The Rochester City Council convened on August 18, 2025, for a regular session. The agenda included multiple public hearings, an update on the Destination Medical Center (DMC) plan, a detailed discussion on the future of transit services, and a resolution to improve public meetings. Several items pulled from the consent calendar were debated separately.
I currently have a public battery. I remember that. But it just takes a while. Recording in progress. Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance. Under God and justice for all. Thank you, and welcome to our August 18th Rochester City Council meeting. This is an opportunity for everyone, uh anyone from the public to speak on items that we will not be taking public testimony during during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes. One is the uh the stoplight here and then the red uh timer clock up there. Uh I'd request that speakers be concise to allow more people to speak during the designated time. And you are also uh encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy. Council members and staff do not respond to your comments during public comment, but uh instead will follow up on any specific requests that you have. If you have any materials to share with the council, you may give them to the city clerk who is to our right here, my right, uh, to distribute. Um you will be invited up to speak in the order that you signed up. And we will start uh this evening with Casey McGregor. Please state your name, and then Casey, if you could also push the um the button to turn on the mic. There you go. Thank you. Good evening, Council Casey McGregor. The City Council should demand that Mayor Norton, for as long as she may wish to remain mayor, may not be involved with or be involved with through her husband, Randy Stone, the Dark Money Group Indivisible 507, which calls for retaliatory boycotts against businesses, including the mayor's political critics. Randy Stone being on the board of this infamous dark money group, Indivisible 507 is unacceptable and presents a terrible conflict in the interests and potential for the abuse of power that should be investigated by the city council to avoid liability and violations of law. J1 removing the judicial branch involvement as first step of enforcement. This is unquestionably the shrinking of due process rights. Again, unquestionably shrinking due process rights. Very significant fines and penalties will be able to be handed out based upon one person's judgment or caprice, and the recourse for the affected business would be having to come before the body, the city council, with the burden of having to prove the city's agent was wrong or malicious. Regulations and training of inspectors and city enforcements should be reviewed and considered prior to arming them with potent new weapons with a high potential for abuse. F7 creating a broker for the city property removes control of a massive part of the city's finances from direct public oversight and control. This kind of thing avoids oversight and has massive potential for corruption and abuse. Thank you, Miss McGregor. Ms. McGregor, your time has the packet. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Molly Dennis. All right. Well, thank you so much for the two minutes. A month. As I think the residents' voices are very important. I moved here in Rochester in 2007. So close to 20 years ago. And I'm proud to say Rochester is my permanent home forever. I'm so I'm a very concerned citizen. And want to say that I believe that due process, transparency are both needed tremendously for government accountability. So for all of up on the diet, I hope that those two issues are taken very seriously. So I just wanted to put a friendly reminder that the trees that were promised to be replanted out in the parking lot have not been so and seem to be put grass over. So that's something that was maybe overlooked. And then parking spots, you hear the commercials. I say there's 5,000 parking spots downtown. However, I do not believe there's anywhere close to that of accessible parking spots.