[Music]
This is where I was talking. We'll call the city council regular meeting to order for Monday, June 2nd, 2025. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Call the roll, please. Council member Cortez, here. Mayor Hoy, here. Council member Matz here. Council member Lean
here. All right. Unless there are any changes to the agenda, I would seek a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Holly, second by Jake. All in favor say I. I. I. All right. First item on our agenda is 51, which is the oath of office for Nathaniel Seam as our
police chief. At this time, we'll go ahead and administer the oath of office and repeat after me. I state your name do solemnly swear I Nathaniel Seam do solemnly swear that I will support defend the Constitution of
the United States of America in the state of Minnesota that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the state of Minnesota against all enemies foreign and domestic. against all enemies foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. that I take this obligation freely I take this obligation freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion without mental reservation or p purpose of evasion and that I will faithfully discharge the
duties as police chief that I will faithfully discharge the duties as police chief upon which I am about to enter upon which I'm about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations
[Applause] Big nose. Yeah. Good luck. [Applause]
Mayor Council, thank you. Um, I am a cop at heart, as you see. I'm a husband. I'm a father, a son, an uncle, and a brother. Those people are here supporting me
today. Uh today I also become a leader and what I think to be the best kind of leader as a leader of the heroes that are standing in the back of this room. Um, if I could do anything today, it's just to acknowledge how fortunate I am
to work with such exceptional people and how thankful I am that you guys have given me that opportunity. Thank you. [Applause]
Say anything. I don't think I have anything today, but I I mean there's so many things I want to say, so many things I could say, I guess, but I just couldn't be happier that you're here. Um, forgive one small town joke, but I can only assume it's that uh Elgen upbringing that does you proud, right?
So, no, inside joke, but I'll just leave it there. Um, you know, we're lucky you're tenured. You have the respect of our department. You have the respect of other departments. We see that here. and you love our community. You know its
heart. How did we get so lucky? We just got so lucky. So, I'm glad you're here. Chief, congratulations. Um, this is a well-deserved honor. Um, I look forward
to working with you over the next years uh to come and uh I look forward to seeing the way that you can transform the department and and during your tenure and uh continue to make Farmington a safe place to live. I I think it's one of the really cool things
is we got to see you grow as a police officer in this community and I think it gives some of the younger folks something to look uh to aspire to. So, congratulations Chief Sim, congratulations and we are so fortunate to have your leadership here.
19 years you worked your way up from patrol all the way now to chief and we are very fortunate. You know this community, you care. You know the officers and you care. You care about everybody. Thank you for stepping up and being the leader that you are. I
appreciate that. And also I have a note here from council member Wilson that was not able to make it. And so he says, "Congratulations, Chief Seam. You have earned the respect and trust of your colleagues within the Farmington Police Department. And I am confident you will
be a great leader for the department and our city." And he's in route with a family um obligation. and although he cannot make it to your swearing in ceremony, he looks forward to congratulating you in person at our next council meeting.
Not a whole lot to add beyond what's already been said. Um, you obviously have the trust of your team. You have you have the trust of Chief Rutherford. You have the trust of the
city council. You have the trust of our community. Um, you are a servant leader through and through. I have no doubt that your tenure as chief, however long you choose for it to be, um, that you will serve at the highest levels and you will continue
to increase the standard by which um, you expect out of not only our department um, but also for the departments that are watching. As Jake mentioned, um coming up through the ranks not only gives hope to your fellow
brothers and sisters who you now are tasked with leading um but also provides for um aspirational goals for those wanting to pursue um similar forms of leadership within the law enforcement community. uh it speaks volumes as to
the number of people that are here but also from adjacent uh and adjoining communities and their respective departments. My only piece of advice, make it yours. Be the leader
that Nathaniel Seam wants to be and pace yourself. Pace yourself. But I know that you will lead um you will lead proudly. you will do all the things um as you have throughout your career and we couldn't be prouder
to call you chief scene. So [Applause] congratulations. It'll be a short meeting, so you all can stay if you'd like. Our next item on the agenda is item 52, which is the Dakota County
Farmington Library. Um, our branch manager, Barb Sabot, will provide an update regarding the Farmington Library. There you go. Barb, hello. Welcome. No, thank you for having me. So, Mayor Hoy, I appreciate it. Council members, it's always good to come and let you know
what's going on at the library these days. Uh, so for those of you who don't know me, uh, I'm Barb Sabot. I'm the branch manager right across the street at the library. Um, come see what we're up to. So, we're just going to hop right into the numbers at a glance because I'd
like to get the numbers out of the way at the top of the top of the talk all the time. So, 90,47 visitors to the Farmington Library in 2024. Now, I know this is already June. So, at the end of April of 2025,
we've had so far 29,000 me uh visitors come to the library. So, we're keeping pace with last year easily enough. Uh and also in Farmington, there's 259,000 items checked out in 2024. That's just
through the Farmington branch. the 76,8487 people who have attended programs. That is across the whole. I know last year I said I was going to break it down and give you just Farmington numbers, but I never got around to it. So, sorry about that. But maybe next year I'll get to it. So,
anyway, um moving along, try and make this quick for you. So, the two pictures on the far left of your slide I'm going to talk about first. So, in 2024, our youth services coordinators wrote a really successful uh library services
and technology act grant and LSTA grant um to enhance our children's play areas. So, now all 10 branches have some of these new play stations that are intentionally designed uh with culturally inclusive toys. They are bundled into kits and they rotate
monthly um between all the branches. So depending on what month you're here, you'll see a different a different setup with these this little kind of wood unit here. So, but the new play spaces uh spaces, they encourage a sense of belonging for all children. They
affirm the many cultures that are found in our communities. And we absolutely invite you to visit each month to imagine new stories with your children. We have a construction site. We have a tuktuk rickshaw taxi. We have a tea
service down on the bottom there. You'll see a campsite and there's a tent tucked in the back corner behind there. Um, so there's lots and lots of ideas to kind of get the kids imaginations flowing. Um, it's just a lot of new ways for the
kids to explore across cultures, uh, to create their own meaningful learning experiences to give them, um, some of their own self-confidence as well as they really they're learning language skills as they teach themselves or talk
through their little stories that they do when they're play acting with these units. So, that's all the kinds of goals that we're trying to achieve with them. So the gentleman in the center picture there that is Tomas Aria. He is our current art. Well, he'll be our current
artist in reticence this fall. Um he is a multimedia artist originally from the Andes Mountains. His work centers around storytelling, cultural healing, indigenizing practices, and environmental awareness. And Tomas will be teaching art classes throughout
Dakota County in the fall, some of which will be presented in Spanish for the folks in our community who are Spanish speakers. He will be here in Farmington twice to teach a couple of watercolor courses and we're really looking forward to working with him. He's a he's a real joyful teacher. Uh he was in Farmington
once before already and he was just he has a lot of fun in his classes. And then I've always talked about the uh outreach band. Uh so this summer, just so that you know, we will be um marching
with the Grand Parade at uh Top the Tater Days. We will be with the van uh on July 11th for the Misville Mud Hens baseball game. And on August 8th for um the water play day at Whitetail
Woods. So moving along, we have our strategic plan. So we recently uh went through and redid our strategic plan and you all know we everybody does these periodically. So um these goals and strategies are going to help uh shape
our yearly work plans across the whole library system for the next three years. Um they help us remain focused on creating stronger and more accessible services. Um and they are always based on our community's survey responses. So
last year when we did the community survey throughout Dakota County, we received 11,563 survey responses, which I'm sure you know is a whopping big number for survey responses. We you just we were
astounded. We were really thankful and grateful and very happy to see that. So um pretty simple goals here. Goal one is to create a sense of belonging and joyful experiences at the library, which I think we do at Farmington every day. But um the number one takeaway from the
survey responses is that the library is a muchloved and muchused resource and patrons say that they have a great experience when they use the library and that they value the services that our staff provides. Goal two is to deliver accessible collections which makes
sense. So um that also is going to be um reflected in the community changes, demographic changes, uh the interests, the reading interests of our patrons. Um, so an example in point for this
would be um the graphic the children's graphic novels are really really popular right now and so we are making sure that we have more of those in our collection for the kiddos to check out than um than what we may have done in previous years.
So we try to um we try to respond to what it is our patrons are asking for as best we can. Goal three is to increase increase awareness about the library's offerings. So, uh, many customers asked
for items and services that the li library actually already offers. So, we clearly need to continue to update our marketing strategies because it seems like no matter how much we tell folks about the services we offer, um, some
folks still don't realize that all the things we do are available to them. So anyway, I'm sure we'll be talking about strategic plan again in another 3 years or so. In the meantime, self-service hours. You know, I'm just so grateful
and thankful. We have had 29,687 visits to the Farmington Library since starting self service hours in 2023. This community has really embraced this entire concept. They have made the library their own. They take
responsibility for it. They appreciate it. Um, they look out for each other. We've had absolutely no trouble with it at all. We've had nothing but really great comments about it. So, I'm really really happy to know this.
Um, you know, it's just I know that you all love our staff and love us because you tell us that all the time. Um, but I'm just really, really happy to know that Farmington residents can use their library on their schedule. That is so
important to me. So, I'm really glad that this is working out well. And what I can also say is that in 2024, we calculated that 15% of our total branch visits actually occurred during self-service hours. And this year so
far, we are up to 17%. So the service is increasing in its popularity and that's good to know too. So with all the hard work that we've done with this program, uh the library and the public services and re revenue department actually was
awarded the 2025 heroes award by the county commissioners this year in February. So that's me standing up there uh with my director Margaret Stone and Councilman Slavic and a whole bunch of other council members and all the other
library staff members who made this program possible because it was definitely a lot of nuts and bolts in the background to make it all work. So okay, now for a little bit of fun. So, um, this is clearly a picture of me
with, uh, Minnesota author, uh, Alan Esskins. This was back in February on the 18th of February. Um, Alan launched his Quiet Librarian book, and we had, uh, a book launch uh, event at the
library that evening. We had 130 adults try to squeeze themselves into the meeting room so that they could hear him talk and ask him questions and buy one of his books. and he did a book signing and all of that. It was absolutely a wonderful evening. The book itself, the
story of the book starts out actually inside the library. So, it's um Farmington is Farmington is getting out there, man. So, so anybody who reads this book knows about Farmington from the first chapter
or so. Um, it's a really fast-paced story, quick, uh, fastmoving plot, page turner sort of thing. So, if you like that kind of book, feel free to come uh, pick it up at the library or buy it and give it a chance. Uh, and no, I am not
the quiet librarian. Never, never, not me. Uh, but anyway, then also I mentioned John Sanford there. John Sanford is another Minnesota author and his latest thriller is Lethal Prey. Lethal Prey actually has uh some pages
set in Farmington as well because characters are following clues through the Twin Cities area and it brings them down uh to Farmington and they stop and they have some lunch at the Dairy Queen and then there's a mention of you know they had to find meet with somebody over
on Walnut Street and then anyway so there's like three or four pages talking about Farmington in the middle of this thriller. So we are we are known in the community. So if you like to, you know, read about your own life, your own town,
it's kind of interesting. It's fun stuff. Anyway, I thought you would appreciate it. Okay, summer highlights. Disco summer discovery. The big thing for summer discovery this year is that it's actually all summer long, not just a fiveweek or a six week program. It
started yesterday, June 1st. Wait, no, Sunday. Wait, what's today? Chase the 2nd. That's right. Anyway, June 1st through August 31st, all summer long. The reading logs, I gave them uh to you up there. There's more at the back under
the um podium if people want to take them home. Um they will also be available during self-service hours to pick up as well. Most of the Farmington Children's programs will be outside offsite. So, if you are looking for the our programs,
you want to uh and you're in our event calendar online, you will want to click on Farmington and also offsite or you won't see our programs. So, you want to do that. That's why we have that printed
uh page that has three months worth of programming on it on both sides. So, keep that in mind. And we are currently um accepting more volunte. So things like setting up and tearing down and helping the kids with
crafts and that kind of thing. Um if you are 13 or older, you are welcome to participate as a Valentine. You will need parental p um permission for that. And if you talk to Andrew Cook, he can get the kids set up for that. So, um,
for all the teens who might be listening in, there's something for you to do, too. Okay, so Top the Tater Days, the Bazilians, June 28th, 10:00 a.m. sponsored by the the public library, and they are awesome. Fun for kids. Uh,
looking forward to that. And so, thank you so much for having Miss Amy be a contestant. We are so looking forward to her kissing that pig. I cannot tell you, it's going to be great. So, anyway, thanks for that. And please vote for Miss Amy. And that's a shameless plug, I know.
Okay, last but not least, our geocaching game has a few updates, too. That starts next week, June 9th through the August 22nd. We're doing it a little bit differently this year. And where did that go? I had them. I had one. Anyway,
okay. So, I don't have it. Just hold up and show you. I don't know where it went. But anyway, instead of doing caches like this in every park, we're doing just a laminated uh QR code. So, you need to scan the QR code into your phone. It will give you a clue that will
help you figure out the coordinates in order to get to the very final cash, which will be one of these boxes. So, um there are three prize levels. Level one after nine finds, level two after 18 fines, and a grand prize after 27 finds.
This is a partnership with all of you fine folks at the Farmington. Uh so thank you to Emily Sheer and all of those uh college um interns that come and help out in the summertime because they help maintain the caches uh at the
parks to make sure that if they get lost or torn up by a tractor or whatever um they can get replaced. But anyway, so these are the folks I'd like to thank. So again, Emily Shear, Autumn Levelvel from the Dakota County Parks uh for
helping us with the water uh water play day. And then Anna Lupinsky from 360 Communities and Sarah Maltz, they help us out with musical mornings and books and beyond in the summertime. And 360 Communities, of course, always does a lot of uh community support services for
us. So that's what I have for you. This is a final picture of us on St. Patrick's Day. That's why most of us are in green. Um, and we're sporting that heavy duty trophy. So, any questions? I'll be happy to stand for them. Oh, and of course, now I find here's that little
geode. This is what they'll look like. So, if you find one of these in the parks, please don't throw it away. Just snap a picture of it. And um anyway, so questions. Thank you, ma'am. Jake, um, thank you, Barb, for your
presentation. I did have one question. um the self-service hours. Could you explain how that works just a little bit? Sure. Um I'm unfamiliar with the program, so shame on me, but Oh, that's like to learn more. No worries. So, what you do is you have to go uh on our
website, there's a page that uh explains how you sign up. There's a little video that we ask you to watch to kind of train yourself in a little bit. Then, you fill out a form that goes to uh Egan. Egan creates another card for you that is basically a radio frequency
card. It does have your library barcode on it. Um, and it takes about anywhere between a week and two weeks depending on how busy they are at Egan. They'll send the card back to us. We'll send you an email saying, "Hey, it's here." And then you can come and pick it up and you have access to the library from 6:00
a.m. to 11:00 p.m. 365 days a year, whether it's a holiday or not. So, um, it can be Memorial Day, it can be Christmas, it can be Labor Day. If you need to hop in and pick up something real quick because the kids got the croo and it's 2 in the morning and you want
to watch a movie. Okay. Not 2 in the morning. 10:30 at night. We'll try 10:30 at night. 10:30 at night. That sort of thing. Yeah. Um, but that's that's the the essence of it. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Otherwise, thank you for the book recommendations with a couple of scenes
set in Farmington. That's kind of cool. Yeah. uh you know this is I I just think that that the library is one of the greatest assets we have in this community truly. Uh we when we moved here coming up on 14 years ago now, my kids were three and six. And so they
grew up in the Farmington Library. And then, you know, my husband now is largely responsible for collecting and and dropping off the things that that he and I take. But I I realize what a big leap it was to do the self-service hours when you
did that. It was that scary, but is it going to work sort of thing. And I will tell you as as a parent of a then 18-year-old senior, it was a brilliant move for not only adults but also like young adults that are in that capacity
that are looking for quiet spaces to be able to study when you're closing, you know, much earlier than maybe what they're out of activities and stuff like that. So, I I love hearing and seeing that it's been successful and that people are being respectful of the space at the same time they're accessing it
because that's usually the the downside is people want to get there, but can we actually afford to keep it open if anything's happening? So, um great to hear that that hasn't been the case for you. Um I love the summer programming. I love the relationships that you continue to build in and around the community and
through the county. So, thanks for the update. It's awesome. Thank you. Nick, uh, I think I said the same thing last year, but since my kids constitute about 2,000 of those checked out items, I think every year I really appreciate the, uh, the no late fees change um, because they're the type that will wait
three or four months to remind me that they have had a book underneath their mattress for that entire time that I'll find later. So, like I said, I couldn't say more positive things about the library than I already do. So, thank you. I'm sure you'll see us there a lot this summer. We always are. As always,
thank you for everything that you and your team do. Um it's just it's like for those of us that grew up around the library like you know going back to the days when it was in the Rambling River Center um we know the importance of in the programming and the
extension of uh community education and county services and and it just it's another outlet for our kiddos right and I don't say kiddos as just you know our K through fives it's good active opportunities for those all the way up through graduates and even adults the
the transition to the um to the self-service hours. Um tremendous reception. I I remember back when Commissioner Slavic even was was mentioning it that it was going to be a pilot and we weren't quite sure if it was going to be wellreceived or not. And
u the success of it has become a model moving into other libraries across the county. Um but again, thank you. Your your team's amazing. You continue to show up at all the all the events. You do all the things. um you absolutely are a staple in the community and we appreciate the update every every year
when you bring it to us. So, thank you very much, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you much. Appreciate it. Maybe I can exit out of that. Yeah. All right. Our next item on the agenda is our citizen comments. It's a time reserved for citizen comments. Uh anyone
wishing to speak, come up and do so at this time. Right. that citizen comments are a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda. Those speaking should state their name and address and limit their comments to 5 minutes. Uh we will not engage in discussion on your topic, but those
requiring a response will be responded to by the next city council meeting. You're good to go. My name is Jeff Shatler. I live at 22420 Calico Court, Farmington. Last time I was up here, I said I'd try to come every time you guys had a meeting and talk. I think come the
last two times because a developer reached out to me with with their lawyers to talk to my lawyers. Um cost me a month of time and and trying to figure out what I did wrong. If I did wrong, where can I go from there? We spent my 47th birthday talking about it
and spending about five grand to defend things that I did that weren't wrong. Um I talked I wanted to go out to Canon Falls. People asked me to go out to their open house residents to talk to them. That was what got this developer so upset with
me. I'm impeding business. I'm impairing business. And that would be a torturous act for me to go talk to a resident in Canon Falls. So, this is my new potential good neighbor. Um, I don't want to say a lot about him.
I don't know a lot about him. Um, I I can't claim, you know, you said we don't know what the water is. It's true because we don't know an end user. It's not going to use two and a half million gallons a day. We don't know what it's going to use. Might not use any. You know, maybe they'll be closed loop cooling and provide their own
water. Uncomfortable. I get being uncomfortable. I'm willing to be somewhat of a goat for the town or whatever you want to say, the pond of the town. You know, we have to impact some people to make things better. I don't like 250 ft acceptable. Um, I know you guys care. I've seen the last few
meetings, the retirements, everything. I know you guys have emotion and compassion for people, just people in general. Um, have some for us, too. Some way, somehow, figure it out. Um, I know you said trust the process. It's hard.
It's a year later, Josh. Um, there's got to be some way to give the residents some kind of a sign that you're also going to work for the ones that are getting impacted there. There's other ways to do things. I've suggested things. I know you don't want my suggestions. I'm not an engineer. I'm
not billiondollar designer. There's ways to thing make things better. Um some way, somehow let us know that you're going to do something to make it a little better. It's been a year. It's been over a year. My daughter's asking me turned 13 on Friday. Um she's asking me, "Where do you go every Monday, every
other Monday? Why aren't you coming home? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?" It's for her. It's the same thing you guys would do. every one of you would be up here asking for more space. I feel that that's honest. You don't have to answer me or not, but I think if you answer that to yourselves,
every person in this room would want more than 250 ft away from their homes. Ask yourself that question. Would you be okay with it? Go drive by Meta. I mean, maybe the fans are going to be quiet when they come in, but that 5 years of construction ain't going to be.
And at 250 ft, that's pretty insane. drive by there at night. Please drive by Meta at night and and picture your home and your family 250 ft away. It's crazy close. Um I remember our talk when you
came out and met with us in the neighborhood. You're like, "Do you think we're going to put a building right on top of you?" It really feels like it's right on top of us for what's being proposed. Um asking for a little compassion for the ones that are over there.
I've said from day one, it can work. It can fit. I have to be on that lawsuit. I have to continue to stop it if nothing is sent to show us that you're going to try to make it better, that you're going to work with residents a little bit. Not asking for 1,000 ft. I've said the same number a hundred times over. It's in
every email. I think it's in text to a few of you. Um, I'm not asking for everything. I'm not asking for so much that it runs them out. Um, I'm asking for a safe place to live. I'm asking that to move. We've done the math. Interest rates, realtor fees, it's 100 grand. Why do I need to spend that to
move so that we could accommodate a business? Make it safe. That's all I'm trying to say. Um, let us know somehow you're going to do something for us people. And make it safe. I don't know. Um, reach out. One of you reach out. Let us
know that that is in your plan. That this ain't the final plan cuz we don't know that. We haven't seen that. Some way somehow. I I get you're advised not to talk to us. I'm advised not to talk to you. I'm advised not to be here tonight after April 29th what they gave me. So, I beg you reach out, drive by
Meta, put yourself in my position and and and if I'm that crazy, reach out to me privately. Let me know that, too. But I feel like you'd all do the same thing. Um it's a little girl looking at you. It's the only reason I'm here. So, thank you. Thank you.
Uh good afternoon or good evening, council. Uh Nate Ryan, Cambrian Way. Um your media minutes say that I live in Cass Rock. I don't live in Cass Rock. I live in Farmington. I'm a Farmington resident. So I hope that you can adjust those meeting minutes moving forward. Um a few things. So your state of the city
address, Mr. Mayor, you had talked about a little frog in my throat tonight. Uh but you had talked about, you know, just kind of the tax dollars, the tax implications. So you had said, you know, $65 million in projects. I'd like for you, I mean, if you can, and if you're willing to, is really, what are
those projects? I don't expect an answer tonight, but you know, multiple times you say, "Well, we're going to get back to you or we're here to comment." Get back to us. What what exactly are those $65 million worth of projects? You know, where how much are you going to spend and where are you going to spend that money at? And what is going to come out
of the other data center that is coming into town? North of 50, we're going to get a data center. No one is talking about that. That's happening. That project is going to happen. you're going to get tax revenue from that from that area. Why is it solely focused just on
the tax revenue that's coming from this project over here? What about what you're getting? You're not even mentioning any of that. You you didn't mention that. You didn't mention that in your state of the city address whatsoever. You are getting a data center. You are getting a growing tax revenue. That is going to happen.
There's no question. What isn't question is this potential project over here by the golf course. Um, so what are those projects? How do you forecast that? Where do you see those coming from? And what direct benefit do they have to the residents of Farmington? Or are they
more benefits to more businesses? I really think that creating an economic zone inside of Farmington will also help you with your zoning issues that you have. Currently, if you look at a zoning map, there's still places around us that are technically Castle Rock. Castle Rock
Bank being one of them, the boat shop. There's plenty of little lots north of our neighborhood that are there. They're they're all mixed up. So, but and that senior center that was going over that's the old H high land. You know, that was mixeduse commercial industrial. You
changed that over to residential. You had and you started an economic zone that could provide a lot of tax revenue. Why not stick to that plan? Right now, what it seems like you're doing is you're just firing from the hip. Oh, let's go get some over here. Let's go get some over here. Let's go get some over here. Why not really truly have a
plan rather than having to go to the Met Council, having to get sued and go through all these things? That's an economic plan. The library can do it in three steps. You all can't do it for the city. You all can't think about that. I I I think it's just it's frustrating that
you there is a way to do it and there is a way to create an economic zone, an economic plan, but you're all just missing. Well, there's got to be willing sellers. You put enough money in front of a seller, they're going to be willing. Everyone has their price. They are. And I know you're going to say,
"Well, there's, you know, Green Acres or this, you know, Farm Reserve." Look at those properties. Most of them are coming out of Farm Reserve in 2030 to 2040. Most of them will be and you have ways that you can start to plan for those things. So, it's it's a
possibility. And I I really I really just find it frustrating that that you're not talking about those things. You're not talking about the other developments that you are getting. and how those are going to impact the $65 million that you plan on spending. Or are those just pet projects that you think are cool? What does the rest of
the council think they're cool? Does the planning commission think they're cool? You know, what specifically are they? The other thing that is really frustrating about your your um state of the city is, you know, that you're just you're just basically saying to people are just complaining to complain. We're
not complaining to complain. So I like Jeff said and I'll echo this. I'll try to get 250 ft away from the center of that project in Rosemont. Just try it. Just try to get 250 feet away
from the center of that project. You're going to have a county sheriff. You're going to have Farmington P or Farmington. You're going to have Rosemont PD. You're going to have those guys all over you in in about two minutes. You can't even get that close. But yeah, you're okay doing this and and putting this project in. I'm going to
finish up a little bit with I've got two more things, so just bear with me. I know I'm probably getting close to my time, but frankly don't care. But um I will say this is what and I keep asking this, what does constitute for industrial
project? Please bring that back to the next council meeting. I've asked this multiple times in a public setting, in a public forum. Defend what you said, right? defending what you're doing. What is the difference in the city's eyes between a commercial between mixeduse commercial industrial and a full
industrial? Is it megawws? Is it water usage? Is it outdoor storage? What defines that? And frankly, what what were you given as a definition that made you vote yes? Jake wasn't here, right? But my guess is Jake would have voted
yes. He seems like that kind of guy. So like what like what what why did you vote yes? What information were you given? This should not be squashed by the attorneys and some, you know, oh, legal mumble jumbo. This should be pretty easy to say based on these definitions is why we made and why we
voted yes. We view mixeduse commercial industrial as 750 megawws or less. Really, there's nowhere else in Farmington that isn't a fully industrial project that uses anywhere close to that amount of power. we use or deem x amount
of water or x amount of um you know sewer or water or any infrastructure project that needs us. We we deem them we deem that mixed use commercial industrial and now you're hiding behind an attorney or you may or may or may not hide behind an attorney. Send me an
email individually. I don't care. Answer that question. It should be just laid out. We talked about a smell test, Josh. This should be so easy to say what is an industrial project, what's not. It should be something that is just clear as day. There should be no gray and
frankly you shouldn't be in a lawsuit over it. Should be just clear as day. Yes, this is commercial. No, this is not commercial. Yes, this is mixeduse commercial industrial. Yes, this is industrial. No, it's not industrial. It should be that easy for you to define. It should be that easy for you all to
say. There should be clear definitions of exactly what that is. Right now in your city code, you have a data center and all it says is data center. There's no definition megawatt usage, any of those things. I'm going to follow up with this last thing and I promise this is the last thing. If you want to cut me off, we can argue about it. But what I
will say is you promise jobs in your state of the city address. I'm going to say this as politely as I can. I'm going to use Joe Shushre, mayor. That is B is in B, S is an S. Okay. I like your smile because you know exactly what I'm talking about.
You must be a Sushray fan, right? That's fantastic. But it is. You promise jobs for 5 to 10 years and you're stay, well, it's going to be five maybe 10 years that that why why would I come and build a restaurant knowing or why would I come
and build anything that I'm going to likely fail after all those construction workers leave? You're not You're not backfilling those five those 700 jobs, 800,000 jobs. You're not backfilling those. you're back filling with maybe 15 20 people who work at this data center.
So I go and I do an in I build a restaurant. I bust my butt. I was going to say something else, but I bust my butt for a lot of years, five years, 10 years. And then construction's over and all those people are gone. All that wonderfulness is gone and
no one's coming in. No more rooftops are coming in to support those businesses. So while I do respect you, Mr. mayor somewhat and your state of the city address that is complete B as in B S as in S in terms of job growth and
opportunity and what you're creating for the community 5 to 10 years that's it that's it that's just it it's not sustainable and it's not I don't think it's a very good way to plan because then you have to find some other zoning issue or you have to find some other
thing to go and bring in another business to create those 5 to 700 jobs. It's just It it just confuses me. And again, please give me the definition. At the time, what were you told an industrial project was versus
what a mixeduse commercial industrial project was? It's got to be on paper somewhere. It's got to be somewhere what you were what you based your decision on. And if it's not, why wasn't it? Why weren't you all
asking that? Why aren't you all protecting us and saying what is a mix mixeduse commercial industrial? I don't understand. What is an industrial project? How much water do they use? How much electricity do they use? What is this going to cost of infrastructure? Those are the type of
questions that I would expect anyone to be able to ask on a city council. any single person, whether it's an engineer, whether it's a CFO of a company, whether it's a hair stylist, I don't care. Those are the things that when you go to
League of Minnesota Cities and you sit there and you go through those initial classes, you learn that stuff. You learn to ask those questions. And frankly, you learn to demand it from your staff. And I say demand, I do because they work for you.
You don't work for them. You work for us. but you don't work for them. And it's really really important to make sure that you understand that. Last thing, he's not in here, but I just wanted to say congratulations to Chief Seam. He seems like a fantastic officer, fantastic chief, and uh I hope he does
the city proud. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak at this time? Seeing none, we'll move on to item seven, which is our consent agenda. I'd seek a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion to approve. Second.
Motion by Holly. Second by Jake. All in favor say I. I. I. Excuse me. All right. Round table. Amy. No report from me tonight, Mr. Mayor. Yeah. Nothing. All right. Nick, I finally have one. So, uh, if over the
weekend you guys heard a lot of whistles going at the high school in Dodge Middle School, that was the, uh, Farmington Youth Lacrosse Association. They have the, it's called the Viking Goat Tournament. And don't ask me to explain what that origin or name is anything to do with, but um four age brackets, you
know, 8U through 14U, boys and girls on both sides. So 10 total tournament brackets and Farmington uh won five of them. So best turnout in years for the Farmington team. So congratulations to all of those teams. Holly, uh school gets out this week, which
means lots of additional little humans all over the place again. And uh um many of them are going to be gallivanting through trails and across parks and doing all of that crazy stuff. And so if you are out and about and you are in a
vehicle or in other modes of transportation, just be mindful of the little ones and the bigger ones um that are enjoying their summer um so that we can stay incident free through the summer and keep everybody safe. That's all I've got. Thank you, Jake. Um, I'm
gonna keep it short and sweet tonight, but tomorrow is my wedding anniversary, so I know my wife is watching at home. So, happy anniversary, Bridget. Nothing tonight. Surely, nothing for me, David. Well, if Chief Scene were still
here, I'd say congratulations to Nate. It's been good to work with him as deputy chief for the last three months. I'm looking forward to hopefully many years of working with him as chief. Um to the council, I do want to say thank you for putting your confidence in me to serve as your interim city administrator
following Lynn's departure on July 1st. Um obviously we still got a lot of work to do even without Lynn. Um but I know I've got a got a great team here. Um and I know together that we're going to keep the needle moving here in Farmington. Um and uh look forward to seeing what
decisions you make and um on a permanent administrator. John. Thank you, mayor and council members. I also look forward to working with Chief Seam. Um I I've we were blessed to have
Chief Rutherford here and I think this is a continuation. They won't be the same, but I think we're getting another fantastic chief. Um two items. Uh we had our pre-construction neighborhood meeting for the 2025 street improvements about a week, week and a half ago. We
had 23 residents. Fantastic questions. Uh, at those pre-construction meetings, we have the contractor there and their foreman and the inspector there so the residents can meet them before things start happening on site. Uh, the trees have been taken out, but they start uh
construction in earnest. June 23rd is their expected start date with that. One other item, uh, Union Pacific, I think, has finalized their schedule for doing work at the crossings on Ash Street and Elm Street. Uh, they
project that they'll be working on Ash Street starting this Thursday with some pavement removal and those crossings will be closed during the weekend. So, Ash Street this coming weekend and then Elm Street the following weekend. Uh this has been a bit of a moving target
from a schedule standpoint, but uh as soon as I get if I get new information, I'll be sure to pass that along, get it on the website. Thank you, sir. Kelly, good evening, Mayor and Council. We've talked over the years. We live in a very very generous and giving community. Um
on the consent agenda this evening, you approved uh four donation resolutions. Three of them alone to the Rambling River Center. uh one from Happy Harry's Farmington VFW, the Veteran Steak Fry, and Marlene Swantech. Thank you to all those people for their generous
donations to our our senior center. And then the TC Running Company out of Burnsville for their gift cards to the Tater Trot. Um speaking of the Tater Trot, you too can get this t-shirt designed by our own recreation supervisor, Emily Shear. All you have to do is register for the trot. It is
Saturday, June 28th, um right here at city hall. We will be taking race day registration. Uh since Barb did a a shameless plug plug for Miss Amy, I will do a shameless plug for our fire chief Price. He is also a contestant in Kiss
the Peg. And I have definitely heard he wants to kiss the pig. So I don't know, Barb. Uh might be one or the other, but we'll we'll find it. We'll find out who kisses the pig at 400 p.m. on Saturday, June 28th under the the main stage. Uh
this Saturday, Helmet Heroes, uh a collaboration between the police department and parks and recreation, 9 to 11:00 a.m. at uh Farmington Church uh Farmington Lutheran Church parking lot. As of this afternoon, we have four 54 kids registered. Wow. So 54 kids in our
community will be fitted and receive uh new bike helmets. There is a shelf life on bike helmets. So we're we're happy to put helmets on their heads. If anybody wants to do a a short ride with me, I'd be happy to have someone trail behind me. Um, we'll do a very short ride after
uh Rambling River Center. We are having a meeting on Wednesday. We're hoping uh fingers crossed for punch list on Friday. So, we are getting very very close to completion of that project which we're we're definitely uh looking forward to. And I also want to congratulate uh Chief Sim. Looking
forward to to continuing to work with him. He's going to do awesome. So, thank you. Thank you. All right, chief. What say you? She stole all my thunder. Right. I got nothing except I really don't want to kiss the pig. I noticed your cans are
bigger, too, at the She is really ugly. I'm not going to lie. You don't want to kiss, but you'll do whatever you have to do to make sure that the the fundraising is successful, right? Absolutely. Okay. So, that's like a You just issued the challenge to everyone else. I think he wants us out
of the fire station. Sounds like Chief Price wants to kiss the pig. So awesome. Uh thank you to everyone that attended on Friday to the state of the city. There's a lot of information that was shared there. Um Friday is
graduation. So huge event. I if I recall correctly, this is the largest class of like the next eight or nine. Um and then because of declining birth rates and whatever that it'll start to move again. Um weather is kind of on the edge right now as to whether or not it's going to be inside or outside, but early
congratulations to all of this year's graduates at Farmington Area High School. Um yeah, summer's almost here. It's right around the corner. School's going to be out. People are going to be active moving amongst the amongst the community. So um be attentive, pay speecial attention to the crosswalks and
those that are out on their bikes and utilizing the trails through the park. So uh with that, I would seek a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second motion by Holly, second by Nick. All in favor say I. I. I. We're adjourned at 7:51.
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