[0:00] [Music] [0:22] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** We'll call the city council regular meeting to order for Monday, June 3rd, 2024. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? [0:36] **Group:** 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. [1:13] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Call the roll, please. Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Josh 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. [1:33] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Uh, any changes to the agenda? Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** No. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Steve? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** None. [1:41] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** I have two requested changes. I would like to remove under the consent agenda 7.13, the amendment to Criminal Justice Network joint powers agreement, and bring that back at another meeting. Okay. And the next request is to add item 12.1, resolution 2024-51, revising precinct boundary, reestablishing existing precinct boundaries, and establishing polling locations. This is an addition. We did add it online today on our online packet, and each of you have a printed copy in front of you. [2:05] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. Uh, any other changes from Shirley or the team? Okay. We look for a motion to approve the agenda, removing item 7-13 from the consent agenda and the addition of 12-1 to new business. [2:13] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to approve. [2:15] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. [2:16] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Holly, second by Steve. All in favor say aye. **Group:** Aye. [2:23] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Moving on, we are to item 5-1 under announcements and commendations, which is the appointment of Katie Burnham as city council member and the oath of office. Shirley? [2:32] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Um, I'm going to start this out and um, welcome Katie to the meeting today. And with the resignation of councilmember Katie Porter on May 6, 2024, a vacancy was created on the city council. A special work session was held on May 20th to discuss the vacancy. City council directed staff to move forward with an appointment for Katie Burnham to fill the remainder of the term of the seat ending December 31st, 2024. At this end of the year, upon council approval tonight appointing Katie Burnham as city council member, the city clerk will provide an oath of office and Katie Burnham will take her seat at city council dais as councilmember effective June 3rd, 2024. [3:29] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Awesome. Uh, real quick, before I seek a motion uh, to appoint Katie uh, back to city council: when we went through a work session uh, in our most recent work session, we talked about this and we talked about what the available options were to both the council and basically to our residents and for their representation. Um, City Charter states that the position shall be filled. It did not further define how that position shall be filled, but that it shall be filled. And we looked at and talked about the option of going out, as we had previously uh, for appointments, seeking an application process. You have time to notice, you have the duration of the notice, you have time to interview. Given that amount of time frame, based on how we've done it in the past, we believe that to best represent the businesses and the residents of Farmington that we should look at different options. Um, coincidentally, the most recent serving councilmember had reached out and said, "Hey, I'd like to fill in and help out if y'all need it and just know that I'm here." And so we put it in front of the body, we talked about it as a council, and ultimately the recommendation was made to come forward. And so with that, I would look for a motion to appoint Katie Burnham as city council member to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term beginning June 3rd, 2024, and ending December 31st, 2024. [4:45] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** I will motion. I will make a motion to appoint Katie Burnham to fill our vacancy. [4:49] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I'll second. [4:50] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Second by Nick. 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 Josh Hoyt:** Yes. At this time, we will do the oath of office. [5:21] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** I state your name. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** I, Katie Burnham. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of councilmember in accordance with the law and to the best of my judgment and ability. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of councilmember in accordance with the law and to the best of my judgment and ability. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** So help me God. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** So help me God. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Congratulations. [Applause] [6:06] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Feel free if you want to say a few words, you certainly can. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** No, I I appreciate the opportunity to serve the city of Farmington again. Uh, as I think I said to the mayor when I reached out, I feel like once you're a councilmember, you always represent this city in some capacity, and so happy to fill in for a short term. I will not be signing up for another four years, but you have me for a few more months, so happy to help out. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** We appreciate it, and welcome again. And and thanks to Will, 'cause you know, it takes a village. [6:37] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Uh, moving on, we will go to item 5-2, which is the swearing in of uh, Fire Chief and our Fire Marshal. Deanna. [6:44] **CED Director Deanna Kuennen:** All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, Chief Matt Price will be um, swearing in Matt Brown, but I'll take the Chief. So, um, good evening. And tonight we gather to mark a significant milestone for the the Farmington Fire Department and our community as a whole. We are here to swear in our new Fire Chief, Matt Price. The role of fire chief is one of immense responsibilities, dedication, and service. It requires not only deep understanding of the fire service but also a strong commitment to the well-being of our community. Chief Price, your leadership will be instrumental in guiding our fire department forward. Your vision for the future, coupled with your experience and dedication, ensures that the fire department will continue to provide the highest level of service to our community. As we administer the oath today, we not only recognize your accomplishments but also the trust and confidence we placed in your leadership. We are confident that under the guidance, the fire department will thrive, adapting to new challenges and continuing to be a beacon of safety and service. On behalf of the Farmington residents and city council and staff, we extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes as you step into a pivotal role. We look forward to supporting you in the entire fire department and we work towards to keep our community safe. So thank you. And at this time we'll invite Shirley up for the oath. [8:42] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** I state your name, as the Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** I, Matthew Price, as the Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** And I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Chief to the best of my ability. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** And I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Chief to the best of my ability. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept so long as I am true to the ethics of fire service and make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service and make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. So help me God. [Applause] [10:22] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Oh, good evening Mayor and councilmembers. Uh, this evening I'll be uh, introducing to you to our new Fire Marshal. It is my great pleasure to introduce you uh, to Matt Brown. Matt began his fire career with the Eagan Fire Department in 1996, serving until 2000. Matt then went to Mankato Fire Department serving until 2003. Matt then made a career move to St. Paul beginning in 2003 till 2024. Over Matt's fire service, he has achieved many accomplishments and successes serving his community. Some of Matt's achievements are getting his paramedic certification, serving on almost every committee the fire service has to offer within his department, and having the most out-of-hospital baby deliveries from his peers. Other notable great achievements Matt has made in his fire career is that he was nominated for Firefighter of the Year in 2003, and he received a Unit Service Accommodation for a rescue at a structure fire. At this time, I would like to call up Matt Brown to receive his oath of office uh, which will be administered by the City Clerk, and his wife Kimberly will pin his badge. [11:34] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** I state your name, as the Fire Marshal of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** I, Matthew Brown, as the Fire Marshal of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge duties of Fire Marshal for the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Fire Marshal of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Marshal to the best of my ability. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Marshal to the best of my ability. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** And I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of Farmington Fire Rescue Department. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** And I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept as long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service and make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. **Fire Marshal Matthew Brown:** I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept as long as I am true to the the ethics of the fire service and make these promises so solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. So help me God. [Applause] [13:14] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** So now we're going to pin... yep, the Chief. The Fire Chief, and Nikki Sickmann, please help us uh, pin the Chief. [Applause] And now we'll call up Kimberly. [14:28] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** And as always, we have cake and ice cream at the station. So when you are done, you're more than welcome to stop by. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Have a good evening. **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Thank you. Thank you. Unless they're going to hang out for the rest of the meeting, that's... [Laughter] [14:57] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Okay. Congrats, Chief. Thank you. Hand figured there'd only be a few left. It happens every time. I think we should start keeping a leaderboard of who can do the pinning the fastest. Yeah, right. All right, we'll just give them another second here as they all usher out. It's weird being on this side of you. I I was thinking about that. I actually Shirley asked me if we wanted to shuffle. [15:57] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Moving on, the next item of our agenda is uh, item six, which is citizen comments. Uh, we do have two public hearings that are on the agenda tonight, so for a matter of those watching or recording to catch that time or the comment relative to the public hearing with the agenda item, if you're here to comment on the public hearing, I would just ask that you wait till the public hearing opens. Otherwise, if there's any other items not on the agenda that we want to discuss... all right, seeing none. [16:25] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** We'll move on to item seven, which is the consent agenda. I would seek a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended with the removal of 7-13. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion to approve. **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Second. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Steve, second by Katie. All in favor say aye. **Group:** Aye. [16:47] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Swiftly moving on here. The next item on our agenda uh, is a public hearing item. Uh, so at this time, I'd like to go ahead and open the public hearing for item 8-1, which is the resolution 2024-45, approving the tax abatement and authorizing the issuance of tax abatement bonds. And Deanna is going to take us... we're going to welcome Jess Green from Northland Securities and she is going to cover the item for us tonight. [17:13] **Jess Green (Northland Securities):** Thank you, Mayor, Council. Good evening. Welcome. Mayor, as you just mentioned, you have two public hearings that are scheduled this evening: one for the consideration of tax abatement, and then one for the consideration of a 5-year street reconstruction plan. Both of these hearings are meant to facilitate the issuance of bonds. Um, so in your packet you do have a nice staff report that goes along with the hearing and then you have a finance plan that we've prepared for you related to the issuance of bonds. So if it's okay with the council, what I'll plan to do is just kind of touch on some of that high-level detail for the bond issuance just because it gives some context to why we're holding the hearings in the first place. So what we have currently um, planned for the bond sale is a par amount on a preliminary basis of $3,360,000 General Obligation Bonds. This will be considered Series 2024A for the city. And we have an executive summary that is found on page one of your plan... um, it is actually page three um, but listed as page one. And this just gives the high-level detail associated with the bond issuance. So what we have here again, 3,360,000. This will be used to finance not only the improvements proposed... improvements to the Rambling River Center, but also the 2024 street reconstruction activities. So the bonds will be considered a general obligation of the city. Um, the repayment will be structured with a tax abatement levy and then also a debt service levy. And then we have the bonds maturing in the years 2026 through 2040, with interest payable beginning August 1 of 2025 and then semiannually thereafter. True interest cost is currently estimated at 3.73%. We won't know what the interest rate is until we actually sell the bonds. That's scheduled for about 6 weeks from now, um, on July 15th. So we'll have a better understanding of course of the interest rate as we get closer. But based on current rates, that's where we're expecting um, the bonds to be sold. We do have a prepayment option beginning of February 1 of 2032. So at that time, the city is able to sort of exercise your rights to call the bonds in. So you can restructure the bonds, you can refinance them for interest savings, um, you can partially prepay, so it's in whole or in part. And then we will look to seek a rating for the bond issue. Um, the city's rating is currently AA+ by Standard & Poor's. Given our understanding of the financials of the city, we don't anticipate that we should have any surprises there. Um, we do list a number of the risk factors. There are risks of course with issuing any type of debt, so we do have that listed in your finance plan for your review. And then finally, again, July 15th, we would be holding that bond sale. That would occur at about 10:30 in the morning. We'd take bids on behalf of the city. We'd come back before you that evening at your regularly scheduled meeting for your consideration of the award of the bonds to the lowest bidder. In the plan itself, you've got a number of different schedules. Um, the bonds are going to be a single issuance, again the 2024A series of bonds, but the bonds will be bifurcated. So we do have two portions here: so again, the portion for the tax abatement and then the street reconstruction. Um, but we of course don't want you to have to issue separate series of bonds, then you're just incurring additional costs. So that's why we've got separate schedules. It's easier for accounting and finance to sort of manage the projects that way. So we'll make sure that those are kept separate but within the same bond issue. Before I dive into the tax abatement hearing, any questions on the finance plan or process or kind of what's coming? [20:47] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, I just um, I do have a question on the rating process. So um, I I actually didn't uh, I didn't actually realize this. So we have the ability to decide if we want to call for a rating or not call for a rating? So it can just be issued... you know? Okay, I guess I didn't know that. [21:00] **Jess Green:** Yes. So you certainly could issue the bonds as non-rated. However, Farmington's rating at AA+ is very strong. Um, so if you were going to issue on a non-rated basis, you'd probably be looking at about 30 basis points difference, and it would also have, you know, some questions within the marketplace as to why isn't the city seeking an issue. And so um, it would probably be a little bit of a head scratch for investors. So we'd certainly suggest you do so. If the bonds were less than a million dollars, for example, it's something that we would look at maybe doing or maybe not, just due to the fact that there is a cost to doing that, and we want to make sure that the interest differential made sense to incur that cost. [21:40] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Okay. Actually, that wasn't that wasn't quite my question. It was um, I was under the impression that um, a rating was just automatically um, assumed when you did a bond call. [21:50] **Jess Green:** It is not, no. So the rating is actually assigned to the issuance of bonds. To that specific issuance. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Okay. Thank you. [22:04] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Any questions? Nick? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** No. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Katie? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** No. I have no questions. You're good. [22:12] **Jess Green:** Okay. So related to the tax abatement hearing specifically: the reason that we're looking at tax abatement as the borrowing authority under state law is because there is no sort of prescribed statutory authority that allows cities to finance community center type facilities such as the Rambling River Center. There are other certain borrowing authorities that have clear, defined um, purposes, such as street reconstruction bonds, which is what you'll hear about in the next hearing. Some of the council may recall that back in '22, the city issued street reconstruction bonds combined with tax abatement bonds, and that was to facilitate not only those street reconstruction activities but also to finance improvements to parking lots. Parking lots don't have a clear defined borrowing authority. So often times, with some of these sort of gray areas, cities will lean on the tax abatement authority to issue the bonds. Now of course, there is a limitation on how much tax abatement you can utilize, so we don't like to use it unless we need to. But in this case, this is a good option for completing those improvements to the Rambling River Center. To meet the requirements of state law, the city must identify parcels whose property taxes—city portion of property taxes—equal or exceed at least the principal amount of the bonds that will be retired in any given year of the bond issue itself. So we have worked with staff. Staff has identified those various parcels. We've looked at the tax capacity combined with the city's tax rate and confirmed that there is certainly enough capacity within those parcels to support the debt issue. There does need to be some nexus for why you're selecting certain parcels, and the residential parcels that were selected are adjacent to the area where the Rambling River Center is located. Um, so nice um, connection there. One thing that can be misleading about tax abatement is often times when people think about that, they think about the reduction or the elimination of taxes. There's really no statutory way to do that um, other than contesting market value. In this case, it's really meant to provide a calculation for the city to say we've done the exercise of making sure that we have enough tax capacity and therefore city property taxes to support this particular project and this bond issue. There are no notices that are provided specifically to those property owners. Of course, those parcel IDs are published in that hearing notice. There's nothing that those property owners are going to see differently on their tax statements. The abatement levy is spread just as any other sort of tax levy, whether that's a debt service levy or your operating levy, so to all taxable property within the city. With that, I will conclude my comments on tax abatement, but I am happy to take any questions. [25:12] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Uh, any other questions for Steve? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** None. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Katie? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** No. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Holly or Nick? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** No, I just want to say that makes actually a lot more sense than it made in 2022, so thank you for the explanation on that. I understand that. [25:28] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Uh, it is a public hearing, so if anyone in attendance has any questions or comments... are you sure, Judson? He was thinking about it. All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and we'll close the public hearing at this time. Uh, is there any other discussion on the matter? All right, seeing none, then I would look for a motion to adopt resolution 2024-45 relating to a tax abatement, granting the abatement and authorizing the issuance of tax abatement bonds. [25:47] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to adopt. [25:50] **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Second. [25:51] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Holly, second by Katie. Call the roll, please. **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 Josh Hoyt:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Member Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Burnham? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Yes. [26:11] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Moving on, next item on the agenda is 8-2. Again, this is a public hearing, so we'll go ahead and open the public hearing for the resolution 2024-48, approving the 2024-2028 five-year street reconstruction plan and authorizing the issuance of street reconstruction bonds. John. [26:30] **Public Works Director John Powell:** Thank you. We'll give Judson some more time to decide if he wants to ask a question on the next one. Any moment a PowerPoint will be appearing on the screens. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to talk more about our street reconstruction plan for the next five years, uh, in this case specifically related to the issuance of bonds. The background: as you... we have a lot of discussions about our pavement management program. Staff's recommending bonds be issued to partially fund street reconstruction projects over the next 5 years. The other funding sources: sewer, water, storm sewer uh, components of the reconstruction. Issuance of these bonds requires a public hearing on the 5-year street reconstruction plan. And after the hearing, you'll be asked to consider resolution 2024-48, approving the plan and authorizing issuance of the bonds. So last year, the condition of all city pavement street pavement was rated on a scale of 0 to 100. Uh, zero being the worst, 100 being the best. This year and in subsequent years, we'll be re-rating one-third of the pavement throughout the city. So none of the data we're using to base decisions on is more than three years old. That's the intent of that effort. This does not include state and county roadway pavement. So based heavily on the PCI, but also after considering other factors, a 5-year reconstruction plan was prepared. This is reviewed and adjusted each year as needed based on the latest PCI. So this is not something that's static; it's updated annually. So this year's project we've talked about quite a bit recently: 2024 Street Improvements. And I will not necessarily read off the street names, but I will show you there's a graphic after each roadway. We've seen this before... bless you... 6th Street and Maple Street. Um, a quick update on the project: all the trees have been removed. Uh, tomorrow morning the milling machine should be in. They'll start removing the pavement, and we've already had a neighborhood meeting with the contractor and the residents to talk about coordination issues. The 2025 Street Improvements are just south of there, including work on Sunnyside, Fairview Lane, Centennial Drive, Centennial Court, and Sunnyside Circle. This is the 2025 Street Improvement project area. And I would stress that, you know, these projects might change slightly uh, from year to year, but uh, the basic project area is the same based on the PCI. In fact, the use of having a five-year plan was highlighted today when I got a call about some curb on uh, one of the roadways in the 2025 project area. And they asked, "Hey, could you come out and replace it? It's not draining properly." I said, "That's in the 2025 project area, so we'll be replacing it completely next year." "Okay, thank you very much." We also have Municipal State Improvements, which are not related to the bonds uh, but I do mention those as part of our five-year reconstruction plan. Uh, Spruce Street from DuChene Parkway to 500 ft west is proposed as a Municipal State Aid improvement, and a study of Flagstaff Avenue from County Road 50 to the north city limit is also included as a state aid improvement. As a state aid city uh, we do get a maintenance allotment every year, which goes into the general fund and helps defer uh, street maintenance costs. But we also get a construction allocation uh, which for us is over $800,000 per year, and we can accumulate those funds to do larger projects. So those street MSA street reconstruction funds are what's used to pay for these improvements. And so there's the improvement DuChene and Spruce on the left and Flagstaff on the right. On to the 2026 Street Improvements: 2nd Street and Honeysuckle Lane uh, west of this year's project area, shown graphically here. Uh, basically from Oak Street up to Spruce, and then Honeysuckle Lane uh, where it intersects 2nd and down to Ash Street. We also have Municipal State Aid improvements in 2026: Willow Street from 5th to 8th Street, shown graphically here. Uh, again, Municipal State Aid construction funds will be used; this is not coming out of the bond proceeds. On to the 2027 Street Improvements: 7th Street and Beech Street. So you can see that a lot of these streets are in the older part of town, and as you recall looking at the PCI map, those were the reds and oranges where those were located. Uh, when you see the map again after the reconstruction occurs, it will be green. So the '27 street improvements: 7th Street and a section of Beech Street, which actually goes over to this year's project area. And Municipal State Aid improvements: 1st Street from Spruce Street to state aid project in 2027. And the the roadways themselves, Municipal State Aid roadways, are generally heavier used, wider roadways. Um, so from a resident standpoint, they don't necessarily know sometimes if it's state, county, city, or city state aid. Uh, but I did want to mention these because it's all part of putting our plan together. 2028 Street Improvements um, include Pine, 6th Street, Linden, and 7th kind of in the northern the mid just west of Highway 3 area of the city. Then we also have two studies uh, proposed as part of uh, the 2028 street improvements: the 9th Street frontage road and the Carver Lane frontage road. These are at this point lower priority, but we include them in the CIP and as part of the street improvement because we do need to do those studies at some point. We've made commitments in the past to look at those options uh, for roadway connections. So there's the 2028 street improvements, one of those few non-contiguous projects um, that we have coming up in the next few years. And then the study areas uh, shown on the left: 9th, and on the right: Carver uh, Lane. The left is general and it's a rectangle because we're not sure where that road might go. On the right we're a little more specific because we actually have right-of-way in those areas. The requested action is to hold the public hearing, take input, and then adopt resolution 2024-48. With that, I'd be happy to respond to any questions. [34:04] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, sir. Uh, Nick, any questions? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I guess I'm struggling to remember my my roads here, but what's the one that goes between the the Kemp's facility and the warehouse? Is that in any of these plans? **John Powell:** Between the Kemp's facility and the warehouse? The 9th Street frontage road is what runs behind... that's behind... behind Holiday, not behind... **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Oh, so between the actual Creamery and their warehouse that they... they have a truck running back and forth basically all day. Kind of curious if that's... **John Powell:** That's not included in any of these projects. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Okay. All right. Then I will withdraw questions on that. But no, this is... I I love this. I love how scientific this has gotten. It's procedural, and yet you have like you said, everything is red and we're going green. So it's nice to not have to sit and question why why why why. We just we just know why. So I really appreciate all the hard work. [34:52] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Just love having a plan, John. I couldn't agree with you more. This is one of those projects that I felt like was constantly kicked down the road and to see this work get started is... it's awesome. It goes a long way I think for residents to to clean these up. I I mean this is... this is great, John. [35:10] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** You know, when you brought the idea to Council—I think it was in a work session—you know, "Hey, I want to do this, we want to kind of lay out a kind of a game plan for the roads throughout the community, we're going to update it every 3 years," and then the output is you know, a 5-year plan, which we'll see a new 5-year plan next year and subsequent... it's it helps out current Council, it helps out future councils, it's just great work. **John Powell:** Thank you. [35:46] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Data-driven decision making, and I love it. It uh, the PCI doing the streets you know, third third third, that way we get the entire community done every three years. The trails being done every other year, so we're again in two-year intervals having that data come in allows us to do this. It and and most importantly, for the residents and for businesses to see this, that when we're able to look at arguably, beyond public safety, what is one of the largest uh, expenditures annually is our street reconstruction and maintenance. If we get a plan for this, we can better budget in all the other areas. It's it's no longer like kind of have we battled for years, it's back and forth, it's like, "Well, which one's the priority?" Streets are always a priority. We have to stay on that schedule and now we're using good information in real time to make educated decisions about our future investments in the community. And we've driven on these roads for decades. We've talked about Centennial and Willow and just 6th and 7th Street, how they've been bad forever, and you can only patch them for so long. Just so finally see them go through this, it's just it's a godsend and it's decades in the making. So thank you very much. [37:06] **John Powell:** Thank you. I would also add that from an operations standpoint, now we have a plan. So if we have something come up in any of these roadways, we know how to respond to it appropriately, just like that curb example on on a much smaller scale that I mentioned earlier. We know what's coming, so we can better plan from an operations standpoint. [37:16] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** We and we appreciate it very much. Uh, this is a public hearing, so if there's any resident comments or questions either for Council or our team, feel so. If not, last call to this... I think we miss... we were... I think we misunderstood earlier. Did we miss our chance to speak about other stuff, I guess? **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Correct. Citizen comments were early, yep. **Speaker:** I just... yeah. Okay. Thank you. [37:41] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Seeing none on the public hearing, we'll close the public hearing at this time. Any other conversation or questions? All right, then I would look for a motion to adopt resolution 2024-48, approving the 2024-2028 five-year street reconstruction plan and authorizing the issuance of street reconstruction bonds. [37:57] **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Motion to approve. [38:00] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. [38:01] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Katie, second by Steve. Call the roll, please. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoyt? **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Burnham? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Yes. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, sir. **John Powell:** Thank you. [38:20] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Moving on, item 12-1 under new business is resolution 2024-51, revising precinct boundary, reestablishing existing precinct boundaries, and establishing polling locations. Shirley. [38:34] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Thank you, Mayor and Council, for adding this item to your agenda. Um, at your regular meeting on April 15th, you adopted resolution 2024-30 annexing some two parcels into the city of Farmington from Castle Rock Township. Uh, per state statute 204B.14, any change to an election precinct must be adopted at least 10 weeks before the next election, and that deadline is tomorrow. Um, so for your review and approval is resolution 2024-51 revising precinct boundary, reestablishing existing precinct boundaries, and establishing polling locations. There's only a change to Precinct Two. These new parcels attached are adjacent to Precinct Two. Um, with that resolution is Exhibit A, a map of the annexed area; Exhibit B has a legal description of the two parcels; and Exhibit C is the updated polling site locations showing that new area in Precinct Two. [39:46] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Any questions? Steve, any questions? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** I have none. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Katie? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Nope. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Um, just as a point of clarification um, anyone inside any of the parcels identified, will they receive pieces of mail from us? Did... does it come from Dakota County? **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** It comes from the county. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Okay, perfect. All right. I have no questions otherwise. Uh, look for a motion to adopt resolution 2024-51, revising precinct boundary, reestablishing existing precinct boundaries, and establishing polling locations. [40:06] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to adopt. [40:08] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. [40:09] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Holly, second by Steve. Call the roll, please. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Burnham? **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** 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 Josh Hoyt:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. [40:22] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Round table. Jake. [40:23] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Great. Uh, first of all, welcome back Councilmember Burnham. It's good to see you. Uh, second of all, I don't have bison news. I do have judge news. So, uh, Governor Walz appointed judge Luis Rangel Morales to fill Judge Monahan's vacancy in the First District. So welcome uh, the new judge. That's all. Thank you. [40:47] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Congratulations to our Fire Chief and our Fire Marshal. It's very exciting. And then uh, welcome back Katie. I guess I can't say I don't know what's going to come in the next nine months, but thank you for for being willing to step forward again and make this very easy for us. Um, it does more of a favor than I think people are going to realize on just how much it reduces the complexity of what we have to do here in the next year. So appreciate it and welcome back. [41:17] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** It's going to sound a lot like a broken record. Uh, a a great night obviously for our new Fire Chief and Fire Marshal. Um, and yeah, I am excited to serve with you. We have... our paths have not crossed in this capacity. So uh, thank you so much, because I know once you stepped away, the call to step back takes a lot of internal conversation and a lot of you know, family finagling. And uh, it as the Mayor alluded to, it takes a village. So to your whole family um, for the gift that you're giving us to step in and serve in this capacity, we're very grateful. [41:47] **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Happy to be back. Um, I will echo um, thanking my husband especially for for allowing me to do this for the next seven months. It does uh, take a time commitment on his part to to commit to children when I'm here, so I appreciate that. Um, but no, it... I'm thrilled to be back. Um, little bit and feels like I never left in some ways and uh, trying to pick up where I left off so um, but happy to serve. [42:25] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Um, yeah, actually you made the comment, Nick, you added two months on to term. I was going to say it was seven months, so happy to have you for seven months and welcome back. Um... **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Oh, my bad. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** I know, and not a day more. Um, I know Holly mentioned this last time, but congratulations to our seniors and also thank you to the school district really who um, despite the you know, not-so-favorable weather, did a really nice job. So I want to thank all them. Um, congratulations to our our new Chief and our new Fire Marshal. I do want to thank the the amazing veterans, all the veteran leaders, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, for the two really nice programs that we had over Memorial Day weekend. It's just always a great job. I also want to thank the band who was there um, and all the residents who showed up to uh, make that portion of the weekend important, which it should be for all of us in my opinion. Lastly, I do want to thank residents who came to our work session tonight. I think some stuck around here tonight. We do have another work session tomorrow at 4:00, so I'd encourage anyone who wants to learn a little bit more about some of the um, some of the possible changes and activity that are going on in Farmington to show up at 4 o'clock and we're going to be having a developer here to talk a little bit about that uh, potential developer. So um, that's all I have. [43:55] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Great. And that work session will be 4 o'clock and it is a joint work session with Council and Planning Commission. And welcome back, Katie. You have already picked up where you left off, so we appreciate you being here. And congratulations to Fire Marshal Matt Brown and Chief Price, and we are so thankful for the fire department family that showed up. The room was packed and we appreciate that. Thank you. Shirley. [44:06] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Welcome, Katie. Thank you for being here. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Deanna. [44:09] **CED Director Deanna Kuennen:** I of course want to welcome you, Katie, and also congratulations to our um, Fire Chief and our Fire Marshal. Uh, but I would also like to add tonight, one of the things that we do is we work really hard to find out find ways that we can support our existing businesses as well as try to attract new businesses to the community. And the... you'll be hearing me probably mention this at every meeting leading up to it, but with the EDA's um, blessing, if you will, we will be holding a small business resource fair on July 16th. And we'll be working on getting the word out to all of our businesses in town. The point of this fair, this resource fair, is to make sure that our these community assets, these small businesses that call Farmington home, know that we're here to support them and know that we have partners and resources and a lot of people dedicated to making sure that they have what they need to allow them to stay and grow here in our community, because they are very important to us. So we'll be having that on July 16th. There'll be information provided on our website. We'll be trying to contact um, all of the small businesses, but please spread the word and we'll be having that here at City Hall and it will be in the morning. So again, I'll be bringing this up with every opportunity I can to make sure that we get the word out and make sure that our small businesses know that we're here working for them as well. So thank you. [45:41] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. John. **Public Works Director John Powell:** Thank you, Mayor. I will add my welcome uh, to the Council again and uh, congratulations to Chief Price and Matt Brown. I've... Matt's office is very near mine, we've already interacted somewhat and I really look forward to working with both of them. Um, I will mention that we received the Jetter last Thursday and from a public works standpoint, we're very excited about that. Um, it's basically a big shop vac with a water tank attached, but it it doesn't cost that much; it costs much more. Um, but I've already had feedback that with the new technology, the new the way the equipment laid it out and whatnot uh, that we are going to save time uh, with our jetting just based on the ease of equipment, kind of going from joysticks more to push buttons, and the crew really likes it and it's going to be a big help to us and it's a key piece of sewer maintenance. So thank you again for supporting that. [46:58] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you. Kelly. **Staff Member (Kelly):** Welcome back, Katie. Look forward to working with you. Congratulations to Fire Chief Price and Fire Marshal Brown. Um, I want to uh, thank uh, couple Rambling River Center board members uh, who made very generous donations to the Rambling River Center: Marlene Swante and Nancy Bone. Thank you so much for your ongoing support of of the Rambling River Center. Um, summer programs start in two weeks uh, due run three weeks away. Not too late to register, so uh, sign up online at FarmingtonMN.gov and we'll see you this summer. Thanks. [47:20] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Thank you, ma'am. Chief. **Police Chief Nate Siem:** One more time, welcome back. Uh, also congrats to Chief Price and Fire Marshal Brown. Uh, I think the Fire Department's on really solid footing moving forward with uh, with those two. Uh, and I don't really have much myself to add other than vote Chief Rutherford with your coins and bills for "Kiss the Pig." **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Are you 0 for 2 in Kiss the Pig? **Police Chief Nate Siem:** I'm only 0 for 1. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** 0 for 1? **Police Chief Nate Siem:** 0 for 1. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Cordes is back there. I remember that. I think he's 0 for 2. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** You're 0 for 2? **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. Well, make sure you put put it in his bucket. Right. No, all good. [47:58] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Um, the last one: welcome back. Um, kind of like Nick was saying, I don't... I understand both sides of how the whole thing happened, right? Like residents always want an answer to everything and sometimes there's a play on the field that has to be called. And um, you reached out and said, "Hey, would you consider?" and we said yes. And uh, how quick you're going to be able to just get right in. I'm sure you've already been catching up... if you if you even were completely hands-off, knowing how you operate, you have gotten back in and and um, gotten yourself up to speed. And uh, I will just have to say you're going to really enjoy serving the next six months. I mean, I've already promised everybody a grocery store, so we we got a lot of work... **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Oh, good. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** All right. It's hey... no, I I won't say that. I was going to say, "No no no no no," I'm fighting the urge to say it right now. The amount of self-restraint that took is unbelievable. Uh, but no, seriously, welcome back. The the community is is better with five voices um, than it is four, and there's a lot of work to do. And so thank you very much for raising your hand. Um, congrats to um, both Matts. Um, that's that's a huge that's a huge um... it is significant for our department. It is significant for our department to have um, Matt's leadership, to have a plan moving forward, and to have um, the team behind him, and what that ultimately means to our residents and uh, the ability for the department to serve at the highest possible level. So that is a... that is a it is a great day for the fire department. Um, it's that time of the year where we're sprinting. I mean, we were just talking about, you know, oh we're we might have to salt and and plow again, and it's graduation. We're going to sprint to Dew Days, it'll be the Fourth, next thing you know the county fair is going to be on us and we'll be talking about Labor Day and back into school. It just it's going to happen fast. So with that um, follow the social pages, check the calendar um, stay on top of all the community events because we try to do we try to get as much of them out there as possible, but there are so many things happening in the community that aren't always on the city's publications. Um, but just get involved with the community, whether it's volunteering or or being a a patron for the events. Um, support Farmington in every every possible way that you can, because that's what makes it the greatest community to live in. With that, look for motion to adjourn. [50:23] **Councilmember Katie Burnham:** Motion to adjourn. [50:25] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. [50:26] **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** Motion by Katie, second by Nick. All in favor say aye. **Group:** Aye. **Mayor Josh Hoyt:** We're adjourned at 7:49. [50:50] [Music]