Based on the context provided and the phonetic clues in the transcript (e.g., "Fulch" for Fox, "Lund" for Lawrence, "Layfield" for Leifeld), here is the corrected transcript with speaker names. Note: **Jen Fox** was a Councilmember at the time of this meeting (Jan 2023). Although not on your provided list, "Fulch" is a common transcription error for "Fox," and she historically represented the city on the Broadband board mentioned in the text. [0:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: seven o'clock I call the Hastings City council meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [0:12] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome and let the role reflect that all members of the council are um a quorum has been established and we are all here tonight we have a proclamation to read and um we are recognizing Mark Piney for the service that he has given to the city of Hastings for the last 35 years so council member pemble would you start [0:57] **Councilmember Dave Pemble**: please whereas Mark Piney Public Works superintendent is retiring January 31st 2023 and whereas Mark Piney has served the city of Hastings for over 35 years and whereas Mark Piney service to the community has always gone above and beyond to make normal happen and whereas Marx institutional knowledge and expertise in water distribution specifically the water treatment plant Lighting systems and snow plow operations has made him the go-to person in all areas of Public Works and whereas Mark piney's depth of knowledge of the [1:44] **Councilmember Dave Pemble**: hydroelectric plant is beyond compare and what is substantiated by the numerous Educational Tours completed in his career and whereas Mark's care factor and passion to this community set the standard and expectation of operations and whereas Mark has built relationships with MnDOT Dakota County Minnesota Pollution Control agency Minnesota Department of Health Minnesota Department of resources and a number of key vendors fellow municipalities and others that will last and benefit the city of Hastings into the future and whereas Mark's calm and can do demeanor [2:29] **Councilmember Dave Pemble**: was appreciated and brought success in times of emergency and critical consequence and whereas Mark's leadership by example has been contagious throughout the department over the years to inspire others to do the right thing in public works in the public works profession therefore be it resolved the Hastings City Council hereby recognizes Mark Piney for his dedication and commitment to the city of Hastings [3:08] [Applause] [3:19] [Music] [Music] but all guys in bed [3:38] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: there you go yeah okay [3:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: wait a minute [Music] [4:08] **Public Works Director Ryan Stempski**: thank you thank you every time [Music] yeah oh yes you can't sit down yet you gotta say a few words um I just really like to say quick a couple quick words um Mark and I do dress alike we plan this out Dave is quite quite often yeah yeah we we call each other before work every day and sync up our outfits no I just I I want to give a heartfelt thank you to Mark um when I took on the role as interim [4:54] **Public Works Director Ryan Stempski**: Public Works director I was a city engineer by Nature I'm an engineering guy um but man the transition that I needed to make into public works and was made happen by Mark I mean I honestly can say that he any question I had the light years that he brought me up to speed on the Public Works operations is just amazing I I can't speak highly enough of Mark and how he was able to join forces when we lost a lot of institutional knowledge and he was right there stepping up into the critical meetings going through the weekly meetings with our city administrator as painful as some of those and long as some of those meetings were but day one [5:40] **Public Works Director Ryan Stempski**: Mark was there right away for the city for this community to step into that role and we didn't know where it was going nobody knew that the city engineer could step into this role but Mark made that happen more so than I did he gave me the confidence to run the crew to get up on the up to speed on the operations he brought that whole staff under my guidance and got us up and humming and it felt like we never even skipped a beat and that's because of Mark and so I just wanted to say thank you and I really appreciate the time that we spent together and I look forward to your your future successes with that Mark I'm going to stop talking for once and let you pick mark thank you one time I wish you'd keep talking [6:27] **Mark Piney**: I just want to say thank you to everybody um you know I got thinking today a little bit under my 35 years here I've worked with uh four Mayors Four City administrators three Public Works directors so yeah I guess that kind of dates me but um um I just want to thank you for keeping me employed for 35 years um it was uh yeah I'm just happy that I could work here very honored for what you did tonight um appreciate everything that's happened so with that I'm going to let you get onto your council meeting thanks Mark we wish you the best thank you [Applause] [7:14] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: council members are there any retirement party— [7:14] **Public Works Director Ryan Stempski**: I just want to announce January 31st at 3 P.M at the golf course just uh making sure everybody gets that on their agendas okay thank you [7:14] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: thank you Ryan council members are there any corrections to the minutes for the regular meeting on January 3rd okay comments from the audience for public comments we have options comments to be emailed prior to the meeting or at this time during the meeting I see no one on zoom and is there anyone in the audience that would wish to speak to the council okay council members are there any Council items to be considered and Council I would accept a motion to accept the consent agenda [8:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: councilmember pemble and council member house additional discussion all those in favor of the Motion state by saying aye aye opposed to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails tonight under Community Development we have a resolution authorizing the submittal of the 2023 cdbg budget and welcome John hensman [8:02] **Community Development Director John Hinzman**: thank you mayor City Council Members tonight as the mirror pointed out we're adopting our cdbg budget so you may ask what is that it's our community development block grant budget it's funds that are allocated through the Housing and Urban Development section of the federal government they're allocated to Dakota County for uh to assist with individuals that are of low or low to moderate [8:49] **Community Development Director John Hinzman**: income and Dakota County allocates a portion of that back to the cities to spend and those types of programs so we are allocated 59 381 dollars from that account and tonight we ask for you to adopt a resolution to allocate where those funds will be going what we have done with these funds traditionally is we've used these for assessment abatement uh for for different construction projects Street construction projects where the costs of those improvements would be assessed back to the property owner themselves and so individuals that are of low to loader moderate income can qualify for either a full or partial abatement of those expenses and so that's what we're [9:34] **Community Development Director John Hinzman**: proposing to do tonight for our street Improvement project that's coming up this year so I can stand for any questions that you might have again looking for an action to adopt the resolution which needs just a simple majority thank you [9:34] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: thank you John Council any discussion council member Lawrence? [9:34] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence**: thank you John can you for the group explain what happens with the balance if there is any at the end of the year [10:00] **Community Development Director John Hinzman**: sure a council member if there's any balance left over from these funds they can be transferred to the next year so we could carry forward four or five years worth of balances there's a certain spending ratio we have to keep under but I think we do have some funds left over from last year's budget as well for assessment abatement so we'll we're covered for this year I believe even if we need more for next year I think we'll be good there thank you [10:26] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: God said accept a motion to approve a resolution approving the application for fiscal year 2023 Dakota County Community Development block grant fund [10:26] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence**: so second that your honor [10:26] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: okay additional new discussion Council all those in favor of the Motion state by saying aye I opposed to that emotion state by saying nay and that motion prevails thank you Council thank you John Council any announcements council member Fox did you have something [11:13] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: think of your honor I just wanted to quickly give the council an update on the proceedings of the Dakota County Broadband board um as you know we've been a member since it's this Inception and um and and so I'm it's really I feel very personally sad um about you know the course of action in which has happened uh so the Dakota County Board uh what was in December uh before there was a change in the makeup of the the board that was going to occur where um one of the positions was changing um in a and they ended up um moving forward with uh dissolution of the of the Broadband board that they were going to that the county is planning to pull out of um the the dbb and uh and so originally they were going to immediate with immediately withdrawal and uh there are which is amazing within itself because [12:00] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: it's a very complex group of uh of 11 cities you know that are members with the county everyone had already you know uh signed off on the joint powers uh you know agreement that we had had and there's you know legal questions about you know what does that mean you know if the county withdraws because within there there's language about um you know all assets you know everyone that had you know um that had already you know authorized it that um that there were obligations that were then you know uh to be had and and there was and and and so I could go on and on and on but what's really very sad is um the the haste in which the the board [12:48] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: has moved and um and and really what's super disheartening is that uh the technical advisory committee which is made up of the professional staff the I.T staff the city administrators and such that um that have really been you know the backbone of moving forward with the dbb the last several years has always worked uh together it has always um every time the board had had an issue that um that they wanted you know to have the they're called attack then the technical Advisory Group for the tech to work on they would work on that and they would bring forward recommendations and in the end there were just uh three key members that were on the dbb [13:34] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: um the the Dakota Broadband board representative um who is now chair of the Dakota County uh board uh Liz Workman and then uh two other Representatives one from the city of Lakeville and the other from Burnsville they clearly um did they disregarded any of the recommendations of the attack and just quickly suddenly proceeded to want to withdraw from the dvb and uh and it was just really shocking that they ignored um the you know the the entire Endeavor you know had gotten kicked off because we wanted to be the most efficient and and managing you know fiber assets for [14:19] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: our County and most cost effective efficient way to do it was you know by all the cities in the county to work together and then um and then also there is so much potential for furthering um you know Economic Development into the future and helping to assist businesses uh you know eventually you know the the first task at hand was just taking care of government business that we had uh redundancy business continuity um kinds of uh structures in place you know to be sound but you know what we had really hoped for in the future was that it could be an economic development tool and then furthermore that it would it would put Dakota County in such a position that we would be ripe for going [15:07] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: after major Grant funds from the federal government and as we're seeing now that the Biden Administration is coming out with a lot of money for fiber and uh and in the last half of 2022 these three individuals including the majority of the folks who are on the Dakota County Board just hastily made decisions about dissolving the the the group and completely disregarded the tech and um and really showed very little interest in being supportive of the other cities that are um in the in the within the group you know that the the big three are like okay well we're able to do this on our own and we're only interested in you know supporting ourselves and and [15:53] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: and and really disregarding you know the whole partnership that brought the whole group together and so in the end we're at this point where now the board has the decision you know to dissolve what they've brought forward to the cities is that we'll no longer have this network of uh partnership where the county just wants to have individual agreements with each of the cities to be able to use the city's fiber and which just absolutely shocking and just in my opinion I would say repulsive is that the County's agreement that they're offering to the individual cities does not provide the city's the ability to decide at their within their own jurisdictions as to how it is they may want to use that for [16:40] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: economic development in the future that it would be subject to the County Board on each individual project fiber project were in the future they may want to use for economic development purposes with uh with other entities that they have to go to before the board and and ask the board for approval and so um it really just flies in the face of uh local government uh decision-making Authority economic development is statutorily provided you know at the municipal level and the County Board is trying to take that away from municipalities and so I know that this seems like minutia and is like super boring but this what has happened to the dbb in the last [17:27] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: year and a half two years should be studied by political science professors at major universities as to the dysfunction and of having you know elected boards governing groups like this where they're when a lot of it um you know from Good Government best efficient means you know having Synergy by working together collaboratively how it all can just be torn about torn apart by you know political political motivation and and you know and I think that there's a lot of I personally speculate that there are other issues at hand where [18:13] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: um you know that are really based around greed and wanting to have money um kept within you know seats of power you know within the Dakota County Board and uh and so anyhow I could go on and on um but so what's the next step is that um and kind of the final step and I don't know if even the board cares any longer but what any of the cities have to say um about any of this because clearly the Dakota County Board has not cared about how um how this affects the cities how it affects their operations how um how it really puts us and I I believe just just it's just such an unopportune position we could have been the leader within our state our County could have [18:59] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: been the leader in our state of Minnesota um just a Powerhouse when it comes to moving forward with with uh joint initiatives and fiber projects and uh and it's just all been flushed down the toilet and I can't even begin to imagine the taxpayer dollars that have been waste tested as a result and so what we'll be seeing you know coming forward in the next couple of months will be an iru which is an agreement that the county is going to ask each of the individual cities to sign and currently that iru has language in there as I had said that gives the Dakota County Board final authority over Economic Development decisions that are going to [19:45] **Councilmember Jen Fox**: be had within each respective City and uh and uh and so I would um ask that we you know hold off as the dbb board currently we're trying to negotiate with the county to have more reasonable language placed in there to allow for decision-making authority to be made at the municipal level rather than at the county and so again thanks for listening me you know because I know that this is boring stuff sometimes but geez when it just comes down to the fundamental rights of municipalities and being able to know what's best for our owned communities and to have a County Board trying to take that away from us I mean that's we really need to stand up and pay attention to what's what's going on at this point so thanks everyone [20:32] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: thank you councilmember Fox right councilmember Lawrence? [20:32] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence**: thank you Mayor. thank you councilmember Fox I know you've spent a great deal of time in those meetings and um I have a question to your announcement um is there Dakota County representation that possibly could attend at that point when we're looking at that iru something to think about to answer questions just it's more of an open question [21:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: alright other announcements Hastings is proud to be the home of the large selection of over 40 Restaurants this year the city will be celebrating the first annual Restaurant Week January 15th through the 22nd follow the city's social media for updates and restaurant discounts experiencing experience snowshoeing on Saturday January 28th at JC Park a park naturalist will lead participants through floodplain forest and Prairie snowshoes and instruction provided pre-registration required on the city website thank you to our partner Dakota County parks experience ice fishing on Saturday February 4th at Lake Rebecca a fishing license is not required under the DNR permit and bait Tech and Tackle are and polls are provided all fishing is Catch [22:05] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: and Release pre-registration required on the city website thank you to our partners of carpenter Nature Center National Park Service Minnesota DNR Hastings VFW Hometown Ace Hardware get the let out Rapala and Vexilar we are we will highlight many of the exciting and important work being done at the annual state of the city on Wednesday February 8th this year the event will be a state of the community with presentation by the city and the school please join us in person or online happy birthday to the gentleman sitting next to me at the end of the month [22:51] [Laughter] [22:51] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: meetings uh Thursday January 19th 6 30 PM is psac Monday January 23rd 6 PM is planning committee Monday January 30th 7 PM Public Safety Committee Monday February 6th 5 PM city council Workshop elected officials 101 and 7 PM council meeting following I would ask for a motion to adjourn council member Leifeld? [22:51] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld**: Saturday there is an event downtown with I believe there's 15 ice sculptures that'll be around actually I think the community um okay and um please join in go on to the website or the downtown Business Association website for further information [23:36] **Mayor Mary Fasbender**: now I would ask for a motion two adjourned and council member Fox no discussion Council uh all those in favor uh still by saying aye all those opposed stay by saying they okay we are adjourned