All right, we'll call the uh July 14th, 2025 uh council work meeting this order. >> I'll make motion to adopt the agenda. >> Have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> I motion passes 2026 budget. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and councel. The uh 2026 budget process commenced on January 2nd with the creation of our budget model. A series of other items were completed February through June as outlined above. And then based on inputs from the city council, department heads, and the union contract, the budget book was prepared for the city council to review at tonight's meeting. Again, the 2026 general fund expenditures are proposed to increase by $479,400 or 7% from 2025. The 2026 budget model currently reflects the following expenditure inputs, which are the primary drivers of that overall increase. Under salaries and benefits, an 8% coal increase for nine union, 13 non-union, and 40 paid on call firefighters. Again, this is based on the Minnesota Public Employees Association's labor agreement that was approved at your June 9th city council meeting. Um, under contracted services, your law enforcement contract is proposed to increase by $110,000. And again, we have representatives from Anoka County that will go line by line on their budget. Uh, the city attorney contract is proposed to increase by $10,000. The Metro Inet contract is proposed to increase by $13,000. Your audit contract is proposed to increase by $2,000. Elections, again, this is an election year in 2026 is proposed to increase by 21,000. Um, under transfers, again, transfers within our general fund budget. The equipment replacement fund, we're proposing to increase those transfers for $22,000. Street capital fund, proposing to increase that transfer by $50,000. Under Park Capital fund, we're proposing to increase those by $10,000. >> Hey Mike, I got a question. Sure. On the election part of it, what was the normal cost? I couldn't find it anywhere. >> The >> It's an increase of 21,000. So what was it? You know, >> last election it was 16,000. So >> 16,000. >> Okay. >> It's in the book. >> I didn't see it. >> Too much in the book. >> And then under other um we are budgeting a $24,000 increase or a new line item for the Minnesota paid leave program that's going to be implemented and mandated by the state of Minnesota starting in 2026. There's also a line item within your budget, proposed budget of $40,000 for Civic Plus module implementation. Again, we're still in still in a little bit of a a research mode for that, but we've put in $40,000 for modules >> for what is that? >> Civic Plus modules. Um I believe >> that software >> that's that new software program that you guys were talking about, >> right? Different modules where that was in here. Yeah, that will help uh in terms of the uh website changes that we're going to have and people being able to search information, things like that. Uh recording um um social media, which is a requirement by law. This does that for you. There's there's about four, I believe, four different modules that we're looking at right now of seven or eight. So, >> I thought it was going to be way more expensive than 40k, though. >> Well, the full amount's 80, but we kind of looked at needs versus wants and said, "Okay, this is kind of what we need here." Okay. >> Um, again, that expenditure increase would then result in a corresponding levy increase, uh, general tax levy levy and debt service levy of $3.8% or $246,100 in order to balance the 2026 budget. Again, please note that the city would be using $200,000 in accumulated general fund balance and initializing a $100,000 transfer from the water fund to the 2014 a debt service fund in order to balance the 2026 budget. Again, I just wanted to highlight that there are five different components to the city budget. The general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, capital project funds, and enterprise funds. The main focus of tonight's meeting is the general fund as it captures all expenditures involved with general government, community development, public safety, public works, engineering, risk management, and transfers. We have representatives from each of those departments here tonight in order to provide a brief overview of their budgets and to answer any questions the council may have. >> Can I ask a quick question before we go in? >> Sure. All the contracts that we signed, the police, the legal, the attorneys, did those contracts include the monies that are increasing or is this an additional increase to those contracts? >> Yep. So, each one of those contracts is going to be different. The increase in the Anoka County contract is going to be new for 2026 and in embedded in this model for 2026. your attorney contract actually is only running through the first five months of 2026. So, one of the, you know, um I guess work items that Matt will be bringing forth is to examine if you wanted to bring that out for bid to see if you wanted to. >> I think we do. >> Yep. So again, that goes through the first five months of 2026 and then there's estimate estimates basically based upon prior activity in order to kind of fill in your 2026 budget for the attorney fees. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Yep. Good question. Thank you. Um with that, I'm going to turn it over to um our representatives from the law enforcement uh department. We have Paul Lensmeer and Derek Peters here from Anoka County. So, >> and what pages are those on? Can you >> This is page 29 of your budget book. >> Uh, good evening everybody. It's good to see everyone again in a little bit different capacity than usual on our monthly council meetings. But, uh, as you all know, I'm Lieutenant Derek Peters with the sheriff's office. Uh, I have the distinct pleasure of presenting the 2026 law enforcement contract this year. Um, but before I start, off to my right, I think Mike pretty much hit on it, but I have three representatives that are here with me. Um, all three of them have played a huge role in putting this together and making sense for people like me who is just not usually a numbers guy. So, um, Paul Lensmeer, commander, uh, Brent Ericson, commander, and Chief Deputy Bill Jacobson. And on behalf of the four of us, we want to say thank you for allowing us to come up here and present the contract and thank you for your arduous support. Throughout the years, we've never gone unsupported by the city and um I think it shows in our word product and what we deliver out on the road dayto-day. So um thank you to each and every one of you and without further ado, I'll get straight into it. Um I plan on doing this line by line and if you guys have questions as we move forward, you can stop me. Otherwise, I'll just stand for questions at the end. But, um, 2026 brought a few changes for us on the, uh, contract side of things. The deputies were awarded a new contract, um, which included a 5% wage increase. We're going to see that over the next three years. So, it was a five, five, and three. Um, and our contracts will reflect that as we move forward throughout the the future here. In that regard, um, as you can see, under personnel A for sworn deputy sheriff, we have 7.6 6 deputies at $9,733 per month. That's just strictly on wages. Um the reason why it's 7.6 uh is that we have six deputies that are assigned to this contract. We have two that are working on the dayshift side of things, two that work midship, and then two that work in the over overnight shifts, one on each rotation, rotation one and two. The reason why we build in that 7.6 or that 1.68 68 technically is to account for any vacations, sick leave, and all the other things that we need to cover so that we have coverage 24/7 365 throughout the city. Um, in addition to what we've got this year, we have 10 hours of overtime that we built into the contract. That's a change from previous years of seven uh hours of overtime simply because we have statemandated trainings which would include the racial biases trainings, um driving training, um other trainings that we must attend as law enforcement. So, we built that into each one of our contracts, 10 hours of overtime instead of the seven that we that we're used to in the past. So, we've seen an increase there as well. Um, moving down on the list here, you'll see all of the benefits that are uh standard for what we're seeing in law enforcement here with the PER, the Medicaid, the severance allowance, and the unemployed compensation, things of that nature. We've seen a a bit of an increase there. We didn't see any changes on the life insurance side of things. That brings our total cost for personnel at $1,325,13. So um obviously you can also see we don't have any sworn CSO coverage here which is represented by the zero on our balance sheet. So that's been uh continuation of I think two or three years ago when we got rid of the the CSO contract. So that is currently where we stand here for 2026. Moving into vehicles. Uh the city of East Bethl pays for two cars. Um we have one car that runs 24/7. So that's the car that that runs during the day shift hours from 6:00 to 6 and then they'll run the night shift from 6:00 to 6. So that car is running 247 365. The power car, which basically um adds to that power or to that to that dayshift car that works those overlapping hours, is a 12-h hour car, and that's going to be running 2:30 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Um, our 24-hour car gets replaced every third year. uh I'm sorry, gets replaced every other year, while the 12-hour car gets replaced every third year. So, that's articulated in our sheet here at 83 for vehicles instead of one. We don't charge the city for one vehicle every single year because we're usually rotating through um when when we're actually purchasing those cars. But we leave that number at 083 uh which this year totals 45,650 simply to keep the contract consistent so that on years that we have replacements or need replacements, it's not increasing and it's not decreasing um drastically. Um state pricing on those vehicles uh for our contracts has gone up. So if you look on the right side of the sheet there, uh the cost for that vehicle in 2026 is actually bid at 55,000. But as stated earlier, uh that 83 brings that total down to 45,650 for the purchase of a new SUV in our city here. Um directing your attention further down on the sheet, um under vehicles there, you'll see the top total cost for maintenance of our squads is 52,500, which includes all the maintenance costs associated with the vehicle's usage. Um and that includes both of both the power and um the regular contract car. So we come to that figure based on average mileage per squads which is combined per year 75,000 75,000 miles. Um we charge our contracts 7 per miles per the IRS reimbursement figures. So if you if you do the math on that 75,000 times.7 equals the 52,500 that you see um directly across from number one there. uh vehicle. Uh moving down further there, emergency communications and equipment fees. That's at 36,718. That's going to include our body warn cameras, our portable radios uh for the deputies, the mobile radios, and the squad cars, the miscellaneous communication equipment uh that we have to purchase and restock throughout the year. Shoulder mics, batteries, things of that nature. Uh and then fleet cameras at approximately $4,500 per year. only last one year. You replace them every year. >> Not not every year, but um those batteries can go uh depending on how much they're used. So people on specialty units that tend to use their radios a lot more frequently, people that leave their radios on, the lifespan of those lithium-ion batteries are decreased greatly. So we build that into the cost of our contract every year so that we can have the proper equipment to outfare folks. Um the emergency vehicle equipment replacement fee uh is included just below that. That's that's uh at $3,000. And that's that's squad equipment, right? So we have um we have medical supplies in there. We have um bunkers. We have other things that we need um to serve the public. Just odds and ends type things that that we do charge the contracts for, which is what's indicative there. So, uh, if you break that down, it's 1,500 per car. Times two is 3,000 for both of our cars there. >> Um, >> can I ask another question? Now, >> if I if I don't ask, I'll forget. >> Um, >> if you don't use the $3,000, do you do we not pay it or do we pay it no matter what, whether you use it or not? In this case, in this case, as it's included in the contract, that ask the city to pay for that just simply so that we can get those things purchased beforehand. We don't have to worry about back billing or charging the city later if we need more equipment. So, it's a standard flat fee that we're going to be charging all of our contracts to. Um, that equipment is is imperative to our operation. It's very important for us to have those miscellaneous items in the car so that the car is properly stocked. Um otherwise, you know, we run out of rubber gloves or we run out of any other supplies that we may need. It could create issues when we're actively dealing with scenes out on the road. So, um further down on that list, their insurance cost for each car combined is $7,000. And then phones for our deputies in East Bele per year totals 4,500. The phones are critical to our operation, obviously, as you all know, emails, voicemails, communication with attorneys, communication with the public. Um that's where that bill or that's where that price point will stand for those those deputies in 2026. Um administrative costs uh on number three um our PSDs costs which is our CAD system and our APS maintenance costs have gone up. We've seen a slight increase there. The PSDS is our CAD system. So the computer AED dispatch um all the networking and all the software that's included in that package has gone up this year. that is uh a price point that's predetermined by Jaylick um our joint law enforcement council. So um again that's another cost of our services that's required for us to to do business the way that we have been. Um unfortunately it's risen but um again a critical element of our operational status as it pertains to day-to-day activities. Um APS stuff um that stands for automated pawn system. We actually use the lead system. So, Leads is an APS system. So, what it does, it allows us to follow up on theft cases. It allows us to track scrap metal. It allows us to track items that were pawned. Um, it allows us to follow up on those theft cases that usually filter their way down to patrol investigations after our deputies have answered that first 911 call out on out on the street. So, um, very critical software that's imperative to our success. We can't follow up without that software. Um it's very important that um we have the support of you know council and everyone else out there in in maintaining these systems because without it we can go dead end on some of these leads that we get. So it's a very easy system for us to utilize. You sign in, you log in, you type in what you're looking for and boom, you got your results. So um it's a great tool for us. Um number uh nu number or letter B, excuse me. Uh administrative clerical substation computer line charges uh have been listed at $136,361. Those uh are also up um this year just based on the fact that we had that wage adjustment at the very first side of at the very top for our personnel there. Um that number is figured on 10% of our personnel costs at $1,325,13. Um that includes um staff, records staff, records staff and support staff um included is included in that. So whenever we take reports, whenever we need processing paperwork on the back end of things, that administrative fee uh is what's included here. that is what we're paying those folks to do. So process um our day-to-day activities whether it's in East Bethl or or or somewhere else. That's that's on that contract too. So that's an administrative fee of 10 10% of personnel cost flat across the board. So, um, that also that bottom line total also includes 38 uh 30 $3,850 charge, which is a standard county IT charge that county IT determines for us, which covers our phone lines and computer services in the substation. So, um, it's a brief overview of of what I have for council this evening, but I'm ready to stand for any questions. And like I said, I've got the brain tree behind me. So if I don't know the question, I'll phone a friend um and we can get through this. So any questions that I can answer for anybody on what I have here? >> I do have one more question. So, we get texts from Anoka County for some of this for police administrative for different um for the new >> building they have on Hansen, the >> new call center, >> the call center, the and I feel like we might be getting double tax. Like are you do you guys reimburse the county then for what we pay you or how does that work because some of these things seem like it should be the county taxing us for and I feel like they are taxing us for some of this stuff. >> Sure. So from my understanding the 20 2800's new building is that's a county building that has nothing to do with the sheriff's office. So what you're receiving from them is actually from the county not the sheriff's office specifically. And to answer your question of whether or not we reimburse, um I'm not aware of that. I don't think that we do. Um I I don't I'm not aware of any sort of reimbursement on that side of things. But mayor and council, my name is Bill Jacobson. I serve as the chief deputy. Um council, I'll try to answer your question a little bit. So, uh, every, uh, every city in Inoka County does, um, part of the county levy does include costs for the sheriff's office, but those are our countywide service costs. So, those include things, as you mentioned, the 911 center, our justice services division, which pays for um, civil process, paper service, eviction, stuff like that. It accounts for our jail division, which is our largest division. We have approximately 80ome deputies that work in the jail. um our SWAT team, our reserve unit. Um we have a marine unit that patrols our waterways. Um we have a number of other specialty units. Um we have like a mobile field force team that can respond if there are incidents involving, you know, mass um sort of public demonstrations to keep people safe. So we have basically two types of service. We have services that the entire county gets and that's part of that county levy you see and then services at the police level for each city. So for example, the city of Blaine, they have their own police department. They pay their own police department. But when we have county services in Blaine, some other examples are like our criminal investigations division. They handle death investigations, sexual assaults, major crimes. Our crime scene unit comes out, our our forensic lab. Those are those costs. The costs outlined here are the cost to have uh deputies on the front lines patrolling your community and keeping your community safe. So things like, you know, ha having traffic enforcement, call response, um you know, having um having sort of directed patrol wherever the community feels it's needed. So there's kind of like two separate uh two separate types of service happen. Does that answer your question? >> It does. And I was mostly considering the the computer um type stuff because I thought that was integrated with the county and I honestly I don't know so I'm asking. >> Yeah, council member that's a fair question. A question we ask. So we we basically when we build our our budget on a very similar timeline that the city builds their budget, we basically get we we get a bill from county it comes to us. So for the cities that have squad cars with computers in them, that's what the county charges us to maintain those computers, modems, that technology. So when we offer a contract, we have to include those costs because if a computer breaks down in a squad car, we we wouldn't call your IT department. We call ours and they come out and fix it. So, and I tell you, I don't know, has anyone been in a police car recently, in the front seat of a police car to look the technology in the police cars? I don't know. Some some of the folks that have been, we've all been around a while. We've all been cops for a while. The amount of technology in police cars is crazy right now. You've got the cameras, the GPS, you've got license plate readers, you got so much technology that I tell you, the the the software support and the IT support that we need these days to get our job done. I don't know, you guys, we've all done pen and paper patrol. I don't I don't know that our deputies these days um have ever experienced pen and paper patrol, but man, the technology is pretty pretty impressive out there. So, you know, we have we have to support it. So, hopefully that answers your question. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, of course. >> And yeah, we're happy to stand for any other questions or any specifics about the details of the contract. >> I do have a question for you. I'm trying to figure out in my head if we have a car that's out there 247 >> and one that's 12 hours times seven, you know, for the week. When I do the numbers on that, I come up with, you know, 168 hours of full-time work that that car is 247 across the board and along with 84 for the 12. If you take those 40 hours when you add them all up, it equals 6.3 officers basically of full-time work. So, I'm wondering where you get the 7.6 deputies. It, you know, it's not like adding up in my head here or on paper. So, I'm trying to figure out where the increase is there for hours if there's only so many hours that you can put into a car. >> Sure. >> You know, why are we why are we multiplying that out? >> Yeah. So the the short answer is you're you're getting you're getting cars that you're not being charged for. But I can Paul, I don't know if you want to comment a little more on that. >> Paul Lensmire, commander of the patrol division. So you're talking about the 7.6, right? >> Right. >> Versus uh the six deputies that you have. Uh Lieutenant Peters touched on it a little bit, but that 7.6 Six represents um additional relief cars built into the schedules to accommodate for uh sick leave, vacation, ESST time. Anytime uh your core six have training, uh we back fill with the deputy uh on the road. So you guys don't lapse in any type of coverage. >> Okay. >> In some cases like a city police department, uh let's say they're they're maximum of our six deputies. If their deputy calls in sick, they're down down five, right? But with you uh with that 7.6 that gives you an additional 1.6 that offers uh into the relief spot to cover those vacancies throughout the year. >> Okay. Is that where the countywide card comes in? >> That's correct. >> Thank you. Does anybody have anything else? I think I used up one lifeline or is that two? I don't I don't know. I I don't know. Um if nobody else has any questions, I'll stop talking. But if you guys need something, please feel free to reach out and if I don't know the answer, I'll find it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Thank you, Derek. Thanks. >> Thanks for coming out, guys. Thanks for what you do. All right, we're going to be moving right along to the fire department. Fire department budget is proposed to increase by 7% or $73,000. The primary drivers of that increase are salaries and added to paid on call staff and equipment. With that, I'll hand it over to Jeff Cloa of the fire department fire. >> And what page? >> Um, we are looking at page 31. Mayor, members of the council, thank you for having me. Um, as uh Mike pointed out, our budget's going up by about 7%. A large part of that is uh the wage increase. Um, we are also in the process of adding uh numerous personnel. Uh, we currently have seven that are in the pipeline for uh background checks, which come with added cost of training and equipment and that kind of stuff. Uh a few of the larger line items that um on top of the wages that we are looking at um addressing are our uh turnout gear. Um, all of that was purchased in the year 2020 and it's all going to be coming due um or expiring by 2030, which means without purchasing a large amount in 2029, we're going to start to phase in new gear um and uh build up some of our reserves, but make it so that it's not a huge purchase in in 2029. Um, some of the other stuff, uh, we're looking at, uh, replacing some, uh, small tools to include, uh, different types of circular saws that we would use on different car accidents and and, uh, medical or not medical, but, uh, 911 responses. Um, and then the other thing is, um, leaning into training, uh, to include emergency management training. um addressing uh council concerns that I've been told and understood um to prepare uh the EOP and continue to move that forward. Um from from what I can gather from previous years, um those are the three uh biggest line item increases. there haven't been everything else seems to be adjusted to cover for inflation. Um there are things that we're trying to start to plan for in the future um to start to make sure um and as I have more time I'll dive into the CIP and stuff make sure we have enough money allocated for vehicle replacement SCVAs radios and all that kind of stuff. Um, we'll we'll be addressing that in the coming years. Um, I don't have as detailed a presentation as the police department. Um, but >> right behind you. >> Mhm. Um, I I I would offer or open it up to any questions as far as um anything that you see that you either don't have all the information on or questions have come up. >> Well, you know, I have questions. Um, I'm going to start with the fire pension contribution because it's been 14,000 for years and in 26 it's going to 16,000. Why is that? I mean, it's it's not a lot, but I just noticed the difference in the consistency, but now it's changed. >> If I remember correctly, that's the 2% money >> or >> Yeah, actually, it's historically it's been based on the number of proposed paid on call firefighters that the unit's going to have during that budget year. So, as we increase the number of paid on call firefighters, that number increases. Again, the way it's been done in the past is $400 times the amount of paid on call firefighters. So, that is the $2,000 increase that you're seeing. All right. And then my next thing is on the clothing and personal equipment because when I did meet with you, you showed me how they're expiring and this um $20,000 increase or thereabouts. Is that for a portion of them or is that are you is that for a whole bunch of them at once? Because I was thinking what you were saying. Yeah, let's buy a few this year, a few next year, a few the following year so that they all don't expire at the same time. >> So each set of turnout gear um we're waiting on the official um quote uh but it was estimated to be about $3,200 per set. >> Okay. So that does factor in purchasing some, not all at one time. >> Okay. >> Does that >> And that is just the coat and pants that we wear. That does not include the helmet, boots, gloves, hoods, a lot of stuff that goes on with that. Um, not all of that has to be replaced right away. Again, that's something that we're going to have to inventory and see where we stand. Um, but that's where that increase comes from so that we can start to phase that in. >> Okay. Yeah. Because I I know you guys it's OSHA mandated. You have to replace that. But I was just wanting to make sure you're doing a little bit at a time. So it's not you're not having to buy 40 at once. And I didn't know what this cost represented. >> I think part of this is back in uh when we had co uh if firefighters were to get contaminated, we went out and bought second sets for everybody. So, they had two sets of gear at that time. So, that will come into effect eventually where one set's going to need to be replaced for all firefighters. >> Yes. And that's what we're starting to address. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That was part of the co deal. My final question is why is there a $10,000 increase for conference meetings? Have the fees increased or are there additional conferences you guys are going to be going to? It's the very bot almost the very bottom. >> So conference meetings is is the training aspect. So again, we're going to be leaning into that. We're going to be using that to make sure that our personnel are certified where they need to be. um that we can bring in outside instructors as needed so that we have the best training possible for our personnel. Um there is part of that is reimbured through the MBFT. Um I haven't seen what that figure is for this year. Uh I believe last year 8,000 >> 8,000. We'll say 8,000. >> 8,000. Um but uh the state has not set the reimbursement per firefighter for this year as of yet. >> Got it. Okay, that's all my questions. >> How many uh firefighters do we have right now? 28. >> 28. So with the addition, if we recruit seven more, it's 34. 35. >> 35. St. Francis math. It's okay. Uh do we have a target goal for uh recruitment? Do is 35 going to be adequate if all these members um work out or are we looking to increase it to 40? >> So this is set at 40 which is where that increase comes from in the in the pension uh that council member Urkl talked about. Um, with the addition of seven, I've we have potential retirements of long tenur membersh. >> So, even if we have all seven maintain and work out long term, we're still expecting to have retirements. I don't want to put anybody on the spot and I don't want to put out a number, but >> but it's something that will happen eventually. >> Yes. Um, we're also working continuing to work on recruitment and retention. Uh we're working on putting out a continuous posting on the job or on the city's website as well as utilizing the marquee that's on 65 and continuing to push our message of, you know, if you're interested, come out. We're going to let you know what we stand for, who we are, why we're here, and how you can contribute to to the community through the fire department. >> Okay. So, this budget does take in consideration recruits up to I think you said 40 individuals Yeah, I I believe actually it was >> it's 40, correct? >> Okay. I just want to make sure that that's covered. >> Yeah. As far as kind of projecting what the paid on call firefighter salary line item is, it's kind of a moving target because it's not only based upon the number of employees we have or paid on call firefighters, it's also based on the number of calls, right? So, it's not as easy as forecasting what our full-time staff is. It's more based upon how many calls they're going to have and then how many firefighters we have too. So what we generally do is we take kind of what a the histo history has kind of shown us as far as an amount and then inflated it by whatever the cost of living increase was for the the union contract. So >> okay >> chief we are working on them calls to reduce >> We are also working on that. >> So that can help also. >> Yep. We are working to uh reduce the amount of calls that we go to um by evaluating the greatest impact that we can have. So that that will also have an impact on that final line item, but it is still a moving target. We could reduce it by that many and it could go up by that many just based on the serious calls. >> True. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions? Thank you, sir. >> Thank you for your time. Nice job. Thanks, >> Chief. [Music] Moving right ahead, we're gonna pass it over to Nate Ashford. He's our public works manager. Um he's going to touch on the streets and park maintenance uh departments. That's page 38 of your budget book. Good evening, mayor, council members. I've got um seven budgets here. Mike likes to hear that, but uh go through them pretty quick. Um if there's any questions, feel free to interrupt at any time on any of these. Um for the most part, all these there's really no big changes on there besides the wages portion. So there's uh not a lot of stuff to highlight, but the first one is the park maintenance budget. This covers all the maintenance of our city parks, all of our grounds on all of our buildings. um a few rightaways that we mow and maintain with our lawnmowers. Um if you go to page 43, that's kind of the graph that shows all of our different um increases on there. But we've just bumped up a couple items. Um some safety supplies that includes all the PPE for the employees. And then uh line item 223 is our building repairs budget. We bumped that up $1,500 to help cover the cost of some increases in things like irrigation repairs to buildings, that kind of stuff. So, overall, not a big change in that in that budget. Um, Nate, I got a question on uh maybe 212 motor fuels and as of six months, we've used $4,4 and our budget is $24,000. So, we'll be be using all that towards the end of the year. >> No. No. So, a lot of that is because we didn't have to plow much this winter. These two budgets, the street maintenance and the park maintenance are kind of there's a lot of stuff that goes between the two of them. Um, for we have four employees. Four of them get coded to this department. Four of them get coded to the street maintenance. Some of our vehicles that we plow with actually get coded to this too. So, the fuel that we use for those vehicles for plowing comes out of this parks budget. Whatever we don't spend goes back into the general fund, and that's what we're using. Um last few years we've had pretty big surpluses and that's what we're using to offset the budget this year. Was it 200,000 I think is what we're using. So whatever we don't use goes back in there. But with both these budgets, winter storms have a big there's a lot of variability in what we end up spending. So >> okay, >> we try and keep it as low as possible. We try not to spend everything out of there and let it go back in the general fund. >> I just question it because it was a big difference. >> Yeah, we're way ahead this year. So knock on wood, we got a nice fall and winter this year, too. >> Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions on the park maintenance operations? >> Well, I do have a question. >> Yeah. >> Why are we budgeting 24,000 and not the 17 or 18,000 from what we actually used in 2024? Why? Why is it so such a big increase >> for the same line line item? >> Yes, the same line item. Um, so if you go back to 2023, that was a when we had a bad winter >> and we were we were pushing up against that. >> So we kind of budget a little bit high to cover. We don't want to be searching for money. We'd rather have a little bit left over and put it back into the general fund for the next year. So odds are we're going to be below it on that line item, but there's, like I said, there's a big variability. If we have a tornado or storm come through, heat set up real quick. Yeah, I think the general strategy when it comes to budget is you want to you want to make sure that you're covered and you're kind of taking a worst case scenario on some of these line items from a expenditure standpoint. And then on the revenue standpoint, you want to be conservative. Again, these are budgets. You don't want to come at the end of the year and be ran out of money. So kind of conservative on the revenue side. And then when you're budgeting for expenditures, if you don't have an exact number that someone's giving you for a contract, it's more variability depending on a bunch of events. you want to make sure that it's based on a worst case scenario or something that you can kind of base on what's done um in prior years. So that's kind of where that number is coming from. Like in 2023, we did spend roughly that $24,000 mark. So that's where that budget was set. So >> yeah, I get that. I understand it. But there's also all these little things are nickel and dimeming up the levy, too. So there's that. Yep, that's a good point. >> Don't overt tax. Part of that for motor fuel specifically is the last two winners have been very mild, >> right? >> And that's why those other two are so low. I think 24 is >> is going to be closer to a normal year, but >> like you said, we don't want to overt tax, too. But it goes back into the general fund and it's helping pay this year. >> That's true. >> And that's and that's a good point. And I think Nate kind of hit it right on the head there with anything that is saved within these budgets is just put into our general fund balance and then that goes we can use that then to offset the levy increase moving into 2026 which we've done I believe the last three years. So we're using again $200,000 in accumulated money that wasn't spent to lessen that levy. So it's it's it's definitely it's been a useful tool I guess um as we've moved forward through these budgets. So, >> okay. Any other questions on that one? Moving on, we'll go to the street maintenance budget. This covers all of our um work that that pertains to the streets, the storm water system, um any of that kind of stuff. There again, on page 49, kind of broke down everything, but there's not a lot of difference in any increases in there besides the fuel um besides the labor there. Again, the fuel, same same issue there on line 212. If you look back to 2023, that's kind of our one we base it on. But with this one, we have some big variability in salt, um, road salt with years without without plowing. Same with some of our repairs on the trucks. Because the last couple years we've had mild winters, we've pushed back the replacements on those plow trucks a couple years. So, that's going to save the city money as well. Um, no really big increases there. We've got a little bit in line item 221. That's repairs to vehicles that we take care of inhouse. Um we're trying to do more and more of that over the years and um we've been able to to accomplish that. The pricing for parts has gone up a lot too. So all the all the regular replacement items on a vehicle has seen increases. Um we did bump up, as Mike mentioned earlier, too, the the equipment replacement transfer fee. I'll go over that at the end, but um yeah, not a lot of nothing else has really changed in that in that budget. So, any questions on any of that? >> No, but I do have a question. Is this the one where when so when roads are being resurfaced, the um material used is made out of oil and stuff and that price is going down. So are are costs somewhere in here going down because of that going down or not? >> Most of those projects come out of the street capital fund and >> not this one. >> Yeah, this is more just maintenance. There's a little bit of savings in our patching material, but it's not very significant. Um, and yeah, most of that comes out of the street capital fund and the state aid fund. So, >> okay, >> that's where you see savings on those. >> Thanks. Our salt prices for this year, they went up 4%. So, not a huge increase. $99 a ton. This year it'll be $103 a ton. So, um we're we have a full salt shed to start out the year. So, we've lowered our purchase amount. So, we're going to have some savings there at least to get us into 2026. So, >> any questions on the street maintenance budget? >> I just want to talk to you about that salt deal. What uh what depth of snow before you guys plow normally >> on our state aid roads? So our anything over 35 miles or 40 miles and above. We pretty much plow anytime there's snow covering it. We try and keep those clear all the time. >> No matter if it's a half inch or >> Yeah. We try and we'll come in on the weekends and scrape those off. That's safety. There areas that are uh by the schools and the fire departments. We do those pretty much on any snowfall mount that that's sticking and causing issues. full neighborhood plows. Technically, our snowplow policy has two inches, but it's usually an inch, inch and a half where we go out. >> It kind of depends on what the forecast is. If it's going to be warming up, we might not go out if it's going to be >> So, do you make that call? >> I do. Yeah. >> Okay. I was just curious. Thanks. >> Any other questions on that one? A couple other ones that we do. I don't know if there's going to be any questions on them, but we handle the recycling operations. Um, most of this is funded through the grant we get from Inoka County, so there's this is an enterprise fund. Um, it's not it doesn't use general tax money. We use a lot of volunteers for this work from the Lions and the East Bandits. They do almost all the work at the recycle center. >> What pages are recycling on? >> Uh, if you go to page 59 is the is the chart. >> I knew I had questions. There's no no increases on any of that. But, um, kind of the big issue there is, uh, illegal dumping is is kind of our biggest cost right now. People dropping off stuff that they shouldn't be. Um, garbage, couches, certain appliances, uh, if they come out of an RV, they they run on ammonia and they're really expensive to get rid of and those aren't included in what we take there, but we do get those there. We upgraded the camera system. Um, we've been able to identify a few of them there, but that's a work in progress, too. So, but the city ends up being on the hook for paying for that stuff. So, isn't there a cost for people to bring stuff? I mean, at the end of the month, recycling or some things people have to pay. Is those revenues in here somewhere? >> This is just the expenditure side. Mike's got the revenue side, I think, too. >> Yeah. Essentially, all of the the main takeaway, I guess, on your recycling fund is all activities within recycling are covered through the grant. So, um, anything that we do recycling related is reimbursed by Anoka County. The fees that we charge on the end of the month, that goes to the vendors. So, the person who takes our tires, for example, we have to pay to get rid of those tires. It offsets >> where city's just kind of a pass through. Same with fluorescent bulbs, >> um, electronics, things like that. We have a vendor that charges us back and we pay them from what we've collected. >> Oh, I thought we were making a profit on that. >> And again, I guess if you look at this, there's this line item that says fees for 2,000. Essentially, that is a a donation at the recycling center. So, if you dump off your oil, there's a dropbox that collects dollars and we >> That's our profit. >> That's our profit. So, >> Oh, I get it. Yes, but it's uh it's one of the better uh recycling centers in an open county. So, we it gets a lot of praise and uh I don't if you guys know Dallas at all and in the Lions, they do a lot of work down there. So, it's it's a big benefit to our city. >> Any other questions on the recycling? I'll run through the uh water and sewer expenditures just real quick. Um this is all funded by the users. So there again it's a it's an enterprise fund. The uh the big change in the water fund is we just set up another category for water meters. In the past we had built that um this is on page 70. In the past we had built that under utility maintenance supplies and then we charge that back to the uh builders and developers for the water meter. So we don't actually that sometimes that number looks big but all that gets build back to the the builders so doesn't cost the city or anything on those. Um that fund's doing well. We're using 100,000 of it this year to offset the levy. Um operational wise it it uh makes money for the city. So >> yeah, I think one of the big takeaways on this budget here is we're implementing a new line item and it's the last line item on here. It's that debt fund transfer. So essentially >> um again if you take a look at the city budget, we know that salaries and benefits and the law enforcement contract make up the biggest part of your your budget. So when those line items go up 8% and your levy is only going up 3.8%, you kind of scratch your head. And one of the ways we were able to do that is um taking some of these excess funds within your water fund that have been collected since the water and sewer system went in. Again, these are all the hookup charges basically um that have been collected since the the the system went in and now using those dollars to actually pay some of this debt. So again, we've implemented it here at 100,000. So you don't have to levy as much. you're levying $100,000 less, but then it gets um expended right here in your water fund. So, >> I'm confused because this looks like it's an expenditure and adding to the levy $100,000, but you're saying it's coming from >> Yep. >> all the payments coming in. >> Yep. So, essentially, >> that's not making sense to me. >> Yep. The payments happened actually in the past. So all these uh hookup charges that the residential units and the commercial units have paid over the course of the last 10 years have been accumulated in this water fund. So now we're going to use $100,000 of that to pay the debt service fund. So it'll it will be an expenditure to the water fund but >> not the levy a revenue to your debt service fund. But again, it looks like it's adding to the levy amount is what I'm saying. It should be a negative in here or something. Should it's a takeaway? >> Yep. I can show you just real quick, too. All All of this budget is p is not coming from the levity. This is all coming from the user fund. So, none of this is coming from the levy. None of >> none of this is going into that. >> Correct. >> Oh, okay. >> This is all paid for by the users of the water system. >> So, Oh, okay. >> It's enterprise fund. So it's funed by itself kind of separate from the levy. >> Yeah. So if we we kind of skip to the back of the book again kind of saying okay all these expenditures what does it mean for your actual levy for the people that are getting taxed right it's an increase of 3.8%. Well again your general side of the levy went up 6%. This 2015 A debt service went up 3%. But again, because we were able to basically transfer $100,000 from the water fund to this debt service one, we were able to levy that $100,000 less, which then, you know, >> I saw that. I now I get it. Okay. All right. >> These these items are a little bit separate from the actual general fund stuff, but I just want to go over them so everybody's kind of on the same page on how they operate. Yep. >> The next one is the uh sewer budget. We don't really have a we don't do a lot with that. Mainly a collection system when we send it down to the Met Council plant. This is uh item 74 and we're not making any changes really on there at all. So, um we able to lower the loan payment a little bit I think on that one. >> Yeah. I think one thing to note on this is okay so that your water fund is participating in paying back some of these external debt um bond issues. Well, your sewer fund is participating or is paying down that reserve capacity loan. I think everyone's kind of familiar with that we had capped at $2 million. So, you've got the water fund paying down this external debt to your bond holders and then you've got your sewer fund participating or paying down the reserve capacity loan with the Met Council. So, that's what that loan payment and loan uh principle is all about. Yeah, I do have some questions on this though, even though it not really adding like on page 71, the mobile park, the base charge, is that it per month 1,190. Is that for the whole park or is that per house paying? That was a little confusing. >> It's for the whole park. Y >> Okay. Y >> and then the park charges each >> correct. Yep. And we get that question all the time where they call us directly and ask what you know what their rate is and we we don't charge the individual customer. We charge the the park. >> All right. And then on page 72 you know in 2016 this um professional services was $20,000 and now it's up to like 83,000. What is that all about? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So essentially since 2016, I've been keeping track of how much the Met Council is charging the city to treat the wastewater. So in 2016, if you look back or think back, we didn't have a very large customer base. So as customers are getting added to the system, essentially our flows are increasing and the what they're charging us is increasing. So essentially now we're up to I guess I'm not sure how many customers I have. I don't have it on the tip of my tongue, but Basically, it's just due to the amount of customers now that we have on the system. So, and the flow that they're generating. So, as we add customers, that number will just keep on going up. >> Well, no wonder they want us to add houses to that. >> Oh my gosh. Okay. >> And there again, that's built back to the users of the system. They're paid for by the >> And that's how we charge. I got it. Yeah. Good question though. >> Any other questions on those two? Got two more quick ones for you here. Um the ice arena fund. This is page 75 in your pamphlet, your booklet. Um so this is the same thing. It's funded by the users of the ice arena. We don't use general fund levy money at all. In fact, we actually transfer we increased the amount from 59,700 to 67,000. So that goes back into the into the general fund paid for by the users of Ice Arena. So that actually helped lower our our levy. Um we do have we were a little bit short on some of the ice rentals last year from St. Francis Youth Hockey. They had a lot less teams involved in their in their youth program. And then they have some co-ops with other cities. um their girls high school team for example is half St. France is half Cambridge ice. So they split their time between the two buildings. So it depends on where they have their games, who gets the the ice rentals and stuff like that. But we did rent to a lot more different organizations last year than we ever have in the past. We've increased our ad sales there, too. So that's increased. And we increased our dryland floor activities. Looking into the future here, we do have a junior a men's junior team that's going to maybe make East Bethl their home. If that's the case, uh we're going to have a lot more ice and it's during the day and late at night when it's not going to affect um our youth hockey and our high school team. So that's uh it's getting close to being finalized, but they've made that announcement already that they're going to be using East Buffalo as their home rank. So So that should increase revenue quite a bit at this facility. >> All the big repairs that are done there are funded from the this fund. So like the the scoreboard, all that stuff is paid for by the users of Ice Arena. Um, we have a try and build up this capital improvement fund. We've kind of been whittling away at it. It's lowering, but as it stands right now, it's fully funded by users of the ice. So, >> Nate, when that uh when and if that new league comes in, you want to let us know? >> Yeah. Yep. Their biggest concern was uh locker room space. So, we trying to still trying to iron that part of it out, but um we're kind of limited on the locker room space in that building, but >> yeah, I think Nate did a good job explaining that. Two, one thing that happened last year, obviously, is we transitioned from Gibson management management to our own internal team. And I think that did two things uh positively for us. It basically increased our service satisfaction level to I guess the highest that I've ever seen, I guess, here. So, just an exceptional job by our team uh maintaining the facility and servicing that entity. And then again, we were able to actually bill the arena um the arena funds $67,000 basically for labor costs too, which helps bring down your overall levy as well. So, I think overall that transition was extremely positive for the city. >> Good to hear. And Nate, I got a question on this professional or this hockey team coming in. Is that something that the community can get behind, go to the games and stuff like that? >> They're going to have they will have games during prime time, so that will cut in a little bit to some of the other ice times, but they're going to be >> um fully concession stand. The youth hockey is going to run the concession stand during during these games. And yeah, it's a junior men's junior team. They're pretty uh pretty good athletes that play in that that level. So >> awesome. >> Yeah. Yeah, we'll we'll for sure hand out more information once we get closer and get everything dialed in, but it's looking good right now. If not, we can still fun with with what we have to. It's designed to run off the youth hockey, the high school teams and stuff like that. So, any other questions on the arena? And lastly, just a quick uh overview of how our equipment replacement funds works. This is page 88. Each year we go through and uh look at our needs for the next five years and actually going out 20 30 years. We have a spreadsheet that we uh set up what equipment we need to replace, how much money we need to save. Um for 2026, we have a plow truck that's coming due for replacement. This was planned for this year, but if you remember last fall, we moved some stuff around to get rid of a couple diesel smaller trucks and we pushed this truck back. >> Didn't we just get a plow truck? Um, we we just took delivery on one. We ordered it in 2023, 2024, 2023. It takes two years once we actually make the order to get the truck. So, if we order this one uh later this year, maybe November, December, it'll probably show up in 20 late 26, early 27. I think the unique thing about this city which I like is that again we have a comprehensive listing of all the equipment that needs to be replaced a schedule and then that really formulates how much we need to save each year. So that's the kind of the first part of this approval process by the governing body or the city council. But then also throughout that process, Nate is still eval evaluating to make sure that that stuff, you know, either needs to be replaced that year or can be pushed back, right? So kind of the second part of it. And then finally, you know, when it's ready to be replaced, he brings it to the governing body to say, okay, it this plan is actually going to come to fruition. We're going to need to replace this. And then you guys give the final. Okay. So, there's really kind of three different types of steps within this process in order to get these uh equipment placement items accomplished. And you guys are kind of in the loop along the way, which I kind of like. So, what if we don't what if we push everything here from 2026 off a year? Because to me, when I looked at this list, I'm like, none of this looks like it's urgent. It look all looks like it can wait. So, what if we did that? Wouldn't that like decrease the levy, decrease um give us a buffer in our our funding and for future emergencies, future levies, future um necessities? That's my thinking. I I I just feel like we just bought a plow. I don't think we need another one. Um uh the U wood chipper. Do we really need a wood chipper? I mean, can we borrow one? Um, this is awfully small. The I don't even know what a land mo a mower. >> Y >> I thought we recently got a mower, too. And when I was on the council last time, um the mini pumper refurbisher, the Ford quick attack pumper refer I don't even know what that is. So, >> those are for the fire department. So, this has uh yeah, it has a fire department. The big ones are the fire trucks and our plow trucks are the big ticket items. So, for for snow plows, we have six snow plows. One of them's brand new, just got delivery. One of them's 15 years old. That's the one that's getting replaced. So, and the longer we push them off, yeah, there is savings year to year, but the prices go up each year, too. So, it's not a dollar for-dollar savings. >> I thought we only had two plow drivers. >> No, we have eight plow drivers. Nine. when I help. We have five single axles, one backup single axle, four um culde-sac trucks. We got 135 miles of center line of road that we plow takes about 8 to 10 hours to do a plow. So, >> and the longer that we hold on to something that's 15 years old, there's the potential for breakage and costly repairs. And >> we sometimes can get more money when we sell it if we sell it while it's still got some life into it. So, it's it's a balancing act. We try and review this every year. If we can push it back and save some money, we do. So, that's why like this one was actually planned for a couple years ago and we've been pushing it back. The wood chipper was planned for 2012 when I started working here. We've been pushing that back. We're actually going to probably do a uh recommendation for a forestry head instead. That's an attachment that goes on the Bobcat. You don't have to actually physically manhandle a brush. You can just grind it up with the Bobcat. It's a lot safer and more efficient. essentially a large stump grinder or brush brush. >> Yep. Pretty much. Yep. So I And all this money has been saved. It's we're not asking for additionally. We've already been saving for this in our planning schedule. So it's sitting in a fund right now waiting to be used. We don't have to bond for any of this equipment. Um we've been it's been planned since the last time it was purchased. So but there is savings if we can push it back and we try and do that whenever we can. Sometimes you couple years ago we pushed plow trucks back and they went up $80,000 in one year and we did not save that money. We lost out on that. So >> So my other question is these two Fords on here, their fire equipment, correct? >> So how come they're not on the fire department budget? Because I thought they had big equipment on their vehicles were on their own budget and I might be wrong but >> n that was my assumption. So, go ahead. Explain this to me. >> They're in here as well. There's a there's a line item in the fire department for a uh equipment replacement. >> So, they they take a chunk of money out of their budget to put into this. It's kind of mixed into one big balance, but we separate what we have to pay in there between the department. >> Each one of those departments have their own equipment replacement line item within it. So, Nate's parks has a line item within it that has equipment replacement charges. His street department has it. And then the building inspection um department also has an equipment replacement line item. So >> yeah, but then isn't this duplicated? I mean >> this is just what we're going to spend it on where once it comes time to >> this is just a graph pulling everything together into one spot showing correct. You got to remember in today's fire service they jump 18% every year. >> And I know their trucks are out >> and they're out two years or better to get them. >> Got it. >> When you order them nowadays. >> So that's all I have. If anybody has any other questions on that or anything else. >> No, looks good. I appreci appreciate the fact that you assess every piece of equipment and get the best life out of it and work the balancing act that if we can save it for longer than we can and save some money or sell it at the best selling point. So, I do appreciate it. Like you said, you took the uh wood chipper from 2012 and pushed it all the way to >> Yeah. >> today. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thanks. 68. >> All right, we're running up against a little bit of a time crunch, but I wanted to just touch on general government section of your budget. So, again, that captures uh council, city administration, election, finance, assessing, legal, government buildings, and risk management. Um, are there any questions I guess right off the top that we can answer for you in relation to those budgets? >> What page? >> This is just going to be >> page 11 on the Well, that's for the administration on 11 >> kind of taking a big chunk here. It's going to start on page uh we can just do page five really and under general government. I think the big takeaways again are a 15% increase to your city administration department. Again, that's primarily going to be your salary and wages, that 8% and the budget modules for civic plus. Um a 525% increase for your elections. Obviously, that's a little misleading because it's an every other year type deal. So that goes from, you know, 4,000, which is just going to be the equipment lease essentially from the county, up to the full operation of your elections, which is now budgeted at 25,000. Um, finance again is going up 6%. Again, that's primarily just going to be the wages. Um, assessing is going to stay flat at 63,500. Your legal costs bumping up. Again, just kind of looking at history and what we're forecasting for um the first five months of that contract. Then for 2026, increasing that 5% or $10,000. Government buildings, again, that's kind of uh your your cleaning, your your garbage, your electricity, all all that kind of things for your government buildings. And then under risk management, again, increasing that by 22% based upon that mandated Minnesota paid leave program with the state, which we're still trying to kind of iron out iron out and get our arms around as far as how that's going to be implemented. So, are there any questions on the general government uh department uh budgets? >> Well, I have questions. Why are elections like $10,000 more they than they were in 24? What's the increase in the cost that extra 10,000? >> Yep. So, that's a good question. So, essentially back in 20 24 there was a little bit of a issue um recruiting election judges. So looking back at that, we're going to we're going to do some research and figure out a good a good wage to raise that to moving into 2026. So that'll help retain and help with recruitment of election judges. And there is some overtime that actually was recorded in administration that actually is an election um expense. So, so all Car's time actually gets coded to administration, but if you broke it down by what her function was that particular time set, it it goes to elections. So, >> I got it. >> Yep. >> And then for the city administration, the um cola was 8%, but why is the increase 15%? What else is included in that? >> Yep. though essentially we added a line item for the Civic Plus modules again which we're Yep. which we're still again when everything is kind of set on that we'll distribute those to the actual departments that are benefiting from those modules but as we're still researching it and trying to get our arms around what modules are needed um they've all just kind of been captured within the city administration department. >> Okay. And I'm guessing the big increase in the planning and zoning is that part of landform part of that or >> Yep. Yep. That's a good question. So going down to our community development um section, we have planning and zoning and building inspection. Planning and zoning is actually going down 8%. And one of the ways that we again cushioned that levy increase into 2026 is we said, "Okay, we've had some kind of some challenges recruiting a community development director." So again, knowing that there's some challenges, let's hold off into 2026 and only fund that position at 2/3. So again, um if we only fund it at 2/3, that means there's a decrease in that actual department of 8%. the building inspection. Again, there we're fully funding all the positions and then that's where that 8% comes in. So, in total, it only increases that department by 5%. >> Okay. All right. Now, down to engineering. It's a 10 It's a little over a $10,000 increase. So far we've only spent7,000. So why is it 20,000? I mean it was in 23 and 24 it was under 10,000. So far this year we've not even reached 10,000 but they've got it for 20,000. >> Yep. It's a it's a good question. Yep. So if you're basically just going to base the 2026 budget on the actuals of 24 and 25 or 23 and 24, you would budget it at 10,000. Um but again depending upon how some of these projects that we have in the pipeline are going. A lot of the engineering bill that comes in we actually can build back to specific um other departments and and funds. Um but there are things that we can't. Um one of them is that water and water project u that Matt is looking to get bonding dollars for. So any kind of work done with that or any kind of work that you know that's outside of a project that we can't build back to. So again just leaving ourselves a little bit of wiggle room with that. >> Okay, makes sense. >> The only other I guess department we haven't really touched on is your civic events and that is your booster day fireworks. So again that we're maintaining that at $6,500 essentially. I think we tell the fireworks folks that that's the budget we have to work with and then they kind of work within the confines of that to produce the show. Any other questions kind of on the expenditure side? We have a little bit of time. I'd like to touch on the revenue side of things too before we adjourn. But are there any questions on the general fund expenditure side of things? Okay. So if we kind of just go down our expenditure, our revenue side of your general fund, again, the biggest component of your general fund revenue is your property taxes, right? So that's the one that's increasing by 6%. But again, if you add up all your leveies, right, that'll actually be on the tax statement that your constituents get, it'll be 3.8% increase, right? your franchise tax. That's a monthly uh cash receipt that the city gets for franchise fees administered by Midcontinent. So, anyone who has Mid-Continent pays a little bit of money, a little bit of additional money to Mid-Continent and they turn around and pay the city. Again, that's essentially based upon the amount of users they basically have or subscriptions. So, again, we're averaging right in that $57,000 mark. um payment in lie of taxes. Again, that's the nexus agreement that was signed a couple of years ago that essentially outlines that instead of paying taxes, they pay $25,000 um to the city. Again, that's mostly used to um cushion any kind of public service or u um public safety um increases for that entity. There's where that $200,000 in fund balance comes from. Again, that's what we've accumulated over the years with potential savings or savings that we've had. And we say now that we can use some of that in order to cushion the levy. I'm going to make this a little bigger so you can see I can't use what are some other big ones. Building inspection uh permits. Again, these are all the permits that our building inspection folks do and just basing it on kind of what we're anticipating and what has happened in the past. We're increas we're increasing that by 12%. State aid um again that's an allocation basically from the uh state of Minnesota for your roads. So each year we get two different uh payments from them and we're anticipating that being a 12% increase or 263,000. What else do we have? >> So when you anticipate does that usually come to futition or do you end up getting less or do you end up getting more? >> Yeah, good very good question. So recently obviously the state has had some pretty big surpluses but as we all know now they're facing some deficits. So, you know, I don't have a crystal ball as to how that's going to affect streets, but I know in the past that the first thing that they usually touch is LGA, which is local government aid. And I guess the city doesn't actually receive any of those dollars. So, that's one benefit of not even getting any of those. But, it is somewhere on the pecking order of things that they could adjust to make their budget work. So, but it hasn't happened to us in recent years. So, but it's a good question. Intergovernmental charges. Again, this is a this is the line item where the general fund is actually billing back these other funds for services provided. So, for example, when the city took over the arena, the general fund can bill that arena fund money in order to service that entity. And again, so you've got the water fund, the sewer fund, the arena, um the EDA, and the HA essentially getting services by your general fund staff, and then it's build and received here. Another big line item, I guess, is your interest earnings. Interest rates continue to kind of stay, I guess, relatively stable right now. And again, that's just a forecasted number because we don't know what interest rates are going to do in 2026. But again, looking at kind of the history of what our portfolio was produced, we're comfortable raising that up 50% orund to $120,000. So again, you add up all those revenues and that's what funds all those expenditures again that we had discussed previously. So $7.4 4 million in revenue then balances your expenditure budget to zero. With that, are there any other questions or concerns on anything that we can answer? >> So, overall, we're looking at a 3.8% increase. >> That is correct. So one of the things is is I put the back of the book actually on page one of your book. So all that stuff taken into account we are proposing to raise your levy 3.8%. So going from this 6,392,500 to 6,638,600 or 3.8. So then the next question usually is asked, okay, so what does that mean for my property taxes? Well, for the city portion, right, if all your values stayed the same, right, your house value and every value in the city stays the same, your property taxes would go up 3.8%. But we all know that that's not how it works, right? There's other factors involved, right? It's what your value is doing in conjunction with the city as a whole, right? But on average, your constituents would see a 3.8% 98% increase to just the city line item within your budget or within their tax statement what they see which they would see in November. >> Traditionally, I believe we've usually try to get between two and three. Correct? Yep. I've got a nice chart that I can show you. So these are our levy trends from 2014 when I showed up. 2014 was that standing room only meeting that we had. It was I'm not sure how many weeks I was on the job, but it was basically a recalibration of your levy in order to get it so we could maintain this, you know, modest increases as we as we go. So we've averaged anywhere from we'll say.9% increases now to 3.8%. With obviously this high water mark was just to recalibrate your levy and that was basically to start funding for the the debt service on the water and sewer project on 65. And I know you don't have crystal ball, but if we did the 3.8% for the next year, would that be a trend that it would keep going, keep increasing or >> Right. >> Actually, yeah. Actually, one of the drivers this year was the union negotiation and kind of um the wages that's been talked about this evening. Those are in a three-year contract, so they'll be going down to 3% for the next two years. So, we'll be able to stabilize a little bit from there short of unknown expenses coming in, you know. >> Yeah. I think the the long-term strategy obviously was to have a one-time market rate adjustment for the salaries and then get back in line with what a standard inflation would be. So, that's going to be in 2027 and 28. And then using $200,000 in fund balance, but slowly whittling our need off of that. So whittling our way off of it. So going from 200 to 175 and and and all all at the same time keeping the levy increases to that zero to 3%. I think has been the overall strategy since I've been here. So >> So we in the future would be we can consider this a one time and in the future will be reduced down to >> Yeah. I mean, each year kind of brings its own challenges, but the one big challenge this year was the the wage correction and then but um I think the goal is to keep it in that zero to 3% each year. So, >> all right. >> So, if we put off that snow plow for one year, would it be would that bring it down to closer to 3%. the mechanically? No. But one of the things is is that transfer that equipment replacement transfer that we would do, right? You you would have to reduce that down in order to actually affect your levy to think about this. I know 15 years on a plow truck is a significant amount of time. Um I think that they do a pretty honest consideration of where that vehicle is at and how much life is left in it that um I would defer to them on that and their expertise on that one. Okay. So, just want to go over one more slide here. Get out of here quick just to make sure we're all on the same page. So, we'll go back to this budget levy and timeline. So, again, we're at uh July 14th where we're kind of discussing all the inputs that went into this budget model. We had presentations kind of by your department heads and leads. The next item then within our budget process is our September 8th meeting where we will consider the adoption of the preliminary that should say 2026 budget and levy. And then again depending upon how that goes um the one thing to note on that is the levy can no longer be increased at that point but only decreased moving into December. So but that's kind of the timeline and obviously Matt and I are available anytime that anyone wants to sit down and go through any of these budgets in a little bit more in depth. We'll we're happy to uh to do that as well. So, >> okay. >> With that, are there any other questions or concerns? >> Yeah, I have a question. When we talk about this $200,000 general fund transfer, you know, to cover some of the costs of this levy, how much money is is that the max we can go? >> Another good question. And so essentially we set we set that based upon if I just kind of look at uh if we just want to look at the fund balance. I'm just going to bring it up because it's just easier. So one of the things on the the timeline is essentially completing your audit and that gives us the starting point for what your fund balance is. So we completed your 2024 audit and the audited figure was a 5.2 2 million fund balance at the end of 2025. Then we have to estimate because we don't know how we're going to end. But given that we're planning on using $200,000 in 25 as well, we'll just reduce it down and say that at the end of 25, we're we're thinking we'll have about $5 million in fund balance. That's where your policy then comes into play is our policy says that we need to keep anything we need to keep 40% of next year's budgeted expenditures. So again the 2026 potential use of fund balance is $1.3 million. But again, I think the long-term strategy is to use 200,000 and then just slowly whittle our way off of it until all that excess fund balance is kind of used up, right? Because as we're increasing our um expenditures, then the requirement for fund balance increases as well. And then just a reminder too on this 2026 category right here, if you go if you see a number over here like $4,700, you can find that number on this side and it'll give you a little more detail as to what that number is all about. You have any questions on that. But again, we're available if you want to sit down and chat and dig into this a little further, we're certainly available for that. So >> yeah, this fund balance item can get a little confusing. So if you want to sit down and and discuss a little bit more in depth, we can. >> Any other questions? >> No. Thanks for putting all this together, Mike. >> Yep. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Entertain a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All in favor? I >> none. Meetings go.