City Council Meeting Summary: October 20, 2025
City Council Meeting Summary: October 20, 2025
The City Council of Rochester convened its first meeting in the newly renovated high-tech chambers, beginning with a public comment period addressing bullying prevention, municipal transparency, and concerns over public fund usage. Following administrator and mayor reports highlighting the city's "Just Serve" designation and new police officer inductions, the council conducted public hearings on land vacancy, a new housing plat, and amendments to the Unified Development Code. Significant discussions centered on the UDC text amendments regarding cannabis and liquor restrictions, the approval of a $1 million homeownership subsidy for a new development, the procurement of secondary firm natural gas for the energy station, and a major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system upgrade agreement. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the 2026 council calendar, the acceptance of federal grant applications, and a debate regarding councilmember compensation increases.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the consent agenda in blocks F1-F3 and F7-F20 (Items F4, F5, and F6 were pulled by councilmembers for separate discussion).
- Adopted a resolution approving the vacation of a public utility easement for Lot 12 and 13 of the Golden Hill Industrial Addition (Item G1), subject to the recordation of a replacement easement.
- Adopted a resolution approving the final plat for Creek View Meadows 3rd (Item G2), subdividing eight acres into 26 residential lots with three conditions to ensure compliance with an existing development agreement regarding a left-turn lane.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Molly Dennis: Expressed strong opposition to the city's current engagement practices, characterizing the administration's behavior as abusive control tactics, including denying information and blocking social media feedback. She cited Councilmember Doring's threats and Mayor Norton's use of fear mongering as examples of eroding public trust.
- Jesse: Expressed concern that ATMs and cell phones may be compromised, presenting a receipt discrepancy regarding an EBT transaction amount ($113.85 minus $40, resulting in a reported discrepancy of $1 vs. $73.85), and questioned the transparency of tax collections on these funds.
Discussion Items
- Unified Development Code (UDC) Text Amendments (Item G4): Staff proposed updates to align with state statutes regarding cannabis and liquor spacing, increase height limits in MXS zones, and regulate wireless towers. A motion to amend the cannabis/liquor provisions to exclude "rooming houses" from the distance calculations and remove the word "public" regarding school parcels was debated. Several members expressed concerns about the clarity of the amendment, potential legal inconsistencies with state law, and the scope of affected parcels.
- Homeownership Creation Program (Item H1): The council reviewed a recommendation to contribute $1 million (via sales tax) to the London Brook Ponds development to subsidize 54 single-family attached units priced at or below $350,000. This subsidy aims to assist households at 115% of the area median income. In exchange, the developer agrees to resale restrictions for five years and rental restrictions for ten years.
- Natural Gas Supply Agreement (Item H2): RPU staff recommended amending the West Side Energy Station's gas contract to move from "interruptible" service to "secondary firm" tier. This change ensures gas availability during peak winter demand and critical outages, maintaining the plant's accreditation value. The cost is projected to be approximately $1 adder per unit, with the expectation that the plant will run fewer hours overall due to the higher dispatch cost, resulting in lower overall emissions.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System (Item H3): The council was asked to authorize an agreement with HCL (implementer) and SAP (provider) for a new cloud-based ERP system. This project aims to integrate disparate city and RPU systems, addressing end-of-life issues for JDE (city) and SAP (RPU), reducing security risks, and improving HR and financial efficiencies. A 25% contingency was included in the cost estimate ($12.9 million for city portion). Debate ensued regarding the necessity of the high contingency and the cultural changes required for implementation.
- Grant Applications (Item H4): The council authorized applications for the Mayor's Alliance Action Fund to End Child Hunger and the U.S. Conference of Mayors Healthy and Sustainable Communities Grant. Staff confirmed the existence of micro-contract processes to manage reporting and fund acceptance if awarded.
- 2026 Council Calendar (Item H5): A debate occurred regarding the cadence of regular meetings versus study sessions. An amendment was adopted to shift the July meeting from the 13th to the 6th (the first Monday), change the 13th to a study session, and remove the June 29th study session to align with the charter's requirement for meetings on the first Monday unless it is a holiday.
- Justice Grants Application (Item H6): The council debated applying for a federal Office of Justice Programs grant for violence intervention. Concerns were raised regarding potential conflicts with federal directives on transgender issues. Council President Schubring moved to amend the resolution to authorize only the application initially, with the final contract review required upon award. The amendment passed, followed by the original motion.
- Bloomberg Harvard Fellow Grant (Item H7): The council debated a grant application to host a fellow to analyze future service delivery and revenue needs amidst rapid growth. Councilmember Palmer expressed concern that the position might lead to new permanent staffing costs without defined outcomes. The motion to submit the application passed.
- Council Member Compensation (Other Business): Mayor Norton proposed a cost-neutral adjustment for the 2026 budget, transferring $19,000 from the Mayor's Initiative Fund to fund a General Wage Increase (GWI) equivalent for all elected officials. She further proposed indexing future increases to the GWI. Several members expressed discomfort with the timing, the source of funds, or the principle of using initiative funds for salaries, leading to a decision to focus the discussion on an annual process for the 2027 budget.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous Votes: Approval of the consent calendar (excluding pulled items), the vacation of the utility easement, the Creek View Meadows final plat, the secondary firm gas supply agreement, and the authorization for grant applications (H4 and H6 amended).
- Text Amendment Vote: The Palmer amendment to the UDC regarding cannabis/liquor was voted down (4 Nay, 3 Aye, 1 Abstain/Not present implied as absent from roll call count or similar). A subsequent motion to remove the word "public" from the school definition passed unanimously.
- Budget and Calendar: Adoption of the amended 2026 council calendar (July 6th regular meeting, 13th study session; June 29th study session removed). No action was taken on the 2026 council member compensation increase, with the council agreeing to establish an annual process for future years.
- Grant Approvals: Authorization to apply for the Bloomberg Harvard Fellow host city grant (5 Aye, 2 Nay).
- Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned following all business items.
Meeting Transcript
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for relationship. Under God, indivisible liberty of justice for all. Welcome everybody to our October 20th City Council meeting. This is our first council meeting in our newly high tech chambers here. So welcome to the bright lights here. Bright lights in big city is what we are. So we open every council meeting with our open comment period. This is an opportunity for anyone from the public to speak on items that we will not be taking public testimony during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each uh person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes. I will be keeping track of time through a couple methods. One, uh the stop, uh the stoplight here, and then the the uh clock, the red clock below the the uh the clock there on the wall. Uh and so uh know that I may need to cut you off uh because of limited time. We want to make sure that others have an opportunity to speak. I'd also request that each speaker be concise to allow more people to speak, and participants are 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 period, but will instead follow up on any specific requests separately. If you have materials to share with the council, you may give them to the uh city clerk who is on my right, and uh you will now be invited up to speak in the order which you signed up, and we will start with Miss Molly Dennis. You may have to to uh hit the button there, hit the button on the the mic, and you'll see it'll turn green. Yep, there you go. All right. Thank you. Hi, I'm Molly Dennis. I'm a permanent resident of Rochester, a parent in a community advocate. October is national bullying prevention month. Our civic theater has presented the wonderful presentation of prom, which is a powerful showing of how bullying and ostracism can affect a community. Many of us in Rochester find it interesting that leaders can easily watch this uh message, but do not in fact look in the mirror themselves at their own behavior. Examples, Councilmember Doring showed up to my house for National Night Out, all while having threatened me in writing to never speak at a city council meeting. Mayor Norton blatantly fear mongers using media, which falsely slanders and weaponizes to destroy reputations, and even President Schubring promises that staff will follow up, yet our city continues to erode our public trust by denying to answer simple transparency questions. For example, how do you spend how many hours a week on city council work? The fact is limiting public speakers' voices, denying information, and blocking uh the social media feedback are all abusive control tactics used by other governments to silence their residents with the padded platitudes of these veneer tactics of these hoops right here that you are demanded to jump through. They are all window dressing to hide that the city's false claims that we are authentically wanting public engagement. We do not want public engagement if we require residents to have to go through extra means to do so. Integrity matters, transparency is trust. Please do better. Thank you. Next up, we have Jesse. I just have one name, Jesse. Is Jesse still here? Welcome. Please state your name, and you have two minutes. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Back in the 1800s, all the poor people had horses and rich people had automobiles. Today, all the poor people have automobiles and rich people have horses. I'm talking about money. This involves with everybody in town, I believe. How many of you have your cell phone here today? Come on, nobody's gonna officer, you ain't gonna arrest anybody, are you? Well, I didn't bring a cell phone in. Because in the rules, it says no cell phones, tobacco, vapes, and that's being honest, truth and the facts and the principle of it. I'm not very good at math. I fail math.
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