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

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it's one.

Welcome everybody to our April 6th, 2026 Rochester City Council meeting.

We begin each council meeting with our open comment period, which 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, and I will be keeping track of time through two methods.

One, the stop light here, and then also the red timer up there.

In addition, participants are encouraged to uh limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy.

Council members and staff do not respond to your comments during public comment, 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 to my right, and she will distribute them to council members.

Uh uh with that, uh we have nobody who has signed up for public comment, but if there is anyone who wishes to speak during public comment, please uh step forward.

Seeing no one, I will close the public comment period and uh ask Clerk Caseel to call the roll.

Good evening.

Councilmember Keene.

Here.

Councilmember Miller.

Here.

Councilmember Wall.

Here.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Here.

Councilmember Palmer.

Here.

Councilmember Doring.

Here.

Council President Schubring.

Here.

Mayor Norton.

Present.

Thank you.

Next up we have the City Administrator's Report.

Administrator Zelms, take it away.

Thank you, Council President, Council members, members of the public.

I always start the report by thanking our teammates for acting with respect, integrity, safety, and excellence in mind in everything that they do.

So really appreciate all the work of our team.

We over this last couple weeks went from 17 inches of snow to 80 degrees back to winter today.

So they're always uh responding and adjusting as needed.

So really appreciate their work.

Um also did want to note that we are in parking ramp cleaning season.

So the city parking ramps on are going to be on this cleaning schedule.

So first street ramp will be April 10th to 12th, second street ramp will be April 17th through 19th, and the third street ramp will be April 24th to 26th.

You can find out more information on our website, Rochester Mn.gov forward slash parking.

We'll take you there.

Um and then on that first uh street ramp, it is the uh recommended alternative parking ramp for the center street ramp, which is in its final stages of a repair project.

Um it is being closed for that work based on the type of work they have to do, and then it goes across a road.

You can't get it in and out of there without closing the whole thing.

Um so first street ramp is is typically where we would recommend you go, except for April 10th through 12th.

You can use any of those other alternatives.

Um and then we are in the final push for vendor applications for the 2026 forward concerts.

Um vendor applications are available online, Rochester Mn.gov for more details.

Um, they will be accepted through April 10th.

Um, and the forward part concert series schedule is uh Wednesdays, June 3rd through August 23rd, 5 to 8 p.m.

at your um neighborhood parks.

Um we will be getting more information, exciting information about the artists um out soon.

We like to have a bit of anticipation for folks.

And then the community survey on awareness and programming for um the city and uh Rochester Public Schools community education program is actively underway, so we are jointly working on that to make sure people are aware of what's available.

If they aren't, maybe talk through how we could get the word out differently, whether that's um through their schedule or um vice versa.

That is available at Rochester Mn.gov, and that is through April 12th.

Uh and that is the main thing that I have for you today.

Thank you, Administrator Zelms.

Next up, we have the mayor's report.

Mayor Norton, take it away.

Thank you.

I have a number of things to bring to you tonight.

We'll start with kind of a fun one, which was the city was recognized by the Rochester Chinese School for our outstanding contribution in support of the Chinese New Year's event, which was February 15th.

So they gave us a plaque and uh came to the International Relations Committee to thank us.

It was a really uh awesome event and very well attended and uh great fun.

So we thank them for the recognition.

And uh I guess we'll just leave it at that.

Um also I want to reminder that on um we've been doing this series of um the mayor's been doing a series of town hall meetings.

Um many of you attended the last one that the police department hosted.

Um this one will be RPU will host it, and it will be on May 12th in the evening at the Hein Center, and so more information will be coming out about that.

But we'll talk about net metering, we'll have uh conversations about uh moving to the 100% renewable, battery storage, all the other types of um changes and functions at RPU.

Uh, and uh the director there will uh Tim McCullough will do the presentation, and he may have some staff with them.

So should be an interesting evening, and it will also allow as the last one did for round table discussion at the end to help city council and myself and others understand what questions are still remaining, what you need to hear more about, um, but it's just uh the next one in the series.

So I wanted to share that.

I do have a little bit of a concern.

I'm just gonna raise here.

Um it's been kind of the talk uh for the last week, uh, which has to do with uh the 4th of July celebrations and the changes that were made, uh, as well as some issues with Rochester Fest.

So we're kind of um in a very uh kind of tense time in the community when changes are being made to some of the events that are historic in this community and been going on for a long time.

We've made changes to them, and the community it's is just becoming aware of those changes.

Uh, one was was a change that happened quite some time ago, and that was uh the changes to the 4th of July.

We are still doing fireworks.

Um it will be done to music on a radio station, and more information will be coming out about that.

We will not be doing the stage with the music that's been going on at the Fourth of July event downtown, although they're at least it I believe it's still online that there will be the community band will play out at Cascade Lake, I believe.

Um so different than we've done in the past years.

There's concern about that.

Um I I personally had concerns, and I've talked with the administrator and a couple of the council members.

This is America's 250th birthday.

From from my point of view, um, we should be doing something extra this year, not pulling back.

But frankly, as we were doing the budget last year, I don't think any of us had the 250th birthday of the country or anniversary of the country, however, you want to talk about it.

We didn't really have that on our mind.

We were focusing on the budget and where changes needed to be made.

And while I don't think ultimately this was a financial change, although probably did free up some money for the for the um music department, it was it was just about doing things differently.

There is a lot of concern in the community.

I personally would like to see if we could try to expand the fireworks a little bit and see if we could not do something a little special with the fireworks.

We have already have the allotted money for what was purchased, but I'm just raising that issue for you folks to think about to see if it wouldn't be something worth uh trying to enhance a little bit, just the fireworks portion of it, make it a little special this year.

So I will say that uh regarding the 4th of July, I will be doing an American 250 youth bike ride.

Um it will be, however, during the other topic that I brought up, which is Rochester Fest.

Um, it will be on June 27th.

It's a Saturday.

We're hoping to get 250 children or more.

Um, but anyone's welcome.

Uh we will have bike decorations, red, white, and blue, streamers and crate paper and all sorts of stuff, flags for the kids to decorate their bikes or adults if they want.

Um more information will be coming out about that as as we move ahead closer to that time.

The other issue with Rochester Fest I want to bring up is um there without a stage.

Um I've been trying to get a stage using the cities that we purchased this year, which is for the music department.

Because it is a co-sponsored event.

Rochester Fest was founded by a former mayor, um, and it and they we have as a city allotted money every year for them.

Um, but it seems that we have been unable to find a way to do that.

Um, it's my understanding.

I don't know if it's true.

Um, I think we should give them our new stage for use during the week because it is our stage, it will be insured by us.

Um, but if not, then I is my understanding there might be an older stage still available, and um that perhaps we should be looking to do something to support Rochester Fest with a stage since we're not going to be doing anything for 4th of July.

And that's that's my opinion, but I'm sharing it with all of you to think about and see if you can help think a way forward on both of those issues moving ahead.

Well, it is the report.

The police department puts out an annual report.

So I just want to let folks know that that has been out now for a little while.

You can find it on the city webpage under police, under news reports and dashboards, under annual reports, and all the annual reports for the last few years are there.

So I'd encourage folks if you want to know a little bit more about the uh the police and what's been happening.

There they have their four divisions, patrol investigation or three uh services and community services.

Um there's information about all those departments in there as well.

So I would urge you to take a peek.

Um, just quick follow-up.

Um, a delegation from Rochester did go to the Techland Experience in Germany.

I mentioned that before.

Just thought it would highlight the Rochester team included a rep from Mayo, a rep from Destination Medical Center.

Um I went from the city, uh, Dave Senjum went on behalf of the county and the University of Minnesota had representation as well.

It was a fascinating conference focused on health care and technology and the intersection between those.

Our role was really to talk about being a healthcare community and being innovative to talk a little bit about the intersection that that we've had with the country with Munster with in Germany, how how we have benefited from that, how they have learned from us, and then how the relationships have grown into hitting into the healthcare sectors, which hadn't happened before it started with technology in this just the city, it's now spread further.

So that was our role there.

It was a fascinating conference, lots of robots and fun stuff.

So the National League of Cities Conference concluded a couple weeks ago.

I just wanted to let folks know these are the topics we we went to the convention, a couple of us, um two of us, uh, Councilmember Miller and myself this time.

And not only do we go to the National League of Cities workshops, we also spend time lobbying.

And I think we just I just want to be really clear.

We go down to the hill, we went made multiple trips to the hill, uh, met with our um our reps and our senators, and these are the issues that we talked about.

We have since learned that the police technology upgrades has moved forward from Congressman Finstead's uh desk.

Uh he they can do um they don't like to call them that can congressionally designated spending or earmarks.

Um they so they selected the police technology upgrade to forward, and it's my understanding that our senators are making other considerations, and I'm I think we have highlighted um, if I'm not mistaken, it's the Brown EPA Browns fields as our priority.

So we're hoping we get more than one of these.

Um but uh the Zumbro drinking water is another priority, and you can see here the Civic Center uh intersection, and we've we've we talked to them about all these, so thought it might be interesting for folks to see what we talked about.

Um, also I'm going to give you a handout.

When it gets to the other end, um there are some unmarked ones, so if the council would take the top ones that have the markers in them, um that would be appreciated.

So we did the Rochester Visioning 2050 exercise concluded in March of 2025.

Um we had uh folks look through and try to hone it down.

It looks like for the most part the the idea of education and children's issues were taken out as it's not a core city service.

The rest of it was farmed, if you will, for information, and I've highlighted on page four, the the green one, which says these are examples of how the issues that the community, the members of the community that the 1500 people or whatever that filled it out, what they identified, how those issues could be addressed, and so there's some suggestions there, and then starting on page five, six, and seven, it actually breaks down each of the issues and talks about the specific items, capital projects, or place-based opportunities that the community identified as things that they wanted.

So you can see under I've used the example of the first one youth and recreation-oriented facilities, a modern skate park or pump track.

Well, we're a step ahead because we have a new uh skate park opening in Silver Lake, so good news on that front.

A multi-use youth recreation hub, combining sports, gathering and creative spaces.

Again, we are kind of working on some negotiations with RCTC, which might meet some of those needs.

We'll see how that goes.

Expanded neighborhood recreation facilities and underserved areas.

So those were some of the top highlights.

And then you'll see another one.

I'll just mention quickly is arts, culture, and creative spaces.

And the community said a newer expanded art center, flexible performing arts venue, permanent public art corridors and installations, and a little further down under outdoor activities or downtown activities is an event pavilion or amphitheater.

So our community listed in each of the areas that we have different ideas, and this gives you an idea about the main capital projects that were looked at.

And you you still continue to have the data as a whole available to you either.

I think some of you have a notebook that has information in there, but you also can get it in our office or online.

So I just wanted to say as you make decisions with the budget and in the year ahead.

Is um our relationship or the volunteer opportunity that we have with uh the uh uh Mormon Church in town.

Uh the Rochester Youth Council, which is a function of the city and county, worked with those youth, and they went out and and boxed.

I can't even tell you how much food, but it ended up being over 300 boxes.

I think 380 boxes, I could be off a little bit, um, of food for families in need and the the uh church as part of America 250 uh donated uh truckload of food, and so that food was boxed up and made ready for the community and this group of young people worked together to do and it was it was a fun event, actually.

And um, it's fun to watch kids kind of show up and look like oh, I'm gonna have to do a lot of work, and in the end they had a great time and and uh you did an assembly line, and by the time they were done, they were all chatting up a storm.

It was really a nice, a nice evening.

Um, I would also like to make note that uh we have an opening on uh board and commission fire civil service.

So if you know anyone, this is a really important advisory uh role that we have.

Um it is I believe in state law as well, like police civil services as well.

So it's an important role and has to do with um a lot of the HR functions in the in the fire department.

And if you're interested in that, um I would uh encourage folks or talk to other folks, encourage them to apply.

And lastly, I'm going to hand out one more handout.

This is your day of handouts.

I've never I've I don't think I've ever done this before.

Um this is a really interesting article.

We've been working on better better.

So long as there's not a quiz afterwards.

Well, we'll see.

Maybe the next meeting I'll have one ready for you.

Um, this is uh an article that was written in the National Civic League's um bi-monthly little booklet that I get because I'm a member.

And it's the group that we've hired to look at um, how can we do better public meetings?

And so he has written an article called Beyond.

This is Nick Vejos, uh, who is here at our meeting remotely and has been in our community running a town hall.

It's called Beyond Council Managers and Mayor Councils designing a resident model of government for the 21st century.

And it's actually a fascinating um article.

I took issue with a few parts of it.

Um other people might as well, but basically, it's um how can a community use the skills of a uh trained manager who has a degree and advanced degrees sometimes in you know running a city, and a mayor who's elected by the body and a council who's elected by the body.

How can we work together to make sure that the voices of the community are an integral part of the decision making we have?

And they have set up um, he has a um I guess a vision that he's suggesting for uh the community.

So I'd encourage you to read this.

It's it's not terribly different.

We do some of the things, but it's really a more purpose, purposefully uh community focused.

They talk a little bit about um participatory community participatory budget making is one of the suggestions, but it's really different than that.

It's really also about um the and it's lightly changes the roles of both the city manager, the city council, the mayor, and the residents raising up, if you will, the residents' voices in the process.

So I'm handing that out in hopes that you will take a look at it.

And uh, that's all I have.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for the very comprehensive report.

We appreciate it.

Next up, we have the order of the agenda.

Are there any changes to the agenda?

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

So moved.

Second.

Um, who moved that?

Moved by council member Keene, seconded by council member Wall.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Uh moving on to our consent agenda.

Uh Councilmember Miller and Councilmember Doring have pulled item F6.

Are there any other items to pull?

Seeing none, I uh would invite a motion to approve in blocks in block items F1 through F5 and F7 through F 37.

So moved.

Moved by Councilmember Miller.

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember uh Keene.

Uh Councilmember Wall, you had a comment to make.

Yes, uh, of uh the four contracts awarded tonight that have engineers estimates.

Uh there were two that were slightly over, uh, two that were significantly under for a savings of nearly a half million dollars, 472, 180 dollars.

So I commend the staff and our partners uh in the industries that help us to uh reach our goals.

Thank you.

And council member Doring, uh my understanding is that you uh would like to vote nay on items F9 and F15.

Correct.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

Uh so uh Clerk Caseau, if you could make sure you that is reflected in the minutes.

With that, uh uh all in favor of the consent agenda, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Um motion passes with uh council member Dorings two nays.

Um moving on to our public hearings.

We have three public hearings on our agenda this evening.

Uh and uh before we begin, just a moment to clarify the process.

It's a little different than our our public comment period.

Um staff will uh first make a presentation on the item, and then if there is an applicant or a representative of the applicant, they will have up to 10 minutes to discuss the application or the item.

At that time, I will open the public hearing.

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

And again, encouraged to though to keep your comments brief, concise, and uh and uh germane to the item that is being discussed.

After the public hearing, there'll be an opportunity for the applicant to answer questions or uh or make additional comments for up to five minutes.

And after that, I will invite my colleagues and the mayor to ask questions of both staff and the applicant.

And with that, uh we have item G1, which is the second street southeast and 16th Avenue Southeast Sanitary Sewer Maintenance Project.

Mr.

Dombrowski, take it away.

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

Uh we're here tonight uh to conduct a couple assessment hearings as you've been doing on a variety of reconstruction projects here the last couple of years.

Um this current project is the second street southeast and 16th Avenue Southeast Sewer Maintenance and Street Reconstruction Project.

Uh most recently it was in front of you in February on the 18th, uh, when you adopted the feasibility report and then uh set the uh date for tonight's two hearings.

This project is uh full reconstruction along 2nd Street Southeast from 15th Avenue on the west to the Cal de Sack Bulb at the sort of southeast corner of Martin Luther King Park.

It also includes reconstruction along 16th Avenue Southeast from 4th Street North to 2nd Street Southeast.

Um different funding sources on the project, special assessments, the different utilities, sewer water, and stormwater, um as well as street reconstruction funds that uh the council has in the CIP annually because of the special assessment funding.

We need to follow the chapter 429 Minnesota State Statute process.

Uh and tonight we're gonna conduct a public improvement hearing and the assessment hearing uh and I would suggest we just open those both jointly.

Um they uh will allow for any property owners along the project to uh provide a written objection, which needs to happen either before the meeting or during the hearing tonight.

Thus far, we have received no objections um prior to tonight's meeting.

Um they would then have to follow through on that objection to file in district court.

Uh and this is all laid out by the state statute.

Um so just real quickly overview on the project.

It was in the feasibility report that you adopted, but um we will be essentially reconstructing the entire roadway, all of the utilities which have reached the end of their useful lives.

Um additionally, the the parks department requested along the south side of the park, so the north side of the street, there is no sidewalk.

Um we are going to install that sidewalk and um work with the parks department to avoid tree removals along that that edge of the park.

And the park department is actually funding the sidewalk, so um nothing being paid by private property owners for the sidewalk.

Um so in accordance with the chapter 429 statute, notices were published in the post bulletin.

Um mailers were sent directly to each affected property owner, um, and the assessment role has been on file with this the city clerk.

Um it was prepared in accordance with the most recent update to the policy in 2022, which 25% of the street eligible street items are being assessed to the property owners.

So that's the rock below the pavement, the pavement section, the curb and gutter.

Um and 25% is borne by the property owners.

The other 75% is funded by the city.

Um again, no utilities are being assessed to the property owners other than the water services.

Um it's likely a number of these water services are going to need replacement.

So if they are um replaced, they would be charged based on the the rate that's been adopted annually for water service replacement.

Um so we show each each property receiving that.

It's as we get into construction, they don't always all have a water service line replaced, but we need to preserve the right to assess in case that occurs when we're doing construction.

So tonight there's two actions being requested.

The first would be to order the improvements and authorize the completion of the plans and specifications.

Um would like you to take these in two separate actions after we've done the hearings.

The first one does require a supermajority, so it would be a 6-1 or a 7-0 vote.

The second one is uh resolution levying the proposed assessments that's been that have been presented in your packet.

That one is just a uh simple majority with that resolution.

Um so with that, I would, as I noted, suggest we open the hearings together.

Um, but then take two separate actions uh upon closure of the hearings, and I'll be available for questions after the the hearing.

Thank you, Mr.

Dombrowski.

Just a question on so uh residents can submit uh objections any time during this meeting.

Correct.

If they are listening online, is there a uh process for them to reach out and submit that?

We haven't had that before.

They would have to very quickly send an email to the to the city clerk, city clerks and noting their objection.

Um I think looking at the clerk, we could probably, if we receive something in writing via email during the meeting, I think up until it's adjourned.

I I think it still fits the intent of being here.

Yes, filing the objection.

Clerk Caseo, could you uh just state your email address or the email address that you wish uh folks to uh submit that to just in case we uh have that folks listening online?

City clerk at Rochester Mn.gov.

Thank you.

Uh with that, I will open the public hearing on uh the uh assessments and we have uh one uh uh go ahead, council member.

Was there wasn't anybody else to speak, any project person?

I don't think there is, but just to check.

Okay, thank you.

Got it.

Uh so uh public hearing is opened, and uh we have uh Miss Molly Dennis has signed up thank you so much.

It's really good to see all the seats filled up here for the first time in quite a while.

Um I am I received a letter in the mail um uh with from the city of Rochester saying that this letter serves as notice of a public comment uh hearing for April 6th um the meeting.

And so I'm speaking on behalf of the public comment um and and the uh hearing for uh this um and maybe I'm a little confused because I I brought this when I came today, rushed here, uh, to um talk about this huge um thing that's going on with the sidewalk improvement district, and that does not seem to be a public hearing today.

And I maybe this goes along with what the mayor has just spoke about on how when community has huge changes that happen that we don't get informed of these huge changes.

So people who receive letters like I did in the mail, um, and I shared it with many uh uh neighbors of mine, because they've there's a lot of issues with their sidewalks, and um, and I said, well, here this is the meeting to come speak at, but it was not a public hearing.

So maybe um maybe there's a little mix up because I did clarify before I signed up to speak today.

Um, but I wanted to um bring up that for the sidewalk improvement that was sent.

If you see the letter, there was a bunch of dual letters about it.

I believe that all residents should share the cost of repairing sidewalks, not just the ones who have sidewalks.

Because I believe that when we have residents who point of order.

Uh uh, Miss Dennis, could you stop?

Uh Mayor Norton.

I'm confused because this has sanitary sewer maintenance in Southeast Rochester.

I agree.

It's a little bit confusing.

I didn't receive any um notification other than that.

So I think it's appropriate not appropriate to talk about something, a different kind of project at this time.

This is a hearing just for the sanitary.

When is the hearing for Miss Dennis?

Are you a resident of within this district?

I am not, but I would like to.

Do you have a question?

Do you have a when the public hearing is if it said here in this uh notice that it was for April 6th, and I believe that is April 6th is today.

So I am coming to speak on the behalf of the what was sent to me and other neighbors about April 6th.

Um about how we should divide up the cost of these expensive sidewalks, not just to those who have it in front of their homes and have to shovel and and take care of them, but for everyone who maintains it should be equal amount, not just the um people who have um Mr.

Chair point of order.

It is not, but I do not see the hearing hearing on the Ms.

Dennis.

Can you hold for a minute?

We do have a point of order.

Could could I ask Dylan Dombrovsky who brought this item forward if if sidewalks are on as part of this conversation and that I see as Southeast Rochester.

I'm not understanding what's going on here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Mr.

Dombrowski, can you clarify?

Does it sound like our public commenter is uh addressing this issue?

Uh we are not this is a sidewalk improvement district letter that is being referenced.

The the project tonight does not include sidewalk assessments through the sidewalk improvement district program.

The repairs we're making are ADA upgrades at the pedestrian ramps at each intersection, which the city's paying that with our street reconstruction funds and not the property owners or the program that's the SID program that goes out to the broader community.

So, Miss Dennis, could you unless you have uh your your comments are addressing directly this item?

I'm gonna have to ask you to basically I'm gonna give you one sentence to wrap up.

Okay.

Well, so maybe this sums up the entire experience of city council on how they're disconnected to the people because what was sent here to myself and other residents was that this served this letter right here served as a notice for April 6th meeting, and I showed up for that, not receiving any other course.

Could you share that with the city clerk's office and we'll be more than happy to do that?

All right, thank you, Miss Dennis.

Thank you.

Okay, I just would like to know when is the hearing for the sidewalk re improvement that is addressed in this.

Could someone please do that?

Give that to the city clerk's office and uh thank you.

Okay, maybe that will help thank you.

Improve.

This is a public hearing.

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

Thank you.

Uh state your name, and you have five minutes.

Sure.

My name is Benna Childs.

I live at 1622nd Street Southeast.

So I am directly affected by this sanitary sewer maintenance project.

Um I'm being charged as a special assessment.

$8,400, which is approximately 10% of my remaining mortgage.

So this is not a trivial quantity of money to just have dropped on you with very little notice.

And I do appreciate the opportunity to comment.

Um, so I would like to take this opportunity to I guess tender my objection officially to this in writing.

So I'll give this to the city clerk at some point.

I also did have a point that I wanted to make regarding whether this was a lawful special assessment or not.

And so to speak to that, and I do unfortunately we have three copies of this document, but I will pass them around.

So that's I'd like to have this.

So I was very curious about this whole concept of a special assessment because I'm not on anything other than a mayo grunt.

Um but I did make a formal records request for other special assessments that included these surface uh repairs to roadways, and I was able to get several copies of the roles for prior projects, one completed in 2021, one completed in 2023.

And my understanding is that one of the requirements for a special assessment to be lawful is that it should contribute to the value of your property in a way that is commensurate with and not in excess to the cost that was incurred by you.

So I would have an expectation that my property value, or at least my taxable property value, would go up by about 8400.

Now I was not able to get any sort of straight answer out of the city clerk or anybody else that I was in communication with about how this 25% figure was actually calculated down to that.

But on the basis of looking back through the other special assessments, the one from 2021 and the one from 2023, I was not able to determine that there was any difference in the property values of homes that had had their roadways in front of them resurfaced, and this includes the major project in Broadway and also a more minor project in 2021.

Um effectively, there was no difference in the value of a sample simple random sampling of homes within a block or two that had not undergone that special assessment process.

So I'm kind of curious, you know, what does that mean?

Does that mean that our taxes are not actually a realistic market estimate?

Does that mean that the special assessments have impacts on property values in adjacent areas, in which case they would also not be appropriate?

Because a special assessment is supposed to only impact properties that have a unique upgrade, right?

That it value it is a value to them and to nobody else.

And so the document that I sent around is these two simple assessments that I was able to do comparing control properties to properties that actually did have special assessments.

Basically, my understanding is that this is not going to do anything from a property value whatsoever, at least if historical trend holds true.

So I'm kind of curious like on what basis is this reasonable.

So any thoughts?

It's not a rhetorical question.

Like I'm open to having some sort of a back and forth exchange here rather than just saying here I printed out four pieces of paper, stapled them together and handing them around.

And have a problem with the fat tax bill that was unexpected.

So thoughts?

After the public hearing, we'll uh address your questions to our staff and to uh to the city clerk as well.

So okay.

The only other thing that I could have to say is that if there is any other member of the public in the room who did not have the opportunity to file a formal objection, I've got a pen and I got plenty of pieces of paper right now if they wanted to do that same thing.

So thank you.

This is a public hearing.

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

This is a public hearing.

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

Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing.

And uh Mr.

Dombrowski, could you address some of the issues that uh the gentleman brought up?

Sure.

The um council adopted the assessment policy in 2022, so that's where we arrived at 25 percent is born by the private properties, 75% by the city.

And we've done a number of these projects here since the the policy update has occurred.

Um that was in 2022, so anything referenced prior to that wouldn't be comparable to this process.

Um, the the statute does read that the assessment should be no more than the benefit to the property.

Uh the statute does not require us to do a benefit appraisal and and prove that out.

That's why the property owners do have the opportunity to object, at which point if they would file in district court, that's when we start talking about property appraisals and evaluations and having those discussions.

But as part of the assessment process, there's nothing we are required to do to do a benefit benefit appraisal up front to determine each individual property and what those assessments are.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, the public hearing has been closed.

Uh you you have your you have your objection filed, so uh you can uh discuss that with the city clerk's office.

Uh council member Fredericks.

Thank you.

Let's just shoot for a little clarity here.

Um they're assessed for 25% of the value of the project, so to speak.

Of just the roadway improvements, not the roadway improvements.

Nothing else but the roadway.

Okay.

But while during this project, you're going to be replacing sewer and water main lines to the houses.

Correct.

Okay.

So I will say this: a house that has not a reliable water or sewer service to it becomes very not valuable.

So is this project necessary to maintain a reliable service to each of these houses?

It is.

And as I noted, the underground utilities have reached the end of their useful life.

Correct.

Some approaching 100 years in age.

So it's necessary that when we're in here reconstructing the street, we're addressing the utility condition as well.

Right.

And if you had to do a one-off in this, the owner had to do a one-off in this, so it would be considerably more expensive to replace a water or sewer line after this project is done.

Yeah, when property owners end up having to replace those lines themselves, you know, they have to take on the responsibility of restoring pavement, sidewalk, et cetera.

So that's all borne by the individual property owner if they have to do any sort of service replacement.

Great.

And the raw money they have to pay to do this is it the $8400.

Is that the raw payment that they have to make for this project?

That's the assessed value, which is um they either can pay that up front or it will go on to the property taxes over a period of 10 years.

That's gonna be specific.

Spread over 10 years.

Correct.

Very good.

Thank you.

Any further discussion on this item?

Councilmember Keene.

I just want to make a point here.

Uh the the way we do the assessments on this street compared to like a project on Fourth Avenue Southwest three years ago.

Do we use a different assessment algorithm each time, or is it the same way?

It's it's the same.

And I was actually looking through the Fourth Avenue Southwest project last year, the Seventh Avenue Northwest project by Cook Park.

The valuations, those are all primarily just single family.

So there wasn't a larger value property like we had along Center Street that can skew and they take on the bulk of the assessment.

So as we look at just the single family um, you know, homes along the this corridor compared to those other two, they were all in the five to eight to nine thousand dollar range per property, and again, that's based on the value at the assessor's office.

Okay.

And is the going back on when you figure out how much is going to be assessed, it is totally based on the 25% of the cost of the project for the street repair, and again, not the utilities.

Correct.

It's the estimated cost of the street repairs, which if it come if our bids come in lower, we're only gonna going to assess the property owners the the amount of money we spend on the project.

So if they come in lower, which as um council member wall noted, our projects have been coming in below estimate a lot lately.

It's possible that the assessments will be reduced.

And we can go ahead and sorry, we we cannot go above what you set tonight with the assessment role if you choose to adopt it.

Okay.

Um so the estimates have already been given to the to the residents, correct.

And is it tied at all to the value of their property, or is it only the cost of the project?

It's tied to the value of the property.

So we take the total amount to be assessed, and then we take the total value of properties on the corridor and each person's percentage of that total value.

So that's why they aren't all exactly the same.

And that's what the council chose with the with the new policy in 2022.

We gave a couple options.

Um we either did it by the each and everyone paid the same, regardless of their valuation.

The chuck the council chose uh the property valuation was the method to do the calculation.

Yeah, and I was a part of some of those votes, so I do remember some of that, but I'm trying to make sure I mean the numbers I'm hearing though, on these sort of houses saying eight thousand dollars, that seems dramatically more than 10 years ago when they were a percent.

Is it because the value of the homes is going up, or is it because the cost of the projects is going up?

Uh it's the it's probably a measure of both.

Obviously, construction costs have increased over 10 years, but uh property values are going up as well.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

Uh I have uh sympathy for property owners and uh getting assessments, uh, particularly if one is living in more affordable housing, and uh maybe extra eight hundred dollars uh a year uh might be hard to find.

Uh I was spoiled by the center street uh assessments that we passed uh a month or so ago uh because they were significantly lower per property owner because of the large building that got assessed.

Um does the one-inch water service compare in price to maybe 2525, it's 1888 per unit now.

I don't have the last year's rate memorized.

We we do uh there's a uh calculation based on the engineering news record construction cost index, and if I recall correctly, it was three-ish percent increase over the last year.

So it's really that's based on construction cost indices and how they are increasing or decreasing annually.

And I suspect, like Mr.

Keene uh in preparing for tonight that the just the cost of materials and all has driven some of our costs and then assessments up, which is a harsh reality for us uh whether individuals or city uh city council members, staff.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer.

I have three three quick questions.

Is there any lead services if this is a hundred years old?

It's uh very possible.

RPU anticipates that there are some.

There were some records that they don't have when it's that old.

So we're anticipating a big chunk of the reasoning behind the service replacements will be some lead service repairs.

So are they gonna go into the house then and use their funding, or how is that going to work for the for the people?

Uh RPU has a separate project that you know will they'll work with property owners on the actual final connection, but this would just do the replacement out to the right-of-way line.

Well, that kind of troubles me because I I think that we'd want to work with RPU to if it's a lead service that we go all the way to the houses, we're gonna wreck things anyway in their yard.

So um I'd like to see us at least work together to to get that, and maybe that's something we have been working with them, and they helped generate the list.

Okay, and then um I know that you said you can delay it for 10 years.

What's the interest rate that we charge?

Five.

It's it's it's over we wouldn't delay it a full time, it'd be annually over 10 years and is it five percent?

Um that was the updated interest rate, correct?

Okay, and then the park department has a lot of frontage there.

Are they paying for this then?

Uh they should be paying as well.

They are paying for it, they're they're paying for the um the road.

They're paying for the sidewalk, but they should also be paying for the I need to pull up the assessment roll.

That's like 34,000.

There, they're on the assessment roll.

Because if it were a stormwater parcel, our stormwater team pays for it.

So we always do assess our city parcels.

I just don't have the parks memorized.

Thank you.

Yeah, 34,000.

Thank you.

Any yeah.

Uh council member Frederick.

I'm all about not spending money too.

So I just did a quick little math figure.

You're looking at just a TISH over 70 bucks a month for reliable water and sewer service and a new street.

Uh good value, but nobody likes to spend money, and I am sympathetic towards that.

Councilmember Miller.

Sure, just a question about the street profile, because I I'd assume much of the cost is dependent on the width of the street.

It what is the the sort of neighborhood street profile here?

What what is the width?

How much of that is parking, how much of that is the travel lanes?

Um it it it meets our new city standards as we think about where we have parking on two sides or one side.

So um it's the minimum width to also allow parking on each side.

Uh we talked with the parks department that parking is pretty important along the park.

So we we maintain the two two-sided parking on um second street southeast as well as along the avenue.

Well, to the minimum widths, okay.

Yeah, and and I just want to bring this point up too, because part of that trade-off in the street width is to maximize parking availability for both residents and visitors, and that is a different way of assessing the cost of parking, and not that I'm suggesting we do this differently tonight, but that that is also just part of the value of how we contemplate this project when there's no charge for parking on the street.

Councilmember uh Keene.

Hey, I'd like to make a motion of the for a one first part motion for adopting a resolution ordering the improvements and preparing the plans for the second street southeast and 16th Avenue Southeast Sanitary Sewer Maintenance Project, project number J 7838.

Motion made by Councilmember Keene.

Is there a second?

Second, seconded by council member Wall.

Councilmember Keene, any more to add?

Yeah, I just want to make sure I'm I'm doing this first part as a separate for a separate vote, and and then we do it just another motion for the other one.

Yes, and this requires a supermajority, which is a six to one vote.

Any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye opposed say nay.

Motion passes seven zero.

And then second, I'd move uh to adopt a resolution levying the proposed assessments related to the second street southeast and sixteenth Avenue Southeast Sanitary Sewer maintenance project.

Motion made by Councilmember Keene.

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Doring.

Any more to add?

Councilmember King.

Yeah, these are painful to do, especially when you the underlying clause here sometimes, even though we know these streets are old, it's it's the service to get it to the May or the Olmstead uh medical, which bothers me that there's other benefits that aren't part of the assessment rolls.

But that that will happen.

I I think the thing that I want to make sure all residents know is we're not doing any of these on the fly.

We have a set policy that we've all approved, and for each project comes up, whether it's North Broadway or a residential area, we're doing the assessments the same way.

And I I take comfort in that that we're not adjusting them each time.

And uh, you know, it depends.

Uh so uh I'll just mention that with the vote, but these are difficult to do.

Councilmember Wall.

I commend our public speaker uh for being here tonight and for the good research that you did uh, including looking back at uh prior assessments and uh housing values.

Um while I will support this uh motion, I uh wish you well in your appeal.

Further discussion, all in favor say aye.

Aye, aye post say nay, motion passes.

Moving on to item G2, which is a final plat by Lanier and Mr.

Desmond McGill.

Um yeah, thank you.

Uh Council President Jubring, Mayor Norton, members of the council, good evening.

My name is Desmond McGill.

I'm with community development.

I'll be bringing you this application tonight.

Uh the applicant is requesting a final plat, uh, subdividing 56 acres into 108 single family lots uh on our two zoned property.

Um this is to be known as Pebble Creek Sixth.

Uh, the subject site is located uh on the west side of 60th Avenue Northwest and south of 51st Street Northwest.

Um the amended uh Pebble Creek development uh was acquired by Lenar Holmes and encompasses 327 acres in total.

Uh this site uh was part of a uh major land subdivision preliminary plat, uh approved in June of 2025, which encompassed uh 185 lots uh uh or I'm sorry, 185 acres, uh encompassing 454 residential lots, uh ranging in size from 45 feet wide to 75 feet wide.

Uh specifically, this final plat has a mix a lot with ranging in size from 45 feet wide to 60 feet wide.

Uh the plat is consistent with the uh approved major land subdivision uh for the development and the general development plan.

Uh the connectivity index score for the approved major land subdivision was 1.5, which does meet the uh criteria for uh connectivity requirements.

Uh this phase of development will extend to local streets out to 60th Street Northwest on the on the east side, and then uh Pebble Creek Parkway Northwest uh will be stubbed out on the south side for future connection to uh future phases on the located to the south.

Uh Kingsbury as well will also be stubbed out uh to the west to provide connections to uh uh future phases west of this uh Pebble Creek Sixth.

There are three conditions of approval uh that has been provided by the development review committee.

Uh the first one being uh that uh additional plat information is needed regarding uh the location of a 3.5-acre parkland site, uh needing revised street names and the need for pedestrian facilities easement.

Uh the second condition requires um completion of a development agreement and make maintenance declarations along with a boulevard tree agreement and uh uh finalization of the civil improvement plans uh prior to the recordation of this plat.

Uh condition three requires the transfer of outlaw F uh to RPU water for future booster station.

Um as noted, the development committee is recommending that the council approve this application uh subject to those three conditions.

And uh that concludes my introduction.

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

Thank you, Mr.

McGill.

Is there a representative of the uh the applicant here?

Please identify yourself and uh you have up to 10 minutes.

Good evening, President Schubring, members of the council, Mayor Norton, Ryan Scholenfeller with WSC Engineering representing Lenar, the applicant here tonight.

Umardher acceptable of those three conditions on this project.

They're excited to bring 108 single family for sale houses to Rochester here.

Um hopefully a little bit later this year, and I'm available for any questions that you guys may have for us.

Great.

Thank you very much.

And uh I will now 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 Mr.

Schoenfelder back up for any final words.

Just again available for any questions that you guys have for us.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council members, Councilmember Palmer.

How do you pronounce the developer's name?

It's Lenar, right?

Correct.

Thank you.

Councilmember uh Wall.

So first time I've ever heard Mr.

Palmer ask such a simple question and only one.

Is that because I mispronounced it in the intro?

I've been told that.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I I would like Mr.

Schoenfelder uh to come back up to the microphone.

Um having been at previous meetings on this uh development, uh I've uh heard uh iterations of how this will move forward uh in phases.

And I recall uh phase one uh being uh a more senior uh oriented development.

Is that what these 108 are?

What 108 homes are?

Yeah, there is a senior component to this.

And um part of this plat contains an outlaw that's gonna have a recreational space community center um for the residents of this area.

As I recall previous meetings, the first phase was much larger uh than that.

Has has that been scaled differently into different kinds of phases for this particular large development, not just the first sixth.

Um we broke it into smaller phases based on the utilities that are available to the site.

Um this first phase, the sixth is most accessible to those utilities.

Then we'll be transitioning to the north closer to the future 55th Street extension, um, which also contains those utilities.

Um it also allows the developer to get started and bring those lots for sale a little bit quicker.

Is it uh cost effective for you to keep coming back uh with smaller portions, or is it uh would it be more cost effective to try to go for 343 homes uh at once?

Yeah, I think our contribution to the cost is pretty minor.

Okay.

Um but that's or theirs, Lenar's.

Correct.

And that's why that first preliminary plat that we got approved was for what's been covered under the approved EAW previously.

Um WSE, we did a new AAW for the residue, which is on the west side of this site.

Um, and though that preliminary plat will be coming forward very shortly as well.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Is there a motion on this item?

I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution approving panel plat number CD 2026-003 PLAT by Lenar to be known as Pebble Creek Sixth, with three conditions for the subdivision of 56 acres of land into 108 residential lots.

Second motion made by council member Doring, seconded by Councilmember Palmer.

Councilmember Doring, anything more to add?

No, Councilmember Palmer, anything?

Councilmember Wall.

Uh in this body, we uh have uh talked about our excitement about more new homes uh by the scores uh and the three national builders coming.

Uh I am excited about uh Lenar coming to Ward 3 and uh the opportunities that that may create for people finding housing in the city of Rochester.

Uh I know that it's not universally acclaimed.

There's a really great article in the post bulletin.

Uh might be today or yesterday.

I read it electronically, so I'm never sure exactly what day is right, but uh really a good article that uh I think lifts up some of the excitement even by local builders uh as to uh how we are moving forward in Rochester.

So I'm can enthusiastically support this.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Miller.

Sure.

I I do plan to support this, but I I have some questions for public works um beyond the scope of this project.

But one of the things that um council member Palmer and I have asked for that should be coming up for discussion soon is about the the idea that we're creating disconnected parcels.

Can you address how this development is connected or will be connected to the existing active transportation network sidewalks, etc.

and how people might think of crossing 60th Avenue Northwest as a barrier.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Miller, um, for that question.

We are working on the council initiated action around um orphan disconnected neighborhoods, parcels.

Um that's gonna be coming back to the council on May 27th for presentation.

Uh, with this uh development, obviously, everything in internal to the development.

With this development, obviously everything in internal to the development, we require sidewalks and or shared use paths along all the properties.

There's the connectivity index that is evaluated just as we think about how people move around that neighborhood and/or get in and out.

We will look at how it's connected to the 6060th Avenue corridor and look at how people can safely cross that corridor.

It's as you note uh higher speed roadway, which can just in itself act as a barrier.

So those are all things that have been asked for us to evaluate with this CIA, but um we also need to be thinking about them with any new development that is presented for our community.

I I appreciate that, and that's why I want to bring it up because I I would also just note that we're going through uh implementing soon already approved transit changes.

I presume that these new construction homes will not be connected to our fixed route service.

Um these will be new homes, but potentially challenged.

And I just want us to continue to think about that as we create developments, what amenities are or are not available throughout Ward 3 or as we develop and how we balance these components.

And so I have that concern.

I know we have not adopted a different policy.

I will support this tonight.

Um, but I am really challenged by by some of um who will and will not have access to amenities throughout the city, depending on where they live.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Palmer.

Yeah, two things I'll point out is on 60th Avenue there is a flashing uh pedestrian walkway there already.

Um, and so that's nice to have.

Um, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere right now, but it's there, which kind of surprised me.

And I believe on 51st Street we have a bus route that goes there right now.

Um, but I I I share your concerns, Mr.

Miller.

Is there a motion on this item?

We already made it.

We did.

We did.

Oh, did there Dan made it?

Dan made it, I seconded it.

That's right.

Uh seeing no further discussion, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues, for bringing me back.

Uh G3 is a vacation uh petition by Leo and Ed LLC.

Mr.

McGill.

Thank you, President.

She bring uh I'll be bringing you this application as well.

Uh, this is a request for uh vacation of a 15-foot-wide uh public utility easement.

Uh this uh easement is located on the Rochester Hyundai uh dealership property on the east side of Highway 52 uh at 4748 Highway 52 North in an MXG zoning district.

Uh this uh property was recently redeveloped with a new dealership, and uh the public utility easement originally dedicated uh was meant to serve a structure that was removed with the uh site redevelopment.

Uh the easement is no longer needed, um, and all relevant agencies have indicated that there are no active facilities in the easement at this time.

Uh therefore um development review committee is recommending that the city council approved uh the subject easement vacation.

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

Thank you, Mr.

McGill.

Is there an applicant associated with this?

Um come forward, state your name, and uh you have up to 10 minutes.

Uh Mark Nelson, happy auto group, uh city council, mayor, council members.

We're just looking to get it removed.

Hyde wants the uh easement vacated.

The city's been great in helping us out with this.

So if there's any questions I can answer.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

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 invite my colleagues to ask questions of either the applicant or staff.

Seeing none, is there a motion on this item?

I'll make a motion.

A motion adopting a resolution approving the vacation pet petition number CD 2026-001 VAC by Leo and Ed L L C for the vacation of a 15-foot public utility easement.

Motion made by Councilmember Palmer.

Zero second.

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Doring.

Any further discussion?

No.

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Pose say nay.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh next we have reports and recommendations.

We have uh H1, which is the 2025 uh Byrne Memorial Justice uh Assance Grant.

And this item was pulled by Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Doring, Councilmember Miller.

Sure.

Thank you.

Uh and I appreciate the chief and Captain Turk being here tonight to discuss this.

As the mayor mentioned, there was a recent town hall about advanced police technology, including camera recording devices.

And since this falls within that scope, that um town hall was well attended and had good feedback.

And I just hoped that we could continue to reiterate how this technology is being used, who we are contracting with, what the contract allows to be done with video that's recorded and uh the policies around it.

And I also hope that the chief might also um talk about the cost implications should this grant be awarded, not for the uh implementation, which would be covered by the grant, but how uh the ongoing cost is absorbed into the property tax levy and how we think about uh strategically where we do and don't add to the axon contract, um, which will at some point come up for renewal with perhaps quite a lot of items under subscription recommendation.

So that was my reason for pulling it.

I don't know if Councilmember Doring had others.

Councilmember Doring, any additional questions that you have?

Very, very similar um questions from me as well.

So all right.

Well, thank you so much.

And looks like the chief is ready to give us a presentation on it and uh address all those questions.

So, Chief Franklin, go ahead.

Absolutely.

Uh Mayor Council President, Culture members, thank you for this opportunity to speak in front of you.

Uh, this is going to be kind of a second cut at uh at this topic here.

We did a very long presentation at the Rochester Police Department uh technology town hall, which was the uh mayor's initiative, one of the first sessions that she did.

Uh so I'm gonna come cover some of the same stuff, then try to address some of the other questions that popped up as well.

So it'll be very similar but with some additions to it.

Let me just start with maybe um a couple of things.

The Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.

Uh, this is a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant that we have actively pursued for many, many years and received funding for for at least maybe the last 10, 12, maybe even 15 years.

So this is a very consistent grant that we can uh depend on.

Uh this is an annual award.

Uh it's based on population and crime statistics.

Uh federal grants, um, they're a little bit behind right now.

This is why this is a 2025 uh uh cut at the apple, if you will.

Uh, we do expect the 2026 uh notice of funding opportunity uh to be released here in 20 in summer of 2026.

So we're a little bit behind or the federal grants are a little bit behind.

That's why this is our 2025 initiative here.

Um, just to touch base here on kind of what it's for and what we're requesting for.

So we've received this grant several several times over the last uh 10 10, 12 years.

Uh we're asking to spend this particular grant on adding to our uh automatic license plate recognition cameras, adding to what we have currently.

Uh our LPR program currently is with or has always been and is with Axon.

Uh we do not have Flock cameras.

Um we don't have any flock cameras.

Uh, in March of 2025, when we requested the um grant from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Auto Theft Program.

So back in March of 2025, we requested an auto theft program grant, and we were actually awarded that grant back then.

We purposely held off on purchasing uh our license plate reader cameras because we were purposefully waiting for the axon outpost cameras to be put into circulation and available for purpose purchase, and that's what we did.

And so uh waiting upon that, knowing that we did not want to go with Flock at the time, knowing that we have a partnership in a relationship right now with Axon, we were waiting for that that program, that technology, these outpost LPR cameras to be available, and they were, and we did just in fact implement two cameras on 41st Street.

I'll explain why in a second last week.

So that just kind of gives you a little bit of the timeline of where we've come from and where we're headed.

What we're looking for and what this grant and the acceptance of this grant will do is that this will allow us to purchase approximately four more of these fixed ALPR cameras to be placed into the community.

And why is that important?

Just kind of looking at the rapid growth of technology here across the state.

Um, quite frankly, um, we're a little bit behind the curve in adopting this technology.

Um there's a hundred agencies right now in the state of Minnesota.

There's over 500 ALPR cameras deployed right now in the state of Minnesota.

There's a requirement to report that directly to the BCA.

So the column kind of on the right there is cut and paste right from the BCA website page that you can go find.

And you can see the fact that we have our two 41st Street cameras, even though those were just deployed last week, they're already up on the BCA website, fully transparent.

But if you look at and just do a little bit of a kind of a comparison with other like size type cities, you can see that what we're asking for is really a pretty judicious approach to testing this technology in our community.

Blaine 31 cameras, Egan 11, Minnetonka 13, they're all double digits in utilizing these cameras much more actively than we are.

How did we end up on 41st Street?

Again, go back to where we started.

We started with the fact that this is an auto theft grant.

And if you look at our auto thefts 2024, we had about 120, 25 that went down slightly to 88.

Year to date, we have about 16.

But we just simply did a heat map uh index of kind of where most of them were occurring, kind of seeing looking for clusters or patterns, and we saw that there was a little bit of a pattern emerging kind of on that 41st Street corridor.

And because the grant was an auto theft grant, that's where we put them, and that's where we started with.

And so that's how they ended up on the 41st uh street uh roadway there.

Um I just want to be just very transparent in the fact that we we have been transparent about um about rolling this technology out in this community and we value that.

That's one of our core values uh as an organization or principal values, I should say.

And uh, we had an opportunity to present this at the technology town hall.

Uh we've got it posted public notice on our Rochester police website that you can find saying that we're utilizing ELPR technology.

Uh, and our um Rochester PD license plate uh technology policy is posted on our website as well.

So let's just kind of talk a little bit about what is it because I think um I think we have an opportunity here to maybe demystify a few things about LPR and just talk about what it is and what it isn't.

So, just if you'd give me a few minutes here.

And again, these are the slides that should look pretty familiar if you attended the the town hall meeting that we had here.

Um, what is it and how does it work, right?

Uh so this is this is actually what the camera looks like.

So if you go out to 41st Street, you'll see two of these on 41st Street, one right off the ramp of 52, and the other one at 18th.

Um, and you'll see this with the solar panels, that's how they're powered.

And what it does is it provides that real-time alerting uh to us as an agency through our um kind of dashboard, the fusis system uh dashboard.

It'll provide real-time alerts for uh people uh registered owners of vehicles that are wanted criminals, uh, stolen vehicles, uh, missing persons, amber alerts, uh, any basically sieges or um uh law enforcement uh lookups and holds uh that are out there, you will see uh the axon camera provide us with those alerts.

Um I know one of the main issues with some questions that came up, even in the town hall, was well, how long do you keep this data?

Um that's all defined by Minnesota State statute, and so we retain the vehicle and plate information for 60 days per state statute.

It says we are not allowed to hold it any longer than that.

Um, and again, I'm gonna go, I'm there's another slide on the state statute that I'm going to unpack for you, just kind of outlining all of the safeguards in place guardrails for using ALPR.

But in it, in addition to truly trying to outline what is it and what is it not.

Uh, let me start here.

What it does is that camera that you just saw, it detects the license plate, uh, the image, kind of the vehicle image, plate text, date and time that it passed through that location.

It gathers other small objective evidence and facts about the vehicles.

What that particular means is if you're looking for a vehicle that maybe just got into a hit and run, it would basically show as part of that video if it has front-end damage, dragging the bumper, things like that.

It does provide alerts to police officers of wanted vehicles, stolen vehicles, missing kids, all those sort of things that are attached to that particular vehicles.

And our program adheres to all Minnesota state laws.

What it does not do is it does not detect facial images, it's not detecting people, gender, race, providing any data like that to us.

It is not being used for traffic enforcement, it is not being shared with third parties, and we're not storing the data any longer than 60 days, which is governed by Minnesota state statute.

So just kind of unpacking the state statute a little bit.

Here again, these are some of the questions that came up at the town hall that we had a great opportunity to answer.

Um, bottom line is this this is sieges protected data.

This is law enforcement specific data.

Let me just address perhaps the elephant in the room.

There's been some stories and some context out there shared in reference to Flock and Flock sharing data with different third parties.

What attracted us to Axon and what continues to attract us to our partnership and relationship with Axon is this is Rochester PD data.

It is our data.

We're the owners of the data.

We're the only ones that can release that data, and that's super important to us.

And all that data can only be accessed for law enforcement purposes, legitimate law enforcement purposes.

And so the state statute that governs all this is 13.824.

All right.

Says that uh there's a multitude of things that got to be reported to this is we have to report it to the BCA.

It talks about data retention, talks about auditing, all the things that you would think the legislator would have thought of.

All that stuff is outlined in the statute, and we are 100% adhering to the Minnesota state statute.

As I said before, it's siege as data, it's providing that real-time information through our platform of fusis.

Um other important thing is is um officers are required.

So if an officer is driving through the area and says this ABC 123 license plate just drove through 41st, and the person's got a warrant, there is an extra step where officers have to do at least a little bit of due diligence to try to confirm whether or not the driver of that vehicle matches the description of the registered owner when feasible.

And so before they take action, we're requiring them to try and validate who in fact and if we can try to confirm who's driving that vehicle, right?

We are not tracking or monitoring uh individual vehicles without a warrant.

We're we're not this is really an investigative tool, uh, and there are logs of use uh as you would suspect with all CJ's data that are subject to audits there.

So again, I talked a little bit uh earlier about the fact that it's important for us to own the data because that means we control the data, um, which is a little bit different from maybe the other vendor.

Um we would share the data with a judicial warrant per the state statute with other law enforcement entities, uh, but we would require that in order to do that.

Uh and we do have direct access to the data as it's ours.

Um, I'm not gonna go through maybe all these success cases because they're they're truthfully there, there's many.

There's many, many success cases of how this rapidly emerging technology is really enhancing public safety in communities.

Uh, you guys can see from that.

I will also point out that ALPR did play a significant role in the homicide investigation of Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman.

And so there's been a real life case use uh case study of how this has been used in the state of Minnesota as well.

But it is it is an emerging tool.

Uh it's a very important tool and one that we're excited about.

So, what are we really asking for?

We're asking you to authorize this burn memorial justice grant for the purchase of these cameras to expand our program from basically four, or excuse me, two currently to six.

Um, the funding piece, uh, what we did with this is we took the first auto uh theft grant, and we took that grant and we actually stretched it out to five years.

So the decision we had at the time is do we ask for I don't know, five or six cameras and then come back to you guys in two years, or do we just ask you for two cameras, stretch it out for five years, kind of do a pilot project, seek other um judicious funding opportunities, more grants to maybe expand the program.

Our intent with this uh with this grant as well is to stretch this out to five years.

Why is that important?

Because that is the kind of the cap end of when the axon contract for public safety police technologies is going to be due.

Now, our hope and the strategy or wisdom behind stretching that out in five years is this.

Our hope is this, that by stretching this strategy out, that technology is kind of like TVs back in the day, 10 years ago, you could buy a plasma TV, top of the line, but it costs several thousand dollars.

Today you can get a 4K TV at Costco for a couple hundred bucks, and technology's come down.

Now, whether or not that holds true, I'm not sure.

It's a hope, and I know hope's not a strategy, but it's one of our hopes that that pricing will come down.

Uh, another strategy and part of this is that you always get a little bit of a discount when you bundle, when you bundle anything, home car insurance, et cetera.

And so as we take a look at these, we stretch these out rather than asking for it on the front end.

We hope to get a better pricing if there's a bundle.

Thirdly, there we expect fully expect to demonstrate value and return of investment to you guys in the future of how this is truly enhancing public safety and the value of these tools.

And then finally, if the value is not there, if the return on investment is not there, there's an off ramp.

The the contract that we have with Axon is modular in the fact that if we don't want tasers, we don't have to buy those.

If we don't want body cams, we don't have to buy those.

If we don't want these axon outpost ALPR cameras, we don't have to buy anymore.

None of this is locked in stone in and it's subject to negotiation in years to come.

And so with that, perhaps I'll just leave you with maybe one thing that I touched on at the town hall.

Um I think we have to make sure that we ask the right question.

And the right question is you know, there's there's so many emerging technologies here, specifically in law enforcement for government across the board with AI development, etc.

The the right question is not should we or should we not be using this technology?

The right question, the responsible leaders and good forward leading leaders are asking themselves is how can we use this technology?

What guardrails do we need in place?

What safeguards do we need in place to ensure that we're using this technology efficiently, effectively, enhancing public safety and using it in accordance to how the community wants us to use it.

And so, as chief, I just want you to know that I'm committed to using these emerging technologies.

I'm very excited about these technologies, right?

To support effective policing, enhancing public safety for a community, but also recognize that that innovation has got to be matched with the responsibility of balancing accountability and what guardrails we want in place.

And my commitment is that as we adopt these tools, we're gonna do it through transparency, accountability, and respect for constitutional rights and addressing people's concerns as we go.

And so I'm excited about it.

We're willing to openly engage.

I think we have been willingly openly engaged.

I thank you for this opportunity uh to do that, and I'll stand ready for any questions here.

Thank you, Chief.

Councilmember Doring.

Yeah, Chief and Captain Turk, I uh really appreciate you coming here this evening to provide more public information about uh the implementation of this new technology.

And and it and it was also a great opportunity to be at that town hall to hear that same information shared.

Uh you shared this at that um town hall, and you said it once already this evening, but I would like you to say it again.

Under what conditions and what type of information is shared with uh federal law enforcement or immigration enforcement.

So we do not actively share any data right now with immigration enforcement officers.

Uh if they had a judicial warrant, as anybody had a judicial warrant, we would be comply or compelled, excuse me, to comply with that judicial order.

Yep.

I just wanted the community to hear that again.

That's fair.

Councilmember Wall.

Thank you.

I appreciate your being here, Chief Franklin.

I have three questions.

Uh it's uh the cover page talks about it being a grant, but it also talks about the allocation has already been determined to be 28,000 and something.

So this is a sure thing, yes.

It's not really so much a grant.

Yeah, as a as I alluded to board, it's a formula funded grant.

It's it's one that we've seen received every year for that last decade, yes, sir.

And it's based on that population and crime stats.

It's very, very consistent, yes.

And it's about ballpark that every year, yes.

And so use of uh these cameras.

Uh we have a celebrated case out of Tucson, Arizona, and they've been seeking electronic help.

Uh if uh there was a a crime at my home and one a camera was near my home uh without specifically looking for car AAA zero zero zero, would this be used to uh look at every car that came down my road in the three hours before after uh uh perceived crime?

Is that a possibility?

Depending on the level of crime and the level of investigative, uh yeah, it potentially could be, sir.

Um I think it's important to note that um individuals, uh, communities, neighborhood associations are actively getting uh license plate readers um in ring cameras.

Uh it's it's not uncommon, like if they're for us to canvas a neighborhood and actually even ask the entire neighborhood for their ring camera data if we're investigating a crime.

So in that particular case, depending on what it is, the severity of it, we would be leveraging all technology in the area.

And my last question, I'm willing to be ruled out of order by the chair.

One of my pet peeves.

Uh, do we do anything about license plates that obscure month and year?

With the frames, these special frames.

People I love my dog or Minnesota Golfers or technically um that would that would be an issue, probably a petty misdemeanor to to obstruct that.

Um it's probably sir, not high on our priority list, but uh it it would be enforceable if uh if discovered during a traffic stop.

Probably not utilized as an initiation of a traffic stop, though, just to be fully transparent.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Thanks for all your thorough information and putting put the community at ease about what this is about.

What a great tool to provide an extra level of safety for our community, and I commend you guys for getting on it, and uh I encourage you to keep going with it.

It's great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmer, thank you.

Um the the dollar month's 28,000, and I believe if I read this correctly, you're gonna share 10 percent with Olmsted County.

So part of that grant is um Womste County is not eligible as a direct recipient for this grant.

Uh, however, part of the grant is that they really want us to work with partners.

So what we have done historically every year that we've gotten this grant is given them some funding for it, or or a portion of the funding of this grant.

And we've just kind of had a gentleman's agreement of how we split that up.

So so will they be using it for a camera?

I actually do not know, sir, what they would be using it for.

So I read the um Justice Department grant applicator things 38 pages, and on page nine, it gives you a list of about four different things you could pick from.

Is am I reading that right?

But you pick for the cameras.

Is that the idea?

On this particular on this particular year that we're going for this grant, that was our desire, yes.

Okay.

And the other three do you decided they weren't worth doing, or this rose to a higher standard for what you wanted?

Because we already had the two and we want to expand the program in a kind of fiscally responsible manner uh to continue with the pilot project.

Yes, that rose to the top of our list.

And in question of question, I guess they all are, but but I'm looking at if I know that that camera is there and I just stole a car, why wouldn't I just not drive by that camera?

Sir, I'd wonder that every day myself.

Okay, make a motion.

Go ahead.

I'll make a motion um authorized application um for the FY 2025 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, and if awarded, accepted and utilize the funds for the purchase and deployment of fixed license plate reader technology.

Second motion made by council member Palmer and seconded by council member Fredericks.

Councilmember Palmer, any more to add?

No, it's been a good discussion.

Mayor Norton.

Are you thank you?

Um, I've appreciated the um updated information here and the clarity that you've provided.

So uh the community knows what some of us know, and um hopefully it'll spread.

Um I did have a question about lookbacks.

So let's say council member Keene, we'll pick on council member Keene, he's been very quiet tonight.

Um makes a complaint that he saw the mayor hit a car and turns in my driver's my license plate number or something worse than a car and turns in my license plate number.

And you you and you're trying to find me or my car.

Can you if this happened last week?

Can you go back a week and look through the license plates, or is it only real time live when you have the license plate information in advance?

Yeah, so that's the part of the statute that governs we would if it's within that 60-day window, yes, we would.

But in that particular case, taking council member keen out of the equation or anybody for that matter, that would be a hit like a hidden run hit and run crime, which would draw a case number which would initiate a police investigation.

Um as long as it was within the geographical area, we probably wouldn't check if it was down on Marion Road, but if it was you know within that geographical area, uh, yeah, we would as we would for any crime, we would seek any evidence that we could to prove or disprove that crime.

Okay, I really appreciate that because I think there was some question about whether it's only real time for things you already have information about, or whether that you you actually could look back to help solve a crime, if you will.

And it sounds like that is a possibility.

As long as it's within that 60-day retention window.

If it's day 61, we would not have that data.

Perfect.

And I picked on Councilmember Keene, but I know he would never he would never pick on me.

So thank you.

Councilmember Miller.

Yeah, thanks again for being here tonight.

I think this has been good.

And I I appreciate that we have at least for this portion of police technology now a recording that's available for to reference back as we get questions that I'm sure will come again.

We can snip and then share it out.

And I also appreciate that you added uh, I know in your uh QA during the town hall, you you quoted Spider-Man and said, with great power comes great responsibility.

But I appreciate that you added accountability and transparency tonight, because I think those are really high values in we think about the community trust that that build and maintain community trust.

Uh just a couple of questions, because honestly, I'm still not sure that I totally understand how this works.

I've I've gone along with a ride along with an officer, and there is a license plate reader technology in the squad cars, correct?

That is correct.

And it's kind of pinging as throughout the day as it's finding things.

They can address it or not.

I'm guessing it creates a record.

But in this model, is there somebody monitoring like real-time alerts?

Like is is the system smart, or is it creating a database that somebody then has to go and look through it?

So it it depends on if the officer was logged into the fusis uh technology that we have, which is kind of just a huge mapping system of where the squad cars are in this in the city.

Uh if they're logged into that system and and they want to be alerted to real-time alerts, they would receive those right to their car, probably as you saw on your ride along.

Okay.

So this is not creating a we now have two, maybe six cameras, so now we need a new FTE monitoring the camera LPR feed, right?

This is not changing the staffing model, it's a new tool more than it is uh, yeah.

It right now the way it's being utilized and rolled out is it's enhancing the officers, I guess, experience out on patrol out on the street, which there's direct a direct connection there.

Okay.

Uh long term, as we continue to develop out drone usage, which is another piece of technology that we talked about that I'm very, very excited about, and we've had incredible success with so far.

Uh the idea, the concept is to create create this real-time information center where a person is intaking this information and dispatching it out.

Okay.

Separate question.

We have license plate readers in the parking ramps.

Those do not integrate into the axon system, correct?

Not to my knowledge.

Uh actually, that's news to me if we do actually have those in the parking ramps.

Okay.

Just wanted to clarify that because it it's very convenient facilitates exits from the ramps.

Uh, but just to clarify to the public at currently, that does not integrate into the law enforcement tool set.

And then my my final question was uh you talked about some of the sort of high profile um situations where these have been used on a more mundane basis.

It's really about trying to track down stolen cars, amber alerts, those kind of things.

Those are the primary day-to-day benefits of LPR technology for RPD.

Yeah, I can kind of go back to the root cause or grassroots of where this came from, and that's auto theft prevention and auto theft recovery.

And in our hope here and part of the return on investment is you know, we've had 200 plus over the last two years.

So we hope that we can show you in a couple of years a decrease in auto thefts and an increase in auto recoveries, motor vehicle theft recoveries.

So those will be the two metrics that we'd be looking at.

Great.

I look forward to hearing those.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wall.

I don't live uh too far from 41st and use that street often.

I would note for Mr.

Palmer that every car that I've stolen lately, I've chosen a different way home.

I figured that seeing no other uh discussion points, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Pose say nay.

Motion passes.

Thank you, Chief.

Next up, we have our hefty ordinance readings.

We have three first readings and three second readings of Mr.

Spindler Craig.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

For the first readings, item J one and ordinance amending sections 2-16-2 and 2-16-7 of chapter 2-16 of Title 2 of the Rochester Code of Ordinances relating to public ethics.

As I move on to item J two, please pay attention.

I will be requesting a motion after this reading.

J2, an ordinance annexing to the city of Rochester, approximately 124.61 acres of land located south of Highway 52, north of 40th Street Southeast, street alignment, and approximately 1200 feet east of Highway 6263, excuse me.

Pins number 041942, 041953, 041956.

Mr.

President, on item J2, when you um considered this RCA, there was a heads up to the council that we would be seeking acceleration of the first and second readings.

Um that needs to be done formally this evening by uh unanimous vote of approval on a motion that I would give to you.

Um I would prompt a motion to waive the normal 25-day requirement, uh, which requires 25 days between the first and second readings to allow the second reading to be at the next meeting, which would be on April 20th.

This motion would also effectively remove item K3 from your agenda this evening.

So moved.

Second.

There's been a motion made by Councilmember uh Palmer and seconded by Councilmember Wall.

Danny discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion thank you.

Item J3, an ordinance creating a new section 5-21-9, amending sections 5-21-1, 5-21-2, 5-21-4, 5-21-5, 5-21-6, 5-21-7, 5-21-8, and renumbering previous sections 5-21-9 and 5-21-10 as sections 5-21-10 and 5-21-11, respectively, to accommodate the addition of new section 5-21-9 of chapter 5-21 of Title V of the Rochester Code of Ordinances relating to mobile food units.

Moving on to second readings, item K1, ordinance rezoning approximately 2.71 acres of land located south of Highway 52 Southeast and east of Highway 63 South at 77 Woodlake Drive Southeast from LI Light Industrial to MXG, mixed use general, and amending ordinance number 4478, known as the Unified Development Code of the City of Rochester, Minnesota.

So moved.

Second.

Moved by Councilmember Keene, seconded by Councilmember Wall.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion pass motion passes 61 with Councilmember Palmer voting nay.

Item K2, ordinance rezoning approximately 1.2 acres of land located northwest of the intersection of 7th Avenue Southwest and Center Street West from R2X, low density residential infill to R3 and medium density residential, and amending ordinance number 4478, known as the Unified Development Code of the City of Rochester, Minnesota.

So move moved by Councilmember Miller, seconded by Councilmember Fredericks.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you, Mr.

Spindler Craig.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Moved by Councilmember Palmer.

Seconded by Councilmember Miller.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

We're adjourned.

No, the last one we got.

Kicked off.