Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Liberty and Justice Raw.

Thank you.

Welcome everyone to our December 8th City Council meeting, the last City Council meeting of the year.

And we begin every city council meeting with our open comment period.

This is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that we will not be taking public testimony later this evening during a public hearing on.

Each 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, the uh stoplight here and then uh the stopwatch at uh up there.

And uh I also please uh uh because of the limited time, we want to make sure that uh everyone has an opportunity to speak.

I'd also ask uh speakers to be concise to allow more people uh to speak during the designated time.

Participants are further encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope of the council and our jurisdiction.

If you have any materials to share with the council, uh you may give them to the city clerk to my right here to distribute to us, and uh council members and staff do not respond directly to your comments during the public comment period, but instead we'll follow up on any specific requests you have separately.

When you get to the microphone, please state your name clearly, and we will start with Lindsay Williams.

Good evening.

My name is Lindsay Duos Williams.

I'm the artistic director of the Rochester Civic Theater and co-chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 5.

KC ACTF is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage, recognize, and celebrate the work of college theater students around our country.

Each year, the seven states of Region Five come together for our annual week-long festival with over 70 colleges and universities participating.

As co-chair, it was my job in 2023 to secure our next festival location.

I knew that Rochester had not only the theater infrastructure that the festival needs, but also a beautiful conference facility at the Mayo Civic Center, ample hotel rooms, easy parking, accessible skyways, excellent dining, and of course affordability for our schools and our students.

It was a joy to work with Experienced Rochester to secure Rochester as the new home of KCACTF Region 5 for the next three years.

Over 1,200 students, faculty and professional theater artists, will be arriving on January 18th, bringing their creativity, artistry, and energy to downtown Rochester.

This weeklong festival represents a significant economic opportunity for our community with these 1,200 visitors filling hotel rooms, dining at local restaurants, and patronizing downtown businesses during what's typically a slower winter season.

Earlier this year, I stepped into my new leadership role at the Civic Theater alongside Jaclyn June Johnson as managing director, and we are so proud of the Civic Theaters partnership with the City of Rochester, Experience Rochester, and the Mayo Civic Center, as well as with our thriving arts ecosystem, including that theater company, Absolute Theater, Hometown Opera, Rochester Dance Company, and many more.

While our current production of Frozen is completely sold out, we invite you all to experience the remarkable work that is happening at the Civic Theater sometime this spring.

Thank you so much for supporting the arts in Rochester.

Thank you.

Next up we have Molly Dennis.

So on this month's mayor's Rochester Voices, I listened to the Tri-Government Leaders who talked about resources for people experiencing homelessness.

So I would just like maybe a raise of hands on the dais on how many people have actually volunteered for the warming center.

I know I have, so you have awesome.

Two, three, fabulous.

Okay.

So we want to be where people are, and I hope everyone has experience to do so.

President Schubring, you mentioned you thought that we need more trust, respect, and uh building connections.

And I I went to the event on Thursday, which was the public forum for better public meetings.

I brought the agenda.

We advertise it the week of, and I saw a lot of elected officials, including um Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Keene, Councilmember Doring, and Mayor Norton and President Schubring there.

But I did not see very many people.

And I know Mayor has talked about the FTP, right?

The same 10 people showing up to everything.

Well, I find it kind of uh frustrating that the elected officials are not inviting and encouraging other people to come to this important meeting.

If you go to my public um Rochester Facebook community um page, uh advocate page, you will see photos of that event and who attended and who did not.

Um so those who attended, I I appreciate that because that was a very important meeting.

And I just I feel like it is tiresome that our city is not including people, that not reaching out, and it's a veneer of saying that we are doing uh this public engagement.

It's it's something that we as a community, I I feel it's essential to have voices at the table that aren't the same 10 people that the mayor says attends everything.

And that means that um to to foster uh you know participatory budgeting in people's taxes, uh public engagement, that we need to stop this window dressing of you know, trying to say that we're checking off the the and actually do follow up.

So I would like to see follow-up from this meeting.

Thank you from all the elect officials who attended.

Thank you so much.

Next up, we have John Flaga.

Thank you.

Hi.

Um my name is John Flagg.

I just wanted to uh introduce myself and um I I am a member of the community at large here, and I just wanted to say that we are president accounted for, and we're interested in how this city develops from here forward.

Thank you.

This is open comment period.

Anyone else wishing to be uh heard this evening uh during open comment period, please step forward.

Anyone else seeing no one?

I will close the public comment period and invite our city clerk to call the roll.

Good evening.

Councilmember Keene here, Councilmember Miller, here, Councilmember Wall, here, Councilmember Fredericks, Councilmember Palmer, here, Councilmember Doring.

Here, Council President Schubring.

Here, Mayor Norton, present.

Next up, we have the city administrators report.

Administrator Zelms, take it away.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh Councilmembers, Mayor Norton, members of the public.

I'm trying a new clicking.

So it's I've clicked it, but it hasn't advanced.

So I'm gonna wait.

What?

You just advanced them for me.

Thank you.

I always start off the uh meeting by thanking our teammates across the city for acting with respect, integrity, safety, and excellence.

Thank you for the excellent assist over uh at the clerk's office.

And I did just want to note we had an excellent week in downtown with a lot of events going on from a parade to a winter market to a lot of festivities at individual businesses, uh ugly sweater run and all of that.

So um hopefully folks will continue to come downtown and enjoy the beauty that is the lit trees and all of that.

So um excellence across the community.

Um also wanted to point out that um Game Haven Regional Park was awarded a significant amount of funding for upgrades.

Um so congratulations to our teammates at uh Rochester Parks and Recreation and all of the partners that they work with in order to um continue to maintain and build additional um trails.

So that will be exciting for them to be able to upgrade the biking skills area, jump park, snow making power, and a tubing hill with tow rope.

So that may be something in your future if you're so inclined.

Also, um we do have um uh requests out to the community right now.

You can find it on our website under news and updates.

It's also on all of our social media.

Um we are updating our city and public library websites um to make sure that they are more navigable for more people.

Um so you can help out with that through December 14th, Rochester Mn.gov.

If you head to news and updates, it's pinned to the top there to be able to test out on the current version that's um under development and let us know if you could find things uh in a logical way for you, that type of thing.

Also, we do have partners here from Experienced Rochester and Mayo Civic Center, and they through December 16th are participating.

And give what you can help feed our community for a food shelf donation drive.

You can head over between Mondays and Fridays on the second floor, the Skyway level to provide dry goods and things of that nature, 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

So hopefully folks might be interested in that.

And then I believe finally we are preparing for somewhere in the middle of winter.

So we are kicking off the call for bands for the Riverside Music Series and Forward Park concerts.

So a little something to look forward to while snow is on the ground.

You can again head over to RochesterMN.gov for more information.

Deadline to apply is February 6th, or you can reach out to our teammates in public music.

I think I said civic music, but it's public music now.

That's all I have today.

Thank you.

Next up we have the mayor's report.

Mayor Norton, go ahead.

Terrific.

Well, first, since the Better Public Meetings event was mentioned during public comments, I will just say we had a nice turnout considering it was bitter cold.

We had 25 or 30 people from the community come.

There were people with uh lived experience and homelessness that attended, which made for some really diverse uh conversations.

And I think we got some good ideas.

So I'm really looking forward to uh they did tell us what they had heard from the community already, but also the the ideas that were generated at that forum uh were really interesting.

So looking forward to seeing what happens moving on in the year.

Also, uh I'm going to read this statement because I think it's important at this time.

Um this was put out by the mayor's office on Friday of last week, and it says Rochester has long been a place where people from around the world come to live, work, visit, and sometimes seek healing and care.

Our Somalian immigrant communities are an essential part of that story, and every person in our city deserves to be safe, welcomed, valued, and supported.

In moments like this, when rhetoric is creating fear and division, we must choose solidarity, compassion, and care.

We stand firmly with our Somali neighbors and all immigrant communities to make Rochester stronger.

As a global destination and a welcoming city, we remain committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of where they come from, knows they are valued and belong here.

As mayor, I thank all who continue to treat one another with dignity and care, and I invite others to join us.

Together, we will continue building a community where every person feels seen, respected, and able to thrive.

Our Somalian immigrant communities are and will be continue to be a vital part of Rochester's past, present, and future.

So I wanted to share that.

And there have been some events in the public.

I know some of the folks at the dias here have attended some of those, and I think our community is feeling supported here, and um that does my heart good.

Uh we have uh our unveiling, if you will, tomorrow.

Uh it'll be bitter cold, so please dress warmly.

But at 11:30 a.m.

in Central Park at the Southeast Corner, we're unveiling the statue, which I'm so grateful for the parks department's work in uh getting that installed despite um having trouble finding the base because the company in Rochester had closed down and we had to look a little further to find that.

Um but we did get it, and we wanted especially for it to be put in this year.

And one of those reasons is because uh we did get a grant from the Rochester Rotary Foundation for the base and the garden that will be put in around it eventually next year in honor of their 100th birthday, which was this year.

So we were trying to get it in uh for that reason, as well as we've been working a long time.

So Tuesday, December 9th, 11:30 a.m., Southeast Corner of Central Park.

And it was fun to see online.

Some of you know this that uh former state representative Mindy Gryling uh posted uh her appreciation that apparently this is a relative of hers, as it is other people in the community, but I did not know that until uh we had already selected and and had the uh disordered, so that made it kind of fun.

Somebody we know.

Uh also as uh last week was very busy as was mentioned.

Uh the mayor's medal of honor was held, and this uh picture depicts the wonderful residents of this community that were that were honored in 14 or 15 different categories.

It was uh a really special day.

Um hugs and tears and smiles all around.

Um, some of you were there, um, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

But I've um had really good feedback from that.

So congratulations to all the winners.

And if you know someone that does extra special work, please consider doing that uh, you know, nominating them and doing uh the nomination form next October.

Also, a reminder um we this will be the I believe fourth year for the uh New Year's Eve celebration.

Uh it is December 31st, New Year's Eve day from 11 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

It is a free family event held at the Mayo Civic Center.

Um there will be inflatables, video games and VR trucks, kids' dance party with a DJ and photo booth, a balloon drop at 6 p.m.

the ball drop, it's a balloon drop, uh, along with Jenga, Connect 4, Cornhole Checkers, Tic Tac Toe, Toss Across, a climbing wall.

Um, all of that is free from 11 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

And then there are our beverages and food for purchase if folks want them.

But it's great fun.

We had about 6,000 people attend last year and looking forward to an even bigger one this year.

I'll be there.

I welcome you to join me.

Uh also the mayor's day of the city.

I think we might have mentioned this last time, but just as a reminder, we'll be January 8th at 7 30 a.m.

And my office will take um breakfast reservations if you want to eat.

Otherwise, you're just welcome to come without having to eat breakfast.

You're welcome.

And lastly, uh board and commission vacancies.

We have just a few left.

We have been uh working diligently to get those all filled uh by the end of the year, so the new um appointees can start the year with the committee, and there won't be uh issues of um meeting a quorum.

So this is what we have left the Heritage Preservation Committee.

Um I just interviewed one person today, but if you'd like to be considered, we're still doing interviews, pedestrian and bike advisory.

We have vacancy sustainability and resiliency commission, has both a student and an adult adult opening and the zoning board of appeals.

We're down to just one.

I've interviewed and filled two of the three positions.

So that's all I've got.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for a closing off the year with a wonderful report and also for standing up for our values, uh respecting and recognizing our history and honoring our communities best.

So thank you.

Next up, uh we have the order of the agenda.

Are there any changes to the agenda?

Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda?

Move approval of the agenda as presented.

Moved by councilmember Keene.

Second, seconded by councilmember Fredericks.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed, say nay.

Motion passes.

Uh moving on to our consent agenda.

Councilmember Palmer has pulled item F two.

Are there any other polled items?

Seeing none, I'd invite a motion to approve and block items F1 and F3 through F15.

So moved by Councilmember Fredericks.

Sorry.

Seconded by Councilmember Wall.

All in favor, say aye.

Opposed, say nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to our public hearings.

We have five public hearings on our agenda this evening.

And before we begin, uh, I'd like to take a moment to clarify the process for public hearings, which are a little different than uh open comments.

So staff uh will first uh make a presentation on the item.

And then uh if there is an applicant or an applicant representative, they will have up to 10 minutes to describe their project or the item.

At that time, I'll open the public hearing.

Uh members of the public have up to five minutes each to uh discuss the item.

And uh again, keep uh however we'd like you to keep comments brief, concise, and uh and uh focused on the item at hand.

Uh after everyone has had their opportunity to speak, I will close the public hearing.

And the and the applicant, if there is one, is invited to speak for up to five minutes to respond to any issues that come up during the public hearing.

After that, council members are invited to uh ask questions of both staff and the applicant.

And uh after that, I will invite a motion from my colleagues.

So with that, we will start with public hearing number okay.

I've got to start G1, which is a conditional use permit by the City of Rochester, and this will be presented by uh community development staff.

Uh Anthony Chickey good evening, Council President Schubring, members of council.

My name is Anthony Cheeky.

I'm with the community development department.

I'll be bringing you this application tonight.

Um the subject site is 11.54 acres in size, and it consists of two parcels located at the northwest intersection of Elton Hills Drive and Broadway Avenue North.

Uh the conditional use permit is required in order to permit a parking garage in the zoning district.

Um the current plan consists of a 31,496 square foot parking garage and will provide approximately 278 spaces.

This is broken down into 202 new spaces provided within the parking garage and a replacement of 76 surface parking spaces, 12 of which will be ADA accessible.

The subject site is located in a MXS zoning district.

The applicant has concur concurrently submitted a minor land subdivision application number CD 2025-038 plat to combine the two lots parcels.

This would result in the parcel taking on the majority zone district for uh keeping the land use standards uh being the MXT node zone.

Um the proposed CUP site plan meets all the required zoning site development standards, including any requirements for modifications.

Uh just as a note, since the November 12th planning and zoning commission meeting, uh the applicant met with city staff.

We went over the um elevations for adherence to the building design standards on December 2nd.

Um that includes 360 architecture horizontal articulation, and uh it was deemed to meet these uh aspects.

Uh therefore the proposed condition associated with meeting this criteria has been adequately satisfied.

Um staff recommend approval of this application as it is in alignment with the city's comprehensive plan and will provide investment in TOD-style land uses and supports the reduction in private automobile trips within the city's transit network.

Uh Planning Commission and staff recommended a total of six conditions of approval, and that concludes my presentation.

I'm available if there are any questions.

Thank you.

At this point, I will open up the public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and invite my colleagues to ask any questions of staff.

Seeing none, is there a motion on this item?

Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, I again just when you talk about the two sites, these are the two smaller sites.

I I'm looking at uh the picture in front of us, and uh I believe the rec center is not the site, it is the site just to the north of there.

Um, yes, to clarify, uh looking at the orange highlighted uh parcel on the diagram, that would be the two pieces combined.

It's the northernmost piece along Broadway.

Um, it's basically a rectangular site.

Um, it's an old warehouse storage building that's um no longer in use.

That's going to be the main.

Can I ask those when you did the uh the notification zone around there?

Did you use the rec center site for the notification, or did you use the site where the parking garage is going?

Um both.

Use both.

Okay.

Uh it's always confusing when the city is both the requester and the approver.

Um, but on uh on that idea of combining the two sites, that's really just a technicality that's really that this is not subdividing anything to do with the rec center property, or there's no property changing hands from the the rec center.

Um, that that's correct.

And the property that this is going on, was it considered parkland or was it considered public works ownership or who had the ownership of it?

Um I believe it was a public works uh site, the storage warehouse that's no longer being used.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Doring.

Uh thank you so much for that presentation.

I just want to say I really appreciate uh that the number of planned ADA parking spaces almost doubles what is required by ADA standards.

So uh I really appreciate that and and looking out for members uh of our community in that way.

Councilmember Keene.

I'd like to move approval of a resolution approving the conditional use permit CD 2025-008 C UP by the city with six conditions to permit a parking garage use in the MXT and uh NOD zoning district.

Um motion made by Councilmember Keene and seconded by council member Wall.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to uh item G2, final plat by Farmland LLC.

Mercy Hill third final plat, and this will be presented by our staff member Desmond McGill.

Uh thank you, uh President Shubray.

All right, there we go.

Thank you, President Shubring.

Um Mayor Norton, members of the council.

Good evening.

Uh, my name is Desmond McGill.

I'm with the community development department, and I'll be then introducing this application uh for this public hearing.

Uh, this is Mercy Hill Third Subdivision.

It's the second phase of a 28.6 acre uh development uh consisting of 88 single family homes.

Uh Mercy Hill Third encompasses a total of 50 lots of that development.

Mercy Hill is located in an R2 uh residential zoning district, which is low density residential small lot.

Uh the uh Mercy Hill 3rd is uh 13.8 acres in size.

Um it is east of Orchard Ridge subdivision and uh 37th Avenue Northwest.

It is also south of 65th Street Northwest and west of Rome Circle and 34th Avenue Northwest.

Uh major land subdivision for the proposed development was approved by the City Council in July of 2025.

Uh the development review team is recommending approval as it is consistent with the previously approved uh land major land subdivision application.

Uh and we are recommending approval subject to three conditions of approval.

Uh that concludes my introduction.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you.

Is the applicant or applicant's representative here if you step forward, state your name, and you have up to 10 minutes.

Thank you, Council President.

Mayor members of the council.

I'm Adam Plushcourt with Woodseth, uh, engineer on the job.

So uh Desmond did a great job.

I don't have too much to add.

Um, just note that uh Mercy Hill 2nd, uh, which is the first phase of this two-parter uh was constructed two years ago.

And as part of that project, uh this site was all masqueraded.

So there's really no major earthwork or anything um going on, and they've actually already started utilities on this phase as well.

So um everything's kind of prepped and ready.

So construction should wrap up next spring.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and invite Mr.

Plushbird to Pleshka, please come step forward and any closing comments that you have.

No, that's fine.

I don't have any closing comments.

Thanks.

Questions from uh council members.

Seeing none, is there a motion on this item?

I'll make a motion to approve final plat number CD 2025-040 PLAT by farmland LLC.

Mercy Hill Third Final Plat, adopting a resolution approving final plat number CD 2025-040 PLAT by farmland LLC to be known as Mercy Hill Third, with three conditions for the subdivision of 13 point acres of land into 50 residential lots.

Second motion made by Councilmember Fredericks and seconded by Councilmember Keene.

Any further comments?

No.

Seeing none, all in favor.

Uh Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, just it's not really on this topic, but if you'll note uh this is our um final plat number 40040, which I think is the most we've had in a year, at least in the last 10 years.

Good point.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Poe say nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to item G3, which is a comprehensive plan amendment by Enclave Development LLC and Mr.

McGill.

Uh thank you.

Uh President Schuberg.

If I may, I'd like to present G3 and G4 together as they represent the same site.

Absolutely.

We'll we'll have one public hearing for both.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Again, my name is Desmond McGill.

I'm with the community development department.

The applicant is looking to amend the land use plan uh requesting a change of uh the land use designation from medium density residential to high density residential on a 2.04 acre site.

Uh, and also is seeking a zone change from R2X, low density residential and fill development to R4 high density residential.

Uh this site is located at the southwest corner of uh Center Street and Sixth Avenue Southeast.

Uh the community development team recognizes uh the current shortage of multifamily units in Rochester as outlined by the Maxfield uh 2025 housing study, uh which was recently uh updated.

So combined the city needs a total of approximately uh 4600 uh general occupancy and senior development units by the year 2035 to meet the housing demand.

Uh presently there is significant and continuing demand for these units.

Uh the current comp plan MD uh medium density residential designation allows for R3 zoning, which has a maximum height of 48 feet or about three to four stories.

Uh the applicant is seeking to construct a four to seven uh story general occupancy apartment housing development.

Uh and uh is this site is located on the uh destination medical center urban center uh area.

It is uh also um uh identified, which is identified as the primary node for business and uh cultural government services uh within the city of Rochester.

Uh expanding housing and shopping uh in these areas uh and also uh recreation is a component to addressing changing demographics in the city and uh uh in a highly walkable environment.

Uh so uh the urban center is intended to accommodate the widest mixture of uses and highest development density.

So we are supportive of this as uh there are many elements of the comprehensive plan that uh suggest uh uh have um formed our recommendation.

Uh we also want to note that it does support the primary transit network.

There are uh two uh PTN corridors uh within about a quarter mile proximity of this site.

Uh the Broadway Road uh PTN, which runs north and south, and then the uh fourth street southeast uh PTN, um, which is about a quarter mile to the southeast.

Um, such development would uh likely uh contribute and help the city's ongoing investments in those facilities.

Um and uh the subject request also supports three of the uh P2S core principal plans of integrating uh land use and transportation as it supports the city's PTN and alternative modes of access.

Uh this development is located uh within about a half mile of uh uh the uh mail clinic uh downtown facility uh here in Rochester, and uh the uh physical uh it also promotes fiscal responsibility by redeveloping on a site uh that has existing services and uh facilities uh that can accommodate it.

Um it also expands housing diversity, which is another uh core principles of the P2S plan.

Uh the planning commission and the development review team is recommending approval of the subject request.

Uh would like to note that a supermajority, uh five of seven members are required for the passage of the comprehensive plan uh should it uh be moved forward.

So uh that concludes my presentation, uh my introduction.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you, Mr.

McGill.

Do you have any uh were you going to cover the zoning?

Yes, uh yes, in the zoning as well.

Uh the the request is a change from uh R2X uh, which is that uh low density infill uh designation, uh, which can accommodate some multifamily, but not uh not a lot.

Um and uh they are requesting the high density residential designation, which uh uh could allow up to uh I believe 11 stories of of development, although that is not the applicant's intent for this subject site.

Uh they uh are looking to build something similar in terms of the uh height uh to their recent development uh located over by uh Soldiers Field uh called First and Banks.

Uh that is a project they recently completed, and uh they are seeking uh that R4 zoning change, which is the only zoning district that kind of fits within that box uh of uh high density residential uh so uh the in terms of the uses between the R3, R4 uh zoning district, uh they're both uh pretty much the same other than the uh ability to develop the site with more density and higher with a with a higher structure.

So uh, but in terms of the uses that are permitted in both, they're generally the same.

And that would conclude my my introduction.

Thank you.

Is there a representative from Enclave here?

Please step forward, state your name, and you have up to 10 minutes.

Good evening, Council President, Mayor, members of the city council.

My name is Patrick Brahma, and I will use all these 10 minutes.

I'm just kidding, I don't have a lot to add.

I think the presentation was uh thorough and uh covered what I would present if I had the opportunity.

I first time in front of the city council, so I just want to introduce myself, Patrick Brahma with Enclave Development.

Uh, if you're not familiar with Enclave Development, we call ourselves an integrated development company, a real estate company.

What we mean by that is we do development, the traditional development.

I'm I'm a developer here going through us in the title of the process.

We do construction in-house as well.

And then we do property management in-house as well.

Um, the way that we look at projects is from a long-term perspective, not just getting a project done and flipping it and walk it away or moving on to the next project.

We look at communities long term as an investment, and we want to be a partner long term.

So that's the spirit in which way we we approach the first and banks project, which was just completed, and the same approach that we're gonna take on this project.

Um, I'll be here for if you in questions you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

I will open the public hearing and first invite Kenna Wallace up.

And you have five minutes.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council President Schubring, Council members.

My name is Kenna Wallace.

Many people in Rochester move here to work at Mayo Clinic or IBM.

I moved here to work at the public library.

I wasn't expecting to make a lot of money because I wanted to be a librarian.

When I first moved to the Richards House on Center Street, my rent was $725 a month.

I worked two jobs to be able to afford rent and the rest of my bills at one point walking downtown to take the bus up to Petsmart and later working at a beautiful little store in the galleria.

I was thrilled to be able to live so close to my workplace as I started building toward a career I love.

The Richards House was dedicated to Carolyn F.

Richards in 1998 for her work with the Rochester Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

Now under the purview of Olmstead County, the HRA's mission was and is to provide affordable housing to the people.

The apartment building proposed by Enclave was compared at the neighborhood information meeting in June, to which renting tenants were not invited, was compared to the river walk apartments across the street from our block.

Currently, the cheapest rental price for the unit at for our unit at Riverwalk is nearly double my rent for the same square footage.

At the zoning commission meeting on November 12th, the applicant for the project, when asked if it would be part of the affordable housing incentive, said 100% market rate.

He spoke of relieving some of the housing pressures in our city.

I don't see how putting up another luxury apartment building is relieving anybody's housing pressures.

Will this be like Enclave's first in banks development on the old YMCA site that features a golf simulator and pet spa?

It is also not clear how tall this structure will be.

They've said four to seven stories.

River walk is seven stories.

Homeowners recommended four.

Even at four stories, the proposed riverside will block our westerly neighbors' views of the Zimbro River and the Rochester downtown skyline.

I have also seen comments voicing concerns about the trees and the green space that will be lost.

One of my favorite things about living next to the Zumbro is being able to hear the calls of pretty much every bird in Rochester and being able to sit on my porch to watch the boaters or listen to the music in Mayo Park in the summer down by the riverside.

Built in 1900 on the property of David Lesseur, the owner of Rochester's first general store.

The Richards House became the home of hundreds of people over its 125-year history.

Lesur's daughter lived there for several years after she became a young widow.

As future owners opened its room to borders, it became the home of nurses, mayo clerks, maids, store cashiers, blue-collar workers, an Air Force gunner's wife while he was at war, and other people who didn't have glamorous jobs but made vital and everyday contributions to the city of Rochester.

People like me who were just starting out in their professional careers or studying to build their future.

The same story is true for the rest of the homes of my neighbors.

This is why it is important to preserve the Richards House and the rest of our block on Center Street.

I would like to quote our houses' namesake.

I don't think I ever personally experienced any antagonism in trying to develop low-income housing.

The community tended to have blinders that were that there were people who had that need.

Thank you.

Please keep Rochester's housing affordable and save its beautiful history.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and invite Mr.

Brahma to return to the mic.

And any closing comments or uh answers to uh questions that arose during our public hearing.

Thank you, Council President.

Yeah, I um the direct question that I did hear, there were a handful of helpful comments, and um, we'll take note of the comments made.

Uh the one comment that I think was a direct, clear question was the number of stories of the building.

Uh it'd be four to seven stories, is the proposed building.

The city does, and you're you'll see in the write-up and maybe review it already, but there you have a um uh overlay district uh that protects the nearby lower density residential to the south, the neighborhood to the south that's built into your ordinances.

Um the reason why our building steps from seven stories down to fours to respect that overlay district.

Um, that four-story maximum is what's allowed today under the current zoning district as well.

So really it's that northern half of our site that we're stepping up to seven to match the river walk site.

Um in terms of feet to answer the question more specifically, it's about 11 feet per story is the general rule.

We're so early on without clear design right now that it's probably better to assume 11 or 12 feet per story until we get the design nailed down, and obviously, you know, the where the gradient is as well would affect the actual measurement of height, but just wanted to be clear that that's that's the proposed height for this project.

Thank you.

Questions?

Councilmember Fredericks.

Yeah.

Um, Mr.

McGill, you made a comment when you were speaking.

You said this is going to expand housing diversity.

Yes.

Tell me how this expands diversity.

Well, it's it's allowing uh or putting additional multi-family units in the downtown area, um, you know, where we help uh achieve a critical mass of uh population uh to help support existing businesses nearby and also um you know uh uh being very close to uh uh male.

Uh it would allow for less people to need to use a single occupancy vehicle in order to get to and from work.

Um so it's gonna add to housing diversity though.

I mean, right now um you we could have about 13 units there right now, single family homes, and it it is going to change it uh uh the intensity that you can have it.

But uh, you know, it is it is a general occupancy uh development, it is in for that was that was actually my next question.

There's 11 parcels there.

Yeah.

You say there's 13 houses there.

I'm sorry, there's I think there's uh 13 parcels and 11 houses.

I may have missed it.

13 parcels, 11 houses.

Yeah.

Now are those 11 houses, are they split into uh duplexes, triplexes, six plexes?

I think they're primarily single family residents.

I don't think they are.

But I'm just I don't think they are.

I walked that area hard during a few months back.

So but anyhow, it it is it is providing a diverse uh little uh affordable housing, which we're crying for in this in this community.

And uh I just wanted to ask that.

And then the last question I have, I thought I counted 11 parcels there.

Are you in ownership of those 11 parcels already?

And if not, how many are you?

No, there's uh 13 total parcels, and we don't own any of the parcels that are under contract purchase agreement.

Got you.

If this were to go through, that's when you pull the trigger.

You have an agreement on all thirst.

Okay.

Uh council member Palmer.

I have I have a question for you, sir.

The HRA house that was talked about, is that part of the one of the parcels you you have are going to have control over?

I wouldn't need to clarify.

I'm not oh I believe if we were talking about the Olmsted County uh owned property across the street.

That's that's what I was interpreting, but I'm not I'm not aware of a HRA owned house or operated house that that we're that within our parcels.

We would have come up with that when we went under purchase agreement, you know, if if there was HRA controlled house.

Okay, and then uh um second question is that I'm assuming you're not gonna be asking for TF funding or any um additional funding from the city.

That's correct.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Is there uh council member keen?

I just just question for staff.

Is uh when you do these sort of um uh land use changes or zoning changes, is there like a standard for proximity to other R1 R2X properties, and is there some sort of um relief, or is there uh do we view that as like if you're gonna be this close to downtown in our one sort of zone, it's probably not gonna hold, or what what what do we use as a standard for saying we we want to have this in this level of density?

Well, it uh in our review of the comprehensive plan as specific to this application, as I noted, this is in the downtown uh urban center, which is the most intensive primary uh and uh most dense uh type of anticipated development for the city of Rochester.

Um and it is on the fringe of that uh area.

So that is one reason why we feel that this is a it's a it's a good fit.

Uh it it there and it also there are other um R4 zoning pieces around this area, just to the north.

Um we do not have a lot of R4 zoning in the city.

Uh we believe that uh the additional density that could uh uh be achieved with that will you know help that project move forward.

So uh that's okay.

Uh slightly different question.

Uh this property adjoins to I mean a street and then the the river.

Is there any sort of uh any work been done yet to say that that there that there could be any exposure to the the water conveyance and the the the river thing there or is this far enough away that we don't worry about things like that?

Um they will be need to uh comply with uh any uh stormwater drainage requirements of the city.

Um I don't know the specific requirements of those, but they will be required to uh contain their own stormwater and and have it treated before before it leaves the site.

Okay, yeah, I think we're way too early for that work to be done.

I'm just trying to get failed.

Last question, this is a little bit out of a preview, but I'll ask it anyways.

Uh, does the structure as you understand it to be include any parking down underneath?

Yes, it does.

It would there'd be some uh underneath.

Um I believe there's also a concept in uh as far as putting some uh um 45 uh degree angled parking uh along uh 6th Street, southwest southeast.

Sixth Avenue, I think it is.

Yes.

Uh thank you.

Councilmember Doreen.

Thank you so much uh for the presentation.

Uh both of you, this is more uh question for community development.

Um we've heard from the dais uh from my colleague on to my right on the dais uh a lot about uh the desire for more home ownership in the city of Rochester.

And I uh assume some of that is coming from uh feedback from the community that we are building uh tons of apartments and that those are sitting empty.

And I want to combat that narrative a little bit.

And I'm wondering if you have statistics about number of rental units that are sitting vacant.

I noticed in uh in the neighborhood information meeting comments uh that one of the neighbors asked the question there are over a thousand rental units vacant in the city of Rochester.

Why would we consider building another high density apartment complex?

So do you have those statistics?

I don't have the specific numbers, but generally our vacancy rate is relatively low.

Um it's also just to note um the Maxfield study, as mentioned, deals both with multifamily as well as single family, and so there is a need for a number of units in that multifamily and creating that option um across the housing spectrum within Rochester.

Yeah, I I really appreciate that answer.

I just wanted to get that out in the public.

I know that that is those are the same things.

And we do there is some numbers in the Maxfield, so I can follow up and get you that specific vacancy rate.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Wall.

Councilmember Doring, while not uh being married specifically to exact numbers, uh we just heard them, I think a couple of months ago, that uh nationwide it's 4.5% vacancy, that we had a rate of uh 3.5, which was a little bit unhealthy uh at one point, and then it had dropped to like 2.6.

So we don't have a thousand apartments, and we're actually at an unhealthy uh vacancy rate.

I I I agree with that.

I wanted to get that out on the public record.

So our community knows why developments such as as this development are so needed in our community, especially as we consider the development of the downtown corridor and high density uh living in the downtown corridor.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I would agree with Mr.

Wall that that um we have low vacancy rate, and I don't believe we've ever said that um it was rental.

But what I've always said is that we do need more um home ownership in the community to build wealth.

So um I think 2.3 to 3% is the vacancy rate right now.

Um, and you can tell that um because of the high rates.

If if we have more apartments, the rates should go down as supply goes up.

Is there a motion on this item?

Uh council member Miller.

I have a question.

Uh uh to the comment about affordability.

Could staff talk about how we typically think about building an affordability requirements, particularly in TIFF structures and why this would be different, why we wouldn't be requiring affordable units.

Uh Ms.

Woodward, are you going to take that one?

Sorry, I was getting the vacancy rate.

Um, which I do have, by the way, too.

So in terms of looking at honour, like as we've developed our TIP policy, there is some priority for affordable housing units within that, and that is something that's been kind of identified all along when it comes to a property that is not partaking in that.

There is no specific requirement to include affordable housing units.

So as a follow-up, when we think about just recently having set the property tax levy, how would a project like this uh impact the overall sort of how do we think about a project developed in near downtown versus out on the edge?

And and which project um decreases a uh uh pressure on the property tax levy more.

Um, I think we see these opportunities for development near the downtown as a as an appropriate place for density, knowing that there's infrastructure in place, including transportation and access to different um resources and jobs within uh closer proximity.

Okay, and and and I would just note we we also have a project going on um improving the transportation infrastructure uh adjacent to this parcel, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

And if I may, can I answer the vacancy?

Um so the vacancy rate um is currently 7.9% for all market rate properties.

So the blended between all of the both market rate and um affordable is around 3.1% in terms of vacancy rate.

And it was 4.4% in 2020.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

I'll make a motion on G3.

Adopt a resolution approving comprehensive plan amendment number C D 2025-004 CPA by Enclave Development LLC, consisting of a change of land use classification on 2.04 acre site from medium density residential to high density residential.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Motion made by council member Palmer, seconded by councilmember Keene.

Any further discussion?

Councilmember Keene.

I just want to kind of point out this is a supermajority vote, and I want to just clarify is that does that mean five to two, or what does supermajority mean?

It means we have to have five council members vote in favor of this council member.

Yep, thank you.

Any further comments?

Yep.

Councilmember uh Fredericks.

I do.

Sensitive to the young lady's needs and wants that she came forward.

I just want to say it is important that we look at these types of situations where we're taking away truly affordable housing and truly you know, established housing and going to a higher density.

I am gonna vote for it for this reason because we need density for our downtown businesses to support those.

We need it it's in the corridor that it's set up for.

It just makes sense.

So you gotta kind of go with the greater good on this and go with what's going to support what we're trying to do in our downtown corridor.

If it was in the middle of a residential neighborhood, small neighborhood, obviously, I'd be completely against it, but this fits with what we already have going on right across the street.

Any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes unanimously with uh seven zero.

Uh is there a motion on item G4?

Councilmember Palmer.

I shall make a motion on G4, zone change number C D 2025-005 Z C by enclave LLC amending the zoning designation on 2.04 acre site from R2X low density residential infill to R4, high density residential, and directing the city attorney to prepare an ordinance for first reading.

Second.

Motion made by council member Palmer, seconded by council member Fredericks.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Pose say nay, motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to our final public hearing, which is a utility easement vacation by Kramer Properties LLC.

Mr.

Cheeky.

Thank you, Council President Schubring, members of council, um, Anthony Cheeky Community Development Department.

Uh, before you is CD 2025-009 VAC by Kramer Properties LLC.

Uh, the property is located at 3820 Broadway Avenue North, and the request is to vacate both an existing 20-foot wide utility easement and the existing 15-foot-wide public utility easement originally dedicated in 2006.

Uh the applicant has a site development plan file CD 2025-039 SDP currently in review.

Proposing an addition to an existing business and office with some outdoor improvements.

Um, during the SDP review process, it was determined that the existing easements would need to be vacated and new easements dedicated.

Uh as of November 25th, 2025.

Uh, the replacement water main utility easement has been recorded to staff and agents agency satisfaction uh with this, the existing utility easements are no longer needed for the site.

Um I'm available if there are any questions.

Thank you.

Is there a representative of uh Kramer properties here?

Step forward, state your name, and you have up to 10 minutes, but you don't have to use it all.

I don't need hardly any of it.

In fact, I'm just here to answer any questions if need be.

Counsel, I'm Adam Kramer, by the way.

Great.

Thanks for being here.

Yep, thanks.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

This is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward.

Saying no one, I will close the public hearing and uh invite my colleagues to ask questions.

Councilmember Fredericks.

I don't have any questions, but I just want to compliment you and all the great work you're doing in town here, Mr.

Kramer, not only for the adults, for the kids, and for the greater business community.

So thank you for all your hard work.

Councilmember Keene.

I'd like to uh move adopta resolution approving the utility easement vacation CD 2025-009 by Kramer Properties LLC to vacate an approximate 10-foot-wide public utility easement and a 20-foot wide utility easement.

Second.

Motion made by Councilmember Keene and seconded by Councilmember Doring.

Councilmember Keene, further No, I think as the report pointed out, as of November 25th, the replacement uh utilities are in place.

That's the key thing.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I would like to echo what um Mr.

Frederick said to uh Mr.

Kramer and you know, adding a skate park indoors and uh outdoor skate park and a um um what I'm trying to say uh coffee shop that's there um took a bullet show yes it took a site that was really really um uh declining and uh it improved it greatly so thank you.

I would echo that I've been up there.

Uh any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

Motion passes.

And I just want to say we just went through five public hearings that originated from our community development staff and our uh planning and zoning commission.

And uh we got through them pretty quickly, and I just want to commend that the staff we have at community development and also our planning and zoning commission that vets this for us so that we have the opportunity to watch the video of planning and zoning and hear the the uh more robust conversation that happens on these items so that when it comes to the council, we we have that uh recommendation.

So thank you.

Thank you all.

And with that, we will move to our reports and recommendations, and we will have a report from the Rochester Olmstead Youth Council members' trip to Japan.

Councilmember Miller, do you want to introduce this item?

Uh sure, Mayor Norton uh uh Mayor Norton earlier this year hosted a sister cities trip to our sister city and Akita, Japan and Northern Japan.

Invited members of the community.

I was able to join along with my daughter and two members of the Rochester Olmsted Youth Council who are here tonight to present.

We had a wonderful trip and uh look forward to reminiscing uh a bit about those experiences and hearing how this experience has shaped their perspective of coming back into our community and and serving here.

So I'll add be glad to add more comments after the presentation.

Welcome.

And please state your names and uh we're anxious to hear.

Hello, Council President.

My name is Alexander Yovchev, Council members.

Hi, my name is Gabriel Dougway Seke.

I'm a junior at Century High School.

So, first of all, I'd like to thank Mayor Norton and uh Councilmember Miller for giving us the opportunity to go on the trip to um our sister city in Japan and for uh and the Rochester Almstead Youth Council for giving us uh for providing stipends for the trip.

And the purpose of this presentation is gonna be to primarily uh showcase the youth perspective and uh our takeaways uh from the sister city trip and um more on our relationship building with Akita.

Um leave next slide.

So just a brief agenda.

We'll go over um what is the Rochester Umstead Youth Council and more about ourselves, um, a brief trip synopsis, um, then we'll go into the three cities that we visited and then uh takeaways and questions at the end.

So, first of all, what is the Rochester Olmsted Youth Council?

The Rochester Olmstead Youth Council uh provides 14 to 20 year olds with opportunities to serve uh in advisory role to county and city officials, and um we receive presentations on various projects, like for example, uh this past December meeting.

We um we were presented um with the bold be uh bold beyond plan um by Mayo Clinic and the um close enough.

Yeah, yeah.

And and and um they they really appreciate the youth um voice in that because um they primarily get uh a bunch of opinion from the adults, but not a lot coming from teenagers like um us.

Um and so, in addition to our advisory role, we also um fulfill a variety of miscellaneous commitments.

Uh we can go, uh we volunteer.

We're supposed to go to these city council uh meetings and report back um on what we took away from these meetings.

And so uh more about me.

I'm a junior at Mayo High School.

Uh I'm primarily interested in politics and governance, and joining this group um particularly gave me the opportunity to learn more about local governance uh while advocating on behalf of my peers at Mayo Cl at Mayo High School and um and uh my peers in the city and county uh to enhance the overall youth experience in Rochester.

Uh yeah.

Um next slide.

All right.

So for our trip synopsis, we um traveled through three major regions, those included up Hiroshima, um Tokyo, and then Akita.

Um each place offered something completely different and helped us understand Japan's history, culture, and their local government.

Um, starting off with Hiroshima, we arrived August 4th, and we spent three days in Hiroshima.

Uh we attended the peace memorial ceremony, which was pretty cool because later in the day I actually saw myself on BBC News on TikTok.

So that was pretty cool.

I was like actually excited.

And then we also visited important cultural sites, and including Miyajima Island.

Um, Hiroshima really gave us a deeper um understanding of peace, resilience, um, and the importance of remembering history.

Uh also seeing how the city was rebuilt with the strength of like everybody around them and the hope was one of the most meaningful parts of the entire trip.

Um moving on to Tokyo.

Oh, yeah, there was pictures from Hiroshima.

Good food.

That was very good food.

Very good.

Um moving on to Tokyo.

Um, on August 8, we took a Shinkansen to Tokyo, and there were, and there we toured um the Imperial East Gardens, and we visited um Meiji Sh the Meiji Shrine and Explored Akuza, which is a historic neighborhood in Tokyo.

Um I spent a lot of money shopping.

Thank you, Dad.

Um, but it was totally worth it.

I'm actually wearing the shoes that I like uh bought there, but yeah, pretty fun.

And it was overall a pretty great chip.

Um it Tokyo really showed us how Japan blends its past um with um its future, and it it they did it in a very like natural way.

And then finally, um we arrived um at Akira on August 11th, where we met with the city government officials and we participated in discussions.

We also participated in a tea ceremony, which was pretty fun.

Um, and later during our time there, we had a welcome dinner.

Uh we also participated and toured the Olga Peninsula, and we kind of embraced ourselves in the unique culture and learned about their um local culture centered around the um Namahage folklore, which was pretty cool.

And overall, um it definitely taught us about the regional identity um and their community life, uh seeing how important community engagement is to their decision making and seeing that seeing that up close really helped us better understand the purpose um and value of the sister city relationship on a more political level.

Yeah.

And um, in closing, our trip wrapped up August 14th.

We returned back to the US um with a deeper appreciation for Japan's history and their culture and their local leadership.

And we really want to thank you all for supporting us, our youth delegation, and our opportunity to represent our city.

Thank you very much.

If you guys have any questions, um we'll over yeah, absolutely.

First uh mayor, council member Miller, anything you'd like to add?

Well, I'll just add one of the um opportunities that the young people had in our sister city was uh we had a very formal presentation um with the government, and when we arrived there, hundreds of the employees they had the American flag out in front of City Hall, and then when we got there, hundreds of the employees came out with American flags waving to greet us, which was quite a fun opportunity.

And then um with the staff of the city, including the mayor, Mayor Numaya.

The young people were allowed to present to them and asked to share a few words.

So, you know, it's nerve-wracking coming to a city council meeting.

It's even more nervous-wracking, I'm sure, to speak to a group of mayors and council members and staff at the city in a language, you know, that we don't know, right?

So uh they did get to share that.

And it was uh um a wonderful opportunity, I think, to learn about government.

Um particularly Akita is was focused on keeping their young people in their city, much like we talk about here.

We want them to come back.

They're they're having that same youth flight from their city.

And also they're developing an age-friendly city.

And so that was something else we had in common that we could share and learn about.

And we toured some of their sustainability um sites as well while we were there.

And I guess I would add I I think that this trip for me really highlighted the international nature of Rochester.

Our oldest member of our delegation is a longtime resident of Rochester who is from Japan and was in Japan in the preceding weeks of our trip with her daughter and granddaughter and they were graceful enough to to join us along the the final leg to go to Aquita to serve as our official translator and our interpreters and to just join and share their experience both their Japanese heritage and also the connection to Rochester.

I'd say the youngest member of our delegation was my my own daughter who I was able to bring along who was 10 and so we had a span of ages representing our community from 10 all the way up to 80 we were welcomed we got to see the city hall see the council chambers they have a much larger assembly style of local government that we do meet the mayor there was even as we arrived to City Hall on that day in Akita they had put up a US flag we walked into the government building and were greeted by cheers and claps and waving American flags and it felt like really small world opportunity to see the connection that many people from around the world often travel to Rochester for health care and then to go and experience that hospitality offered to us on international travel.

It's something I think about I've been accused of being council member who only cares about transportation fascinating country from a transportation perspective.

We took a couple of tour buses but I think um relied so heavily on public transportation and got around a spectacularly large crowded area of Tokyo as a group of 20 on the the Tokyo metro and only had one incident where we got separated on two different trains.

But what was amazing was our tour guide jumped onto the train with the part of our group that got ahead and then we made it to the next station and they got back on because those trains were running every three minutes throughout the day.

And so while it was a very stressful brief three minutes we were quickly solved the transportation issue.

And I would just recognize as well our two tour guides Mickey and May who were instrumental in helping us to understand the culture the gravity of our visit to uh Hiroshima to understand the complexity of that international relationship and how that's evolved into a shared understanding of the need for peace.

We got to hear um youth perspectives from sixth graders at the peace ceremony for the 80th anniversary got to hear from the mayor of Hiroshima and then some of the the Japanese national government and there was quite a tension in and what um peace looks like at all those levels and what the priorities are in a very complicated international space.

So I I personally was very impacted and I was so grateful to have members from our youth in our community from the youth council from uh longtime members of this community who have been involved in the uh international relations committee and it gave me a real perspective of the city that we live in and the um the diversity that is the strength of our community thank you council member Fredericks well you two are appropriate for your positions you did a great job uh nice presentation well put together uh it's nice to see young people out doing these things that are are important I just want to ask you two questions and they're not trick questions there's no right or wrong answer but what was your most eye-opening experience while traveling over there and uh what did you see or what would you be your biggest takeaway that you'd like to see come back here that we could implement here in Rochester.

Yeah for me I'd say the the biggest thing that I um saw there the most thing that I appreciated was um exactly what Mary Norton described um when we walked into that municipal government building and every single staff member of Akita was there waving their flags um it really showcased their hospitality and so yeah that was a was a a very touching thing to me um I I still think about that that wow we're just 20 people but the whole city government came together just to cheer on our delegation um for the other question the thing that we should take away from it um this is a very minor thing but I think it's a very critical thing um in ever and almost every single Japanese city that um was there um on the sidewalks there are these little like um like pebbles or something um and it's for the blind to to guide them across the path safely for for them to be guided along the sidewalk safely and uh to not get run over by cars so um seeing that implementation here in Rochester would really would really add um to what Mary Norton was saying about being an age friendly city and especially helping the blind um for me when I went to Tokyo it was like the people I had never been around like so many people it was kind of like over stimulating but so many people it was just like really like eye-opening for me I had never been around so many people like that for me and then numbers

And it's for the blind to guide them across the path safely for them to be guided along the sidewalk safely and uh to not get run over by cars.

So seeing that implementation here in Rochester would really would really add um to what Mary Norton was saying about being an age-friendly city and especially helping the blind.

Um for me, when I went to Tokyo, it was like the people.

I had never been around like so many people.

It was kind of like over stimulating, but so many people, it was just like really like eye-opening for me.

I'd never been around so many people like that for me.

And then number two, I would say probably like the community.

When we were in Akita, like as he as Alex said, like it was I felt like we were back in Rochester, like they were so warm, they were so welcoming, they were so inviting.

Um, we definitely had that community in Rochester, of course, but I just love their community and how um welcoming they were.

So I loved that.

Thank you, Councilmember Gordoring.

Like my colleague uh further down the dais.

I just want to thank you for your presentation.

Thank you for making us proud uh and representing Rochester well as during your visit to Japan.

And I also just have two questions.

First, I'm curious if you were able to have any um just one-on-one time or or group time with other youth uh in Japan.

And then uh if a group were were to come over here, uh, what would be the one thing about Rochester that you would want to make sure to show them uh as youth in our community?

Yeah, so for the first question, um, me personally, the only time I had a uh a true genuine interaction with um other Japanese were uh youth were in uh Hiroshima.

Um I believe that we were walking away from the peace ceremony, um, and we were walking across this bridge into this park.

Um, and these two um Japanese high school girls um just approached me and asked me, um, do you mind uh you you seem like an American?

Do you mind us asking you some some questions about um where you come from and um uh why you're here and what what do you appreciate so much about Japan?

And um their teacher was behind them um explained to other members in our group that um this is for a group project um because um the August 6th bombing of Hiroshima was recent, so uh they just want to highlight the um international call for peace.

Um so yeah, they just asked me a bunch of general questions like what would you like most about Japan?

Uh what do you think um would be an even better improvement?

And so it was just general questions like that that um really helped uh unify both of us, even though we live 5,000 miles away from each other, we could still give each other um coherent and uh questions.

Um for the the second question, the um what other people what other people in the national community should take away um coming here to um Rochester?

Um I'd say first of all, we should take uh a leaf out of the the Akita's book and show them true Rochester um hospitality.

I know Minnesota's already known for its good hospitality, um, but Akita's um Akita's um way of welcoming us was unmatched.

So um the hospitality that Akita showed, I believe Rochester should show to all of its um international members.

Um and then yeah, I'd say that's about it.

Well what was the first question?

Sorry.

Did you have any interactions with the Japanese youth?

Um for me, unfortunately, I did not, but um they were very welcoming.

Um for number two, maybe like I think the name changed, but like Thursdays on Furs.

I would like that's where like um during the summer, that's where I like um get to um meet up with all my friends there.

So I feel like they would definitely enjoy that.

So I would definitely like to introduce them to that for sure.

For sure.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

You may have already tipped your hand on this question, but what was the most interesting question you received while uh in Japan?

That's a good one.

That's I gotta I gotta think about that.

That's awesome.

I mean, I'd say the most interesting question I got was um just the generality the the generality of the question that um the girls gave me initially it was um what do you like the most about Japan?

Because it's just there's so many things that you can say, and for you to just for it to just be condensed to one thing that you love about it.

Um it was a really hard answer.

Um but yeah, I'd say that that's the most interesting question because they there's so many different pathways that you can um answer that question.

So it's it's yeah, it's pretty unique.

I'm like really into anime, and um I mean my dad who had went out to like a cat bay for like when we were like on a break, and this girl like approached us, and we like kind of bonded over like anime, and I was kind of like translating, oh my favorite anime scenario, and yeah, but I don't know.

Yeah.

So great.

I am gonna take it in a different direction.

And one, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and just the color that both of you and uh Mayor Norton and Councilmember Miller gave to that trip.

It really sounds like an amazing experience for all of you, but also a really great opportunity of connection between uh uh Rochester and our international sister city.

So I'm gonna ask more on tell me about uh what you see that you value in the Rochester Olmstead Youth Council, your work there and uh and how that uh work is shared with other youth to be as involved as the two of you are.

Yeah, for me, I'd say it's just the general opportunity to be um given and receive reports um by members of uh the Rochester uh of Rochester and Olmstead County.

Um so all the various projects that they do that affect the youth, all the various pro like I mentioned.

The destination medical center was also one.

Um and it's always the staff are always um um complimenting us, saying that we we never really usually receive uh any youth voice in these decisions.

So um seeing the youth's perspective on um the these issues or these initiatives that we're trying to implement within the city.

Um I really appreciate the opportunity to be um given a voice and to um advise just um both you guys as the council and um other other uh people in uh Rochester and the Almstead youth uh and Olmsted County um on their initiatives.

Um for me, really just having the opportunity to be around other youth, um just seeing um other like-minded people that are interested in the same thing that I am and having the opportunity to learn more about the city um is just really a great opportunity.

This trip was a great opportunity.

I don't think I've ever like done anything any major in any kind of like extracurricular, so just have the opportunity opportunity to learn more about the city and then also um with my peers as well.

Great.

Well, come back any time.

And mayor, I think this is a great opportunity for a commercial for uh our next sister city trip, which you yourself and I will be attending.

We will this June we're taking um a group of folks from the city of Rochester to Germany, where we have two sister city relationships, one's with the University of Minnesota through through that organization in in Munster and Moosberg, which a Mayor Chakazama started 46 or so years ago.

Um, and I popped in there one time when I happened to be in Germany for just a moment to meet the mayor and have some horrific white sausages and beer for breakfast.

Non-alcoholic.

That was a very strange breakfast.

Um anyway, I just kind of popped in and and did have a visit.

So I know what we're getting in for in Moosberg, and certainly uh Munster has been here a number of times.

So that and then there's the trip between, just like we hit Tokyo on the way through, very similar.

So you get to do a day or two of sightseeing before between the work on either end.

But um, it's loads of fun.

And uh we would invite folks that are interested to call the mayor's office or talk to uh council president Shoebring or myself.

And uh I I also might mention these two young people signed up and were given a stipend.

Um, and when we had our informational meeting for them, their parents came and as it ends up, a parent from each Gabby's dad and Alex's mom joined us as well.

Um, so they were part of the 20, which made for uh a lot of fun, and I think it was okay for you guys too, right?

Oh, absolutely.

Definitely Gabby got to do more shopping because dad was there with the checkbook.

Great.

Well, thank you so much for your presentation.

And I mean, it's really the highlight of our council meeting this evening, and one of the highlights that we've had this year.

So we really appreciate your your uh voices and come back anytime.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And next up, we have uh the 2025 Experience Rochester annual update.

Mr.

Ward, are you gonna kick us off?

Who's first here?

I'm starting here.

Mr.

Moe.

So go ahead.

Good evening.

Um Council President uh Shoe bring Mayor Norton and members of the council, and uh thank you.

Um City Administrator's Elms for letting us follow that group.

Um and thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight.

I'm Jacob Mollitz, board chair for Experience Rochester, and on behalf of our board of directors, I want to express our appreciation for the strong collaborative and uh relationship that we share.

Uh Experience Rochester continues to evolve alongside our community.

The momentum we're building is both significant and encouraging.

From strengthening operations at Mayo Civic Center to advancing our destination marketing efforts.

We are laying the foundation for long-term success.

Experienced Rochester is committed to transparency, accountability, and being a trusted partner.

We value the responsibility that comes with representing our community, and we remain focused on performing that work with purpose and intention.

Shortly, Experienced Rochester president Joe Ward will present a review of our past year, financial overview, and finally a bit of what's to come.

But before that, I'd like to uh introduce my fellow board member and our treasurer, um uh Bill Richter uh to come to the podium.

Good evening.

Uh when Experienced Rochester established this current board structure six years ago, it was built intentionally as a governance model board.

Our role is very clear.

We hire the chief executive, we set meaningful measurements and empower the team to succeed.

I believe we and the entire city of Rochester were incredibly fortunate to hire Joe Ward.

Under his leadership, he built a dedicated and talented team that has been deeply committed to delivering results for Rochester, and you will see those.

It's been gratifying to serve on the board and see the model that was envisioned six years ago come to fruition.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council President, Mayor, members of council.

Um I'm Joe Ward, president of Mayo Civic Center and Experienced Rochester.

And I really just want to thank Bill and Jacob for their nice comments and for bringing me to Rochester six years ago.

And they're right, they've been they've empowered our team, and I really appreciate that.

And really I appreciate the team that really executes the work, and they're all over there in the corner.

And if I they're not they weren't relegated to the corner, they chose to be there.

Uh but they work day in, day out, evenings around the clock sometimes to serve our guests and to serve people that come to this community.

And I really uh sincerely want to say thank you.

And I'm here to try to kind of take an entire year and put it into well, I think the goal is 15 minutes.

Um it's hard for me sometimes for those that might know me.

Um, but I was just uh was gonna say in 2025, we successfully consolidated operations and food and beverage at the Mayo Civic Center into a single operator model.

Um so this year with Legends uh is taking over food and beverage and operations.

They've been working on that for about four or five months now.

Improved customer satisfaction scores.

So we used to kind of get like a we'd get like a 95 and then like an 80, like uh then like a 92 and then an 81.

Um, but this year across the board, 90 percent in every category is of customer satisfaction.

That being said, we know we're not perfect, but we strive to do that every day.

And again, I want to also this one I'll highlight by name, Craig Burkto, our general manager, who has really delivered that consistency and continues to work on it.

I used to say I uh oftentimes too often we were consistently inconsistent.

We're starting to get rid of that word.

So we're starting to find a lot of consistency again with the attempt to always strive to be as close to perfect as we can, but knowing that we can't get there.

Um then I would say also really proud of the the work Craig has done and team uh with the city with capital planning, thinking ahead, prioritizing things, working with Zach and the staff and everybody there to just make sure that that falls in line.

So we have a building that's uh a place that's clean and safe to come to for generations.

Um, and then it wouldn't be what we do without saying comedy continues to be king in Rochester, and this year we had the second busiest show in history of the Mayo Civic Center, the largest comedy show with Nate Bargazi.

We also, as uh council member Miller got to see the largest lines we've had in a while, and I appreciate that you waited patiently.

But our team we got them in and we learned from that too.

It's not every day that you get 72, sorry, 6200 fans in the building.

So that was that was awesome.

Um, and uh just uh also want to get into some of our annual key performance indicators.

Uh, this is really led by our sales team through November, the Civic Center revenue future booking is 117% of budget with 7.36 million booked versus a 6.27 million dollar goal.

At the same time, hotel room nights are running at 11% of budget with 42,986 actual nights versus a 38,610 goal.

Both metrics confirm that demand, booking strength, and visitor volume are outperforming our plan.

Um then we also want to make sure that we're not just the city's convention center, right?

That we're part of this community.

We said it from the very beginning back in 2019, when I was watching all these council members, many of you not not on council at the time, and just realizing that community was a big piece, keeping civic in civic center was really important.

And so this year, um a lot of our community engagement work.

We added a new a new uh group that's the community food response focus on food security, workforce pathways, and downtown vitality with some of the other things that we've worked in.

I want to thank the mayor as well for the inspiration behind uh hosting Cradle to Career.

We were at her state of the city last year, and she mentioned it being the year of the youth and gave us a little tip on Cradle to Career.

Um, and we went out and worked with them and brought them in.

So that was really great, and it was nice to see them have a terrific facility to celebrate and get their messages out.

Um with Cradle to Career, we connected students to real world career uh career exposure inside the Civic Center and through Leadership Greater Rochester this year.

We took our talents off site and actually helped them with a building project that's an interactive game that I couldn't tell you all the details about, but our team could.

It's it's really terrific.

So get out in the skyway.

And if you see the project that the Leadership Greater Rochester group put together this year, um you'll you'll really enjoy that.

So as far as uh this year, we're again Mayor mentioned earlier celebrate Rochester New Year's Eve.

That came out of I have to just I have to say it because first conversation I ever had with the mayor back in 2019.

She said it seems like you know, New Year's Eve could use a boost in this community, and we got to work on that as well.

Tried a few different variations of the same event, and this is the fourth year to have this family-friendly one, which uh as she said, 6,000 people attended last year.

Um, she's not allowed to roller skate anymore for safety reasons, but uh we are glad to continue to have this event, and then uh we'll have our fourth year as well of experienced Rochester's restaurant week um coming up.

So I want to thank Bill Von Bank and the marketing team for that.

And then this year we also tried to encourage shopping in the community with Strop Stroll and Explore, the Rochester's holiday shopping pass.

So that was kind of a new thing for us, had over 20 merchants participate in that.

Um then, you know, we need to really focus on the what we do as well.

So, as far as like who we compete with, and uh I think this is something that we haven't had a tradition of really showing, and I think it's a good move forward for us to be able to show this.

There's a lot of questions.

Councilmember Keene's might ask before, sort of how do we measure up to people?

And um, so if you look at those bookings at the top, so you see Experienced Rochester with 38,132 rooms.

If you look at that whole thing, one you'll figure out that no destination seems to count them the same, which is frustrating, but that that's really an apples to apples uh type of thing, like catch Des Moines doesn't report room nights, but somehow has 150 million dollars of economic impacts.

Maybe we should run for council down there and have a chat with them about accountability, but you know, um, we'll be fair to them.

They're good-natured competitor, trust me.

I know those folks quite well.

Um, but I think for us, um we're we're right in there, we're right in the mix with with those.

Um let me see, just want to make sure I write some good.

We generated 38,000 room nights, almost 38 million in economic impact, of course, all kidding aside, ahead of St.

Cloud, Duluth, Iowa City, and Sioux Falls, even more important.

Um, CoStar, which uh used to be Smith Travel Research, which does all the hotel data, um, ranks Rochester first in demand growth, occupancy growth.

This is in the lower chart, uh, and hotel revenue growth among these markets, including the top performer in Minnesota.

So now hotels um in Minnesota in general have struggled post-pandemic.

Um, but I think again, um, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Mayo Clinic's um position of strength that really helps us boost boost that.

Over the last four months, we've seen like increases like double digit increases in hotel revenue at different like one month was like 13, next month went down to like six, and then another 12.

That is tremendous.

That's really uh, as you can see there, not what you're seeing in other destinations.

Uh so in short, I'd say Rochester's visitor economy is outpacing the region.

So very excited about that.

And now uh normally we don't pass the microphone here, but in the interest of being efficient and also get to some uh really great project.

This year, we we were able to harness the power of the model that was put in place six years ago.

So we years zero through six, we're really about trying to create some cost certainty for the Mayo Civic Center, free up some money as well for destination marketing efforts, and you're gonna hear a little bit about that from somebody who can tell a marketing story much better than me, Bill Von Bank, our vice president of marketing communications to discuss this is Rochester.

Really?

Thank you, Joe, President Schulring, Mayor Norton, members of the council.

About a year ago, we started discussing what would a summer leisure campaign look like for Rochester, and and we spent a lot of time having deep conversation.

We know that we have the world's best healthcare system, and that's a great sense of pride.

There's also an and we're a great place for health care and and we wanted to tell the and story.

We want to really showcase Rochester by encouraging people to really peel back the layers and see that there's more to Rochester.

There's more to explore.

There's a great dining scene.

There's 85 miles of connected trails.

We have some incredible live entertainment, and the latest tourism trends are people will travel and move around this to other cities to see live entertainment, and we have that here.

So we leaned in on proof points.

What makes Rochester stand out?

Uh, that people will want to come for a day trip or make a weekend getaway on it.

This is a starting point.

This is the start of the the funnel, the sales funnel for consideration and awareness and consideration, which ultimately would lead to visitation.

So our lead creative is a video that we used for TV for streaming and for some of our digital.

And I'd like to show that for you right now.

Not sure if there's sound.

Does have sound.

There you go.

Really?

Country's top rated speakeasies.

Really?

An oyster bar that farms its own expensive oysters from the coast of Maine.

Really?

How about if we just try that again?

Rochester, Minnesota.

Really?

We say yes.

Really?

Home of Minnesota's highest rated beer.

Really?

A booming live music scene.

Really?

One of the country's top-rated speakeasies.

Really?

An oyster bar that farms its own exclusive oysters from the coast of Maine.

Really?

The perfect blend of big city experiences with small town convenience.

This is Rochester, Minnesota.

Really?

A strong start.

And the music bed was from Clay Fulton in the last 40s.

So we tried to keep this as local as we could from beginning to end.

The campaign was multi-channel.

So you saw video that was played on digital and in other areas.

But we also were in the Skyway system near Target Field and Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.

So we could catch the traffic of people going to Twins Games or Minnesota Lynx Games and share the message.

Focusing on some of the big events in Rochester.

Rochester Downtown Alliance's Thursdays downtown was a huge message for us.

One to never let a good headline go to waste.

The Star Tabue noted when Rochester Public Music announced their summer music series.

Rochester might have Minnesota's weirdest and most fun city concert series in 2025.

So we turned that into an ad campaign as well as part of this.

And of course, a shout out to the mayor who keeps championing our trail system, some digital advertising around 85 miles of connected trails.

Communities around us are touted for their trail system.

We think we have a gosh darn good one as well.

And we were able to also uh bring this campaign to life a little bit throughout the community.

We obviously, many of you know we have a visitor center in Peace Plaza all summer long.

Uh so we were able to wrap some windows.

I want to thank Realty Growth for helping us get on those windows and the shops at Kalar as well for allowing us on those windows of the former Lasker building.

Uh really was a nice compliment to our visitor booth.

Some results.

Uh we measured traffic.

A lot of our digital campaign was linked to certain pages on our website.

So we were able to measure uh year over year traffic to our website.

For example, Thursdays downtown, as I mentioned, was just a huge driver for business to our website, traffic to our website.

Restaurants, again, as well.

And we always see great interest in our restaurants year round, but we did see a nice spike during this campaign.

Uh active users uh from some of our uh target markets.

Minneapolis St.

Paul was uh our primary market.

We also invested in the La Crosse Eau Claire area as well as Northern Iowa, and you see some active user increases year over year from from those markets.

Uh we again we we mentioned Can I ask you a question?

On it looked like there was a big jump in St.

Paul.

Do you do what do you attribute that to?

Well, it was it was about 60% of our campaign investment was the Twin Cities, and so Minneapolis St.

Paul DMA.

So uh primarily just uh more investment in um marketing in in that market.

Got it.

It's our number one driver of visits to Rochester is the Minneapolis St.

Paul area.

Um so we were we were um it was a great surprise also for us.

We we subscribed to Zartico, which is a destination intelligence software program, a leading one for destinations like ours, and and we tracked visitation, and it was a nice, nice surprise to see a jump in visitation from Minneapolis St.

Paul, considering that this campaign primarily was about awareness and uh consideration.

Uh so that this was a nice uh surprise for us to see this as well.

We are in early planning for this is Rochester Really 2.0 uh in 2026, which will also allow us to just start a little bit earlier and take the campaign a little bit longer into the season.

So we're really excited about that to continue to tell the authentic stories of Rochester, home to the best hospital, and more to come.

And then one final note we are partnering with the city on becoming film ready.

The Explorer Minnesota has um started a film commission.

It's called Explore Minnesota Film, um, re-established that.

Uh, they also have uh film tax credits available.

So uh communities across the state are working to get film ready.

What that means is that we follow some protocol.

We work on um getting uh a permit process put in place, which we are uh in close conversation with uh Allison and her team right now to get that completed.

Um getting a big um uh media library put together for Explore Minnesota film training, which I've already been through.

Um, and ultimately another way to drive visitation uh and uh economic impact to the community.

Uh, there are about 18 destinations in Minnesota that um have gone through the certification and shortly will be uh community number 19.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bill.

I also want to say that this is Rochester really.

A lot of few people have asked me like, is this our new brand?

No, it's not.

Okay.

It's a way to get attention, it's a way to move forward as a campaign.

And sometimes uh people need that to understand that.

I think really it's it has you talk to people in the Twin Cities and that that have seen it, and it jumps out because there's a lot of people that frankly are surprised that there's things to do in Rochester other than the things that you have to come to Rochester for.

So uh it's a great first step.

It's uh is a nice little try to see how we're gonna do, and we're gonna reinvest in that a little bit as we can.

So I'm proud to be able to put that through.

Now, of course, um a big huge responsibility for us is on the fiscal side.

That's uh a big building across the street.

There's a history of it having, you know, that created the reason why I showed up here in 2019 of having some uh you know financial opportunities, let's just say.

And so uh this year, uh for the first time, we've been able to cross over to having a projected one and a half million dollar operating reserve at the end of 2025, which if you're familiar with the contract that we have with the city, that triggers to where we will now start contributing 5% of our overall gross to the city to help and aid in the capital improvements.

So that was a huge benchmark that we were able to meet.

There's two people on that that I really want to thank internally, Nick Landry, who really set us on a course for getting there, and externally, our partner at the city, City Administrator Allison Zelms for uh having an understanding, be able to look through the money and things just a couple years ago when that reserve number got like uncomfortably close to 400,000, um, and realizing that uh you know you can't just look back and say, well, there was this pandemic, right?

Um, those are real things, but we have to get this stable, and that's the situation we're really proud of now to have that one and a half billion dollar reserve.

Um, over the last few years, we've reinvested 1.1 million dollars directly back into the Mayo Civic Center.

So even though now the capital goes like to the city to be planned, we've also directly put in 1.1 million dollars over the years, um, mostly in the food and beverage side.

And then since 2023, we've also been able to increase the destination marketing investment by 426,000, um, which is you those that were on council at the time recall that you had to retract some of those dollars at the time and realign them.

Um, we're working back as the model was laid out to believe.

Now, if if there wasn't for that little disruption back in 2020, that's a course you probably would have seen more at years like three three or four, and now we're in there at year six, and really just uh glad that that's moving forward and um we'll continue to do so as we go on.

And um, so in short, as far as the the financial situation is getting more sound there, absolutely, um, and strengthening reserves while still reinvesting reinvesting aggressively in the asset.

And again, also want to thank Craig on this because Craig's team has really been taking care of things really well, making sure that we're alerted to what needs to be replaced, working with the city, and um that you know that really wasn't quite honestly always the case.

So really glad that we can do that.

So um let me see, just want to make sure.

Yeah, I probably skipped over something here.

Um, yeah, so also um, yeah, for 2025 and forecasting uh 10 million dollars in revenue against 9.45 million dollars in expenses, which puts us um about $485,000 positive on operations.

Um that results in a projected year-end reserve of the 1.52 million dollars I've already mentioned, and then for net for next year's operational budget.

Um, we successfully consolidated the operations, as I've said, um, by going to one operator, which gives us some cost efficiency, and we're proposing a $10.32 million balanced budget with $10.32 million in reserves.

Revenues remain stable with $4.2 million in city investment.

So thank you very much for your faith in us and in investing those dollars.

And thank you to our hotel partners for their hotel guests who generate a lot of that that money as well, and to Mayo Clinic and other demand drivers in our community for for bringing those guests that stay in our hotels.

Um so we'll have $5.54 million in earned civic center income, consistent and also included the one roof support that the city gives us as well to work with the Arts Center and the Civic Theater.

Um expense growth is controlled while also allowing for reinvestment in both Mayo Civic Centers and DMO activity.

So very excited about that.

And then as we move on, the road ahead.

I think we're kind of at the point where we've been able to figure out like okay, we have a level of cost certainty around the Mayo Civic Center, right?

Your model worked.

Um but, and there's a but to that, the Rochester is rapidly growing, right?

There's bold forward unbound, and I think it's time that we get a little bold and start thinking about what is visitation in the city look like 10 years out, all the way back to what do we need to do tomorrow to be ready for that, but also ready for tomorrow to support those businesses beyond the Mayo Civic Center from that destination marketing and destination management and working.

So we are gonna be working on a tourism master plan.

The timeline here, a lot of overall 18 to 24 month tourism master planning process built around community engagement, visioning, and clear recommended actions.

And phase one is already underway with the University of Minnesota Tourism Center as part of the University of Minnesota extension.

Uh we've just approved Bill and I signed off on the non-visitor survey, a resident sentiment survey and business sentiment survey.

So the first thing is to go out and hear from people, say, what do you think?

One, the non-visitor is somebody who hasn't come to Rochester in over a year.

Of course, we know what uh visitors are, and we know what uh residents and businesses are here in our community.

And I think that's really key, especially I would say for me, when when I've gone into places, I've always touted that I'm successful because of the fresh eyes.

Well, I'm six years in, and we have to have fresh eyes, and this will help us get the eyes of our community.

A lot of people have moved here in those six years, and also those that have still been here their whole lives.

And what do they see about Rochester that's a gem, or where do they see opportunities?

Um when we have those results, should be June or so of next year.

Um, we'll be bringing those forward, and that will lead into the rest of that process that's up there.

The visioning then recommended actions.

And I think that part with the 12 to 18 months, that's critical, where we're obviously coming back speaking with you all, speaking with our city partners, and that 24 months gets you to you know a magic time frame too, where probably if there are additional opportunities that we all decide to do, how is that happening, right?

Um, and then and I know myself.

I'll have a list of like 20 that I want, and then we're gonna get down to three or five that are gonna be really core that really work and move forward.

Um, and and again, I think you know, for me personally and professionally, um this I'm sincere when I say it.

I really want to thank everybody on the city team for all the help.

We deal with so many people on a different on a different day.

One's a guest one day, the next thing you know, we're talking about space needs for a local business or a local community icon.

And it's really important to just have those frank and open conversations.

I know uh during you know some of the most stressful times in our lives.

Um it was it was stressful to be with everybody.

So um somebody said today to me today in a meeting says it's good to meet some kindred spirits.

And I said, Well, yeah, if nothing else, uh shoulder to cry on, right?

So um just want to say thank you all to you as well.

And uh, and then as we wrap up, returning in 2026.

This is something that was a part of the organization prior to the 2019 changeover, and that's the certified tourism ambassador program.

So we're bringing that back.

These programs help ensure that every visitor feels welcomed, informed and connected.

And so, what that is, it's a training program that hotel staff, restaurant staff, our staff, you all could come through and be part of.

So when you interact with a visitor in this community, you can be more informed, you can let them know where things are, where they aren't, or even direct them to the right resources.

And uh, we're really excited um to bring that back.

That was something that when I saw the consultants report six years ago, wasn't really excited that that was getting removed.

Um, we actually found a way to get that back in the budget, and then again, that that giant disruptor happened.

So the success of that building and the team over there is allowing that to happen.

We'll be more informed, and I think you know, if you haven't noticed, there's a few projects going on around town.

Um 40 new ones you just dealt with this year, and uh this will help people navigate that on the ground.

So just kind of want to say thank you, and we're here for any questions you may have.

Great.

Thanks, Joe.

You didn't mention the big news of the day.

Oh next year.

Yeah, well, that would have been in the presentation, but we weren't allowed to announce that Bob Dylan, is that what you're talking about?

Bob Dylan will be coming.

Bill, what's the date?

March 24th.

March 24th.

So uh yes, Bob Dylan's coming.

What people probably don't know as much, maybe a few of you do, but we actually had Bob Dylan in the building last year uh rehearsing for multiple days.

And I tell people when we're dealing with clients and they want us to keep secrets, we're good at keeping secrets because he would not be coming here now had we not held that secret as tight as we did.

And um, that's also something about not saying no when people call Craig who handles all the booking, made sure not to say no when someone wanted to rehearse in the building, and now we're seeing a Minnesota native come back for his first show in Rochester in 12 years, I believe.

And we are told by the promoter that we'll see if they hold to it, but uh be the only Minnesota show in 2026 for Bob Dylan.

Great.

Congratulations on that.

And I'm sure we'll get a lot of visitors that are coming from the Twin Cities and around the Midwest to that.

So yes, I hope so.

We um during Nate Bargazi was a middle of the week show and uh talked to an owner of he owns four hotels in the community, and he he said he had like uh he was gonna have a drink.

He goes, No, I can't because I have to drive.

He lives in the cities.

And I said, Well, you do own some hotels here, you could stay.

And he said, No, we're actually sold out.

And I was I was surprised.

I mean, I was like, I know we drive some, you know, when a lot of our performers aren't up there, but that was pretty cool.

So we offered him a couch, but he didn't take it.

Great.

Mayor.

Yeah, I was just gonna say I'm really pleased to see the CTA uh program coming back, and I would highly recommend that all the city council take that training.

Um, I took the training, I was really disappointed when it was time to renew and go back that it wasn't coming.

Um, because even though we think we know the city, there are so many more stories and bits of information that you think you think you know it all, and not even close.

Um, so it's rich in the history of our community, and it is really helpful, I think, as elected officials to have some of that information.

So I'd like to recommend it.

And I will say when Nate was here, um I didn't go to the event, but I came downtown for dinner that night, which was I had the first literal traffic jam where I sat for 30 minutes stuck in downtown Rochester because the traffic was backed up so long, it was absolutely amazing.

So, congratulations on a huge turnout.

And it's all I've heard is good things about that event.

So really fun to see the Civic Center alive like that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry, not sorry, but I'm gonna call on administrator Zelms because I know she serves on the board and she's been instrumental in uh really the success of Experience Rochester.

And gee, if you didn't see it, she did an amazing presentation at your annual meeting.

So uh perspective.

Uh sure.

Uh council president, council members.

I I would just uh echo what um Mr.

Ward said it's a great partnership.

It I try to work in the partnership like it is a department of the city, and um I think that helps.

It's not a contract unless we need it.

Um it's a partnership for how we are making sure that Rochester is on the map, and so I really appreciated the partnership from Joe and his team, and I think everything that he said about it's a small but mighty team over there.

And they there's not that many people pulling these things off on a regular basis, and they bring people in from all over the country when it's a big one.

So I mean, I think they've done an excellent job, and I appreciate the partnership probably as much as Joe does, and I'm really impressed with how far they've come.

So I appreciate all the hard work.

Thank you so much.

And appreciate Nick Landry, who's the financial wizard, and also Bill Wector, who's the other financial wizard.

And Paula was a with her drift.

There she is back there.

Okay, now this is not the Academy Award.

So council member Keene.

Yeah, thanks for being here tonight.

Um, I really gratified like looking at the longer picture here.

I don't think everyone realizes you came here about a couple of months as we were just getting into COVID and it just looked just look ugly.

And it was a rough start.

Um, but it's so coming five years down the road, six years down the road, and seeing some stability and some some benefits is really gratifying to see.

The hard thing with your industry for me is that it's not even a 10-year cycle before what's next, what's what's new.

Is that that's what you're talking about when you're talking about let's look at what uh these um what's our future, what's the 24 month, 18 months is that what we're talking about?

Yeah, I would say so.

Thank you for your comments, council member.

I it's about what's next, but there's also there are other people and other partners in this community, right?

That decide what and how, as far as investments and yeah, let's say incentives and things, and we're we like to be sort of uh you know, always sunny, always Saturday department, which is like, yeah, let's just do this.

This is great.

And I think um that's the part of this process that for us is to find out how can we really help, and then if we if we find things along the way that the community has spoken loudly that they'd like to see, we're certainly, I mean, along the way, whether they're whether people are speaking loudly or we're just getting feedback that's uh we're okay.

That's will absolutely be shared with our partners at the city because we don't make those decisions.

Um, but I do think um, you know, you passed it recently as a council priority.

There are a few lot fewer people downtown um over the last few years, and so more you'll see more and more people out in the afternoon and in the evening, and I think um to see a night and weekend economy and hotel or sorry, hospital visitations staying strong, can both coexist in this world in Rochester.

I believe um, even though we have all those things that you saw in the ad vibrancy is something that I would love to see if in 10 years down the road.

Uh maybe when I'm wrapping it up, I can look back and say, hey, we've added this and that, because you know, like I think kids and families and things.

I think I'll give you I'm from New York, so which is a curse and a great thing, I think at times, but um people in Minnesota should pat themselves on the back a lot more and not be afraid to reach for the stars a little bit, and sometimes we reach a little and go, Well, this is good enough.

And okay is not okay with me.

Um and we're more than okay, don't get me wrong.

But I think as we start to set forward at the same time, there's not unlimited resources, there's real issues, there's a massive you know amount of infrastructure change right now with the city.

We can start to put together a strategy around visitation, and then through the timing that one fits with you all and your your your policies and such.

Um, and with our partners to be able to get on those agendas when they need to, because you know, I think part of what we need to do as an organization is you you always need to meet your city where you're working where they are.

And you know, I think that's you know, when uh when Allison was mentioning, you know, about the work that we've done, it really was just trying to tune into where you all needed it to be.

It's not um so many visitor bureaus will say, Well, we're doing this kind of against the city, and it's like it's the city's building, it's the city we're in.

Um, how about we try to meet?

Doesn't mean we always do.

We're not always 100% successful with that, but to try to meet and come along and then eventually, you know, we earn some credibility and hopefully can um convince some people to one or two of our ideas along the way.

I appreciate you using the words like this experiment we were doing because I I think of it as those early days of saying this is a new business model, will this work?

And and as we've said, you know, it takes a mighty team.

But I also want to call out tonight that back then we built a a board with Jake up and uh and Bill, and that was six years ago, and they're still here.

So that stability really lends a lot to it.

It's kind of interesting.

I'm pretty sure Bill Vlank well bank was a board original board member too and switched over to the employee side.

So I think that I I want to call that out as uh wonderful community engagement, something that's really done well for our city.

Oh, I I agree.

I said a thank you to them earlier, and I did want to close when the questions were done, but to to really say thank you because they one, they changed they changed the trajectory for my family in a good way.

And starting off in Rochester was definitely interesting when um you're coming here in the in the pandemic, it's underway, and you know, you're all Minnesotans have your own way of communicating a little bit, and we're trying to break through that and get invited to picnics and things, but um it was different.

And for me, it but it changed our lives trajectory in in so many great ways.

And so I want to say thank you.

And I know um I'll say this about Bill Wickter from the very first day he said it was this great way.

I probably have to clean it up a little bit, but basically said don't screw it up, you know.

And I know his background enough to know he's a very, very detailed person that details matter, that finance matters, and so I I took that as we're gonna give you the autonomy and we're gonna help you set a vision, but if you screw up, you're gonna be hearing from me a lot.

And I really appreciate we've taken that seriously every day since we've had our close two moments, um, but I think overall our trajectory is really strong.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

I really appreciate the experience Rochester newsletter.

I get lots of opportunities to read things, uh either in print or uh over uh the internet.

That's one that I actually open up and read from top to bottom.

It's very interesting with opportunities.

So I would think the more uh people that we could get that into their inboxes and get that thing opened up, uh, would only be great for Rochester.

That's really well done.

So commendations.

Thank you.

In your uh presentation, the uh two Iowa markets, uh, while a small sample, four percent to three percent dropped 25%.

Uh why would why would Roch uh why would Iowa uh markets uh be visiting a little bit less this year uh rather than in the past?

Oh that's a great question.

I I don't necessarily know if I I know the answer to that off the top of my head.

Um, you know, I think I mean in general, um, there's a lot of people that are traveling, traveling less in different ways.

So um I I don't know if I could specifically answer to to Iowa.

I was actually surprised when I got here.

I was just wasn't even thinking about Iowa of how many people come north from Iowa and come west, I guess, from Wisconsin.

So um we could I could certainly we could get with the team and try to find an answer and get that to you.

Great question.

Is there a motion?

Yes, is this a two-part motion?

I believe it is, council member.

Should I just read the whole works?

We do are we doing it in two separate votes?

Why don't you do it together?

Let's do it.

All right, I'll make a motion to receive the filing of the 2025 experience Rochester and Mayo Civic Center Corporation year in review report.

And number two, accepting the 2026 budget for experienced Rochester in the Mayo Civic Center Corporation.

Second mo motion made, seconded by council member I think it was Miller I heard first.

Okay.

Uh any further discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Poe say nay.

Motion passes unanimously and congratulations.

Congratulations on a great year and looking forward to that Dylan concert in the city.

I was gonna say, I have a feeling we're gonna see you at Dillon.

My son Anthony, who's 13, he said to me today, or yesterday when I broke the news to him, we were having Bob Dylan said, He goes, I don't know anything about his music, but they made a movie about the guy, so he must be good.

And I have to come.

So everyone do that themselves.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We will take a 10-minute break.

Bill.

Bill.

That's because you asked me that.

You said I never go up here.

Welcome.

We are now on item H3, which is contract award Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex.

And Mr.

Ben Bolt or Mr.

Scott Ramsey.

Scott Ramsey, I'm sorry.

Absolutely.

Council members.

And we have a schedule up there showing that we were given permission to go out for bids.

And we went through a pretty rigorous process for the bidding.

We received the bids, we've analyzed them, and we're here today to get the uh approval contract award and then also talk about some budget issues.

As you can see in the schedule, we have some entitlement items that we need to take care of.

Um, but if everything goes according to plan, we'll be ready to start in April.

And then we have a phase one that will be complete in spring of 27, and Ben will go over that scope.

And then the final phase will be completed in spring of 28.

Yep.

It's not advancing.

Yep, there you go.

I think you you may have gone one extra, did you?

Yeah, there is one on the four actions.

Sorry.

It's up.

Yeah, it there's a leg to it, so just do it once.

There we go.

So we have four items today.

The first one is the um you did approve the contract with Knutson in the in November.

Um, and we're seeking approval of the amendment number one, which is a guaranteed maximum price.

27,978,635.

And we also had the contractors act as our agent uh to buy materials.

The 27 million is for labor and taxable materials.

The item number two is for items that the contractors are buying on our behalf, and that's non-taxable materials.

Um, those were identified, quantified, they were in the plans, they were bids.

So that number is a number we got from the contractors.

So we're seeking authorization to spend that amount on non-taxable materials.

The third item is uh seeking uh authorizing us to look at value engineering items and additional funding to add back projects or um selected deducts and alternates back into the project up to 65 million, and Ben will go through what those items are.

The fourth item is offer authorizing the interim financing of 1,772 from the economic vitality fund.

Now that covers 50% of the road construction plus all the utilities that will serve these remnant self lots, and then also includes a proportion of the purchase clock cost of the property.

And as you can see, we've we were here um in February.

We purchased the property in October.

You gave authorization to bids.

We've spent $77 million to date on the property and design.

And we mentioned as it's shown in that uh schedule.

We still have some land use traffic study final plot to get to finish a few slides that you've seen already before.

So again, just grounding us in the location of where this uh complex will be built again at the 158 acres.

It gave us some of those opportunities to have additional um space around the complex itself for complementary um uses, and that's part of the the request this evening is is some allocation for those South uh commercial lots that are available on this site.

Um next slide here, just again is a reminder of the amenities that'll be in this uh complex.

Um the next slide we'll we'll take a look again when we went out for bid.

We built in several um alternates that we could have either add alternates or deduct alternates in order to stay um within budget or hit our budgetary um numbers there.

So we'll we'll talk about that on the next slide.

The one other item I would highlight here is just the image there on the right side of your screen is an updated rendering as we've worked our way through the traffic study and other uh development components.

The stormwater areas here are more reflective of what the final build will be.

Uh the roadway is more reflective of what the final build will be.

So just I'm continuing to refine these images as we learn more and uh and design more uh directly, and this is um where we're at today and the rendering that is built off of the plans that were all sent out for bid.

Um so getting to those alternates, um, wanted to put a kind of graphic representation here of what we're talking about.

So if the council will choose to authorize that 1.7 million dollars of the South commercial costs, um, that allows us to put more scope right back into the project from day one, be very close to what the scope was that we've been talking about for the last several months here.

And the the two main things there would be both of the multi-purpose rectangle fields.

Um, this list of recommendations of alternates is in a bit of a prioritized order, and that was really built off of staff as well as the potential operator discussing with them about uh how these different amenities would uh impact the pro forma or the operating budget each year, as well as the conversations and feedback we got from the community working group and other community members that we've interacted with over the last several months.

So, again, those multi-purpose rectangle fields were the highest priority.

Um the community members that um have communicated with me, the rest of our team, and been part of that community working group process, put a high priority on those items, and we do too.

We also think they're important to the Proforma.

Councilmember Miller.

So, point of clarification you mentioned updating the ProFormo with the potential operator.

Is that what's included in the packet in the next it is?

That's an updated pro forma.

So that's an updated pro forma, especially in light of what amenities would be available in 2027 and then being ready for the full um all amenities available in 2028.

Yes.

Um, uh complementary features like the basketball court, um, more amenities be added to the ball field areas to make them uh more of that tournament caliber, those would be the things we'd be able to add in if the council chooses to authorize that allocation of funds for those south lots.

And then the third item that was to authorize staff to continue working on funding or other uh other value engineering could potentially add in some of those other two features, which are both pretty high price tag items, but uh being able to add the artificial turf outfields back into that north quad of fields, as well as uh potentially adding those quad buildings in, which would provide more um restroom and shade and things like that right within the the ball field uh pinwheels.

Um I would just highlight there, um just to make sure we're clear that central building is um in the base bid that will be constructed that will have all of the minimum number of restroom facilities, concessions, and the other things that are needed there to make a great uh visitor experience at the facility.

Um those are in the the base.

This uh adding the quad buildings would be something that would just be additional and complementary to the uh ball field activities there.

Um, so that kind of buzzes through that.

I I would turn it over to Deputy Administrator Parrish.

Uh Mayor President, members of the council really appreciate the team that's worked on this project.

An amazing amount of work has happened in order to bring you the opportunity to consider boarding bids this evening.

Uh, maybe just two concluding comments from my perspective.

Uh, first and foremost, um, you are looking at some enhancement to the project with the economic vitality funding that supports the private development that we ultimately you know feel will happen there.

Um, we'll be bringing you forward uh an approach to marketing those lots at some point.

But also want to note um it's not anticipated or planned, or we will not be uh displacing any of the previous economic vitality funding that you all have talked about.

Um this really is sort of an interim financing measure what before we recover funding on those lots.

Um, but we do feel within the sales tax overall we have the ability to sort of navigate successfully and not uh mitigate any of your previous expectations with that.

Um, and secondly, um really just want to extend appreciation.

Um we've had good and uh preliminary conversations with RCTC on how we can best meet indoor needs in the facilities.

Um so active and robust conversations over the last month or so in that space.

Um extend thanks out to uh councilmember Wall, Council President Schuebring, Mayor Norton and City Minister Zowns for kind of participating in our working group where we're engaging with the RCTC leadership.

Um and I would just say the conversations at this point have been encouraging.

Um, and we certainly, you know, through the course of early next year, uh, would expect to be able to bring back um a better status update on where we're at with that, but um overall encouraging.

I would say from a timing perspective, there's a couple things that you want to bear in mind uh with this.

Um, you know, we've certainly at kind of the prime bidding period uh for this project.

Um that's why we you know advance the timing that we did here.

Um ultimately uh earthwork contractors, which is a substantial part of the work here, you know, are lining their work up for next year.

Um, so you know, we are sort of in the best position there.

We are trying to manage construction escalation, which has been a challenge for all of our capital projects as we move forward.

Um, but this is also you know, from a timeliness perspective, um, important, you know, we have bids uh that are awardable here, and um, from a timing perspective, uh, you know, those are risks to the project if we were to ever consider delay, um, that we would potentially be looking at you know, last construction seasons and/or construction escalation.

So, with that, uh, the team uh is very happy to answer any questions that you have and um looking forward to your conversation.

I'll start out and uh uh administrator uh Parrish, uh you touched on it.

Uh I have a uh some concerns about dipping into the economic vitality fund for that uh 1.7 million overage.

Uh one, I want to say congratulations for really getting it to the point where it's within budget, and I know that there was a lot of work done behind the scenes that to get it to that point, but can you talk about uh really how temporary is this allocation and assure us that when it comes to the economic vitality fund, which is focused on housing and workforce, that all of our uh short-term uh priorities will be covered, meaning in the next two years and as well as the long-term uh priorities, and then what is the anticipated temporary allocation uh period?

Yeah, so again, I I don't anticipate that we'll disrupt any of your previously planned investments um in the economic vitality.

I would say there's a couple things in that space.

Uh however, I I can't tell you when the lots will sell, right?

I think that's going to be part of a the next council conversation that says how aggressively do we want to price these lots for future consideration?

How much do we want to manage who our neighbors are uh going forward in the future?

Um, and you know, what kind of price do we want to have?

If we want to maximize value, um, you know, we might have to wait uh for the right users and the right price and the right offers to come in.

Um if we want to sell quickly and aren't as concerned about users, you know, that certainly could shorten the the marketing timeframe.

So we would bring forward a plan, uh, do an RFP for a broker and ultimately bring that forward.

Again, though, on the scheme of our sales tax, we have been allocating some cash for this project.

Um, so this is maybe where it gets a little bit complicated or not complicated, but just hard to walk through.

Um, we've been allocating cash uh for the the regional sports and rec complex since the inception of the project.

Um so we have some cash balance within that.

However, we are issuing debt um for that.

So we can transpose the cash we've reserved for the regional sports and rec complex on the first initial year and a half, and then ultimately um you know utilize that for economic vitality in the future.

So on net, we're still gonna plan 65 million for this project, 65 million plus the interest on the bonds that you would be considered to issue early next year, um, or you'll be asked to consider issuing early next year.

Um, so it's just like timing um really, and and I don't again anticipate that we're gonna negatively impact any of the activity uh that we had.

I hope that answers your question, but it might not be super clear either.

No.

Uh councilmember Miller.

Thank you.

I I still have some questions about the pro forma.

And so I looked back to our July study session.

And it looks like the only change is that for year one, which I assume is 2027, you took the earnings before income interest tax, et cetera, uh, of the 50% of stability.

And then the rest of years two through five are the same as they were before.

Is that correct?

Yes, that's what that is what's showing in there.

Yeah.

When we look at this slide and we see a variety of alternatives, both deductions and additions.

What's the sensitivity analysis if we fund these or not, right?

Like what are the impacts of each one of these?

And and I don't see a depth of analysis there of like helping us understand the impacts of these potential alternates to the overall economic viability of a project like this.

Could could you help me understand a little bit better?

Yes.

I would say the one that we feel has the most sensitivity are the multipurpose rectangle fields.

If those were to be natural grass, that would definitely impact the rental and the ability to host events there with being more susceptible to weather, wet conditions, those types of things.

So that one I would say would certainly have an impact on the performance of the operating budget.

The other ones, so there are other facilities around the country that have ball fields set up in the way that we're proposing for four of these ball fields to be set up, where the artificial turf infield and then natural grass outfields, and they're still the infield, the egg lime areas the most susceptible to the rain and weather and those types of things.

So they can be played on quickly, very similarly to the fully artificial turf fields.

I mean, though those will be the preferred fields, but we will still be able to utilize all eight fields in a in a really meaningful way with having natural grass outfields.

Okay.

And you know, potentially as we work through the project and feel more comfortable with the contingency dollar amount that we have, and we have some less risk as we get kind of up out of the ground, so to speak, in construction, some of the smaller um dollar items we could um likely add in at that time if we still have contingency funds available.

But I would say the one that has the would have the greatest impact in reviewing with the uh operator would be those multi-purpose fields if they were to be in natural grass.

And is there a sense of the scale of that impact and actual dollars, like looking at the sensitivity of the operating model?

Did they provide any guidance on that?

Yeah, I I have not I do not have a dollar amount for that.

Okay.

And my my second question is is about the potential uh additional revenue, or I mean, are you talking about potential sponsorships of like we I feel like at different points we've heard about corporate sponsorships?

Is that part of that additional revenue source?

Yes, it is.

It you're talking about as far as the actions that's requested.

Um, I guess when when I sponsorship and advertising is certainly part of the um pro forma, you know, as you see in there, I think um we are also, yes, we have some a period of time here where we can continue to work on um private investment into the facility to be able to add some of these items in as well.

Um we we don't have that secured today that you know we can share, um, but that is uh part of the strategy that we'll be working on over the next few months before we would need to make that firm decision on um, for example, if the the um buildup of of the layers and those sort of things to get up to the artificial turf or natural grass, those types of alternates.

Um, we'll need to make that decision very soon in order to be able to do that and not have it cost more later to go back and change it.

Okay, but I guess I'm just trying to understand when would any like naming rights or any of that sort of be a defined amount?

Can I maybe hop in orish?

Administrator's alms, go ahead.

I would defer to Mr.

Parrish.

Oh, administrator parrish, go ahead.

Yeah, your honor.

I mean, I think as as you see the operating agreements on second here, and you know, there is a structure within that agreement about how they solicit uh that and I and we've had good conversations about it.

Um, and we do have um you know the sports academy representative uh available via video here as well if there's questions in that space.

But I would just offer um we you know we have to calibrate the budget to the revenues that are available, and I think that's part of the design of this model, just not really any different than what you've heard from the civic center here recently and the experienced Rochester team.

I mean, we want to maximize those revenues if I recall off the top of my head they're like 300,000 plus or minus.

But um, if they don't materialize, we have to recalibrate the expense side of the equation.

Um and we won't know that, but they will be brought forward to you, particularly significant naming rights, you know, would be subject to council approval.

Okay.

Councilmember Wall.

And we're just doing questions.

We're just doing questions right now.

It's your time, Councilmember.

Thank you.

First, I uh uh commend the staff for the great work that has been done thus far, and especially for the work that has been done in land acquisition and uh what we might ultimately benefit from in terms of the sales part of the public document that uh we could earn back, perhaps uh at a high end seven to twelve million, which would exceed, of course, the cost of uh what we paid.

That uh tremendous work.

If the preferred, if a preferred uh partner would come in and offer seven million tomorrow, making all this up.

Uh if we were to receive that money, could we plow that money right back into the project for the alternates?

Uh Your Honor, you certainly could.

That would be a council policy decision.

And you know, as you go through the sale process of that, I think we would have a conversation of how we designate the proceeds.

But I think it's a good opportunity also to highlight um and maybe it walks back to council president Schubring's earlier question.

You know, the policy question here to a certain extent is you know, should the overall project, the 65 million dollar, you know, sports complex project, you know, sort of be encumbered with supporting the original development costs.

I think there's a great return to be had there.

The timing of it obviously will you know work and you know, try to be aggressive, you know, with the way we market that property.

Um, but we do think there's opportunity there.

And if someone did come, you certainly would have the opportunity to address many of these needs.

There's also a notion too, though, on the marketing of these lots, there may be more opportunity uh to maximize value when people see it coming out of the ground, they understand it's coming, they know.

We've had some actually some interesting preliminary inquiry in this space.

Um, but these deals do take some time too, particularly commercial development to materialize, come forward, get entitled, and then ultimately uh get a check too.

So council member Doring.

Just uh uh clarifying question.

Can you explain to me sideline netting and how the removal of that is not a safety concern?

Yes, so we would still have the minimum sideline netting around the backstop and towards the dugouts and over top of the dugouts.

This would be uh further extension down the outfield lines.

So it's uh kind of a nice to have, but not a need to have like that netting that would be covering more the infield space.

Any further questions?

Yeah, uh councilmember Keene.

Uh yeah, I I wanted to understand on this uh uh economic vitality 1.772.

Um just the did we back into that by picking the the the top five here, and that's all we could fund from it, or was there a reason why it's 1.7 million as opposed to 3 million?

Yeah, Your Honor, I think the answer is yes to both of those questions, but um just to walk it out.

Uh the 1.7 is is sort of grounded in what the shared road and infrastructure costs, because ultimately when you have access uh to that site, um, you know, there's a shared expense.

So if this was conventional development, we would say you pay for your side of the road, we pay for our side of the road.

Um, there's a timing issue on these things almost always.

Yeah.

Um but in this case, we're saying, you know, there's a portion of that expense that's allocated there.

And then as um Mr.

Ramsey mentioned, we took a proportionate share of the land cost.

So if there's 11 acres allocated here and it was 100 whatever plus acres originally, just that you know, proportion of the original five plus million dollar acquisition costs has then been allocated in there.

Okay, so it it was not just backed into by this is the amount of money we need.

It really was based on uh a conceptual cost that should be shared across the different usage language.

Certainly just saying the private activity should you know pay for the private activity.

Yep.

And um, you know, there is justification and rationale for all.

Okay, all right.

The other thing, we're at the point here we have bids in, we're looking to accept them.

But I I heard I heard a quote of continue to refine.

And I that's probably just language, but is I mean, we're pretty set right now, aren't we?

Yeah, Your Honor.

I I think you would have this project advance in the way you see it.

Um, the continue to refine language really is saying um we brought a contractor on, and when we design these documents, certainly we get a lot of great feedback from contractors on how we might have been able to do it differently or better.

And so, you know, if there's enhancements there, they're doing some you know additional earthwork and excavation to determine, you know, if we can move some dirt from over here to over there.

Yeah, all right.

We would just say if there's any benefits in that process, uh they could accrue to the project and be awarded to these alternates.

And as uh Mr.

Bolt also indicated, uh, to the extent that we uh get better information as we do that initial excavation and go through some of the first tougher phases of the project.

We do carry project contingency here, and if we have the ability to allocate that, uh we certainly would want to bring that forward for consideration once the project is a little bit more stabilized.

Okay, yeah, I think that's where I'm at.

And I I think I understand the idea we'll continue, but but you probably would call us at 95% design complete, and we're at execution.

I would just say we're in execution, yes.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

I would uh love to offer a four-part motion.

Number one, authorizing amendment number one guaranteed maximum price and the amount of twenty-seven million nine hundred and seventy-eight thousand six hundred and seventy-five dollars to Knutson construction for the Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex, project number J 2870.

And number two, authorizing a budget of 24 million two hundred seven thousand eighty-seven dollars for city and CMAR purchases of task exempt materials for the Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex, project number J 2870, and number three, authorizing staff to look for value engineering and additional funding opportunities to add back into the per project, selected deducts and add alternates up to the $65 million allocation.

And finally, number four, authorizing interim financing in the amount of $1,772,000 from Economic Vitality Fund to cover the property purchase and 50% of the road, utilities, grading, and so forth serving the South Remnant lots to allow addition of the recommended alternates and deducts.

Motion made by Councilmember Wall.

Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded it uh by councilmember Palmer.

Councilmember Wall, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Uh in uh our current bidding environment, uh, I am thrilled to see how the bids uh were returned in a way that can provide an excellent project for the city of Rochester, the region, and uh many states around.

Uh, when we were receiving bids early this year, and everything seemed to be coming in so far over our estimates.

Uh I think many of us were living in worry of the same thing happening tonight.

Instead, uh what has been brought back to us as a project that uh is uh within hailing distance of what we thought we could do with 65 million, there are a few deducts.

I think I see many opportunities to be able to add back those deducts uh within the next uh 12 to 18 months in the period of construction.

Should things fall favorably to us in terms of partnerships, uh in terms of other people who want to participate materially in uh land usage and providing other opportunities uh at that same site.

Additionally, with the sale of the South remnants, that that money too could perhaps be uh used in a way that will make this an even better project.

I am just absolutely convinced that the city of Rochester needs to provide the very, very best project that we can that will set us apart from uh other uh sports complexes in the region.

So that uh people are anxious to come to Rochester.

Uh it was only about three weeks ago that I was uh speaking to a person who um runs that does uh who organizes uh tournaments for their city.

And uh she said uh she was really looking forward to 27 that she was uh waiting for those those windows to open so that she could bring her community here for any number of tournaments that might be available through the course of the summer.

Uh I think uh that we will with this project present a project that provides the least risk to the city and by far the greatest benefits to the city in the short term and uh uh very much so in the long term.

I would also be uh very much in favor of uh should we be able to find the money uh that we uh make all four of the ball fields entirely turfed uh to make them more amenable.

Uh I appreciate Mr.

Bolt's uh uh advice that uh the outfields would still be usable.

Uh the infields clearly are most important uh for ball games, but if we could make those all turfed, I just think that would again continue to set us apart uh in the region for an A number one sports complex.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer, anything to add?

No, I would just agree with what Mr.

Wall said.

Um I'm looking forward to this project being kicked off and uh moving ahead.

Councilmember Doring.

I move to table uh this motion until there is a formal memorandum of understanding with RCTC regarding the use of indoor facilities on their campus.

Motion has been made by Councilmember Doring.

Is there a is there a second motion fails for lack of a second further discussion?

Mayor Norton.

Yeah, it's not gonna come as a surprise, um, but I feel like I need to make my statements again because we're at some pretty important decision-making points.

Um I have been disappointed from the beginning about how this plan came forward.

I have been disappointed in the choice of a location out southeast.

I am disappointed that instead of focusing on what the community wanted, which is an indoor facility.

And I while I appreciate as uh administrator uh parish mentioned, we are in the process of having some discussions, but we are not ready yet to have a memorandum of understanding.

And were I a council member, I would have seconded your uh your motion, council member Daring.

Because we have rushed ahead prior to collecting the sales tax on this project when we could have waited until the sales tax were collected to start the project.

We could have waited and prioritized the things the community wanted and expected, which were indoor facilities, rather than sinking 65 million plus or minus million dollars into an outdoor facility that is only available for use for limited times in good weather.

That is not what the community thought they were getting.

It's not what they want.

And so I just have to continue to share my disappointment that we have not paused.

There's no rush to do this now.

We could wait till the sales tax funds come in.

We could focus on what the community wants, which is the indoor project, and take this up again in the future at that time.

So just wanted to get that all on the table because apparently um I haven't spoken up enough, according to my constituents.

So here you go.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Wonderful.

I I think it depends on who you're talking to.

Uh I just want to respond to that.

I've heard three times in the last year how Mayor Norton's disappointed with things, and I think in the dais it's distasteful to say she's disappointed in staff or the council at large here.

I just I just don't agree with that.

And there's been a lot of hard work done here.

There's a lot of people in the community excited about this project.

Uh Southeast Rochester needs something to activate that space.

That's a great spot for a facility like this.

And I'm happy that we are going forward in that area with this.

So I I commend the hard work of our staff and uh our community will do on this going forward.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, and I'll the the reason you don't want to delay things is if construction costs are going up between 10 and 12 percent each year.

Um we have uh big competitive um um items coming up in the community that's gonna make that even higher.

Um bonding for it right now, then you're able to um build it.

You uh avoid that inflationary cost.

Um, in being one of the um council members who uh voted for the sales tax extension and also did lots of presentations.

Um this is what uh we thought that we would get with an indoor facility, but it always was um emphasis was on the outs out um facilities.

And if you think about it, you can use it from April 1st basically to um November um 15th pretty easily, and I think that you'll see lots of use with it.

I think the multi-purpose fields are wonderful addition to this.

Um it's kind of funny.

Our last presentation, um uh Mr.

Ward had said reach for the stars.

And I think the people will be very proud of us in three to five years to say, wow, what a what a facility.

Councilmember Miller.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh you know, I I'll just acknowledge that uh many of us came into this discussion uh midway through the process and inherited uh a series of decisions.

So I I've had a lot of catching up to do compared with some of my colleagues.

Um but when I came into this early on with a briefing session, remember the presentation of there would be initially a desire for an indoor and outdoor, and that didn't fit within the context.

And to make a premier facility to council member Wall's point would be an outdoor facility and eight artificial turf baseball fields were a differentiator for those types of facilities.

And that with looking at the additional potential deductions or additions is still in flux.

I just wonder at what point this no longer is a premier facility that is regionally an attractor or regionally significant.

And where I would look to an analysis of that is a more detailed sensitivity analysis of what is the impact of funding or not funding these alternates.

How does that impact a five-year projection of the model?

I mean, when I look at this and see what was presented to us tonight in the packet for the next item compared with July.

I see it was simply a copy replace, take 50% capacity or 50% of stability number fitted in.

I don't see any additional analysis coming to us, and it makes me feel really uncomfortable with the level of detail in the operations.

And I appreciate Councilmember Wall's point as well.

That these bids came in within a range that we could work within within the sports complex.

And I acknowledge that they absolutely did.

And that's heroic work.

But what I don't see is the implications to the operations and how that could leave us with a premier facility that's everyone wants to come to, or a facility that didn't turn out to be quite as viable and now is potentially a significant financial risk to the city in the long term.

And I just don't see the supported analysis beyond the build to make me feel comfortable supporting this tonight.

I don't plan to.

And I share Mayor Norton's uh frustration that we're not um in a different place to understand the complement of indoor and outdoor meeting the needs of the community.

Um and so uh again, I I know that the operator, potential operator is on the on the the virtual meeting and perhaps has more to share.

I would love to hear it.

But I I just see all the work around the the how to get this bid through and not enough work, in my opinion, around how does this getting the bid to meet the sales tax amount get us to an operating model that we still feel comfortable with.

Councilmember Doring.

Yeah, I echo a lot of of the sentiment that uh my colleague Mr.

Miller just uh made when I looked through the council packet this evening and and saw uh four this evening and prepared and saw all the design alternatives and and saw the reduction from uh eight artificial, fully artificial turf uh ball fields down to four.

Uh and given that the amount of the projections was based on on tournament play and and and the sell of those tournaments was uh uh you know an extended season because of the ability to play on turf.

Uh that just started me, started me down the road of questioning the performer a little bit quick, uh a little bit more quickly than I normally would.

And I would I was expecting a more substantial um analysis uh to go along um with tonight's presentation.

Um and and maybe we'll get it uh during the second uh part of of our votes regarding the sports complex this evening.

Um maybe we won't.

I just don't know where we're at with that.

Um I I am highly disappointed that we we aren't taking more time.

Um I uh I I appreciate the comments from my colleagues on the dais who have had more time than this, and also colleagues who have said that they have heard from from people who from the from the community who are excited about this project.

I have not heard from those folks.

Uh overwhelmingly, I have not heard from those folks.

I have heard from folks who are concerned that they have not been heard uh listened to.

I have heard from cons uh from folks who are concerned that this is going to burden the city uh for a long time, that this will have a negative impact on their property taxes because they haven't seen uh analysis that this will actually generate revenue.

I have heard uh concerns that they will not be able to uh enjoy this amenity as community um members.

I've heard an overwhelming desire for an increased indoor spaces.

Um my desire to push the uh push the vote or table the vote until there was clarification about a memorandum of understanding with RCTC uh was to have some clarification about what we might do in that indoor space to alleviate some concerns.

So it didn't seem like we were just chasing after a shiny new toy and not listening to uh our constituents about their desires.

Um I understand that that wasn't the will of this council this evening, and and and I understand that, and I'm I I can live with that.

But um, I am planning not to uh vote to move forward uh this evening uh with this item.

But I thank you for your work.

But I thank you for your work.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh I think I'll weigh in at this point, and as others have said, this issue has really taken the time of this council from this year in February to tonight's last meeting.

And uh and it may look like we started with this and we're ending with this, but I would say that there has been a lot of work that has been to address community concerns, and when I heard community concerns, I heard this we're not getting community access, and we're not seeing the indoor sites.

And uh and we have pushed uh to ensure that we're seeing community gap analysis, and uh we're also looking at uh community engagement.

We're gonna hear more later tonight about community engagement and marketing of our sites in holistically across parks and rec.

There is a lot of uh of uh people in our community that don't know what we have now, and so uh we uh we need to continue the work to let the community know what we have, and then we also have to continue the work, and we'll hear more about this this evening, I believe, to looking to where are those gaps where we can provide scholarships, we can provide sliding fee schedules for uh for uh recreational uh opportunities, and then we uh we heard community access indoor sites, and we did put and this council agreed unanimously for a memorandum of understanding to go into formal discussions with RCTC to reimagine that 30-year partnership that we've uh had and uh myself, the mayor, uh council member wall, and uh staff are have been meeting for the for the last two weeks.

We have worked to elevate that project, and that what our community is asking for, it's not there tonight, but I think uh the discussions are going well, and uh I am uh I'm optimistic that we are going to see something fruitful that will either be with RCTC or other options where we can uh have uh a holistic indoor recreational facility.

I know our staff is working really hard to get that up there, and I would say to the council keep pushing on uh on community access indoor space.

I think earlier this year we heard from some, we don't know if it's going to happen to have a phase two.

I'm in a place now where uh where our staff is hearing we want that indoor space and we want it expedited.

And and so I'm confident that we're going to see that.

And uh I think when I look back in uh two years ago, the voters voted for economic benefit, sports tourism, and community access.

And I want to get where we're a place where we have both.

We have some of it tonight, and uh my uh continued charge to our team is to keep working on that community access and indoor space moving forward.

Uh councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I'll call the question.

Uh roll call, please.

Clerk Case, can you call the roll, please?

Councilmember Keene.

Aye.

Councilmember Miller.

Nay.

Councilmember Wall.

Aye.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmer.

Aye.

Councilmember Doring.

Nay.

Council President Schubring.

Aye.

Motion passes five to two.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to uh H4, which is Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex Operator Agreement.

Mr.

Bolt.

Thank you, Council President and Councilmembers and Mayor, um, to introduce and get and uh start the discussion here on this report.

Um just wanted to highlight kind of where we've been um in in regards to the operator.

Uh so in February uh 2024 we sent out an RFP.

Um we had uh six firms that responded uh with interest in being a planning partner for the Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex.

Um went through a selection process with city teammates and and brought in an agreement forward to city council for approval, and that was with Oakview Group and Sports Academy in May uh 2024.

Um over the course of the uh research and time that we've spent, uh, sports academy has really shown themselves to be a firm that has a lot of experience in programming and operating uh sports and recreation facilities and has been a valuable partner to us as we've uh walked through the steps of updating um the market study, uh developing the pro forma, participating in design meetings, and just being uh there along with the city team as we've worked through this project for the last year and a half.

Um I would just say that uh over the since the last time we met and reviewed the performa, we did uh review that uh document all the documents of the performa with another large uh sports and recreation facility management team in the Midwest, and they provided valuable feedback to us.

We we went back to the Sports Academy and and continued those discussions to at least from the city teammate perspective, uh feel more comfortable with what um the performa was developed even from the last time that we came and presented um earlier this summer in in July.

Um the operator agreement is in the packet today.

I think uh approving that agreement um tonight really uh enable sports academy to get started on the work of uh beginning to market the complex, start to line up the tournament activity and get things um just just really get everything set up to go to start with the plans for uh reservations and scheduling, working with the city team to make sure the priorities of the city team with community access as well as the sports tourism are are incorporated into the scheduling and uh and and then go to work with the relations of relationships that they have with the national um baseball and softball and sports groups that they have connections with to um start lining up events to be held here in Rochester at the new facility.

Mr.

Bolt, can you hold a council member?

I'll wait till we start.

Oh, you'll wait.

Okay.

Um, just a few highlights of what's in the agreement.

Um the agreement, if it were approved, we'd begin in January 2026 with that agreement as the current planning agreement that we've been working with that comes to the end of that term here and at the end of this month.

And then uh the new agreement would start in January and go through the first five years of operation of the facility.

Um city teammates would be directly involved on a very regular basis with the operations team to make sure that we were uh covering the the marketing, the scheduling priorities, financial performance, sponsorship and advertising, the agreement outlines uh monthly, quarterly, and annual checkpoints in there, as well as uh big things like the naming rights that we discussed earlier, those would need um city approval in order to be implemented, so it'd be a really close working relationship between sports academy and the city team on the financial components of the agreement.

There is a base management fee that um is in the agreement and outlined there that would be paid to Sports Academy for their um expertise and all the time uh that they would have and and investment they would have in operating the facility.

And I would just highlight that um the management incentive fee in there is only uh payable in the event that the facility operates in a net positive way for that year.

Um any revenue generated, all revenue generated above expenses would be retained within the facility budget that would go towards um maintenance as well as upgrades to the facility.

Council member Fredericks.

Yeah, just for curiosity, when you started down this road of finding an operator, how many how many different outfits did you look at?

How many was there at the table to begin with?

Yep, we had responses to that original RFP from six for six.

Okay, fair.

And then what stuck out most about this one that you decided to lean their direction?

I would say it's um their programmatically, I think they brought the most to the table.

Um some of the other operators that we interviewed, they were more involved just from a facility operations perspective.

They weren't um quite as experienced on developing their own programming within the facility, where um the performa and the plan for the sports complex will be that there'll be in-house homegrown tournaments that'll be sanctioned by a national body, but there'll be events that are here that can happen on an annual basis and be um available for our community teams as well as teams coming in regionally and nationally participate, and those are all areas that Sports Academy has a great deal of expertise.

What I heard you say is they have the highest probability of activating that space to the maximum.

That is our belief, yes.

Okay.

I have a question, uh, Mr.

Bolt.

On uh so if we uh approve this operator agreement today, uh that the Sports Academy will start looking at bookings for uh 2027.

Can you tell us one the kind of sophistication and me and maybe you can introduce uh uh the sports academy uh uh representative as well uh to answer the question kind of the sophistication in the the modeling that they use as far as scheduling tournaments and and at what point will we as a council get a first blush of how successful we are being as far as leading into that 2027 season?

Sure.

Um I'll yeah, and John Spotts is with us here virtually and could uh speak to the sophistication of the scheduling.

Perhaps I'll just start by saying as far as uh check-ins are making information available to the council and community on how bookings are going and and tournament uh planning is going.

Um, we'll be again involved with them.

We'll have regular meetings to to hear from them how they're doing, and and we'll certainly get that information out to the council at the frequency that you would like to see that information.

Um perhaps I'll turn it over to John if he wants to share more on the scheduling and maybe what the first steps would be if the agreement is approved tonight.

Mr.

Spotts.

Thank you, honorable mayor, city council president, city council members.

The as far as the scheduling goes, the sanctioning body that we're working with will uh be our kind of marketing arm within all the various um uh club organizations that are out there.

So uh and within their module, because we will when we sell a um registration to come to a tournament, that will be done through their website because that's where we'll have our events listed, and then through that we'll do the scheduling of which team plays which team and and so forth.

But that's all extremely sophisticated.

These are big organizations that have been in operation for a number of years, and um, so you know, in addition to that marketing effort that will happen just through people looking for tournaments in a certain time within a certain geographic area and searching their website, of course.

We're going to within our own team have a tournament director that will be out looking at the whole universe of club teams within you know three, especially a three, four-hour drive time, and then reaching out to those organizations personally in addition to that.

So it's multiple uh different approaches.

In the end, it's our tournament director that is going to run the show on uh these, but their tools will help to make that happen.

So, Mr.

Spotts, when might we see that marketing effort really uh hit gear and us seeing okay, we've booked some tournaments for 2027.

The in October to no mid to late October of 2026 will be when we publish our schedule for the following year.

And that schedule's gonna be all the weekends that could be activated from really the tournament season starts that first weekend of April, give or take when Easter falls that year um and runs the summer seas, spring summer runs through the end of July, and then there's a fall season that runs in September and through the first two, three weeks of October.

So we will be working with them to set a schedule of uh events that um they are going to back and work in the marketing side with us off of that, and those will be a combination of local and regional with national qualifiers in there and so forth that will be part of that package.

So um that's when we will publish our tournament schedule, and that's when the serious sales effort can really start.

And clubs aren't looking to book their 2027 tournaments until really they finish fall ball of that year in late October, early November, they're starting to get a jump and put together their schedules where they think they might go.

So November, December of next year will be extremely busy in in terms of doing that.

Uh any other other questions, council council member Miller.

I'll just ask the same question I did in the prior item now that you're on the screen.

Is the only change that we see to the financial model summary for year one?

Because there would be four fields available in 27, and so you took the 50 percent of stability.

Is that the only change?

Is that the level of reanalysis that we see?

Well, that the 50 percent model is more or less filling up those four fields, which is what we believe given our study of that Midwest and Minnesota and Wisconsin market, we think we should be able to fill up four fields.

We thought possibly a little bit more, but that's all we'll have available on the complex.

So if we do get the demand that's above and beyond that, then you know, we could bring in other city or school facilities on certain weekends where we have uh additional demand and make some additional revenue and incur a little bit of extra expense on that in order to fulfill that demand.

But um, you know, on the weekends that were gonna be maxed out under that 50% model, that would be the the four fields is the 50%.

So that's why we felt comfortable with that.

But I I guess simply to rephrase my question.

The analysis that we got in July for year one sensitivity, you took 50% of stability because there will be four fields under the schedule, and you just put that in to the same projection.

So there's no new sensitivity only having four fields to what if it's low, what if it's high?

That that wasn't done.

That was just take the 50% of stability from the original analysis and put it into a new schedule.

I mean, that's what I see.

Is that true?

It's the same numbers, it's based on the fact that the um the demand from what we've seen and the way we've seen some other facilities in that area, the uptake that they've had in their early years, that's the demand that we believe will um based on our market studies be there, and we have enough fields to fulfill that amount of demand and run tournaments of that size.

Okay, so I'm hearing the answer yes to the question I asked.

Yes.

And I I guess then my follow-up question for Mr.

Bolt is you told us that you followed up with community working group with another operator to get some comparison of this financial analysis.

But all we see in the packet tonight is the original analysis with year one column replaced with a different column from the same analysis.

And and I I'm just a little perplexed why there's not more information to help us feel comfortable with this different facility and schedule, but the same financial analysis.

And I don't know if there's a question there, but I I'm just curious why we're not getting more information about this, all these checks that that you and your team did.

Yeah, I guess just um to attempt to answer that question.

The further discussions and analysis that we've done over the last few months, it's just made us feel more comfortable with what was originally uh shared with the council back in July.

Okay.

So the the net output is you did the right thing.

The model from July was right.

We we believe it is, yes.

Okay.

Further discussion.

Is there a motion on this item?

Make a motion.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, um, approving the Rochester Sports Recreation Complex operator game and it was sports um academy.

I'll second.

Uh motion made by council member Palmer, seconded by council member Keene.

Councilmember Palmer, you have the floor.

Well, I think Mr.

Boltz has done a great job on all of this, but I think uh getting this good operator for us is uh a great step.

Councilmember Keene, any more to add?

I would just say, you know, and I've uh I delved into this and uh and I I see what council member Miller is looking at.

I guess what I see is there is a level of risk that we're taking with this, and my uh my analysis of it is that that risk is not as great as uh uh the uh positive outcome that we can see with this.

And I think uh to go back to it was mentioned by uh one of my colleagues, the the experience Rochester.

You have a good operator and a good operator agreement that you hold them accountable, that we and and we're transparent between our staff and the operator, and we know where we need to adjust in order to get what we need out of it.

And so I I feel confident in Mr.

Bolt, I feel confident in Mrs.

Elms and Mr.

Parrish, and uh and uh they know that this is something we're watching, they know the community is watching, and but that said there is risk involved, and there's positive risk that that this community can enjoy with it as well.

Councilmember Fredericks.

One last thing, and I'm not being sarcastic here.

I just want to make sure if we hire sad people for $80,000 to get our get it lined up or programming lined up.

I want to make sure that our facilities ready to go if we have all this programming up and we paid these people to do it.

And that's that's something too.

We have guarantees that facilities are gonna be ready, such like that.

I just don't want to be caught, you know, having stuff lined up, paying the money to have it lined up, and then all of a sudden we can't come through and have a tournament because we're not done.

Yeah, happy to tell me something.

I I totally feel I I feel what is being shared with me.

I mean, we I've been trying to you know be as thorough and diligent about all of this as I possibly can.

Um I just have a moment of vulnerability here.

Are you sleeping?

Um I'll answer that question later off the microphone.

Um I would say discussing with our construction manager at risk, um, the firm that uh we've been working with, especially the masquerading company and their timeline.

Um, they all feel very confident that we're we're gonna be on schedule for delivering the projects.

Um, there's variables, right?

But they've built in some cushion into that.

Their goal is to have all the masquerading done by the end of 2026 for all 10 athletic fields and more.

I mean, they want to be as aggressive as they can for from their perspective.

The quicker they can get through this project, they can get on to the next project, right?

So they want to do that, do it well, have a very finished um quality uh product when they're done being part of our um project here.

But um the construction folks that we've hired and consulted with, they they feel comfortable with the schedule.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Seeing no further discussion, uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Nay.

Uh motion passes uh five-two with council members Miller and Doring voting nay.

Next item is recreation programming access funding request.

Mr.

Bolt, Ms.

Bowman, and Mr.

Whitman.

Well, lead it off.

I am filling in for Ben this evening.

Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council members.

Uh this is going to be a brief uh introduction to this item because this has been an ongoing discussion with uh council.

Uh and uh what we're addressing with this request is barriers to activities offered by our program partners in Rochester and looking for any gaps as previously mentioned, any pre any program gaps that exist.

As you may recall, in September during a study session, uh idea was brought forward to establish a scholarship fund that would live in the parks and recreation department budget, and those funds would be used to uh to uh take uh first step at this to address any of the financial barriers to activities that are presented by either the parks and recreation department or our community partners.

And since then, we've had uh robust discussions with our park board with ongoing discussions with council, with our community partners, with our uh leadership team within parks and recreation and city administration as well.

Uh I believe I said we did uh we have had quite a bit of discussion with uh the activity providers themselves.

And all are excited that this is going to lead to some really exciting uh great work in uh overcoming barriers that exist and and developing programs that we're not currently providing.

Uh those discussions led to a previous approval of contingency funds for 55,000, and those are directed towards the community engagement and uh marketing as uh we uh uh uh discuss briefly already this evening.

Now uh Jenna Bowman is here from to uh uh answer any questions you may have about where we're at with engagement, but we're still very early in the process.

But as I said, uh we have some really clear indication that there is a need, and uh the the requests we're uh going to make that that we're making this evening will will really help uh address those barriers that exist.

Uh I just want to point out one of the key partners that we've discussed this with is community education.

We've had a very successful uh partnership with them over the years, and uh we've just timed this perfectly that they're getting ready to do some engagement, and we're going to team up with them uh to really maximize uh the potential uh for the information we receive and and we really want to operationalize that, and that's why we're making the request this evening.

Now we appreciate the encouragement from council that started this process, and we're here to answer any questions.

Uh I was going to uh uh bullet out some of the ideas that we've discussed, but President Schubert and you did that uh in the previous discussion, but uh that's how those funds would be used, and you have other examples uh in the uh packet information.

And uh Ben, Jenna, and I are here to address any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Uh actually, uh Ms.

Bowman, maybe you can give us a an update on uh the community engagement marketing funds that we committed, I think in August, I want to say.

I think October.

Time flies when you're having fun.

Um, mayor, council president, council members, absolutely.

So, as you saw in the packet, we've been making some progress.

Um, one of the first things that was done was set up that one-stop shop on the website that was built after the model in Duluth of having our community providers and that information in at one spot in the website.

Um, we've also been an active participation or active conversation with different providers as to how we might be investing those dollars.

Um, as identified in the packet, we are planning on some early 2026 efforts uh through Rochester local.

Um, that includes our indoor facilities and not just uh City Rochester facilities, but highlighting others in the community.

We recognize that again, we're not by ourselves in what we provide, um, as well as um really teeing up those those extracurriculars, those recreation activities.

So we believe that those two guides will be really helpful in bridging some of that awareness gap.

Um, and I would just echo the comments of um Director Whidman on the initial conversations we've had with community education, um, as well as I think many the conversation many of you had in receiving the report from um uh uh healthy community partnership and University of Minnesota Rochester.

I think that data was came after we were in front of you, and it's really provided this opportunity to I don't want to say pause, but take a little breather and say, okay, we presented this plan.

What is affirming in some of what they learned?

Um, what might, as we know, through the information regarding social media, how might that um help us uh tailor a bit more to what they learned?

And so I would also believe that part of the next step is um a possibility of continuing those conversations with that group and walk these things together.

So, you know, initially there was this idea we'd be kind of hitting the ground running between November and December, December with our engagement.

Um the value I think to the community as we often hear, we're pretty fatigued, and I think that just is a representative of how active our community is and all that's going on.

But having this opportunity to pause on our side a bit to work collaboratively with community education, I think shows the strong partnership between the school district and um the city of Rochester and this ability to approach the community and say, we want to hear from you collectively while we have our own separate um uh pathways as also identified by Director Whitman.

We have a lot of places that we do overlap.

And um, just want to note to your point, Council President, that may also mean where might we have opportunities to build awareness and understanding um in those marketing communication channels and how how might we maximize you know on that investment um in the months to come.

So um we are active in the space.

I think we're preparing um and gathering the information on some of the outlets and then really being able to um go strong as we head into 2026.

But just to temper that a little bit to say because of this opportunity to um work with community ed on the engagement, it may just I even hate to say delay, but I think in a good way, delay some of the things we maybe thought we'd um be picking up a little bit quicker, but I think really intentionally.

And you're adding adding a new partner, an important partner with important information.

Absolutely.

And I think the other piece I would just maybe add to that is um that includes that conversation we had on what's paid and what's the unpaid and maximizing um especially in the I don't want to say unpaid um uh uh sectors of where we have that collaboration.

Mayor Norton.

Yeah, I just want to add that um I'm really pleased to hear from both of you about the collaboration with the school district.

We we do have a communication gap.

All of us recognize that it's hard to reach people.

The study did help us, but community ed and the school district have access to the populations of children and parents with children that we need to reach primarily.

So I think that's really an exciting um turn of events, and if it takes a little longer, as you say, but if you can do it together and get information and have access to people and give you the information you need, all the better.

So congrats on that.

Councilmember Miller, I have a question about the landing page that you mentioned.

I was just uh looking at the city website.

Is that still in development?

I mean, I I see from adult activities and classes and youth activities and classes, a community partner section with a link on each, and they both direct to Rochester MN Sports.org with this to the same page.

Is that what we're talking about?

URL and it's escaping me right now what it is.

Yeah, because I would love to get it in the public record and promote it and tell people where to go to, because I'm not necessarily maybe landing at the right page.

Uh another great reason as we're going through the um exercise right now of how many clicks does it take for somebody to get there.

I think a great example of improving that.

But I do know we have a short URL and we'll be happy to follow up with that.

I apologize that it's the same.

I believe some of the staff sitting here may be looking for it right now.

Pretty intently like okay.

Other questions.

Is there a council member Palmer?

Yeah, I'll make a motion approving up to 80,000 odds from the two 2025 contingency fund for recreational programming and send um initiatives.

Second.

Uh motion made by council member Palmer, seconded by councilmember Doring.

Councilmember Palmer.

I applaud um the park department in uh wanting to work with community ed.

I think that's a phenomenally great experience for us.

And I think that this is kind of the bugaboo that's been bothering people, and and how do we get to the next spot?

So I appreciate them doing this.

Councilmember Doring, anything to add?

Nothing to add.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Post say nay.

Motion uh passes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now the item we've all been waiting for, H6 authorization of battery and energy storage agreements.

Mr.

Bullock.

Good evening, uh, Council President, uh, Mayor Norton and Council members.

Um I'm pleased to be here tonight to present to you the battery storage agreements that we we have in your packet.

Um as you know, our uh our resource plan has been coming together over the past year.

You've helped um helped us uh authorize a lot of that.

We're at two-thirds of the energy and two-thirds of the capacity required to meet our goal in in 2030.

Um this uh represents one more step toward reaching that with uh a battery um uh system.

Um this um maybe my numbing chart um I've heard is really gives you an idea of how we'll use the battery.

So just to lay the groundwork on the left axis is uh this represents uh a peak day in July 23rd this year.

Um this is the load in in Rochester, the electric load.

So it it is low uh late at night uh through early morning, and then it peaks in the middle of the day when it gets really hot.

So you can see the different color areas of that chart on the left are what resources if we backcasted our 2030 resources that we've contracted to the uh load on this day.

This is how we think that they would perform.

Um the the lines, the the dark line is our average portfolio cost expected, and the red line is the uh market price of electricity.

So if we were to buy it just from the market, that's what the the price that we would pay.

As you can see, um uh during the course of the days, uh the uh the yellow and the green are our solar and wind assets, and the blue shaded areas are our natural gas assets that we would dispatch to meet the peak on that day.

Um and then the orange shows how we would operate the battery.

So that showing where number one is, that's where we would be charging the battery, that would have the effect of increasing our load, but we'd be increasing it at a time when there were there were one more renewables available, and two uh when prices are lowest.

Uh then we would be discharging it later in the day.

Uh you can see the orange uh toward the upper right near the number two.

Uh that's when we'd be discharging into the system.

And the right-hand column shows you the prices that we would be charging at, and we would be paying it.

So though this is a capacity asset, there is a energy arbitrage that's an important key part of the economics.

And that's uh that's why we think it's important to do a battery project and verify the economics, because again, this is backcasted economics.

Um capacity cost trends.

The 2020, each year, MISO, which is the grid operator, runs an auction uh to discover what the price of capacity should be.

The 2025 auction yielded the highest prices ever.

Um, and that's primarily caused by decreasing margins in across the footprint of MISO.

Um, so that means uh power plants are retiring.

Also, there are supposed to be a lot of new builds, um, but those are more questionable now due to you know the inflation costs that are making everything more expensive and the repail of the tax credits for a lot of the renewable assets.

Um and we do expect these upward cost pressures uh to continue um into the medium term.

Um this shows the the rough economic.

So there is a capacity component that's up top.

This table just shows you the um that uh myso auction result um uh multiplied times the uh the the battery uh output um and the contract.

This contract is in the vicinity of $14 per kilowatt month.

Um so the cost of the contract is shown in the cost column.

The capacity value that would be offsetting is in the last column.

Um so that's the capacity value.

So there is a net cost to that of one and a half million dollars.

Um, and then there is the added benefit of energy and auxiliary services that we we did model that on the 8,760 hours a year that would basically make this a break-even.

So we'll be paying for a capacity, both with the value of the capacity and the additional revenue we would get by dispatching into the arbitrage opportunity.

Um the current actions we have, this is a fast deployment.

Um there are 20 megawatts, it's about 7% of our total capacity need.

Um, and this would be at sites that we currently control at the Zumgro substation of the service center, um, the RPU service center.

Um the developer has uh uh the supply of the of the batteries, they're on shore, so there's no tariff risk with them.

Um they are connecting to the distribution system, so we don't have any interconnect delay.

MISO interconnects are running years uh in order to get the the agreements, and then permitting is very simple.

There's no emissions, so we have a uh simple zoning certification and uh stormwater review, and like to thank our colleagues at uh at uh community development for helping us uh guide through that.

And like to thank our colleagues at uh at uh community development for helping us uh guide through that.

Um the contract structure, it's a tolling agreement, and a tolling agreement means that the developer builds, owns, and maintains the battery system, and RPU is responsible for um dispatching into the system.

Because the uh the uh developer maintains responsibility for the asset, um, we will uh have also have a lease agreement where we will lease the parcel that we currently control to them in order to allow them to uh to build and operate it.

And then there'll also be an interconnection agreement, which we do as a uh a matter of our regular business whenever we connect any uh any assets into our distribution system.

So the two locations, um there one is the one on the right is at our uh service center, the one on the left is uh at the Zumbro substation, which is right next to the water treatment plant across from disk on West River Road.

Um this is the layout at the service center.

Um each one of those bigger uh rectangles on the right is about four megawatt hours of uh capac of of storage.

Um so there's 10 units.

Um they also leave room for space.

This is a 15 to 20 year agreement, so uh as the battery degrades, they will they may have to add additional um uh uh pieces in there, and then they'll they will be responsible for adding that uh additional capacity.

Um it'll be fenced in, it'll sit at the back of our service center lot um right off East River Road.

Um, and then this is the site at the Zumbra substation, that's off West River Road.

Um again, it's exactly the same layout.

Um both of these will uh each will be 10 megawatt uh and with four hour storage uh duration.

Um and uh we hope to start uh uh construction when during the spring thaw.

And that's that's what I have.

Um you know, I'm I think this is an important um uh project.

It is a first step toward um uh doing something besides uh uh fossil generation that we will be uh be doing, and it will uh allow us to test the concept, really analyze the data that we get from it and present a strong economic case for putting it with when we need to make the decision for the other third of capacity that we'll need to add.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

Thank you.

You you just said something odd that that it's it's like an experiment um that we're trying to see if this works, and that kind of makes me a little nervous.

But my my first question, and I got just two of them for you.

Is fire in in and does the fire department sign off on this?

How do they affect how do they fight a fire on this site?

And then number two, I know that there's private firm in Almstead County that's building one.

Why wouldn't we just sign up with them and and have them or have a private firm do it?

It is a private form.

So we're we're have a contract with a developer that's selling the output just like we would sign up with that.

The the benefit here is that there's no um MISO interconnect because it's on our distribution system, it's behind the meter.

Um, so that reduces the cost um and uh makes the uh makes it uh quicker to install it.

Okay, so my my only other question is the fire.

How does the fire department feel and and how do they put a fire on it?

So the fire department is aware that we're looking at these.

We've had discussions with them.

Um and you know, the the um the the thought around uh fire protection for these is that you you don't put water on them.

So you basically you would allow them to burn, like if it were to in the unlikely case that that it were to catch fire.

But as we've seen, you know, we we experienced a fire in a different kind of asset um uh back in the summer.

So we've uh we've gotten very close with the fire department because of that.

Okay, I I guess uh being aware and having them sign off are two different things because I mean playing in the zoning would be aware of something, but there's tickler's tell they sign off on it.

So yeah, um I'd be yeah, and we will work very closely with them.

We'll we'll have training with them with the help of the developer in order to get them comfortable with it.

Well so your answer to me is that we just let it burn out the fire.

Well, we it is not wise to first they're they're compartmentalized.

Um so the the thing you don't want is if there's thermal runaway in the battery stack for it to spread.

So they've designed this generation of the batteries so that that's uh if there is thermal runaway in one, it will stay contained in one of them uh and it won't spread.

I think if some of the fires that you've probably seen in the news, it has been because of that issue.

Thank you.

Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, I get the advantage of seeing this last month with our our RPU meeting.

I and again, you kind of put some emphasis on when we would use them.

Um can you talk a little bit about that idea of being behind the meter and when we would charge them?

Yeah.

So we uh they'll be behind the meter.

Um, so that means they're on our distribution system.

Um they're at a lower voltage.

Um because we are a member of SIMPA and we get um uh our full supply up to 216 megawatts from Simpa under that contract.

We need a special variance from them in order to uh make it not be part of that contract so that when we're so we can participate in that energy arbitrage in the market.

Um so being behind the meter, um if we get that exception from Simpa, it's basically like being in front of the meter because we're treating the economics like that.

Um, but we'll still get you know, we'll still get dispatched by MISO, they'll know it's there um and they'll let us know when they want us to to dispatch.

So just like we do with our with our gas turbines and our resources.

And that's for dispatching.

Would we would they have the same uh what when I'm I'm trying to get to the point of when we would charge it and would we be using oh sure this is yeah, well, we would we would look at the day ahead markets just like we do with our other peaking assets.

Um so we kind of plan that ahead a day ahead.

So we would look at what the what the market load is going to be, what the market prices are are forecast to be, and then we plan what we bid the assets into the market for.

We'd use the same process here, so except we have the additional one of seeing what the you know, we'll see what the price forecast is, and we'll say, you know, it's going to be worth it to charge it during these hours and discharge it during those hours.

Right.

I guess the point I was trying to get across, and I think it's hard in these kind of discussions is this really isn't a new way to uh this is a new way to capture and then use and dispatch energy when you need it.

But you don't get you have to capture it, you have to you you're a user, you're pulling uh power off the system to charge it, and then you're using it, but what you're really doing is taking lower priced energy and using it at your higher price times.

Yeah, yes, yeah.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Miller.

Thanks.

I was gonna try and help you with the same point and say we're we're taking the electrons that are the cheapest and then shifting them in the time of day to when they're the most expensive, and saying that's a value.

Yeah.

Um my question uh given the complexity, uh I would have loved to see this presentation in the packet.

I don't think it was part of the packet that I just see agreements and contracts and just again just a comment to all staff and a question of if the presentation is available.

Love to see it.

Because I I think there is a lot of complexity in this, um, but also very helpful.

But I guess just to surface some other issues that you brought up.

Uh you mentioned the gas turbine lead time.

Uh what is the current lead time to order a new gas turbine?

I they're running two to three years and it's getting longer every day because um you know data centers are are contracting for all the supply.

Sure.

So there's there's uh difficulty even if if that were the cheapest to even get it.

Um and uh my question about this is one of the aspects mentioned of the pro of this is that it's it's fairly quick to get online.

Other than the tariffs that are exist currently, are there other risks that would interrupt that supply in the future, perhaps?

Like if this works and we're in a more favorable tariff situation, is this a replicable scale it up?

It is.

Um one of the reasons we're trying to get this done by the end of the year is there is a uh uh uh investment tax credit um uh parameter that's uh called FIOC, it's uh foreign entity of concern.

Um most battery cells are manufactured in China.

Um so after on after January 1st, 2026.

Sure.

Um fiak requirements will go into effect and most supply from China will no longer be eligible for the investment tax credit.

So that's why moving now on these progress, that's why we're taking this small step now in order to secure the investment tax credit.

Okay.

And my last question is one of the negatives about batteries was mentioned is that there's only four hours of capacity or four hours of ability for them to operate at a continuous period.

What is the average time of length of time during the day that a gas turbine would be energized?

Like how how the things with gas turbines is they don't ramp up instantly.

So you do have to warm it up.

So it has a little wider operating window that we typically operate them.

But it is expected as more solar penetrates the footprint that we will see a peak during the day and the the peak will shift out later.

Okay.

And as that shifts out later, um it may need uh we name may need to a longer period to to dispatch.

But I I guess uh if we were to compare four hours of dispatch to a gas turbine, like how many hours on a given day would the gas turbine be running?

Like it it does vary, but it's like four to six.

Okay, so it's in the range.

Yeah, okay, maybe a little bit longer.

Okay.

And that's why we think you know, 20 megawatts isn't is seven percent of our capacity.

It's a and between now and 2030, this will be up and running.

We'll be able to uh to evaluate it fully and uh confirm the economics.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Keene.

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the energy storage.

Uh I was gonna do the same thing.

Oh, okay.

Go ahead.

Uh authorizing the energy storage service agreements with light shift energy SPV LLC.

Second.

Motion made by council member Keene and seconded by Councilmember Doring.

Councilmember Keene, any more to add?

No, the only I guess the only kind of thing from the RPU discussion would be that this is a 20 uh meg mega, this is a smaller thing compared to what we're doing with the wind and things like that.

And this is a little bit of trying to get into this thing and this uh the whole idea of like we're not really buying these, we're we're basically buying the outcome or buying we're basically getting them into our system.

So um, I'm I think this is a great experiment, and I'm glad we're we're doing it now at the end of 2025.

Councilmember Doring, anything to add?

Yeah, I I agree that it's a great experiment to see how this how this pans out and and if this is a future um asset that we want in our community.

I want to uh stress this is not a science experiment.

Commercial operating capacity asset, yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Council member council member Miller.

I guess one final question.

There's been some question in the broader conversation about the value of rooftop solar residential.

How might we think about this, or how does RPU think about um distributed batteries if if people wanted to help manage this peak, um if they contract for a battery and install that at their house, which different scale but similar dynamics of it's already connected, just hook it up.

Yeah, how does that help or not in the broader peak management?

We think having more demand response on our system would be good.

Um unfortunately now right now I think um residential batteries are very expensive um compared to like the the benefit you get from them.

But we think that adding them in just like we control thermostats, if we're able to control batteries, that would be a net plus.

But I think the economics need to improve before that happens.

Okay, so the message to the community should somebody be saying how do I help RPU?

It's the the project at home isn't yet scalable.

A project like this 20 megawatts is some batteries in the in the service territory, but I don't think we will it's difficult to get to scale before the the economics maybe.

Mr.

McCullough.

I'll just add a point of color to that as well.

Uh Councilmember Miller.

I'll make up a number.

It's close.

I believe we have eight residential battery installations to date.

They're uh they're relatively nascent in technology.

It's expensive.

That's the reason that we don't see big adoption here.

One of the value streams of this utility scale is we can get multiple value streams out of it where that's more difficult partnering with residential customers.

So the value is not always there yet for residential customers.

There's still some tax credit availability, and we are partnering with customers to adopt batteries.

It works really well with our time of use rate structure.

I believe the city has a battery as well at the Cascade Creek or the Quarry Hill installation as well, one of those two.

So it's something that's not new to the city either.

Thank you.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

Pose a name, motion passes.

Uh H uh H7 uh appointments to boards and commissions.

This was pulled by council member Palmer.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I pulled it.

I didn't plan on pulling it until um noon today when something was added.

And for me, the packet information is out on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

For transparency, it's important.

Having an item show up at Monday around noon is not really acceptable.

It's hard for me to ask people who these people are.

My understanding is that they're great wonderful people, but I think that those packet needs to be sent out on time.

It shouldn't be a surprise.

And so we could do it on the next meeting, which is in the first meeting of January.

So I'm going to make a motion that we table this item.

Are you making a motion to table the entire uh item or the three that were added?

The entire item.

Motion uh to table by councilmember Palmer.

Is there a second?

Hearing no second, uh I'm gonna go to uh the mayor uh since uh she this is her item.

Thank you.

Um this has been rather difficult to get all the interviews in, but we did as of Friday.

And when we um sent the final ones in, this one accidentally got dropped off, and I didn't notice it till this morning.

But uh Councilmember Palmer is correct that we found out late today that January 13th is the official start date for an RPU member, different than every other board that we have.

So if you would like to remove by uh amendment, I don't think it's necessary, but if you do, you could remove uh item seven.

Uh Kelsey Vass Vasily, uh you could remove that item that was added today and pass the rest of them without any problem, and she could be brought back the first of January.

So either way you want to handle it.

Um I would recommend uh you choose one of the two, and I'm fine with it.

It was just an oversight on staff's part.

Mayor, my understanding was that item four and five were also added today.

Those were added on Friday.

Added Friday.

Okay, so we uh so there were six in the original packet, and we do have our packets updated uh periodically on various issues.

So um council member council other thoughts.

Councilmember uh Keene.

I I just wanted to keep us moving here.

I wanted to move approval of the nine mayoral appointments uh to our city boards and commissions uh appointments.

Uh appointments are in our packet page nine.

Uh uh motion made by council member keen is uh seconded by council member Fredericks.

Councilmember Keene.

I I agree with Councilmember Palmer.

These are on these aren't the right way to do business.

And the fact that there were some Friday and then another one today.

I I realize the mayor's office was trying to get these done.

I'm familiar with the one with the RPU one, and there was some different things going on.

So I'm comfortable with it.

And the names are already out in the public right now.

So I would uh I I'd like us move this tonight and get be ready for 2026.

Seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Um moving on to we have no uh ordinance readings tonight.

I think this is the first time this year for me.

Uh and uh no tabled items.

Uh other business, council member Palmer.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Um I had a couple things I was gonna talk about.

One of the two of them I thought were gonna be positive.

One of them um is positive, and I'll handle that one first.

Um Saturday afternoon, Saturday night.

We had the Dazzle.

Um, it was a parade the second year that we've had that in Rochester.

Um, it was uh a committee of 70 different volunteers, the committee that did it.

Brad Trahan and his family were the lead on it.

They took the responsibility on it.

The number one thing that they have in their mind is safety.

Um they um did a nice job on it, and and it was so nice to see as many people as you could downtown, see all the lighted um items that were there.

Um sixty different floats.

Um I I just want to give hats off to the Trehan family and and all their volunteers in their committee for doing this.

Um they did uh Oktoberfest, they did this.

Um it's a niche that he's picked up on, and it's wonderful.

The Rochester Running Running Club ran a mile before that.

They raised $500 um for that, and one of their major sponsors was Minnesota Treads as a sponsorship, and they're at Miracle Mile.

Um, I didn't want to go um without that meeting of talking about the Dazzle.

Um thank you, Councilmember, for bringing that up.

Thank you.

And the last thing um that I'll bring up is the article in the news today that that um our item was was vetoed today.

Um, you know, the council had a 7-0 vote on that.

Um it was brought up in the article that the city attorney raised no, you know, to me, the city attorney raised no issues.

There was a legal issue that was brought up, you know.

And and when we voted on this, the dental and health clinic is important to Rochester, and that's the reason that we voted for that.

Um, you know, if you don't like the um CIA program, change it.

That's always better.

Um, I think the city council voted for prevention of the homeless, which is better.

Um, you know, it's really no different than our Channel 1 contribution.

Um, and so one of the statements that didn't sit well with me was that it it said that the um Salvation Armies mainly benefits private interest rather than public purpose, and I think that they have the most public purpose trying to help people stay in their home and stuff.

And and um you know, so those are just my comments.

We'll look it at the first meeting of of um January, but I did not want to um let it sit there for the next three weeks.

And so I'll end with making a motion to adjourn.

Before we have a motion to adjourn, since you did bring that up, council member uh Palmer, and it is uh the veto will be on our agenda on the first meeting of uh of uh the year.

I did want to give the mayor an opportunity to respond if she so point of order.

A motion made to adjourn.

We have a second.

It's fine that ends the that ends the bait.

That's fine.

I'll held it in the first of January.

There's a motion to adjourn, seconded.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

We are adjourned.

Happy 2025.