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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12.15.25 Council Minutes City of Farmington Regular Council Meeting Minutes Monday, December 15, 2025 The City Council met in regular session on Monday, December 15, 2025, at Farmington City Hall, 430 Third Street, Farmington, Minnesota. 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hoyt called the meeting to order at 7 pm. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Hoyt led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Mayor Joshua Hoyt Councilmembers Holly Bernatz, Jake Cordes, Nick Lien, and Steve Wilson Members Absent: None Staff Present: Lynn Gorski, City Administrator David Chanski, Assistant City Administrator Amy Schmidt, City Attorney Deanna Kuennen, Economic & Community Dev. Director Kim Sommerland, Finance Director Matt Price, Fire Chief Caleb Bolton, Deputy Fire Chief Scott Mattingly, District Fire Chief Health Walker, Fire Marshal Matthew Dinneen, Fire Captain Brian Hanson, Fire Captain Steven Karsten, Fire Captain Tyler Beaune, Firefighter Matthew Johns, Firefighter Kellee Omlid, Parks & Recreation Director Andrew Van Dorn, Police Captain John Powell, Public Works Director Shirley Buecksler, City Clerk Also Present: Gary Rutherford, Police Chief-Retired Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 1 of 7 4. APPROVE AGENDA A request was made by Councilmember Bernatz to move Item 6, Citizen Comments, to follow Item 12, New Business. Motion was made by Councilmember Wilson and seconded by Councilmember Lien to approve the agenda, as amended. Motion carried: 5 ayes / 0 nays 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS / COMMENDATIONS 7. CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 Application for Gambling Permit for VFW Post 7662, February - November 2026 7.2 Minutes of the December 1, 2025 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes 7.3 Off-Sale Liquor and Tobacco License Renewals for 2026 7.4 Temporary On-Sale Liquor License for Church of St. Michael February 6, 2026 7.5 Resolution 2025-086 Granting a Time Extension for Recording of Final Plat - Farmington Industrial Park 4th Addition 7.6 Satisfaction and Release of Assessment Agreement 7.7 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Plan 7.8 Financial Review for the Quarter Ending September 30, 2025 7.9 2026-2027 Labor Agreement with LELS Local 387; Sergeants 7.10 Minnesota Paid Leave Policy 7.11 CivicPlus - Acquia Web Governance Software Solution for ADA Compliance 7.12 Donation from Happy Harry's Furniture to the Rambling River Center 7.13 2025 Joint Powers Agreement with the Domestic Preparedness Committee 7.14 2025 Mill & Overlay- Final Payment and Change Order No. 2 7.15 2025 Tree City USA Recertification 7.16 2026 Dakota County Community Waste Abatement Grant Program 7.17 Agreement with Backflow Solutions, Inc. for Backflow Data Management 7.18 Agreement with Purple Wave, Inc. for Auction Services 7.19 Third Amendment to the Residential Solid Waste/Recycling Services Agreement Between the City of Farmington and Dick's Sanitation Motion was made by Councilmember Cordes and seconded by Councilmember Bernatz to approve the Consent Agenda, as presented. Motion carried: 5 ayes / 0 nays Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 2 of 7 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS 8.1 2026 Fee Schedule Amendment- Ordinance and Public Hearing Mayor Hoyt opened the public hearing at 7:02 pm. Assistant City Administrator Chanski presented the 2026 Fee Schedule Amendment for the Council. Seeing no one wishing to speak, Mayor Hoyt closed the public hearing at 7:03 pm. Motion was made by Councilmember Bernatz and seconded by Councilmember Lien to approve the 2026 Fee Schedule Amendment and pass Ordinance 2025-009 Establishing Charges and Fees for Licenses, Permits, or Other City Approvals and Services for Calendar Year 2026. Motion carried: 5 ayes / 0 nays 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT 10.PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS 11.UNFINISHED BUSINESS 12.NEW BUSINESS 12.1 Staff Approvals & Recommendations Assistant City Administrator Chanski presented the appointments of Tyler Beaune, Matthew Jahns, and Katelynn Scholl as full-time Firefighters, Matthew Dinneen, Brian Hanson, and Steven Karsten as full-time Fire Captains, and Samantha Hazelrigg as Human Resources Manager. Fire Chief Price discussed the transition to a hybrid full-time Paid-on-Call Fire Department. Motion was made by Councilmember Bernatz and seconded by Councilmember Lien to approve the appointment of Tyler Beaune, Matthew Jahns, and Katelynn Scholl as full-time Firefighters, Matthew Dinneen, Brian Hanson, and Steven Karsten as full-time Fire Captains, and Samantha Hazelrigg as Human Resources Manager. Motion carried: 5 ayes / 0 nays Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 3 of 7 6. CITIZENS COMMENTS / RESPONSES TO COMMENTS • Jeff Schottler, 22420 Calico Ct, Farmington • Nancy Aarestad, 22165 Beaumont Ave, Castle Rock Township • Cathy Johnson, 22280 Berring Ave, Castle Rock Township • Cathy Peregrino, 17218 Finch Path, Lakeville • Terrie Pearson, 2475 225th St W, Castle Rock Township Councilmember Bernatz left the meeting at 7:38 pm. UCITY COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE City Attorney Schmidt said it was about this time last year that you all welcomed me as your lead civil City Attorney. In honor of my predecessor, I will give you a report on the bison. At Dakota County Spring Lake Park Reserve, bison are living in paddocks seven and eight at the park. They have nine animals this year, but they don't expect any calves in 2026 because they did not have a breeding bull this year.They're still there, so go see them and enjoy them. Happy Holidays, and I look forward to working with you again in the new year. Councilmember Lien thanked the Police Department for Toys for Town. Seeing all the people and excitement at the wrapping event, there's something you just can't put into words about that. Thank you for letting me dress in the ridiculous elf costume. I hope everyone has a safe and great holiday, and we'll see you next year. Councilmember Cordes extended his thanks and appreciation to the Police Department for organizing another successful Toys for Town event, as well as a huge thanks to the community members who show up every single year and donate gifts, donate funds, and wrap and deliver those gifts. In the course of about an hour or two, all of the families were taken, and all the gifts were wrapped. It's astonishing to see how fast people work. Thank you to everyone involved. Happy holidays to everyone watching at home. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season. City Administrator Gorski gave a big thank you to Farmington Rotary and Homestead Church. The Holiday Parade was even bigger and better than the first year. It was absolutely amazing, and I kept hearing in the crowd that it was definitely a Hallmark moment. Thank you to all the volunteers and everyone that made that happen. And thanks to Kellee for organizing it on the City side. It was phenomenal. City Hall will be closed on December 24th and 25th in observance of Christmas. And I also want to welcome Samantha - we're so excited for you to join our Team. Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 4 of 7 Assistant City Administrator Chanski thanked the Council for making these Staff appointments. We're excited for everyone to join us on January 5t". He wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Over the last year, Director Kuennen said we have watched our Finance Director and our Assistant City Administrator/HR Director implement BS&A (the new finance system and the new human resources management system). These are huge projects, and they have both done a phenomenal job. Now I have some big shoes to follow because we will be implementing the Building Permit Community Development modules in the first half of 2026. Thank you both for taking the lead on that and showing us how it's done. These modules will be a great addition, as well, streamlining and automating a lot of the systems that impact Community Development, our Building Department, and even how we interact with Engineering. In January, we will be working with the BS&A team and starting all the behind the scenes work to get that going. Again, thank you to the Council for all your support in the work we do. It's an honor to work with Team Farmington and to be able to do all this work with you. Thank you. Director Powell thanked the Police Department. We had a significant snow event, with some snowbirds out there, and the Police Department pounced on the issue and got ahold of the property owners. What I remember them saying is that it shouldn't happen again, and that's what our drivers really appreciate. I also want to thank our elected officials for your support through your actions on the Capital Improvement Program and the budgets. Your strong support of Public Works is appreciated and noticed. We're going into 2026 and are already starting to look into 2027 projects. So, we're anxiously wrapping up implementing what you've approved and moving forward. Thank you. Director Omlid said tomorrow is the Open Door Pantry at the Rambling River Center from 3-4:30 pm. All are invited, so please attend at 325 Oak Street. Last Monday was the first skate park design meeting. We had about a dozen people, lower attendance than we'd hoped, but good discussion and we learned a lot. The design survey will be open through Monday, December 22nd. Spohn Ranch will take this information and put together two concept plans to be presented to the community in January at in-person meetings. We will get information out there on this. Outdoor rinks and warming houses were tentatively scheduled to open next week but, obviously, we aren't currently flooding with the warm temperatures. Check the City's website and social media for when outdoor rinks and warming houses will be open for the season. Director Sommerland said the Finance Department is equally excited about Community Development moving to BS&A. Part of the reason we did the switch was for the efficiencies that will be recognized with the system all being one. Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 5 of 7 The BS&A team has been here for the last two weeks, and this is the last week that they will be in-house. We're working through the processes and working out all the bugs as we implement a new software system. Overall, I think everyone is excited about the change. A quick update for our residents - Invoice Cloud, our online payment platform, is back up and running, so people can make those online payments. We have been getting a number of calls about not being able to search by customer number. That is a number that we had to get rid of during the conversion. But they can search by their account number, which is printed on their bill. We will get out more communication with regard to this. Fire Chief Price wished everyone safe and Happy Holidays. Captain Van Dorn echoed the sentiments about Toys for Town and said there is so much gratitude to be given to so many different corners of our community. Between people's time and contributions, it was a wonderful and record-setting event, with the amount of families and children that were helped. I think it was a really good representation of what our community stands for. Mayor Hoyt talked about Toys for Town. At the last meeting, I said - if you haven't been a part of it, go to the wrapping event and just witness it. I'll never get tired of saying this. As a 7th grader, about 12-13 years old, my family was a recipient of the program. This program was started by Chief Siebenaler, who is still active and was there again this weekend. As I understand it, he started the program with two families and it has organically grown over 38 plus years. To the point where, this weekend, we served about 174 families and over 500 kids. To watch this program year in and year out, from the businesses and organizations to those that donate monetarily, donate toys, and everyone that participates, those who show up and wrap, those who deliver, our Police, our Fire, South Metro SWAT - everybody that makes this event what it is, I couldn't be more grateful for. It's beautiful and organized chaos. You have all the madness in the weeks leading up to it, to the staging, sorting, and filling the gaps of the age groups that don't ever quite get fulfilled the way that we think, based on the numbers being served. And then by 9 am, the doors open, and by 1 1:30 am, you're tearing things down. To see that happen is just magnificent, and if you step back and just look at it for what it is-it's our community coming together to serve those in need at one of the most important times of the year. To watch every component of that weekend and the timing leading up to it, it's life-changing. To each and every person, whether you've donated over the years or thrown a toy inside one of the bins, whether you've shown up to help pack or provided in some way, shape, or form... a very sincere thank you. Don't think for a second that the families and the kiddos that are impacted don't remember it, because they do. For me, it was 30 some years ago and I Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 6 of 7 remember it like it was yesterday, and to see it happening year after year is heartwarming, to a level I've never experienced otherwise. So, a sincere and very, very grateful thank you for everyone that has been a part of that. Snow piles are a little bigger than they've been in years past, so be mindful of walkers and those out being active, especially as the temps get warm. Take it slow in the mornings and evenings when the roads seem to be a little slicker than normal. Enjoy a happy holiday season and please be safe. 14.ADJOURNMENT Motion was made by Councilmember Cordes and seconded by Councilmember Wilson to adjourn the meeting at 7:51 pm. Motion carried: 5 ayes / 0 nays Respectfully submitted, ley u cksler City Clerk Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of December 15,2025 Page 7 of 7