This transcript corresponds to the Farmington City Council meeting held on March 18, 2024. Based on the roll call and the context provided, here is the formatted transcript with speaker identifications. **Note on Names:** While the context provided lists Nick Lien as Mayor (reflecting his current status), during this March 2024 meeting, Joshua Hoyt was the presiding Mayor, and Nick Lien was serving as a Councilmember. *** [0:04] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Like going Convention Center say I would choose a destiny we'll call the city council regular meeting to order from Monday March 18th 2024. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [0:49] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** 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. Call the roll please. [1:12] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Here. [1:25] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right. Any changes to the agenda? **City Administrator (Staff):** None. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** No, I have one addition. I'd like to add 7.8: Fire service agreement with Castle Rock Township and the city of Empire. It was added late on this weekend and so I just want to bring it to acknowledgment. All right, any other changes? All right, so we look for a motion to approve the agenda. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Motion to approve as amended. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All in favor? **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All right, moving on to item five. Under our announcements and commendations, the donation of five fire suppression tools to the Farmington Police Department. Chief. [2:18] **Police Chief Nate Siem:** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, thanks for having us here tonight. The Farmington Police Department recently received a donation of five of these fire suppression tools from Corinthian Lodge Number 67 based here in Farmington. As you know, one of the responsibilities of the Farmington Police Department is fire scene response. While our police officers aren't trained firefighters, we do generally arrive ahead of the fire personnel simply because we're already working and on duty. Historically, we've been limited to ensuring structures are evacuated, locating nearby fire hydrants, closing down the area to traffic and pedestrians, you know, things of that nature. We don't take an active role in fire suppression because we don't have the tools, the training, or the safety equipment to do that. Technology has been developed that will allow untrained personnel to slow the progression of a working structure fire. The fire suppression tool (the FST) can be thrown into a structure and then will automatically introduce a fire suppression agent to reduce the temperature in the room and buy the fire department precious time to get there and put the fire out. The members of Corinthian Lodge Number 67 have generously donated five of these FSTs to the police department at a total value of $4,500. At this point, I'd like to introduce you to the members of the lodge. I'll introduce Master Jason Lavoy. Jason, come on up. He can introduce the rest of his members and tell you a little bit about their program. [3:49] **Jason Lavoy (Master, Corinthian Lodge #67):** Well, thank you for having us here. I'm Jason Lavoy, Master of Corinthian Number 67. The fire suppression tools project is being brought about by our Grand Lodge, which is our state organization, and Minnesota Masonic Charities. The way the program is working is if we can raise $300, the Grand Lodge is providing $300 and Minnesota Masonic Charities is providing $300. So we're hoping to outfit your other eight squad cars as soon as we're able to raise the funds and working with the fire department for more on there. I'd like to call up Jason Brunig and Ross Johnson. [4:34] **Jason Lavoy:** Jason put most of this together for this city and Ross has taken care of fundraising for a lot of what we have coming up and with surrounding areas. So thank you for having us and we're here if you have any questions. [4:55] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, sir. Thank you. Steve? [5:02] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** I actually do have a question. Well, thank you so much, and is this a single-use, one-time use only, or is it like refillable? I'm kind of curious about that. [5:15] **Jason Lavoy:** It's a one-time use product. Jason, could you step back up here? You have a little bit of background on what replacement of these is. [5:20] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Well, and actually that was my second question. I was wondering if there was kind of a personal story or something that kind of made you decide to consider this donation to the police department. [5:32] **Jason Lavoy:** A few of our members are police officers in other communities and it is a single-use. It's basically a fire extinguisher hand grenade where you pull the pin and you throw it into the building and it lowers the temperature safely. One was just used in Newport and the fire was put out and because of the FST, two dogs inside the house were saved. So we all love our dogs, but it is single-use. However, insurance will usually cover the cost since it's destroyed in the fire. Jason, do you have anything else that you want to add? [6:07] **Jason Brunig (Corinthian Lodge #67):** Yeah, just that there's two pins on the device. So the officer would pull the two pins; there's then an 8-second countdown where they could throw it in through a door or window. It releases an aerosol; it takes about 35 seconds to fill the space. Not a scientist, but I believe that that aerosol reduces the heat from bonding with the oxygen molecules, bringing down the temperature of the fire. Then like Chief Siem says, it buys that valuable time for the firefighters then to get in and do their work. [6:45] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Awesome. Yeah, it's a very, very cool tool. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Good. No questions, just thank you. **Jason Lavoy:** Absolutely, it's a pleasure. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Absolutely, it's our pleasure. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Okay, same for me. Thank you very much. [7:10] **Police Chief Nate Siem:** Thank you very much, appreciate it. All right, the action requested tonight is we recommend that you adopt Resolution 2024-20 accepting the donation of these five fire suppression tools to the Farmington Police Department from Corinthian Lodge Number 67. [7:30] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, sir. We look for a motion as presented. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Call the roll please. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Yes. Thank you sir. All right, oh you can hang out, we have a great presentation from Park and Rec coming up. All right, very much myself as well. Thank you, thank you, appreciate it. Next item on the agenda is our citizen comments if there's anyone in attendance wishing to speak at this time. All right, seeing none we'll move on to item seven which is our consent agenda. We look for a motion to approve as amended. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Motion. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** And swiftly moving along here to new business. Item 12-1 is our Park and Recreation Department's 2023 annual report and 2024 goals. Kelly and team? [8:26] **Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Whitmer:** Good evening, Mayor and Council. We're excited to be here tonight to present our 2023 annual report and our 2024 goals. This is the 21st consecutive year the department has put together an annual report, so we're excited to present it. With me tonight I have Parks and Facilities Supervisor Jeremy Pier, Recreation Supervisor Missy Colbeck, and Recreation Supervisor Emily Shear. I want to thank the staff for putting together all this information and especially to Missy for putting together the presentation. Before we move on to the presentation, I want to just give out a shout out to the boys basketball team. They have adopted Hildy Park. This is them cleaning it I believe in the fall. I know they just made it to the state tournament and I think it's the first time since 1937, so good luck to the Tigers and thanks for adopting Hildy Park. And they just happened to be the cover, that wasn't intentional. [9:24] **Kelly Whitmer:** Here we've got a picture of the Ice Arena out front. New sign was installed along with the flagpole. You can see the sidewalks that were redone last summer. They finished off the parking lots, added the drop-off lane. We had a new furnace also that supplies the lobby, the arena office, the bathrooms, and locker rooms. One of four replaced last summer. Here we've got Anthony; he started with us last April. He's been a great addition, he worked for the Parks last summer and then in the fall transitioned to the Ice Arena. He picked up the job pretty quick and he's got a good attitude, willing to learn. Another picture of the outside of the Ice Arena with the finish of the drop-off lane there. In addition to the new heater that we got, Youth Sports Plus—we entered in an agreement with them last year. They provided the service for the high school teams where they could film their practices, they had iPads that they could go back and look at different drills. This year they added live streaming youth games so you could pay, I think it was between 20 and 30 dollars a month, then you could log in and watch the games. The high school, they have their own live stream service so they weren't using this one. [10:43] **Kelly Whitmer:** Here we've got Ted; he's our facility maintenance worker. He's replacing all the soap dispensers in the city. We replaced those last summer. We added ones that now have a drip tray so if soap drops onto the floor, the drip tray catches it. There's been times where I've cleaned the bathrooms at the Ice Arena and if you got the soap on the floor it takes forever to mop it off, so that's been something nice that we've added. I think the story behind this picture was Kelly asked Ted for a picture of him installing these soap dispensers and he took a selfie, I guess, is what he provided her with. So she made sure to get that one in the annual report. Building Maintenance—we've got three staff that clean and maintain the buildings. I think they do a great job. In my opinion, Robert, who cleans this building, does an awesome job. They clean the carpets, the glass, strip and wax the floors seasonally. [11:38] **Kelly Whitmer:** Next page here, this is a picture of the new boilers here we've got at City Hall. They were replaced, I think they started in August and had it finished in September. And then also we did the Kraus-Anderson facility assessment. That gave us a plan; a lot of the items coming up are roofs and a lot of HVAC equipment. Here we got the Park Maintenance guys; they're over at West View Park cutting down EAB (Emerald Ash Borer) infested ash trees. I want to say they took like 15 to 20 out of West View Park and actually opened it up and it looks pretty nice in there. Couple pieces of equipment we got: we got a hooded sprayer that we can pull behind a tool cat to spray. That helps us on windy days, especially at the Police Department maintenance facility and some of those spots on top of the hill. We can spray pesticides, dandelions all the time and not have to wait for the perfect conditions. We also got a utility trailer that we can pull a sprayer around with. Other projects they worked on: out at Flagstaff Meadows we did the work getting the ground level for the playground that got installed. We added the wood fiber and then the green spaces around there. They also put in a cement pad around Rambling River warming house. That turned out really nice. We put rubber over it; people walking down to the warming house in the past, you'd have to walk over ice and it was pretty slippery. Now we've got a little spot where kids can wear their skates and you don't have to worry about slipping. [13:30] **Kelly Whitmer:** This is the picture of the Flagstaff Meadows Park that was completed. Another thing that we got was the Park Protector equipment where we do monthly playground inspections. The guys are able to take this out, take pictures of the broken equipment, and document everything. We used to do it on paper and now everything is stored on file. Here we've got Austin; he started with us two summers ago. He's got a great attitude, as you can see, always smiling, ready to go to work. Approximately 85 stumps were ground out of the park system last year. Here we're in a resident's backyard; he's got a bunch of brush that was from the parkland growing into his yard and they were just out there trimming it up. Then obviously some of our challenges are the graffiti, vandalism, trail maintenance, and the Emerald Ash Borer. If you've been through Jim Bell or driven by the natural area, I'm sure you've seen the guys back there the last couple months without flooding, being able to cut down a lot of the ash trees. And then also at the Mystic Meadows, they had that root barrier placed next to the trail. It was put in correctly this summer where before when it was initially installed, it was too far down where the roots were getting up over it and puncturing the new trail. [15:14] **Recreation Supervisor Emily Shear:** All right, looking at Recreation. Just a quick summary of what this picture is: this is the four-mile Dew Run race. The adult, the mother, was running the four-mile and then we had a junior jogger as her daughter, so she ran the half-mile race of the junior jog prior to that. This is a picture of our Footfire Soccer program. We utilize both parent volunteer coaches as well as we do send a few seasonal staff members out just so that they can help both run the program and assist with any teams where coaches are missing. We were emailed this message from one of the parents: "A huge kudos to the staff member who coaches my son's soccer team. They do an amazing job and my son truly loves soccer because of their coaching. I can't praise them enough for the energy and the drive that they bring each week." While we obviously like to receive critiques and improve our programs, it's also really nice to receive the praise and to know that our staff are doing well even when we can't get out there. [16:55] **Emily Shear:** We also run our t-ball program the same way. Karen, our communications specialist for the city, she had a kid in the t-ball program and she was a parent volunteer coach. She mentioned how nice it is to be able to just get the activities and lesson plans and then just show up to practice and implement it. All right, so this is a picture of our Halloween Havoc tour, specifically John Burmome or "Mr. Halloween's" house. We had 16 houses participate in the Halloween Havoc tour this past year in 2023. John Burmome has raised food for the food shelf for the past 20 years. In 2022, he told me his story about his wife's passing and how she had the tradition originally to raise food for the food shelf and he's carrying that tradition on in her honor. When Cara Hildreth reached out to Karin, our communications specialist, and asked if any of the houses had a special story, I brought up John Burmome. Dakota County Tribune posted a story about it, and then from there Fox 9 News got a hold of the story. The title of that piece was "Farmington's Mr. Halloween uses spooky spectacle to feed community." Then from there, KARE 11 got a hold of it. John ended up surpassing his goal of raising 1,000 pounds of food and he ultimately raised 3,235 pounds of food and $160 for the Farmington Food Shelf. It was just an all-around great press and great service for the community. [20:10] **Emily Shear:** So, Recreation offered seven new programs. The first one was the seasonal art classes with Muddy Water Studios—projects like candle holders, clock painting, and tic-tac-toe boards. We also had the adult-child clay classes. We also had art camps offered both again with Muddy Water Studio for 6-to-9 year-olds and 10-to-12 year-olds. We also had Water Park Camp. This camp parents were super excited about. They went to four different water parks: Cascade Bay, Red Wing, Apple Valley, and Great Wolf Lodge. Missy [Colbeck] ran that program. We also offered Sprouting Sports Sampler program—that offers just kind of a brief snippet of different sports like t-ball, soccer, tennis, and flag football. And Hyperspace Starcade video game truck, that's what this picture is right here. This is a mobile video game truck that comes into town. The last two new little camp themes were Little Einstein camps and Superheroes Camp. In total, these seven new programs resulted in 213 registrations. With RecTrac and WebTrac, we went live in December 2023. This is a new registration system for us. This is the first time ever a credit card or debit card could be used for Rambling River Center programs and memberships. My favorite thing is that we can now upload pictures onto the website. [24:33] **Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Whitmer:** And I'll just say, Farmington is so generous. We have so many community partners—24 partners that sponsor our programs, advertise, and clean our parks. This picture is of Open Door; they're one of our newest program partners. They started last June. They had a little over 70 families the very first time; they're nine months in and they're over 200 families now. They're there at the Rambling River Center the third Tuesday of the month. We also partner a lot with Dew Days—our staff help put out signs and hang banners, we order the portable toilets, and we held a bike auction and "Kiss the Pig" with them. Our theme last year for Kiss the Pig was "Love After Lockup" and Chief Siem locked them all up. Here again another partnership: this is Finch and Daisy putting on Bingo with Santa. All those people came to play bingo for free and Finch and Daisy provided door prizes for all of them. And this is a big deal—we were awarded $750,000 in a community project funding grant, and Angie Craig and Tina Smith came down and talked to the seniors about it and toured our building. It was a really fun day and I'm really excited about the project. [28:44] **Kelly Whitmer:** The passenger van, that was donations and fundraising. Our newest fundraiser again is a partnership; it's with Farmington Rotary. Last year we raised almost $50,000 in fundraising and donations. This was fabulous. We had "Whiskey, Wine, and What-not Bingo" and we had a huge crowd for it. It was really fun. Kelly [Whitmer] called bingo until Ben Libra came and then he called a little bit. We actually ran out of the little shooters of whiskey and I had to run to the liquor store and buy some more! 2023 was a lot of fun, but we're looking forward to 2024. Another program partner, the Rotary, they paid for and sponsored all the downtown flowers and they're going to do it again this year. Our goals are based on Council's goals as well. Our two priorities for this year are the Rambling River Park and the Rambling River Center. Obviously, we want to complete the improvements at Flagstaff Meadows Park and hold the ribbon cutting. Infrastructure support goals: continue to remove trees infested with Emerald Ash Borer, implement the facility condition assessment plan, and utilize GIS technology to make Parks and Recreation services more interactive. [31:00] **Kelly Whitmer:** Employee Engagement: continue to hold staff meetings and ensure funding is provided so all staff members are given opportunities to attend state conferences and workshops. Board and Commission: we could not do anything we do without our board and commission. Thank you to these five of the Parks and Recreation Commission: Kate, Katie, Ashley, Megan, David, and Cody. Thank you to the Advisory Board Commission: Marge, Mary, Rachel, Penny, Pat, Judy, and Blanche. And City Council, thank you to you. We couldn't do what we do without your support. Steve [Wilson] helped us with the secret holiday shop, visiting with the seniors every Friday. I can't imagine any other community that happens in besides here. So thank you for everything you do for us. [33:52] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. Nick? Can we like fast forward this? Leave that up there. Hey, better that one in the sweater than Nick in his elf suit. [34:10] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** That would be me, buddy! The thing I was kind of going to say about this is I've also appreciated that you guys took advantage of the warmer than usual winter. It seemed like you stayed busy. Most of the time you guys know your winter routine and when it gets cold it shuts down, but you guys were out behind my house in that whole park for a month and all the places that you went. I really appreciate how you guys pivoted and adjusted to that. Great work all around. [34:55] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yeah, I mean the amount of work that is needed to keep up all of the different areas that you guys touch and to stay in touch with all of the different demographics that you cater to—from our most senior residents to our littlest human beings. I've had the great privilege to serve alongside you for the last couple of years with Dew Days and you guys are incredibly dedicated and hardworking. Kudos. [35:36] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, I'd like to thank all of you. Not to single out Emily, but you know, I think the programming side of it presents unique challenges. The Arena—you know, we sometimes get comments like "the Arena's old, bring us a new one," but I would challenge any community to find an arena that's so well-maintained and so clean. Really appreciate the boards and commissions. Rarely do we refer to Farmington as a city; it's a community and there's a really big difference. I noticed that at the basketball game on Friday. We as a community rally together to support each other. You really, all of your work embodies who we are as Farmington. [37:20] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Well, I kind of took all the good stuff! You know, just to add to it—almost 30 parks, over 50 miles of trails. Park and Rec is one of those things that sometimes the community doesn't realize the depth and the range because it covers so much. When from the resident's perspective you start to look into what programs are offered, you see we are constantly finding ways to get into different age groups and demographics. Absolute commendation. You guys just keep increasing the standard. Thank you. [38:28] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I wanted to congratulate the boys on their entry into the state tournament and best of luck. [38:45] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, Nick. [38:52] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Thank you to the Mayor for continuing Minnesota's long tradition of elected officials with a wrestling career! So, in the consent agenda, we appointed Matt Price as Interim Fire Chief. Congratulations, sir. Also, there was an opening for a Fire Marshal position. Just two things that happened in the consent agenda—it's good to see your face, sir. [39:35] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** I wanted to congratulate the robotics team at the high school because they're going to Nationals. That's huge. I know, John [Powell], we approved some new equipment for your department and I suspect the plow trucks might be out in the next week or so. If you're starting to get into the habit of "will the police ticket me if I have my car in the street," I'm thinking in a few days they might consider doing that. I wanted to move to the big event that happened on Saturday. We get a publication as council members from the League of Minnesota Cities and this is the March/April edition and it says "Mayor for a Day" essay. Nowhere in there is "I want to be a pro wrestler for a day!" So I did want to congratulate our Mayor. I was at the event and I know he stepped out of probably his comfort zone for the benefit of the law enforcement community and the tragedy in Burnsville. Out of this horrendous tragedy, you're seeing a rise of support and enthusiasm for the First Responders. I did tell Josh [Hoyt] I was legitimately terrified because when he got taken down I'm like "oh my gosh, is our Mayor permanently injured?" I'm wearing this t-shirt here; we play Wednesday at Target Center so good luck to our Tigers. [43:05] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** I'm really excited to announce within a couple weeks you're going to see more activity at City Hall with increased employees from the USDA where we lease some space out. Also, a big shout out to our election judges as well as staff for all their help making the March 5th election such a success. A special thanks to Bible Baptist Church, the Church of St. Michael, and Farmington Lutheran Church for hosting us. Countywide there were 16.1% voters; Farmington had 11.2%. [44:18] **City Administrator (Staff):** On the consent agenda we appointed Melissa G. as our new building permit technician. Really excited about that because Melissa was serving in a temporary role and she is our third full-time employee who served with us as a consultant who decided to stay with us full-time. [44:35] **Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen:** Tonight we had our EDA meeting. I did just want to point out one of the action items was to approve our joint powers agreement with Dakota County CDA to continue to offer the "Open to Business" small business one-on-one counseling services to all of the businesses here in town. [45:23] **Public Works Director John Powell:** Two items I'd like to mention. One, Dakota County is currently working on a request for proposals to do a corridor study along Denmark Avenue from County Road 50 down to 220th. A big part of that will be replacement of the bridge and providing a pedestrian bike crossing underneath. The other item is in our neighborhoods where we're doing mill and overlay projects. We are going into those areas to prune trees and taking out ash trees because with the paving trucks, they'll be raising their beds and we don't want to be knocking branches off. [46:40] **Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Whitmer:** The Open Door pop-up food pantry is tomorrow at the Rambling River Center from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. [46:55] **Finance Director Kim Sommerland:** Included in tonight's consent agenda was the annual overview of the city's investment portfolio. As of December 31st, we had market value of 56.8 million. I'm pleased to announce that the City earned over $1 million in investment income for 2023. Also, with the donation tonight for the fire suppression tool, there is a video out on the city of St. Paul Park Facebook page for the fire they referenced in Newport that has the bodycam from the police officer. [47:41] **Interim Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Good evening. If you're interested in becoming a paid-on-call firefighter, our application process closes on March 23rd. There's still time if you're interested in joining the fire department. [48:26] **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** Thank you, Chief. I too, Councilmember Wilson, was at the event on Saturday. I'm going to throw a little bit of shade at your assertion that I was stepping outside my comfort zone—I was totally living my best life! A guy gets to live out two of his childhood dreams in about 48 hours. Sarah Nelson and the Dakota County Heroes nonprofit had this event planned. In light of what happened in Burnsville, they pivoted. Net result: I ended up in the ring, had some fun, we had 300 people in attendance, and we raised $22,000. But it sucks that it takes a tragedy to draw awareness to the appreciation of our First Responders. We saw it with 9/11 and with enough time it slowly dissolves. Every time a tragedy strikes, there's this big push for awareness. We have it wrong as a society; it should never take tragedy to have a certain level of appreciation for the things that exist under our nose every single day. Frankly, it pisses me off that we blow that opportunity every day to just say thank you. So if I could ask anything, just go out of your way to say thank you to your neighbors, your friends, your First Responders. Don't wait for tragedy. With that, we would look for a motion to adjourn. [52:20] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Joshua Hoyt:** We're adjourned at 7:51. [53:04] [Music]