Thank you.

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

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which one nation is for all.

Welcome everybody to our February 2nd uh city council meeting, and we are just so pleased to see a full house here today.

And uh I know a lot of you have signed up for our open comment period, so we're hoping to hear everybody that signed up.

And just a reminder that our open comment period is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items uh that we will not be taking public testimony during the that item being on the agenda.

Each person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes.

I will be keeping time through a couple methods.

One is the stop light here, and just a reminder that you will have a green light uh for the first minute and 30 seconds.

The yellow light will uh turn on at the at the point where you have 30 seconds left.

The red light will go on, and when you go start to go over, uh, which I hope you don't, uh it will start to blink.

Um, there is also a uh red digital clock up there that will count down the two minutes.

I ask each speaker to be concise to allow more people to speak during the time period, and participants are also encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy.

If you have materials that you want to share with the council, please hand him to our city clerk over here.

And uh also a remote reminder that council members and staff do not respond to your comments during public comment, but will instead follow up on any specific requests separately.

Um, an additional note for tonight's meeting.

As we had over 20 speakers at our last council meeting on January 21st, I am going to call on those that did not speak at that event first.

I will then turn to those who have previously spoke.

Uh, if we reach our total time of 20 minutes, which I'm sure we will, I will ask our council if they would like to suspend the rules to make sure that everyone who has signed up has an opportunity to speak.

So with that, I am going to uh call folks up and uh our first speaker is uh Jan Thorenson.

You why don't you hold on to them when you're done and them to uh Heather over there right at the desk.

Absolutely.

She'll get them to us.

Good evening.

My name is Jan Tronson.

The question before you tonight in this photo is how did we get here?

Our mayor is supposed to be a nonpartisan according to our charter.

The media widely reported that our mayor was going to DC to advocate for removal of ice from Minnesota.

This is followed up by a story from our local paper that on Saturday, January 31st, 2026, that a pop-up ice rally planned by three individuals took place.

One of these individuals states a title of social justice coordinator at first Your Tyrian Universal Church, the same church I believe our mayor attends.

One of the district 535 board member.

Quite a different story from the narrative written on the city forum for 20 people and signed by Amy Larson, the event organizer.

As a retired 27-plus year federal law enforcement officer and president of the bell of honor, I have stood on the tarmac flag lines.

We have honored the fallen at Shanksville, Pentagon, Vietnam Memorial, Washington, DC, Air Force Academy, National U.S.

Memorial, Soldiers Rear Memorial, and Many Graves.

I am a strong supporter of our veterans of law enforcement of our veterans, law enforcement, and first responders.

I am appalled this will allow to take place, but not surprised to do the leadership of our mayor and other leaders in this community.

The question now becomes what will you do as city council to prevent this action from ever taking place again at Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial?

What public action will you take to hold the persons responsible for the mob protests resolved in this outrageous and disrespectful action taken at Soldiers Field Memorial this past Saturday?

Thank you.

Can I ask members of the thank you, Mr.

Thornson?

Your your time is up.

Can I please ask uh members of the audience to please not respond to speakers?

Uh either in uh in uh the affirmative or in the negative.

Uh this is a uh public body and we are respectful to each other in this room.

So uh you will have your time uh two minutes, but please let's let's uh let's recognize that.

Next up, we have representatives from the Three Rivers Restorative Justice.

Uh Jeff Stilwell and Tony K.

Meg's cow.

Uh are you going as two separate people?

No.

Okay.

Uh go ahead.

City Council President, Mayor Norton, members of the council and community members.

I'm here today on behalf of Three Rivers Restorative Justice and our dedicated board of directors, numerous volunteers and community partners.

I want to sincerely thank Mayor Norton and Council President Sheerbury for issuing a proclamation in November recognizing both Restorative Justice Month and the work of our organization.

This proclamation was more than a formal gesture.

It affirms Rochester's commitment to being a safe, inclusive, and compassionate community.

By lifting up restorative justice, you are recognizing that accountability is not only about punishment, but about a repairing harm, rebuilding trust, and strengthening relationships.

Restorative justice centers the voices of those most impacted by harm, those that are harmed, those that cause harm in the broader community, and invites them into dialogue, understanding, and shared responsibility.

Your recognition signals that Rochester values approach is grounded in communication, equity, and meaningful accountability, and understands that prevention and healing go hand in hand.

For TRJ, this proclamation honors years of collaborative work with community partners, youth, schools, and families across Southeast Minnesota.

It affirms the impact of restorative dialogue, community-based conflict resolution, and education in reducing recidivism, restoring hope, and creating pathways towards reconciliation.

By declaring restorative justice month, you also invite our entire community to learn and engage in ways in responding to harm.

Thank you for your support and healing equity and community well-being.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Virginia Wright Peterson.

Mayor, Council members.

Many of us support safe borders and a lawful initiative to arrest persons with outstanding judicial warrants.

What we are experiencing is indiscriminate sweeping of our streets and the arrest of U.S.

citizens and others with authorization to live and work here while their applications wind their way through the complex, lengthy, expensive, broken immigration system.

The cruelty and violence with which masked federal agents have arrested people in this city and swept them to abhorrent detention locations without providing information to their families on their location and preventing them from timely access to legal assistance and medical care is appalling and unconstitutional.

People are afraid to go to school, go to work, to go to get medical appointments.

Please use all powers available to you through the 10th Amendment of the Constitution to restrict these unlawful and immoral actions of federal agents in our city.

This may require going beyond current precedence.

And inaction makes you complicit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Kelly Klein.

Hi, my name is Kelly, and I am a 37-year resident of Rochester.

I moved here when I was a single mom.

And I remember most about Rochester was the dichotomy that I remember I had a boyfriend once, and he said, Oh my God, I can't believe all the rich people here in Rochester.

And I was like, I can't believe all the poor people here.

So, and I tell that story because if you haven't seen ice out on our streets, I'm gonna tell you that they are there, that you might be living your life and going about your daily life and not knowing that ice is here.

Ten days ago, I was running an errand uh down near Marion Road, and I came upon what I thought was an accident scene.

Um, I went up to see what was going on because I'm a nurse.

And it wasn't, it was an accident, it was a hit and run.

It was ice agents, and they were kind of smiling and laughing, and I thought, oh, how weird is that?

And one of them rolled down his window and he said, You just stay right there.

And I I thought that's strange until I figured out that pretty soon two more ice vehicles rolled up.

So a total of 12 um ice officers uh in full military gear carrying long guns and steel batons came at us.

We were doing nothing.

There was a bunch of community people that came out because their community member had been kidnapped.

She is a U.S.

citizen.

This happened right on the streets of Rochester.

And they another vehicle took her away.

These men came out and they started pepper spraying people right in front of me.

Luckily, I was so scared shitless.

I I had backed way up because I'm like, I'm an old grandma with asthma, I can't get pepper sprayed.

And then these days I just think about that and I feel guilty that I didn't stand more from my neighbors.

And so I'm asking you, please know that ice is on our streets, they're almost causing accidents.

I've seen them stop in front of people and put on their brakes and come out to people and open their car doors.

And I tell you what, one of these days, thank you, one of these days it's gonna be it's gonna happen here.

We're gonna have a violent.

Thank you.

Next up our show now.

Next, we have Amy Cock Cockett.

Please respect uh uh the council chambers.

Hi, I'm Amy Cockett, and I've lived here even longer, 56 years.

I think we moved here the first of February, 29 below in 1970.

I just want to bring to your attention a shocking incident that happened right out here in the parking lot at noon on Saturday.

Maybe you caught it.

It was on, I think KAAL TV had Andy Sibley's video of what happened.

I heard about it later in the afternoon at an event I was at that Kim Hicks told us about.

She came to this um incident because she was called by the teenager who was in the car, who was being surrounded by I imagine ice, but we don't know.

Um he called her because she's a mother of one of his friends and she knew him.

And you can see in the video that she is trying to inform the agents that this boy who was born in Rochester, graduated from high school in Rochester, was a U.S.

citizen, in case that was what was going on.

Um, they refused to listen, they did not say why they were objecting him, they did not say who they were, they did not say where they were taking him.

I just think having been a mother of teenagers, and many of you have had teenagers.

What would you do?

What do you do when your teen doesn't come home?

First of all, you call their friends, you know, if they don't come home on time, then you think, oh my gosh, is this is my kid in the hospital?

Then you call the jails.

Where did this mother call?

Where did this boy get taken?

And this happened right out in front of the government center where he should have been safe right next to the jail.

I hope that our police will start doing what happened at the St.

Peter Police and will intercept and protect and serve us from these kinds of incidents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Tina Liebling.

Good evening.

Mayor Norton, uh, Council President Schubring and members of the council.

I'm Tina Liebling, State Representative in House District 24B, representing uh part of Rochester and a part of area outside Rochester.

I'm here to urge the council to join the lawsuit that is currently pending in federal court that is Minnesota versus Nome.

And also Minneapolis and St.

Paul are plaintiffs in that lawsuit.

This is very important because you have been hearing, and as you all know, I'm sure, what we're experiencing here in Minnesota is not law enforcement.

Clearly, there could be law enforcement.

There could be legitimate arrests of people who are undocumented who have committed criminal acts and so on, but that is not what we are seeing.

What we're seeing is an invasion, calling itself law enforcement.

We're seeing what folks have mentioned here kidnappings, racial profiling, fear, and what we're seeing in Rochester is that there are big impacts on our city, impacts on education of our children, on health care, on our very economy.

We are seeing this attack, and it is an attack, it is retribution from the Trump administration against Minnesota.

It is an attack that is creating many harms.

Now, Minneapolis and St.

Paul have and and the state itself have laid out many of the harms that are happening in this lawsuit.

We have harms happening here in Rochester, and we should be detailing those harms as well and laying them before the federal court.

Because win or lose, this is a moment to stand up.

This has never happened before in our entire history.

This is a moment when we need to take a stand.

There is no hiding from this.

Whether you agree with enforcement, whatever you think about enforcement of the law, this is not law enforcement.

We are the third largest city.

Thank you for listening.

I urge you to join the lawsuit, either joining as a plaintiff or with an amicus brief.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Barry Larson.

And this is hard for me to do.

And I brought to his office personally this very same packet, the one that you guys have.

I still haven't heard from anybody.

And no one in the public has to deal with it or a child.

As they were standing on a sidewalk in a residential area when this happened.

It was hard enough for me, a grown man to process it, despite this.

I'm still hoping that there can be a solution found between all the stakeholders that prevent this from happening again.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Next we have Brendan Nedson.

I hope I got your last name correct.

Brandon Nielsen blames.

Maybe they don't teach penmanship.

Mayor, members of the council, I come to you today to encourage you to take any action you can to stop the authoritarian actions taken by federal agencies.

We've seen happening across Minnesota.

The actions of these government agencies are meant to do nothing but instill terror in the residents of our city.

If it was about immigration, they would not be targeting Minnesota with its low percentage of undocumented immigrants.

If it was about crime, they would not be detaining those with no criminal record.

If it was about justice, they would not rush to defend the killing of those with lies and slander.

These actions are meant to make citizens afraid to stand up against the injustice they see before them.

Inaction does nothing to stop this abuse of power.

Worse, it emboldens those who wield it.

It signals their tactics will go unimposed and normalizes these actions in the minds of those who support them.

Instead, take action today to show that Rochester, Minnesota is not going to stand idly by and let unaccountable secret police force terrorize its residents.

Thank you.

Ban the use of public property for staging operations and entering non-public spaces without a judicial warrant.

Ban detainment of any individual without a judicial warrant.

Ban law enforcement use of facial recognition and AI technology.

And city contracts with service providers that make data available to ICE either directly or via bad information security practices.

And relationships with banks such as Wells Fargo that provide financing for detention facilities ICE uses.

Join Minnesota versus Noah.

This is how you show compassion by recognizing now is the time to take action that stands up for those who are afraid to stand up for themselves.

Thank you.

Next we have Jeff Almer.

Thank you, Council.

Madam Mayor.

Um Clinic is dependent on people from other countries coming here and as employees and as patients.

And I think we need to keep this a safe place for them to come.

Not only are I connected, but our very hearts depend on this.

I don't think our immigrants' friends are safe.

I don't feel safe.

And my heritage goes back in America on both sides as far as I could go.

I don't feel safe in Rochester right now.

I turned off my phone so that I can't be tracked.

I think that it's important that we hold federal agents to the same standards that we hold Rochester's find us to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have a Heather Leonard.

Okay.

I'm gonna talk fast because there's not a lot of time.

My name is Heather Leonard.

I am a 10-year resident of Ward 5 in Rochester and a nurse along with my two sons.

I attended the last city council meeting and paid close attention, driven to interest by the critical topic at hand.

ICE in our community.

Thank you for listening to my comments.

Um, our neighbors are being abducted from their homes, torn from their children and families.

Two public executions have occurred in Minnesota City streets without due process and with immediate proclamation of guilt by the federal government.

The state BCA has been denied access to the evidence for those investigations.

Two independent journalists are recently arrested by the FBI for covering a protest, a violation of the free press and first amendment of the Constitution.

The ACLU of Minnesota reported receiving over 500 reports of misconduct by DHS in late January 2026.

The U.S.

Press Freedom Tracker lists 17 violations for free press in Minnesota in the last six months, all related to the DHS invasion of Minnesota.

They are violating several amendments.

The Fourth Amendment, a reasonable search and seizure.

They took Chong Lee Scott Thaus home.

They broke in his front door and later he was released as he's a U.S.

citizen.

They invited the uh excessive force.

Their reports that DHS has provided minimal and inadequate training with as little as four weeks of online training.

Their reports of detainees arriving to hospitals with unexplained and severe injuries.

Castaneda Mondragon.

Um retaliation and free speech.

Many reports documenting that agents have been following protesters and constitutional observers to their homes or meeting them there.

Um and violating the 10th Amendment and Minnesota's sovereignty against an invasion and illegal surge.

Mayor Norton and Police Chief Franklin, I would like you to look at the executive order signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago and the way that the police department and local government are working together to uphold the law and protect the community members from illegal activity by federal agents.

And then Councilmember Palmer.

Um, you are the representative for my ward.

Your seat is up for election this year.

Your constituents deserve to know your opinion and your response to the unconstitutional and illegal actions committed by federal agents of Minnesota in Minnesota.

Um I watched the meeting last time and I didn't hear you say anything.

Um so I went and looked at your Facebook.

I didn't see anything.

I went and looked at your website.

There was nothing there.

Nowhere can I find that you have commented on the invasion of DHS of Minnesota and our constitutional protections.

I sent you an email and did not hear back from you.

I'm your constituent.

And I'm asking you, what are you actually doing for Ward 5 specific to the unconstitutional and evil invasion of DHS in Rochester?

Thank you.

Thank you.

At this point, uh, we have 16 more members of the public who have signed up for uh public comment.

I would invite a motion to suspend the rules and allow those 16 individuals to uh speak.

So move so move moved by council member uh Fredericks and seconded by council member Doring.

All in favor say aye.

Aye opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Our next speaker is Kowtar Regal.

Good evening, council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Our community community is grieving the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Prady, both killed by federal immigration agents here in Minnesota.

These are not just names in their news, but neighbors, friends, and family whose lives mattered.

I am a student.

I was born here, and I don't know any country other than this one.

I'm scared to go to school.

Many young people in our community feel that fear because of the intense presence and actions of federal agents.

No child should have to live in constant fear.

No family should be torn apart.

Tonight I ask this council to choose compassion, safety, and human dignity.

Please support efforts that prioritize community safety, demand accountability for these deaths, and affirm the value of all residents, no matter the immigration status.

Choose dignity, choose humanity, choose our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Ma and D Gauss.

Maandigo.

I'm a little nervous, but I'll do my best.

Um my name is Mande.

I live in Rochester, and um today we are here because of what happened in our community.

It's a a deeply concern what we are experiencing in some many of us never expected.

Um we need to come together and stand unite, and many of you in Rochester did it, even Minnesota.

Um, what we know what happened in Renee Good.

Alex, I I don't want to mispronounce his last name.

May they both be resting peace.

We belong here as an immigrant.

We are safe here, we pay tax just like everyone else.

We follow rules.

The only thing I have done was to speed in ticket, and we contribute to this uh country.

Yet often we have claim that things we didn't cost most of them.

I come to America many years ago, believing in promise, free fairness, and abpportunity.

I never thought um would I come here today, and then um the people in our community feel afraid, feel um to feel need to constantly brief the uh carry the document uh to feel secure.

I always carry my passport just in case.

Then I don't want to lose it, then because you have to pay money again.

But that being said, leave in the fear of the unknown, it's not a fair to us, it's not fair to our family, our children, just to what Causar said.

She doesn't know anywhere else.

She was born in Rochester and she was raised in here.

In our future history teaches us what happened when fear replace understanding, and we must not allow this lesson to be ignored.

That's why we are here today.

Uh you guys, excuse me if I'm saying this correct wrong, but you are representing all of us, and we ask you to stand with us, correct what is wrong, and help ensure that justice, dignity, and unite that of both forward.

As an immigrant, we are not the garbage.

We are here to do what's best for all of us, and we here to follow the rules, and we ask you to help us and to protect us as a dignity.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we have Mohad Abdul Halali.

Hello, good evening, Mayor and the members of council.

My name is Mahad.

I'm a Rochester resident.

I'm here today because our city is talking about being a compassionate city.

And compassion has more than just words.

Right now, many people in our community are scared.

Immigrant families are afraid to drive to work, take their kids to school, and even go to the hospital.

This fear is real.

I was at the hospital the last three days.

Lobby is empty.

What's happening in Rochester because of ICE activity feels aggressive and hard to trust.

This is not about breaking the law.

It's about following the law the right way.

If federal agents are working in our city, they should have they should follow clear rules.

That means proper warrants, not just administration warrants, but judicial.

Not stopping people randomly, showing who they are and using body camps so they're accountable.

Our local police should focus on keeping residents safe, not adding to fear.

City property should not be used for actions that scare families and divide our community.

Rochester is known as a place of care, healing, and respect.

We can't say we're compassionate while allowing people in our city to live in fear.

Tonight I'm asking you to take a real action, protect residents, set clear limits, and show that compassion in Rochester is not just a promise, but something something that people can feel and see.

Thank you for your time and for listening.

Thank you.

Next we have Jan Wersma.

Thank you, Mayor.

President and Council members.

But we've heard a lot of whereas is so far, all of them valid.

I would like just to say three things, three points.

Require the Rochester Police Department to enforce all applicable laws that ICE is currently violating traffic license plates, judicial warrants, no random traffic steps, making protecting civilians their top priority.

I would like them to, I would like you to have the city forbid mask wearing by the ICE agents and require functioning body cameras, an ID for all federal agents, and prevent the ICE and other agents from parking, staging loitering or carrying out operations on city property, including our parking ramps.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Becca Herbst.

Herbstrat.

Thank you for your time and for holding this meeting.

I am not someone who likes the spotlight or public speaking, and I didn't even desire to speak here tonight, but I just feel very compelled.

This has been a very, very hard time.

I have many friends and family members, and they're very impacted by everything that is going on.

I have a family member I can't even see, and I was looking forward to meeting for the first time because they're so terrified of moving here, and this being their first experience here in this country.

I grew up with a very different view of undocumented immigrants, and I had many experiences, and I have met so many immigrants in my life, and they're the hardest working people.

They're contributing to our economy through our restaurants and through many other methods.

Go to the restaurants in our community that are providing food from these populations and support them as much as you can.

See how empty they are and see how much this is impacting our economy.

I very much appreciate taking this time to consider not only being compassionate and loving towards other humans.

We're all equal and we all created in the same image.

And this is a very important topic.

And it's impacting not only people's hearts and lives but our economy, and it is very, very important that we take action now.

I have nothing more to add to everything that everyone else has said because they've said it so eloquently, but thank you for this time.

Thank you.

Next, we have Wes Lund.

The Soldiers Field Memorial was created by a large number of people who crisscrossed the state and the region taking donations from VFWs and asking people to make donations to pay for the pavers that constructed that publicly funded site.

A memorial for the people who gave their bodies in this temporal existence that we could have the freedoms of the first and second amendment and so forth.

It's not a place to trample on.

Please consider the breakdown and basic decorum when people invade a church.

That memorial isn't a church.

Nevertheless, it ranks up very high for all of the people who visit it from all across this country who come to Rochester.

It's one of the main memorials to the fallen in Minnesota.

It's a site for all of the foreign legion people who visit our city.

It should be respected and treasured.

And we're stewards of that.

The city council, you all are stewards of that.

Please respect it and protect it from future protest.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Lucianne Kronig.

Hello.

My name is Lucianne Croning.

I live in Ward 4, Sodterley Park neighborhood.

And these are my own views.

I'm here tonight regarding the proposal to reaffirm Rochester as a compassionate city.

I understand that this resolution is affirmational.

It doesn't change policy or the city's legal relationship with ICE.

Reaffirming values does matter, but reassurance alone will not stop the harm that is taking place.

If Rochester truly wants to be a compassionate city in practice, not just in name, I urge you to pair this resolution with action, specifically by joining the Amicus Brief with other Minnesota cities to document the real local impacts of recent federal law enforcement actions of recent federal enforcement actions.

Correction.

What we are seeing right now with federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, including its ripple effects here in Rochester, is not okay.

It is not legally okay.

It is not morally okay.

It is not humanly okay.

Harm like this does not arrive all at once.

It creeps in through normalization, silence, desensitization, desensitization.

The idea that what's happening is temporary or only happening to other people.

This is not about undocumented criminals.

That framing is deeply misleading.

People with legal status, people in the middle of paperwork, people with no criminal record at all, and even U.S.

citizens are being questioned, detained, and traumatized.

Our brown black and foreign-born neighbors are living with fear for simply existing.

And that fear does not stay contained.

It shows up in schools, workplaces, housing instability, and whether people seek medical care at places like mail or report crimes to the local police.

This is a public safety issue for all of Rochester.

I am asking the council to be visible, vocal, and loud, and on the record in defense of the people who make the city their home.

Some, I think, between 17 and 18,000 immigrants in this city calling it home.

I hope that you will not only reaffirm Rochester as a compassionate city, but also will join the amicus brief.

Our neighbors, our friends, our families are counting on you to use your powers to protect them.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next we have Al uh Andrew Sibley.

Hello.

Some of you may know me.

My grandpa was the founder of the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial Committee.

My grandpa or my uncle was the assistant chief of police.

Um, a lifelong Rochester resident, 44 years old.

I own a business here in town and have run it for 12 years.

I'm currently closed, unable to operate my business because of the presence of ice in town and my unwillingness to participate in our society when lawless thugs are abounding.

Um I come here today, though, because I could be quiet no longer.

I witnessed an abduction out in front of our very government center.

The constitutional rights of this American citizen were trampled upon.

And uh I was forced to witness it.

I know that as a resident of this community, when I have violated the law, I've been held feet to the fire and accountable for my actions, and I'm wondering why now that isn't the case with these agents.

I saw him detained, a man who is a citizen who presented his passport who committed no crime.

Um, this is not the first occurrence of this, uh, nor do I fear it will be the last.

Um, I'm requesting that the city take action, and that action I would hope would be to reassign some of the police department and force and create a new ICE, an ICE observational committee.

I believe that you guys have five officers now working on the community action team.

I would request that emergency funds are activated and that those officers are reassigned to an ICE engagement committee that oversees the behavior of ICE in our town.

I would also ask that ICE agents follow the law.

That they not wear masks, that they are report to the police if they're going to have a sustained raid or operation of any kind like that.

Um that they are not allowed to use facial recognition.

Um they're just as any other law officers would, that they have ID and are not allowed to wear masks.

Thank you, Mr.

Sibley.

I'd also like to request that we join the lawsuit.

Um we all stood and took the Pledge of Allegiance and repeated the phrase liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

I'd really like to see justice upheld.

Thank you.

Next, next we have Melissa Thompson.

Members of City Council and Mayor Norton, my name is Melissa Thompson.

I live and work in Rochester.

This is my home, and I want to do what I can to make the people in my home safe.

I ask that this council do the same.

I understand that on the agenda tonight is an action item to reaffirm Rochester as a compassionate city.

We need compassion, yes, but also action.

ICE and other federal agents have come not only to our state of Minnesota, but to our city of Rochester, and they have shown themselves to lack any compassion.

They disregard the law and they ignore our constitutional rights.

They harass or threaten or detain residents who are not committing crimes.

I want to make it clear that I want ICE out of our city and out of our state.

I know that that is not within the powers of this council, but I urge you to take whatever actions are possible.

First, require RPD officers to be enforcing all applicable laws that ICE is violating as it is being seen and documented by constitutional and observers, including traffic violations, removing or covering license plates, making traffic stops at random.

People are getting hurt, and I worry that someone is going to be hurt more seriously.

Second, push for agents in our city to be required to show their faces and display ID.

And third, prohibit ICE from staging, parking, loitering, or carrying out operations on city property, including parking ramps.

This is not a full comprehensive list, but a handful of small ideas.

To say that I find the actions of ICE unsettling would be a massive understatement.

I'm a cliche, I'm a barista with an English degree.

I don't know all that every that you guys have, but I am doing what I can.

I am trying to take action to make the city safe because I care about our neighbors, and I want you to show that you care about our neighbors too.

Take action.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Valerie Fernandez.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council.

Um, first, I just want to thank the city of Rochester.

I've been here a little over a year from the Deep South, and I have every week found a new reason to find thankfulness for living in Rochester and how beautiful it is.

When I grew up, we had the Bible, the Declaration, and the Constitution.

And I came from a very long line of people who served in the armed forces and in law enforcement.

I have a lot of respect for the work that they do and how hard it is on them.

I ask that if we have to abide by the social contract of the Constitution, shouldn't I, shouldn't they be respecting our Fourth Amendment rights, our First Amendment rights?

Shouldn't they be more concerned about having body cams on them so they don't have any accidental shootings because they're jostling their phone and their camera and their gun?

Um I don't know about you, but I don't know of many examples throughout history where people with masks and guns were ever viewed as the good guys.

I don't feel safe knowing that anyone can claim to be ICE and abduct me, and I have no way to fight back and defend myself or else I'm committing potentially a crime because they haven't identified themselves in any kind of verifiable way.

Um how much money are we paying in taxes for just the hotel stays that they're doing?

Um not to mention the fact that they are rounding up American citizens, the accidental deaths that are occurring that never needed to happen in the first place.

Um before I came to Minnesota, I never had to shop for a gas mask.

Now I carry one in my vehicle because I'm afraid that I might be trapped in a neighborhood that they're doing something all of a sudden and rolling out gases of what color or what type, using lower whatever equipment against citizens of America, weapons of war against citizens.

I ask that you do what it needs to do.

Um take to keep us safe, because ice isn't serving and protecting me.

I've never been afraid of my neighbor.

Thank you.

I've been afraid of the guy in the mask.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jason Bale Bachen.

My name is Jason Baelbach, and um resident of Rochester my whole life, 41 years.

Um free man of the republic.

Um so what I'd like for everybody to understand is that okay, these guys are corporation, they don't have feelings, they don't take that into consideration.

They understand the law in commerce.

By the way, I love that stoplight theme right there.

You know, because you only have authority over commerce, stoplight.

Pretty funny.

So anyway, um, direction of duty.

Do you guys understand what that is?

So for the last eight, nine months now.

I've been gathering enough evidence against everybody in this whole government center, police force, everybody.

I mean, dirty.

So der election of duty, what the main thing of it is is financial fraud because you're taking taxpayer money and you're paying people to oppress us with doing nothing about it.

There's no accountability.

Who's who's got authority here?

Can anybody here say they got authority?

No, the community can, because they have the authority, they're sovereign.

You know, they have the just say, you know, that's what they don't get.

They gotta understand that you know they're not gonna get nothing if they don't want to stand up for it, okay?

Your land is the land where you stand.

So, but um, I'll try to get down to the government center tomorrow, um, serve more papers or whatever, but I've been trespassed from there for trying to do my constitutional duty and stick up for the unfortunate people that don't know the laws and stuff like that.

And I've been arrested two, three times now with no assistance from RPD at all.

I mean, aren't they supposed to protect the constitution?

I didn't say protect me, just protect the reason what liberty stands for, okay?

Me to be able to go down to the government center to grieve against the government to write grievances on the sheriff's department, stuff like that without being infringed on.

But I get arrested every time I go down there.

Do you guys know why that is?

I mean, to me, that sounds like First Amendment violation hardcore to the most.

I mean, any time anybody sticks up for themselves and shows any kind of resistance towards your guys' corporation, BS, you arrest them, you silence them.

Thank you, Mr.

Bale Bob.

I'm not engaged in commerce, so your stoplight don't work because I'm not engaging commerce.

Thank you.

Just so you know that next time.

But just remember, community.

Thank you.

Next, we have Abde Shaid Farah.

My name is Abdi.

I'm here because something upsetting happened to my family yesterday.

Our house was surrounded by ice.

There was vehicles outside, but there was also age of standing on foot, standing around our horse in a clouding our backyard.

At the time, only my siblings are home.

My mom wasn't there.

Were you a citizens?

And my siblings were born here in Rochester.

Still this happened.

My siblings were scared, and my 12-year-old sister has special needs.

And this was especially hard on her.

She's still afraid.

Even after the ice ages left, the fear didn't go away.

They stayed with them.

They stayed in our house.

Rochester, Rochester often calls themselves a city of compassion, but I want to believe that.

But compassion has a show in moments like this, especially when kids are involved.

I know my family isn't the one, isn't the only one that this happened to?

A lot of families in our community are living with this fear, and it affects children even after the moment is over.

I'm not here to argue.

I'm here to ask you to take this seriously.

And to make no families should feel unsafe in their own home.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Now, next on my list is Abdi Rahimi.

Uh Farah.

Uh is did one of the other want to speak as well?

Okay, thank you.

Next, we have Patrick Seebrunch Council President, uh, Mayor, Council members, Doring, Palmer, Frederick, Wall, Miller, and Keene.

My comments are gonna pale in comparison to the heartfelt uh words that we've heard tonight and the personal impact.

I simply wanted to come here to acknowledge and thank you for your individual leadership that you are taking, the conversations you're having in the community and the collective leadership that you're having.

Um, I I would uh we all know that there is economic impact that this uh time and moment we are experiencing, short-term impact, uh restaurants that have closed, workers who are afraid to come into work, people who are leaving school so they can take a job to support their families.

We all understand that there are immediate impacts that are happening.

There are other longer-term impacts, and I've spoken to some of you, spoken to Congressman Finstead and Governor Walls to help people understand that this moment in time it needs to be addressed, and also to understand that this could likely have lasting impact on our community and on the state of Minnesota.

So I simply wanted to say, in many ways, you are very much living your brand of being a compassionate city by creating this safe space to allow people in this community to gather to have the courage to talk with you, for you to listen closely, and for you to deliberate on how to best respond.

And I simply wanted to express my appreciation.

Thank you.

Next, we have Kyle Pike.

Madam Mayor, esteemed members of the Rochester City Council.

Thank you for your attention to my concerns.

There's been some moaning about a public monument, a veteran's monument tonight.

I served my name is there.

That thing don't mean shit.

That thing don't mean shit.

If the values for which that monument was built, don't exist in this city.

We have law enforcement complicit in the assault of our constitutional right.

Our immigrant neighbors, our sons and daughters, brown, black, Latino, Hispanic, Somali.

You don't love them enough, apparently, because you want them blackbagged and thrown out of this town.

My name is Kyle Pike, and I'm a Rochester area resident, disabled combat veteran and student in one own estate.

I returned to you this evening to address the same glaring problem staring down at you.

The unprecedented reign of terror, ripping apart our beloved community at the hands of mass Nazi thugs.

Immigration custom enforcement is terrorizing and oppressing Minnesota during what's been called the Trump Revenge Tour.

Get familiar with it.

Councilmember Palmer, Trump Revenge Tour.

Some of you wanted this.

They lay dead in the street, and that can and might happen here at your lay in action.

I demand that each of you tonight stand up, stand up for my city for that monument.

It doesn't mean shit to me, to my brothers, Mr.

Pike.

Please address your comments for the council.

This is the city.

Yeah, good.

That's good.

And join yourselves to that petition, that lawsuit.

Get your names on it now, tonight, right now.

Additionally, stop reclining in your ivory tower up there while immigrants are under threat.

President Schubern.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Do your damn jobs in these chambers.

Thank you, Mr.

And protect us, or we will elect people who can and will.

Thank you.

History is watching.

Next, we have Salah Muhammad.

Salah Mohammed.

And Council members, Madam Mayor.

My name is Salah Mohammed.

I am a Rochester resident of order and neighbor.

I want to be honest tonight.

I've never felt so conflicted in my life, tone between love and anger.

Love because of the people who spoke today.

Love because of those who continue to show up again and again, not for themselves, but because they care about their neighbors.

That love is what has uplifted our community in Minnesota, even when our president calls us garbage.

We responded not with hate but with compassion.

We call Rochester City a city of compassion.

Yet those words.

Yet those words right holo.

Ring holo when families are being attacked, terrorized, and traumatized.

Just yesterday, as Abdi Brave came here, I was speaking about on behalf of that family as well.

Surrounded a home in our city with children inside.

The mother was away.

This family are U.S.

citizens.

Their children were born right here in Rochester, Minnesota, on the deepest wound, a 12-year-old child with special needs crying throughout the night, terrified and up unable to go to school today.

That is trauma.

That is harm.

And that should never happen in a city that claims compassion.

So tonight we're not here to be told our hands are tight.

Leadership is not about excuses, it's about using every inch of the authority you do have.

We need our city officials to act.

We need the Rochester Police Department to enforce city laws to hold all actors accountable and to prioritize the protection of children and the most vulnerable to the maximum extent of the law.

Let me be clear.

We are voters, we are paying attention, and we will respond in kind.

Compassion is not what you say, it's what you do when it's hard.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mohammed.

That concludes our open comment period.

I thank all of you for being here.

I thank all of you for uh delivering your uh your uh thoughts and uh and the majority of you know that later on our agenda is the compassionate city resolution.

So with this uh that I will ask uh Clerk Raina to uh call the uh call the role.

Good evening.

Councilmember Keene.

Here, Councilmember Miller, here council member Wall here, Councilmember Fredericks here, Councilmember Palmer here, Councilmember Doring.

Here, Council President Schubring here, Mayor Norton, present.

Thank you.

Next up is our city administrators report.

Administrators Elms, please go ahead.

Thank you, Council President, Council members, Mayor Norton, members of the community.

I always start this off by thanking our teammates for acting with respect, integrity, safety, and excellence, and everything that they do.

Um, I did also just have a couple of things I wanted to highlight today.

I think they're important given um uh current times.

Uh first off, um, our governor has declared February as shop local uh month, and part of the reason for that is to recognize the critical role small and local businesses play in anchoring our neighborhoods, creating jobs and strengthening the economy.

Um, so it also acknowledges many of our small businesses are imminent grant-owned businesses, um, that they're experiencing fear, uncertainty, and reduced foot traffic following recent federal actions, and so one simple way that Minnesotans and Rochesterights can uh show up for one another is uh through everyday choices about where we shop and eat and helping keep our local businesses and main streets strong.

I think we're having trouble with that.

Um, I will try to do that.

Thank you so much.

I thought this was supposed to pick me up farther away.

Um, I also talk louder.

Um, so I did also uh want to point out that um as uh recognized today there is a lot of fear in the community, also amongst those who are um going to work.

So the Federal Reserve of Minnesota is conducting a brief survey.

This is best filled out by business owners, our business owner, um, or you um want to encourage uh business owner to fill this out.

It's available at Rochester Mn.gov forward slash immigration.

The deadline is February 6th, but that would be a way for um us to have better information about the current impacts on the economy uh based on federal enforcement activities, sphere, um, but other impacts to the economy as well.

Um, so that would be important information, and it is being captured confidentially at the Federal Reserve.

Um, that link of Rochester Mn.gov forward slash immigration also has information that directly links you to report information to the Minnesota Attorney General's office to help assess and address the impacts of federal actions on Minnesotans and folks in Rochester.

So I just want to point that that is uh something that is currently available on our website um that we have linked to that is also confidential data being collected.

We're heading into this weekend, the 19th year of social ice that has a very different meaning for folks these days when we hear that second part of that word, but the event hasn't changed.

It is an event that belongs to Rochester and reflects who we are as a community, a resilient, welcoming and a community rooted in the north.

We've had a lot of different types of weather for that, but we are encouraging folks who are able and interested to still be open to gathering together in the downtown over Friday and Saturday of this weekend.

And then I did also want to point out to our folks who rely on public transit or who are interested in trying public transit.

We are actively engaging in the spring service efficiencies.

Um at 125 live and at Sunset Terrace Elementary School, 7 to 8 p.m.

on both of those days.com.

That will be available the night through the 13th.

And that is all that I have.

Thank you.

Next up we have the mayor's report.

Mayor Norton, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have just a couple things to report.

As you know, I uh went to Washington, DC last week and took the opportunity to visit both of our senators' offices.

Um both gave me in-person interviews.

Um it was my opportunity to share with both of them what's happening in our community, sharing stories like you heard uh today and asking for their support.

Um I had an opportunity then to go to the uh house side, and they were in recess last week.

So I did meet with three different offices, but had to meet with their staff.

Um I met with staff in um uh uh representative Emmer, Representative Fishbach, and Representative Finstead's office.

Um they listened politely, and again, we shared the same stories of pain that are happening in our community.

Um we shared concerns about uh economic and personal pain.

Um we asked that ICE be drawn down from the state of Minnesota and that those that are here follow the law.

Um we asked that ICE and federal uh customs and border patrol not be used as political weapons in our state, but used to do what was stated at the beginning of last year, which was going after violent criminals who had broken the law and were here that were undocumented and here illegally.

Um so it was a it was a good meeting.

Um we also took some time while we were there to talk uh professionally with uh uh Chuck Ramsey and Chuck Wexler, who are both specialists in policing.

We were given some time, about an hour and a half with them just to discuss issues.

So very uh informational session, and I'll be talking with the chief and have already about some of the things that I learned and that we heard there, suggestions they had.

Um, attended a few workshops as a U.S.

conference of mayors was going on.

And uh one of the things that happened there on a more positive note was that uh the city of Rochester was awarded a $50,000 uh grant through the US Conference of Mayors.

It was one of the two grants that you guys gave us permission to apply for.

We did not get the other one.

Um for it was the Healthy and Sustainable Communities Grant, and it's called Move to the Market.

So we're incentivizing health equity and the purchase of local foods by local farmers.

So really excited about that initiative, and you'll be uh seeing more of that in the coming when the weather turns and we lose the snow.

Um, also wanted to point out that February's I Love to Read month.

Um, I'll be visiting the Spark Children's Museum and I get invited every year by St.

Pius Schools to go read to the kids and sometimes some of the public schools call to.

Um people always ask me what's my favorite thing to do as mayor, and frankly, this is one of them getting to go into the schools and being with our children and supporting them.

So I love to read month um this month.

Um, also uh council president Schubring and I are hosting a delegation to go to Germany June 22nd or 12th through the 22nd.

Um, if you have interest in that, you can use this QR code or come up to our office anytime and get a little more information.

Um we will be visiting two of our sister cities, starting in Mooseburg, Munich, and Moosburg, which is close by.

That's our sister city that was founded by uh Chekazama, Mayor Chekazama, and has continued many, many years now.

And then we will end the uh 10-day trip in our other sister city on energy and environment, which is Munster, and we'll be visiting Sarbeck, which are two fantastic examples of how sustainability and energy has transformed those cities in Germany and has taught us a lot, and we're doing some of the work because of our relationship with them.

So encourage you to take a peek at that and see if it might be of interest.

And lastly, um, we did have um a uh fire and civil service commission opening.

I do have a couple applicants.

Um people have applied over the years.

This is one we don't get an opening in very often.

So I do already have a couple of apple applicants, but if you're you have a burning desire, I should say burning with fire, but anyway, to serve on a commission.

Please uh quickly put your application as I'm doing uh the interviews as quickly as I can to fill that opening and then bike and pedestrian advisory.

The committee is looking for folks who um might not be avid riders um but have an interest in making sure that if they do ride, they're safe.

So um we have a lot of avid bikers and walkers on there already.

So if you're kind of one of those ones that's kind of in the middle and wants to learn more and really dig into it, um they would appreciate uh that voice.

So please apply for that on the city's website, and that's all I have today.

Thank you, Mayor.

Next up we have the order of the agenda.

Are there any changes to the agenda?

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

Moved by council member Fredericks.

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Miller.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Uh moving on to our consent agenda.

I have not received any items to be pulled from the consent agenda.

Is that correct?

Uh therefore I welcome a motion to approve the consent agenda as a whole.

Move approval.

Motion made by council member Miller.

Second.

Seconded by council member Doring.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Oppose say nay.

Motion passes.

Moving on to our public hearings.

We have three public hearings on our agenda this evening.

Um before we begin, uh, just a moment to clarify the process for the public hearings.

Uh staff will first introduce uh the item and uh present on it.

Then if there is an applicant or an applicant representative uh uh associated with the item, they will have up to 10 minutes to discuss the item.

At that time, I will open the public hearing.

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

Uh then I will close the public hearing, and the applicant has an opportunity to return to the podium with a rebuttal uh up to five minutes and uh respond to any questions that may have come up during the public hearing.

After which I will then turn it over to my colleagues to ask questions of uh either the applicant or staff or both.

So with that, um G1 zone change by INH properties, and uh Terran Eadens is going to present this.

Good evening, members of the council, council president and mayor, Tieron Edens with the community development department.

Uh the site before you is located northwest of the intersection of 7th Avenue Southwest and Center Street West.

The request is to redesignate 1.2 acres of land from our zoning district of R2X, which is known for single-family small lots, to R3, which is uh medium density residential to facilitate a multifamily infill development project.

Uh both zoning districts, the R2X and the R3 are compatible with the underlying land use, which is downtown neighborhood core.

The uses allowed in the R3 zoning district are compatible with the existing uses in the area, nearby zoning districts, and underlying land uses.

This area is considered a downtown gateway neighborhood per our consolidated plan.

These neighborhoods are immediately adjacent to the downtown business area and consistent of a variety of housing and limited small-scale commercial and institutional uses.

The project site is located within a quarter mile of the downtown business district and to a proposed link bus rapid transit station.

A higher density housing project will support the city's goals of mode shift change and bolster the public transit system.

If approved, any development project proposed on the site must adhere to the neighborhood protection standards.

This includes a required 25-foot setback to the north and west, a level four buffer yard, a 50-foot setback to the north and west for any parking areas, and a 100-foot setback for height step down.

The step down requirements apply on any portion of the building within 100 feet of a property within a housing that is near a housing unit with less than four units, must not exceed the maximum height allowed in our 2x zoning district.

The neighborhood protection standards will create a reasonable buffer between properties while accommodating a higher density in-fill development project.

The applicant has demonstrated that an infill development is possible given the required protection standards in the massing exhibit that they submitted.

The planning commission has forwarded a recommendation of approval.

The development review team recommends approval of the zone change.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Edens.

Uh is there a um uh representative, Mr.

Toyton, please step forward and you have up to 10 minutes.

Thank you, President.

Mr.

Trubray, members of Council Mayor Norton, I'm also WC Engineering.

I'm speaking on behalf of the applicant who is requesting a zone change to the R3.

Uh staff report uh by Miss Siddons was very thorough.

We plan to adhere to all of those conditions of neighborhood protection and everything else in the site design, but tonight is the first step, which is just a zone change.

It doesn't give us any development rights.

Uh we will be doing the site plans, grading plans, utility plans, and platting come later.

So we'll reason to support the zone change is the community development recommended.

The change is based on the criteria you have in pages 255 and 256 of your packet.

Um it's also adjacent to and compatible with the land use designation, and we're close to the downtown gateway neighborhood.

So this is an infill project, and we uh hope to come back here if you approve the zone change with our plating and so forth for your review.

Any questions on the project?

We'll invite you up after the public hearing.

Thank you.

Uh at this point I'll open the public hearing.

Uh 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.

Toyton back up.

I have no further questions.

Okay.

Uh members of the council questions.

Uh council member Palmer.

I have a couple questions for zoning.

Downtown core, where is that all takes place?

Can you give me a is it on the east side and the west side and the north side of of the downtown?

The intent is essentially to surround the downtown.

A block, two blocks, ten blocks.

I'm looking to make sure we get this exactly right for you.

One block, I believe.

One one block from 7th Avenue.

Okay, so that one at cable development.

Um, I would say there isn't necessarily a uh you know a number of blocks from the downtown core, but generally speaking, within a walkable distance from the downtown.

Okay, so so if I can walk a mile, then that would be the downtown core.

I think generally speaking, the a walkable would be considered 0.25 or a quarter of a mile.

So we're down to a quarter mile for the downtown core.

And so if I'm heading north from the downtown core, would that take me into lower town?

I guess the traditional core neighborhood would go up to the lower town, which is what the land use classification is for this property.

Okay.

I'm just trying to understand this.

So so do we have a downtown core designation?

Does it like run from 6th Avenue southwest over to over to Third Avenue?

Or what is the boundary of our downtown?

Yeah, there is a downtown um core designation.

Generally speaking, it's uh north of fourth street, um, east of First Avenue Northwest, and then runs up to um essentially Civic Center Drive, and then east to the uh Mayo Civic Center.

Okay, so that'd be okay.

Then you say the South Street Fourth Street.

Thanks.

Yeah, the question was the South Boundaries 4th Street, correct?

Correct, yep.

I was listening.

Um neighborhood protection, then you look at that in in if I understand it right.

We're 25 foot setback in the rear, 75 setback in the side, and then 100 feet from any parking.

50 that right setback to the north and west, a hundred foot setback for height step in, that's different.

Your other question was right of 25 foot setback, excuse me, 25 foot setback to the north and west, a 50 foot setback to the north and west for any parking areas.

Okay.

So if if to the east of this is is the um church, orthodox church, correct?

Correct.

So this is just extending the commercial area down a little bit further.

Would you consider this commercial?

I mean being an apartment building.

We would consider it mixed use.

Okay.

And this is part of the R2X that we did six years ago, correct?

That's correct.

And if I my memory serves me right, we've only had one other R2X in the six years.

Can you clarify that one other R2X zone?

Project project that we've done on the R2X that fell in the R2X.

Um there's been more than one.

I'd say there's been a handful, um, less than for sure less than five, but um, I can name a few off the top of my head.

I can name one's 15th Avenue uh by St.

Mary's.

That's the one I can name, and we change the zoning for that.

Where's the other ones?

I can name another one.

Um, just the name that comes to mind is 1274plex is the the name of the development application.

Um, and I believe there's another one that I'm missing.

Is that an application or did we approve it already?

That's been approved, it's been built.

Okay.

Is there a reason that this area just isn't zoned R3 and R4 all the way through um I'll I'll take that one.

Generally, we're taking a look at the underlying land use as described, right?

So we are intentional about choosing R2X for this area.

Um, if you were to look at the zoning districts surrounding this, you would notice a more dense zoning district to the east and a bit more to the south.

So generally would say, as mentioned, R2X and R3 both meet the land use um classification that lies beneath this.

So um intentionally I would say either one works, and we're looking for alignment with our land use designation versus intentionally rezoning all of it.

But the land use is a downtown core, and that is gonna run a quarter mile down the road from the Orthodox Church.

The land use is downtown neighborhood core.

Okay.

But the location described is correct.

Okay, and I think you and I have discussed before in that area.

This is my last thing here.

Um get my numbers wrong, I think.

No, there they are.

In the Cuskia Park neighborhood, we got 420 total parcels from 7th Avenue to 11th Avenue north of 2nd Street to the river.

Of that, 762 of them are rental.

That's true.

Doesn't that really just make it kind of commercial area and it should just all be R3 that wouldn't be our rationale for rezoning?

Uh would be based on residential um tenure, wouldn't necessarily be a reason to rezone in our opinion.

Okay, thank you.

Uh council member Keene.

Uh thanks.

Yeah, I'm uh usually looking at when the my training is if you're looking at a zone change, you don't just look at the project that you're being told, you look at anything that could go in there.

Um, but in this case, I was surprised in the narrative to find some references both to the case and not.

And one thing is um, I I guess I'm trying to understand as if we grant this tonight, is there anything that's built there right now that would automatically be like out of zoning, would be uh considered unable to live in that in an R th and a new R3 zoning and would have to, if it ever changed, it would have to change into a different uh um design the way it would happen with if something moves if there's a home in that's an R1 and then it it's it gets rezoned to R2X, the next product project has to conform with R2X, but I don't see any differences between R2X and R3.

Right.

The the uses that are permitted in R2X would also be permitted in R3.

That answers your question.

So yeah, I guess I'm trying to ask in such a way that there's nothing that exists there right now that was built at probably as R1.

Um but I but I think the key is that if it would have been R2, it would it would there would be no changes right?

That's correct, because it would have been permissible in R2X, so therefore it would continue to be permissible either as is or legal non-conforming in R3.

Okay.

And then we just went through a review of the uh the our zoning and land use, and we didn't recommend these sort of changes.

Um I think it does go to council member Palmer's questions like of um why did we not consider that and why would we consider this right now?

And and why is it that we don't then when a specific parcels are asking for it that we look broader?

Yeah, I think that's a fair question.

And generally, when we're taking a look at this with our comprehensive plan update and looking at land use changes, we are trying to look at it um air area-wide in places where we've received inquiries in places that make sense.

So when we're considering a zone change, we recognize it will carry forward it should apply for the area as a whole.

Um, we were intentional about zoning this to R2X.

Um we think what makes this a lot sort of unique, as mentioned, is uh the location to higher density zoning districts across the street and right next to it, and the unique um land use, once again that permits both.

So uh to answer your question, right?

We want to make sure we feel confident about this and we're getting the zone change and and we believe it complies with the underlying land use, uh, but we're not necessarily always looking down to each uh minuscule parcel when we're looking at the comprehensive plan update and looking at every possible land use.

Um then just being I mean, there's some other things in there about the planned project and if it's really viable in this case.

I don't think we need to get into that with the zone change, and um everything I see would be that I I feel confident I can support this tonight.

Is there a motion on this item?

Make a motion for zone change C D 2025-007 ZC by INH properties, approving zone change number C D 2025-007 ZC by INH properties, rezone approximately 1.2 acres of land from RX low density residential infill to R3 medium density residential, and directing the city to attorney to prepare an ordinance for first reading.

Motion made by council member Fredericks.

Is there a second?

Second.

Uh seconded by council member Miller.

Uh any further discussion.

Uh Councilmember Miller.

Yeah, I I think that uh for one, this has been a good level of engagement with the neighborhood association.

There's been good clarification to neighbors about the proposed change here, and I appreciate Ms.

Edens and Mr.

Capels um clarifying the uses, have overlapping their umpportunity there for the underlying land use and also clarifying the neighborhood protection standards because that was a concern that I heard was about the heights, and I think that it's once again showing how the UDC is working to allow um development, incremental development change in the neighborhoods without drastically changing the scale.

And I that was a good learning opportunity for me.

And I think the neighbors were also um realizing that right across the street from these properties is an existing small scale apartment building that fits well into the character of the neighborhood.

So while we're not talking about the specific project, I feel reassured that the UDC is working as intended here and provides protection for how a potential project fits into these parcels.

Should they be subdivided?

So I plan to support this tonight.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Next up we have G2, which is a zone change by Sunshine Behavioral Health Group LLC, and uh Mr.

Desmond McGill will present this.

Uh thank you, Council President Schubring, Mayor Norton, members of the council.

Good evening.

My name is Desmond McGill.

I'm with the community development department.

I'll be bringing or introducing you to this application.

Uh the applicant is requesting a change of zone on a 2.7-acre property uh from light industrial to uh mixed use general.

Um this is located in the uh Wood Lake Business Center, uh, generally at the southeast corner of the interchange of highway 52 with highway 63.

Uh the site has presently has a 20,000 square foot hotel uh with 103 rooms.

Uh that was built in 200.

Um there is um the applicant is requesting uh this change so they can facilitate a conversion of the hotel uh to a substance abuse rehabilitation home, uh which is permitted in the MXG zone, but not in the current light industrial zoning district.

Uh there are little expected changes to occur on the exterior of this site.

Uh there's many, a wide variety of uses in this center, uh including trade shops, uh, hotels, wholesale suppliers, medical offices, restaurants, and other community services and facilities.

Uh both the existing and proposed uh zoning districts do meet uh uh and are found to be suitable under the commercial and business development land use category.

Um finding supporting the uh zone change to MXG can be found on page four through six of the staff report.

Uh in summary, uh staff and the planning commission has found that this uh meets the uh zoning criteria, finding that it is appropriate uh and compatible with the surrounding community, uh would not be considered spot zoning, and uh the district aligns better uh with the goals of the comprehensive plan by addressing reactivation of the subject property through the adaptive reuse of the existing facility.

Um staff is recommending approval of this application.

Um planning commission did approve it or recommended approval unanimously 8-0.

And that concludes my introduction.

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

Thank you, Mr.

McGill.

Uh, is there a representative of the uh the uh applicant here?

Please step forward, uh state your name, and you have up to 10 minutes to discuss the item.

Thank you, sir.

Madam Mayor, members of the council.

Thank you for uh uh hosting me tonight.

I'm Brandon Turner, the chief financial officer of Sunshine Behavioral Health Group.

Um Sunshine Behavioral Health Group is a private for-profit health care company.

We provide substance use disorder treatment and mental health treatment uh to clients across the country.

We have seven programs in the United States uh with over 600 beds.

This morning we had 400 clients that are under our care.

Um we serve adults 18 to 64, both men and women.

Uh our clients come to us voluntarily, and they often pay for their services either through insurance um or uh by themselves.

Um we have converted hotels across the country into this use and have had success uh serving the the community and uh serving our shareholders.

So with that, um thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Turner, and we'll invite you uh back up after the public hearing.

Uh 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 offer Mr.

Turner the opportunity to make any closing comments that he may have.

And I'll turn it over to my call colleagues for questions.

Uh Councilmember Fredericks.

Just a comment.

Mr.

Turner, I want to thank you for providing a service much needed in every community.

Thank you for coming to Rochester and making this happen.

Councilmember Palmer.

I have a couple questions.

Um, since this is a zoning change, that'd probably be helpful, wouldn't it?

Thank you.

Since this is a zoning change, why are we talking about a client?

Well, they are the they're the applicant uh for this for this um proposed rezoning.

Uh, and and this is what they do.

Um you don't have to take the future use of this specifically as substance abuse center, uh as part of your deliberations or consideration to the zone change.

Um, but it is just you know information that's helpful um to know.

But haven't we told in the past not to take what was actually proposed um and look at the overall zoning and what can actually be there once it's zoned uh um MXG?

Yeah, I mean most of the um uses permitted in MXG are almost identical to light industrial zoning district.

There's a just a few uses, such as group uh living quarters uh that are not permitted in the light industrial zoning district, which this falls under.

Um so um as far as any additional uses that they wouldn't be able to do, there's not very there isn't very many things that they could do in the MXG that they aren't already allowed to do in the MX uh or in the light industrial zoning district.

But but right now we're currently short on industrial land, isn't that correct?

Uh yeah, I believe we are short on industrial lands.

I mean that's one of our goals is to have more industrial land.

Yes.

Okay.

And and what would be the reason that you wouldn't want to have a group home in an industrial park?

I think if there was um heavy industrial uses nearby or as part of that park, um, that would probably be a concern to staff as well.

Um, but you know, as we look at this um particular uh use that's there now, it accommodates overnight lodging.

Um and uh and it exists within a uh light industrial business park just fine.

Um, and uh this really isn't much of a difference in terms of how they want to uh use this property.

And there's no conflict with the school right next door.

Not that I'm aware of.

So the school could be in a light industrial area also, yes, obviously.

Yes, oh absolutely, yes, because it's a specialty school.

It's it's it's it's not uh it's an alternative school.

Okay, thank you.

Further questions.

Is there a motion on this item?

Yeah, I'll make a motion.

Go ahead.

Zone change number C D 2025-I forgot my reading glasses.

I'm struggling here.

All right, C D 2025-008 Z C by Sunshine Behavior Health Group LLC, approving zone change number, zone change number, zone change number.

I guess that's maybe a type of approving the zoning designation on uh 2.71 acre site.

There we go.

Perfect.

Continue.

Get the rest.

Mine reads differently.

Okay.

Okay, I got it by Sunshine Behavioral Health Group LS amending the zoning designation of a 2.71 acre site from LI Light Industrial to MXG mixed use general and directing the city attorney to prepare the ordinance for first reading.

Thank you.

Second seconded by councilmember Keene.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay uh motion passes six to one with uh councilmember Palmer voting uh nay.

Next up is uh G3, which is a final plat by West 34 Partners LLC to be known as Badger Heights second and Mr.

Ed Capels.

Thank you.

Council President Mayor Norton members of the council good evening my name is Ed Caples and I'll be introducing CD 226-002 plat.

The proposed final plat is located northeast of the intersection of 50th Avenue Northwest and Valley High Road Northwest.

The request is a subdivide outlets A and B of the previously subdivided Badger Heights to create 32 residential lots.

The final plat is consistent with the previously approved general development plan and major land subdivision.

The development review team recommends approval with five conditions as outlined in the staff report.

The advocate has indicated that they are not able to attend tonight's meeting but have expressed as staff that they are in agreement with the proposed conditions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Caples uh at this point I will open 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 for any questions they may have of staff.

Seeing none is there a motion for uh a motion on this item I'll move to adopt a resolution approving the final plat CD 2026 002 PLAT by West 34 partners LLC to be known as Badger Heights second with five conditions for the subdivision of 8.5 acres of land into 32 residential lots.

Second motion made by council member keen seconded by council member wall any further discussion seeing none all in favor say aye.

Aye opposed say nay motion passes uh moving on uh we have no moving on to reports and recommendations we have no reports and recommendations moving on to council initiated actions uh we have one council president can I move that we take our recommended break before we will take a five minute break at this point and return at in five minutes we're going welcome back we're going to uh continue uh with our item I which is council initiated actions we have one uh council initiated action which is reaffirming Rochester as a compassionate city uh before I turn it over to council member Doring to present the issue I just want to make everyone aware as noted in our RCA that we have an opportunity to introduce two separate motions under this CIA one uh regarding the compassionate city resolution and a potential second motion or as it says in the packet alternative action to consider it uh providing support or input through a friend of the court brief as a part of the federal litigation filed by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and Rochester against various federal agencies.

This is an issue that we can take in addition to the uh resolution not necessarily as an alternative and with that I will turn it over to council member Doring to present the item yeah as you see before you colleagues uh we have this action requested to consider um adopting a resolution uh firming Rochester as a compassionate city um rochester is a compassionate city that uh that statement has been in existence for a number of years and you had heard from members of the community earlier that um folks are scared uh folks are worried about what the future might hold uh our economics are our suffering um our school attendance is suffering um i brought forth uh this resolution uh to let our community know that we hear them uh to let them know that we care uh to reaffirm the practices of the Rochester police department uh their longstanding um policy about immigration enforcement uh the ways that they uh that our community can expect uh RPD to show up um I understand um that people want more uh we heard that clearly uh this evening um quite frankly uh I want more I want um this version of ICE and uh customs and border patrol to leave our city uh I've said that on numerous occasions uh from this dias and that exists um I'm a boots on the ground kind of leader

Um I understand um that people want more.

Uh we heard that clearly uh this evening.

Um quite frankly, uh I want more.

I want um this version of ICE and uh customs and border patrol to leave our city.

Uh I've said that on numerous occasions uh from this dais, and that exists.

Um I'm a boots on the ground kind of leader.

Uh I spend a lot of time uh working with the most vulnerable in this city.

Um, talking with them, uh providing food for them, um, sitting in their suffering and fear with them.

Um we need to do something uh so that they know uh that they have our support.

So I'm asking you to uh consider voting in favor of this resolution um and whatever else might come up in this conversation.

Thank you, Councilmember Doring.

Other council members that wish to be heard on this item.

Council uh Councilmember Miller.

I guess a point of clarification to our agenda process with this action.

Council President, you offered two actions that we might take in this process.

Do you also anticipate that we would have opportunities in other business to discuss um beyond the scope of this action?

I think we yes, absolutely, absolutely, and uh I'm be remiss not to say that and either of these motions can be amended in any way that uh members of the council wish to amend them.

So thank you.

I guess I would just add I I agree with Councilmember Doring.

I'm in favor of taking both of these actions.

I think we've heard clearly from the community that they're looking for action and communication and leadership from us, and I too want more than what's here.

But I think for this portion of our agenda, I plan to support both of these, and uh would very much be in favor of us looking for opportunities through the legal process to show that harms are being done in Rochester and that we are not different from Minneapolis and St.

Paul and the harms that we are being um subject to by the current iteration of ICE, Customs and Border Patrol presence through Operation Metro Surge.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

In fact, voting against the resolution would be voting against those things that we have already established as productive policy for our city.

That said, since the resolution breaks no new ground, I find it unfortunate that the resolution comes to a vote before this council.

While it may provide assurance to people in our community, it is also a flashpoint for others in the community.

I worry this resolution will only deepen disunity rather than draw us together.

And if we don't believe that from what we have heard tonight, uh just look at the social media uh tomorrow and look at uh more than one uh a thousand comments on a particular article in the post bulletin.

It has already been misinterpreted by many in the community.

Uh the resolution has caused anguished emails and telephone calls on both sides of the issue.

I would like to entrust our public safety to those officers who serve here full time and are committed to this community.

I would like federal officers to leave our city and trust those whom we pay with our local tax dollars to enforce our laws.

I would like our residents to be able to go back to a sense of security and safety as they go to work, to school, to church, to shop.

I wish a resolution could do this.

It cannot.

Instead, it is people caring for one another, caring for a neighbor, caring for a classmate that will ultimately prevail.

Councilmember Keene.

Um yeah, thank you.

Um I think many of my peers and staff know that I dislike doing city business to council initiated actions.

I always find it is a method of basically taking us off our normal standard operating procedures at staff, but also change taking resources away from our um strategic uh goals and strategic initiatives.

Um but I'm but I also know we're gonna have some unique scenarios uh circumstances in our streets to be addressed.

Um, and we are just reaffirming commitments.

Um but I think we are also as best we can.

We are trying to stand with our residents who both feel targeted and feel unprotected, but I'm gonna say that our targeted and are unprotected.

Um this is not a brave new strategy.

It's not uh it is a really just a timely restatement of our commitments.

Uh, but I I think it is also a signal to city staff and to our residents that this council is willing to meet the moment with improved methods and tactics.

So, with that in mind, I would support this.

But clarification has there been a motion made yet?

There has not, council member keen.

I think uh council member Doring was gonna uh council member Fredericks.

We have we have two two more council members that wish to speak before the motion.

So we're gonna go to that.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Me personally, I'm just gonna kind of speak from the heart.

I've been faced with a lot of confusion exactly what our federal agents are exactly doing in our community.

I just feel like there's been a lack of collaboration with local entities, local law enforcement, local government.

It's just been to me been mass confusion.

What exactly are they doing?

What exactly is their target?

What exactly is going on?

A lot of hearsay, a lot of news, a lot of social media.

I'm on zero social media.

Okay.

So I just hear a lot of stuff from people I trust, and it's just to me mass confusion.

Here's what I do know.

I have witnessed our our police department way too much, handle issues that are very difficult with utmost professionalism.

I watched them go through this the skyways early in the morning before anybody's up and about and deal with our homeless issues that we have going on in this community.

I witnessed them call the people by first name, treat them with dignity, help them.

I was so impressed.

I'm like they knew everybody by name.

I was like, I barely know those city staff all by name at this point of year end.

I do, I obviously I do now, but the point is, then I've also watched them deal with uh my wife has had several incidents with dangerous people, and I still watch them treat these people with dignity, care, way beyond uh what I would even call professional.

So I trust our local police to handle our decisions on a local level and to do the right thing.

I firmly believe there needs to be more collaboration with whatever the heck is going on at the federal level, the mass chaos that we're seeing.

There needs to be some collaboration with local governments, and there needs to be some cooperation.

Councilmember Palmer.

Thank you.

I got a couple of questions for some staff.

Um city attorney.

Can the city of Rochester tell the federal government that they can't wear masks when they're in Rochester?

We could make that suggestion, Councilmember Palmer, Councilmembers Mayor.

Um it is quite clear that federal authorities would not need to follow that directive as part of operational matters.

So the federal government doesn't have to listen to the city, is that correct?

Within reason, yes.

Okay.

Um IDs making the the ICE officers were IDs.

Can the city of Rochester require them to do that?

Well, here would be my hesitation to start wading into some of these topics.

They are um, I believe topics of significant discussion.

Um may well be topics of um whatever uh deals may be of consideration.

Um these are issues that matter to local authorities and to our community, and so um I think many would prefer to not frame it up as simply a question of authority and power, um, but what may be best practices on the street.

Um that topic included, um, I would say it's an ongoing discussion.

But we have control over our officers and our officers don't wear masks, our officers wear cameras, our officers have a badge.

Is that's what we have control over?

Isn't that not correct?

That's true.

Okay.

And our officers don't do anything with immigration because you can't write a ticket on immigration yourself as a city attorney.

That's true.

Okay.

Uh Chief Franklin, you sent out a uh an email today about an incident that happened that's been talked about.

Can you briefly tell me what happened in that incident from your research?

I think one of the challenges that we're facing, sir, is is trying to keep up with information as council member Friedrich said out there.

I did provide a briefing today for for counsel uh in reference to the arrest at the LEC government center here.

Um because I was asked so many different questions uh by community members in an attempt to quite frankly offer some transparency and information, which I had none.

We reached out to uh ICE and asked them what happened on this incident.

Uh it was reported back to us that uh they did conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle in the LEC parking lot.

Um it's my understanding that ICE is allowed to do traffic stops if they have the reasonable suspicion to believe that the person inside the vehicle has a warrant, which in this case they claim they did.

Upon conducting that traffic stop, we were told that the individual in the vehicle had a mask on and failed to identify himself or cooperate.

He was temporarily detained until he was identified and then released.

That's what we are told, and that's what I reported back to this council in hopes of providing information or light on what happened.

I appreciate that.

Um I didn't say anything at our last meeting on the last Wednesday, and in um I talked with my daughter, and and uh we have a good relationship and she understands um the city quite well.

And um I'm watching and discussing what is discussing what's happened in Minneapolis and listening to the Rochester residents.

And at first I thought the best strategy was to keep the attention on the cities, not call attention to our city.

And then my daughter reminded me that I'm not one to avoid conflict.

It's clear that we feel several things at once fear, panic, worry, and concern.

It's moments like these that people look to their leaders for guidance.

And I taught and supervised lifeguards for many years.

One of the key lessons from that training is to take a deep breath and don't panic.

And I don't have the answers, and I don't claim to, and there's no one comforting statement that's gonna make this better.

The thing that we can do as leaders is focus on what's best for Rochester, and that's what the citizens elected me to do.

I have a unique experience when I first came to Rochester in 1989 as um a housing inspector.

We had a lot of Southeast Asian immigrants, and you'd go to their apartments, and they didn't speak English well.

They had distrust of government officials, and our police officers, our police department, our city council requires our people to treat everybody with respect.

And when outsiders come here and don't treat people with respect, that's very upsetting.

But I always made sure that I treated everybody humanely like I would want to be treated when I was doing housing inspections.

And I the fear in people's eyes and their feelings were real.

And uh what we heard tonight was fear and and very real.

So I will support this tonight, and um I appreciate uh Mr.

Dorian bringing this to our attention.

Mayor Norton.

Uh I I think it's important to uh, as I think some of our uh uh friends in uh the audience have uh pointed out to acknowledge that this is unprecedented and tenuous times, and a lot is expected of us as a city and each other.

Uh there are a lot of unanswered questions, more questions than answers.

I do believe that it in these times being as transparent and over-communicating is important.

I also recognize uh that that is sometimes counterintuitive to the ethic of confidentiality and discretion that is necessary element of public safety, but I think we need to uh to have this communication, similar communication that uh Chief Franklin gave us today.

Uh I do know that we are having uh weekly meetings with the chief on situations and incidents as they happen, and uh and they're happening in real time.

So we're looking at you looking at uh building this as it's happening, unprecedented times, but also thinking of uh of the long term, and I do think uh that it's important to name what's happening here.

We have federal police roaming our streets using abhorrent tactics that we all, including our Rochester police department find appalling.

And the most important thing for this community and the city as as a whole and our police department is to ensure the safety of our residents.

And so I think this is tough.

It hurts, it hurts families, it hurts neighbors directly.

Uh, we have to stick to our values as a community, our principles of respect, neighborliness, and uh ensure that we stick together and work on this as it's happening in real time here, and uh and stick together as a strong community.

With that, I will entertain a motion.

I move to adopt a resolution reaffirming Rochester as a compassionate city.

Is there a second?

I'll second it.

Uh motion made by Councilmember Doring, seconded by Councilmember Fredericks.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Pass unanimously.

Moving on, is there a uh further motion?

Councilmember Keene.

Uh yeah, yes.

Um, again, as in preparation for this and through our the narrative that we presented.

I also wanted to make a motion tied to the these uh actions, and I've presented it to the clerk.

But the motion is to direct the city attorney to coordinate amicus participation with a focus on documenting local impacts to the immigration enforcement actions.

Any such amicus brief or other forms of support would be submitted at the next available opportunity in current or future federal cases addressing constitutional and or jurisdiction authorities within the state of Minnesota.

Second.

Motion made by Councilmember Keene, seconded by Councilmember Miller.

Councilmember Keene.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, so I make this motion um as I've stated before that I I believe our real relief for what's going on in Minnesota will come through the courts.

Um court cases and references to constitutional authority are surely not straightforward and will not resolve quickly.

Um they ask um uh they they take into account uh uh the how like how big the case is, and there's these standards that are very difficult for normal layman like me to understand.

Um, but so this will take time.

Um I'm I'll share.

I was in Chicago this weekend because I have a uh uh ailing relative, but I was also celebrating births and some birthdays, and uh I'm honored that I can do that, just take off on it for a weekend in Chicago.

But as you can guess, I was fielding questions at every venue about how are things in Minnesota and the ICE protests.

And they ask, I mean, almost every place, how far are you from Minneapolis?

Do you know anyone who's protesting?

How often do you get to Minneapolis?

And they were all kind of shocked when I said, no, no, no, this isn't Minneapolis.

This is in the streets of Rochester.

Uh, and that just isn't getting out.

And I'm I'm a little bit bothered in the state of Minnesota.

There's a bunch of people says that's Minneapolis.

That's not our concern, and that's just not true.

And I think a place like Rochester, and knowing what's going on in Austin or St.

Peter, Minnesota, changes the the narrative for some people.

Um having Rochester data in support of federal lawsuits helps explain to the courts and to the country that this is bigger than just an urban problem with overactive protesters.

It is happening everywhere in Minnesota, and if it can happen here, I want people to think what would happen when it comes to me.

And I think that's what what my one of my main goals is what trying to get us involved in this.

Uh the motion approved would give authority to the city attorney's office to apply judgment on when exactly and what exactly would be helpful and when.

Uh after extensive interactions with the attorney's office and with city administration, I'm comfortable with that direction is reasonably scoped.

It isn't something that we have to read the words and make sure it's being done right.

We have these discussions, we go back and forth.

I think the the staff is always trying to divine what the council wants and what the community wants.

And I think I think we've done a good job with that, and therefore I trust just having this motion is is good enough for getting us forward.

Yeah.

Councilmember Miller.

I'll just add I appreciate Councilmember Keene bringing this and also making these points that clearly this is not just a Minneapolis and St.

Paul metro area impact.

I personally was taking my daughter to a music lesson yesterday, and her teacher said, hey, can I talk to you about something that's not related to her lesson?

And she told me about um legal neighbors of hers being harassed, the neighborhood setting up a neighborhood watch to protect them, but this family unable to live on their own street despite their legal protected status in the United States in Rochester.

And I also am in support of this motion because when I look at the current filings, I see that other cities have already filed amicus briefs.

Those include Golden Valley, Moundsview, Lauderdale, Richfield, and St.

Louis Park, perhaps others have since taken action.

And I think it is an opportunity of ours as a city of the first class to be clear in our position that harms are happening here, and again, to move it out of the council cadence of every two weeks of us being able to make a decision, but to be clear in our intentions and to give our city attorney and his office and other staff the opportunity to have a clear direction from us, but to not wait for us.

So I plan to support this and I appreciate all the work that's gone into bringing this motion.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yes, Mr.

City Attorney.

I've got a couple of questions for you.

Um about a week ago, your advice was that we now join this um brief.

Is that correct?

Councilmember Palmer, Councilmembers, uh Mayor Norton.

I would say my message was more nuanced.

Um and it was also at the preliminary stages of some additional conversation and interest that was evolving by the council.

Um I would say at that point of discussion, there was not only a question of an amicus brief option, but also kind of a question of how can we join the lawsuit, right?

Which is a more significant commitment and question.

Um what you've discussed so far is not joining the lawsuit as an intervener.

You're talking about filing a, as you referenced, a friend of the court brief and amicus brief.

Um you've heard some of the indications of focusing on the local impact that that would be um that would be a focus of any amicus effort.

I think that part of my reflection at the time as well when when I briefed the council on this topic was that just procedurally, um, the case was going before the judge for a temporary temporary restraining order.

Um, so um there was a bit of a belief that that window of opportunity um to weigh in through an amicus was closing.

Um, but also recognizing now that there will be additional opportunities to weigh in as that case moves forward.

Um so I certainly recognize it at the end of the day that this it is a decision for the council.

Um I'm not in a position at this point to give you particularly clear guidance on um the pros or the consum or exactly what it would mean to the actual litigation versus what it may mean to the community.

Um but to try to answer your question a little bit more deliberately.

I think that was preliminary conversation, and we're at a point where the council um can give that direction if you think that um that has value.

But you're you're the our legal counsel.

You work for the city council.

Um hasn't the case been dismissed?

It has not been.

Where is it in the legal sure?

The um since the publication of the agenda, and since the republication of the agenda on Friday, um, there's additional developments that I shared with some of you today.

Um, first of all, I would just reflect on um, as you know, how quickly um some of these litigation matters are moving, um, really unprecedented in many respects.

So um on the weekend there was an order from um the federal judge, Judge Menendez on that initial question of a temporary restraining order.

Um she made that preliminary ruling that was not in favor of the restraining order being granted.

That's not the end of the case.

Um there are a few different paths that the case uh may go at this point, um, including ranging from an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to um refocusing on a potential trial or essentially an evidentiary hearing that may occur at some point in the future.

Ultimately, it will be the named plaintiffs, the state of Minnesota, City of Minneapolis, City of St.

Paul that will make those decisions together on what that next path is.

And depending on the path, that may open up essentially a next window, an opportunity for cities, municipalities, organizations, friends of the court to weigh in through some additional amicus briefing or impact statements.

But the state adjourned uh attorney general has prosecuting or he's he's bringing this case to the feds.

Is that not correct?

That is it is correct that the attorney general's office represents the state of Minnesota.

But that would be all of us.

That's the whole state.

It is it is true that the suit brought in the name of the state of Minnesota does essentially cover all of the state of Minnesota.

And there's roughly 850 cities in the state of Minnesota.

I think Mr.

Akeen named six of them, I think are suburbs.

So a small percentage want to join this lawsuit.

Um I just give a slight distinction on that.

850 cities?

No, just the just the point that um I would encourage you to make some distinction between joining the lawsuit as some type of named intervener becoming another plaintiff in the case versus the many, many um amicus briefs that have been filed, I think at last count prior to um well, the last that I had looked, there were around 120 filings from really all across the country and a mix of organizations, and I did not attempt to try to identify how many cities in the state of Minnesota have weighed in in some manner.

Okay.

The reason I'm asking these questions is that that this is a CIA that I didn't have any information ahead of time.

I haven't read it, and it's hard for me to read it.

Um so the question then becomes timing wise, how much time is your office going to be putting on this, and then the cost of this, and can't if if a business or a person's been affected by this, if our state attorney is is representing the state, which is us, can't they send their information to the state and have that included?

So there's three questions there.

I'll just try to answer the last one because that's the only one that I remember as a question.

Um there are a mix of avenues to try to provide information and a sense of impact, local impacts to the state.

One of those is a link that we have on our city website, which is an opportunity to document incidents that that occur in the city that's available to individuals to try to tell their story and for the attorney general's office to try to have a sense of the incidents of concern that are occurring throughout the state.

That is an opportunity to weigh in.

Exactly how the attorney general's office or state of Minnesota as a plaintiff will utilize that information in support of this lawsuit or for anything else is unclear to us.

Um just um just not sure.

I do think it's fair to say that to the extent that I I think I understood and appreciated the motion from Councilmember Keene with a focus on community impacts.

There's been a lot of internal conversation by city teammates throughout the past few weeks of trying to understand and document in to some extent summary fashion, but in as much level of detail as we think is appropriate, the true community impacts, not just for the city organization, but all of the things that you heard about this evening, the impact to the schools, to our medical institutions, um, to our local economy and and small businesses.

Um the opportunity to document that in a in a much more holistic manner through an amicus brief um through a declaration is kind of the technical term of what's being attached to these amicus briefs, um is certainly more robust than what the state by themselves would be doing.

So the the first two questions is that you just explain a lot of stuff there.

So I'm assuming what is your estimate for time of our city attorney's office and then the cost of us um doing this litigation.

Well um what I provided you this afternoon.

Um there is one path of us getting this amicus uh brief done, um, and that has been uh an opportunity to do a consolidated effort with a few other cities that we know are currently um contemplating this option.

Their councils have already approved moving forward with an amicus uh brief effort through uh a firm that we regularly work with in the Metro, Kennedy and Graven, um, one of their attorneys is coordinating that effort.

That um that's a clear option for us and maybe a most consolidated, streamlined, efficient way for us to um to engage.

Um that effort is estimated at um a 10 to 15,000 commitment to get that amicus um brief filed.

It's really kind of a one submission and done, largely.

Um so it would be that joint amicus brief and a declaration that really is more specific to Rochester and the community impacts we're seeing here.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

Uh I share many of Mr.

Keene's uh feelings about the tactics, the fear, uh, the real damage that's being done in our city.

With that, I still have grave reservations about supporting uh this this particular motion.

Prior to the November 2024 election on June 24th, 2024, our mayor and two county commissioners, all of whom previously held statewide legislative offices, warned of the dangers of partisan politics entering into our city and county governments.

All three lifted up a commitment to nonpartisan government, pointing to the need to represent all residents regardless of party affiliation.

If the Rochester City Council takes any position supporting the suit that the state of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St.

Paul have filed against the federal government, in my view, we will have crossed that line.

I have read the 80-page suit, and it understandably reads as a partisan document since entities of the DFL are suing a Republican federal agency.

The document leaves no question as to its partisanship.

Paragraph 272 from the lawsuit.

The state's voters elected a Democratic governor.

Indeed, Minnesota's voters elected Democrats to all of Minnesota statewide offices.

Additionally, plaintiff cities are widely considered to be democratic cities with elected leaders who identify as Democrats.

The state's governor and plaintiff cities elected leaders are vocally opposed to the Trump administration's agenda and have repeatedly criticized the president and his administration on behalf of their constituents.

This political speech is constitutionally protected activity.

Paragraph 210 from the lawsuit.

As set forth above, defendants have targeted Minnesota for disparate treatment relative relative to other states based not on any real or legitimate concern for public safety or fraud.

Rather, defendants have repeatedly made statements that reflect their true intent to punish Minnesota's elected officials and residents for their perceived political leanings, to target so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, to create false political narratives of lawlessness in Minnesota, and to incite flashpoints between Minnesota residents and immigration agents.

While these are two representative paragraphs, the tenor of partisanship is present through the entire 80-page document.

Rochester is not mentioned in the document.

It's focused almost entirely on Minneapolis and St.

Paul.

Rochester's potential participation in the suit will not make our city safer.

It is the Rochester Police Department who serve our public safety.

With most people, sadly, not all people, I am appalled at what is happening around our country in Minneapolis, in St.

Paul, and in Rochester.

We are not being well served by federal informants tact enforcement tactics that have largely failed the public good.

Every day I hope and pray that the previous day was the last day that federal officers would wreak havoc in our community.

But we cannot delve into partisan politics.

In the same way that I will not support any action to participate in this suit, I would not sign or support a partisan statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

As a nonpartisan body, we cannot and should not join in a DFL or a Republican lawsuit, and I urge our council to remain nonpartisan.

Councilmember Doring.

I plan to support this action, but I have a logistical question for you, city attorney.

In preparing this brief, um how can residents feel like their voice is being heard in the construction of it?

Is there a mechanism that exists that they can report grievances to you for possible inclusion in a brief?

That's a big question I know.

It is indeed, Councilmember Doring.

Um Councilmembers, I it would be it would be challenging in any particularly direct way.

Um but what I would certainly say, and I think the commitment that the city organization and city teammates um make to the community and to this council is that um we try to continue to find a variety of ways for community members to be heard.

Um certainly um the efforts of my office um and the efforts that would go towards any um legal action if approved by by this body would be informed by by that input.

We will continue to build out as best we can that community resources website um through through the city.

It continues to grow day by day.

Um as you um maybe in particular know well um it can be difficult for us to um set up any kind of specific process through the city organization for people to relate to us individual or specific situations of concern, um, partly because we're responsible for public data.

Um we create public data that can create a concern for individuals, of course, but attempting to connect people to um valuable resources will will continue to be our goal, and otherwise finding forums where they can share their stories in in ways that they can also feel safe with.

So I want to make sure I understood what you said just so I can feel better, right?

So uh first, we will continue to build out uh our immigration resource site to uh inform the community of their rights, how the city is responding, all that kind of stuff.

But then I also just heard a commitment to create some sort of forum where a listening can happen to members of the community from members of the community uh by city staff.

Did I hear that correctly?

You heard that correctly.

Um but I and I would also just be careful about the commitments that um that I'm making on the on behalf of a bunch of other people doing doing this work.

Um being intentional and thoughtful about trying to create those forums that is a larger task than the attorney's um department.

Um I think those um those conversations should continue if we can create opportunities those those efforts should be made.

Um I would also just reference I I think um another specific point.

I think there is some hope that at some point we may be able to access some of the attorney general's information that is being um consolidated again.

That of course has its own potential flaws to it, um, but to the extent that we can access any of that information would be would be helpful.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fredericks.

All right.

Uh you know, we sit downstream from federal and state laws and rules, and we're we're stuck dealing within that field of play, so to speak.

I see this vote as a polarizing vote.

I don't like it.

I ran for Ward 4 City Council to serve our community in a nonpartisan position.

Mr.

Spindler Craig, you stated that there's much we do not know right now earlier when you were talking to Councilmember Palmer.

Would it be advisable to wait to move on this issue till we have more answers to avoid moving without facts?

Thank you, Councilmember Fredericks.

I think you're framing a perfectly fair and good question.

And I would also guess that is perhaps the reason that Councilmember Keane framed the motion the way that he did.

He's by my understanding not attempting to commit to a particular lawsuit or a particular window.

And recognizes that we're in just a very quickly evolving scene, both um on the streets and from a legal perspective.

The motion by council member Keene, I I would just admit to you plainly um gives gives me pause.

Um the reason that attempting to move this ongoing conversation away from the political body to staff could make sense.

Now, of course, um our decisions would need to be guided by understanding your foundational principles and have those intimately inform the direction that that we would go.

Um I think what we've learned over the last two to three weeks, which feels like a really long time already, is that things are just continuing to shift so quickly.

Um I don't know that we're going to get to a point where we feel like we know the facts, like things have settled down and we have a static picture and can make a really informed decision now.

It just has um been moving so quickly that to some extent having the flexibility to move forward um without having the every two week conversation with with the body, um, that there's certainly an advantage to that.

Here's otherwise the commitment that I would make to you if you move forward um with this motion tonight.

Um it does not mean that I would not come back to you for some additional input or potentially another hard decision for you if what is presented to me feels like um a legal action that I think has to come back before this body, I would do that.

Um there are some lanes for closed session discussion on this topic, um, but those lanes are pretty pretty limited.

So I can't necessarily pull you all into a room um and talk it through in a safe space.

Open meeting law um is is pretty pretty narrow there.

Um so um I don't know that more time necessarily gets us to a clearer space of um clearer facts or that litigation matters have coalesced in a particular direction.

Chief Franklin.

Are you still feel fielding any safety calls?

Uh people that are just questioning overall, they're scared.

Any calls like this that you're getting.

Are you responding to those?

We're responding to, yes.

Yeah, we are responding to uh citizen complaints concerns.

Um I don't have the numbers in front of me.

Uh I just asked my team to um start taking apart the data and looking into exactly how many of those calls for service uh so that we can have a true kind of data anal and analysis, uh preliminary information.

Uh just off the back of the napkin.

I'm sorry I don't have the data in front of me, but I think we responded to 18 calls in the last seven or eight, nine days.

So it wasn't as many as that I I thought.

Okay, so with these 18 calls, how many of you showed up at and there's act and there's uh confirmed ice activity?

I'd have to break that down again.

We're still taking apart the numbers.

Um, I don't I don't have that in front of me right now.

Okay.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, I'm I appreciate what Mr.

Wall said, and I think his statement was well researched, and and I do support that statement.

What um I don't like about this um doing this on the fly, and Mr.

Keene's been horribly um um hated every one of the CIAs that are changed at all.

Um and so you know for me, people have not had a chance to read the motion.

We have not had a chance to read the motion.

Um people have not had time to uh comment on the motion.

Um there's no idea on the cost or the time of it.

So saying that I'm gonna make a motion to um delay this um uh action right now.

Uh a um a motion to delay this action by council member Palmer.

Is there a second?

It fails by no second.

Okay.

Uh I uh I will support this uh motion.

Uh I think there has been a lot of discussion about the amicus brief.

I think we also did hear about the potential costs.

Also, um, we do know that over 50 other cities across the country, uh small large, have supported uh the current litigation just last week to the cities of Mankato and West St.

Paul uh passed measures similar to the measure that we're considering tonight.

They will work with uh their attorneys to build that case, build that case for the impact here in our community as they are in their community, and that impact as we've heard is uh the economic impact, how it is uh in impacting stores, storefronts, food carts, uh access to health care, people that are uh afraid to go to work, uh people that aren't going to school.

We just heard uh this morning from RPS that uh 50 students are uh uh calling in uh not able to go to school.

So these impacts uh need to be identified for this community.

Uh and we are also a statewide community, and Minneapolis, as council member uh Keene said, is not that far away.

And uh uh I used to live on Nicolette Avenue, less than 10 blocks from where Alx Pritty uh was killed.

I went to the restaurant that uh pimento, a great Japanese uh rest Japanese, I'm sorry, Jamaican restaurant uh uh on Eat Street across the street from the Black Forest Inn.

So this is uh the economic impact on uh one of our other Minneapolis cities, and I think it's only right that we have the impact uh that we're seeing here in Rochester uh as a part of that uh friend of the court case.

So with that, uh I will ask uh clerk Raina to call the roll councilmember keen, aye.

Councilmember Miller, aye, councilmember Wall.

No, Councilmember Fredericks, Councilmember Palmer, nay, Councilmember Doring.

Aye, Council President Shubrin.

Aye passes 43.

Thank you.

We will move on to our uh our uh ordinance second readings.

Go ahead, City Attorney Michael Spindler.

Thank you, sir.

Item K1, an ordinance designating Central Park, a historic landmark site and amending the official zoning map as referenced in 60.200.020 per in A of the unified development code of the city of Rochester.

Move approval.

Second motion made by Councilmember Keene, seconded by Councilmember Miller.

All in favor say aye.

Aye opposed say nay.

Moving on to other business.

At this time, I will uh uh ask for a motion to recess to our economic development authority.

I'm sorry.

So moved.

Uh point of order, Councilmember Keene.

Mayor were we doing other business prior to going into the economic development or after it's just a question.

Uh we will do other business after uh other business.

Uh our uh Rochester Economic Development Authority meeting M1 is the first item under other business.

Okay, so uh motion has been made uh by councilmember Fredericks.

Is there a second?

Second, all in favor say aye.

Aye opposed, say nay uh back to the city council meeting and other business.

Our first uh act uh in other business is to adapt uh to adopt the findings of the Rochester EDA.

So move second.

There's a motion made by councilmember Doring, seconded by Councilmember Wall.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Is there any other business?

Count Mayor Norton.

That was Palmer both times, by the way.

I think you were gonna give me a promotion there for a minute.

Um, just a couple things I wanted uh to close out the meeting with one from my from my voice, there may be others.

Um, I really appreciated tonight the very serious discussion, the the ability to share a variety of opinions and act respectfully.

Um this is what we should see more of across the country.

Um, and when we don't see it enough.

So I just wanted to commend you all on tonight's actions and the respectful manners in which you um treated each other and the seriousness with which you took your votes.

Um I also want to say that a question was raised about you know what happens when a city takes a position, but the federal government it doesn't change the federal government's position.

And I would say two things, and and one of these is partly from being a former legislator, but also as someone who does lobby at the state and federal level.

When a city takes a position, even if it cannot be implemented, and I use the example of what happened with St.

Paul recently on some gun legislation that they took.

They knew they couldn't implement it, but they took it to to make a point, and so they had a position as a council in order to lobby their state and federal um colleagues.

And so it isn't pointless, even if it can't be uh immediately uh forwarded into you know some sort of punishable or um action being taken on it immediately.

It does set um a tone and a message uh that a majority of the council stand.

So I just wanted you to know that I that isn't a waste of time.

Um and the last thing I want to mention is the US Conference of Mayors has an opportunity regularly for mayors to sign on amicus briefs and or positions to the legislature.

And I do that throughout the year quite often.

I will say the U.S.

Conference of Mayors is a remarkable organization that has bipartisan support on almost all the issues that surround cities.

Um, because we're about the people that live in the city, not about the politics, partisan politics.

So it really is a pleasure to be there.

And today I signed an amicus brief, and I didn't mention it earlier because I didn't want it to get confused.

And I'm allowed to sign in one of three ways.

I can sign one as an individual.

I can sign one on representing my government, and one that the council has voted on, and I'm standing with the council.

I took this one on as an individual.

Um, and it it is an amicus brief in support of local control and um allowing Minneapolis and St.

Paul and other cities across the country to self-determine the kind of government they have and whether they want to be a sanctuary city or a not a sanctuary city.

And my role there wasn't because I'm speaking on behalf of what we may want to do on a council, but I'm supporting and support, and I I did it as an individual, not under the city's name per se, because I do believe that the in I do not want preemption happening by the federal government taking our right away as a city to be able to determine how uh we control ourselves.

So I just want to I didn't want to bring it up during the discussion.

I thought it would muddy the waters talking about another amicus brief.

So I just but I did want to tell you those opportunities do come up.

I do sign them, and unless I have permission from all of you, I sign as an individual and not representing the city of Rochester as a government body.

That's it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilmember Miller.

Sure, thank you.

I I did have a question because I feel like there's some lingering uh comments that came up or questions that were raised in open comment.

And I continue to point people to our frequently asked questions on the immigration resource page.

My question to staff is uh perhaps the city administrator is how are comments and questions brought up in open comment, particularly considered to be added to that frequently asked questions as the resources updated.

And I ask that because I would like to be able to continue to refer to that as the source of reliable up-to-date information that's brought up in the community.

We'll give you a very non-definitive answer, which is it depends on what is brought up and if it's something that the team who's here listening or sometimes at home listening, um, think could be a viable type of FAQ or resource to be able to put on that page.

Some of the the things that get brought up are not resource questions, they're more probably policy questions or operational questions or aspirational questions.

And so we continuously have a chain of communication going on where if we either see information that's coming forward, not necessarily at the dais, um, but through any number of channels, um, then we look to update that, even if it's shared somewhere else already to be able to reshare that in that location.

So I would say we probably update it five times, maybe more a week.

And I would look to others if they have a more succinct answer.

But it really speaking to your specific questions about open comment, it depends on what the comment is and whether or not it's something that would be a viable resource on that page, or if it's a more open-ended question about um ability to report.

I mean, there are a lot of operational questions that were also raised that probably are more challenging on that page to.

I guess maybe to frame the question slightly differently.

Is the open comment the the questions raised in open comment, are those considered in the evaluation of which questions are answered on the frequently asked questions page of the of the city website?

They are things that we have considered in the past.

There's quite an overray of questions that get asked that sometimes are rhetorical questions, and so that those as based on the interpretation of what is whether it is a firm question or not, and whether we think that it would be helpful to try to communicate that in such a I guess static forum in an FAQ or whether we would direct someone to another resource.

Okay.

It is a it isn't art because we don't want to make it appear that we're providing legal advice, for example, um, because there are a lot of personal decisions that are wrapped up in how each individual you know wants to choose to do that, and so we do try to be cautious so that people are not overly um confident in their actions either by something that we put there versus um something that they could access themselves and be able to make their own determination of their comfort level.

Okay, thank you.

And I I see the disclaimer on the page though, so I appreciate that context.

Um an issue that I've raised and I want to continue to raise, and I spoke with the mayor today about potential avenues is now that we're into February, uh, clearly rent is due for many people.

We've talked about rental assistance in the past and the implications of eviction and our stability as a city.

And so I would like to raise this point and get council feedback because through the mayor's office, we could send a letter to Governor Walls encouraging his office to consider potential action to protect people from evictions.

And I would be in favor of us doing that, and I chose not to bring it as a CIA because of the timing considerations and the urgency of us now being into February and many people still being afraid to go to work.

Uh, it is my understanding that the governor's office is the only entity in the state that could issue an executive order uh implementing an eviction moratorium.

And so I would uh bring that up in other business for discussion.

Um Mayor Norton.

I would be happy to write a letter saying such if we have support from the council here.

Um just uh council members, uh any uh anybody who wants to weigh in on this topic.

Council member Fredericks.

Absolutely.

There's a lot of reasons for eviction, it isn't just not paying their rent because they can't go to work.

I would actually lean that there's more other reasons that people get evicted than that.

So to just have a more torment and also you can't kick people out if it's a blanket deal.

I I'm not in favor of that.

Okay, thank you.

Uh and I'm gonna ask council members since this is not this is an other business.

If you can just say yes or no that uh whether or not you agree with council member Miller's request that we support the mayor writing to the governor on this.

So if you do a point of order, we we don't take votes at other businesses.

We're not taking a vote, council member.

No, we're not.

We're not taking a vote.

If you are in favor of it, nod your head.

That's not a vote.

That is not a vote.

Well, it it makes no standard to say that the city of Rochester City Council voted to do this, so that's a point of order, and I don't agree that we can do that.

It's a slippery slow.

Well, we do that at our study sessions, council member.

So, and I think we I think other businesses somewhat of a quasi study session.

And I'm a no okay.

Any other folks want to weigh in?

Council member uh Keene.

Yeah, I I don't I don't like the yes or no thing here.

I mean, there's there's I I agree with Councilman Frederick.

I I the one thing that's really bothering me about all this work is that we have no data behind anything that we're doing.

We're just going by gut feel that there's problems to have, and I believe there are problems that can that are out there, but how we isolate our support for those specific problems.

I I don't know how that would be done, and until I would, I have difficulty supporting.

Okay, we're gonna move on.

Is there any other bus other business?

Yes.

Go ahead.

Chief, you're here, and I'm glad you're here because body cameras, um the city council decided that that was important for our our patrolmen for our citizens of Rochester to have body cameras.

And we've had those for a long period of time, and you agree they're great.

But in the Tribune today, Minneapolis Tribune, they're reporting that Minneapolis will now have of all the ICE officers will have body cameras up in Minneapolis.

And so I think that's a good step forward for all of us.

The uh the bigger issue for me is the soldiers' field memorial.

And so I'm gonna ask a question for our permit people.

How do we issue a permit for soldiers' field memorial?

And if somebody has the wrong address, how do we enforce that they not use that site?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember.

To be specific, a non-regulated activity is not a permit, it's a notification document.

The clerk's office in this particular instance does not wade into what is likely constitutional matters.

So when we get notification from people that want to express their freedom of assembly rights on public spaces, we do not tell them necessarily yes or no outside of very limited circumstances.

For example, if Soldiers Field had a special event, and that was de facto a private space because that entity had gone through an actual permitting process when people say that they're gathering in this particular example, all we do is pass that information along to our emergency management and police friends so that that information is in their wheelhouse so that they know whether or not this gathering is going to have safety implement implementation.

Implication, sorry.

So on the application or reference, and I agree with you of First Amendment rights, I'm all with that.

But my problem is is that if you have one address and then you show up at a different location, that's not really informing you of what's going on.

That is accurate.

And so is there a penalty for that?

I would be hesitant I would be hesitant to say yes or no in that particular example, because the only penalty that we could theoretically do would be again to say yes or no to an application, which really is only informative for our office.

Okay, so the memorial is is a separate entity, and and don't they have the right to have the the who can be there and who can't be there?

They're the ones that paid for it, they're the ones that maintain it.

That's a separate thing with the park department.

I'd have to reference that particular data with my parks colleagues, but my understanding of the memorial itself versus the park itself is to my understanding, it's all public space.

And as public space, the general public, regardless of their intent, so long as it's not destructive, have the right to congregate and express their amendment rights.

If I'm mistaken, and I'm happy to be proven such by the parks department and the Soldiers Field Memorial section itself is private, it would be governed differently in the same way that uh Walmart parking lot or elsewhere is governed differently.

Can I ask that they do that to come back to us with a report you can ask that, council member?

Can we nod our heads?

But you were against nodding heads before.

And now you want nodding heads.

So you look at the nodding heads if uh there's four noding heads.

We're okay.

Any other other business?

Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn?

Oh, yeah, uh, I'm sorry.

Mr.

Miller is doing oh I'm sorry.

Because we we've talked about this in uh a variety of formats before about potential programs that the city might um support rental assistance programs and bring back resolution.

And I'm I I know that there was a direction that an organization apply for funding.

I are there updates on the success of that.

And I would also note in relation to the eviction question.

I've seen in the community other organizations beginning to um set up programs to support um families who are in a state of uh inability to pay rent.

Councilman Mamila, thank you for your question.

Um, yes, we did review that application and the group approved it for the Salvation Army specifically, but we also making sure to communicate um across the community, uh the organizations that are supporting rental assistance, so that community members who would like to support their neighbor, as you see in our update, you know, weekly uh neighbor supporting neighbors to utilize some of those spaces to make donations as well.

And should another organization that is considering um addressing a uh a rising need of rental assistance have a program, should we also direct them to apply in the same way that the Salvation Army did?

You can certainly, yes, direct them to apply.

And if I may add, it is very important when suggesting that that they look very closely at the requirements for and the rubric for that grant process and consider that in how they apply.

Okay, thank you.

Any other business?

Uh is there a motion to adjourn?

Make a motion to adjourn.

Councilmember Second Council motion made by council member Fredericks, second by council member keen.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

Opposed say nay, we're adjourned.