Farmington mayor resigns after trading expletives with residents at meeting

Farmington Mayor Joshua Hoyt resigned Wednesday, Feb. 4, effective immediately, after trading barbs with residents during a City Council meeting earlier this week.

Hoyt’s resignation comes after clips of expletive-ridden interactions he had with residents during the City Council meeting on Feb. 2 were posted online and widely shared. The exchanges grew heated after residents criticized the council for enforcing a rule limiting public comment to five minutes per person.

Farmington is embroiled in a fight over a data center, and public comments from residents opposing the project — and other topics — have often exceeded the time limit. Hoyt said the rule has been in place for decades but not always enforced.

The council debuted a timer at Monday’s meeting. Once a resident’s comments reached five minutes, the microphone was cut and a ringing sound made.

“We have implemented a timer to ensure that we have consistency for all speakers,” Hoyt said.

Residents did not like it. One said the timer discriminated against those who speak slowly; another called it a violation of residents’ First Amendment rights.

Public comment time limits are common at local government meetings in Minnesota. Typically, city officials do not respond to residents directly during public comment.

The resident’s comments were mostly inaudible after the microphone was cut, but Hoyt told the resident he would be removed from the meeting if he kept speaking.

After a few exchanges as the resident talked about First Amendment rights, the mayor said, “Walk into an airport and yell bomb and see what happens.”

After trading barbs with another audience member, Hoyt said if decorum isn’t observed, “it becomes [an expletive] circus.”

South Metro Scoop, a local news site, posted videos of the exchange, and they went viral locally.

The sparring continued after the council recessed, with Hoyt and a previous commenter debating what kind of racist expletive the resident had called the mayor off-mic. Hoyt said he defends the rights of residents to be critical of him.

“This was not an easy conclusion to reach, but it is a necessary one,” he wrote. “I believe that leadership requires clarity, presence and wellbeing, and at this time, I need to prioritize my health in order to heal and regain balance.”

Hoyt was first elected mayor in 2020. He was re-elected four years later by a 5-point margin.