okay it is 7 o' I'm going to call the meeting to order please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the United States of America indice all right uh can I get a motion to approve the agenda I'll make a motion to approve the agenda got a motion by council member mck I'll second and a second by council member pman all those in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes all right uh Community comment presenters are welcome to address the council for up to five minutes on matters not listed on tonight's meeting agenda specific requests for information may not be immediately available in which case followup will occur with the presenter sometime after the meeting the city council should not be expected to immediately act on requests however they will follow up accordingly in May's schedule items for future consideration um tonight we are joined uh by Abby who's here for government class and we asked her to come up and say hi and introduce herself so come on up um there should be a little green light on okay you can sit down yeah take a seat make yourself at home okay so can you introduce yourself and if you're comfortable telling us your address yeah so um I'm Abby I go to Mayor Lutheran High School and I'm here for my government class awesome um I live in Copper Hills at 1707 Pebblestone Road awesome so what did you think you you were going to see tonight um I wasn't really sure I was expecting more people um but I've never been to one of these before so I didn't really know what to expect right I just heard from like my government teacher that it's like some people may show up people may not show up it really depends so yeah in Carver I would say and it's it's kind of a bummer but a lot of the work that we do looks like this the individuals that are all sitting at the tables they work for the city the woman in the back room is doing the video recording so like you are our guest today like we said we're very excited to see you because we always like having guests at our meetings and people who want to participate in the process so thank you for coming I appreciate it uh we think it'll be us short meeting tonight but whenever we say that I feel like we get off on attang and ourselves so hopefully that isn't all right thanks for coming I appreciate it um okay any other doesn't look like we have anybody on the zoom um so let's go to presentations and reports the Strategic Plan update Mr Mayor uh thank you mayor and Council so happy to share our first update on the Strategic plan that you worked uh so hard on this uh past spring um and I think we have a lot to uh tell you related to progress but it's also a time to kind of affirm the goals that you have and if something isn't making sense or if you want to make adjustments you can also do that so um going to can I run through this um so first strategic initiative is to enhance enhance Financial strength so reduce the Reliance on debt uh stable cons and consistent rates and demonstrated Financial strength and so had a number of targets one of them being uh to reduce uh Capital purchases by uh or increase cash balance on uh Capital purchases by 10% annually so your uh 2024 budget you just went through a draft two of the general fund increases Capital funding by 65% so that is well in excess of of 10% um another piece that we had talked about is uh tax rate and kind of controlling the es and flows of that for a consistent tax rate and so right now the draft two shows a 2.3% increase to that tax rate again that's just preliminary so you'll have some additional time to uh to review that um and then getting into some of initiatives uh reportable progress on the 10-year financial plan uh as you know we've had ongoing presentations related to uh 10year plans going from five years to 10 years and then expanding the scope of that so in the past we were doing streets but now we've done hiring uh we've done uh uh buildings and Facilities we've done equipment for fire uh public services and uh Community Development and so really kind of leaning in to that plan um moving into improve and I'm just going to kind of keep going if you have questions feel free to stop me uh but moving into our kind of second area of our second strategic initiative is improving improved operations uh So Satisfied employees enough capacity to meet core service demands and well-managed operations uh satisfied employees I think this is a combination not just of our iic plan but using the feedback that was collected from the employee survey uh that was a year and a half ago or a year ago um but Brenda good is part of uh our Sunshine Squad uh so they implemented seasonal hours for season or City Hall staff by coming up with that idea the sunshine squad has also put together ice cream socials and group lunches so it just kind of uh building that kind of fellowship and camaraderie among City staff um enough capacity to meet core service demands so the council uh authorized uh the team to move forward with a public services utility superintendent in 2023 and so that really will kind of strengthen our bench as it relates to some of our core service duties as it relates to water and sanitary sewer service uh Chad and a couple other folks I think we're interviewing this week this week for utility superintendent so uh interviewing six candidates so we'll have more to report back here in a few weeks um uh moving on to the uh strategic initiatives uh we presented the concept of the 10-year Staffing plan to the Council on the 26 uh Chad's working on a vehicle and Equipment scorecard so that's similar to the Street rating we're going to come up with a rating system for our equipment uh so just kind of another uh data set or uh um metric for you to measure when vehicles and equipment should be replaced uh the council approved the classification and compensation study at your August 7th meeting and then uh earlier this summer you completed your review of the pure City cohort so as you can see um when you look back there's quite a few things that you've already accomplished related to the Strategic plan uh moving on to responsive development uh report of progress I presented the concept for the county road 40 uh visioning all call uh session at the July 17th um work session uh staff has held a kind of a private uh open house with residents immediately in the area along Main Street in Oak and then we're planning to present that vision and concept during the uh fire department openhouse activities on October 3rd um moving to stable infrastructure systems so that's reliable infrastructure systems aligned with growth plan and expanded Park system again I had mentioned the authorization of the public utility superintendent uh related to targets uh approve the council approved the Sixth Street West Trail connection and I've already gotten quite a bit of feedback actually from residents on how well that turned out and some new opportunities for exploring different a different part of the city that's maybe nontraditional as far as like a paveed trail I think once you get up into that kind of flat area on that old railroad Corridor it's kind of a a cool walk if you will um the Park and trail Improvement program a in Smith is presenting that at your next work work session on uh September 8th um and then finally Focus Communications uh this is probably the an area that we've done the least amount of work in related to like uh specifics within the Strategic plan however we're really trying to kind of pinpoint some questions and develop strategies based on results that we get in the 2024 Community survey so if you want to be thinking about questions that uh you might want to ask related to these strategies I know that as a staff team we're developing some things that we'd like to know then be able to measure going forward as it relates to these items so um probably goes with without saying but this is a very important step in our process there are many communities organizations that spend a lot of time on strategic plan and I am proud of the work that we've all done to keep on top of these objectives so that they don't get stale or we forget what our intent was and so the idea is to continue that conversation uh look at what we had but also right siize it in the past there have been initiatives that after you know 6 months or a year you've said I don't know if that really fits anymore and you've deleted it or you've added to so this is a living document if you see things you want amended uh goals you want adjusted or need clarification or uh priorities Chang this is also another great opportunity to do that so happy to answer any questions or take any comments that you have questions comments I think this is oh go ahead just one thing I know we don't have any reporting out on it move from Able a to Able a plus for credit scoring um is that just a function of the next audit that we would have any impact there and does a moving to a 10-year plan has that ever been accounted for in our audit it's not it's not a function of the audit audit is a component of it but we so anytime the city um seeks to sell bonds we go through a rating and it's the combination excuse me of our audit our planning documents our other Financial strategies our financial reporting um our our debt to tax base ratio all those are um factored into the overall rating um and so we'll be developing uh with some support from some of our financial uh Partners some strategies and this is part of it frankly um um but in 2024 we have an A we'll have a rating call if the council moves forward with the equipment certificate um and some of the Public Services uh bonding Authority and we'll get a rating call um and we'll get some feedback direct feedback um we'll get a new rating um but prior to that we'll be working on some strategies and develop identifying some maybe some priorities within those strategies that might help us in 2024 but it's uh it's not as simple as like if we do these three things you'll get this because it's um you know the the ra the rating folks you know we'll do an interview with those folks for like maybe an hour over a conference call they'll get all our documents they'll ask us a series of questions but how they compute that raing is somewhat a little bit ambiguous I know they they use a methodology we're just we're not kind of behind the curtain with with if you will on kind know what all the inputs are and how heavily they're weighted uh can depend on the Raider and what the market or the economy and Trends are doing at that specific point in time thanks any other comments no no I was gonna say I think this is great to periodically check in this is a strategic plan that's different from the ones that I have been involved in previously so I like to see the direction that we're going and it's hard work but I think it'll all be end thank you um all right we have no public hearings this evening can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda a motion M counc member Sarah I'll second and a second by council member pushman any further discussion uh I want to make sure that we thank the caror Lions for $112,000 towards the fireworks fund thank you very much the cover lions are very happy to do it I'm sure if you were starting to say I earlier started out going um okay yes uh thanks to the Lions indeed all those in favor say I I I oppose same sign motion passes all right uh looks like we don't have any business items uh Council updates you did them in the work session all right Council updates Mr pman I did not have any updates since the last council meeting all right Miss s um I had one meeting last Monday um regarding the fire board and I just thought it was such a good thing that you can just tell our fire department works with some of the neighboring communities where we have an opportunity to buy some used vehicles that I don't think if if they didn't have that relationship we wouldn't have even known about the opportunity so just kind of neat to see that um in action so things are moving forward there's a possibility that we' be able to add those vehicles to our Fleet so that's was kind of my big take away from the meeting SM um I was in the same meeting with Lori we're a on to that um I think it is commendable to note that the fire department um and looking at purchasing those ve new vehicles um did look at purchasing some from Chanhassen and in and we're looking at the budget they were going to be able to get two now for the basically the price of one and actually about 10,000 cheaper than we were looking at so I think that's very commendable that they're looking for cost savings where it is appropriate and where it makes the most sense um in that meeting we did talk a little bit about some of our future purchases um which again with townships um can be a little bit of sticker shock but I think they have um a relatively good faith in in our fire department for coming with their needs to them um and they had um they seemed very positive about the plan that we had set forth for them and looking into the future when when it comes to spacing and um different vehicle needs so I thought it was a very good meeting overall uh I'm going to stick on the fire department here so Steamboat Days is coming up this weekend I think we all know that um the Friday 8 through 10 Friday we do have a little bit of a change in the lineup so there was a a fireman from B plain who did pass away um recently and his his wake is on Friday evening so we have canceled the water fights because our fire department and some of the surrounding Community departments will be paying their respects that night there uh we do have a couple of of firefighters um who are going to be staying back we're going to be doing a smaller showcase down there they're going to bring the uh the simulator for learning how to use a fire extinguisher I think we've probably seen that with the flames and um they'll have some other demos down there but it'll be a much smaller event um and we certainly understand that when things like that happen so uh we do have Saturday night the fireworks that Eric just mentioned we and Southwest Transit has expanded bus rides if you want to get a ride down here parking is always a premium so if you're able to catch the bus it now runs from 5: until 11: p.m. on Saturday Sunday's the parade and that has kind of consumed the world for now so I don't have anything else besides that right uh a few updates from me uh a couple weeks ago now week of our last council meeting uh Eric and I presented the Edith an award to Jim and Becky helbing that's the one that's essentially uh for those who take pride in landscaping and the exterior of their homes so it was fun to visit with them and see their Gardens um they live at I don't know if I said this 1914 fton Road um the star of the show however was Willie their German Shephard who is just a sweetheart um but they have really great Gardens so they welcome all the addition traffic that this award may bring um last Tuesday we made it official and I was able to participate in the groundbreaking for HomeTown Bank which will be located up near uh uh Quick Trip as you all know so very exciting um to participate in that already have been driving past there and there's starting to be some activity up there they're hoping to have like literally shovels in the ground in a couple weeks so and they're hoping for a May or a June opening so which will be here before we know it um last week was the back to school bash in community park and that was a really great event last year it was a little bit slow this year they had the Middle School Garage bands which if you've never seen are really stinking good they were playing uh guns and& roses as I was walking to the park and like they're really good and these are middle school kids like amazingly good I couldn't believe it so that was fun to watch along with the food trucks and then there were folks doing a a skateboarding demonstration and just lots of good fun stuff that uh was a partnership with chasa Park and rexs the school department in the city of Carver so really I think it was the garage bands and the families of those kids that brought a lot of folks to the park it's really a good draw it was a really fun event so thank you to everybody who helped on that especially Brenda um let's see the Minnesota mayor Association is doing a series of Mayor meetups in communities across the state for a number of years uh for like the last three or four years the MMA has canell their annual conference there was Co thrown in there and then there's just been low um registration numbers for that so it's had to been cancelled so we're trying something a little bit different this year and having meetups in communities across the state and last uh Thursday uh we had an event in Fair uh it was in farbo and we started off at TriStar which is one of their big Industries down there it's a company that essentially makes power equipment so generators solar panels a little bit of everything but if you've ever seen one of the big Sun Belt mobile generators or something that says cat on the side of it chances are that TriStar made that so we had a factory tour and kind of learned about that industry and then we went to their downtown area and kind of learned about more of the industry downtown um which includes a brewery a Distillery and crybaby Craigs hot sauce if you've ever seen that it was a brand that I was familiar with and I don't know where I saw it but it's been on a restaurant table somewhere um where I've eaten so just a really cool story of um for cryb Craigs they started out in Northeast Minneapolis and wanted to expand and there wasn't anything that would suit them and they found themselves in fairbow so really really cool um last thing I think on my list in addition to being excited for steo days during steo days on Saturday I will do mayor's office hours right here on Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. so I think that is it if nobody else has anything else I would entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn motion by council member Mack I'll second and a second by council member Sarah all those in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes good evening