The Eagan City Council held a special workshop on January 13, 2026, covering an ICE activity update from the police chief, a joint meeting with the city's state legislative delegation, an update from Wescott Library, and a discussion on land use and zoning for high-intensity technology uses (data centers and cryptocurrency mining). Several agenda items were informational, with policy direction given on technology uses.
Good evening. Uh Egan City Council uh special city workshop. Um we have a uh fairly uh full and heady agenda tonight. Um uh I'm gonna um uh I'd like to uh with the council's approval add um a uh an update from um uh chief uh omari uh about ice activities uh in Egan uh and we'll uh he and I will both talk to that uh a little bit later in the agenda uh but maybe add that into the agenda uh council if you're so inclined uh after visitors to be heard and before the legislative delegation. Yes, sir. Um with that I'm open to a motion to uh adopt an amended agenda. We will move to adopt the agenda as amended. Second it's moved and seconded. Any further discussion of the agenda, seeing none all in favor say aye. Aye opposed no. Uh motion carries uh and we have our agenda. Uh let me just check and see. Um are there any uh members of the public who are here on an item not on tonight's agenda uh and wanted to uh address the council under the visitors to be heard section. Seeing none, great. Uh we'll move right on. Um I uh um I'll invite uh Chief Amari up to the table here if you can. Um I uh uh like many of you, I guess I'll just say it's been a rough week in Minnesota. Um and uh and it's followed by a fairly rough uh period um that I don't think is gonna come to an end um all too soon uh and certainly as soon as we'd like. Um over the weekend I had the experience of having uh friends and relatives uh across the country um uh see what was going on in uh our Twin Cities region and text me uh with best wishes for safety uh and for peace. Um I am sure I'm not alone in that. If you have friends and family around the country, um I think uh all of our attention has been uh directed there. Um we had a meeting tonight uh to meet with our legislative delegation uh scheduled for a couple of months. Uh and over the weekend, um uh uh council member uh um Hansen and I at least um had uh some communications with um constituents um and uh elected officials in the area um with uh questions um about uh that they were being asked uh from their constituents and and other acquaintances. Um and uh I thought that the opportunity to have our legislators in the room was a good opportunity as well for us to um to get a presentation and update on ice activities uh here in Egan from uh Chief Omari um and um do a little bit of um for lack of better terms level setting on uh on on how uh our circumstances and situations are similar uh to uh um uh minneapolis, St. Paul, and the rest of the metro area, um, and uh on some level how they might contrast as well. Um I think I told a few people over the weekend who asked me uh uh uh in social situations um what the level of ICE activity was uh in the city of Egan. Um and I suggested to them that I don't think we've had a whole lot of high profile events uh as we've seen in uh Minneapolis or St. Paul or other places. Um but that um uh it would probably surprise uh people to know um uh how many activities we have had um and the number of ice operations go um unnoticed. Um uh more go noticed, and I think uh Chief Amari has a pretty good handle on that for the last month. Um I'm gonna turn it over to him uh in a minute, um, but just some uh some uh setup comments. I think um uh Chief Omari has been uh thankfully uh with us for uh just about uh two months now and that might be generous. Um I talked with the chief yesterday and he said uh he said, you know, Mr. Mayor, um uh since I've come here, uh pretty much all I've done is uh ICE response. Um and uh and that that gets a uh a difficult entry to the job. Uh uh thankfully the janitorial staff reports that he has in fact found the waste basket at least. Um but uh he's also uh still adapting to uh the city of Egan. Um the council has been in communication with Chief Omari um for um that two months and more uh about prospective ice responses. When we did interviews for our chief of police uh situation, uh the anticipation of ice operations in the metro area was on the council's mind. Um and in our interviews uh for uh police chief, um it was a significant topic of conversation there. Um since he's been on the ground, I've had the opportunity to sit down with the chief uh and talk about that and other leasing issues. Uh I know Councilmember Sabina has as well. Um, and I think the rest of the council has the opportunity to do that. And I know that some of our legislators have had that opportunity. Uh, and if they haven't, uh I know that Chief Amari, as I now bid for his calendar, uh is more than willing to sit down and talk with uh anybody and anybody who would like to. Um so um uh I want to kind of level set here tonight. Um my uh desire is not to try to talk about the totality of um possible conversations we can have around this topic. Um I sat in a room for an hour with about 30 other mayors on Monday afternoon uh and we talked about uh these same issues and how they were being handled in each community. Uh what I do want to do is level set and have a benchmark conversation that um at least start uh informing the dialogue more broadly to the community uh and quite frankly for the benefit of our elected uh legislators at uh St. Paul.