The Rochester City Council convened on February 18, 2026, for a regular meeting covering public comments, consent agenda, two public hearings, a contract amendment for the Sixth Street Bridge project, and other business. Key topics included floodplain development, a major subdivision, and ongoing labor disputes with Transdev.
Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge a legal United States of America. One nation under whatever you disparal. Welcome everybody to this snowy evening of February 18th in our Rochester City Council meeting. We begin each council meeting with our open comment period. This is an opportunity for anyone from the public to speak on items that we will not be taking public testimony during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes. I'll be keeping time through two methods. One, the stoplight here, and the red uh digital clock uh to my left. Uh I'd request each speaker to be concise to allow for more uh people to speak during the designated time. Participants are further encouraged to limit comments to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the city council's ability to affect policy. Council members and staff do not respond to your comments during public comment, but will instead follow up on any specific requests separately. If you have materials to share with the council, please give them to the city clerk who is to my right to distribute, and you will be invited up in the order in which you signed up. We will start with Linda Parker. Good evening, Commission. Glad to be here. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I recently listened to the mayor address a couple of newly appointed committee members that once you hold an official title, you're no longer speaking as a single group, you're representing the entire community. When you're using your official position in your comments to promote personal beliefs or partisan viewpoints, it creates a false impression that those views reflect the will of the whole community. When local leaders support the effort to dismantle enforcement entirely while remaining silent about crimes committed against citizens, it's a violation of public trust and the duty of their office. And I find that unacceptable. Next up, we have Myron Rosted. Hi, Ruth. Hi, City Council. My name is Myron Rostett. I'm a resident of 821, 26th Street, Southeast, Rochester, Minnesota. I'm here tonight because on March 23rd last year, at 11 o'clock, I was welcomed by a neighbor to go check my basement in which she said she had water and herds. I checked, I got a split level home. I checked my basement and I had the entire basement flooded. And it got flooded due to because of a sewer line, which got ruptured by a water main street by my house. I called them that night and we got a claim number and stuff. Uh documented all the damages and stuff. I had a service cleaner come in. I was able to get one that day come in. He evaluated the situation, read the situation, and told me everything. Sheetrock had to be cut, all the doors had to be taken out because he says if you don't do this, you will not be able to sell it because of the damages. So I had to have all that done. Everything that was accounted for. After I got everything done, it's like I have uh roughly 58,000 in my basement. And when I go to try to submit all this, nobody would ever. I called the number on the sheet that said we give you a helping hand, everything let us know. Nobody would return my calls. I will reach out to my insurance agent. And she tried to get some answers. She got answers that was uh they are not going to pay anything on the claim and close the claim due to because it was an act of God. Now I don't see how a water main and that, which is considered interest structure of the city can be considered an act of God when a mechanical function breaks, causing me hardship on all this. Um I just asked the representatives to look me straight in the eye and uh tell me that it's justifiable that I gotta accept that it was an act of God and eat the billing. I have documentation of all the work that I've had done, the cleaning bill, the cleaning bill alone ran me close to 19,000. And then, like I say, replacing other sheetrock. I had a bathroom that wasn't even a year old yet that I had totally redone.