Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting was held on Monday, September 22, 2025, but the instruction provided states the meeting date is September 23, 2025. This summary uses the instructed date.
The Rochester City Council met for a regular session on September 23, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. (Rochester Public Utilities Community Room, 4000 East River Road NE). The meeting covered a wide range of topics including public comment, legislative updates, consent agenda approvals, public hearings on development plats and CDBG funding, the 2026 preliminary tax levy and budget, a renewable energy power purchase agreement, and a tabled item on administrative citations.
Welcome. Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance. And one nation under the interest. Thank you. And welcome to our uh Monday, September 22nd uh city council meeting. Uh we begin every city council meeting with our open comment period. This is a time uh where anybody has two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes. And uh I request that each speaker be concise to allow more people to speak during the designated time. Uh participants are also encouraged to uh limit comments generally to topics that are within uh the scope and jurisdiction of the city's uh ability to affect policy. Uh council members and staff do not respond directly to your comments during public comment, but instead will follow up as on any specific requests separately. If you have materials to share with the council, you may give them to the city clerk uh over there. Uh Clerk Queso, could you raise your hand? And uh she will distribute materials to the council. And uh I will also be keeping track of time through two methods. One is a stopwatch back there that's set currently for two minutes, and so you can you will be able to see that from the podium. And then there's also a stoplight there over by the mayor that will at I believe the one-minute mark will start to give you a yellow light. So with that, I will um go to our list, and we have uh Molly Dennis. Okay, um thank you so much. On August 18th, the National Civic League inquired about these uh civic engagement cards that you all got to decrease to help address the decreased public engagement at city council meetings. Here are the facts. September 8th, along with a the local news reporter, myself and half a dozen residents showed up at City Hall. We had done a prior Google search, and that is where the meeting was said to be, but in fact, it was here. It had been moved to RPU and thus silenced an incredible amount of voices at that this month's meeting. Uh also these constant changes in location disrupt public engagement, having only two short minutes, which are subjectively enforced, uh, if you look at the record, lead residents to believe that their voices do not matter. Moving the council meetings to 6 p.m., which is a proven dinner time, has also had a substantial substantial drop in public engagement. I was there for the vote and have seen it happen. Silence pub silencing public comment on all Rochester social media has proved to residents that Rochester, all of you do not care about their opinions. And having meetings behind closed doors erode public trust, and that transparency is trust. So I just asked that please do not falsely claim that our city or anyone on the dias here cares for residents, what residents think as your actions and your policy prove otherwise. And since I have just a moment of time, I would like to also address the 311 system that fails to respond to citizens' questions. So ask that President Schuebring if you could help enforce that your statement that uh staff or council will follow up. I would like staff and council to follow up on all the previous months of questions that I have had about potential wasteful spending here in Rochester that will impact their taxpayer dollars in the future. So I appreciate those uh two things being done. And I hope and just want to thank thank you for the very brief two minutes of time. Thank you, Miss Dennis. Uh uh Miss Dennis is the only person who signed up. Is there anyone else wishing to be heard during our open comment period? Anyone else wishing to be heard during our open comment period? Seeing none, I will close open comment period and ask Clerk Caseel to please call the roll. Good evening. Councilmember Keene. Here. Councilmember Miller. Here. Councilmember Wall. Here. Councilmember Fredericks. Councilmember Palmer. Here. Councilmember Doring.