OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Ethical Practices Board Meeting - April 21, 2026

Boards and CommissionsTuesday, April 21, 2026
BodyRochester, Minnesota
SessionBoards and Commissions
DateTuesday, April 21, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:03

So we find out at the end of the year.

0:07

We are sorry.

0:07

Okay.

0:13

Thanks everybody for being here.

0:14

Looks like we have a full contingent.

0:18

First thing is to approve the minutes from the last meeting.

0:22

Do you have any comments or the motion to approve?

0:26

Make a motion to approve.

0:27

Okay.

0:28

All second.

0:28

All right.

0:29

Those in favor of approving the minutes from February meeting.

0:34

All right.

0:35

Perfect.

0:37

Next up, any changes to the order of the agenda that you all should have.

0:43

Okay.

0:44

Sounds good.

0:45

Hearing no changes, then we'll go ahead and move on to any reports or increase to report from the city attending office.

0:53

Thank you, Mr.

0:54

Chair.

0:54

Nothing to report on each one.

0:56

Okay.

0:58

All right.

0:59

I do see a couple folks here.

1:02

We have an open commentary.

1:03

Does anybody want to make a comment?

1:05

Okay.

1:06

If not, then we can we can go ahead and skip through that.

1:10

All right.

1:11

Moving on.

1:11

It looks like our first item of our only item of unfinished business relates to the um updates we had suggested to City Code uh section two-16.

1:23

And I will again hand it over to the city attorney to present this item.

1:29

Yes, and if Jody has anything to add, um she can do that.

1:33

I think just the summary is that the process went smoothly uh through the standard RCA uh for the city council.

1:41

Um I was not aware of any specific questions or inquiries or concerns from city council members or from administration and um uh process and approval is going smoothly.

1:55

Great.

1:56

Joey might need to remind me of um where we're at with the first or second reading.

2:02

First reading was held April 6th, so now the second and final meeting will happen May 4th.

2:08

Plus that first council meeting.

2:10

Yeah, and then if it's read twice, then it becomes adopted automatically.

2:14

Okay.

2:16

Great.

2:16

That's that's exciting.

2:18

Great to know that we made a little contribution to keeping these up to date there.

2:23

Super.

2:24

Okay.

2:25

Um looks like our item of new business today is an update um on the 311 system.

2:32

So I see we have some nice notes and a plantation.

2:35

Um and this is just a follow-up on some conversations we had back in 2024 when uh free one was kind of new.

2:43

We were hoping it would help us um direct people the right way if they had complaints that were maybe not necessarily ethics complaints that had been coming in on our forum.

2:52

Um so yeah, we uh invited George it sounds like back to talk about this, and I'll go ahead and turn it over for uh whatever you'd like to share about how it's been going since then.

3:05

Uh thank you.

3:07

So uh um my name is George Lynch.

3:09

I'm uh the 311 customer service supervisor.

3:12

Um so uh last year, 2025 was our first full year in operation.

3:16

Um so in the first year we were able to gather quite a uh a bit of data as far as uh what our uh residents wanted from us, uh what the usage would be like.

3:26

Um of the things that we found out early on was that uh inspection services was going to be our number one uh service to uh the city.

3:35

So uh special services account for about 2025 of our call volume, and so we have a lot of construction as you know, downtown.

3:44

Uh a lot of contractors uh rather uh call us and have us stable inspections rather than uh then having to log on and you know they're walking around downtown, especially in the subway, you know, they don't get very good service, so they just rather call us and uh uh for us to uh send those inspections.

4:00

Um if you see uh the chart, right?

4:06

Um a lot of uh the usage that we uh we saw was uh the call volume was mostly a lot of uh contractors and a lot of inspection setting up uh in the summer.

4:18

Uh quite a few uh poll grass and we complaints is what we get in boulevard tree issues.

4:23

Um we see that uh there are some things that are gonna be cyclical, uh parson rec uh very low call volume uh in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of the year.

4:33

They're heavy uh times are gonna be uh in summer.

4:37

So uh during the winter we average uh right around 140, 150 calls per day in the summer that goes up to about 240 uh calls a day.

4:45

Uh so again, a lot of usage uh from uh the residents calling in, uh asking for park information, uh when uh you know where we're getting calls and when is the quite center gonna open uh and stuff like that.

4:56

So again, a lot of uh information seeking.

5:00

uh in the fourth quarter in the first quarter of the year their heavy uh times are gonna be uh in summer so uh during the winter we average uh right around 140 150 calls per day in this summer that goes up to about 240 uh calls a day uh so again a lot of usage uh from uh the residents calling in uh asking for park information uh when uh you know we're already getting calls a winner that aquatic center gonna open uh and stuff like that so again a lot of uh information seeking we also noticed that uh early on in uh the first quarter of uh 2025 and then in the second quarter 2025 that uh we were uh having uh two types of residents if you will right we have a lot of people that rather call in and engage with a human being but we had a lot of people that like self-service and so we have this uh section in our 311 website that is the knowledge based article section uh and um so we started to build it up a lot it really started with uh parking and public transit information that's what a lot of people were when is this bus gonna be here where can I catch a bus to move the bus stop where do I go now uh so we really started robust uh parking and transit uh information section uh then we started to see that a lot of people uh wanted more information about permits I'm building uh a bathroom I'm building a shed what do I need to do where how do I get this permits and so we then started to really uh build up that section and now that's actually our most uh use session uh from community development uh so in the first quarter this year uh we had 1368 units from uh our uh community development session again a lot of uh permit information uh a lot of uh parameter information as far as like how do I submit the permit what kind of drawings do I need to submit uh and stuff like that so we just continue to build that and again it's actually turning to our number one service and and that is uh again the knowledge base section so that accounted for 80% of all of our actual interactions with the public so in the first quarter again 61397 uh views so every uh every week we continue to uh make it as robust as possible build it up uh and and also anytime anybody has a question that it's not necessarily city only it could be from Almstead county or maybe uh from the state we also kind of build that up because again if one person has the question we know that other people are gonna have the question so we try to uh make sure that that gets answered uh and even things that are kind of like one off uh we had somebody call in and say hey I was uh using sidewalk chalk with my kid and my neighbor told me that's illegal and that they were gonna turn me in is that true uh there was no easy answer to find so I uh double check with uh community development with public works created a KBA uh on where you can use sidewalk chart uh where you can't use it and now that's available so anytime anybody has question that again it could be a one off uh but but if we research it we make a KBA that again that way is always available so uh a lot of people just have gotten used to going to the KBA section and pre-money website first and seeking their information that way um then as far as uh our chat didn't approve from uh quarter one 2025 to now uh so again uh we start to see some trends as far as uh how much more in demand we are in 2026 versus uh the first quarter 2025 so our call volume increase by uh two percent our service requests increase by three percent uh what was again really interesting is from uh the KBA usage from one year to the next uh our KBA usage this year went up by 328 percent um again just a lot of people have gotten used to okay this is where I go for information and so now uh you know we maintain that and just uh keep growing it our chat by interactions increase by 75 percent again uh one of the things that we wanted to do was uh be available to everybody in the way they want to communicate uh so again if uh you know if my dad's gonna call my dad's gonna call my dad's not gonna use the chat bot uh he's not gonna uh worry too much about the KBA session where my son he's gonna do the chat bot first so again we wanted to make sure that no matter uh the age no matter uh uh your background no matter what language you use you can always engage with us a again right now uh the chatbots up to I believe seven eight languages available uh so again we get uh a lot of different people uh communicate with us if you go to page uh two um the report uh you see all the language that have been accessed by our residency um some were very expected like uh Spanish uh and uh Somali uh there are a few were uh a little uh surprising like uh wasn't expecting uh Haitian Creole but uh you know uh we are able to uh provide those service and again people can engage with us get whatever answer they want and the language they want to uh communicate with so uh it's coming in uh pretty handy for us to have that available for our residents uh in the second uh on the third page you'll see uh those are the uh calls that we processed in the first quarter 8914 and uh 244 uh voicemails again we do uh come in usually Monday morning there's quite a few voicemails from over the weekend where people have concerns and uh there were seeking uh some information to usually we come in Monday morning in the first hour we're really uh focus on the working those voicemails and get that information out uh to whoever needs it uh the next page is uh service request that we uh process um again uh if you look at uh this most submitted uh request in uh the first quarter 2247 uh inspection services again uh scheduling inspections and building electric uh

10:00

There's quite a few voicemails from over the weekend where people have concerns and uh that we're seeking uh some information to usually we come in Monday morning in the first hour, really uh focus on the working those voicemails and get that information out uh to whoever needs it.

10:13

Uh the next page is uh service requests that we uh process.

10:17

Um again, uh, if you look at uh this most submitted uh request in uh the first quarter, 2247 uh inspection services again, uh scheduling inspections and building, electric uh plumbing, mechanical inspections, and then it drops down to uh the information services uh down to 447, and then a lot of people uh you necessarily want to uh you know research things or uh not uh talk to a human being.

10:48

Uh a lot of the questions we get sometimes are very easily answerable, but again, people just want to engage with us and uh we definitely welcome that.

10:56

Um for the most part, you can see in uh the words, it's just about usually the same type of uh issue that everybody has.

11:04

Uh there's no real anomaly where uh you know one ward is really dealing with a lot of potholes versus you know no one else's.

11:11

Everybody just about has the same issues uh constantly, and uh again, we're able to uh process those and public works uh usage has uh gone up in through our ticket uh community development.

11:22

So again, uh we're able to uh report things a lot quicker.

11:26

Uh like this uh uh this winter uh we sunset uh portal for uh public works for people to submit uh any type of uh sidewalk snow issue.

11:35

Now they go right from 311, and again, you can access that on the app.

11:39

You can uh just give us a call, you can do it on the website.

11:41

So there's plenty of ways to uh to report some of these issues now.

11:46

And again, uh at the very last page, there's uh based articles that are viewed, and they again as you can see, just uh a lot of information.

11:54

Uh, our top article is uh our megal clinic and uh patient drop-off.

11:59

Uh it's got all the maps, it's got all the routes, uh, and it's got links to uh the Mayo Ballet and everything that way again.

12:05

Uh we normally get quite a few calls uh daily.

12:08

Uh part of the information again.

12:10

Hey, I'm visiting uh Rochester, I'm going to uh St.

12:14

Mary's on uh next Monday.

12:16

I see you guys have all kinds of uh construction.

12:20

How do I get?

12:21

And so we do help a lot of people navigate uh how to get from 1A to point B.

12:25

Uh, a lot of people will call and say, Hey, I'm staying at uh this hotel, I gotta catch the bus.

12:32

How do we get from point A to point B?

12:34

And you know, we'll bring up uh the bus routes and uh uh give them the schedule.

12:37

And so you're gonna have to catch bus 413, it would be at this bus stop at 817.

12:42

I'll get you there by nine.

12:45

And uh again, it's it's been uh very uh interesting uh development as far as how we uh have evolved.

12:55

Um our provider uh for uh our CRM is Catalyst, that's where we track all our tickets.

13:02

Um of the things that uh we have found from them, uh, even though we're a smaller city that uh they service, we actually get more KBA usage than most other cities do.

13:12

Um so one of the things they do on us uh is to uh do a webinar with them as far as uh how we were able to successfully uh get that KBA section uh uh to be so heavily utilized.

13:23

I think one of the things that uh makes this city unique is that we do have a lot of people that are uh already kind of inherently researchers, right?

13:31

So again, we have a lot of medical students, we have uh a lot of uh doctors, a lot of people that are used to doing a lot of research, and I think that's one of the things that have helped us kind of uh make it a lot more robust and make it more accessible, and people just repeatedly uh continue to use it.

13:47

Uh, does anybody have any questions?

13:50

I didn't understand what you said and catalyst that's oh catalyst uh that's uh the uh software system we use to track uh the service requests and actually uh uh put those in and then get those out to uh the different uh departments for them to process.

14:06

Yes.

14:06

Yeah, just uh as a citizen, I really appreciate what you guys are doing.

14:09

Uh sounds like some good work, and I appreciate hearing about how you know even one person has a random question that you know build up to your database, and it's kind of risking answering that every couple of years or whatever.

14:23

I think that's pretty cool.

14:25

Um, I'm just sort of curious about the the chat box.

14:28

So I have used it actually on uh the register site once and was pleased with that, but in general, I think from banks and stuff like that.

14:35

When I'm using chat boxes, I often find that they are not helpful.

14:39

And I'm just curious if you have a sense of the percentage of times people are satisfied with the answer they get or the where they get led with a chat box versus calling and saying, I tried that chat box, and you know, it's uh so every morning I try to go through uh the chatbot uh questions and answers.

15:00

Uh so what I do is uh, for example, I say somebody had a question and they turned out no results.

15:03

Uh at that point, I'll figure out why uh maybe that wasn't a uh question and answer that is easy and accessible on our main website.

15:11

What I'll do is I'll create a uh a knowledge-based article, and then I will uh contact uh the chatbot uh uh provider city bot and I'll tell them, hey, if these questions come up, I have it linked to this KBA.

15:25

And so then you know that's fixed, and I need to get an answer.

15:28

So for example, if you were to uh research uh or search uh how to dedicate a park bench through the chat bot, it will link to uh the KPA we made because again that information wasn't available before.

15:41

So I uh consulted with uh parks and rights like hey, who's the person that actually process these issues?

15:47

Uh then you know we added the pricing, we added uh the time frame for you to uh request it and when it would actually be uh deployed by the city.

15:55

And you know, I think uh the deadline is uh February every year uh to have that summer set up.

16:02

And um I also see that a lot of people search information that have nothing to do with any city, have nothing to do uh with uh our uh our processes and what we provide.

16:13

I've seen people uh search uh chocolate chip cookies recipes, and then that didn't yield the result, and then they get upset and that well if we provide city services, we don't really do a lot of recipes here.

16:27

Uh so you you definitely see a wide range of uh questions, but again, most of the questions in the chat line are uh parking related and uh transit related.

16:36

Uh just about every morning uh you'll see a bunch of searches for uh different buses and how do I get here?

16:43

Uh, what time is this bus coming in?

16:45

Uh or again, hey, the bus was 10 minutes late.

16:49

Make sure you guys uh fix the issue.

16:52

So uh we do get a lot of uh interactions uh with them.

16:55

Uh Sad with Truth sometimes people uh just put things in a chat bot just to uh hopefully bother people.

17:02

So there's a lot of cursing and a lot of the city stinks or whatever, you know, whatever injustice they feel is out there, they'll uh let me know through the chat bot.

17:12

Yeah, that's cool.

17:13

Not the worst place to let people vent, I guess.

17:15

Yeah, yeah.

17:15

I guess it would not have occurred to me that at any regular interval, a real person would be reading it.

17:21

Sure.

17:21

So it's kind of it's cool to learn kind of.

17:24

Um the reason I really started doing that, uh, you never know what people will do.

17:28

So I've seen uh people report animal abuse through it.

17:31

And so I'll look at all the searches and then I'll just submit a ticket to the police or wherever it needs to go because some people uh will use it to communicate things or report things that that's not necessarily what it's meant to do.

17:44

Sure, but you know, we make sure that at least we make uh a service request that way the report does not go unheard.

17:51

Yeah, as a citizen, I really appreciate that.

17:53

Yeah, so this is maybe a follow-up question, but one of the notes was there are 17 service requests submitted via the chat box.

18:00

So is that like the chat bot actually handles submitting it, or is that somebody getting a link to a separate site to submit it, or is that you reading it and then doing it?

18:08

Don't scroll directly uh to uh our uh service request uh software.

18:13

So we have it linked so you can let's say report a pothole right through the chatbot.

18:17

Um you just give us the location, pothole, you don't have to put your name or anything like that.

18:21

Sure.

18:22

And it gets uh imported right into uh our service request software.

18:26

Yeah, that's awesome.

18:27

Um then my only other question, just since you know, um kind of related to our stuff is that is there a knowledge based article for ethical complaints yet?

18:36

Uh yeah, we do have it.

18:37

Um right now, um I've sunset for now because it the link that it goes to, yeah, uh does not pass uh DCAG uh 2.1.

18:47

Oh so as soon as uh we have it set up that it will pass, then I'll uh I'll redeploy it again.

18:53

Okay.

18:53

That's a is that an accessibility standard?

18:56

Okay, yeah, in that academic.

18:57

Yeah, uh right now that's uh what I'm doing for this whole share next two weeks, only working with uh accessibility issue.

19:04

Okay, very cool.

19:06

So a person who can call in and report a crime.

19:12

Or an alleged crime also and then you would report that to the police.

19:19

So if we get a uh a live call, we automatically will connect them to the police.

19:24

Um, however, uh people can report it uh through uh 311.

19:28

Um that's what I'm talking about.

19:30

I mean, if I call 311 and say this person was doing a criminal act, what happens with that?

19:40

At that point, we uh we connect you with the police department that way they can get the information uh right away.

19:45

If uh live person does a lot of person, yeah.

19:49

And if it's a uh issue where uh we feel it should be a 911 actual call, uh we will ask you uh down 911 reason being um the police have uh their phone system has uh let's call the alley and Annie, uh their automated number identifiers, automated uh location identifier.

20:00

Um the police have uh their phone system has uh let's call it Ali and Annie.

20:02

Uh their automated number identifiers, automated uh location identifier.

20:07

And so uh it helps police uh or the fire dispatcher uh locate you and make sure that uh you know they they can verify uh the location of the instant stuff like that.

20:18

So we usually tell people if it's a 911 issue, please disconnect me uh down 911 because that would be handy for the dispatchers to be able to get that information right away.

20:28

So if I call 311, do I always get a live person or uh yeah, that's one of those things that uh a lot of uh our uh providers uh keep wanting uh to sell us an automated uh uh AI that will, you know, you have to engage with it personally.

20:48

I feel like every time I call uh one of these services and I want to talk to a lab operator, it takes me you know 10 20 minutes of going back and forth with this uh phone uh AI and so personally I will always uh advocate for having a live person uh there.

21:05

Uh again, it's just uh so much easier to uh to interact with people that way, and again, it really cuts down a frustration.

21:13

Uh a lot of the times people will call and we answer and they're they're like, is this a live person?

21:17

Are you in Rochester?

21:19

Is that yeah, we're right in the city hall.

21:21

So if they call you, then will you say, Do you want to go to chat bot?

21:26

Do you direct them that way?

21:28

Oh no, no, we'll always if you call us, we're always gonna process everything on the phone.

21:33

We're never gonna uh tell you to uh no log into this system, do this, do that.

21:38

Uh and if you call us, we'll 100% take care of uh your issue while on the phone.

21:42

So how do I just say that you can tell them how do I use this system?

21:49

Uh if I call 311, I'm gonna get a live person if I want to chat, but what do I do?

21:56

Oh, yeah, if you want to engage with the chat, I think you go to the main website.

21:59

Oh okay.

22:02

And again, uh you can just about uh report just about any issue you have.

22:08

Uh you know, when forestry uh goes out and they uh put the little flags down, letting people know that they're gonna be planting a new boulevard tree, but they have the ability to opt out.

22:16

We have a ticket for that, so you just give us a call.

22:19

Hey, my name is John, I live in this my address.

22:22

I don't want any more trees.

22:23

I'm titled leaves, and we'll uh we'll look at that so maybe or again, people uh sometimes call and they want to see uh they want to find out what type of tree is going to be planted, and so uh we processed that for uh forestry as well.

22:36

I like to hear that you're you're looking to keep that real person.

22:40

Well, that's I think it's important.

22:42

Um considering the demographic of people that live in Rochester, like we mentioned researchers and things like that, but we also have a pretty aging population as well, or you mention your dad, right?

22:54

Like my mom would call in as well.

22:56

Um and then also like a lot of people that are coming to Rochester uh are for mayor.

23:02

And so you think about people visiting the hotels or um even coming to live here temporarily uh in like long-term housing.

23:10

Um they're going through enough stress in their life.

23:13

Uh it's usually not a positive reason why somebody comes to visit Rochester.

23:17

Uh and so being able to talk to somebody on the other end that understands you know the situation that they're in.

23:23

Um, I think is very important.

23:24

Having like a warm, you know, warm voice on the other side that understands and can be compassionate.

23:30

Um, you know, found that to be very important with people visiting town.

23:33

Yeah, but also the people who live here.

23:35

Um my question would be how do you ensure that like your information is updated?

23:41

So um like uh downtown uh downtown all day, every day, and I see the construction and all of a sudden the road is closing and that sort of thing.

23:51

Like, do they proactively reach out to you?

23:54

Do you see something?

23:54

I mean, I guess you could probably have a beat on city construction and that sort of thing, but like how do you ensure those are updated?

24:00

Yeah, so uh public works will uh notify me anytime they're gonna start any type of uh new uh plan or they're gonna reroute uh any traffic.

24:08

And again, uh we have uh a few KVAs that I should link to uh uh the public works uh mapping and everything.

24:15

That way, everything is lacking.

24:17

Yeah, right.

24:22

Any other questions?

24:24

Thanks.

24:25

Uh yeah, thanks for thinking the time is super cool to get an updated.

24:31

And uh again, uh if you haven't used it, uh definitely uh give it a try.

24:35

Just about every uh every city service that you may need, uh you can access right there.

24:39

I went on a walk and there's a bus that I'm sidewalk last night, so I'll I'll try it out tonight on my walk back and take the picture and submit it once I remember where it is.

24:47

Yeah, we've already started getting tickets uh uh the live scooter snap park properly.

24:52

So we're already handling those as well.

24:54

Very cool, super awesome.

24:58

Thank you.

25:00

Random fun thing that once if you want to figure out if the person speaking to is a real person or AI, ask them to list all the presidents in alphabetical order if they can do it.

25:09

Probably not yeah, I think uh probably uh my theme would probably like excuse me, what we can build our live person, yeah.

25:25

You guys are thank you.

25:33

That would be wrong.

25:38

All right, um, but we can go ahead and move along to item 16, which is uh complaint that was submitted on April 7th.

25:48

Um so just uh to reiterate complaints that we receive are not public data, so the complaint um is not in the public packet, and then we will just discuss the complaint without referring to the um complainant.

26:05

So um, I believe this is maybe related to some earlier complaints that the name looked familiar to me.

26:12

I don't know if that's actually the epic score, yeah.

26:17

No, not that I'm aware.

26:19

Okay, all right, unless a similar theme a little bit, but I think a different person who you were thinking.

26:26

Sure, sure.

26:27

Yeah, so the complaint itself is a little bit hard to follow.

26:30

As I mean, are we allowed to read the text within the complaint itself, not mentioning the submitter or who it's against?

26:38

Yes.

26:39

Well, maybe maybe I'll just read it.

26:41

Sure, yeah, I guess the I would say like the sentence that you know begins the instruction of what put in the box.

26:48

And then we'll actually, but you know, they're filling in a form.

26:50

Right, right.

26:51

Yeah, and then there's an instruction about you know what what is one hit in the text box.

26:55

Yeah, actually.

26:56

Yeah, the form asks for a statement of the facts now, including the approximate dates of the alleged acts, and then a maximum of sudden characters, and then the text in the box itself.

27:06

Um you all can uh probably take a look, but it basically says the Department of War, the US National Security Ward board, it's a list of agencies and the Nuremberg judgment of engineering convention, so it's kind of wide ranging.

27:22

And the Rochester Library, uh yeah, and then uh it does refer to a specific case number, so maybe that gives us a little bit of guidance for potentially how to direct list, and then also mentions filing something with the Justice Department, the federal government justice department.

27:38

So um definitely wide-ranging.

27:40

Um we've received the points like this before that don't even seem to relate directly to the named subject of the complaint or anything that would fall under our complaint.

27:51

Yeah, there's not really a yeah.

27:53

If it's in there, I can't participate.

27:55

So um, I I know I read this, and but I can't find it in what she's wondering if you know why that would be we don't attach it to the agenda.

28:07

Yeah, it's not like I know I read it in some way.

28:11

Usually, I didn't remember.

28:20

Yeah, um did you have anything to add, Mr.

28:24

City Attorney?

28:25

Uh I do when you're ready, just for some additional background.

28:29

Um be consistent with your impression of what the complaint was about.

28:36

Um just our due diligence as to um I did send an email to the complainant to see if she wanted to speak um directly to to better understand the complaint.

28:50

I did not receive a response.

28:53

Um I did look up the court file number, the court file number itself was not a real court file number, but I did um her name.

29:04

Um, and there are winona related cases, which is the code, the the 85 um file code.

29:13

Um, and there were indications of um court file history consistent with um mental health questions, sure, including um uh a competency file as well as uh um a finding let me rephrase that the civil commitment file um as well as um other criminal matters that resulted in a a non-competent finding group.

29:40

Um so uh those are in one order.

29:43

Yes.

29:45

I did also um just reach out to the um the respondent, the named respondent in the complaint just to confirm that he didn't have any awareness of this individual, and um he did not doesn't know the name, wouldn't have any reason to know why this name was put into the complaint.

30:08

So okay.

30:09

Um just wanted to at least do that uh due diligence to confirm and make sure that there wasn't anything there to uh that need further exploration.

30:23

All right, so typically we would need uh either a motion for how to make a motion.

30:30

Um I appreciate the extra due diligence and based on that and the fact that there is no actual complaint in the complaint and field.

30:39

I would like to make a motion for dismissal.

30:42

Okay, I'll check up with this then second.

30:44

Uh any additional discussion words or comments on it.

30:50

No right, all those in favor of dismissing the complaint.

30:54

Okay, okay.

30:56

Sounds like this universe.

30:58

Great.

30:59

All right.

31:00

Um yeah, and thanks also again to the city for the follow-up, and just making sure that there's not something it can be difficult to figure out with complaints like that that are all over the place, but we obviously want to make sure that there isn't something there before we dismiss it.

31:15

So I appreciate having the extra information.

31:18

Okay.

31:18

Um other item of last business, which is the expiring terms.

31:25

Um I think two of us are expiring at the end of this meeting.

31:30

So I have the city attorney listed as the presenter here.

31:35

I'm not sure there's much to present.

31:37

We kind of know what's happening, but um, I'm like one morning with the process sugar.

31:45

Um, well, the current process we have six names that will go before council for public comments.

31:52

Okay.

31:53

That will be on April 20th.

31:55

Um the appointing committee will then meet on April 30th to make the final appointments for the positions of Gloria and Daniel as their terms expire at the end of the month.

32:09

So it'll be appointed before the May 1st.

32:14

Um great.

32:16

Glad to hear that there's still interest in folks that don't fill the seats.

32:20

So yeah.

32:22

Um there was seven, but one was not eligible because I've had because it was portional.

32:28

Yeah.

32:28

Yeah.

32:29

That's it has all these six names that will go for council on Monday.

32:33

Great.

32:34

Of course, we thank you tremendously.

32:36

We thank you, Gloria, as well, for your time on the board and um all your contributions.

32:42

It's reinforcement's been great working with both of you.

32:46

Thanks, Wilson.

32:47

Look forward to maybe seeing you back.

32:48

Yeah, yeah.

32:49

I mean, from my point of view, it's been super working with with you and Michael, obviously, to make our job really easy.

32:55

Just kind of show up and do what we have to do.

32:58

So we appreciate all of that.

32:59

Um, it's been kind of a crazy six years to be on the board study in the middle of the pandemic when everything was on Zoom for a while, and then you know, we had I think we had one year where we maybe had four meetings in the whole year, something like that.

33:12

So it's been good to get back to a little more regularity.

33:15

I think um I'm happy to leave seeing that we were able to make some contributions to the city code to clean things up a little bit um and deal with all the complaints that have come in, most of which have been fairly easy, but a couple with some substance too.

33:31

So I appreciate everybody's contributions to the discussion and all of that.

33:36

Um sad to leave, but I know everybody will keep things going.

33:42

Yeah.

33:43

Thank you so much for preserving with us and serving as chair.

33:48

Um excellent job.

33:50

Appreciate it.

33:52

Thanks.

33:53

It's been a pleasure working with all of you, and I've learned a lot about the process and city government.

33:57

It's been a great experience, and I'm glad that there are others that are seeking the opportunity because I think it's a great opportunity.

34:07

Your vice president would you be um heading up the main meeting?

34:12

Sure, okay.

34:13

I think I think we'll be doing like elections the next one, right?

34:16

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah.

34:18

I'll throw it out.

34:19

Okay.

34:21

Great.

34:23

All right.

34:23

Uh there's no other items.

34:25

That's that's it for our agenda.

34:27

So thanks, Jim.

34:28

Actually, one more thing.

34:29

Um just with the new website, the website was launched for the city of Rochester yesterday.

34:35

Um, so when I sent out the double delivery message on Monday, the links probably were not working when you opened it because of the transition to the new website.

34:43

So I apologize if that happened to you.

34:45

Um going forward, we will no longer be publishing full agenda packets on our website so that we can be in compliance with our AEA requirements.

34:57

So we're working on that.

35:00

There will be a lot more links probably within the agenda itself.

35:02

So it's HTML, it's accessible right off the bat, and we don't have to be concerned about any PDF that may not be compliant.

35:12

Now we're doing a staff or anything that's sent to us for PDF, we will do with the accessibility checkers and get them into compliance if we can.

35:22

But this board is easy because there usually isn't a lot of attachments.

35:25

But if you have a bigger board or commission with a lot of attachments, it can be very time consuming and overwhelming.

35:32

So the directive has been no full packets, agenda only, and we will do a lot more linking within that agenda to make it more ADA compliant.

35:42

So there will be some different changes coming down for the main meeting.

35:47

Okay.

35:47

So we're we're all working very diligently to get everything where it needs to be.

35:52

That sounds like a big list, yeah.

35:53

It is a big task.

35:54

You can imagine anything with like building sketches or site plans or any of that stuff.

35:58

That's probably.

35:59

Oh, I'm sure, yeah.

36:00

So I'll be doing the I'll be re-updating the links to the gov delivery notifications.

36:07

So there's still a lot of things to be worked out yet.

36:10

Great.

36:12

All right.

36:13

And the next meeting just for everybody's income is the 21st of May.

36:16

Is that correct?

36:18

Thursday.

36:21

Uh May 21st.

36:22

Yes.

36:23

That will not be available.

36:26

Okay.

36:27

All right.

36:28

Thanks again, everybody.

36:29

And uh that's it.

36:32

Thank you.

36:32

It's great.

36:33

Thank you.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Technology and Innovation█████████████████████████████████████████████54%
Pending Litigation████████████████19%
Procedural███████████13%
Public Engagement███████8%
Personnel Matters███4%
Accessibility and Inclusion██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Ethical Practices Board Meeting - April 21, 2026

Note: The agenda and minutes indicate the meeting was originally scheduled for April 16, 2026, but the provided instruction states the meeting took place on April 21, 2026. This summary uses the date from the instruction.

The Ethical Practices Board of Rochester, Minnesota met on April 21, 2026, at City Hall, Room 104. All seven members were present. The meeting covered approval of previous minutes, an update on amendments to the city ethics code, a presentation on the 311 system, review of a complaint, and recognition of departing members.

Consent Calendar

  • Approval of Minutes (February 19, 2026): Approved unanimously by a vote of 7 ayes. Motion by Faye Harris, seconded by Timothy Hornseth.

Reports

  • Reports/Inquiries: No reports or inquiries to report.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Open Comment Period: No members of the public wished to speak; the period was closed.

Discussion Items

  • Update on Amendment to City Code 2-16 (Public Ethics): The city attorney reported that the amendment process through the city council was proceeding smoothly with no questions or concerns. The first reading was held on April 6, 2026, and the second and final reading is scheduled for May 4, 2026, after which the amendment will be adopted automatically. Board members expressed satisfaction with their contribution to updating the code.
  • 311 System Update: George Lynch, 311 Customer Service Supervisor, presented data from 2025, the first full year of operation. Key statistics: call volume averages 140–150 per day in winter and 240 per day in summer. Knowledge Base Articles (KBA) accounted for 80% of interactions, with 61,397 views in the first quarter of 2026. Year-over-year, KBA usage increased by 328%, chat interactions by 75%, call volume by 2%, and service requests by 3%. The most submitted service request in Q1 2026 was inspection services (2,247). The chatbot supports 7–8 languages. Board members asked about chatbot satisfaction rates, accessibility standards (the knowledge base article for ethics complaints is temporarily sunset due to accessibility issues), and the availability of live operators. Lynch confirmed that callers always reach a live person and that the chatbot is monitored for unusual reports (e.g., animal abuse) which are then forwarded to appropriate departments.
  • Review of Complaint/Inquiry: A complaint submitted on April 7, 2026, was reviewed. The complaint was difficult to follow, referencing federal agencies, the Nuremberg judgment, and a court case number. The city attorney investigated: the court file number was not real, but the complainant had a mental health history including a civil commitment and a finding of incompetence. The named respondent had no knowledge of the complainant. The board determined the complaint did not allege a violation falling under its jurisdiction. A motion to dismiss was made by Faye Harris, seconded by Timothy Hornseth, and passed unanimously.

Other Business

  • Term Expirations: Two members—Gloria DeBusman and Daniel Borup—have terms expiring at the end of April. Six candidates will be presented to the city council for public comment on April 20, 2026, and the appointing committee will meet on April 30 to make final appointments. The board thanked both members for their service.
  • New City Website: The city launched a new website on April 20, 2026. Going forward, full agenda packets will no longer be published as PDFs to ensure ADA compliance; agendas will contain more links. Board members acknowledged the increased workload for staff.

Key Outcomes

  • Minutes approved (unanimous).
  • Complaint dismissed (unanimous).
  • Next meeting scheduled for May 21, 2026.

Meeting Transcript

So we find out at the end of the year. We are sorry. Okay. Thanks everybody for being here. Looks like we have a full contingent. First thing is to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Do you have any comments or the motion to approve? Make a motion to approve. Okay. All second. All right. Those in favor of approving the minutes from February meeting. All right. Perfect. Next up, any changes to the order of the agenda that you all should have. Okay. Sounds good. Hearing no changes, then we'll go ahead and move on to any reports or increase to report from the city attending office. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing to report on each one. Okay. All right. I do see a couple folks here. We have an open commentary. Does anybody want to make a comment? Okay. If not, then we can we can go ahead and skip through that. All right. Moving on. It looks like our first item of our only item of unfinished business relates to the um updates we had suggested to City Code uh section two-16. And I will again hand it over to the city attorney to present this item. Yes, and if Jody has anything to add, um she can do that. I think just the summary is that the process went smoothly uh through the standard RCA uh for the city council. Um I was not aware of any specific questions or inquiries or concerns from city council members or from administration and um uh process and approval is going smoothly. Great. Joey might need to remind me of um where we're at with the first or second reading. First reading was held April 6th, so now the second and final meeting will happen May 4th. Plus that first council meeting. Yeah, and then if it's read twice, then it becomes adopted automatically. Okay. Great. That's that's exciting. Great to know that we made a little contribution to keeping these up to date there. Super. Okay. Um looks like our item of new business today is an update um on the 311 system. So I see we have some nice notes and a plantation. Um and this is just a follow-up on some conversations we had back in 2024 when uh free one was kind of new. We were hoping it would help us um direct people the right way if they had complaints that were maybe not necessarily ethics complaints that had been coming in on our forum.

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