City Council - Regular Meeting

1:06 – 1:42•RSRandy Schubring

We are going to get started with our study session for August 24th, 2026. We have three agenda items. First is a discussion on our 2027 recommended supplemental operating budget. We've got an hour and a half slated for that. Then we will hear on Rochester public transportation, transit financial outlook, update and then we will have an update on economic mobility program. So with that, Administrator Zelms, budget.

8:38 – 8:59•RSRandy Schubring

You can see that the property valuation growth, that there's 1.26% in new construction, so that- And Minister Zelms, can you go back to, just so I understand, with the credit card fee considerations, the current, budget that you're presenting has no change in it or does not include anything on?

19:19•NWNorman Wahl

You explain a relatively small bump in 2030. What's the larger bump in 2029?

19:58 – 20:14•RSRandy Schubring

In the meantime, I have a question. So you mentioned that the anticipated long-range budget for 27 was 7 point? 7.4%. What was it for 2026 prior to that? 2026? In the long-range plan before that, it was much higher than the 5.95%.

20:37•RSRandy Schubring

And my point is, we've anticipated higher, and now for previous year and for the supplemental budget, we're coming in under.

22:22 – 22:49•NMNick Miller

Council member Miller sure this is a related question since you've mentioned a couple of times that new evaluation absorbs increase in tax levy. 1st. We had a presentation earlier this year from urban 3 that implicate that can. contemplated some potential strategic investments or strategic directions to improve the efficiency of our tax base. How might we continue to think about engaging with that process as we look forward into the projections of city needs?

30:36•RSRandy Schubring

Can you hold a minute? Council Member Miller.

30:39 – 31:09•NMNick Miller

Sorry, just before we move on to enterprise funds, could you go back to municipal rec? And I just wanted to ask a question about the first bullet point to start. One of the assumptions and concepts of how the pro forma moves forward with that is that it's largely tax levy, not relying on the tax levy. Does that continue to be the case? And how is that 2.7 million increase for the regional sports complex fit in with that philosophy that had been part of the discussions of

31:22•NMNick Miller

But someone's seeing this, right, who said these weren't supposed to cost the tax levy anymore. Is that still the assumption?

31:48 – 32:07•NMNick Miller

And then a question about the increased monitoring and maintenance of picnic shelters and restroom facilities with RPD. Just curious about why other areas of the park aren't part of that focus of the parks. Like maybe those are recreational facilities, parking lots. I mean, how does that factor in? And maybe this is a question for RPD.

32:59 – 33:32•NMNick Miller

I have as well, but I've actually heard more about parking lots and some dangerous activity, particularly at Soldiers Field Park, cars driving through the track, driving through other places. And I just bring that up because there's been a lot more activity in the tennis courts, basketball courts and other areas, which is great. But there have been additional complaints or issues that I've heard arising from some of that activity. And I just want to make sure that when we talk about what we're focusing on, that we're not missing an opportunity to be just present in the parks generally and not

34:42•NMNick Miller

I wouldn't suspect that there is either. It's more around the erratic driving and sort of car culture perhaps of some use of some of the parking lots in the evening hours.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify while we're on the special revenue municipal rec, I see we make a reference to the new arborist position that was in the decision pack. But again, I wanna make sure that's not funded through the special revenue fund, that's levy funded position?

Okay, so from my perspective, the decision package was approved, so the levy goes up a nominal amount, but that money is put into this municipal rec, and then the salary is paid out of there, and if it's over or under, the balance stays there. Correct.

Okay. I just didn't know how commingled the different sort of rec things are with forestry.

40:01 – 40:28•NMNick Miller

in 2027 so that's the downturn of the six and a half million there as well uh councilmember miller uh related to that lead service line program do you plan to come back to us with a a modified plan to address those lead service lines that would then not be eligible because the the funding is less than we anticipated that's a great question um i think our pathway there would be continued state and federal advocacy for lead service line funds

43:48 – 44:03•SPShaun C. Palmer

I got a couple questions here. You've got 1.3% customer growth and then you've got 3% reduction in use. How do you figure that out? And then on your customers, what percentage basically is commercial and which is it residential?

47:03 – 47:29•RSRandy Schubring

Nicole, can you go back? I just have a question on the incremental FTEs, graphic design and digital communications. Is there any... synergy that RPU does with city communications? Is there work together or long-range planning to be a joint communications under one umbrella?

Just on these specific things, General Manager McCullough, I'm trying to understand like on the and also on the Meadow Lakes. These are driven by new developments, but it sounds like they're being worked into the rates thing, which almost sounds like the expenses are being spread across the customer base and not carried by the new developments. Is that like a policy or that just sometimes happens with the way the work happens?

Right, and I didn't want to get into the complexity of teasing those apart, but I do appreciate the goal of trying to drive the expense to where they're being driven from, and to have them paying it, as opposed to just absorbing into the system.

52:45•RSRandy Schubring

All right. Any questions for Mr. McCullough? Thank you.

54:38•RSRandy Schubring

Um, we also have, uh, can you hold a minute? Mr parish, uh, council member Miller.

54:44 – 54:58•NMNick Miller

I guess I have a question about this slide on the third bullet point, which says an opt-in approach is generally preferred for building an engaged and sustainable subscriber list. Is that a best practice among governments or is that just in general with communications and marketing tools?

55:34 – 56:21•NMNick Miller

Okay. I'll just say from my perspective, and I know this has been said before, but I think that I would feel that way in general. If I were making a purchase at a local retailer and they started emailing me, I might feel one way. But when I want to hear from the city, and I've heard the same from residents, that proactive city communication that is actionable, relevant to the space, and contextual geographically, I think is a service that many residents would appreciate that I wouldn't expect to fit into that assessment. I think that's true. I've given money once to a nonprofit or something. I

57:30 – 57:43•NMNick Miller

OK, I think that's a fair point. Are all of these tools able to geographically understand where people fall in the city, understanding that some communication is relevant to an area versus citywide communication? Does opted in or a topical opt in?

58:11 – 59:17•RSRandy Schubring

Can I just level set here? So we're in a supplemental budget discussion, and I see in front of me like one, two, five options, and I'm not clear on the granicus and kind of we're evaluating. I don't know when we're... sunsetting that I guess what I'm looking for is a recommendation from staff that says this is a Community engagement tool that we that we believe is fits with what the council members are talking about, the next step for our community engagement. And so I guess my question is, are we going to get a recommendation and will there be a recommendation that will then impact our budget

1:01:49 – 1:03:55•KNKim Norton

Yes, this has been an issue that we've talked about and I will give just two quick examples. that have happened in the last week. I've had people say, gee, I wish I'd known about your town hall and transportation. I would have loved to have been there, but I didn't know about it until after the fact. So that's one example, and that's one of the reasons why being able to reach out to constituents in a personal way via email as opposed to hoping they see it on social media would be helpful. The other is literally today, I responded to hundreds and hundreds of emails hundreds and hundreds of emai

1:03:58 – 1:04:53•NMNick Miller

I just add, I mean, to the question of opting in, I mean, we send mailings to citywide, Summer of Fun. We opt people into receiving that. We send postcards for neighborhood information meetings. We opt people into receiving those. And we hear from people who have reduced postal service or other access or change of address forms as reasons they don't see that physical mailing. And I don't suspect that this is a catch-all either, but as we see communication tools modernized, it does feel like an area of opportunity, even at just the staff level, to be able to work on more modern electronic commu

1:04:55 – 1:07:05•RSRandy Schubring

I'll just add, when we started this discussion on increasing community engagement by all decision makers, including all eight of us that are at this table, and that was a part of the Better Public Meetings discussion back in February, and we said, We want to increase the visibility of all of us as council members because our constituents want to know who those decision makers are. And we've started that process with the passports that are great. That increases our visibility. We're not engaging everybody. really substantially with the constituents, but it's increasing. And there is increasing

Again, I appreciate trying to shut this down in the supplemental budget discussion, but I'll add one thing. I hear the discussion between the tool side of it versus the policy. I also think there is a style side of this. What is an elected official's job? And some want to do it one way, and some do it a different way. Some view it as their responsibility to communicate to everybody, where, to me, I'm always trying to direct them towards the communications group. And the communications I do is one to one, I don't try to do it a blast. So I think there's a style part of this too, and I haven't h

1:09:27 – 1:09:40•RSRandy Schubring

Council Member, I think you and I are in the same age group, so I don't know that it's age. Any more on this? So a good discussion to start. We'll see more on it.

1:11:10 – 1:12:15•RSRandy Schubring

Well, I'll start and this has nothing to do with the current mayor's initiatives. I have no questions that they're all valuable initiatives. and I know a lot of them are very important to our community. My question is more from a policy standpoint as far as so the mayor has a $36,000 budget line that actually the mayor can use at their discretion where the council, if we have an initiative, uh, and I know council member Miller had one at our last council meeting. Council member Palmer has had some in the past. We have to get approval on all of those. Uh, and so I guess my question is what is t

1:13:38•KNKim Norton

And all of the expenses that we use in our office go through, we fill out all the paperwork, they go for signage, they go to finance and they're,

1:13:48 – 1:14:27•RSRandy Schubring

you can you have access to them at every meeting that they show up on the finance report could you do that differently that would be i mean that's really so then i know that it has come up at this table on uh potential staffing for for council members, whether that's a halftime FTE or part of the current staff support that falls under the mayor's budget. Can you talk a little bit about that, options in that area?

1:16:16•RSRandy Schubring

Other thoughts? Council member Miller. Sure. And.

1:16:20 – 1:17:33•NMNick Miller

I mean, I don't necessarily think that the next step is to add a half time for the council, but I. I would be in favor and I've talked to the council president as well about feeling a limitation. Uh, staff support, um, and having to go through. The rules and procedures process where we're not asking for more than 30 minutes of staff time for any single question. And I do feel like having support for communications initiatives that can be filtered through a general communication strategy would be helpful for doing outreach around specific areas, geographic town halls. I see the mayor operating

1:17:34 – 1:18:51•RSRandy Schubring

And I think, just to follow up on that, I think that given that we will have a new mayor in 2027, I think it's the time to have that discussion and to look at, you know, each one of these line items. I mean, travel and training. You know, there's 16 in the mayor category. budget and we don't know if the the next mayor is going to be as international and and a spokesperson as as our current mayor and um i also i i'm not finished mayor I will. And I do think the mayor's initiatives, I think bringing that into council consideration I think is important. I do think also when it comes to partnershi

1:18:51 – 1:19:06•KNKim Norton

Thank you, I just want to be really clear because the community gets off on this and gets very confused. None of my travel internationally has been, none of the city's budget has been used. I've used my personal funds for all international travel. Just want that on the record.

1:19:10 – 1:19:50•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, I appreciate what the mayor has done. And I think if you're going to change anything, I would talk to the mayor. I mean, she's the one that sat there for eight years and has done it. And maybe she has some suggestions that she can give to us and to the administration. Because I don't know. her positions on what she's doing, but her travel and her training has been very good for Rochester and very upfront with Rochester, so her budget's different than ours, but there's a reason for that. She is the mayor, or it is the mayor's position. I'll just speak to the 3%. I am not in favor of a rai

1:19:53 – 1:20:05•RSRandy Schubring

Further discussion? I think that's a great idea, Council Member Palmer, as far as we want to hear the mayor's thoughts on this. So we'll have further discussion.

1:23:21•NMNick Miller

And just a point of clarification, celebration of a city is Rochester Fest.

1:26:05 – 1:26:21•RSRandy Schubring

So, Mr. Parrish, just so I'm clear, so the $300,000, the destination marketing, is that in the operations of the Chateau piece? That's the $300,000 that we're talking about? Or is this a separate?

1:26:37 – 1:26:54•RSRandy Schubring

So when we have our discussion on September 9th on the Chateau, these two positions and this downtown welcome center will be a part of that operations budget, is that correct?

1:29:45 – 1:30:31•NMNick Miller

had seen in the community council member miller yeah i do have a question because it comes up every summer uh the idea of like how rochesterfest is evolving how the city's role in guiding that is what is the length what is location and obviously thursday's downtown has grown quite a bit um over the years as well and just curious where and how the city and and us have a conversation about the right level of programming working with event organizers to make sure that it's an efficient event that's well using these resources, is well attended, is relevant, is not competing with two events in the

1:31:23 – 1:32:04•NMNick Miller

And that's one of my concerns, too, looking at the possibility of a festival coordinator in the presence of RDA running a series of downtown programmatic events, plus Rochester Fest, how we're making sure from a budget process that those are all happening in collaboration and partnership and not in a competitive way for a potential audience for a downtown summer festival when those happen at similar times, similar locations. And I'm just struggling a little bit to understand how we best manage that, particularly in light of a potential opportunity to invest funding from the lodging tax to crea

1:32:41 – 1:33:04•SPShaun C. Palmer

Going off what Mr. Miller's kind of talking about is the celebration of the city. It seems like we've increased it and increased it. I'm not particularly sure that we need to keep doing that. I don't know if it was started out as a, let's get it going and see if it could run on its own. But I believe that dollar amount you're showing is only for a cash outlay. It does not include our employee time from parks and police. Is that correct?

1:33:46•SPShaun C. Palmer

And your 4th of July is only for the fireworks. What would it take for us to do an experience Rochester event that they had prior to that?

1:34:39 – 1:35:19•NMNick Miller

I'd be in favor of that. I think additional discussion about the interim 2027 year and then a fuller evaluation of community impact could be a thoughtful process to be able to step into a different model. uh build in partnerships understand how the community would receive these i'll just still also say i would love to see the fireworks move down to cascade lake once link is open and we have much greater access pitch the lacrosse field is the point to shoot them but i i do want us to figure out how to evolve and make sure that all of our community investment and festivals and public events cont

1:35:36•RSRandy Schubring

Council Member Doering and then Council Member Keene.

1:35:38•DDDan Doering

If we want to make an amendment to the supplementary budget, how do we do that?

1:35:48 – 1:36:16•DDDan Doering

I anticipate that I will be making about a $100,000 ask for the Any Path Home Initiative as we look at future programmatic efforts or possible staffing of a community engagement professional for the neighborhoods surrounding our home. our homeless shelter network. So I would like to have that discussion at the next meeting. We can show what the implications of that might be. That would be great, thank you.

1:36:17•RSRandy Schubring

Council Member Keene. Yeah, just on the overall, I know you asked for an additional feedback on the 27th.

Early on slide seven, government services growing. In my view, I was trying to look at the overall seven year view and we're at about 6% a year average, which is above the growth of Rochester and also like above inflation. But we've also added a bunch of services like 311. And most of all of those things have been council approved. So I'm watching and thinking, is it reasonable? But I'm also watching on page 12 when you talk to tax capacity below 50%. I just have this bad feeling that that is so overwhelmingly supported by these increase in property values that have happened over that same sev

1:39:03 – 1:39:31•SPShaun C. Palmer

Yeah, just to be clear, it's not 2% for the park referendum. It's $2 million that they get each year. So just to be clear on that. I'm only on slide 11 with the total growth of your estimated market value is 5.2%. I think that that's reasonable for us to stick to. I know that we have some TIF funding that's coming off under the full budget. So I'd like to see us be at that 5.21. I think that makes sense for people. If you're out in the neighborhood talking to people, affordability is a huge issue. And I think that we can justify a 5.21.

1:39:36•SPShaun C. Palmer

I'll bring it up next time. I've sent an email already.

1:39:40 – 1:40:01•RSRandy Schubring

And Administrator Zalms, remind us a point. So what Council Member Palmer is proposing is a reduction of the current percentage that we're looking at by 3.9%. What is the number, the financial number that connects?

1:40:15•RSRandy Schubring

No, no, no, 0.39 is what kind of budget cut would?

1:41:00 – 1:41:21•RSRandy Schubring

And just to be clear, I was asking for that not because I was advocating for it, but I just wanted to be clear that we would have to find $400,000 in cuts, not including the addition that Council Member Doering is going to propose. Correct. Any more, Mayor Norton.

1:41:22 – 1:41:48•KNKim Norton

I think the caveat for all of this for the community though is that we don't know exactly what cost of living increases are going to be. We don't exactly know what the bill will be at the end when the county rolls out the amount that we're going to have to spend. So this is your best professional guesstimates as to where these numbers are going to take us.

1:42:29•KNKim Norton

Thank you, that's what I want to clarify.

1:43:09 – 1:43:24•RSRandy Schubring

All right, and thank you. Thank you. And we will move on to Rochester Public Transit Financial Outlook. Since you weren't listening to the whole thing, these are the three things that came out of this.

1:48:58•KNKim Norton

So the 2028, the 2.78, is that with a 20% assumption or is that still showing the 15?

1:50:21•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, there's a council person who likes to say that hope is not a plan, so I would like to see that included.

1:50:54 – 1:51:12•NMNick Miller

And I guess I would just add that a legislative priority of ours League of Minnesota City is sustainable transit funding from the state. And so we continue to advocate for those. I serve on the improving local economies committee. We've had some discussion of that. And I will plan to continue to make sure that hope turns into advocacy turns into plans.

Yeah, I'm going to just follow up on Council Member Palmer's thing. I understand that there is one transit fund at the end, but I think it would be misleading to try to reflect BRT in here now, especially, I mean, I actually struggle when I look out in 28 and 29, because that is a Mayo-supported thing, so that there probably shouldn't be, depending on our metrics, we shouldn't be underrunning it, but the fact that we don't have those federal and state commitments yet, it just would make this less valuable for me to try to look through. But again, it's jumping off the page here that you are out

1:57:55 – 1:58:11•KNKim Norton

So I want to be delicate about this, but I'm also wondering, we've had a lot of call-offs, we've had a lot of missed trips this year, not because people didn't want to take the bus, but because the bus wasn't running. Is that part of what we're seeing here?

1:59:07 – 1:59:22•DDDan Doering

And this might be an antidotal question as well, but it seems like this summer we had more cool places to be days than typically are normal. And what's a revenue loss for one of those days? Because that might be easier to measure.

1:59:53•DDDan Doering

So we still charge someone if they're going to use the bus to commute. You ask specifically, the driver asks specifically.

2:00:11 – 2:01:08•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, this isn't gonna be new, but the dependability is the number one issue for me, and you're not meeting that expectation. And with the largest employer in the town giving away free bus passes, it's hard for me, and you get the revenue, I understand that, but it's hard for me to believe that we're going to have an increase in ridership when the largest employer opens up for major ramps. So I don't see much hope for what you're trying to do other than getting dependability down to be number one issue. And when you say that we only missed 10 or 20 trips, It doesn't matter, but if I'm one of t

2:02:11•NMNick Miller

I don't want any detail on this in detail, but are we seeing... from our partners at Mayo Clinic that their transit ridership is growing or falling.

2:02:25•NMNick Miller

And their shuttle use. Are they adding shuttles or removing shuttles?

2:03:11•NMNick Miller

But to Council Member Palmer's question, when they open four new ramps, do they plan to reduce their shuttle operations because now people are just driving themselves?

2:05:11 – 2:05:51•NMNick Miller

Yeah, just a question. Since this dashboard is largely a snapshot, as you've mentioned, are you tracking those measures over time? And how might we understand improvements? I think it's great. And I know that we've seen drastic improvements for this presentation. But again, we're just looking at this snapshot and only comparing time periods for a couple of the measures. for anybody that looks at this and says, this is really bad, right? If there's a photo taken, published online somewhere, and somebody sees, well, four years, we're out of money, that's a better state than we were in. And I jus

2:06:26 – 2:07:11•RSRandy Schubring

I just want to say I love this dashboard. You guys did an amazing job. I mean, yes, it is a snapshot in time. But to really have this level of transparency and where we are headed and it really helps us with our decision making. And so I really encourage you. all of our departments to really look at this dashboard and i know i haven't even seen all of it yet but it really is what i'm looking at when it comes to really getting a real clear crisp view overview of uh of the dynamics in that department so thank you well thank the lindsays they worked really hard on it and i appreciate their work l

2:17:07 – 2:17:37•NWNorman Wahl

Thank you, I enjoyed the presentation. I appreciate that we do, did you say two citywide surveys each year? And I would guess most of those surveys would go to non-riders, and some of that data could be helpful. Is there a way to get beyond the anonymity of the current ridership So that we get user data as to how we can make the transit system even more desirable for ridership.

2:19:25•NWNorman Wahl

Continue. And one more question. Did the change from a loop system to out and back, did that change ridership much?

2:20:26•RSRandy Schubring

Council Member King, did you have a question?

Yes, so first off, I really do appreciate your team coming in with KPIs, but also understanding that this is a way to look at it, and there's different connections to it, but it almost is almost like looking at the scoreboard than looking at the game. And within the game, it still strikes me as our biggest problems we're still trying to get over is the collapse of ridership during COVID. It has not come back, whether that's systemic or something we just have to figure out. This idea that we got funding help during COVID and now we're coming out of it. And that's clearly the main problem when y

Well, I'm glad to see the micro discussions coming to the discussion. I think VIA does bring a lot to the table, more than just that sort of, not just operational partner, but also having that experience. But I also want to sort of vote for not so much asking what our customers watch, but watching what they do. And this whole thing with the Mayo shuttles and how they got put in place, and then we're gonna try to figure that out. In the meantime, BRT comes in, and I think it's gonna change behaviors, depending on who gets the 2,500, parking passes and who gets something else. But I am worried a

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I don't want to belittle the because I really do appreciate have KPIs. But yeah, I guess the other part of this, the underpinning of this is this idea of the number of people who are so dependent. And I don't mean just people trying to get to their jobs, but people running businesses that this is the way this stuff works. And if if we fail on it, it really is going to drive a lot of other problems that that I just don't want us to have to deal with.

2:27:29 – 2:28:18•SPShaun C. Palmer

You mentioned the park and ride, but we have a park and ride right now. You're just replacing the one that's at the Haley Center. And in 2019, we had over 2 million riders. The city of Rochester hasn't grown that much. We're down to 600,000 riders right now. The city hasn't grown that much. And so I don't like the idea that, oh, jeez, we're too big and we can't survive. We had 2 million riders. Something happened to those 2 million riders, and I think that Mr. Yetzer is right on the number, and I've said it 20 times, is if you're not going to be reliable, they're not going to use you. And I do

2:28:30 – 2:29:03•RSRandy Schubring

Well, we did a pilot, and that's what the Dollar Mall was. Okay, we've got four people now that want to speak. And just to be clear, Council, we are over on this item, and we will be kind of pressed on the next one. So I've got Mayor Norton. I've got... I've got council member, oh, okay. I've got council member Frederick, so go ahead, Mayor Norton. And let's be brief, I wanna end this topic.

2:29:05 – 2:29:33•KNKim Norton

It's an interesting topic and I appreciate it. I had a question maybe more for, thank you. The point has been made that we've seen a decrease in ridership, and that is true. We know that the pandemic was part of that. I don't know if it was all of it. I'm wondering, since you do services in other cities, is what we're experiencing unusual or is what we're experiencing happening across the country?

2:30:14•AFAndy Friederichs

Yeah, do you have the updated per rider cost per ride at this point? I heard it a few months ago what it was, but what are we sitting at now?

2:30:38•KNKim Norton

I'm typing my password 12 times if I have a question.

2:30:47 – 2:30:59•RSRandy Schubring

While you are pulling that up, and Council Member Miller, if you can make it brief, we will let you ask your question while she's pulling up the number.

2:31:00 – 2:31:30•NMNick Miller

A request then for VIA, because you operate in the Sioux Falls market, I was just looking at the numbers. There are nearly 200,000 people over 81 square miles, a very similar population density to us. You've done drastic route redesign, microtransit integration. Are there materials that you could share with the council about kind of what you did in that market and what impacts you've seen? Because I suspect that that's just going to be something that's quite unfamiliar and would be a helpful resource in how we understand how your involvement might change the prospect for our system.

2:31:59•AFAndy Friederichs

I should have been more clear. My question is what's it costing us per ride?

2:32:13 – 2:32:24•RSRandy Schubring

Well, thank you both very much. Welcome again. Good luck next week with the rollout and we will take a six minute break.

2:33:57•RSRandy Schubring

But I just want to warn the council, we may run over our 630, but we're not going to take it out on Amanda. So take it away.

2:41:36 – 2:42:05•RSRandy Schubring

BEFORE YOU GO OFF OF THAT SLIDE AND I REALLY APPRECIATED THIS LOOK AT THIS. SO WITH THE CURRENT MOMENTUM FOR CAREER READINESS AT MODERATE AND LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP, IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT IS FOCUSING ON BRINGING MORE MOMENTUM AND WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE AND HAVING THE CITY TAKE A HIGHER LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP?

2:42:24•RSRandy Schubring

So the plan is to play a bigger role, a more visible role?

2:42:30 – 2:43:17•RSRandy Schubring

Okay, and you and I have talked and I've mentioned this to Ms. Steinhauser as well, is I think the connections with our largest employer here in Rochester and really understanding those pathways that they use and then taking our position as the city in making making sure that those pathways are clear to to our residents and neighbors so that there is a pathway for the residents of rochester and homestead county yeah no absolutely and we'll dive into those deeper conversations as this work moves forward yeah absolutely thank you okay

2:44:54•DDDan Doering

Just for clarification, are those representative organizations or is that the exhaustive list of organizations?

2:46:39•RSRandy Schubring

Ms. Leitner, can you hold? Oh, when you're done.

2:46:57 – 2:47:15•AFAndy Friederichs

So I enjoyed my visit with you. It was nice of you to come down and visit. And what I started thinking about after you left is, she'll go through all of her people. I wonder what her biggest, cliche word here, aha moment will be here. This is a front burner thing I think we need to look at. I'd like to hear what that is.

2:47:49 – 2:48:00•AFAndy Friederichs

Yeah, we used to go down to City Hall, everybody did in person, talk to somebody, and then they'd say, yeah, go here, go there. Now people are sitting there at home on their phone surfing on where do I go, where do I go?

2:48:19 – 2:48:33•AFAndy Friederichs

Maybe the point I'm making, I might need just to say city hall. It was anywhere you went and networked in person and you talked to people and you made connections and you could see it, taste it, feel it and, and you know, get pointed in the right direction. And, Quite frankly, it's almost a lost art at this point. Thanks.

2:49:14•RSRandy Schubring

And she also, on her first foray into, at a study session, actually can be flexible.

2:49:25•RSRandy Schubring

Flexible and abridge her presentation. So Council Member Keene.

Yeah, thanks for being here. And again, I did meet with you. I appreciate getting, there's something about this that I get suspicious of with the idea of like economic mobility, but I really liked the thing you started out with. And it started out with economic stability, moving to economic security, moving to like building wealth. And I almost thought I'd missed the first one is like at risk, starting out at risk. I am still unclear if like, I mean I know this is not, like I really appreciate the city's not trying to take this in here, we're gonna do this, but if you had, if you were gonna do

And I think they're all contributors too, and I always get caught up with this mobility, because I look at this mobility as being able to kind of build a career or build something. My other comment is, and this is getting personal lately, but I don't like to see the first time we talk about economic mobility, we talk about let me help you start a business, because 85% of us, we get a W-2, that's what our careers are, and to say we're gonna start out with entrepreneurship is a wonderful thing, and hopefully some people really do well with that, but it is ignoring the majority of the population.

2:51:47 – 2:53:01•RSRandy Schubring

And I couldn't agree with Council Member Keene more, and that's why I focused on our largest employer, because I think there are those that want stability, but... A lot of our employers provide wages increases benefits part of those benefits are our professional development and education and others that can then lead them to that economic mobility. So, I, what I was very excited about hearing from you is your answer to council member projects question, which is. You know, the connections need to be there and if we can be a conduit for helping make those connections between those agencies that

2:53:02 – 2:54:16•DDDan Doering

Yeah, I wanted to make sure I address the three questions you put on your last slide. I like the prioritized economic mobility areas if I'm reading those on slide 19 of your presentation. Focus area one, career pathway access barriers and household stability barriers. I would love to see some in-depth work in the trades. Uh, what that means for folks and economic stability and long term career pathways. I'm fascinated by the work of of equity across our, our economic space. So I know that we kind of glossed over for lack of time over the, the racial slide in here. I'm interested in a more equi

2:54:21 – 2:54:57•NWNorman Wahl

Thank you. Uh, I had to, unless I missed it previously in the presentation, I had to look at what Alice means, uh, from the, uh, but I. What? Yeah. Survival occupations. I presume in economic mobility, we're not simply trying to eliminate. I mean, that represents a huge part of our workforce. We will always need servers, food prep. How does that work into the economic mobility ladder?

2:56:20 – 2:57:34•NMNick Miller

Council member Miller yeah, just going through the, the questions or feedback. Yes, these resonate. necessarily have anything to add from the current framework. I would love to know, especially looking at slide 20 and even beyond December 2026, at what point the council should expect check ins or updates in this process. I mean, often when we do development processes, we'll have stars of this is when we should expect to hear back next. And here would be the scope of that. So helping us understand how we're involved moving forward. And then I think part of success would look like having built o

2:58:09 – 2:58:45•RSRandy Schubring

I want to go back to something Council Member Doering said, and he mentioned the trades. And I look at, you know, the construction trades and, you know, plumbers, carpenters, electricians. There is, one, we have a need. We're a growing community. And there is economic mobility in those professions as people get involved. furthered license and through apprenticeships and so, and I didn't see that up there and so is there a reason or is it something that you can add into, I saw repairs

2:58:51 – 2:59:06•RSRandy Schubring

Yeah, it was stability and I, you know, yeah, I think the construction trade should be something that you certainly should look at and look at as a major piece of our economic development.

2:59:59 – 3:00:16•RSRandy Schubring

All right, well, thank you. Great presentation in more ways than one. It was brief, it was worthwhile, and you got some new information from us. All right, with that, study session schedule