I'm running because Rosemont is growing rapidly and I believe that growth must be responsible, transparent, and inclusive. My priorities are smart growth, housing that working families can afford, accessible parks and recreation, and protecting essential reer like water and energy and making sure residents have meaningful voice in major decisions, including projects like the data center.

My name is Justin Berhord and I'm running for city council to restore transparency and accountability to our local government, to foster community first growth by encouraging the development of a thriving sidewalk economy, and to protect our local environment and natural resources.

Three of my top priorities are the same as when I ran 8 years ago in my first run for city council. Number one is public safety. Making necessary investments to police, fire, public works, such as streets, intersections, water quality to keep our residents safe and secure. Economic development. maintain the hometown feel of Rosemount, maintaining that Irish pride that our residents love and appreciate. The fourth is a new one based on my time and learning while on city council, and that's to increase residential engagement.

I've since earned my MBA at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and today I'm a marketing executive with a family-owned bank headquartered here in Minnesota. I've raised two children here in Rosemount where they attended Shannon Park RMS and RHS. I have forged deep local ties through volunteerism and small business ownership, through serving on board member and president of Rosemont Area Athletic Association, and owning a business here in Dakota County, Farmington Lanes, and finally serving you on city council and pursuing an agenda of hometown feel, amenities, growth, and safety.

as far as my professional experience uh also mentioned uh I was a CP I'm a CPA uh been the CFO uh for some large organizations some smaller organizations most of the time familyrun organizations um so the financial background I think the the current city council looks to me um as really the strongest financial uh adviser on the on the council. Um and then I mentioned I've also got some real estate background. So in terms of land use um entitlements um I feel like that's that's that's the other area. It's a unique uh combination of both the finance and uh real estate experience.

I have an MBA and a 30 plus year career in the banking industry where I now serve in a leadership and executive role where I'm tasked with balancing multiple viewpoints, managing to budgets and motivating teams, the people around me. I bring pro proven local leadership and volunteerism to this role, having served as president and board member of RAA as well, one of our largest local nonprofit volunteer organizations.

My professional experience has taught me a lot about working with different groups of people and different kinds of people and knowing when it's important to listen and when it's important to make the call. In addition to that, my education coming out of law school has taught me a deep respect for the law and an understanding of how it's supposed to work and how it can work.

I've worked with our community for as long as I can remember for over 15 years in Rosemont. I've worked with the South Metro Islamic Center here in Rosemount where I've set up a tutoring sector for uh many youth. ... Really I've also set up another youth program here in Rosemont Community Center where I have the youth come there every Thursday.

I think the best way to do that is through developing our sidewalk economy. I want to see more businesses that reflect the cultures and the religions that we have here in Rosemont. The fabric that makes up this community has many different colors and creeds. We're many different genders. We're many different family makeups.

My vision for Rosemont is an inclusive uh city. Um, one of it is to really um um create venues, create uh facilities that every member of the community can benefit from. ... So I spoken to some of them to provide uh you know uh fields like cricket field uh smaller soccer field for our senior city our seniors uh to play provide uh community center that our u uh our um our diverse community needs and one of the things that is actually being implemented in the built for play is a community center that I advocated for uh for quite some time.

I would say my vision for Rosemount um is really rooted in my priorities for our shared hometown. And so first we talk about prever preserving and enhancing our hometown feel. And we do this through close-knit, well-thought neighborhoods and interconnected parks and trails um and engaging community events. And I think too as our new neighborhoods move in and we notice um you know obviously a more diverse population coming in um some more neighborhood outreach, new neighborhood welcomes um and doing more listening sessions with our new neighbors as they move in.

I would say one of the most important thing is make sure that we have activities uh as part of those you know leprechaun days haunted trail um uh food truck festival like making sure that we're we're diversifying that. As far as the businesses, um I would look to um our current diversity of our restaurants as a real plus.

This kind of an effort actually fits into the economic development and the bonding authority of the port authority. That particular use case is not something that calls for a public referendum. And so that coupled with um you know making Rosemont a desirable place to live um with robust parks and amenities as well and a desirable place to visit um makes this a port authority issue.

At the time, we had uh both RCC and the pond. So, we had two full one smaller ice rink and one full ice rink. So, we did have two ice rinks. Um, so we're and the pond closed and now is a um, Planet Fitness. So we lost we lost we lost a rink, a full ring. So now our two from 10 years ago is now one. Uh, the growth in our hockey association has only grown and expanded uh, as the as the number of families and the population has grown. So we're woefully behind.

But I would like it to be more inclusive so that other members of the city can also take advantage of it. Um, I would really like to get more uh residents involved. Uh, getting surveys out to the uh uh residents here in Rosemount. um having more um um live meetings with the from the city council and also making sure that residents are allowed to ask questions to to the uh uh city councils.

I think the voters should have had and should have a voice in that and should be able to vote on it if it's a great plan, which I think it is. Um, that's something that the city council and the city should be able to take to voters and convince them that it's a great plan deserving of their vote. So, I would support putting it up for a referendum because I think that's the the democratic process number one. And number two, I think it's just good practice that, you know, we not only focus on making sure that Rosemont is a great place to live, but also an affordable place to live.

I would say I'm running on one of my key points is uh no more data centers in Rosemont. I think one is more than enough. Meta takes up about 212 football fields. But prior to that, uh I don't think Meta was transparent with its uh the residents uh the council and the government, the employees of uh um Rosemount.

I am pretty well on record as being the anti-data center um candidate. I oppose them for pretty pretty fundamental reasons. Um in addition to the negative health impacts, the environmental impacts, the drain on resources, and the um in some cases even negative impacts on property values. Um they're not the windfall that that they're being sold as.

As I have said before, um I'm neither pro- data center nor anti-data center and I am pro- rosemount. And so with that, I approach every every application ahead of us case by case. The original metadata center was a unique scenario returning over 200 acres to our tax roles. Um and finally putting some underutilized land to productive use. Um, this next one, I've got deep reservations about Meta's second site. ... based on what I know today I do not support um a second data center based on what I know today.

I think the probably the proudest part of of the meta um the the the meta approval process was the feedback that we uh utilized from our residents. A lot of that feedback was uh used in conversations with the developer um and and we did apply for that. So setbacks, water water usage, power usage. ... So in terms of my support, I'm there's there's no project to support or not support at this point. Um, but I think it's it'll have to be based on the facts and circumstances at the time.

Regarding uh that the original metadata center, there were a lot of um there was a lot of requirements we put into place into that contract. As part of the approval process, there was uh limitations on how much water and electric that they they could use. ... I think it's really important also to point out that not all um data centers are created equally. ... and if if there are negative consequences, um I do feel that there's there should be the consequences that we put into the the agreements um that they've got to achieve.

We've talked with city staff about um the legality of uh actually publishing a a specific user's water usage um and trying to get that up public and transparent to the uh residents of Rosemount and we're still working on that piece, making sure that the water use is as promised. ... I think that's one thing if we were dealing with a second one at any point, um we would want to bring that into the conversation is an additional escrow account paid for by that developer.

The data from nationwide that also includes metadata centers in different cities and across the nation have shown that they have already violated these policies. ... So I would really like to make sure that our city um state and federal engineers work together to make sure that uh we protect what is very valuable to us which is our water. Uh right we can live without the data centers but not water.

Some things that I would support is working with the public to monitor direct effects through maybe online reporting or some way to to report the effects, document them, and track them. And then holding Meta accountable with whatever tools the city has available, whether that be uh fines or directing those studies or results to the state and the office of the attorney general. Um, and then lastly, using the tools that the city already has and has sound legal basis for, like ordinances under nuisance authority for uh limiting noise or light pollution.

ICE is a federal agent and a f federal agency and a federal authority. Um, I know when we were witnessing Operation Metro Surge, it was quite distressing because um, we have a very professional police department in town and things were happening without any kind of notification and it was difficult to know what was happening. ... the cooperation, quote unquote, um, only comes, I would say, in the event of an actual judicial warrant and not in some of these uncoordinated kind of events that happened, say, on the streets.

I think we we have one really good example of what happened during um, Metro Surge. Uh we had a number of high school students walked out of the high school and they came over to the city um and our city staff, our city police. Uh they all sat down and met with them. Um and the feedback we got from the high school was just an incredible uh it was just an incredible experience for these high school kids. ... it made a huge huge um impact on these uh high school students that were some of them scared out of their mind uh with what was going on in the community.

Immigration is a a federal issue. It's not for the states or the local government. Our resources are taxed enough. We shouldn't be doing the federal government's bidding. ... Rosemont is a welcoming community. It's a community where everyone has a place and I believe that that's that's what we need to cultivate here. I echo my fellow candidates. Our police officers and first responders are the best in the state. Um their their job is to make people feel safe and to serve the community and if people are scared to call them, they can't do that. So I I I think that the federal government's going to do what it's going to do and we need to vote accordingly. But the city has no place in that.

I'll give you a firsthand experience because the community that was affected the most was my community, the Somali community. ... We need to make sure that anyone who wears a state, local, or federal uniform follows the law. In order for ICE to arrest anyone, they need to have a warrant. And some of them did not do that. They went after legal uh residents who were here in this country legally and working.

One of the key issues that I see in Rosemont is that Rosemont hasn't really moved in the direction of being an inclusive city uh for everybody for and I feel like I would be the right candidate to be a city council to bring these uh the other committee that's being neglected uh together. ... I would also like to make sure that we have natural uh nature involved in it. So, growing plants, leaving some areas alone for trails and so on. Cuz when I moved here in 2025, January 2025, I could hear the crickets. I could walk around and see the grasshoppers and so on. In my area now, there is none.

One of the issues that I I care deeply about in my personal life is fire safety and it gets generally no attention. ... It is incredibly inexpensive for a city uh to use general funds or in our case maybe tipping fees um at no cost to the taxpayer to send out yearly postcards to every resident letting them know they can get a free smoke detector or a free 9volt battery at their local fire station and to provide those.

Well, I don't know that it's not receiving enough attention, but it hasn't been brought up tonight. So, I do want to talk about water safety and water quality. ... At this point, I think anything short of a dedicated water treatment plant is uh is not enough. I think we do need to pursue a dedicated water treatment solution for the city. Couple other things that don't get a lot of attention are our extremely low commercial vacancy rate and the extremely high cost of construction.

I go back to what I said. My my my my fourth priority is I don't think we talk about it enough is it it's really that resident engagement. I think we've heard a little bit tonight that there is a little bit of lack of trust in the city government, whether that's the staff, whether that's council. ... I'd love to see this the city council chambers filled on city council nights I'd love to have more people. I'd love to have more interactions with people.