks and Recreation Director: Okay, Lynn, I feel the luckiest because I got the longest time with you. It was way too short, but I I truly am the luckiest. Um, you are a very inspiring leader. I've learned a lot from you. Uh, the way you've you've treated people from left to right, up to down, um, in talking to staff, my team, and talking about what we want the next city administrator, people on my team who I would have never guessed what they would have said. They said, "We want Lynn." Those were their exact words. "We want Lynn." So, we had to get more specific into what we like about Lynn. Because I don't I said, "I don't think that's possible. We like Lynn. We want to keep her but you're honest. You're fair. You showed up for parks and recreation. You hauled stuff up the VFW steps up and down for steak uh fries. You came through the secret holiday shop. Um you've you've done the holiday lighter parade. you show you you showed up for all of our events and um you lead with grace and you were always you always had time. I know that people are probably inside and outside your door waiting for you, but you always had time. So, thank you so much. Um we're going to miss you. Um I wish you the best and you know where to find us and please when you're in town, stop by. [25:42] Finance Director Kim Sommerland: I don't know if I can look at you completely because otherwise I'm gonna get emotional, but and I don't know that I can say everything that I think about you tonight, but um I am truly grateful for your outstanding leadership. Um I was one of those people that Holly alluded to that I wasn't necessarily looking actively looking for a new job, but I applied for the position and wasn't until I came to interview that I was like, I want this job. I want to work with Lynn. And you didn't disappoint. Um, you have guided with fairness, with compassion, with integrity, and the effort and the countless hours that you have dedicated to better the city of Farmington have greatly impacted a number of people. And I, you know, it's truly been an honor and privilege to work alongside with you. And I'm happy for the new adventure that awaits for you. and I wish you only the best, but you will genuinely be missed. [26:45] Fire Chief Matthew Price: Took two of my words away. Uh, I just want to say thank you for your leadership, your mentorship, your guidance. um when I took over this role about a year ago was kind of swimming a little bit in the in the very beginning and we had a good couple meetings inside your office and and got really good direction from that. Um, so it has been an honor and a privilege uh to sit in this position and serve underneath you and uh the support that you give the fire department and everything that you've done for us has been hands down phenomenal and uh I speak on behalf of all the firefighters. Thank you and uh wish you the best. [27:38] Police Chief Nate Siem: Thank you. Um I I'm not going to lie. When you first told me that you were leaving, it was the day after I was officially appointed uh to my position. I waited. I uh I felt uh like I was being robbed of uh the exceptional leader that you are. And I think I told you that that day. Um, but in in my time as deputy chief and now in the short time that I've had as chief and in reflection, uh, I realize that I may not benefit of your presence here, but I will benefit of what you have built here um, with these other department heads that support me every single day uh, with anything that I ask for. They're always there to help lift me up and uh, that's because of you. And I will—the police department will, this city will—benefit from that for um a long time. Thank you for that. [28:33] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. So, um bear with me because it's a little long-winded. Um over the last four years, there's been a lot and we've been through a lot. Early part of '24, um, the Minnesota County Managers Association, uh, puts a an award out, the Dr. Robert A. Barrett Award for Management Excellence. And I'm going to read the nomination letter that I wrote when you were nominated for a very distinguished award. Now, mind you, this was written a little over a year, almost a year and a half ago. Um but it very much sings true today with who you are as a person and um especially who you are as an administrator and a leader. "Obtaining the position as city administrator manager is an arduous process and the pinnacle of achievement for professionals seeking executive leadership in local government. To be considered an elite professional, one whose municipal organization operates at the highest level of efficiency and performance. This leader must be distinguishable from his or her peers. And I submitted the nomination of Lynn Gorski for your consideration based on her ability to achieve this recognition amongst her peers in the two short years since her appointment to city administrator of Farmington. As mayor, I worked with our prior city administrator and city council to create the position of assistant administrator in early 2021. Our operational needs of a growing community of 24,000 were in a position that placed exorbitant demands on our leadership team, specifically our city administrator. One of many applicants was Lynn Gorski, a human resources director at the city of Owatonna with over nine years of tenure in her role. She was also serving her home community of Lakeville as an elected schoolboard member at ISD 194. Amongst a group of highly tenured, accomplished and experienced professionals, Lynn Gorski was predominantly selected based on her character and values. Most notably, her passion and dedication for the overall personnel and professional development of our team, her enthusiasm for collaboration, and her high personal standards for excellence. Lynn's first operational initiative was to commence a development review process. Our goal was to identify our weaknesses, our strengths, our areas of opportunity, and the associated policies, procedures, and standards that were inhibiting our residential and commercial development. Lynn's high emotional intelligence helped her understand that this initiative was as technical as it was emotional. We were not effective in our development relationships, and Lynn embraced the process with zealousness. Over months after months of honest and intentional conversations with developers, builders, investors, contractors, professionals, residents, and our team, Lynn brought recommendations to the council for adoption. She had established new framework and processes that would pivot our internal controls to better align with the expectations of all stakeholders. Eight short months later, our city administrator pursued a promotional role, and our council was in the unenviable position of replacing a critical leadership role in what was arguably the least desirable era in recent memory for public administration. On the heels of COVID, civil unrest, social discourse, and political divide, our public organization needed a new leader. Our deliberation was to solicit a nationwide search or promote within. Lynn had been with us for eight months and had just received her Master of Public Administration from Hamline University two months earlier. Lynn had demonstrated every trait and characteristic of a highly effective servant leader and had quickly built trust amongst our team at the city of Farmington. During our council work sessions and through extensive deliberation, each member of our senior leadership team expressed their overwhelming support of Lynn, most specifically because she was an amazing human being. First, we received feedback from our team on how Lynn had met them individually, shown genuine care for their concerns, their development, and who they are as people. Lynn had started a culture transformation within the city of Farmington in the most intentional and authentic way, meeting people where they are. In March of '22, Lynn Gorski was appointed the city administrator of Farmington. Now, it's imperative to provide the context of how Lynn became our administrator, as it is about her work since then. In her first 15 months following her appointment, Lynn worked with our council to select a new senior leadership team. Those positions included assistant city administrator and HR director, public works director, and city engineer, community development director, city clerk, finance director, and the onboarding of two newly elected city council members. Lynn has provided leadership at the highest level to our organization, challenging us to be bold and the best version of ourselves. Her mentorship extends beyond our city's senior leadership. It influences our newest team members and is embraced by many of our local businesses and nonprofits. Lynn is the definition of a servant leader and is always serving others with intentionality. She embraces the challenges of a growing community with complex dynamics, empowers others to become personally vested in our growth, and has raised the personal standard we hold of ourselves. Her vision for our team, our community, and our level of operational excellence is limitless. Additionally, and most notably, Lynn instills a level of personal leadership accountability throughout our ranks. She has gained admiration amongst her colleagues and peers across Dakota County, the League of Minnesota Cities, the Minnesota County Managers Association, and the state of Minnesota. Lynn served as the director of public relations for the Farmington Rotary, the Minnesota Healthcare Consortium Board of Directors, the Farmington Community Foundation Board of Directors, the Southeast Service Cooperative Board of Directors, and as a small business owner. Lynn provides mentorship through active participation and as a guest speaker for the Farmington Lions Club, the Farmington Business Networking Group, the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Independent School District 192 Community Education. Lynn's nomination of this award for management excellence is as much about her leadership, mentorship, and tutelage as it is about her short tenure as an administrator. Lynn's tremendous personal and professional growth is a result of her values and her moral compass. Lynn leads with her heart and her unwavering commitment to others. Lynn walks the path less traveled and I firmly believe that she is one of the most amazing people I will ever meet. Her impact on our team and our community and on others is nothing short of profound. I have an immense admiration for Lynn and who she is as a human." I knew when you were appointed, you were almost too good for us. You were bound to go on to bigger and better things. And whether we had you for six months or six years, we had to be grateful for the time that we had. You came in at a time when the city needed you most, when our organization needed you the most. And I've said this loosely that if the city of Farmington was a publicly traded organization and we went through the leadership change in 15 months as a publicly traded company, most of them would lose significant value. And yet we continue to grow, propel forward, and eventually embark on our unexpectedly bold campaign. You've left a mark on a lot of people. Some of those people don't even know who you are. Some of those residents, those business owners wouldn't recognize you. They might not have never met you. But you've had an impact on them. And I choose to believe that is overwhelmingly positive than it is negative. And I'll share one last thing. When you first told me, I looked at you and I said, "I'm happy for you." And you don't owe anybody an explanation. You don't owe the public an explanation as to why or where you're going. You don't owe us an explanation. That is for you and you only. It is your choice. You have served this community in the highest possible way with the most amount of dignity and respect contrary to what some people will want to say. On behalf of a grateful community in the short four years that we've had you, thank you for everything that you have done. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. And whomever happens to get you next, I hope they know the gem that you are and how important and impactful you will be in that organization or that group. So, thank you. Thank you. [37:28] City Administrator Lynn Gorski: Thank you all for your kind comments and I will never forget you and all of our great things that we did together. So, thank you again. [37:42] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you ma'am. Our next item on the agenda is our citizen comments. Anyone wishing to speak at this time, feel free to come up to the podium. To remember that citizen comments is a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda. Those speaking should state their name and address and limit their comments to five minutes. The council will not engage in discussion, but any item that requires a response will be responded to by the next city council meeting. Feel free to go. [38:12] Mary Garletz: Good evening everyone. My name is Mary Garletz. I'm the chairperson of the Rambling River Center board and with me are also members of the board. We have Pat Hannon, Rachel Edwards, and Judy Jankei. Several months back, Rambling River started a journey. We were awarded a grant to make some renovations to our current existing building. And of course, we were very excited about that. And as it was examined—okay, so what what's needed most? What what do we need here and everything? And it's an old building and so it did need a lot of things. So the funds were examined of what we were granted and it was found that about one-third of what was really needed the funds would cover. So it was proposed—okay well maybe let's do this in three phases then. So that could be phase one and then we'll have a phase two and a phase three. And after much discussion and examination, they said, "Boy, you know, that's going to be so much interruptions all the time and everything. Can we just do it all in one phase?" So the proposal was put forth to the city council and it was approved. And so October 31st of last year, we were vacated completely from the building so renovations could begin. So for the last seven and a half months, we have been operating out of fire station number one. Thanks to the gracious goodness of the fire department and the firemen and uh you know we made it work and all the city staff had been so supportive of us. if we needed something, you know, they were there. And I know I know Kelly probably has spent—I'd hate to guess how many hundreds of hours she has spent—keeping everything on this project going and organized and few bumps in the road of course, but but you know what? This week we are moving into our new building. So, we just want to thank everyone for all of your support throughout this process. And if anyone wants to make sure you drive by the front of the building and take a look at it, you won't recognize it. And I thought from the pictures at the very beginning that it was going to be great, but three of us this morning had a private tour and it is amazing and awesome. And we thank each and every one of the people that have helped and especially you mayor and the council people for getting it started. Thank you. [41:20] Rambling River Center Board Member: Yes. I was absolutely amazed when I walked in that front door. What you have all done for the seniors and this city, the community, we're just so grateful. We're so grateful to all of you. Thank you. [41:39] Rambling River Center Board Member: The seniors, excuse me, the seniors that I have come up against—and I moved into Trinity a few weeks ago—they all can't wait till they can come down there and join and work out and do all that because they've driven by and seen the windows and all that. And they're looking very forward to coming to the senior center and we're happy to have them. Thank you. Thank you. [42:24] Jeff Schatler: My name is Jeff Schatler. I live at 22420 Calico Court, Farmington. Said that more times than I'd ever thought I would in a public place. Don't belong up here. Um, big night. Lot of emotion. Got a lot of residents here. Most of these are Farmington residents since we question that Farmington residents don't care about this. We need a little emotion and support and care too. Been asking for over a year to do something. If it can happen or not, the courts will decide that. Is it safe? Uncomfortable. Josh, you keep saying uncomfortable. It's more than uncomfortable. It's unsafe. We've looked all around the country at the other examples that are 250 ft away from homes. It's more than uncomfortable. It's unsafe. These are moms and dads, sons and daughters, husbands and wives that are your residents that are asking for your help to make a difference. Been asking you guys for 6 months. Reach out. Even if you can't say there's a new number, there's something different. Say, "We're working on it. We're going to make it better than what it is." That's what we're asking for. You've had a year to come up with something. It doesn't make any sense to any of us. How do we have any faith in you guys in any of the leadership when we're asking for help meeting after meeting, email after email, message after message? Um, you're doing this to make the town better and provide things for the town. We're doing this to make it better and keep it safe for our families. How long are we going to have this argument and this fight and this battle? Do you think it ends the second the courts decide? I mean, do you not think there's a whole another battle the second these lights come on 24/7? Cuz you haven't said that during construction. There's not going to be lights at my house 24/7. Highway 42 is a long ways away from meta. My house is about a quarter closer that distance. You think that's not an issue when those lights are blaring in my windows? Nick, you bring up your kid at every meeting. You stood on my deck and you talked about your kid. You're doing this for your kid. You're doing this—you support this decision for your kid. That's personal because you're taking from my kid her residential quality of life to hopefully give something better to your kid. You shouldn't even said those things out loud. If that's how you think—you're doing it for every kid, not just yours, right? I mean, that's what I would hope to hear from you, that you're doing this to make it better for every kid, not just yours. That was a mistake to say out loud and to put in every email that you sent to the rest of the council. Um, you know there's impact and you know there's ways to lessen this impact, but you guys ain't doing that. You're not doing that. You're not even saying we're working on it. Nobody's reached out and said, "Hey, we got a plan." We've reached out to them. You haven't even said, "Hey, you know what? We all came together. We talked and we're going to try and get you guys some help. We went and talked to this good neighbor developer." You haven't even said that. There's people that are coming here for over a year asking for something to change. You know the difference in heavy automotive, light automotive. You know the difference in a house, a townhouse, an apartment, but we don't know the difference of where a data center or 12 of them belong. It's insane. You just shut that three planning meetings ago. He shut down that auto body place from going out by JTN Communications cuz it doesn't fit in their zoning. It's an industrial park over there. But yet the heaviest industrial business that's ever come to Farmington belongs that close to homes. We have to have some common sense and some compassion for your residents. You got 40 people, 30 people, they're all Farmington residents. They're not all just from my neighborhood. They're from different sections of Farmington, too. Each one of us represents three to five people. I represent 45 years of paying taxes in Farmington between my wife and myself. Been paying taxes for 45 years here. We've had 22 years consecutive home ownership in Farmington. It has to mean something. The homeowners that are leaving, they're Folders—a good friend of mine. He cried when he moved out. I cried a little bit. That's a neighbor leaving forever. That's a man that watched my kids. That's a lady that watched my daughter and I did for them. Where's their compassion? Where's our compassion? When is it our turn? Um to rob Peter, to pay Paul, don't make it right. To take from me, to give somebody else, don't make it right. At least show us that you're working and you're going to do something and you're going to work with us. You've had a ton of suggestions, but all of them seem dumb because it's not coming from you guys. So then come up with something. Come up with your own awesome plan. Go back to the table. Get them to go back to the table and offer something. Or it doesn't matter what the courts say now. You're going to have continued lawsuits. Once impact, residential impact starts. That's when a whole bunch of other people start with this because now there's truly something to base a lawsuit off. I would think that you've been advised or taught or told about some of this and and the other examples across the country where you're 250 ft away from homes, the impact of lawsuit and the things that have happened. Unless that's part of your plan. You're like, "Hey, we're going to make so much money we'll just dole money out to all of them forever." Is that the plan? Is that the legacy? That's the story you want to leave behind. It's what you want to be remembered as. We're people. We live here. People are bringing their kids here, their wives here. Do something for your residents that are here asking for the help. Everybody in town wants better parks, free school lunches, awesome senior centers, but they don't want to pay it from their own backs, their own yards, their own skin. Find a way to do it where it works, where you're not pushing residents out of homes they live in. We didn't choose to move into an industrial park. We didn't choose to move in to next of the heaviest industrial thing that's ever come into Farmington—might be Dakota County. This is three times bigger than Meta. And look where you're putting it. Did any of you drive past Meta? I asked you guys to drive by there at night in the dark and look at it. Did any of you—can we even get a nod either way? Did any of you go by Meta at night and look at it? Not even— [48:58] Mayor Nick Lien: Jeff, your time's expired. [48:59] Jeff Schatler: Can I get a nod? Yes or no? Did anybody look at it? Is that okay in your backyard for five years, Nick? Is it okay in your yard for 5 years for your kid? It ain't for mine. [Applause] [49:05] Gina Treble: Hi, council. Um, first of all, I want to thank you for your service. I'm really nervous. I'm not a public speaker, but I would like to thank you for everything you do for Farmington. And Lynn, you sound like an amazing person, but anyway, um I was at my son's house yesterday and we brought up the subject of the data center. And of course, I'm nervous as heck here, but he said, "Mom, just go up there and tell them how you feel." So, um I have to admit, I haven't been to a lot of these meetings. Um my name is Gina Treble and I live at 22402 Calico Court. So I am directly affected by this data center and um I you know I feel like we're sort of collateral damage in this whole thing and what I would ask for is maybe to maybe check setbacks a little bit farther or um you know just try to do something for us and we feel like we're not being heard and that's my biggest thing is maybe try to work with us. I don't want it to be us versus them and that's what I feel like this is. I'd like to feel like we are valued and and our opinions do matter. So that's where I stand. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] [50:42] Caleb Salonic: I'm Caleb Salonic. I live at 22421 Calico Court in Farmington. Uh my wife and I have been uh residents in Farmington since 2017. Uh since 2021, we've lived in our home in Executive Estates. Um my front door is a couple hundred feet from the property line of the golf course. Um we were drawn to this property. Uh we had plans on starting a family. Uh we saw how quiet it was and all the kids running around and and how awesome it was. Um you know, this this is all going to change when the rezoning happened of the Fountain Valley Golf Course and anticipation of this data center. Um, I'm here tonight to show support uh for my neighbors who have been here uh throughout all these city council meetings. They've been speaking up um when the rest of us have kind of been um hiding in the weeds. Um so, thank you to those people who have been speaking up and and fighting for us uh to try to help our neighborhood uh as well as uh the Castle Rock Township. So, thank you for that. Um to the city council at this point, I just ask you guys to to help mitigate this impact on us residents. Uh we need more space. 250 ft from a bedroom window is not enough space. It's it's a 700 megawatts of power in a 50ft tall building. 250 ft from a bedroom window. Please please give us more space. Protect our our health, our way of life, and our property values. Please just give us more space. Thank you. Thank you. [52:32] Jonathan Nyigan: My name is Jonathan Nyigan. I live at 22403 Calico Court. I bought a house with a view of the 13th hole of Fountain Valley Golf Course. I would prefer to not have a 40ft building out the front of my window. I find it immoral to plant an industrial zone in a residential area. I feel like residential should build up to industrial. You know what you're getting. You know what you're buying or building in that area. But I'm not even asking to not have this park. I'm asking for 500 ft. 250 is not enough. Please give us 500 ft. Lynn, you've obviously been very good to people. I'm asking you today, be good to my community, my taxpaying neighbors and friends of this community. 500 feet please or more please. Thank you. [53:49] Kevin Endorf: Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you for your time tonight. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. Uh my name is Kevin Endorf. I live at 613 12th Street, which is over in East Farmington, which is right off of 50 and 3. So, I'm here in support of my friends and neighbors that live in the near vicinity of that project. Also, I'm mostly asking that you give them the opportunity or give them the space that they ask and work with the developers in the project to make sure that both parties will be successful because we don't want to have people that are unhappy that are going to live there the rest of their lives like they expected to be when they moved in. Because when I moved here 13 years ago, one of the gentlemen here tonight was my next neighbor and he's like one of my best friends and he actually bought a house that's off one of the holes in that neighborhood. So he's directly and greatly impacted and his daughter and my daughter have grown up together and they're both 13 years old. So I say just please make sure you guys are very open and don't go one-sided and you keep an open mind to make this the best available thing and the best opportunity both the families and the uh businesses of Farmington. Thank you. Thank you. [54:55] Brian Treble: I'll keep this short. My name is Brian Treble. I live at 22402 Calico Court. I would like to just let you know a little bit about my myself. Um I'm married. I have two kids, four grandkids. I'm 65 years old. Retired Union Fire Sprinkler Fitter, Twin Cities Local 417. I was born here in Farmington 1959. in their hospital that's not there no more. I have worked construction for 45 plus years. In 2015, my wife and I bought this lot and had a custom home built thinking it would be our last. 2017, I retired. So, it really hurt when our mayor came out to our neighborhood early on in this and with the questions we were asking, he got defensive and said, "If you don't like it, you can always move." Which really hurts. No, it's not that easy. I'd pay twice as much to have the same house built somewhere else to match the interest rates and the loss of uh equity because of what's going on going to take place in my backyard. I just wish that you guys had a little bit of compassion for your residents and treat your residents as team Farmington also. Thanks. Thank you. [56:50] Nate Ryan: Anyone else wishing to speak? Uh, Council Mayor, Nate Ryan, Cambrian Way. So, I I just um couple things. So, the the first thing is—I've talked about this being a zoning issue from day one, and this still is a zoning issue. Uh I asked at the last time that we all got together and spoke, mostly me speaking, you listening-ish, but I asked for you your to define what an industrial uh industrial was. I've got zero emails. I've got nothing from the city attorney. I've got nothing from the anyone at the city defining exactly what industrial is to you all and how or what you based your decision on to put a full industrial project into a mixed-use commercial industrial zone. What defines industrial? I'm going to ask you that again. This is the second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, I don't know how many times now, but what is that? Define it. You're going to have to define it in front of a judge. You're going to have to say, um, you're going to have to say, "Hey, what h—what is industrial? Why did you why did you do this?" And if you can't define it to me or anyone else in a public space and you have to wait until you get subpoenaed in front of a judge to do so, what the heck? What are you doing? How could you possibly do this? It should be cut and dry. It should be black and white. This is an industrial project. This isn't an industrial project. This is mixed-use commercial industrial. Later this later tonight, you're going to be talking about um uh rezoning or or not rezoning but um water issues right in an industrial park. You talked about—she talks about willing sellers all the time, right? Oh, we Deanna, we have to find willing sellers. Well, you found a willing seller of a golf course piece of property, but you didn't have willing zoning. They've come to one meeting. That seller has come to one meeting. You didn't even get up and speak about how his property should be zoned. Track did it. Track came up here. They didn't even own the land. They have a developer agreement. They have some type of an agreement with the seller to come and represent their interest. And this—this is okay with you? This—this past the sniff test the sniff right? It's frustrating that we have to keep coming back. I'm thankful that all these neighbors are here. I'm thankful that all these people are here. This is what we talk about when we hang out and sit around fires or hang out in someone's garage. Takes a lot of courage to stand up here on this side of the podium. Takes a lot of courage to be where you are. I understand that guys—come on! This is an industrial project and you're going to wait for a judge to tell you that before you back down. You're going to say, "Oh, we had to do this. We had to—we had to say yes." Like the Met Council did. B is in B. S is an S. You didn't have to. You didn't have—you said no to a auto repair going next to empty buildings and bothering people who are working out. But you're saying yes to a 750 megawatt project next to homes where people sleep. And you're saying, "Well, don't worry. You're going to make—just open a restaurant so that way you can you can have a bunch of people who are going to be here for 5 years. You're going to make a ton of money. So instead of worrying about your house, just go open a restaurant. Feed those people, you know, every other week or every two weeks and they get paid on a Friday to come eat at your restaurant and that'll make things better." And I also want to remind you that the second that people moved up next to a a train track, y'all decided and thought it was okay to then put in an electric charging station down there so the trains didn't have to run and disturb the neighbors who are more than 250 ft away from the dang train tracks. You did that. Those are your decisions. Holly, do you live close over there? Do you live by there? Did your—did were you bothered by the trains that help? Were you—was like, "Well, okay. Well, let's, you know, let's help out my other residents. We're going to be bothered. We're going to have blight. We're going to have noise. We're going to have dust. We're going to have all those things from this project. An industrial project." It's frustrating that we're allotted to the—to the second five minutes. You all took 34 minutes and I'm—Lynn's great. It's fantastic. You took 34 minutes of your resident's time to gush over Lynn service of four years. We've—we've been here for 20 years. My wife and I are going to celebrate 21 years of marriage this year. We've been here for 20 years. We get five minutes of your time. We get five minutes for you to come speak with us. 21 years. Sorry. We get five minutes. Sure. We can request time with you. We can sit down and have coffee if you're willing to meet with us. If you're not too busy, give an employee who's been here for four years 30-some minutes to recognize her career, which is great. She's great. She's—she's awesome. Perfect. You give us five minutes to get a point across. You give the developer. How much time did you give the developer? How many times did you meet with them, Josh? How many times did you meet with them? Lynn, how many times did you meet with them? Was a little more than five minutes. My guess is a lot more than five minutes. More time. You're—you're—you're so just bent on revenue and you're getting another data center. You're getting a data center. You're so bent on revenue, you just seek it. You just chase it like a little dog chasing its tail. Revenue. Revenue. Oh, let's go find it. Let's go find tax revenue at the expense of us. But the second that somebody who moved up against the train tracks and goes, "Oh my god, train's loud. It makes noise when it stops and runs all night." We had to fight with the city when the people came in and they wanted to park their trucks and leave them turned on 24 hours. You had a fight. He's not here. We had to fight with Tony about it. We won. We got them to turn off their trucks and now we have to fight with you about this. Y'all seem like you just like rather than doing the next right thing, you're like, "Well, let's just see if they'll sue us." Well, this could—this is questionable. This is gray. Let's just see if they'll sue us. Let's see if they'll actually do it. Why do you do that? What? What's your deal? [1:03:38] Mayor Nick Lien: And your time is expired, Nate. [1:03:40] Nate Ryan: Yeah, I know. I know, Josh. My time's expired. It's always expired. It's always—just don't get—don't get—we don't want to hear you talk anymore. Just—over. I really thought when we talked out in the parking lot out there that you like—you actually meant what you said. [1:04:00] Mayor Nick Lien: Your time's expired. [1:04:01] Nate Ryan: And all you were is BS. And all you are is BS. [1:04:11] Mayor Nick Lien: There is decorum here. [1:04:14] Nate Ryan: You're pathetic. [1:04:15] Mayor Nick Lien: And we'll maintain it. [1:04:17] Nate Ryan: You're pathetic. [1:04:19] Mayor Nick Lien: You're done, Nate. [1:04:20] Nate Ryan: I'm not leaving because you asked me to. [1:04:21] Mayor Nick Lien: Your time is— [1:04:22] Nate Ryan: —because I respect all these people who still have something else to say. [Applause] [1:04:23] Casey Nelson: Hi, I'm Casey Nelson. I'm on 224th Street West, uh, just about five houses in from the golf course. I really did not expect to say anything tonight. This is not something that I normally do. Um, I brought my four young kids here. Um, they're just in our little tiny little block alone. My son on the way here counted 40 children that he could just name off the top of his head that live in our neighborhood. We don't know the effects, the long-term effects of something like this. Our kids are going to grow up next to this, sleep, go to school next to it. These are the—our future. And as I saw something, you know, it's how we treat our children in our lives is a measure of our humanity. I'm asking you to have some humanity. We just moved to this town a couple of years ago. We were so excited from the city. So excited to have the space, the quiet. It was—it's so beautiful. We enjoy our neighbors so much. Um I just really am asking you to have some humanity and think about the future of Farmington, which is our kids. So, thank you. Thank you. [1:05:54] Taylor Heman: My name is Taylor Heman. I live at 1025 Westview Drive. Um, my first few comments are directed towards the community members that I am grateful to share this space with today, both here and virtually. Um, this October marks 18 years since my grandparents and I moved across the street from Dakota Electric. But I have been involved in the community since I was in diapers. I still remember singing made-up songs with my grandpa on her way to Joyce's. My daycare lady who lived on Aiken when it was still dirt. I was 12 when my grandparents bought a house here in 2007. Choosing Farmington for the small town vibes that carried the promise of growth. As I have myself grown, I've watched business after business be smothered by predatory city practices while homeowners property taxes continue to rise. I attended FHS as a 10th grader the year the new building opened and it has faced cut after cut while surrounding communities invest in their kids. I know I don't need to remind folks here that we have been without an accessible grocery store for over 5 years now. There's no public transit or otherwise improved road systems despite exponential growth of housing developments that have decimated our namesake farmland. Now, we're finally seeing the small business growth that we've been promised, and our city council wants to strip it from us by putting—excuse me—an industrial-sized, hyperscale data center in residents backyards in the most literal sense with complete disregard for its effect on constituents, surrounding businesses, and the environments as a whole. Report after report is coming out about the light, noise, air, and water pollution that these data centers create, as well as about the gluttonous use of water they require to cool the servers inside of them. This one data center will more will more than double the city's water consumption. And there are 10 proposed between here and Hampton and Faribault and Northfield and other surrounding small communities. And they are all going to be drawing water from the same sources or nearby. Residents have had to ration our water use for the last 20 years. So tell me, how is there enough to suddenly double the city's use? What happens when the data center gets claimed to the little little water we have left when we inevitably face another drought? Will we be without running water like the folks in Virginia? Our water treatment centers are unequipped to handle neither the volume nor the temperature of the waste water this center will bring. Our energy grid will be overwhelmed and residents will be left picking up the bill. Deep tax cuts will harm our community even further. Even our state Congress, despite recent rulings, has considered this specific project foolish. And what's it all for? A few dozen jobs that could be created in any other number of ways. Meanwhile, residents who have expressed concern have been met with spying, spite, and otherwise vindictive behavior that I might expect from my middle school students, not fully grown elected officials. The Bellezer dealership already keeps my bedroom fully lit at night, and it's four miles away from my house. I live on the edge of town, and I can't see the stars anymore. Something like this will destroy the quality of life of every person in this room. Fully at the whims of people who are supposed to be our representatives. Now, council, I would like to address you directly. I understand that y'all are of the "if they don't like it, they can leave" mindset per Mayor Lien. The problem with that is that many, if not all of the residents in this room—at least most of them—have lived here longer than y'all have been sitting on your proverbial thrones and will be here long after you. In a 2020 Sun article, Mr. Lien is quoted as saying it's important to put personal goals and ambitions aside for the betterment of the residents and at the end of the day he works for the residents. On Facebook, he calls himself a servant leader, whatever that means. Why is it then that all I've ever seen from this council and especially in regards to such a huge and major life-changing problem is belittling, bullying, and self-service. This domain belongs to all of the residents of Farmington, not only you and the ones you deem worthy. We all deserve a safe place to live without having to move, without being forced from our homes. We all deserve to hear birds sing and see stars shine. We all deserve bread and roses. So now I ask you, what side of history are you going to choose to be on? Because it will not remember your transgressions fondly. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] [1:11:03] Resident: Uh hello council. Um I'm from uh 30 54 to 24th, Executive Estates. Um very nervous to speak. Uh thank you everybody for speaking. This was very amazing, very thoughtful. I'm just kind of winging it here tonight. Uh so I come from a construction background. Um I've personally uh benefited from working on data centers myself. I've done three projects. However, I'd like to point out a key difference between what we are planning to do here in Farmington and what I've done. Every single one of those places was built in a designated industrial zone away from residential buildings and therefore it's more suited for that type of use. I'm with all of my neighbors in saying that while in the short term this project would bring lots of jobs to construction people such as myself, I think it is utterly inappropriate to place in industrial zoning next to residential buildings and uh I would strongly urge the council to please reconsider your actions. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] [1:12:28] Cameron Duncan: Hello, council. My name is Cameron Duncan. I live at 22296 Cambrian Way. Um, I've been present at a lot of these meetings and have chosen not to speak in the past, but thought tonight it was time to show support. Um, I think where I'm most puzzled by all of this is I know non-disclosure agreements have their places in many things, but when I was looking up Virginia is kind of a hot place for data centers where they had 31 proposals with only 25 of them having NDAs. So why did the six not—is not a question for you guys, but just a question for me. But then I looked further into what non-disclosure agreements are and why they're here and and used. And some of the verbiage was if a business is going to move from one area to another, it's to not have the business know that they're moving. But then the other part of it was also if there's any like bidding basically for trying to get tax breaks or tax cuts. And I'm just hoping that at the end of this, if there is any way once the non-disclosure agreement is kind of over and done with, project is started, if we as residents will find out why NDAs were used, but also how they made it very non-transparent to all of us. Um, I did want to say being in Executive Estates and all of my neighbors here behind me, it's a really, really good community. Oh, it's easy for me to get choked up and that's why I don't speak. But no, I just wanted to say that I'm here to support Jeff a lot and a lot of what he said and just that um this is going to be really really hard on my neighborhood if this comes with less than 250 foot setbacks or if it's somehow pushed forward to be closer than that. Um it's just I think totally unbearable for my friend and his family and I would hope that we can somehow get agreement on further setbacks and just—that's all I'd like to say. Thank you. [1:14:46] Resident: Good evening. Tonight I'm not—I'm just providing some facts. We discovered some facts through public data requests and documents the city has released. I would also like to read a portion of a letter I received from the city's outside attorney. If that's okay. I know you are aware of the complaints that we filed with the city. One that involved emails from an opposition group that were discovered in internal city communications. Initially, we were aware of 30 instances where these emails—emails of residents—were shared within the city without their knowledge. With the most recent data release, that number has increased to 70 separate emails distributed internally. Some of the subject lines and comments on these city emails included "FYI," "Insider info," "More info for you," "Latest on the attorney," "I have 911 with the data center group and need advice." Responses included: "Call me." "Thank you." "Looks like it was a busy weekend." "Thanks for all the emails." These emails were also forward—several emails were also forwarded to the city attorney at the time. This came directly from the data. Now, I'd like to read a portion of the letter I received. My purpose is to inform the residents and answer and answer the questions of where the complaints currently stand. I wish I had time to read the whole thing, but due to the five-minute limit, I can only share portions. It's about City of Farmington's responses to your certain statements. Data issues—I'm just going to skip because it's very long. "Data issues related to complaints against city employees. The city cannot disclose private data to the public or state any opinions to the public about such private data. Two, following the investigation, the city determined the complaints were unsubstantiated. This means that the complaints were not supported by or proven by the evidence. Three, all data you provide the city, such as data and emails, are presumed public with certain exceptions." And I'm skipping Minnesota statutes. "When the city receives data directly or through external sources, it reviews and considers how it may be used by employees in exercising their duties and responsibilities for the city, which may include disclosures to other individuals working with the city internally or externally. This facilitates the city performing services and functions effectively and completely. The city is not aware of any unlawful breach of any public data on you or that the city has any such legally classified private data on you." It goes on: "Public complaints about city employees. Um the city provides a public comment section during its city council meeting that you have stated comments at. Uh it goes on: accordingly, the city may deem any further statements you make at a city council meeting as out of order as they are not protected and the city is providing you with other sufficient means to communicate private data on employees as you may communicate such to the city administrator. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the city administrator." I have provided um I've provided no opinions tonight. I'm just sharing public data that anybody can obtain and everybody has a right to and I shared part of my letter. This leaves us with some final questions that in my opinion we should all be asking ourselves as a community. What kind of a city culture do we want for Farmington? What kind of a city culture are we willing or not willing to stand behind? And finally, what message is the city currently sending to its residents? That's all I have tonight. Thank you for listening. Thank you. [Applause] [1:18:39] Resident Nick: Hey, good evening. My name is Nick. I live at 395 224th Street. I was woefully—I am woefully unprepared and was not intending to speak. Wasn't even sure if I was going to make it, but in solidarity with my neighbors and my larger community here, I feel I have to. I spoke once many months ago. But all I want to say is I always want to believe in people's better angels. The angels being you guys. However, you have proven yourselves to be false each and every time. Lynn, I don't know anything about you, but the glowing words—maybe you should be in charge. And I don't know whose job it is to bring business into this community, but I read that 2040 plan and I read the amendments to the 2040 plan, all 900 almost thousand pages of it on our website. And instead of sticking with the plan that so many people that have come years and decades before you to plan the dignified structured growth of this city, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater and hoping to—to fix—to fix a mouse hole with a tube of dynamite and it's kind of gross. And your actions and your behaviors and your language in public do not meet what you say in private, which is also gross. That's all I have to say. Thank you. [1:20:55] Terry Pearson: My name is Terry Pearson, 2475 225th Street West. And I want to leave you with—when this is all said and done, I probably won't be here. I might be very well dead, but Farmington will have to answer to this—future residents, these children, and all the other children. Thank you. Thank you. [1:21:24] Mayor Nick Lien: Anyone else wishing to speak? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Seek a motion to approve the consent agenda. [1:21:34] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Motion. [1:21:36] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Second. [1:21:38] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Steve, second by Jake. All in favor say I. [1:21:42] All: I. [1:22:09] Mayor Nick Lien: All right, one quick second here. The next item on our agenda is a public hearing for resolution 2025 tax 047 vacating certain drainage and utility easements within the Farmington Industrial Park third edition. Like to go ahead and open the public hearing at this time. Okay, Tony? [1:22:24] Tony (Planning Staff): Thank you, Mayor Council. Uh before you this evening is a resolution vacating certain range and utilities easements within the industrial park third edition. Um Rayar Land Corporation or RNL Carriers is the applicant. Um and they are the ones requesting those vacations. Uh RNL Carrier is proposing about 72,000 square foot uh building expansion at their facility located at 5260 208th Street West. In order to accommodate the expansion, several parcels, those being lots one and two of block one as well as outlots A and B within that third edition uh plat uh must be replatted into a single buildable lot. Uh the replatting and billing expansion necessitates the need for the vacation of existing easements as some of the uh storm water utility uh ponding within the site will be uh relocated on site uh as well as uh the expansion itself uh just requires uh new easements to be put in place. Uh later this evening you will be reviewing the fourth edition uh plat uh which is that replat that I uh referenced before uh and new easements will be dedicated uh with that plat per state statute. Uh the city council must conduct a public hearing regarding the proposed vacation uh after publish and posted notice of the vacation. Uh this is just an example of uh what is being proposed to be vacated. Uh the hatched areas are the easements uh within the third edition that are being proposed to be vacated this evening. Therefore, the action as requested this evening after any public comment is taken, close the public hearing regarding the vacation of easements and adopt resolution 2025 tax 047 vacating certain drain and utility easements within the Farmington Industrial Park, third edition. [1:24:34] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you, sir. Steve, any questions for Tony? [1:24:37] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, not at the moment. [1:24:41] Mayor Nick Lien: Jake? [1:24:42] Councilmember Jake Cordes: No. I do not. [1:24:43] Mayor Nick Lien: Nick, right? I don't have any questions for you, Tony. Uh, is the applicant here or has a representative here if there's anything that they want to say? Not obligated to, but it's a public hearing. [1:24:56] Mike Grant (Kimley Horn): So, thank you, Mayor Council. Mike Grant with Kimley Horn representing the applicant. Just standing for any questions. [1:25:05] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you, sir. Steve, any questions? [1:25:15] Councilmember Steve Wilson: No, I guess the—this was really—I know the answer to it, but I just want to put it out there. So Tony, I know state law because a—a question came up earlier from a resident or a comment pertaining to drainage and utility and you know, obviously we see that with kind of neighborhood ponds, what have you, but the same kinds of statutory provisions apply to commercial industrial properties with those requirements as well. Correct? [1:25:38] Tony (Planning Staff): Correct. [1:25:39] Councilmember Steve Wilson: All right. Thank you. [1:25:40] Mayor Nick Lien: Jake. Any questions for the applicant? [1:25:41] Councilmember Jake Cordes: No. [1:25:42] Mayor Nick Lien: Holly? [1:25:43] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: I don't have any questions. I'm just kind of excited to see an update. I know it's been a little bit quiet for a bit, so happy for you guys being able to break ground here. [1:25:59] Mayor Nick Lien: Yeah, I don't have any questions for the applicant. I appreciate it. Uh, it is a public hearing. So, if there's anyone in attendance that wish to make a comment on the application, feel free to do so at this time. [1:26:15] Nate Ryan: Nate Ryan. Um, you all know where I live. So, what I'd like to say is I think that there's no—there's no one here opposing this because it's in the right spot. It's an industrial—it's an industrial deal. It's—it's fantastic. It's growth of the city. You're getting more revenue from RNL carriers. Their taxes are going to go up. So, this is—it's an industrial—it's an industrial project happening in an industrial space. I applaud the city for doing this. It's fantastic. This is great. It's wonderful. You're caring about drainage and pervious surface. These are wonderful things to talk about. This is how it should be done. It should—should be like this. You don't have anyone here to really come up and talk. Me coming up here and saying good job, that's—that's what should happen. It's—it's pretty impressive, you guys. It's—it's actually good. So, um Steve's question to Tony is kind of interesting. Are there, you know, there's—there standards? Yes. But they're—they're different for an industrial area versus for a residential area. And they're vastly different. The building codes are different. The standards are different. Everything is different around there from an industrial project to a residential project. And they're different because they are different. They're different between—in your definition in your city code—the building standards are different between mixed-use commercial industrial and industrial. So if you answer your question just a simple yes and you're like "oh yeah sure it's fine" but—but you guys this is—this is what should happen. This is how it should work. No controversy. It's amazing. Great job. Proud of you guys. [1:27:54] Mayor Nick Lien: Anyone else in attendance wishing to speak? All right, seeing none, then I will close the public hearing at this time. Any additional comments or deliberation? Steve, Jake, Nick? All right, I'd seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tax 047 vacating certain drainage and utility easements within the Farmington Industrial Park third edition plat. [1:28:16] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: So moved. [1:28:17] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Second. [1:28:18] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Holly, second by Jake. Call the role, please. [1:28:20] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [1:28:21] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:28:22] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [1:28:23] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [1:28:24] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [1:28:25] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [1:28:26] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [1:28:27] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:28:28] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [1:28:29] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [1:28:33] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. Moving on to item 101 which is resolution 2025 TAC 043 approving the final plat Farmington Industrial Park fourth edition. Tony? [1:28:49] Tony (Planning Staff): Thank you. Uh RNL Carriers again is requesting the final plat review of the uh fourth fourth edition of the Farmington Industrial Park. Uh as I previously mentioned, the property's address at 526 208 Street West. Um just some site review. Uh the property owners are RNL Investments LLC out of Wilmington, Ohio. Uh the general areas uh location is the southeast intersection of Pilot Knob Road and 208th Street West. areas bounded by industrial uses to the east and south. Uh vacant industrial land to the north and pilot knob road to the west. Uh existing zoning and comprehensive plan guidance zoned industrial and mixed use commercial industrial and industrial in the 2040 comprehensive plan. Current land use uh consists of four lots as I'd mentioned the two outlots and the two buildable lots that have been acquired. Uh the existing uh truck terminal is located on one of those lots. uh currently and contains the following uh 76,230 truck terminal building uh 10,029 maintenance garage, 216 fuel building, and then the associated parking and storm water facilities. I do want to mention that a CUP was approved by the plan commission last year in August uh for the the use itself. This is a copy of the final plat that is being proposed. Uh this again takes those two uh platted lots along with those outlots and combines them into one buildable lot which you see located here um with the um numerous easements that are throughout the the plat. Um uh the plat is adjacent to County Road uh 31 or Pilot Knob Road and being that it is adjacent, it is subject to the county's contiguous plat ordinance. Uh the Dakota County Plat Commission met and reviewed this plat in May of uh this year. Plat Commission recommended approval contingent upon the plat being revised to show restricted access along all of Pilot Knob. um when it was originally platted back in 2006, I believe, uh there was a small portion towards the southern end of the site uh that uh was not restricted access. Um and being that the applicant isn't looking to add additional accesses to the site, the county is requesting that they basically restrict all access along Pilot Knob. A quitclaim deed will have to be provided to Dakota County uh for this restricted access at the time of the recording of the plat mylars. And then there is one other uh minor amendment uh that we are requiring uh as a condition of approval of this plat and that a signature block be added for the plan commission chair on the instrument of dedication. Uh that just got missed by their engineering. So, as far as I just wanted to give the council an update on the the site plan. Uh, this was uh reviewed at the planning commission um earlier this month. Um, and it only typically goes through planning commission, but I felt it was necessary to give you an update with this final plat. Uh the expansion, as I mentioned before, consists of a 72,217 terminal building expansion. Uh this includes 108 uh bay doors added to uh the facility. Uh the expansion is on the south end of the existing building. Uh this will require the relocation of the storm water facility that currently is located kind of towards the center of the site to the northwest corner of the uh overall site. Uh there will be a 3,178 ft addition to the maintenance building and additional parking area to the west of the existing terminal building will be uh included with the expansion area. Uh the expansion area will match similar to the existing building as far as height and facade materials things like that. So it will fit in very nice there. Uh this is the site plan. Uh basically the uh darker area is the area that will be essentially improved. Uh the building goes to the south and to the west the expansion area uh with the ponding in the northwest corner uh and then the additional uh parking towards the north end as well as some additional truck parking along the southern uh boundary of the site as well. Uh the plan commission reviewed the final plat at its June 10th regular meeting. The commission voted 3-0 to recommend approval of this final plat. Uh therefore the action that's requested this evening is adopt resolution 2025 TAC 043 approving and authorizing signing of final plat Farmington Industrial Park fourth edition contingent upon the following. One, a development contract between the applicant 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. Two, the final plat must be amended to add a signature block to the instrument of dedication for the chair of the planning commission. And three, the final plat must be amended to show the restricted access along the entirety of Pilot Knob Road as required by Dakota County. [1:34:20] Mayor Nick Lien: Any questions? Thank you, sir. Nick, any questions? [1:34:24] Councilmember Nick Lien: I kind of just have one. I don't know if necessarily it's a question for you, but we talked a while back about kind of the nature of the expansion and how you didn't actually expect the number of trucks to increase, right, on a daily basis. It was more about distributing the destination. [1:34:39] Tony (Planning Staff): Correct. For each one, right? So, there wouldn't be much consideration need to be given to the intersection of 208th and Pilot Knob, right? As whether you need signal change or anything like that, right? [1:34:49] Tony (Planning Staff): Correct. Um the applicant has indicated that at max it will probably add between 12 to 15 trucks. Really the expansion is uh being done to provide efficiencies within the the facility itself from a loading and unloading and stacking of material. Um that's really what's driving the expansion. [1:35:10] Councilmember Nick Lien: Thought I recalled that from our first discussion. So I just wanted to make clear on that. That's all I got. [1:35:17] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, nope. I have nothing actually. [1:35:22] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Great. My only question was regarding the volume of traffic. So, thank you Nick for asking that. [1:35:39] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, I was going to also ask about the volume of traffic, but I also wanted to take a moment to um thank the developer, the business owner for continuing to invest in our community. Um I actually was here um approving that for the first time. So, it's awesome to see the expansion and their continued dedication to the city and want to thank you for working with staff to help get this through. So, appreciate it. [1:35:56] Mayor Nick Lien: Yeah, I don't have any questions as it pertains to the application and just uh reiterate Steve's comment, it's great to see businesses continue to invest in the community. Um, eager to see the project get going and be done before we know it. So, thank you. Uh with that I would seek a motion to approve and adopt resolution 2025 tax 043 uh approving authorizing signing of the final plat Farmington Industrial Park fourth edition contingent on the three aforementioned um contingencies. [1:36:25] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Motion. [1:36:26] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Second. [1:36:27] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Jake, second by Steve. Call the role, please. [1:36:29] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [1:36:30] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [1:36:31] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [1:36:32] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [1:36:33] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [1:36:34] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:36:35] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [1:36:36] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [1:36:37] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [1:36:38] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:36:41] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. Next item is 102. Uh resolutions 2025 tag 044 and 2025 tag 045 approving the final plats for Vativa South Creek fourth and fifth editions. Tony? [1:36:58] Tony (Planning Staff): Thank you. Yes. Uh mayor, council members, before you this evening are the final plats for the fourth and fifth editions of Vativa at South Creek. Uh CC Vativa again is requesting the review of the those final plats. Uh the subject development is located south of County Road 50 and to the southwest of the Vermillion River Crossings development with Eaton Avenue on the east side and uh the future pilot knob extension on the west side of the uh development. Uh the fourth edition final plat consists of platting of outlot A Vativa at South Creek third edition outlot C and H of the first edition and part of track B of the registered land survey number 66. Uh the final plat contains the remaining 54 single family lots along with right-of-way for Pilot Knob Road and Spruce Street. The property is zoned R2 low-medium density residential and is part of approved planned unit development. Plat contains 17.15 acres and has a net density of 3.9 dwelling units per acre. Lot sizes vary uh in this addition from 5,367 ft up to 21,693 ft. and the average lot area is 8,600 square ft. The plat does contain one outlot and that's labeled outlot A which will be used for storm water ponding. Uh and this outlot will be deeded as to the city to the city as part of the development contract. Uh this is the final plat showing the general layout. Again this is the uh one of the final additions to uh Vativa. Um so uh as you can see it extends Pilot Knob south, spruce street over to Eclipse and then uh there is a uh cul-de-sac that extends uh to the southern end of the development. Uh fourth edition final platting—as far as transportation is concerned—uh 216th Street West and 217 street west will both be extended west and will connect to Ellsworth Way. uh Ellsworth Way uh then cul-de-sacs towards the southern end of the development as previously mentioned. Eclipse Street will be extended to the north from 216th Street West to Spruce Street. Uh Eclipse Street, Ellsworth Way, 216th and 217th Street will be platted with the 60ft right-of-way and constructed to a width of 34.92 ft. Pilot Knob Road will be extended south from County Road 50 to provide a secondary access for this development uh that was negotiated as part of the uh original development contract uh when this was approved a handful of years ago. Uh this will require the relocation and replacement of stoplights at the intersection of uh County Road 50. Uh and then Spruce Street will be constructed from Pilot Knob Road to Eclipse Street with this development as well. As far as sidewalks and trails are concerned, uh 5 foot wide sidewalks will be provided on the north side of 217th, south side of 216th, east side of Ellsworth Way, east side of Eclipse Street, and north side of Screw Street, and then also a 10-ft wide trail uh will be provided on the east side of Pilot Knob Road as well. Now for the fifth edition, uh this consists of the platting of outlot B Vativa at South Creek third edition into 16 town home lots uh which are four uh town home buildings and it also uh creates two remnant lots. The property is zoned R3 medium density residential as part of a approved planning unit development. Uh town homes are permitted use. Plat contains 2.23 acres and has a net density of 7.17 dwelling units per acre. The two remnant lots, which are labeled lots 9 block one and lot 9 block two uh consists of two common areas around the town homes and will be owned by the uh homeowners association. Uh the driveways for the town home units will be located within these remnant lots as well. Uh this is the fifth edition. Um so between the fifth and fourth edition this like I said completes the Vativa subdivision out. For transportation for the fifth edition the plat will be split east to west uh by Eert Way which will connect 216th with 217th Street West. Right-of-way for Eert Way is a 60-foot width uh and a road-way constructed at 34.92 feet in width. Sidewalks and trails. A five foot wide sidewalk will be provided on the west side of Eert Way. Uh the sidewalk will connect into existing sidewalks within 216th and 217th streets. Uh plan commission reviewed both of these plats at its June regular meeting. Uh the commission voted 3-0 to recommend approval of uh both final plats. The action that is requested this evening uh by separate motion approve the following actions. The first adopt resolution 2025 tax 044 approving and authorizing signing of final plat for Vativa South Creek fourth edition contingent upon the following. One, the satisfaction of all engineering comments related to the construction plans for grading utilities and streets. Two, a development contract between the applicant 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 is to adopt resolution 2025 tax 045 approving and authorizing signing of final plat fifth edition contingent upon the following. One, satisfaction of all engineering comments related to construction plans for grading and utilities and streets. And two, the development contract between the applicant and city of Farmington shall be executed and security fees cost shall be paid. Submission of all other documents required under the development contract shall be required. [1:43:13] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you, sir. Steve, any questions? [1:43:15] Councilmember Steve Wilson: I always have questions. Sorry. Um, actually, I feel like it's more of a comment. Um, I really appreciate this developer for the diligence. I mean, I'm trying to think of when we started this mayor and, you know, it was a kind of a different kind of project and we had to work through a few things with our planning commission, but you know, obviously very successful and, you know, I think we're really appreciative of of getting to this point. I guess the one question I would ask with the town home portion—is that going to still be marketed as an active adult community or is it going to be kind of open to to anyone? Yeah, I mean I don't need to know the answer, but it's more I'm kind of curious about it. [1:44:03] Tony (Planning Staff): It will. [1:44:05] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Okay, cool. That's all. [1:44:07] Mayor Nick Lien: Jake? [1:44:08] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Uh no question specific to the platting itself, more about the work uh on Pilot Knob and Highway 50. I know Tony, you had mentioned um replacing and relocating the lights. Um and I think after watching the planning commission meeting, it's because those are aging. Um, so it only makes sense. Do you know a rough date or time when that work is going to happen? I only ask because that's a very heavily used intersection. I think we should offer ample warning to anybody who might use that. [1:44:37] Tony (Planning Staff): Well, I I do know that the the applicant is looking to start construction on there yet this year. Um, I know John has been in contact with the county regarding uh timing of the and construction of the lights. Um I don't know if you have an update on as far as timing of that. [1:44:54] Public Works Director / City Engineer John Powell: Mayor and council members uh we initiated design of the traffic signal replacement when the project came in for final approvals. Uh has been contracted to complete that design which is being paid for by the developer based on an agreement from years ago. And we don't have a date yet that uh we would have that under construction, but the city will have ample warning because we're essentially managing that project. Uh the county will be paying based on legs. Uh it'll be a city-county partnership, but we're leading that project so we'll have ample warning. [1:45:30] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Thank you both. [1:45:31] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Hi. Uh I actually I only have one question and it actually has to do with Spruce Street. So the way that I'm understanding it, the construction of Spruce is going to push toward Pilot Knob, but we are still going to be left with a gap between basically what's the west side of the Rye Apartments and then where it begins again coming in. Um my presumption is that as we're looking at this, those two access points into Vativa as it's completely developed are enough for emergency vehicles and everything else that we need. There's not a reason for us to rush to connect Spruce except just the convenience of connecting it. [1:46:12] Tony (Planning Staff): Correct. With the addition of Pilot Knob that uh gets us the necessary u secondary access that we that we want. [1:46:17] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: And with that in mind is—is the plan eventually—the plan eventually is to connect those two but only as development continues west of Rye? [1:46:25] Tony (Planning Staff): Correct. [1:46:25] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Okay. That was really all that I had. [1:46:28] Mayor Nick Lien: Yeah. Uh, well, first off, I kind of want to say I appreciate the willingness of the developer to bear the cost of that signal redesign. I know that's a kind of a fun topic we've dealt with in the past with other intersections. So, thanks for taking a little bit of that strain off of us. Um I'm curious about if if you can elaborate a little bit on like why Pilot Knob goes in that kind of S-looking shape into the thing. Is that just reserved for future expansion? Is that always just going to go down assumed to be one lane through there or do you have any thoughts? [1:47:04] Tony (Planning Staff): Because they they it swings in large part because they only own what they own, right? Um and being that won't technically be a county road until it probably extends south to the future county 70. Um they don't necessarily have to build it to full county standards, if you will. Um but really it swings that way due to the property that the African owns and it better align with where um with property to to the south essentially. [1:47:33] Mayor Nick Lien: Sure. I guess in the long term once it goes to 70—is there any replatting that's required to maintain that easement basically straight south? Will it eventually straighten back out or is it always going to have an accident? [1:47:48] Tony (Planning Staff): It will likely always have some sort of S to it, but as property develops um on the west side and south, there will likely be additional right-of-way that would be um acquired uh through the planning process when those develop. [1:47:59] Mayor Nick Lien: I just we can't assume that that would like ever just stay a two-lane road going down to 70, right? If that ever punched through to 70, you have to imagine that would be a high traffic area to be maintained as it in perpetuity, right? Do major thoroughfares like that, you'd almost expect that to be the highest traffic area. So, um, and I guess that's my only real concern is having a jog kind of somewhat close to the stop light thing. Not that it's real close, but just looking at it as a first glance, but thank you for the background information. [1:48:47] Tony (Planning Staff): And the county has looked at that and they are fine with the layout. [1:48:51] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you. Just add a little bit more context to that too. It was 2019 that the county um had identified 70/74 into um Ash as a east-west like future planning 20-year plan. Right. And it's my understanding that as Vativa finishes here in the fourth and fifth that any movement to the south is going to um—that's going to start the kicker for the setbacks and the bridge to cross the river which require additional property acquisition, right-of-way, more county lining, etc. Um through that process they will likely have to acquire additional right-of-way to the west from the landowner. Um and then also too with Spruce Street um that we had we had some conversations in there obviously with the county shop being there, private property to the east of Vativa until that works its way out and and you get naturally occurring development then the alignment of spruce would be through—but knowing what we know was why with the Rye we did the intersection change to—just it doesn't look complete right now, but it as natural development occurs, it'll start to fill in and provide the two points of access because we I remember when we initially talked about Vativa and uh it's not Duchine. What's the—Eaton. So the Eaton and Duchine entrances to 50. Um it was primary like we didn't have a secondary access and that was a major sticking point for the development. As Peterson's north 80 and north of Vitativa develops out and that entire area kind of take shape. It's only assumed that you could see either um right-in right-out on Eaton and Duchain or you could see more control come in and the county will definitely have their engineering team involved to make sure that there's continuity and safety more than anything. So, uh it's good to see the fourth and fifth finally come forward. I know there's a little bit of a hiccup there, but um be good to see that continue to build out over the next year and a half, two years into completion though. Uh, with that I would seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tag 044 approving and authorizing the signing of final plat at South Creek fourth edition contingent on the um two aforementioned. [1:51:24] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Motion to approve. [1:51:25] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Second. [1:51:26] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Steve, second by Holly. Call the role, please. [1:51:28] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [1:51:29] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [1:51:30] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [1:51:31] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:51:32] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [1:51:33] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [1:51:34] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [1:51:35] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:51:36] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [1:51:37] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [1:51:38] Mayor Nick Lien: I'd seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tag 045 approving and authorizing the signing of final plat Vativa at South Creek fifth edition uh subject to the two contingencies as presented. [1:51:45] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Motion to approve. [1:51:47] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Second. [1:51:48] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Jake, second by Steve. Call the role, please. [1:51:50] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [1:51:51] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [1:51:52] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [1:51:53] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [1:51:54] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [1:51:55] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [1:51:56] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [1:51:57] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [1:51:58] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [1:51:59] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [1:52:00] Mayor Nick Lien: And 103 resolution 2025 tag 046 and ordinance 2025 tag 003 approving the final plat in final planned unit development Dakota Meadows preserve first edition. Tony, thank you. [1:52:16] Tony (Planning Staff): Yes, before you this evening is the uh first edition final plat from Dakota Meadows Preserve uh subdivision. Uh the development is generally located towards the southeastern section of Denmark Avenue and 220th Street West and south of Dakota Electric and west of the fairgrounds. Uh Dakota Meadow Preserve first edition final plat consists of 42 single family lots. Uh the 42 single family lots are part of the overall 134 uh single family lots that were approved as part of the preliminary plat for this overall development. Uh the first edition final plat corresponds with preliminary plat that was approved by the plan commission on April 8th of this year and city council on April 21st of this year. The minimum lot area proposed uh within this uh first edition is 4,261 square ft with the average lot area being 5,392 square ft with a minimum lot width of 40 feet. The setbacks that are proposed: front yard setback of 20 feet. Uh they are proposing 25 feet uh on the sidewalk side. um rear yard setback of six feet, sideyard five, and side corner or sideyard corner of 15 ft. The final plat does contain four outlots. Uh those are labeled A through D. Outlot A is combination of storm water ponding and wetland. Outlot B, combination of future development, storm water, ponding and open space. Outlot C, open space or trail corridor. And outlot D is a combination of storm water ponding and wetland. Outlots A and D will need to be deeded with the city with this final plat. Uh this is the a copy of the plat uh showing the uh proposed lots. Uh the 42 lots are on the very uh western side of the site uh with future development being towards the west and north of the the property. Access to this development will come from Denmark Avenue. A secondary emergency access will be provided towards the southern end of the development uh near the wetland area. The emergency access uh consists of a 20 foot wide enhanced trail section. It will have to be gated and closed to motorized vehicles. Uh it will extend with this initial phase to the eastern boundary of outlot D and eventually it will extend all the way to the uh furthest most north south road which is labeled uh street C on the approved preliminary plat. Uh additional trail connection is provided uh from the end of the cul-de-sac uh which is labeled street B on the final plat to the emergency uh access trail. The roadway right-of-way within the development will be 60 ft wide uh with a roadway width of 29 ft. Uh condition of approval of this final plat will be that uh the street names be updated on the final plat prior to uh recording. Uh those changes would be uh instead of street A, naming it 223rd Street West. Uh and then uh Denmark Trail for the portion of street B north of the intersection of street A that leads into the CDA property directly to the north. And then Denmark Court for the cul-de-sac portion of street B south of the intersection with street A. As far as parks, trails and sidewalks, uh the city will take cash in lieu of park dedication with this final plat. Uh the park that will service this development is Westview Acres. So it is a couple blocks to the north of the the development. Uh if the council will recall when we brought the preliminary plat before you, um I did mention that there was significant discussion on that trail on the northern side of the development um at the planning commission and whether or not a better location was suitable for that and a condition of approval of that preliminary plat was that staff continue to work with the developer um to find some common ground on that trail connection. Um staff did take that uh discussion to the park and rec commission on May 14th. Uh the commission reviewed the location and came up with what is shown uh on this map here. This is a portion of the preliminary plat that was approved um earlier this year. Um, essentially what they uh came up with is that the sidewalk would move from the southern portion of that street A um to the northern portion. So, the green area would be where the new sidewalk would go instead of on the south side of street A. And then between lots 21 and 22 of the preliminary plat at this location here, a trail would go in between and then it would continue north along uh the northern boundary all the way up to Ash Street. Um, one of the main reasons why uh the park and rec commission recommended this was that um if the trail were to be located uh behind a number of these uh homes in this location here, the trail is about 20 ft from the backyard um or back door of the house. Um so they recommended this as a um alternate. Um so uh that is what is being uh that was what was recommended to the planning commission and the plan commission accepted that um as part of their um approval process as well. Um the one thing I do want to mention with the um relocation of that trail, the outlot C, which is that small outlot on that northern portion of the first edition, really wouldn't be necessary. Um so a condition that was added at the planning commission is that outlot C be removed from the final plat. Therefore, the lots can be extended into that outlot or be lengthened um to accommodate that. Um and then as far as the final planned unit development is concerned, uh within your packet there's ordinance 2025 tax 003. Uh this ordinance outlines the development standards for the development uh which are as follows. Reducing the minimum lot area to 4,261 ft where a typical minimum is 6,000 square ft. Reducing the minimum lot width to 40 feet versus the typical 60. reducing corner sideyard to 15 versus a standard 20 and reducing the interior sideyard set back to five feet versus six feet. Uh also increasing the building coverage percentage for lots to 50% where a typical is 35%. And then the last one is just allows for storm water basins within the development to exceed the maximum detention pond depth of 8 ft um as provided for in the city engineering guidelines. Um just making that uh part of the record. Uh the plan commission did review this final plat and final plan unit development at its June 10th regular meeting. Uh the commission voted 3-0 to recommend approval of the final plat and final planned unit development. The action that is requested uh by separate motion—I apologize I had a spelling error there. By separate motion approve the following. Uh first adopt resolution 2025 tax 046 approving and authorizing signing of final plat preserve first edition contingent upon the following. One construction plans must be amended to reflect the recommendation from the park and rec commission made at its May 14th regular meeting regarding trails and sidewalks within the development. Two, the final plat must be amended to reflect the following street names. 223rd Street West instead of street A. Denmark Trail for the portion of street B north of the intersection with street A. Uh Denmark Court for the cul-de-sac portion of street B south of the intersection with street A. Three satisfaction by all engineering comments related to the construction plans for grading and utilities and execution of a development contract between the developer and city of Farmington and security and fees paid. uh submission of all other documents required under the development contract shall be required. And then finally, number four, outlot C can be removed from the final plat and remaining outlots relabeled as appropriate. And then the final action is pass ordinance 2025 tax 003 amending title 10 chapter 5 section 19 of the Farmington city code adding PUD-2 Dakota Meadows Preserve to the zoning code and establishing the dis uh development standards. [2:01:12] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you, sir. Nick, any questions, comments? [2:01:14] Councilmember Nick Lien: I mean, this one might win the award for the most goofy looking plot we have in the entire city with that weird tail on it. It is an interesting site. I know we beat this one up quite a bit in the past, so we don't need to go over a lot, but I do appreciate that they were willing to move the trail. I think at one point our concern was even that the trail wanted to go next to the railroad, and we had expressed a lot of concern. So, I really like how he pulled that away from there a fair bit to reduce that kind of risk on there. Um, other than that, like I said, I I think we hashed out most of this in the last meeting. So, I appreciate all the hard work on this one. [2:01:54] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Hi. Um, I I only have one remaining question and it actually has to do with the trail itself and the modification that was made when when we're looking at it and where it connects on—I have to turn myself—the north side um where the trail and the sidewalk meet. Uh can you clarify or remind me the extension that dips behind the homes and comes out between lot 21 and 22? What is the purpose of that segment? When I look at it from an accessibility standpoint, we we want everything to be accessible. We want people to be able to use it. When I look at it from a maintenance standpoint, I look at it and say that's a lot of trail that's sitting there that maybe—what I'm I'm trying to garner the—what purpose does that serve behind the town homes that the sidewalks are not already serving in front of them? Can you just clarify? [2:02:47] Tony (Planning Staff): Uh you're referring to this portion through here. Yep. Nope. That section right there, that right there, and then coming down in between. Um since we have a connecting point already to a sidewalk, what what is that additional purpose for the trail? What does what does it serve for the residents that are going to be there and beyond us having to maintain it? Um I think it provides a different um type of uh transportation route um for specifically for bicyclists. Um, I think it's a—I think it provides for a more continuous type of function um of the of the overall system. And again, the trail versus the sidewalk, the trail is there to provide a different or provide for a different type of mode of transportation than a sidewalk. Um, and the intent was to always have that trail connect out to um, Denmark Avenue. Um, but with how the development is shaped, the property is shaped, um, there was really only one true way to get it out there without this modification, and that would be through that outlot C, which again, the developer expressed major heartburn over that. Okay. Um, so I don't know if that answered your question or not. [2:04:17] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: I mean, it it does answer my question. I guess the the only thing that I would add to it is is the mindfulness of the the maintenance aspect of of what it is that we're doing. If it provides something to the residents that are in the area and there's a purpose that it serves, I'm 100% behind it. If we're looking at it and we're saying that's x number of additional feet that we—of trail that we need to maintain and there is a way to connect into the sidewalk system that provides the same benefit. My feedback on that would simply be let's not put ourselves in a position to maintain more trail than what we have to maintain if it's doing the same thing by connecting to the sidewalk up a little higher. Um those are my only thoughts really on on that particular aspect. I love every other thing that has happened to you know move it and shift it and I don't want it to be more of a heartache. I just want us to be mindful of making sure that we're not signing up to maintain something that didn't need to be there. That's all. [2:05:25] Mayor Nick Lien: Steve? Jake, did you have any questions? [2:05:30] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Um, boy, I'm not going to lie. I am really—I know it wouldn't entirely be a precedent, but I'm I'm really nervous about the eastern homes along Street C and the proximity to the train track. Um, you know, we do—I'm looking at an aerial map here and I looked at this before. Um, there are homes along, you know, tracks. This is—this is really really close. Um, so Tony, walk me through a little bit more about that outlot C. So as a—is a little bit of a concession—so is what we're looking at the actual final plat or why the removal of outlot C if there's not going to be development in there. [2:06:25] Tony (Planning Staff): Yep. So uh outlot C—this is the demarcation of the first edition boundary. So everything to the west of here would be that first edition. Uh outlot C would extend from this black line over to um this intersection of this road. um with the removal or relocation of that trail cuz the only reason that outlot was there was for that trail to go through there. [2:06:56] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Are we talking about outlot C in the upper northeast? [2:06:59] Tony (Planning Staff): It's this one right here. [2:07:01] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Oh, so we're talking different outlot C. Okay. I was talking about the one in the northeast corner. [2:07:06] Tony (Planning Staff): This is the preliminary plat. That's here. So when you look at your final plat, this would be the outlot C located here. It's about a I don't know a 15 foot wide um outlot. So, and with the relocation of the trail, it doesn't make sense to keep that um outlot uh just to have an outlot there where you can extend the lots to get deeper lots. [2:07:31] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Okay. And I don't—I don't want to put burdens on developers because I think we as a city have worked really hard to reduce burdens on developers and try to make things easy. Boy, I'd really like to at least put out there from my vantage point that it would be nice for them, especially for the eastern—I mean, really, I could almost say for the entire development—just put a comment out there about the train activity that is in proximity to the development. Um, I just don't want to see homeowners come in and say, "Well, I wasn't aware of that. I looked through all my papers. I didn't see any note about that." [2:08:14] Tony (Planning Staff): Yeah, a very similar comment was made at the planning commission regarding the the rail. [2:08:18] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yeah, I mean, I guess I really—I I guess I I would really like to see that. Um, I think the homes are going to—are—I have no doubt it's going to be a nice product. It'll be attractive. The homes will sell, but I think I think it would be reasonable to have some kind of a notation. You know, I think about the wetland buffer on my street. Remember if remember that issue way back when? [2:08:44] Tony (Planning Staff): I do. [2:08:45] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, you know, I kind of think about it a little bit like that. This is not a wetland buffer issue, but it's a different kind of issue, but guess that would be the only thought I would have. [2:08:58] Tony (Planning Staff): Okay. [2:08:59] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Nothing additional for me. [2:09:05] Mayor Nick Lien: So, I know that when the preliminary plat was talked about, you know, some of the points that Steve brought up about abatement, right, there's not, unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to do there outside of don't build it, right? I mean, whether your backyard is next to the track or you're 15 units in, I mean, I am far away from the track and I can hear the trains, right? Like, it it's a train track. The developer needs to communicate much better than what happened on the northeast side of town about the frequency of trains and the number of trains. Now granted that's siding up there versus this is not. Um but just you have to communicate over and over and over again. Um the second part it is it kind of hits on both Holly and Nick's points with the trail. So I guess what from a safety perspective, this trail is going to go all the way back up to Ash. It's going to be within 30 ft of the railroad crossing. There's presumably 30 feet based on roughly where that property line is, maybe 50-ish or so. Um there's no sidewalks on First Street though. So, like there's this 8ft trail that gets you to Ash that granted it's in the—technically if you are traveling eastbound I think it's 40 or 45 until you cross the track and drops to 30. If you're going westbound it's 30 until you get on the other side of the track and then it bumps to 45. Right. Um we need to communicate with the county. We need to make sure that there's some level of um pedestrian marking that's put there because if the if—if the idea is that we take cash in lieu instead of putting a park in one of the outlots and we're going to try and divert people or direct them towards Westview Acres, you're sending them down a long path to cross a busy street to get onto a street that has no sidewalks. Like no parent's going to leave their kid to go walk that stretch. Not until they're probably likely a teenager. At that point, they're going to pick and drop them because there's no sidewalks on Denmark. So, I see the value in the trail, but I just—to Holly's point, I I would hate to see this several hundred foot long trail get built that's 8 foot wide that we end up maintaining that already goes into a replacement cycle when it's just there to be there, right? I I hope the intention is that it gets used and we can figure out a pedestrian crossing at Ash to make it safe and viable. Um otherwise don't put it in, right? You know, just make it a a pick and drop development, right? [2:11:47] Tony (Planning Staff): Um and I do know that the county is uh doing a study on Ash Street as part at least up to the railroad tracks with Denmark um Avenue. Um and that is going to be a part of that study. [2:11:59] Public Works Director / City Engineer John Powell: Yeah. Mayor and council members, uh that issue has already been brought up to the county uh in those meetings of the corridor study. Uh bike and pet access and the proximity of the school and the residential development around it is a key consideration when designing both Ash Street 220th and Denmark. uh to the extent that the design on Denmark is attempting to induce a low enough speed where a crossing can actually be put there because with the school district they bust anything on the other side of a 40 mph roadway and right now anything west of Denmark would be bus to the middle school. So uh in addition to that uh First Avenue is in our street reconstruction plan. It's a state aid route. We would have a trail on one side or the other uh going all the way up to Spruce Street um um that would connect directly to—this align almost directly with this trail. Uh so we do have to have an improved crossing and we'll also have pedestrian facilities on Ash Street and Denmark. So that's a key consideration. It's already been conveyed to the county and and it's part of the conversation. Yep. [2:13:13] Mayor Nick Lien: Is there a way to just ensure that like—and I know typically the trails go in towards the end of the development anyway—but like let's not have that built until we get that flushed out. Like—like can we forced in in the first phase? [2:13:28] Tony (Planning Staff): It has to be built—as the development is presumably a three-year project. [2:13:33] Mayor Nick Lien: Right. Right. Like not have it forced in in the first phase so that we turn around because once it's in, it becomes ours and the taxpayers's cost to fix, modify, change. [2:13:42] Tony (Planning Staff): Yeah. We're not going to require that that trail be uh constructed with the first phase. It will be with a uh one of the later phases. [2:13:49] Mayor Nick Lien: Okay. I'm I'm good with that then. That's fine. [2:13:51] Public Works Director / City Engineer John Powell: Excuse me. Just a final comment on that. The construction of those improvements on Denmark and 220th—it's expected based on the county's current schedule that uh the preliminary design would be completed this year, about a 30% design. Next year would be right-of-way easement acquisition and be construction in 2027. So, we're far enough ahead of the development to make sure that we're going to have a a crossing there before we construct a trail up to that area. [2:14:22] Mayor Nick Lien: Okay. Cool. All right. I like that. I appreciate that. All right. Uh, I would first seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tax 046 approving and authorizing the signing of final plat Dakota Meadows preserve first edition uh subject to the four uh criteria. [2:14:43] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: So moved. [2:14:44] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Second. [2:14:45] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Holly. Second by Jake. Call the role please. [2:14:47] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [2:14:48] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [2:14:49] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [2:14:50] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [2:14:51] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [2:14:52] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [2:14:53] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [2:14:54] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [2:14:55] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [2:14:56] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [2:14:58] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. And then I'd seek a motion to um pass ordinance 2025 tag 003 amending title 10 chapter 5 section 19 of the Farmington City Code adding PUD Tac 2 Dakota Meadows Preserve to the zoning code and establishing development standards. [2:15:13] Councilmember Nick Lien: Motion. [2:15:15] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Second. [2:15:16] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Nick. Second by Holly. Call the role, please. [2:15:18] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [2:15:19] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [2:15:20] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [2:15:21] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [2:15:22] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [2:15:23] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [2:15:24] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [2:15:25] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [2:15:26] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [2:15:27] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [2:15:28] Mayor Nick Lien: All right. Thank you very Thank you, sir. 12.1 uh under new business is resolution authorizing the submittal of a staffing for adequate fire and emergency response—the SAFER grant program application. Chief? [2:15:43] Fire Chief Matthew Price: Good evening, mayor and council. Uh this evening before you is a resolution like you just said, 2025-042. Again, it's authorizing to act as a legal sponsor uh and authorizing for staff for adequate fire and emergency response, also known as the SAFER grant. Again, the SAFER grant, which is administered by FEMA, again, it aims to bolster fire department staffing to meet community needs. Uh this year, it's providing 324 million to support fire departments in hiring firefighters again and enhancing recruitment and retention. This program aims to help departments meet staffing standards, improve emergency response, and support firefighters health and safety, particularly within the volunteer and combination fire departments. Again, the core mission remains consistent. Uh, but there are several uh several notable changes uh for this fiscal year. U in the previous pass, it was 100% uh for the three-year grant. Uh this year it is a cost sharing uh for the hiring activity expanding eligibility for wellness related expenses under recruitment and retention and uh clarifying application eligible uh criteria. What does that mean? Uh what it means is within years 1 and 2 FEMA covers 75% the city would have to cover 25%. Uh and year 3 the city would have to cover 65% and FEMA would cover 35%. uh as I said earlier uh it's 324 million uh with mandates uh at least 10% has to support recruiting and retention activities and at least 10% is reserved for volunteer mostly volunteer departments under the hiring activity it covers basic recruiting and retention incentives uh that was previous uh what it does now is it expands the eligible expenses to include initial and annual physical exams uh job related immunizations behavior health services cancer screening programs align with the NFPA 1582 and also employee assistance program uh for behavioral health. So it did expand to help facilitate some of those. Uh basically the program goals aims to help fire department meet industrial minimum staffing standards, ensure 24-hour staffing to provide adequate fire protection and fulfilled uh traditional missions of the fire department. The hiring activity offers this grant to support application to new uh to hire new additional firefighters or to change the status of part-time or paid-on-call firefighters to full-time firefighters. Uh so our budget impact—as I said earlier years one and two the city would have to cover 25% of the cost. FEMA would cover 75 and year three uh 65% and 35%. So the action this evening is requested: adopt resolution 2025-042 authorizing to act as legal sponsor an authorization for staffing and adequate fire and emergency response also known as the SAFER grant program application for hiring of six full-time staffing and approve the matching funds of 25% for years one and two and for year three at 65%. And I will stand for any questions. [2:18:41] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you sir. Steve? [2:18:44] Councilmember Steve Wilson: No. Oh, sorry. I got nothing. [2:18:46] Mayor Nick Lien: Jake? [2:18:47] Councilmember Jake Cordes: I got nothing. [2:18:48] Mayor Nick Lien: Holly? [2:18:49] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Uh, no questions. Just, uh, a comment um, for for residents that haven't been necessarily following. Uh, we need to increase our staffing for the fire department. We know that this is a conversation that's predated the request for this grant. The grant is just an opportunity for us to gain support so that we can continue the effort of being able to provide better emergency services for our residents, not reactive to being able to get a grant. [2:19:11] Fire Chief Matthew Price: Correct. [2:19:12] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Okay. Just want to make that clear. [2:19:13] Mayor Nick Lien: Nick, uh, would you stick your thumb in the air to say odds of receiving this grant or is this a— [2:19:19] Fire Chief Matthew Price: I to be honest, I have no clue. Um, right now Carrie and I are in the process. I've provided all the data for the grant application which is due July 3rd and hopefully we will know sometime within the next 30 to 90 days uh if we're approved or not. Um I I do believe we have a really good chance with everything that uh is basically within here and all the questions that they're asking and all the data that we've been able to provide um that we have a really good chance to be one of those fire departments to receive this funding. [2:19:50] Councilmember Nick Lien: It wouldn't really influence my decision. It's just—I'm happy that you seek these things out and I appreciate it. [2:19:57] Fire Chief Matthew Price: Right. Right. That's what I mean. Something—something. Michael Jordan. [2:20:05] Mayor Nick Lien: No, thank you for uh bringing this full circle. You know, we I know we started talking about it um well over a year ago and then into our strategic planning earlier this year. Um, I won't get into the weeds. We talked a little bit about the state of the city, just the growing needs of the community, the demand on training and um readiness by the entire fire department. Um, and then the dependability of when that call goes out and getting there in a published standard time and not being able to meet those and the position that we're in to move towards full-time fire. Um, it's great that there are still grants out there that will allow um what is an inevitable choice and direction we have to go—will help alleviate that burden because God knows there's already enough of them, right? So hopefully your thumb's in the right direction with this and we uh we're blessed to get some money coming back to Farmington to help support it. So, um, with that, I would seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tax 042 authorizing to act as legal sponsor and authorization for staffing for adequate fire and emergency response SAFER grant program application for hiring of six full-time staffing and approve the matching funds of 25% for years one and two and uh, for year three 65%. [2:21:28] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Motion to approve. [2:21:29] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Second. [2:21:31] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Steve, second by Holly. Call the role, please. [2:21:33] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Cordes? [2:21:34] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Yes. [2:21:35] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Mayor Lien? [2:21:36] Mayor Nick Lien: Yes. [2:21:37] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Bernatz? [2:21:38] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Yes. [2:21:39] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Lien? [2:21:40] Councilmember Nick Lien: Yes. [2:21:41] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: Council member Wilson? [2:21:42] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Yes. [2:21:43] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you, sir. All right. Any round table? Holly, you got anything? [2:21:48] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: I have no report tonight. [2:21:51] Mayor Nick Lien: Jake? [2:21:52] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Mayor, nothing. [2:21:53] Mayor Nick Lien: Nick? [2:21:54] Councilmember Nick Lien: Nick, my stomach's been rumbling for about an hour, so I'll keep it short and just say thank you one more time to Lynn. [2:22:04] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: Hi. Uh, yeah. I I didn't take a specific time to say thank you to Ron, but um the dedication of of any and every employee of the city is worth a recognition whether you're here four years or whether you're here 24 years or somewhere in between that if you put your time and energy and effort into um the work that you're doing to benefit all of our residents that should be recognized. So, thank you to him and—yep. [2:22:30] Councilmember Jake Cordes: Okay. Um, two items tonight. One, about a week and a half ago, Farmington High School celebrated graduation. So, congratulations to all of the uh brand new Farmington Tiger alumni. Um, and the other item I struggled with over the weekend, I feel um I wrote a statement about what happened this weekend. I won't read the whole thing, but just my prayers are with Senator John Hoffman and his wife for a swift recovery. and I extend my prayers and condolences to the family and friends of uh Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. May their memory be a blessing. Um obviously violence has no place in politics. And unfortunately over the last decade or more we've it's become easier and easier to dehumanize people that we disagree with and we just we all need to do better. Um, an additional thank you to some of our our law enforcement members from across the state for the relentless surge throughout the weekend, but specifically three of our uh Farmington PD members for their work over the weekend. [2:23:36] Mayor Nick Lien: Steve? [2:23:38] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, thank you Pat for—you know—sticking out the whole meeting. And uh—because my grandson is going to get—well, I had a feeling that might—somebody's her ride and and my mom lives at Trinity and it's just a wonderful place. So, um but um I I kind of wish Rachel, Mary, and Judy would have stuck around and it's obviously getting later. Um but I know—I I can only speak for myself. I'm sure the rest of the council feels the same way. Um, it's just great to be super super close. I know Kelly is super excited, Missy is excited to have that building open up and to do it in one phase. Um, you know, and have all the different organizations contribute to it—our congressional leaders, bank, etc. So, I wanted to—wanted to thank you for for continuing to be here tonight. Um, next I just wanted to point out that there's a lot of really good things that we approved on the consent agenda. Um, you know, John, the five-year street reconstruction plan. Um, you know, you've heard council talk about, you know, the fact that we've been really dedicated—thanks to your leadership—of having a good long-term plan for our streets. So, I appreciate that. I did want to comment too that I appreciate the Rotary—of which I believe Jake for sure is a member—for the flower donation downtown. That was very generous. So, thank them for that. And then we purchased the playground equipment at Westview Acres. I did also want to acknowledge that um I really appreciate all the residents that were here tonight. Um even if hearing the message is uncomfortable from this end, you know, we represent them, we support them. um a lot of—you know—you can't see it probably from the home audience—but you know a lot of kids a lot of younger families and um you know again whether we appreciate hearing the comments whether we don't appreciate hearing the comments I like the fact that we—that there was a lot of folks here. Um in previous years when I've served on the council—and now granted part of that was in a really small chamber where the senior center is right now—but it wouldn't be uncommon to fill the chamber almost every meeting. Um, so again, just want to express my appreciation for that. Um, and I'm not going to reiterate what Jake said. What I will note though is to Jake's last point about the the the obvious change in the political environment. I, you know, one of the coolest jobs I ever had was working at the state legislature um for a couple years actually during the Jesse Ventura administration and um you know I really I I really prided myself on—in the type of role I was in—I got to engage with uh individuals of all political parties and I would sometimes comment to friends—well you know this—this particular individuals on this side of the spectrum this particular individuals on the other side of the spectrum and they seem to be best friends and the reality is they were um and so the the civil discourse um you know—all I—I again I can only speak for myself. We sign up because we love the community. We work hard for the community. We—we make decisions that we feel like are in the best interest of the community. And I mean, my whole weekend was just like—like I think a lot of us—it just was way off, you know. And Saturday morning when I heard that Melissa Hoffman and her husband were murdered, I—I was driving back from a thing I was at early morning. I had to pull over. I was in tears, you know, and I didn't even know this representative, but it—it just, you know, it's—it's just really really sad. Um, and yes, I like—like Jake said, I'll be obviously praying for the families and would encourage all of us to do so. Lastly, on a on a happier note, Lynn, I don't know if you remember this, but I forgot to mention the story, but I have to mention it. So, you know, one thing Lynn always did a really good job was, you know, when she would be available on weekends here and there, and she let us know, you know, especially with bigger issues when she'd be available. But what I thought was a bigger issue at one point in time was certainly not a big issue at all. My wife and I were shopping downtown. I walked in to Town Sports. I walked into Town Sports and I saw a whole big box of City of Farmington hats and I looked at these and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, like I got to get one of these hats. I wonder if Lynn ordered one for us." Turns out she had but here it is, you know, and I'm with my wife. It's about 3:00 on Saturday, maybe 2:30, 1:30. I don't even remember what the time was. And she's like, "Who you calling out?" I'm like, "I got to call Lynn to find out if we're getting one of these hats." She's like, "Don't bug her on a weekend." And sure enough, she's like, "You know, Steve, we did get hats for all of you, but can we talk about this on Monday?" I'm like, "I'm so sorry for calling." Um, but, you know, um, you know, I just again, it just reminds me of, you know, your sense of humor and just always very um, approachable. We're gonna obviously miss you and thank you again. [2:29:43] City Administrator Lynn Gorski: You're welcome. [2:29:44] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Um, I can't thank you enough, all of you. And, um yeah that's all I have. Oh, besides to say, um, Ron Lei, what a great guy. And he so deserves his retirement and we're so thankful of, you know, Steady Ron doing the work and making sure it gets done. Snowstorm, not snowstorm. Um, we're just so thankful for him for his leadership. So, and the succession planning that he did down at the mechanic shop. So, uh, thank you for Ron. [2:29:47] Mayor Nick Lien: Shirley, congratulations to Ron on his retirement and best wishes to you, Lynn. You will truly be missed. David? [2:30:05] Assistant City Administrator David Chanski: Um, just a reminder, city offices will be closed on Thursday due to Juneteenth. Um, we still got two more weeks, Lynn. We got things to do. Um, and congratulations to Ron and we're also excited to see uh at your last meeting, you approved Damon's promotion for mechanics lead mechanic effective on July 4th. So, we're see excited to see him uh take that new role. [2:30:30] Mayor Nick Lien: Okay, Deanna? [2:30:31] Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen: I'd just like to say that it's not the number of years, it's the impact that you can have within that amount of time. So, thank you, Lynn, for modeling how to lead with compassion, how to treat people with kindness. The world needs more of that and how to always be a professional. So, you definitely will be missed and thank you. [2:30:54] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you. John? [2:30:55] Public Works Director / City Engineer John Powell: Mayor and council members, just a final note about Ron. Um he was steady, he was even keeled. He he and Damon functioned as a team in every best sense of the word. Uh things just got done. Uh we've got upwards of 150 different pieces of equipment and vehicles from mowers to tractors to uh all sorts of pieces of equipment. Never did I hear a negative word about something being broken down or not ready to go or wasn't fixed yet, anything like that. Uh, and there's only two of them and they were—they would be in during sto—snowstorms because something breaks during a snowstorm, you want someone there to be able to fix it quick. And uh, so my personal thanks to Ron for making my job easier during his time here before he retired. and and we do have a good replacement for lead mechanic and we're hoping to get a good replacement for our for Damon's old position. So, thank you. [2:31:59] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you. Kelly? [2:32:02] Parks and Recreation Director: I want to congratulate Ron as well and wish him well on his retirement. Um I'm sure it wasn't easy fixing mowers from 2004 after seasonal staff uh might have hit something or drove over something. So, thank you to Ron for that. But what I'm going to miss most about Ron is our conversations about bicycling. Um he has a passion for cycling, often rode his bike here to city hall. So I will miss those conversations with him, but best wishes. Uh Ron, open doors tomorrow, uh 3:00 to 4:30 at Faith Church. Um as the advisory board stated uh this evening, uh we are officially moved out of this uh the fire department. Um we moved all of our stuff out on Friday. So I do want to thank Matt um and his team for opening their doors uh to the seniors. Um, it was very, uh, critical and important and you guys just let us come and be a part of your home and share our treats with you. And there probably won't be as many treats anymore, but probably—thank you for for that. Really appreciate it. And and to Lynn, um, if you guys don't know this, it was when we were trying to think of a place for the the fitness room. Um, we knew it couldn't be at the fire station, so we were just trying to think of a place and it was Lynn's idea—what about conference room uh next to the big big conference room? And we're like, wow, never thought about that. Wouldn't have ever even thought to ask, but it was her idea that, hey, we can we can use this as a fitness room. And it's—it's been important for the members who still uh use the fitness center. So, thank you for that idea and being open to that. Um, we are moving back into the center. We are going to be open one day next week. We don't know which day yet. Um, but stay tuned. It'll be definitely on our our Facebook page and on the city's website. I think Karen said she's going to put one of those flashing lights that we're back open. Um, can't wait to take you in there. If you want to go this week, let me know. Be happy to take you uh in there. Um, summer programs, we're still taking registration. So, hop on the city's website and register for summer programs. [2:34:03] Mayor Nick Lien: Thank you. Kim? [2:34:04] Finance Director Kim Sommerland: I also would like to extend my congratulations to Ron and hopefully he has a wonderful retirement and to Lynn, best of luck. I I just I appreciate so much your amazing leadership. You'll be missed. [2:34:20] Fire Chief Matthew Price: Also, this evening, you guys approved five uh individuals for paid-on-call. Um we still have a few more applicants going through the process. Hopefully by July 7th, we'll get those on approval. With all luck, we'll have a 13 paid-on-call class uh this year. The last time I can think of that we had double digits was almost seven years ago. Um, most of the time it's two, three at a time and we lose four or five every single year. Uh, we did have four this year already, so it's going to be well needed. I can't really say a whole lot about Ron. He was a great guy. Uh, I could pull the truck over and he, no questions asked, opened the door, brought me in, fixed what we needed to get fixed. Um, he was phenomenal. The guy could diagnose anything by listening to it or looking at it. But it's always unfortunate every time you pull up it never made the noise that it made and he would always tell you "you know bring it back when it's actually broke." But uh he was a great guy. I really good miss Ron and Lynn. Best of luck to you. [2:35:14] Police Chief Nate Siem: Uh yes Ron uh an incredible man and I was fortunate enough to be able to work with him pretty closely over the last couple of years as admin sergeant and deputy chief managing the fleet. uh almost daily conversations with Ron. Um one thing you you guys mentioned—Steady Ron—uh he's always focused on work. Whenever I go over there and start to talking with Ron and Damon, you can always tell Ron starts to get a little bit annoyed at the length of the conversation because not because he's not interested, but he's focused on his work and he wants to get back and get the job done. Um, so you have to be observant of his uh indicators to—it's time to leave because he wants to get work done. Um, thank you to him for that and because he's leaving us in a great position with Damon. Uh, he's incredible and he's been he's been great for the PD. We send emails almost on the daily for vehicle maintenance and Ron or Damon are in our parking lot the next morning picking up that vehicle and it's repaired for patrol the next night every single time. Uh, it's great. Uh, thank you again, Lynn, uh, for everything you've done for the city, for me in particular, and and getting me to where I am right now. I appreciate it. Um, and good luck on your future. Also, we are just around the corner from Dew Days. PD is doing a lot to ramp up our preparations for that, and we're all excited to get that going, too. [2:36:34] Mayor Nick Lien: We hit all the things tonight. Um yeah, congratulations to Ron. Um we had a nice little paragraph for him in the state of the city and um you know Ron being who he is, he uh he's going to quietly disappear into retirement and just do his thing and enjoy it and and that's great. That's what you want people to do is um enjoy their time when it comes. Uh congrats to the graduates of this year's class of 2025 from the high school. Uh, congrats to a few of the sports teams and the—um—I mean we have every year at state and section champions and uh it's just great to see the community continue to um show up especially against the bigger schools that used to push us around. So um a lot of great things—Top of the Tater happening or Top of the Tater day starting next week. We'll have the Rambling River Center open. Um there's—there's a lot of good stuff going on and—and and sometimes we miss that amongst um state headlines, national headlines, other things that are happening that there's a lot of good stuff that takes place right here in our community. Um just whether or not we choose to see it. So Lynn, best of luck in all of the things and we appreciate everything you have done and um you definitely have a lasting impression on on many. So thank you very much. With that, I would seek a motion to adjourn. [2:38:05] Councilmember Steve Wilson: Motion. [2:38:06] Councilmember Nick Lien: Second. [2:38:07] Mayor Nick Lien: Motion by Steve, second by Nick. All in favor say I. [2:38:10] All: I. [2:38:11] Mayor Nick Lien: We're adjourned at 9:37. [2:38:17] [Music]