Well, I was just gonna say I said my shorts on things that Palmer's short is.

I thought about it.

Thank you.

I felt no I felt no pressure riding the button today.

Did you write a button?

No.

I'm doing I left too late.

I didn't look at Hirdwood Video as much faster.

I got past most of you now.

She's on the show.

15 seconds.

One thing.

Everything we said.

So it gets captured.

That's why we're welcome everybody to our October 27th Rochester City Council study session.

We are five council members and SANs, a mayor, two council members, and a city administrator.

And we have two uh topics on our agenda tonight or this afternoon.

Uh we have our uh legislative uh priorities, and then we're going to hear about uh community engagement and 311.

So uh we'll start with Heather Cochran and our uh legislative agenda.

Thank you, Council President Schubring, Council members, Heather Corcoran, your legislative affairs and policy director for the city, and maybe we'll if I go to the next one.

There we go.

Thank you.

All right, well, uh today we're continuing our annual process to review and put forward to you all for feedback the proposed legislative priorities that would be carried forward during the next legislative session.

Looking for your um adjustments, any amendments at its additions, deletions as you review the proposed priority before they'd be considered for final adoption sometime in November or December.

This is an annual process you all are familiar with during the summer.

A big thanks to many of you who served on the league's policy committees and helped provide input into our state association that represents uh most of the cities around the state and is an important partner and stakeholder at the Capitol, along with other groups that teammates serve on through their professional capacity.

Councilmember Wall, Councilmember Miller, Keene, Doring, and the mayor all served on uh policy committees or task forces for the league, and then we had a handful of teammates who also provided input.

Huge thanks to them uh for helping uh put forward some important issues uh on Rochester's priority list onto the the league's priority list, and vice versa.

You'll hear some issues that emerged during the league's conversations that we may want to consider, um, including more directly in our own.

Uh we then convene uh uh two opportunities for teammates uh from all departments to provide feedback about legislative uh issues that might be impacting their ability to best serve residents in the community, and we gathered that up, and that's uh also included in some of the proposed priorities.

You'll see we have a legislative working group that also helped provide preliminary feedback on some uh emerging issues um during the interim of session here, and then you all are reviewing these uh and it's almost November.

You'll then consider them for final adoption either during uh your November council meeting or December council meetings.

We'll continue outreach with our legislative delegation.

The legislative session begins in February this year, which is a little bit of a later start, and then we'll um hopefully wrap up by May and continue uh participating in our state and national uh associations.

Before we dived into next year, I wanted to sort of just recap real quick the previous year to remind us what we came out of.

So a historic in many ways, there was a tie in the House after special elections were resolved after the first month or so of the legislative session.

A power sharing agreement was established, which resulted in co sh co-chairs for all the committees, nearly all of them, and uh things had to have bipartisan support to move forward out of committees and onto the floor.

The Senate also was as close as it could possibly be without uh with uh DFL um majority by one vote.

It was a budget year, and thankfully the budget was passed before the July 1st uh trigger, which would have resulted in a state government shutdown.

And I wouldn't have usually put bonding year on here the same time as a budget year, but turns out there was a bonding bill past this session, uh focused primarily on state assets such as uh Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, state agency buildings like DNR buildings at state parks.

There were very little to none local government projects in that bonding bill this past session, despite a lot of great effort and support from our local delegation for our priorities.

So looking forward as we're thinking about next session, again, starting February 17th, wrapping up third week in May.

Likely a House uh tie will repeat itself again.

There are, of course, some special elections that could result after a Senate special election gets resolved on election day if a current House member wins the Senate seat.

Um that uh also during the interim, of course, we had the uh tragic assassination of the Speaker Merita Hortman and attempted assassination of um Senator John Hoffman and his family, which resulted in a uh a special election for that seat and a new elected leader of the DFL House party who um has met with the uh speaker, the Republican leader, and they've decided to continue the share power sharing model.

So again, there will be a repeat of the co-chair model, presumably going into next session.

Again, needing bipartisan support for anything to pass out of the House committee.

There could be a bonding bill.

I think we should uh be optimistic and hopeful.

Hope Springs Eternal.

Uh, of course, we won't know until probably the final week or two of session if that's going to happen, but having it focus on local priorities would make sense given the focus last year that left that out.

Federal budget impacts was something that you saw on this slide.

If I would have predicted for last session and also for this coming session, based on the large bill that was passed on July 4th of this year at the federal level, and then also obviously the current federal government shutdown impacts that are starting to emerge, and a select committee is examining those in the interim, and then an election year.

So all the seats are up for grabs, and that always results in an interesting dynamic at the Capitol.

So looking at uh, and you might think this slide could have been about most of our priorities from last year that didn't quite get it uh across the finish line.

They also are similar to ones that we would look for focusing on in the coming year.

Uh legislative at the Chateau Theater providing some liquor license authority that did not make it across the finish line last year due to there being no overall liquor bill that that would have been included on.

We were one of about a dozen cities that missed uh that opportunity there.

There was continued discussion on housing and zoning.

We expect that to continue, and we want to be uh a part of that conversation and providing insight into what's working well for Rochester as a leader in this space.

The two bonding requests you see listed there could be part of our uh would be part of our priorities going forward.

We've got the sewer and water infrastructure project, and then the newer one focusing on Civic Center Drive in South Broadway and getting the design money for that.

And then also continuing efforts if there is appetite at the Capitol and the tax committee for sales tax exemptions for local government projects.

Again, we've got some really unique opportunities here with our water reclamation plant ongoing project and then the RPU advanced metering infrastructure equipment and projects that are underway are still eligible to presumably get funding in this way.

The bill just would need to be a little bit retroactive, and that's something that the legislature has considered previously.

This will look familiar as well, so thanks to the council for adopting our bonding priorities originally in June, and we included the airport project in that June adoption, and then in the last month, we updated that to remove the airport again due to uh the timing needs.

If there's ability to take advantage of the federal tax credit for that project, we can't wait for the state bonding funding to come through.

And so uh now focusing on these two projects and our number one priority being that sewer and water infrastructure investment, and then the second one being design money for Civic Center Drive.

Again, key word on both of these is that they are phasable and uh money put towards them could help really uh set us on a good path forward with helping with the the housing needs and our transportation infrastructure needs.

And also wanted to thank teammates and uh council members and folks who attended the Senate committee when they were in town in the past month or two to uh learn about these projects, and then we're also gearing up to host the House Committee and appreciate being part of their bonding tours around the state.

This is just more information about these two projects.

Again, phaseable is the key word as we move forward here.

Wanted to uh show some overlap between the council's adopted strategic priorities and our legislative priorities, and you'll see that on this slide with the yellow highlights.

The yellow highlights are potential new priorities that you'll see in the other attachment that I'll walk through in a second really briefly.

Could also be opportunity as you think about feedback that would be helpful here.

Is are there uh topics missing on here that you'd like us to look into further that you've heard discussed?

Um, things that came up during the League of Minnesota City's committee meetings this summer uh related to public officials data or public safety building upgrade costs, um federal support for emergency preparedness and FEMA programming.

Um there are a number of other topics that could be mentioned, um, but maybe I'll jump really quick into the other attachment just to give everyone a fair lay of the land on our detailed priorities.

I apologize.

So in your packet starting on page 16, you'll see the update for our bonding priorities, removing the airport, adding in water, adding in civic center drive.

I'm jumping pretty fast here, but through page 20, removing the riverfront, um, continuing with the chateau and operations funding for bus rapid transit, laying the groundwork there, uh demonstrating the uh vast regional services we provide and the overlap with local government aid.

Page 28 is updated.

Thanks to teammates for doing this based on the recent Maxfield housing study showing our needs and data there.

As we think about on page 30, there's been uh the other discussion about accessible housing.

So one can you pause for a minute?

Uh council member Palmer.

On page 30, on the fifth bullet.

Thank you.

Page 30 in the fifth bullet.

You've got a phrase on this says poorly constructed homes.

I I don't believe we have any poorly constructed homes.

I think that's really horrible wording.

Um, who put that in there or why is that in there?

Uh thank you.

Councilmember Palmer, I would have to double check.

I don't recall, and it's possible it could have predated my review of the document.

How do we get that removed?

I think that's what this discussion would be helpful for.

So feedback noted.

Okay.

On the other note that that the energy code, we have the second best energy code in the United States.

So I would be hard pressed to not believe that we have poorly constructed homes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.

Um page 30, the accessible housing bullet point after the one that council member Palmer to after that one.

There, you go.

Um page 32.

We've got a new addition to call out something that we activated on during session last year that was an emerging issue around municipal state aid road design and allowing local authority there.

We have some local examples of how that bill would have been helpful to us.

That bill did not get enacted, but could re-emerge.

So, including some language there.

You'll notice a fair amount of changes uh yellow on page 35 and 36 and throughout the next section on energy, and that's a reflection of discussion that the RPU board had recently and approving some some more robust thought and specific legislative policies around the right of first refusal, uh changing the review process for electric generating facilities over 50 megawatts, net metering, the ECO Act and some updates there that could be helpful to RPU and uh residents and customers, and the Energy Star program and uh General Manager McCullough is here if uh council has um particular questions about some of those items.

Also want to thank our sustainability teammates who helped add in on page 37.

There, you'll see we kind of cleaned up some references that we did have in a couple other places around wanting state resources if there are requirements related to things like EV or energy standards, um building performance standards, looking for ways for the state to partner with those potential requirements.

Councilmember Palmer.

On page 38 on the top, your first bulletin, you have something about building officials being trained.

So there we're certified.

I'm a building official, we're certified, we have energy code updates already.

Why do we need to have this sentence in there?

Thank you.

That's a great question.

This came from uh participation that a couple of our teammates have with other uh similar sustainability focused teammates around the state, and I think there's some efforts around trying to essentially like a train the trainer model of certain large cities would get funding from the state to have people trained in how to implement the changing building codes that were recently adopted, and then be able to train others.

So it could be a potential um you know, no cost to a locality state grant that you get to to do some training.

We already have training, we already have to be certified to be a building official.

We already have training, we already have to be certified to be a building official, you have to have that, and we only enforce the minimum standards of the building code.

So you know, if somebody wants us to do you know a green homes, that's not part of of the building code, so I don't know why you would train somebody in something they can't enforce.

Appreciate that.

And I think um part of the benefit of doing this process and hearing your feedback.

We also have heard some teammate feedback about some of these items that we um can incorporate as well, and thinking about the best way to have our building officials feel like this could be beneficial to them is something that we would go back and do.

Well, again, they already have to have energy um credits to get their certification updated, and they can only enforce the minimum standard.

So I don't know what benefit it would be to do this.

Councilmember Keene.

Um, Ms.

Cochrane, I'd like to go back to the the where the qual the page where you uh compared our strategic priorities with um I I just first I just want to go going back to the bonding thing.

I I uh when we talk to legislators, we're getting really good feedback that this is something that bonding is really for, but I find us to have sort of a difficulty, like it takes four or five minutes before someone says, ah, now I know what you mean.

And I I'm wondering if we've like kind of like elevate your speech this one down and get it to be a little tighter because we get into the yeah, it's for the edge development, but then there's this other thing, and I think the other thing is the more relevant thing, the idea of the of resizing um in existing neighborhoods and allowing infill.

And I I guess I'm requesting a like that sort of an attempt to have a one minute instead of a five to seven before people say, Oh, now now I know what you're talking about.

Um I just think it would help us.

I I uh uh when we were with the um the senators, though the one that was the engineer was really digging in to try to understand this, but but we it took a bit, and I think there could be the 10,000 foot level and then go into the details.

Um the other thing with with that is I I know we're leading with them, we want to be clear that this is phaseable, but I think we need to be leading with the nine million dollars too.

Uh it's almost getting lost.

It's almost like giving them an out right away that says we can just give them something, that's all that's all it'll take.

And uh I that's what I'm hearing when when I'm here, you know, that we're we're over we're emphasizing how how uh how much how phaseable it is.

And again, I love to hear from my peers if it's just something I'm hearing different or if it's consistent.

Uh the other one, I I know we have that transportation section in there, and I'm familiar with this big sky passenger rail thing that's coming.

It doesn't exactly fit in here.

There, this is something where there's a federal project going on that right now is bypassing Rochester.

Um, and that may be the way it ends up being, but there is a request that do we want to participate in that?

Is that become how how do we do that for as a uh legislative priority?

Thanks for the question.

If I'll just jump back real quick to the housing, because there might be an additional talking point though.

Um recently the council had approved us applying for a state grant separate um for much smaller amount of money to help with infrastructure for housing, and there were 48 other communities that applied for this, 18 million dollars of requests, and they only were able to fund a couple million dollars.

So clearly there's a high need for this infrastructure that helps support housing.

So I think we can try to meet the moment and continue to tell that story better.

Um the transportation and if there's passenger rail uh positioning that you want to make.

I know that issue came up and there was a proposal to provide state funding for the planning um for that passenger rail to include Minnesota, and there's a route through Minnesota, but as you say, uh the one I've seen hasn't included Rochester.

So I'm not sure the timing works out for when they're hoping to have activation of yeah, yeah, I I agree.

And I if if I can, I'm I'm really bringing this up really from for my peers too, that um this is something that's a federal project that they're looking for.

Like if you want us to consider Rochester, we'd like you to do a resolution.

And frankly, I I'm a little worried about some of these sort of the uh rail projects.

I don't want to, I'm not looking to invest, but this is something that we're being step gone around right now, and I think the better way to do this, not the legislative priorities, it would be through a council initiated action to say we we want to bring forward to our peer, or I want to bring forward to our peers that a resolution that we could show that yes, this council wants that to happen.

And um, I guess I'm I'm trying to bring that up now in case there's you know good reasons why we shouldn't do it.

But um, I was gonna work with staff to do that.

I I don't see it helpful to reflect it in here because of the timelines that were going, but I thought it was a good place to bring it up.

Thank you.

And then I can I just add uh council member Keene.

My understanding on that uh big sky rail is that there is a CIA uh being shopped around on that issue.

And it's by one of our council members who is not here to this evening.

And so my understanding is that that will come up as an agenda item at an at a future meeting.

Is that correct?

I I yeah, I believe that's correct, but I what I'm doing now is trying to make everyone aware that that's coming because if it came on the third, I would that does need quicker action.

Thank you.

So if there's any feedback from my peers or from staff that says we've got to stay away from these because I I would be interested in hearing that.

I think my only feedback would be if the council were to consider a resolution on something on the third, and then presumably if you were to consider these on November 17th, yeah when we've had resolutions that are adjacent or directly referencing a legislative policy, then we have sometimes formally or just kind of adjacently included them in our priorities as they make sense.

But I I guess my recommendation would be to at least have a separate resolution to stand alone first and then as council president Shoe Ring points out, that's might be in the works, but uh I guess I I'm treating this very different.

I'm not trying to change our strategy to say we should have a rail strategy and we should be pushing that as a priority.

I'm saying there's a specific thing going on that I think we want to be a part of.

Um, and I don't I'm not taking it further than that right now.

Um I am aware of the controversy in the state of Minnesota about the you know doing the rail through, and and I'm not trying to reopen that up.

I'm very interested in this specific one and making sure that they consider the the route option of coming through Rochester.

And just to uh to uh give a little bit more information on that.

My understanding is the resolution is uh at the federal level, it's not at the state level.

Yeah, yeah, very much.

And and yeah, very again, this is our our priorities are for state and and federal.

Yeah, uh I'd also want to add that I I totally agree with uh council member Keene on the messaging.

I think being very clear about uh the upsizing of the pipes, that really resonated quite uh well with uh with the Senate bonding committee, and uh also the the impact of uh resizing that infrastructure to give us the ability for infill, I think is the messages that uh I thought resonated quite well.

And then uh council member Keene had another great point that I was going to agree with, and I can't remember which one it was.

The other one the other one on my list was to be more forceful about the amount of money as opposed to exactly.

Yeah, I what I would say is, and if we are set thank you, council member, and if we are going to say that it's phasable, then wouldn't it help us to say that if you phase it, you're going to get this.

My fear is if we say it's phaseable, they're not going to be as willing to give us two to three million because they don't know how what we're gonna use it for.

So uh if it's phaseable, does that mean that a third of the project gets done?

Uh so put a little bit more uh uh um examples to what phaseable means.

That's great feedback.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I'll go back to my page 38 building official one.

Where do we end up with that?

Uh if if the feedback of the council is to either remove the bullet file.

I think it should be removed.

Then I would look for other feedback or um make that adjustment before you see it again.

Councilmember, can you explain uh again the issue with uh the the verbiage on 38?

The the the problem they have is that they're trying to ask for um education for more than what the building code requires, and we already as certified building officials already have um energy code requirements, and so I'm not sure this is useful or helpful.

And if they say, well, geez, we want to teach them about new new fangled stuff that might be coming.

That's not what building officials do.

They they enforce the minimum standards.

Other council members have feedback.

Councilmember Keene.

I I do not.

I I'm going to page 38.

I've scanned the marked up document.

I'm not finding the specific lines, so uh no, and I it would be helpful if something's gonna get changed on the fly like this that staff would either comment the reason it's in here is this that that would be helpful.

Okay, and it was the bullet point one.

So uh I'm assuming that's gonna get taken out.

Um as far as um some of the other things that have just been said, I don't think the bonding request, I think the civic center one should be dropped, and we should totally lean on the 9.2 million dollars, ask for that and get the whole thing because otherwise what's gonna happen is they're gonna say Roschitcher needs a bonding request, we'll give them the 2.1 and we won't get the 9.2.

So my my suggestion is that we stick to just one, and that's the 9.2 and ask for the full thing and and make it very simple why we we want to have that done.

As far as coming up with a CIA for resolutions coming up, I'm uncomfortable with that um for a couple of reasons.

One, the CIA would come to us asking the staff to to come back with the information, and they would come back to us and the information two or three months away, and then we would vote on on that information that's given to us.

I I think rail is a bigger issue than I like rail.

Um, I mean, they're dropping the North Star rail already because of the losses.

I think they're spending 130 dollars per person per ride.

Um, and so I'm not sure that that's what we want to get into.

Um, but but are you gonna go to another topic?

Because I think Miss Woodward had a comment on the the rail issue.

I just no, I just wanted to comment back on the building of the item that you were referencing regarding the building code, and I think the note on there is adopted building code.

So it's only training for things that are adopted and being educating on new changes to the building code.

It's not an addition to what's already there, it's some of the changes that are coming with the building code and making sure that there's proper training for it.

Okay.

And they already do that.

So that it seems redundant to me, but I I don't know why we would have it listed as one of our requirements or one of our things we want to work on.

I think it's just to note that there are changes coming and making sure that there's an awareness for those with the building officials, and then also being able to communicate that to other um the other contractors and information that way.

So I think it was an identif being able to identify there's a need for additional training.

There the building officials certainly do go through training, but recognizing there will be additional changes to the code.

Okay.

So going back to this this idea that we're going to bring in resolutions, uh, you know, we've done this in the past and they have not failed well.

And if we're gonna do a CIA for one, my understanding of our CIA program is two people come up with an idea, they send it out, um, come to the city council.

The city council has four of us vote, say yes, have the staff come back with it with the advice of what we're going to do or should do or can't do, and then we would vote on it.

Am I incorrect in that assumption?

Uh Mr.

Parish.

Uh your honor, I think that's generally the process.

I mean, obviously, if there's things that are time sensitive, you have to be a cognizant and aware of that.

Um, but generally speaking, we receive the CIA, it's advanced to the agenda, and then we would you know bring forward the work and the recommendation at a later date, whatever that is based on the level and scope of the request.

I'm a little comforta uncomfortable with this conversation because I don't know that it's relevant to our legislative priorities agenda.

We're talking about a resolution that my understanding is uh is uh to uh state our position at a federal level, and we don't have anything in front of us on this.

So uh I'll recognize council member keen, but I think we're kind of going down a lane that we don't really have anything in front of us to respond to.

I my my comment is back to council member Palmer that uh it's my understanding that this the council initiated action would include uh the wording of a resolution, and if the council were would give direction to the staff to have to bring that in front of us, then it would be at the next meeting.

So that that is that is the council initiated action method.

When it's going to study something, it's very different.

This is a specific resolution, and it doesn't change any laws or second readings, nothing like that.

Otherwise, I'm uncomfortable with that.

Yeah, okay.

Well we'll we'll deal with that when it comes before us, council member.

Uh back to our legislative priority.

Uh one of the other messages that I think that we should really highlight is uh that we're and we use this uh on the bus tour with the the set the Senate uh bondering bonding committee that we really are the economic engine of Southeast Southern Minnesota and really using numbers that really show because my understanding when they're making decisions on bonding requests, you know, they they do want some return, and those that uh that can show that there's gonna be investment in housing and uh commercial industrial development or uh will get a closer look.

So I think that's a that's a strong message to lead with as well.

Uh uh council member Wall.

I've been uh fairly consistent and a little bit of pessimism about uh bonding and the availability of money.

Uh so uh I would agree with those on the dais who say we need to put our very best foot forward and uh throw our best pitch right away to see uh if we could uh gain something out of uh state budget that uh I think is going to be sparing, although I'm actually surprised in talking to like the senators or uh our local legislators that we we could have uh some significant bonding, not like not like the bonding we had three and four years ago, but uh we I think we do need to throw our very, very best pitch for the biggest project that would have some appetite at the legislature.

Thank you, Councilmember, and actually thank you for getting back to council member Palmer's uh suggestion.

I do I am uh thinking that might not be a bad idea as well.

Is uh I think the the water and sewer infrastructure project is really the one that seems to be gaining some traction, it gained some traction earlier this year.

It certainly was the project that the Senate uh was interested in.

They frankly weren't as interested in the in the civic centered uh drive project.

And I don't think we're we have as much uh teeth in that project ourselves as far as uh whether or not we're ready for it to uh to be um on main stage.

So I would be interested in having that discussion when when this comes back to us on whether or not we go with one big uh bonding project.

Thoughts on that?

Thank you for you're the expert.

Yeah, no, the the chance to kind of this is a helpful discussion.

I think the reason we put in a second project with Civic Center Drive was that it takes many years before a project is typically funded through the bonding process, and so laying the groundwork and like you said, it was it was the first time that many of them had heard about it during the bonding tour, but then in two years when they come back for the bonding tour, it'll be more familiar and something similar to the sewer and water project that they heard about last session because there was a bills introduced on it.

It seems more comfortable to them, and we've done more work to further flesh that out.

So having uh more than one priority, I think it gives us a chance to lay some groundwork, find some other advocates, find similar projects that might get funded in a upcoming bonding bill, and then be able to point to those as we build out um the momentum for other projects.

I think having the number one priority be the number one is something we would carry and you know focus on that sewer and water project, regardless of having a number two or not.

So I think if we were asked, obviously, we'd always want money to go toward our number one project.

Other questions?

Councilmember Keene.

Um yeah, um, I agree with dropping the airport out of the bonding stuff.

Uh I agree with dropping riverfront, but I guess I I don't know if this is the right place, but where where are we with Riverfront?

Um, is that something we should.

I mean, this we've got to wait until 2030 now and get our work done and then reassess, or where are we?

I might need to phone a friend over in another department or I'm watching Mr.

Yetzer today.

Thanks, Councilmember.

I'm happy to take the first crack.

I think uh Deputy Administrator Steinhauser would be the best to answer this question.

I think um there are aspects of the project that we need to pause and figure out what ex to get to this um phaseable piece of it, like what exactly what phases would we want to approach first, second, third, etc.

There's also um as you know, we've done a small air plan for our own riverfront projects or properties that we are um having conversations about what the next steps are on those in terms of an RFP and those sorts of things.

So I think there's just a few things that we should figure out on our end and what comes first, second, and third before we continue to attack that uh request.

Very good.

And just to step back and make sure I'm not misunderstood that I'm not worried about them being taken out of the bonding priorities.

I just wanted to make sure they landed somewhere, and I think that small area plan where we show all the different properties that are owned.

Um again, I also watching that as the housing opportunity that we just can't seem to get it off the ground to.

But um, so that was my comment on the the drops.

Uh, the page 38 discussion.

I I'm I'm apologize.

I'm looking at the pages in the document.

So I I was in couldn't find a page 38.

I was on page 20, and I'm looking now at this document, and as I understand it, this is not the building code document.

This is the doc this is the uh section on um uh um energy sustainability and responsible environmental stewardship.

Uh and in that light, that line makes perfect sense to have in there.

This isn't this is a matter of us being aware as the city of what these different things are.

Um my view is that this is the kind of education when this you know the old thing when there were going to be all these uh uh federal support for doing these energy efficiency things in our housing stuff, it makes good sense for the city to be well aware of what those are.

So I I would not support changing the the wording on that.

Um the other input I have is just on um this discussion on one, you know, just have one bonding priority.

I mean, from the I've been involved in this since 2019, and we used to have three and four, and with the idea that they were early eyes.

I think it's good input from the council here to say we need to have a major and a minor, um, and maybe you know, use language like that.

Uh, but I uh but I this idea of like just having one thing leaves you exposed that if there's lower money you don't get anything.

Councilmember Palmer.

Well, I'm gonna um I'm I I think we need to have one and and I'm gonna talk.

I don't think that your philosophy of having number two and giving them the idea, you know, we had the small area plan that went away.

We had the airport, that went away, and we had the silver lake dam that went away.

And so, you know, we've had people say, Well, what happened to the dam or what happened to the airport, what happened to this?

I think we go with just the one and have the one and and that's our baby, and that's what we need.

That's our need, not our want, but our need.

I think that makes it better sense for us.

Otherwise, I think you're just gonna go number two and go, you know, it's two million dollars, give it to them and let's move on.

Council President Sheaving, if I can just another point on our bonding priorities, and I didn't show it on this slide, but when you approved the uh bonding priorities uh the past couple of months, there's a timeline in there.

We showed that the state has a system where you submit your requests in June and then you can edit them by October 17th, which we did by removing the airport to reflect your resolution.

There is not another opportunity to essentially update our formal list that we submitted to the Minnesota Management and Budget again before the session starts.

Again, of course, legislators can write the bills and they can take action or not on our project.

So I think just trying to align our own timeline and process.

If you were to formally remove our second project, it would still essentially live on in at least one state agency's document that is used as a resource by the governor's office and other legislators, and it might be confusing for them if they see it in that place but then don't see it in others, or if we have to if we say that we're removing it, uh just something to think about.

And there's always opportunities to edit that list again before the next bonding.

Thanks for that con context there.

Any wrap-up uh comments on what we may expect February through May.

I think it will be uh interesting and appreciate uh the council that I know um is ready to help activate on these as they're once they get approved.

I did just want to call out two areas in the very last pages on page 43.

We added in that highlighted longer sentence, allowing um, and this was an issue we brought forward successfully to the League of Minnesota Cities and was added into their priorities, so they would presumably champion this and we would help support them related to a reporting requirement that um would be uh a better administered if it could be done in a lump sum way instead of uh every 31 days.

There's already an exemption right now for volunteer firefighters or other positions in cities who are paid um not on a 31-day cycle, and we're asking for an exemption for election judges based on feedback from our clerk's office and election judges themselves.

And then another newer issue that was not in front of the RPU board but was brought forward by that department is on page 44, the very last part there about looking for uh statutory clarity around take-home vehicles, and currently cities are allowed to allow take-home vehicles for public safety like fire and police, but not for municipal utilities.

And so we have situations where obviously it makes sense when we know a storm is coming, we want someone to have their bucket truck at home or whatever the the vehicle is, so that they're able to respond to the storm damage or other emergency quicker.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Moving on to uh communications engagement and 311 division update, Ms.

Bowman.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um, as shared by council president Shubring, gentlemen, I have the privilege of serving as the strategic uh communications and engagement director for the communications, engagement and 311 division.

So the intent today is just to give you an update of what we've been up to as a division and also welcome any questions and comments.

So as we move through the presentation, please do stop me if you have any of those comments or questions and happy to take time at the end.

Um first just wanted to ground you with our statement of intent.

I won't read the thing right to you, but just really focused on how this is two-way communication.

It's about sharing information and also listening to our community residents, our visitors, and our businesses.

Um, and we really do try to make sure that the feedback is reflected in the work that the city does.

And as you know, we work across projects and departments and all of the things that happen throughout the throughout our city in the course of a day.

Um, and as we move through the slides, really the intent is as I said, to update you to share information.

I know sometimes it's what exactly do you do?

And sometimes when I try to explain even what I do on a day-to-day-to-day basis, it can be a little bit of a moving target, but I think that's because of all the different hats that we wear.

Um, so a lot of information here, but I just wanted to give you an idea of who makes up our division.

As you can see, there's really two main areas.

We've got our 311 group that there's three folks there, as well as our communication and engagement work.

Um, and wanting to highlight specifically our two coordinators, you can see underneath them that that shows the breakdown of the departments that they serve, and I'll talk a little bit about that later here.

But then, also worth noting that we are a hybrid model, so we both have centralized and decentralized communication folks, which means we have folks embedded in departments that includes Rochester Public Utilities, the police department, and the library.

So I wanted to start first with 311.

As you know, we celebrated the first year of service, and it's been a great year.

Um, it really has been that primary access point for our residents, businesses, and visitors to seek information and help connect with services.

I also wanted to note though that we have maintained uh like with RPU, their customer service, as well as the library and how they serve our community.

So that has not gone away.

Um, really, our 311 service is uh focused in particular areas otherwise.

Um, the next few slides you may recognize as they were from the very start of 311, even before the service came into what we know it today.

This is what um staff presented to the council on the possibilities of 311.

But I thought it was neat to bring these back because I think even in this first year of service, we've seen good success in saying here's what we intended to do, and here's what we've done.

Now, obviously, still years to come, but um, as far as delivering that high quality consistent customer service, I think our community is seeing that, um, really being that one-stop shop and that place for information and to initiate services or have questions answered.

Um, it's connecting residents to information uh quickly and reliably.

That does help in our ticketing system and the way that we're able to track those calls and requests.

Um, how we partner with departments to understand service patterns and support the continuous improvement.

Um, this has been an exercise both externally, but even more important internally, um, really the 311 team understanding those departments and those divisions and how they work.

Um, a big piece around data, right?

So we're starting to see how the data comes in, how that might come back to you all as council members as you think about different decisions you need to make, um, what's working, might what might not be working, how do we make those changes?

Um, and then really using that real-time information uh to strengthen communications and engagement.

This is where you'll hear me say we're really on the front end of that.

So now, as we have that first year of data, like how does that relate to seasonal parking?

How does that relate to our boulevard trees?

How does that relate to things like our transit system, right?

Where are those questions coming in?

What information are people looking for?

How have we typically been providing that information and how can we adjust that to better, you know, really get ahead of those questions or that information?

Um this slide also of particular interest when uh the we set out to look at the 311 possibility.

We had four main departments where we anticipated about 70% of the calls coming in.

I would say this is pretty consistent with what we're seeing today.

Community development is one of our high volume users that really has to do with the scheduling of those inspections, park and rec, city clerk, and public works.

Um at the time, the average call was two minutes, 11 seconds.

Um, so again, just reflecting on where did we think this program would or the service would be, what are we realizing and keeping an eye towards that?

These next set of slides I won't spend a lot of any time on because you've seen them.

These are the reports.

This was the total one, really the year over year where you can see things like our Ask Chester or chat bot, again the languages that have been accessed, um, the frequency, all of that information, you know, over the months, where did it ebb and flow?

Um, this is our eight by eight, so these are our phone calls, um, highlighting that we had over 400 40,000 phone calls in this first year of service, um, various peaks.

You can see, you know, July just overtook kind of June and August.

That was our highest call volume month, the average processing time, the average wait time before those calls.

Um then we also get into just the year of the year and how things went.

So you can see a big use of those knowledge-based articles.

Folks asked what's a KBA.

The easiest way to explain it is kind of our FAQs.

Um, and and really exciting to see just how robust those uh KBAs have been, and also really that self-service of people finding the information they're looking for, um, phone calls, second highest call volume, um, and subsequent information from there.

So, what were some key insights, right?

So the neat part here is we highlight uh a lot of things that been have been picking up even in the last six months that also indicates that more and more people are becoming aware of 311.

We thank you all for your help and being a connector between our residents and our 311 service.

Um, but noting like the the knowledge base articles, an additional 216 of those were added in this last six months period.

Um, 50% of all chat bot interactions happened in the last six months.

Um, you can see the phone calls again, over 40,000 in the first year.

Um currently our average is about 188 per day, and those are answered by our three uh 311 staff members.

Um I also wanted to note a particular um point here, but I it's noted as 99% success in routing.

So this is one of those examples of internal communication and feedback.

We were getting some internal feedback on hey, we're getting some misroute calls, like can we understand what's going on here?

So the team worked together to create an intake form that we have active right now, and that's intended of if you're the teammate, hey, you get a misdrouted call, you input, say this is the call that came to me.

Um, and then the team looks at that.

Um George Linus, our our uh uh customer service supervisor has already addressed some of those.

Um, and just a couple months ago, I think we were at like a 98.2 percent, um, but we've been able to make some adjustments already, and we really want to see that at you know, that 99 plus.

Um, but again, that in the can you pause?

Uh council member Palmer.

So I'm I'm looking at your phone calls past three months, average 188 per day.

How many of those are just for the building department?

We have a lot uh that are coming in for inspection calls.

Okay, a lot is half, a lot is 75%, a lot is 10%.

So on me go back to so if we look, this was uh like service requests of this total you have like 8700.

So it's it's substantial.

I apologize, council member.

I can find that exact number, but of those 188, it is it is a large share of them.

So then number two would be, or number one was the Bolivar trees.

Is that what I just saw on the last page that you just had?

We have Boulevard Tree Concerns is a high one that also comes in pretty consistently.

Yes.

Okay.

So the reason I asked that question is is how are we marketing this to people?

Because when I talk to people and say, I can I can forward this on, but you can do 301, they can follow it and they go, Oh, wow, that's a really great service from business hours eight to five.

We we can do the eight to four thirty, we can do that.

Not a lot of people know about it.

So, how are we advertising that?

How do we marketing that to people?

Absolutely.

So, um, throughout the course of the summer with our community events, we had promotional materials.

Um, you remember the the print magazine that we did.

There was a uh two-page spread in that.

Um we are currently for the last couple months and active right now doing social media ads.

Um so we'll continue to push and promote.

Um it's no perfect science as we know, but it will be we try to catch hopefully we'll get maybe a little bit of press today as far as this update.

Um, but we're happy about the the uptick and use so far, but it will be that ongoing commitment council member of getting the word out.

Um that includes our our fellow teammates saying, Hey, did you know about 311?

So kind of that multiple angles of people becoming an aware of 311 and some of it's word of mouth.

We know that by some folks who have gotten used to 311, they've said, Hey, I've told my neighbor, I've told my you know, my relatives.

Um, and sometimes I think if people hear that word of mouth and they're like, hey, I've had success.

Have you thought about using it?

Um, it does help with that feeling of like, hey, this is a reliable service.

This is something that I want to use, and I can trust that I'm using it.

And we use um our friends of the utility company um putting something in there about 311.

I'm looking over at my colleague, and I don't think we have to date, but that's maybe something we can explore.

I had a question related to council member Palmer's uh question on the page you have up now.

Clearly, ward four.

There are three times as many calls uh from Ward 4 as to Ward 3 more than uh all the other wards as well.

I mean, is there do you uh have you targeted?

I mean, is word of mouth happening in Ward 4 more than Ward 3?

You know, that is a very good question, and something I'll have to follow up with.

Well, looks like maybe Councilmember Palmer has an idea.

I'm kind of wondering since since it's the the uh the um even wards were the election last year, and did our people were running for office from order?

Because if you look at two, four, and six oh good, they seem to be except five is, but five's a unique one of the five.

Five is wonderful.

Five is a great ward.

Thank you.

You have two council members here from ward five.

So five achievers.

There you go.

I mean, it's a very good question.

And so that particular, I can follow up with Mr.

Linus and find out if there's specific data within there that would be helpful just in answering that question because that had also stuck out to me.

I must note that ward four was my previous council uh wards.

There also, I would agree.

All our wards are wonderful.

Yes, they are.

Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, I again just looking at um I I'm still getting a little confused by things like things called calls versus service requests.

Are these different things or are we just grouping them all into so a call could come in that doesn't result in a service request?

Yeah.

I mean, and that could be a question that doesn't need to end up being a submittal for like a boulevard tree or something of that nature.

And the one thing I've been trying to get my head around with this is like I've had certain things come in and I've asked, do you want to use 311 or do you want me to?

And I've ended up doing some of these, but I'm not sure I've got full grasp of the status of a 311 service request.

Is it like I've got ones that just drag on and on?

Do they stay in open status?

Do they go to close?

Do what how are we how are we treating these sort of just perpetual sort of property issues?

Council member, that's a really good question, and there's not an easier straightforward answer for all of them because it really depends on the type of service request or or piece that you're talking about.

So including some of our processes.

So there might be some that you know do more open or closed because they've been entered into another one of our systems or um for processing others where it could be that it's open for multiple months because that's it's just the amount of time it takes.

I know we worked with um uh uh Miss Woodward and her team where it can be multiple steps where those are open.

Our intent is to keep that resident as updated as we can.

I will say, and I think this was noted by City Minister's Elms as a part of the budget process with the request for the additional 311 specialists, is that our supervisor is a working supervisor right now, and the hope is adding and adding additional capacity through that specialist is that allows him more opportunity to work with the departments to streamline more of those processes so that it not that we're gonna get to a perfect science with every single one of them, but there is more consistency in how those updates are provided and working with those departments on the nuances.

Okay, council member Doring.

I just go ahead and by me.

I apologize.

I I again the point the point I was trying to make those.

I'm surprised.

I mean, I'm not I I think this is a much better system that we used to have.

I I and I know we used to have someone in community development, and that was a person I use for some of these things.

So I like the way this is, but I'm still looking for some sort of thing that would say like, um, hey, there's you know two uh two a hundred of these that are over a hundred days old.

And just get some learning from that.

Why do these things take so long?

Because I think you're exactly right.

It's gonna be the private problem properties in um in the key in the community development thing where we're doing trying to do zoning enforcement, and it just is slow and arduous work.

But I think I'd like to document that through the system, and I I'm not seeing a way to do it.

Understood.

Thank you.

Councilmember Doring.

Yeah, along the same lines as uh Councilmember Keene here.

I was looking for some consistency in terms of language of reporting of status of tickets, right?

So uh what I've heard from residents is depending on what how those tickets are routed to what department, uh a sta uh ticket could be marked closed for still an open issue depending on internal processes.

So I'm hopeful with the addition of an uh an additional specialist in the 3-1-1 system that we can have consistency, even just being reported out of the 3-1-1 system, regardless of city department about what those status tickets are.

Absolutely.

And then I just uh have a couple more questions.

Uh I've also heard from residents uh that sometimes they leave a voicemail into the 3-1-1 system, and then it's a an extended period of time before anyone gets back to them.

So I'm wondering if there's a metric or if there's a stat that you can give me for about the average time of response to a voicemail left.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And I think I will I will follow up on that because my understanding is if it's a voicemail that's left specifically with the 311 team, let's say it comes in on a Saturday, yeah, that those are prioritized on that Monday.

Okay.

Now that might be different if a if a resident was transferred outside of 311 and a voicemail was left at that point, that's where we lose a little bit.

We we lose a level of dare I say control to that process, but I I do want to make sure that I'm I'm sharing the correct information.

But I believe that again, if something's coming in in the off hours, whether it be to Councilmember Palmer's point outside of our work hours Monday through Friday or over the weekend, that those are prioritized, you know, on that business day to be addressed.

Sure.

Yeah, I'm you know, I'm just looking for that exception exceptional customer service kind of component of things.

So uh being able to either streamline that or or give stuffistics or even just to be able to report back to folks that you know you call and leave a voicemail, and if it's for I don't know, I'm not gonna I'm gonna pick on the parks department just because I see um Paul sitting out there, you know, that it's gonna be a 24 hour response before you hear back from parks or something would be beneficial for me to then report back to to um to to back to residents who then raise those concerns to me.

And then I'm just kind of also then wondering what what is there um an average response for uh time for uh to to tickets that are inputted into the system, right?

So if if a ticket gets forward or a service request gets put into the system, what's an average response time until that that that ticket is responded to, whether that's a resolution to the ticket or someone has reached out in in terms of a process being started to address that service request.

Absolutely, council member, and I think that's a really good takeaway for us as a follow-up with information to the council on hey, across these areas, here's currently that wait time or that process.

Um, and and I think that's a good goal that we have in the next year to say, okay, in the last now year, here's what we've been able to do in terms of streamlining some of those things.

I mean, and if this brings up a really good conversation around, you know, when developing a 311 service and we have a variety of different tools.

I'm not saying we're just changing them overnight, but it does bring up the question of okay, if we're inputting here and inputting there, where do our systems work together, where do they not, what makes sense, what doesn't?

And this is again probably a multi-year sort of conversation, um, but it really provides that organizational opportunity to look at these things to your point to come back and look really look at the community and say, hey, we're doing this in the most efficient, effective way that prides provides the most consistency that we can across all of these different service types.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

Uh I will ask a kind of indelicate question.

Uh and uh I want to be careful because I very much appreciate uh the work of city staff, including many who are in this room and uh people who are very responsive, and I continually compliment uh those staff in response to uh especially ward three people who uh look to me for some action on some item or other.

Um the indelicate part of this is uh sometimes uh people will say, I've put in a couple of 311 requests, and I I haven't heard anything.

Could you help?

And so I help, and it really makes a difference.

Okay.

And uh I'm uh I I guess I'm a little uncomfortable with that.

Um might go back a little bit to uh council member Doring's uh response times or um because I really do appreciate the city staff uh carefully uh reading what the council members are offering uh uh from the community, but I don't want necessarily our um advocacy to make a difference uh for residents.

Appreciate that, council member, nor do I, and I think that that as we have that insight and I appreciate any conversations we can have in the follow-up of are there certain areas that we're finding that again, and that's the partnership between 311 and our departments.

Is there certain reason we're running into that?

So I think really uncovering what's if there's thematic pieces there, what can we understand and how can we address that?

And I think that's fair to say, you know, as you get any service up off the ground, the importance of the two-way and some cases bring in like resident, you know, we've got a kind of three-way process here.

Um, that's just important and necessary so that we can make those refinements or address those things.

Um, so I would I would like to follow up because as much as possible, the whole idea is that it's providing greater consistency, folks can rely on it, and I'm not saying we take you all out of the process, but we want you to feel good that if that is if they're using the 311 service that it's um working as we intend it to.

I have a kind of granular question on the same topic.

So if someone calls 311, they get transferred.

Is there a uh soft handoff?

I mean, uh is does the 311 operator hear whether or not there's an answer to let's say community development or uh parks and and and then kind of the follow-up question is then if it does land into a voicemail box in one of the other departments, is there any way that your 311 staff knows whether or not that's followed up on?

Thank you, Council President.

And I will say right now we do have a little bit of a challenge with the the phone system and how it transfers it.

It it could the call could get transferred a couple times and it still looks like it originates with 311.

So that is something we're looking at is how could we maybe overcome that with our current provider or um that is a challenge that we're facing right now because we could also have a resident who calls and says, hey, I'm looking for X, and by the time it makes it to the next person, something in their request has changed, and that's where it could come off as like, hey, this transfer didn't get transferred appropriately.

So those are sorts of things that we're continuing to track and just understand again how can we run the service the best that we can.

Um not always is there a warm handoff, which um would be ideal.

Sometimes it just doesn't allow, depending on the timing if the that person is at their desk or not.

But um again, as we move forward and as relationships have been developed to date, our hope is that more and more of that will be happening between the 311 team and the rest of the city staff.

Um we've made progress, but still progress to be made.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I would I'm I'm gonna go off with Mr.

Walsh said is that I appreciate everything in 311.

I know it's a learning experience, and but I think it's been really helpful for the residents.

And I think that's the most important thing for me is that they have an ability to do that and listen and get that.

The only question I have, and kind of going off, I think what we're asking is do you have like a 30, 60, 90 day this is hanging out there, or do you have a standard that says, you know, if I call this department, a department, I should say, someone will talk to that person in 48 hours, or or is it kind of a willy-nilly or this department's three weeks, this one's two days.

I mean, it we have not gotten that firm, but that would also be the hope with this added capacity with the supervisor role is that we can get to more of those organizational standards, and some of that is having more in-depth conversations with the departments to really understand what could we get to that would be agreeable and um have have folks set up for success and where might we need to push that or massage that to make those things happen.

So uh council member to your question, no, that does not firmly exist today, but part of what we would hope would be the next evolution of this service.

Um and our hope too, then is that's hope something that you all as the council would have a general awareness of to the point back to councilmember Wall and Councilmember Doring, then if there's something as you interact with a resident that seems outside of what we've identified as those standards, that also helps you give an indication of is this the appropriate time to step in or is there a step in between?

And for me, my stand would be that somebody talks to that person or emails them within 24 hours, just uh, hey, I've got this question.

Um we're working on it, I may not know for a week, you know, and and I think people at least they know they have been acknowledged is a huge deal.

Absolutely, council member.

I will say that's something that Mr.

Linus has looked at as well as what standard language or how might 311 be a part of that acknowledgement.

So maybe if the department says, hey, we're not able for XYZ reason to get back within 48 hours our next, you know, this would be our timeline.

If we could stop gap that and 311 could be a part of that solution, that's what we are interested in doing.

Okay, thank you.

Continue?

Continue.

Okay.

Um so just want to highlight, we've touched a couple of these, but continuing to leverage adaptability, strengthening a resident usage and experience to council member Palmer's point, a big thing about just continuing to get to get the word out, um, using that data and insight, um, support organizational continuity and connectedness.

That's the internal relationships.

Um, you know, a big piece of how do we make sure our internal teammates know about 311, how it works, how they can be supportive, um, and that measurement reporting and uh uh results.

So I will move now on uh to communication and engagement.

Um just again, this is meant to ground you in how we work as a hybrid model that being centralized and then departmental specific expertise.

So I'm hoping this might work.

Um I'm getting the thumbs up, but okay, so this is an animated graphic meant to kind of walk you through a better work, a time lapse, right?

Um so I joined the organization.

Oh, let's go back.

That state of the art facility here.

You'll see it move through, but I just wanted to highlight how we have moved through since 2018 as far as um the way in which the organization has really been thoughtful about our resources.

So the center is our centralized team.

Um, and you can go back and we'll make sure you can watch this, but um, it essentially shows that at different inflection points, we've been able to really utilize um those changes um to best serve the organization and really to maximize investment.

Um and the way that I would summarize is we've been uh very thoughtful with when it has made sense to bring people into the centralized team and and maximize on that time and energy we have and where it's made sense to keep people um embedded, we have.

So again, the biggest piece now that we are in 2025 with our our teammate at RPU, RPD, and at the library.

If you again I started, I was the first city's full-time centralized teammate back in 2018 as the communications and engagement manager.

At that time, we our city clerk was also our communications director.

But really, if you think about what has transpired, we have only added a couple positions, and I don't say that as minimizing what we have added, but we have been very thoughtful of using the resources that we have.

And one of those things I want to note is we had an opportunity with a change with the administration, administrative assistant too, and by regrading that to up one to an executive assistant, we were able to move the graphic design functions that was in a 14-hour a week position into that full-time role.

So we now have coverage still 14 hours a week for graphic design, but Monday through Friday.

And that was with no additional cost to the budget.

It was actually cost savings.

But it's that sort of thoughtfulness that we try to take with this work to really leverage what we are doing.

So just what we cover, I mean, I'm sure you know this, but it's public information, crisis communication, media relations, graphic design, videography, photography, digital platforms like our website and social media, community engagement, internal communications, brand and visual identity.

It really is we wear a lot of different hats on any given day and on any in any given hour.

And that's across to our departments or divisions, anybody and everybody.

So just highlighting and more going to highlight where we have collective functions and also thinking about that departmental specific role that some of our teammates play, that tends to be where there's just departmental specific expertise or operation support, where there's specialized access and access training and technology, or where we have departmental specific messaging.

So what guides us, I won't read each of these, but just on a day-to-day basis, we've got a focus on clarity, trust, equity inclusion, collaboration, and continuity.

And I will also say that by the way that this organization has reworked how we do this work, that continuity to operations has been huge.

So that means if someone's on vacation, it's not that one person who serves that one department.

We have a team of people available and on the ready.

And the one thing I will also stress is when that comes to our public information officers and that crisis communication in any time of need, I can speak very confidently to say we have a great team that is ready to cover those needs, not just for our city, but our community, and that's something we should all be especially proud in.

So just some kind of key insights.

Uh, what I can tell you, we have a strong foundation of trust and talent.

This means we've got a great group of folks with good skills and responsiveness who are action-oriented.

We have some processes and systems that need modernization.

We're looking at how we do our project management, the tools that we have, how we can forecast, how we can pace.

We know that's important.

If we can get something done two months ahead of time to prepare what and be ready for that thing that might surprise us, it makes a big difference on the amount of work that we can do in a year.

Um, clarifying roles and priorities will strengthen alignment.

This is just you know you all know this well.

We're constantly coming back to what are our prioritization, how are we doing the work?

That capacity and workload and balancing that the city brand is a unifying asset for those of you who are on the council five years ago.

We are going to be celebrating uh five years of the city city's brand.

It has uh flown by, but also the opportunity to renew the focus on that.

We have a really strong brand.

I think it's done really well, but also if we we have to keep putting into it, that just means reminders, it means new templates for things like our presentations, um, it's the whole gamut there to make sure we continue to have that strong brand.

And we know through our strong brand, we're good partners with the community organizations and others that we interact with.

Talked about the data and insight, so again, utilizing 311 data, that was a key reason and having 311 and communication engagement together.

It was intentional that we utilize that data and information as we work with departments and serve the community.

Collaboration across departments and our partners is growing.

Again, the more that we're learning about our departments and our divisions and doing that joint planning really makes a difference.

And I would be amiss if I didn't mention that our summer internship program has added so much meaningful capacity and creativity this last this last year, especially what we were able to achieve by the way of not just our two interns, but the interns across the organization has just really been tremendous.

That renew of the brand that reinforces clarity, alignment, and unity, applying that data to how that guides our work, and then support organizational connectivity and shared capacity.

So with that, I just want to thank you again for your support of our division.

We are very proud of the work that we do every single day.

I cannot say enough about the team that I get to work with and the team across the organization.

We really have a lot to be proud of.

And I think a lot more to come in the years ahead.

Thank you.

Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, thanks for being here.

This is good to get it uh uh oversight.

And it does seem like the that was a good uh merge to have the 311 within the communications group.

It seems like there's some some good uh learning of the what the issues are.

Um I think you started out with something of like the good high-level statement of like get our story out.

And I think it happens in two ways, and I guess I want to comment more on the second.

The first, there's so many factual things that our city tries to communicate before we impact people.

I think of the things like the street closures and trying to get the, you know, hey, there's these permits happening around, and we try to communicate out to say something's happening, it's gonna impact you before it impacts them.

And I think that that becomes very factual part of our of our work, and it's a lot.

There's a lot right now.

If anyone's on the list of getting the the um closures and impacts, and I mean it it takes I I wouldn't want to be the one not know you know, keeping track of all that somewhere, and someone in your your group is doing that.

Um but there's also this other part of putting us in the best light, and this is something that I find we don't do as much of as I'd like us to.

The example I think of that we do a really good job is at the end of the year, the you know, of like an eight-minute video.

Um, and um, I think it crosses the line from communication to becoming public relations.

But I'd I guess my question is do we have a public relations responsibility in the communications department?

Uh council member, I think a good question, and I think it's something we've tried to do more and more, whether blatantly through the like the year in review video or more subtly.

Um, I think there's always opportunities.

I think that that's part of our approach and better understanding and looking for ways to do that even more.

Again, that's anything from sharing you know smaller stories to bigger stories.

I think it's also making sure that you know, on at every level, our teammates have good data, good materials, good photography, and that's something that we've been investing in.

Um, we did an update to our photography suite, just finished that up, you know, last year.

Um, and that's not only how we tell our story as an organization, but how we're good partners to our partners.

Yeah.

Um, so whether it's Experience Rochester, DMC, I mean the school district, um, UNY, UMR, I mean, you name it, if we're able to step step up to the plate and say, hey, here's what information we have to share from the city side, um, that does help.

But I think there continues to be opportunity to step into that space even more to highlight the city organization.

No, I appreciate that.

And you had the chart about what guides us, and one of the things in there is trust.

And I I don't know what's on your mind when you think of that, but I think that we need to get our residents to trust our city better.

I'd like to see, I mean, I think there's slow and steady ways to do that.

RPU has a metric and it's some sort of marketing thing.

It's like, what do like, and it's the same thing that Amazon would use or something like that.

It's like, what does our average customers think of us?

And I know um we went through some things earlier this year with you know cost overruns and you know, poorly uh communicated rates, and you have to go on these things and sort of like apologize and do this.

And it's the communications departments are really important for that.

But I I would like to see the metric of how well we're doing a communication says, how well do our residents trust us as a as a city entity as a provider of service, as uh that you know, when if something's happening, it's because that they have their reasons versus they don't know what they're doing.

Um we usually end up dealing with the people who think we don't know what we're doing.

Um, and I don't think that's representative.

Um, but I also think we can do more to put ourselves in a better light.

Uh, and that would be my input for the communications team.

Thank you, uh, Councilmember Keene.

And I would say I I know I was especially cheery on the information we were presenting about the parks marketing opportunity, but I think that is also a really great example while one specific department and area, but will aid in our ability, because we do really great work.

It's sometimes just getting that information out there.

And I'm I think I was pretty honest in saying that was not just gonna be a one, you know, one-time thing that this is an ongoing commitment.

You know, when I think back to when I joined the organization, there was just so much opportunity because in a lot of ways, yes, we had communications and marketing going on, but it was really the cities getting their foot in to really make that commitment and again to see the way that things have evolved in the last seven years.

I think we've made progress, but still that opportunity um to make some additional steps forward.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you, Mr.

Keene.

I mean, that was really insightful uh to me.

Uh I received uh similar insight uh 25 years ago uh while at the church, and uh uh a mentor of mine uh mentioned that we had hit some kind of milestone and I downplayed it.

He said, Don't downplay that.

Uh we need to celebrate that.

We need every opportunity to celebrate that we can.

Uh since then uh we hired uh person who is very good at videos, and uh my gosh, it seems like every few weeks there's a new video that celebrates something that uh uh is is something really good uh for the people.

So uh you know, when you say uh what kind like the biolabs thing.

I mean, I was at that thing uh and that just seems like such a game changer for me.

Someone should do a celebratory video that says, here's what this means for Rochester, and something that we can say, yeah, the city invested in that.

Uh we help lead I I'm I'm all for that.

Thank you so much for bringing that up.

Uh Mr.

Parrish.

Yeah, your honor, I thank you.

I I really appreciate the idea of celebrating success, and I think that's important and would concur with Jenna, you know, in terms of you know, we do have a public relations and marketing role in addition to just a you know straightforward communications role.

Um, we do attempt to you know get this customer satisfaction, resident satisfaction, neighbor satisfaction understanding when we do our community survey.

So we do that twice every other year.

Um we'll be due for that again at the end of this year, going into you know 20 uh 27 rather.

Um but we do attempt to try to weave some things in there, but before we go and issue the next community survey, we'll try to make sure that that sort of metric you know meets our expectations.

But generally, there is sort of a you know, what's your impression of the city of Rochester as an organization?

Um, there's also sort of a default uh mayor council approval rating, so to speak.

So um we're all in this together here on that.

But the resident survey community survey is uh an important piece of what we do here too.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Parrish.

I was gonna say the same thing as I like our our surveys that we do and that they're sent out and come back to us as almost scientific.

And I think that that's important to see that the that cooperation.

I'm not sure on trust because it if you look at um I'll use the federal government and look at the Senate and in and nobody likes the Senate, but they all know their senator, and so um it it seems a little odd that that happens, but I don't think trust in government is is high on anybody's uh uh thought process.

But but I think that we try hard as the city council to to be trustworthy.

Um, but I like the surveys, and I hope we continue to do that and make sure that we use good um almost the same questions from year to year so that you can see the ups and the downs and and I appreciate us doing that.

I think that's money well spent and I I would just add in uh two council member uh Keene's uh point and uh council member Wall's emphasis on that uh that we also do a play play a role in community engagement, and so uh uh as far as and we have a lot of communications that comes through to us and we can filter through it.

But if there's some mechanism to these are the stories that we need to that we would like to have uh highlighted that are celebratory stories, I think that we can um I certainly can speak to for myself.

I I would amplify those as well.

So thank you, Council President.

And I can't make eyes at City Administrators Elms to see if she'd agree with me at this point, but I'll just go out on a limb and say um that hopefully she's in agreement.

But you know, something that just comes to mind is maybe whether it's if not monthly, more quarterly of you know, key quarterly things to celebrate.

And I mean, think back to Councilmember Wall's point, you know, a lot of this, while it might seem in the moment super exciting, a lot of this does still have relevancy um after the fact, too, right?

Those are those keys bullets to keep in your in your cadre of things to share with the community.

So I think there's a way we could think thoughtfully about some of those successes, whether directly ours as an organization or in partnership with others, and that's maybe something we could deploy in the next year just to have you know some of those shared talking points of measures of success because there's no shortage of them, and I know you heard me say I think we've got about a 46 second attention span, so what comes in goes out pretty quickly, but the benefit of singing that same tune and celebrating together um uh has a longevity there.

Yeah, and we we up here have that 45-second attention span and we move on to the next thing.

Yeah and we we up here have that 45 second attention span and we move on to the next thing and usually to council member keen's point it's some concern that we need to address so to have that backlog of celebratory stories that we can say oh yeah so thank you council member wall uh and and as an example of so many things that we have to celebrate uh Mr.

Whidman's uh weekly uh um update uh I think is always full of good things to celebrate and if only our city could see all of that I think oftentimes the city administrators uh report brings uh reports from specific departments that again celebrate successes um yeah I I would really love the city to see some of the same things that we are privileged to see absolutely absolutely okay thank you thank you very much and thank you to your team a few of them back there um moving on uh what's our study session calendar uh your honor you're uh this might be a big surprise to you all but you have two study sessions left for the year here and so uh the next one on November 10th will focus on a couple of important downtown issues including a supporting transformation update which is all things sort of downtown as well as uh reimagining sixth Avenue and some of the mobility conversations that are are happening there.

Um and then uh we move on to uh the 24th of November um talking to you about the approach for engagement around natural the natural gas franchise fee conversation the DMC five year update in terms of the work that they're doing on their uh updated development plan and then a closed session for performance evaluation and then we are also uh working on the framework for the 2026 calendar including council training and topics and the normal things we have seen tonight like legislative and budget and all the different things that we're trying to sort of architect for your uh calendar next year if you have any thoughts or questions on items that you think are timely uh you know when out administrators elms gets back I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing uh that from you otherwise the uh forward team and others are working on um a draft list right now all right thank you we are adjourned thank you