Recording in progress. Nice smiling group of us there. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Chesa City Council meeting for Monday, July 21st uh at 7 o'clock. Call this meeting to order. Let's go ahead and stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, Lee, would you please call roll? Council member Hatfield >> here. >> Council member Bennish, >> here. >> Council member Chevlin. Council member GR >> here. Mayor Hubard >> here. >> All right. Next we have adopt the agenda. Do anybody have any additions or questions on the agenda? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion to adopt. >> Motion to adopt agenda. >> Motion by council member Hatfield. >> Second. >> And second by council member uh Benish. Uh all those in favor >> I >> opposed. Agenda is adopted and I'm not ready fully apparently. Okay. Okay, next we have visitor presentation. Is anybody here for a visitor presentation that is not on the agenda? If so, you can go ahead and step forward. See nobody running up to the podium. I'm going to say we can move on on the agenda. Uh next, we have approval of the previous meeting minutes from uh June 30th uh 2025. Any questions or additions or changes on the minutes? >> Motion to approve the minutes. >> All right. Motion from council member Gra. >> Second. >> Second by council member Benes. Any discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Minutes are approved. >> And then that moves us along to consent items. These are items on the agenda that received little to no discussion, although we can certainly pull something off um if we do want to have a bigger discussion. Um with that, is there any questions or Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion to adopt the consent items. >> Motion to adopt the consent. >> All right, we have a motion from council member Benes. >> Second. >> A second from council member Hatfield. Any discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> All right. Consent is approved. And then that moves us to our action items, which uh 8A. First one is the 2024 annual financial reports. >> Mayor and council, the item in front of you tonight is something that uh we're required to do uh each year uh which is to basically look back on the previous year's uh full financial uh position. Uh have an auditor, independent auditor come in, uh review our financial statements, make sure it meets all legal requirements and auditing requirements. uh and then um uh offer an opinion on uh whether uh whether we meet compliance requirements. Um I'm going to turn it over to uh Null Gray, our administrative service director, who will talk about uh a little bit about the process this year and then also the new auditing firm that uh that we brought in this year to uh go through the process. >> Thank you, Matt. Bear, members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity tonight. As Matt has said, we are coming forward to you tonight with the financial reports for both the city of Chaska and from the Chaska Fire Relief Association. Both entities have been audited by an independent auditor in accordance with requirements for state statute. Those statutes require that the city complete a annual financial report each year and then have those financial statements audited by an outside independent auditor. So tonight um I'd like to first of all um acknowledge the two individuals from Clifton Larson Allen who are with us. The auditing firm is commonly referred to as CLA. Um our first individual is Mr. Christopher or Chris Kopic. He is the principal um or partner who is in charge of the audit with at CLA for us. And uh Mr. Ezra Ketszy who is the in charge manager for the audit and worked very closely with leading the staff from CLA that was involved with the audit here at the city. Um they're both going to be making a presentation of their efforts and their findings and the reports that they have issued as a part of their audit process. As Matt has indicated, this is the first year that um CLA has performed the audit. In 2024, the city council after we took a request for proposal to the market selected CLA as the new auditor. Um, we have tenatively engaged with them for a five-year term to do five audits. Uh, we do have the option to review that on an annual basis prior to each engagement. Um, we have also um, this is the first time we've changed auditors in 25 years. We had several engagements with the previous auditor. We were very pleased with the um competitive proposals that we received and the quality of services that were available to perform the audit and we're very pleased with getting through the audit this year with CLA um as a part of our process for concluding the 24 fiscal year. Um, one of the things that we make sure that we work with, um, when we select the auditor is to make sure that they're in a position to be qualified to help us implement generally accepted accounting principles that we must follow in accordance with statute as well as gazsby or governmental accounting standard board principles that do need to be implemented. So at times we may refer to different gazsby statements, gazsby 101, gazsby 102. These are the statements that they issue and then we have to work through to make sure that we are in compliance with their reporting requirements. Um for the city of Chaska, the primary report is our 2024 comprehensive annual financial report. Um this is about 178 pages long. It's wonderful reading if you're uh looking for something to read before you go to bed at night. Um but it does break down into several sections. I'm going to go through in a little bit. There's also then several reports that the uh auditor does issue. The primary one is their opinion that's included in the report by the city. Um and then the other reports are requirements that they have to make either under federal or state requirements as a part of their findings and they'll be reviewing their reports in more detail. The fire relief also does a report. It's not as comprehensive. It's referred to as an annual financial report. Um and so that report is reviewed as a part of an audit engagement as well. And then CLA also issued their audit finding reports. Um their opinion was included in the fire relief um AFR and then their other reports were issued and all those have been submitted as reported. So just to get started here, I like to start with just five numbers to help give people a perspective. 178 pages, but from an operational perspective, what does it represent? If we look at our total expenditures for the city in 24 we incurred over $119 million in operating expenditures. Now that's down a little bit from the prior year by about 8.4 million but it's really close to say we're $120 million operation. Very significant size for a city our size. When you look at that as the base and we start saying okay what is what makes up those expenditures? We operate over nine enterprise funds. These are utilities, electric water, sewer, our recreational funds, golf courses, community center, our uh curling convent center, as well as other funds like our gas turbine fund and our storm water utility fund. Those nine enterprise funds total 75.3 million or 63% of our total expenditures, a very significant portion of what the city's operations are. Of that 63% 47.6 million or 40% is just the electric fund. That is probably our largest operating fund in the city. It's a very significant operation. It's also a very significant revenue source to the city. our general fund, which is all of our general governmental services that people think of, police, fire, parks and recreation, streets, um, snowplowing, all of the code enforcement requirements. And the general administration and HR and finance and payroll, those are our general governmental operations. That's 22% or about $25.7 million of operations. still a very significant number, but you can begin to see it's sort of small when you start comparing it to all the enterprise funds. Well, the general government operations are supported by an annual tax levy, which in 24 was 18.1 million. That's about 15% of our total expenditures. That means 85% of what we incur to deliver services in the community is coming from sources other than the tax levy itself. So we've talked about a $120 million operation all the way down to our levy for about$ 18.1 million. It's a very interesting understanding. We start to look at what the city is engaged in. This report really first of all I want to review is the city's report. This is something that the staff prepares. Uh we work all year to operate our financial system, maintain our trial balances and records so that they're available to be audited by an outside auditor. And this report breaks down into really um three different sections. The first section is the introductory section in the front. It's pages 1 through 10. If you're a first-time reader and don't want to go into a lot of detail, this will give you a good overview of the city's financial operations, what we do, what the different operations are in the city. It'll also give you an organizational chart. It reviews who the assist the city officials are. It's a very good first time read for someone who's picking up the report. The second section is the financial section. It begins on page 11. And that begins with the auditor's report that I referred to earlier. Um, it's actually a four-page report to get that opinion in there. The bottom line on this report is it's referred to as an unmodified or clean opinion. That means there's no qualifications that they found in their audit. It's the highest level opinion that they can issue for the report. Um, it is our goal to make sure we maintain that through our operations each year to maintain that status. Um the rest of this section then contains the management discussion and analysis. This is commonly referred to as the MDNA. This is where city staff has gone through and analyzed and discussed what occurred in the the general fund, the utility funds, what were the operations, what increases did we see in costs, what increases do we see in revenue, and try to give some background on what occurred during the year as well as our financial position as of the end of that fiscal year. Um just as an example, if you look at their basic financial statements, our net position at the end is about 271 million. So $120 million of expenses each year, if you look as from a total investment asset position, we have a value of about 271 million. So a very substantial size for a city of less than 30,000. So it's very significant um to make note of that. Um the other section of this um second section I should say is what we refer to as major and non- major funds. The major funds are those based on size. Our general fund is a major fund. Some of our other utility funds are also classified as major funds and so they're highlighted in the front of the financial section. Other less smaller significant funds are reported under non- major and there's individual statements that address each of those funds. Um, one of the things that I wanted to highlight in our general fund, which is always a major fund, is that we do have we did see a change in our fund balance of about $1.4 million increase. Um this primarily comes from some uh additional revenues we saw during the year in our building permit activity which is very strong but it also represents another year of the additional 300,000 that the city council has been um setting aside as a part of our fund balance reserves in the general fund. back in about 2019 2020 uh when we were working with Standard and PORS they gave us a what I would call like a warning on our bond rating saying we're seeing a decline in your reserve levels we'd like to see those reestablished and after about two years they lifted that warning and we continue to to uh add that additional 300,000 a year to the fund balance which has continued to improve the financial position in the general fund um expenditures ES in the general fund were a total of about $25.7 million. That was an increase of about $2.2 million compared to the prior year. And a lot of that has to do with public safety um costs that we've incurred um as well as just some retirements that we're seeing in our staffing levels as we've had to either pay out leave time for employees as they're leaving. And we do set aside reserves for that as a part of our reserves. Each year we make an estimate on what's expected um so that we've got reserves to cover those payouts, but then we also may have additional costs as we um bring on additional staff to back fill those positions. And so there were some of those added costs in 2024. A second major fund that is included is our electric fund. Um net assets unrestricted um were about $10.6 million in that fund. We had operating expenses of 47.1 million which was down about 500,000 but that really is a very small decrease at this point. It has to do with some of our capitalization. So that when developers are developing a new area they put in the electric infrastructure. We have to recognize that donated infrastructure the electric fund. So it was a very small um change in the financial position. The electric fund overall continues to grow in terms of size as well as operating revenues. After we go through the financial statements, then we have the detailed notes to the financial statements. This begins on page 45. Um this is the very detailed disclosures where we'd explain what is behind the assets, the liabilities, the change in our revenues, the changes in our expenditures during the year. And these most of these disclosures that we make are in accordance with the Gazsby requirements on what we have to report. Um if someone is doing a deep um review of what is our financial position and our operations, someone who's like a bond analyst who's trying to review our credit rating worthiness, they're reviewing the financial statements along with the notes to the financial statement. Those two together make the meat of the report. Um the rest of the section is really then the individual fund and combining statements. Like I said, those are for less of the uh non- major funds, but they are included in the report. The third and final section is the statistical section, and that begins on page 144. This is really the part of the report that looks at 10-year historical trends. So, if an analyst is trying to understand, is your fund balance changing over time? This is where they're going to go to look at how that has changed. if they're looking at our taxes, our revenues, our expenditures, they can see the 10-year history on this. All of these numbers in the statistical section for 2024 tie back into the financial statements that are in the prior portion of the report. So, that is a very detailed section that is used um um by the analysts who are looking for trend information. Couple highlights real quick from 2024. We did have a federal single audit done. Um, what that means is if we receive more than $750,000 in expenditures that will be reimbursed through federal sources, we then have to go through an additional audit process with the auditors. They have additional testing and reporting requirements that they have to go through and that federal single audit then is completed and submitted as a part of the audit conclusion process at the end. Um we did have that in um in 24. That threshold will be increasing to a billion dollars in 25. Even with that increase, we anticipate we're probably going to be back again next year with another federal single audit as we continue to work on closing out some of our current projects and the potential for additional federal funding in future years. Um in the in um implementing the um the financial reporting for 24, we reviewed with the auditor um several prior period adjustments where we basically restated where we said we were at at the end of 23. The one that we u brought to the attention of the auditors was um a restatement of how we rec how we classified some of our fixed assets. We had the option of disclosing several of our street and utility assets as infrastructure assets. And what we decided to do was reclassify the water, sewer, storm water portion of the street in the utility fund and leave the street in the infrastructure area. That reclassification is going to make it easier for us in the future when we're setting rates in the utility funds to make sure that we are including all of the assets as a part of the recovery process. with setting rates. We have always done that as a part of our rate setting process. We just had to draw the assets from two different locations. Now all of those um utility assets are in the utility fund itself. Um this is a the concluding step on an effort that began in 2019 when we began to reclassify our assets going forward based on the utility characteristic and not just the infrastructure. What this adjustment represents is any of the prior assets to 2019 that we went through and analyzed and allocated and then reclassified. So we reviewed this with the new auditor. They understood why we were making this change. With the change in auditor was a very good time to bring that to a conclusion. There were three other adjustments that were made. I'm going to let um CLA review those in more detail later. Primarily it came down to guidance we had from working with the prior auditor. didn't align with what CLA was recommending to us in working with them. We agreed that we would move forward under their guidance and so we made those adjustments. It didn't really change our financial position, but it did sort of change some of the methods that we would use to measure some of our assets and liabilities. It again, it doesn't change our financial position, but it does change how we measure and make some of those assumptions. Um, the last thing I'd like to highlight is every quarter we share with the council our cash and investment report. And in there we have a total cash balance of 103 million. I wish I could say we can go spend that, but we've already restricted um 59.3 of that under our bond covenants. A lot of this is bond proceeds. So like we sell this bond to build a new public safety facility. We got $40 million. Well, I can't just go spend that. that's dedicated for building that building. Um, we have about 44 million that's unrestricted and that's a part of what we report on for our cash investment. We do need to use this cash to manage our cash flow to meet our regular monthly bills. Um, we also have to use it because our tax collections don't come in until July and December each year. So at the end of a fiscal year 1231, we need to have about six months of cash reserves available until we see our first taxes of the new year. So we do have to plan ahead for that those cash needs. Um the in the in the um annual financial report is a table that we show on page 56. It's the same table you see in that quarterly report we share with you each month. What are the types of investments we have? how much cash is available for investment and what sort of investments they're they're placed in. Um, one of the things I wanted to highlight is um shared in the um um the introductory section and that is our bond ratings. Um we do have several series of debt that we've issued either go or some sort of revenue supported debt through our utility funds. Um the overall gener um bond rating that we have for our go which is our highest most secure level of debt by standard and pores is a double A rating. Um the highest would be AAA to be honest with you. For a city our size we're very strong with a double A. For us to get to AAA, we'd probably have to have no debt and we'd have to have a larger population and even higher revenues. So holding a double A rating for a city our size that's growing and very active in the debt issuance market is a very good rating for our geo debt. Our second rating with S&P is our EDA um lease revenue debt. This is like the I like to use the example of our curling and vent center. When we finance that we use the EDA as a issuance authority that's one notch lower as a double A minus. That's very typical when you have that, you know, it's not a GEO, but when you still have the full, the city is pledging its financial position behind that lease obligation, they basically the credit rating agencies take it down one notch. So, we're only one notch down at a double A minus. Because we're an electric utility, we sell revenue electric debt. These are not supported by taxes. that's supported by the um electric revenue sales. Um and our rating with um S&P on the electric revenue debt is an A rating. So we've gone from double A for the city to A rating on our electric utility. Again, because it's operating revenues and not a tax pledge. That's why you would go from the double A to the A. So again, it's a very high rating for a city our size. Moody's also has some ratings that they've issued on our electric revenue bonds. um they use a little different scale, but they've rated us as A1. Again, that's the top grade of the A category. So, it's very comparable to the A rating we have from S SNP. So, for overall, our bond ratings are very strong. We've held these for many, many years. Um um I'd have to go back and look. I know there was a analysis done probably about 12 to 15 years ago. We actually had two upgrades in our ratings at that time. and we have sustained those ratings ever since. Um the other set of reports I did want to highlight is the uh Chaza Fire Relief Association. Um they have their annual financial report. This one's a lot smaller, a little bit lighter. Um what they do each year is they operate the uh fire relief pension benefit for our volunteer firefighters. um the city has a moral obligation to provide the financing to meet the the uh requirements to provide that benefit and for that reason their requirements under their pension are included as a disclosure as a part of the city's financial statement. So we have to coordinate their the two audits and the financial disclosures um to make sure that we are making the correct disclosures in the city's financial report. Um the fire relief association is a separate standing entity. Um they are, you know, consistent with building their funding level back up consistent with the resolution that the city council approved that determines when they can look at requesting a benefit increase based on their funding level. At this time, they have not had a increase in their benefit for a few years because they have not yet um been back above that 85% funding level that would be expected. So, um, and I with the fire relief, there's several reports that the auditor issue as a part of that as well. I do want to highlight a couple things. Um, first of all, um, in the city with the new CLA, um, there were a couple minor findings that were made. I'm going to let CLA highlight those. In the fire relief, they did have two weaknesses on our internal controls. These are the same ones we have every year of the past. It has to do with limited staff for internal control. Their volunteers, their trustees of the board um are trying to operate a pension without a lot of staff. So, there are some internal control weaknesses, but they have contracted out with Abdo Financial Services to help provide accounting services which is improving that. There's also weaknesses in their cash control and some fundraising, but they're also making efforts to improve that as well. Those findings are not an issue with the state auditor. the auditor accepts those and they are eligible to receive their fire aid which supports the pension each year. Um they did have one legal compliance finding this year and this was very interesting. They didn't get a certificate of insurance from Abdo Financial Services who is the um provider of the accounting services and even ABDO didn't know they were supposed to provide us the insurance certificate. So the fresh auditors brought a fresh perspective and actually identified something that even our contractor wasn't aware of. So that's already been addressed in the 2025 year. So with that, if there's any if there's any questions, I can address now. Otherwise, I'm going to have uh the representatives from CLA come forward to present their work and then I will come back again and conclude with some closing remarks before asking to have the reports accepted. Does anybody have any questions for null? >> I do not. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thanks, N. >> Thank Thank you very much, Nol. And I want to thank the mayor and council for allowing us a few minutes here tonight to present the audit results. As as Nol had mentioned, we did go through results in more detail in a work session prior to this. So, but similar to that, if you have questions, please feel free to interrupt us as we go. So, if we go to the first slide, really just lay this out in four pieces. We'll go through the audit results. We'll look at the required communications. We have a a brief overview of some of the financial results and then we can con conclude at the end with turning it back over to null again as well. So if we go to the first slide looking at the audit results as null had mentioned as well the city received an unmodified or clean audit opinion. That is that highest level of assurance that we that we can provide as your external auditors and that's the opinion you want to see on that. That means your financial statements are fairly fairly stated in all material respects. We also did look at your internal controls. Our responsibility as your auditors is not to provide an opinion on your controls. It's to let you know if we identify any deficiencies. So this year, as null alluded to, there were some restatements that we um worked with the city on to make sure they got presented within your financial statements. The first one null already um indicated in his remarks related to the transfer of assets between your governmental activities over to your business type to make sure that they're being reported and where they should be as far as the activities go. The next three are all ones that we had identified in and working kind of coming in as that fresh set of eyes. The first one related to within the turbine fund, the the way the bond premiums were getting advertised didn't necessarily follow the exact uh guidance of the Gazsby board. Um so this year we worked with city staff and that resulted in a um restatement of about $626,000. It actually increased your net position there. Uh the second one that we identified was really related to um recognition of revenue related to receivables. So within your public improvement project fund, there was a receivable that was recorded as part of your December 31st of 23 audit. Governmental accounting basically says if your if your receivable is not received within basically 60 days of year end, it should be really sitting as a deferred inflow or as a liability on your balance sheet rather than being recognized as revenue. That as of December 31st of 24, that receivable still hadn't been received. No concerns on whether it's actually going to be collected. It's just a timing as far as when projects close out, when those final reimbursements are requested from the state or the federal government. So really just kind of a cleanup as far as where that is when that receivable extends more than 60 days past year end and that was about $856,000. And the last one was related to the turbine fund. Um originally the city had classified under the kind of the the guidance of other providers um your previous auditor and also a consultant looked at the the agreement with MMPA regarding the turbine and it was classified as a power supply contract. Really what that was is MMPA is actually operating the facility. Um if it was a power supply contract the city would be operating it and just selling the actual output. In this case MMPA is actually operating it. So, it really did fall under lease accounting, which was uh part of Gazsby statement number 87 a couple of years ago. So, uh restated the net position there just to reflect that lease accounting in their property. We also look at Minnesota legal compliance. That is a legal compliance guide that the office of the state auditor publishes annually for us as your external auditors to go through. It involves seven different sections from cash and investing to cash dispersements, tax increment financing, related parties, contracting and bidding and we did not have any uh compliance items that we identified in there. So very very positive on that. If we go to the next slide, null also had mentioned the city did um qualify or required a federal single audit as well. So, in that case, when cities ex uh cities expend more than $750,000, we have to actually come in and look at specific compliance and controls over some of your federal grants. As part of your audit this year, we looked at two different federal grants. The first one was highway planning and construction, and the second one was an economic development grant as well. At the end of the at the end of the process, the city received an unmodified or that clean audit opinion on your compliance with the federal single audit. We did have one item that we uh falls into your internal control uh reporting for that which is basically the the city needs to actually just take formal steps to document review processes over some of the reports that get submitted. So no concerns or issues as far as the reports getting submitted timely, accurately, anything like that. As the auditors, we just want to see some formal documentation over the review processes that happen prior to submitt. So but no concerns with the actual reports themselves. If we go to the next slide, then finally just a a summary of some of those required communications. Really just what our overall responsibilities are as your external auditor following generally accepted auditing standards. It's providing that reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance as to your financial statements. We also want to let you know this year we adopted three new um governmental accounting standards. Two of them were actually new standards. One was just a change in interpretation. Um really at the end of the day on this the the biggest piece was there was a a slight increase to your compensated absences or those acred uh vacation and sick leave of about $230,000 roughly. So not a huge increase at all but there was just a slight increase in just the calculation of how those are happening now. And really the big thing behind that is the previous standard that really kind of dealt with compensated absences was 30 plus years old. So a lot has changed in 30 years of employment within employment. Talk about earn safe and sick time now PTO instead of just a straight vacation and sick leave. So just the standards were really catching up to what's going on in practice right now. And we also just want to let you know we do have accounting estimates included within the financial statements. All financial statements do the really the most significant one for the city is just your estimate for your u uh postemployment benefit liability. Um we so with that we work with city staff. We review the actionary reports making sure they're following uh typical standards that we'd expect for that. We don't have any concerns over it. But we just want to point it out as that is probably your uh one of your more significant ones out there that the city has true direct control over. And when I say direct control you could actually if you wanted to the city could reach out to your actuary and say no we expect a rate of return of this and kind of demand it. Actuary would have to comply with that eat whether they agree with it or not. So, it's really working with that if they want to. And then also, we just need to let you know if we had any difficulties or disagreements in performing the audit. We didn't. I always say no news is good news in that. If we had something that rose to that level where we'd actually say we had a formal disagreement or difficulty in performing the audit, we'd let you know before a public meeting like this. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Ezra to go through some of the financial results. >> Thanks, Chris. >> All right. We'll start with governmental funds. So these are the non-enterprise funds in the city including the general fund. The kind of breaking this out into two categories here by classification and then just by fund. So as far as the total governmental funds there was an increase from 2023 restated amounts just as Chris alluded to and null mentioned just some of the restatements. We were trying to compare apples to apples as far as 24 to 23. So the 23 column has all of that information already included. And so that increase was $43.1 million between 24 and 23. The majority of that uh related to that increase in in restricted fund balance for the governmental funds which mostly relates to the increase in public facilities capital improvement related to the issuance of new bonds. >> Yeah. As far as unassigned fund balance, that did decrease about 2.7 million from 23. And that mostly related to that public improvement project fund having about $5 million uh change just with expenditures uh in excess of revenues. Then we'll just zoom in a little bit on just the general fund specifically. Uh we have kind of a five-year trend analysis here as far as cash balance and the fund balance. Those are very healthy and have been increasing over the past five years. So great to see that trend. As far as revenue goes, that also increased from 2023, mostly related to an increase in the tax levy and then some additional police and fire state aid in 24. comparing budget to actual for the general fund. Overall, the the general fund had a favorable favorable variance of $1.1 million. It's a over budget. Um, but that's favorable. Uh, with charges for services being over budget due to the increase in the recreation program revenue and then licenses and permits were over budget just being uh having higher than anticipated building activity. All right, we'll look at general fund expenditures. Overall, these were 217,000 under the final budget, so favorable there as well. Public works was under budget due to less snow removal. We had that mild winter last year. And then for general government, that was under budget due to IT licenses, fiber services being lower than expected, some less contracting for repairs and maintenance, that sort of thing. Then just as kind of an all-encompassing look at the enterprise funds as far as summary of changes in net position once again kind of breaking it out by classification and then by fund for the classification uh that net investment in capital asset increase 27 million mostly related to additional capital assets um new additions that sort of thing and then total by fund you'll see that for 24 electric water sewer turbine uh storm curling and on major all had positive net position balances. The only one that doesn't is the community center and then the the two that had negative change from 2023 was the community center and the non- major enterprise just by a little bit there. So that's the just kind of a brief summary of the financial statement results. We can take any questions or I can turn it back over to null. Does anybody have any questions? >> Thank you gentlemen for your report. >> So I'd like to highlight just a couple things here before concluding. Um in our act or the acter we call it that's our acronym annual comprehensive financial report. Um on page seven is the uh certificate for excellence in financial reporting. This is an annual award that uh we submit the report each year to GFOA which is the government finance officers association. Under this program there's three different reviewers that review the report for compliance with GAP with Gazsby and with the additional reporting requirements of the certificate program that includes having a full MDNA included. It in it means having a statistical section with 10-year data included. And so those are additional components of the financial report that we have chosen as a city to include on our financial report. Um the city has received this certificate for 35 consecutive years. The first year we received it was in 1989. Um in working with CLA, we feel that we'll qualify for this again with our 24 report. The award is good for a one-year period of time. Um I think it's very interesting. I was at GFOA this year and I was in a session with bond rating analysts and I actually posed the question of what how does this certificate when they review a financial report for a governmental entity change their process and they said you know it does give us a baseline that's a higher expectation so we already know that this has been thoroughly reviewed it it has a higher level of disclosure and so as we're doing our analysis we probably don't need to do as much of a detailed review as as we would someone else who we have to basically do our analysis from the ground up. So it was quite clear that this certificate is a benchmark that establishes a higher standard in financial reporting. I don't have the current statistics but typically in the past um only about 8% of the eligible governmental entities in the United States have received the certificate and in Minnesota I don't have the results from last year but we've typically been around 140 150 um governmental entities cities counties the state of Minnesota um um regional jurisdictions have received this certificate. So it does establish a very high baseline >> which is only about 10%. >> Did I steal it? >> Yeah, he gave you a look. >> Sorry. >> Matt just couldn't help himself. >> Well, I I will say this, the staff really strives to meet the expectations of this program. And so it's something that allows us to know that we're we're trying to do the very best we can to be as transparent in our disclosures consistent with the expected industry standards. So the staff really does strive for this. Um we've looked at a lot of documents tonight. The uh city's financial report is available on our website. So anybody can go into the website. It's easy to get to. Um it has been published in summary form um in the Waconia Patriot which is our legal publication. We've also submitted it to Emma which is the electronic municipal market access site. This is um um a federal requirement under our continuing disclosure. This is the site that anybody who issues debt has to make all of these continuing disclosure filings. So any bond analyst who's trying to understand a bond issue goes to Emma. That's where we make sure we file this every year because the audience who's looking for a financial report, that's the first stop they go to is that we are also obligated to make annual continuing disclosure requirements over and above our financial report. We do work with uh Baker Tilly to make those annual filings and we have to reference every single CQIP number on our debt issues. So if you've got 30 years of maturities, you got 30 QIPS and if you got a hundred of those, there's a lot of QIPS that you're referencing. So we do work with disclosing everything on Emma. We've talked about the GFOA certificate program. They also have links to our financial statements out there. Uh we also share it with the Chaza Library and anybody can certainly see it here at Chesa City Hall. Uh to conclude, I just like to acknowledge the effort of staff that have worked on this in particular Erica Matise who is our finance division director. She's been with us two years. This was her second time working through the financial reporting and audit process. Uh she took a lead on the RFP process for selecting the new um auditor this year. Um Lisa Nelson, who's been with us as our controller for many years. She takes the lead on our operational side on our financial system, maintains our trial balances, and she does the drafting of the financial statements um before we submit them to CLA for their quality review. And then Aaron Barnham is our assistant controller. Um she has worked very extensively on our lease disclosures, our subscriptionbased IT disclosures and the fixed asset reclassification that we um changed in 2019 and worked very much on the uh review of prior years to come up with the quantitative amounts that we needed to reclassify. Um, everybody in the finance division works um, very hard all year along with everybody else in the department which includes utility billing and IT. But we don't do it alone. This is something we are working with every department, the department heads, their department managers, whether it be managing how to get their invoices paid, how to receive in their revenues, how to get their PECARD transactions u qualified for reimbursement. Um, everybody on city staff works to support this and we try to work to um, under Matt's direction to accomplish the goals of the budget and reflect that in our financial report. And of course, the mayor and the members of the city council, we thank you for your direction. Um, that really set the tone for our financial operations each year. So, with that, one last chance. Any questions? We can entertain that. Otherwise, I would ask that they entertain a motion to accept the reports. I guess not a question, but just want to mention that we also did see all of this in a work session u or at least the presentation by CLA. So, we did ask some questions there, but I always like to call that in case somebody's watching. We did have another opportunity to ask questions, too. So, but thank you. Great work. Um, you know, a second or a new fresh set of eyes is always nice. So, I think that's kind of exciting for this year. Uh, even though it's different, more work probably for you guys, but um obviously had some good results. So great work. >> Yeah, I'll echo those statements. Um I I really want to thank you null for your hard work and diligence, the way that you disseminate the information even during the presentation um in the work session. It's just it's wonderful. It allows you know any viewer to come in and have a good comprehensive understanding. And I think like you had uh said, you know, in a time where everyone's looking for transparency, I think it's just really important that we have this information available and you've done a wonderful job and you work so hard. Um so I hope that you uh take pride in what you do and that uh you know you along with Erica and the rest of the staff um know that they have done a job well done um and in providing that. So, and I also want to thank the um relief board, the Chesa Fire Relief Board, because it is a it is a board of trustees that are volunteer. Um I'm you know, I along with yourself and our fire chief are the city appointed um trustees on there, but the the rest of the board is made up of volunteers. And I know that when they go through that process and especially like our treasurer, you know, and our um president, you know, they work diligently to make sure that they have the information and the understanding along with ABDO. So, I just know that how much work went involved. So, I appreciate that as well. Thank you. So, and thank you to them as well. So, >> thank you. It's a great staff to work with both at the city and with the relief. >> Yeah. Wonderful. and congratulations on the certificate hopefully as it goes through. I'm sure 35 years strong and like you said that's something to hang your hat on because uh not very many people you know achieve that status. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And as null has said he um we are looking to have a motion to accept this. So I would entertain that. Make a motion to accept the financial audit report, >> comprehensive financial report, annual comprehensive financial report. >> All right, we have we have a motion from council member Hatfield. >> Second >> and a second from council member Gra. Do you have any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right. Financial report uh adopted or >> carries. Congrats. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. All right, >> that moves us right along to 8B, which is authorize letter of intent for tiff assistance for the proposed EDCO project. >> Mayor and council mayor, as you know, we've been working for the last several months with EDCO on a project that they're proposing out in our industrial park out on Chass Creek Way. Uh part of that is uh coming up with an assistance package uh to provide them based on our uh policy that we have out there. And I have Julie here to go over uh what's being proposed in letter intent. You'll uh see that's also in the EDA uh meeting that we have uh tonight as well. And then we have a representative from Edco as well. So I'll turn it over to Julie. >> Thank you Matt. Thank you mayor and council members. Tonight, as Matt mentioned, we're asking council to authorize um the execution of a letter of intent related to the tax increment financing assistance for the proposed EDCO headquarters. Uh it's located in southwest Chesca Business Park. It's on property that's southeast um of Angler Boulevard and Creek Road, just west of where Opton built two recently built two industrial buildings. Uh as a quick reminder, uh CH council approved the preliminary and building site and building plans for this project back in May. It includes a two-story 235,000 approximately square foot facility that's going to serve as headquart headquarters and then it will have manufacturing warehouse facilities for their pre-finished metal siding products. Uh the final site and building plan is expected to come forward in August, council, and construction is anticipated to start this spring of 2026. To help make the project financially feasible, ADCO has submitted requests for TIFF financing. uh TIFF, just kind of as a reminder of what TIFF is, it's a public financing tool um that uses the increase in the property taxes generated by the new development and it's used to help offset certain eligible project costs and also it helps with city infrastructure costs that are necessary for the project. Uh the qual the project does qualify for an 8-year economic development tiff district under the city's adopted policy which supports industrial projects like this one and it um will be used and will ex it's also um meets policy supports projects that sorry for the hiccup supports projects that expand the tax bay base create business opportunities increase jobs um it because this project has room for expansion, it qualifies to receive tiff assistance in the amount that is up to three times the taxes that are generated for the new project. So the first step in considering the tiff assistance is the execution of this letter of intent. It outlines the general terms that will be considered in establishing the district and once the LOI is executed, it kind of gets the ball rolling and process started. So, the letter of intent before you tonight that's attached to the staff report, it was negotiated by staff and it has been signed by the developer Edco. Um, it outlines there's an estimated eligible assistance amount and this is the three times of approximately 1.644 million. It identifies other terms and conditions that will be required such as going through the planning process and receiving the approvals for from council and EDA. And while it's not legally binding, it does set the foundation to prepare the formal TIFF plan and negotiate a development agreement with EDCO, which will both return to council and EDA for approval at a future date. So, as I mentioned before, the proposed TIFF district supports continued industrial development in Southwest Chesa Business Park, which has been in plans for some time. staff is recommending council authorize the city administrator to execute the letter of intent and initiate the process to establish tiff district for the project. And as Matt mentioned, the same item will become um forward at the EDA meeting. Since it's a TIFF request, we need approvals from both council and EDA to move the project forward for further consideration. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Um I did um also want to pass on a message from the team with EDCO. They are excited about the project and are working out the final pieces. Looking forward to working with the city on this excellent project. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Julie, for your um review and also your review of to financing just in general. I think it's always good. I mean, I think just for the general public to understand, but also, you know, council up here as well, just kind of have a good refresh and everything along those lines. Does anybody have any questions for for Julie at all in regards to this? >> No. >> Okay. >> No questions. Always exciting to see it move. I mean, we've been um working on this project, having in concept, and um whatever the next step is. It's escaping me at the moment. Thank you. >> Um so seeing it come along and this is another step in that and um yeah, so good to see. Yeah, I mean I agree with you. I think it's it's exciting and I think you know being able to use this um having our tiff policy kind of customized for each individual kind of component or business that comes in and having these opportunities um allows our community to grow and to build a better job base and opportunities. So, it's a kind of a tool in our tool belt that you know we can use um that can be for the benefit of the community at large. And I think that's the important thing to say. It's not a cookie cutter every rubber stamp sort of situation that you guys are mindful about what the intention is and what can be, you know, possible. Um and what's possible when it gets developed versus it's sitting vacant. Um you know, and every situation is different. It might be a redevelopment situation in this term. It's, you know, an open field that could be developed into something. And I think those are important components that are are needed to be reviewed when we're we're analyzing having this sort of policy and awarding this. So that's all I have to say about that. Otherwise, I think uh recommendation is to um make a motion to authorize the city administrator to execute a letter of intent for TIFF assistance to the proposed EDCO project. >> So moved. >> All right. A motion by council member Gra. >> Second >> and a second by council member Benes. Uh otherwise any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. All right, that moves us off of uh our action items for the council meeting and on to bills. Does anybody have a a bill that they have a question about or I have one but I got to dig it up so give me a second. That was a long one though. >> And they're all long but that one felt longer for some reason. Um, oh, this it's I can't remember what page this is on because I took a screenshot of this because I was looking at my phone. It's the Civic Plus for the data request software. Is that just like a renewal of our Civic Plus subscription that we >> No, it's actually it's a brand new uh system that we have. our old system uh just did not process uh data requests very well. Okay. >> And it took a lot of staff time and so this was basically an upgrade in the system that will be able to allow us to expedite those data requests because we get a lot more than we used to. Yeah, I think that's important to note that the um it takes a lot of staff time and already doing other work to kind of comply with those requests. So, I'm glad that we're finding a tool that can make that more seamless and easier process. >> Yeah. And and also it gives the people who are requesting it a more timely response. >> Sure. Okay. That was my only question. Does anybody have any questions otherwise? All right. Right. I would entertain a motion to approve the bills. >> Motion to pay the bills. >> All right. Motion from Council Member Hatfield. >> Second. >> Second by Council Member Bennish. Uh roll call vote, please. >> Council member Hatfield. >> Yes. >> Council member Venice. >> Yes. >> Council member GR. >> I. >> Mayor Hover. >> Yes. >> All right. Those are approved. Okay. That moves us right along to other business for this week. Let's start it off with uh Council Member Hatfield. >> All right. Buckle in. Ready? Um few upcoming things. >> See how many I'm going to check off on. >> Right. Um I'm going to intentionally leave some off. Okay. >> Uh River City Day is coming up this weekend, which is always a great time. There's so much to do. >> Literally for three days, you could fill your entire days. Um there's concerts, there's the kid area, there's um all the booths that are set up selling different things or businesses promoting themselves. Um, the water fights. Uh, there's pickle ball competition and I could literally keep going so I'll stop. The parade, it's a big one. The kitty parade, which I feel like they stopped doing that for a little bit. They brought it back. I was in the kitty parade when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite things. I have some really cute pictures I could show you. Um, but yeah, so that's very exciting. And then of course the big parade, I guess, on Sunday as well. So, um, Southwest Transit is running from two stops, I guess. um the curling center and the ramp uh to get you there because there's very limited parking. So, I highly recommend using Southwest Transit, getting on there nicely cooled. They're probably using the trolley and one of the cutoffs. Very nice and cool. It's going to be hot. Um bring water, but take Southwest Transit. It's going to be way easier for you. Um so, it's River City Day is coming up. Uh the Carver County Fair is August 6th through the 10th. So, that's coming up. Um, you can do a bunch of things this week. Literally, so much is happening this week. Park in the park is on Thursday coinciding with the community. Um, what's market, there's the word. Um, so you can go to that. That's always nice with all the pups and things. Uh, cones with a cop is at McDonald's on Wednesday from 1 to 3. And that is actually um because of weather impacting the picnic police picnic um stuffing the squad for Southern Valley Alliance got moved to this event. So you can go to cones with cop and McDonald's 1 to 3 stuff the squad um they have a list of things for Southern Valley Alliance and then if you can't make it between 1 and 3 um this McDonald's location the North McDonald's will be collecting donations from 8 or until 8:00 p.m. with a dropbox available inside the store. So if you can't make it during that time but you got stuff for Southern Valley Alliance, you can go drop it off at McDonald's on Wednesday um from 1 to 8:00 p.m. And if you come between 1 and 3, you can also get an ice cream cone. um uh the community part the new comm southwest community park um enga if you haven't seen that please go and engage with um there's a few different concepts and pieces of the concepts so you can go check that out um go on the website it's on our Facebook it's on our website it's you can find the link um and get your input on that park um very important and very exciting so I'd encourage that and then Um, I got my electric bill this past in the last couple of days. Are we to that part of somewhere where there's sometimes like extra charges or not extra charges, but you know, it seems more >> fuel adjustment. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't Are we to that yet? I guess I Yes, I thought so. Okay. >> Yeah. There typically July and August are higher fuel adjustment clauses than the rest of the year. >> Yeah. >> Um, but that coincides with what other utilities see too. >> Yep. So, I guess if you're looking at your electric bill like I was and you're like, "Oh, that yep, definitely been running my AC, um, there's that impact, but it line items it out." So, you should be able to see usually your usage is the biggest factor, obviously. Um, and then I guess I was just going to say I will not be at the September 8th meeting, but I'll say that again closer. But, >> okay, that's good to know. that I think I didn't make it to fire and ice at a funeral and some other things, but um it looked like a great turnout and looked like it's always fun, so I was bummed to miss it. But uh yeah, that's all I have. >> Wonderful. Thank you for that report. Um Council Member Bennish, >> uh I just say I'm looking forward to River City days. Hopefully make it out at least one of the days and maybe for the parade. Um should be a good time. I think everybody that goes has a good time. So come out, enjoy it. So the weather looks like it should be pretty good. So >> yeah, uh we're You said parade was at 2:00 p.m. >> Yeah, it's I think it's a I think it was sometimes it's at 1 or or noon or but this year I believe it's at two. >> Yeah. And I think the route is exactly the same as previous years just for those that like to come out. So >> cool. Yeah, that's all I have. >> Awesome. >> I got that too. >> Yeah. Uh, Council Member Gra, >> I had many of the same things. She's still I'm just kidding. >> Um, >> terrible. >> No, I I was just interesting. I was thinking you're thinking about a couple things. Um and particularly just kind of it's been a little while since we've met because the way the schedule landed and in that timeline a lot of events happened as you highlighted and it was interesting because you know Julie sit over there had asked me to answer some questions about Chaza and one of them was like what is your favorite thing about living with Jesa and I talked about truthfully by skepticism when I moved here because I grew up in small towns like 5,000 people went to a small St. Peter in college and was like, "Okay, Chaska is not a small town. Like, what what is this? What is this about?" And I was skeptical and then I'd look about my last week since we met and you had fire and ice. I attended a Cubs game which had a huge benefit for for a family in my neighborhood and the community involved and and you talk about things coming up and to me again that is why I love living here. That is that community that sense people get together. you see people at places uh including Targets and you say hi and you see them down at a benefit later and you're all supporting. So it was just kind of that interesting as I was thinking through of kind of what have I done in the since our last meeting and then that connection to kind of getting asked that question like why I you know love TASA it is that that sense of community where people talk to each other interact each other and like the benefit just come out and support each other when people really need things which is awesome. Um so I wanted to share that. Uh, and then a little bit of like I can't prove that this thought went through my head, but I do notice that uh I pulled into uh park here tonight and kind of did this the plaza look and looked and go kind of have this feeling like this is maybe needs to be done a little bit and then I see it in your report. So I can't prove that I made those connections, but I'm being honest. Um, so I'm glad to see that we're looking. I don't know if you wanted to talk a little bit about that. I'll throw >> I think we should I think we should thank the person that brought it up. Uh >> um so one of the things that is really nice is when you you get out and you engage with the community and I went to Alliance Club meeting in which one of the members there really kind of um kind of hold held her line on like uh having um you know fallen and really severely injuring herself and just what was going to be done and I kind of said well we're going to remodel city hall in 2030 and it just wasn't you know it was just okay but what's going to be done now you know that's I mean and I get Sometimes the wheels of planning and processes, they move slow, but it was like stepping back and saying, you know, while we're going to remodel this building in 2030, that doesn't mean that the plaza has to be something that's done at the exact same time. And so, it's kind of stepping back and rethinking that. So, >> um, Matt and I had a conversation in regards to that and, um, you know, >> the reimagine of that plaza, kind of having that be part of the downtown vibrancy vision, you know, for us to have that reimagine downtown and, you know, who's going to use that and the POS and getting all the stakeholders to the table. That stuff takes time just in and of itself. So, let's start that process now. So, thank you for >> Can we keep the pine trees? They're my favorite and I'll be really sad if they get cut down. The spruce trees, whatever they are, the evergreens. >> You can put that. Don't make me put you right in a piece of paper and we'll take the note. You know, it's uh I Yeah, I think stepping back I think it sort of became clear to me too that uh the two don't necessarily have to be done simultaneously, especially if we finish up the funding of the program this year. We'll have the dollars in place. And the only reason we're waiting on city hall is because we have to be able to have a new place for the police department and a new place for the library to do that. Uh but the plaza is separate and um you know I I can tell you talking with uh Brian Jung um I mean he's he's very happy to move forward with something because it is very difficult for for those guys to even try to maintain what's out there now. Um so yeah and you know what we're doing is we're uh getting uh Hoisington Kogler who did basically the PO design for us because in essence that is a piece of the PO and using them to help design it so it's consistent with the rest of the PO but then also how do we make that a place that can be activated because uh you know we've had people that have wanted and have tried to have events out there and it's it's just not conducive to it because we don't have the infrastructure. We don't have electricity. We don't have water. We don't you don't have those things that are conducive to having events out there. So if we want to try to activate space, we got to make it uh activatable. Uh so u those are all the things that that we look at in this process. And the hope would be is is to get that process done during the winter so we could move forward sometime starting next summer to to actually do the implementation of it. >> Yeah, I I appreciate your evaluation of it and I know you guys have a huge laundry list of things that you're already undertaking right now. We have major facilities that are in process and I know everyone's you know working working but >> yeah but this is a I mean I think you pointed out this this is something where it's become a hazard >> and it's become something that's become very difficult to maintain and so it's it's putting our staff in a bad position not to do anything. So, >> and also I think just I mean you talked about it the downtown business alliance has talked about like how can we activate that space and is always a challenge electricity etc but it it is somewhere that they keep gravitating towards um wanting to have events and things like that. Um so I think that's really nice. Um and then there was something else I was going to say about and it's you know it's the entrance to our it's a first impression for a lot of people that come to city hall. Um, so I think first impressions are everything. Um, and you know, of course making it more safe, but also this is where I was going to go with it. As far as the PO project, I found since I spend some time talking about our POS and like ideating with Downtown Business Alliance and things like that, you know, we always are like there's going to be one on the uh west side, but it's hard to imagine. So getting it kind of started is exciting to me because we can say there's the start of the PO on the west side that's going to start connecting um you know fifth all the way through um second. So I think from that perspective I mean safety is the biggest being able to maintain it but I think from that perspective it's kind of exciting to get that started too. So, >> yeah. And I also think the other thing that really sort of gives it a look of being sort of a barren wasteland is when we lost the trees. >> Yeah. >> I mean, when we lost those ash trees out there, um I mean, the the the flowers are beautiful, but you cannot replace the look of the trees that were out there, and that makes a huge difference. >> Yep. Side note, uh I've received a few compliments on our flowers, so be sure to pass that along. We >> do. >> Um I have one more. Uh just a shout out to uh Kevin in particular, Officer Gonz, uh the uh 50, the new community engagement trailer. So I'm reading a little bit off the Facebook p uh piece here. 50 fun interactive vehicle engagement opportunity. you know, I I I have the opportunity, this sounds interesting to say, I have the opportunity to interact with that officer quite often because I see him at his son's baseball games with my son. Um, I had to feel like I had to put that other part at the end because otherwise it sounded weird why I was interacting a lot with the officer. Uh, and just the sense of pride that he put into that and he was showing me some additional pictures and just the engagement, the TV screens. I also think it's it's it's a it's a reality and acceptance of how we interact with the public has changed with two TV screens in there, video games, grills, >> meeting them, >> you know, meeting them where they're at, right? Uh and you know, for once you could tell someone to go, hey, go out, stop playing video games and go outside and someone could go outside and play video games. >> And there was a line of kids >> was so cute and everyone was so respectfully waiting and >> you had two chairs set up. One chair was for the kid waiting and the next chair was for the kid that's playing and they just kept on shifting chairs throughout the whole day. >> So yeah, I just I mean if you hadn't seen it, check out the Chaz Police on Facebook. Great pictures, great things, but just you know a lot of it's kind of what to me kind of as I listen to that conversation a little bit of a passion project, right? Something that really you pour your heart and soul into because you think it really matters and values and it it turned out really super cool. So just wanted to give that shout out and that is all I have. Thank you. All right. Uh, Lee, do you have anything? >> I don't have anything but to your 50 trailer comment. It will be at River City Days this weekend. So, if people are interested in seeing, >> may want to put more chairs out for a week. >> So, they actually changed their video game. I think that they were doing just like the Sonic game, but um, they downloaded the new Mario Kart game and so I think that will help with like the timing of how you know >> because they can race each other. >> Yes. and then it kind of completes and then they move on to the next kiddos and things like that. >> So, yeah. Wonderful. Uh Kristoff, do you have anything that >> uh Well, speaking of passion project, I thought I'd just mention this. I had mentioned previously that last night I was out at the the loop and the reason I was out there was because uh Lincoln was part of an adaptive golf program out there where uh there was probably a dozen uh kids that had both physical and intellectual disabilities that used the Menaas course and they spent an hour and had a blast out there. But what I really noticed when uh I was out there and I hadn't really sort of had the time to just sit there and sort of watch what was happening, the just the uh wide array of people who were utilizing that course. I saw one grandfather come off the course with three of his grandkids. I saw multiple families who were there with, you know, the the mom and dad and two kids that were probably like eight or nine years old. and they're all able to play together. Um, you know, and you see kids that have disabilities that are out there. I mean, it was there was there was so many different combinations of people that were out on that that course that it just what a community builder uh to just bring people together. So, that was really cool to see that. Uh, over the course of the spring, they've been putting some of the final touches on things that weren't quite finished and and now are really looking nice. Um, so if if you get a chance even to just go out, sit on the the patio, they have a screen over the uh over the pergola and just sit there and watch what's happening. It is really impressive to to see uh what's going on out there now. So, thought I'd just mention it that I mean it was a vision that you guys had and it really is has come to fruition. Yeah, I mean that's I mean it's so great that like an organization Well, I know it's it's not called Learning Leaks anymore. It's what is it called? >> Barrier Free Golf Barrier. >> Barrier Free Golf, you know, the partnership, you know, that collaboration efforts along with other, you know, kind of um agencies and things. I know made that made that a possibility. So, >> I and I just got a call from the city of Duth uh Friday. Um they wanted to talk about uh barrier free golf actually coming up there. Uh they had that golf course I think it was a 27 hole golf course that they closed on the north end of town by Lester Park and community was super upset that they closed this place down. So uh they started looking and saying well is there another way we can look at it? Does it have to be a 27hole course? and and this whole idea of barrierfree golf really sort of came along and said, "Well, maybe we can partner with a group." And so, uh, so other places are watching us, too. >> Well, and I think too, I'm sure next summer as we host the KMPG, um, I'm sure that's there's going to be a spotlight on the loop, I'm sure, as part of that. >> Yeah. So, when we've met with the PGA, I mean, they've talked about how they want to have programs for disabled veterans. um you know, Courage Kenny, all you know, different groups to come over and actually spotlight that as part of the the whole golf event. And I mean, it I mean, it's right across the street from from there. So, it's really easy for them to host these events. Um so, it I think there's really some opportunities that will exist as as those tournaments come to town. >> Absolutely. >> It's like the most underrated thing in Chaska, if you were to ask me. Like the thing people don't think to go do. Is it underrated? Overrated. Underrated. >> Underrated. You know, it's like you don't think to go do it. But even if you're not a golfer, seriously, just bring your kids to the Menaas >> and let them putt around. It'll wear them out. They'll have a good time. >> It And if you're someone that like wants to genuinely do better at your putting, you can do that there, too, because it is pretty challenging um if you're like actually wanting to practice. But it is like people don't think do it. And it is such an easy evening activity. Um, >> and you don't you don't need your own club. Like they will let you >> they'll provide you with a putter and everything. >> Yeah, cuz my son and I did that just a couple weeks ago and it was it was just like a really nice short like you know hour activity. >> Yeah, it's 18 hole. It's a 18hole. I mean some people can view it as a 18hole mini golf course. >> It really is. And then you get to watch everyone coming off the course which is which is an added bonus and a lot of fun especially if you're on one of the nights where like courage Kenny is out there or something. You get to see um >> the whatever cats the little verat what is the word >> talking about the little golf carts. >> Yeah the golf carts where they >> I was like I don't know what we're talking about >> like an animal. >> I was thinking like you know >> what are those called? Uh, >> Versa Cats >> vers. It's something like that. >> Something like that. >> It's something that Yeah, there's >> Versa something. >> Yeah, it's something like that. Yeah. >> Um, but they're interesting to see used. So, >> yeah. Cool. >> And and the only other thing I had to add was right across the street last week, uh, Hazeline did open their villas >> and their their short course that they have that go with the villas over there. Uh, I had a chance to go out with their general manager on Thursday and he sort of took me on a little tour tour there and that's really nice. >> So, out of a point of curiosity, when are they putting that sidewalk in? >> Uh, they actually are putting it in sometime this week. But they are putting it in. >> Okay. >> He's talked to me a few times about it. >> Yeah. >> Just curious. >> Yeah. >> Because I noticed that that wasn't part of the construction process at that point. >> No, it's they that's why we hold a retainage. >> I know. I know. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Um, all right. Uh, okay. I've got a little list. I'll try to just get through it here. Uh, yeah, recapping Fire Ice. Wonderful. I want to I know we mentioned the 50 trailer and it was it was amazing to see that and it was just great to see this idea from one of our officers and Kevin. um you know with Martina and Kevin, they kind of had this and it took shape and they were able to utilize an old trailer and get some donations in order to kind of make that happen and to see that and see the potential of how that's going to build our community um up in our community policing. That's going to be so amazing. I'm so excited to see that in action. Um and also just wanted to thank, you know, all of the sponsors that help um financially make Fire Ice possible. Um, you know, we had some local businesses and also, you know, just like Southwest Transit being available to help shuttle, um, you know, our lines and our Rotary Club, you know, all of these, um, you know, uh, organizations and businesses help make something like that achievable. and you know talking to like the m musicians and you know other um people that you know come from not just Chaza but just neighboring communities and just really enjoying their time and just being able to kind of showcase that off, showcase our community off and let people kind of enjoy themselves and um be able to provide that is just a wonderful thing. Uh and also just thank our park and reccks department, our public works, our you know police department, our fire department, all those, you know, city departments. I mean, you guys have all had touched this in some sort of capacity. Every one of our departments, so just making that possible. I know there was a lot of hard work involved. So, I just genuinely want to thank um you guys from the bottom of my heart. And I also sat in that dunk tank to help raise money for park and wrecks. And it sounds like you said like maybe they raised about $800 or something for the scholarship. $900. Yeah. So that's a wonderful uh a wonderful thing. And um speaking of heartwarming things um I went to the Chesa Cubs game as well. That was the benefit for um I was pronouncing their last name wrong, but is it Acerry? >> Acry family. And he is one of our firefighters. Um and he's also an alumni of the Chesa Cubs. just to see the community show up and show up for them and their daughter um as they kind of battle her health and just to see that was just so inspiring. Um so I really wanted to recognize that and thank everybody and also say that the Chesa Cubs are having an amazing season. So if you have not gone down and watched a game, I can tell you it's the most inexpensive entertainment that you can have this summer. I mean, you cannot go wrong on attending their games and having their concessions and just enjoying baseball at its purest form almost. >> And the best part is kids are free. That's how baseball >> kids are free. Seniors are free. It's $5. >> $5. I mean, it's cheap for adults, but kids are free. And it's just it's good baseball >> to how kids should feel to go experience a baseball game. And >> it's, you know, Yeah. It's just so great. It's so great. And yeah, it's just very enjoyable. So, really fun way to spend a summer summer evening or um you know, early evening. So, uh today I was able to tour the public safety facility um with one of our representatives, Ree, uh and be able to kind of see the progress and it you guys blow your mind because now like all the the roof is on, the walls are up and and things are framed in. Even on the fire side, everything was like sheetrocked kind of in certain spots, so you could really see everything. But what I didn't like see, you know, because the last time we've been through there, there was no upper levels. We went upstairs over on the fire side and they were talking about all the potential of the training like you know, reenactment or um you know, just window. Yes, there was so much that was just so thought out into everything that has been constructed or is being constructed. I just want to thank all of you guys for all the hard work because it's just an ongoing process as it's being built, but just to see the potential and just how great it's going to be for our um police department, our fire department, and then just the community in general. It's just it's amazing. So, really, really cool. Uh I'm excited to see that continue to progress. So, >> we will be having another tour. I think I had actually set up September 8th, but I know sad, >> but I'm I'm going to make sure that it's a it's a date that everybody's here. So, we'll >> I was going to say, don't feel like you have to move it for me, but going to be sad. >> There's nothing special about September 8th. >> Okay. So, well, that's good cuz I think like Yeah, just from that point of being in there now and you guys like it's been like two weeks and everything has changed. >> Yeah. Literally, it's been a week and a half for me and it was like a different going in a different building. So, it's happening quickly. >> Yeah. And they have the garage uh doors and those are really just everything is just so well thought out there and >> it's kind of it's kind of crazy because you can't really drive by it right now. Not really. >> Yeah. So it's kind of like a mystery, right? >> It's like a mystery. You're like >> looking around, you know, trying to see how far it is. >> So it's just it's just wonderful. So I just my hats off to all of you guys for for for that. um was able to attend the veterans picnic with the fishing in Chesca area fishing with friends and that was really a fun event to attend and kind of see and it's popular and um being able to to see all the vets um be able to have that experience and have lunch together and kind of share um and each other's enjoyment there. Uh >> went to the what is it the Southwest Transportation Coalition? Is that what it's went to their meeting and it's incredible the amount of I mean if we're all like we're all grumbling over how much road construction in the area and that's no surprise because I can't even I I thought I brought the paperwork. I guess I didn't. But it's an insane amount of projects that are happening as far as where where they felt like they were deficient and like where we're at now and kind of playing that sort of catch-up game. And then they talked about just the preparation and facilitation of the arburetum project. So that's going to be a big one next year um for our area that's going to impact um >> well we you know just real quick history of that group that group started back in the 80s. I was really started by Bob Lindall and uh >> he was there at that meeting. So, >> and he was the president for years and years. And that group by itself was responsible for getting 212 uh getting it a four-lane highway going all the way when it first went to Carver. Uh and they spent 20ome years uh lobbying every year to get that. So, um, so you know, it's morphed into dealing with other transportation issues in the southwest area, but it also the communities that are part of that group go all the way to the South Dakota border because they're really sort of looking at the 212 corridor uh going out to South Dakota is the only major corridor in the state uh that uh has that classification that is not four lanes. uh every other uh corridor is four lanes like 169 is four lanes and so so uh there's communities out by uh Granite Falls and and uh um Monavidio uh that are part of this whole transportation coalition because it's really a pain for them to come into the metro especially when they're transporting uh farm goods into the market. >> Yeah. and they have a so they do an annual flyin to DC to like lobby. I'm not sure if any council member is interested. I have a tab meeting. So I have a a conflict but it's in September. I can give you the dates. >> I put it in the >> Yeah, you put >> Oh, did you? Oh, I didn't. I guess I missed that in the in the thing >> available. I have a wedding. >> So, but it is something that you know they they like to have as much representation. So, if it works, great. Um, but there's always next year as well. So >> transportation stuff is fun. So I highly recommend someone try and go. >> Yeah. I mean I don't know like I'm assuming because the tab in the fall sounds like that's when things really like gear up as far as the solicitation and funding and and things along those lines. >> You know the federal year starts on October 1st and so they're really sort of gearing up for that next sort of lobby, you know, getting out before the next budget year starts. >> So it's kind of like skip one transportation thing for another. So, um I want to welcome we have four new police officers as of um last Friday. And so I want to welcome Officer Michael Torres, Officer Michael Officer Marco Miranda, Officer Cade Madden, and Officer Lucas Johnson to our force. So, um it was great. It's just nice to see and just in the complex world of candidacy with, you know, being able to recruit placing, it's nice to see us uh have a thriving um pool of candidates and being able to um swear in formula officers. So, great job and I wish them all well in their service to our community. Um we talked about River City Days. There's going to be a city booth. That's just one thing I don't know if really got mentioned. And we will have information on the southwest park along with probably the building project I'm assuming or maybe. >> Yeah. So it's a building process southwest park and >> put it in there. >> City square >> city square west. >> Sure. >> So we'll have information in the booth. So yeah if you want to or if you have city questions or anything this this is the time we are well there's always the time. We're always going to answer those questions but face tof face conversations. So, um, tomorrow is the Minnesota Bluffs trail ribbon cutting and it's at noon 12:20. Must be 12:30. >> It's 12:30. Get there at 12:20, I think, or something. >> Yeah. So, if you want to attend, park over by Metal Spring Church. Um, the pedestrian tunnel over there. And so, we will be doing that. So, that's wonderful to see that kind of complete and being able to celebrate that. Uh coinciding with River City Days, Sacha Friends of the Library is having their um book sale and it's runs Friday and Saturday. So Friday from 2 to 4:30 and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30. Um if you're a big reader, it is a great opportunity for you to get some books. And if you're going to shuttle in from the curling rink, you'll be parked real close to the library, I'm sure, nonetheless. So be sure to check that out. Night is coming up. It's on August 5th. Something really cool that we are doing this year is we are working with our three neighboring eastern Carver County cities to do a um food shelf challenge. And so for parties that are, you know, registered that have the police and fire that are going to be coming to them, we are asking all those parties to either donate their dollars or physical food shelf items for collection or sorry, we're not going to collect them. um somebody representatively from the party will should bring them the next day on that Wednesday the 6th to the food shelf in order to be counted towards our portion of the challenge. We want to beat Chanhassen, Victoria, and Carver because this is going to be measured out in like population size. So, it's not just based on pop, you know, not just like, oh, we're we're larger and we have more parties. So, we want to make sure we beat them. Okay? And so there'll be some stuff on social media, but if you are somebody that wants to have a party and have it registered with the police department so you have um them visiting, I think the deadline is Wednesday for that. Um just one note to public works, just a kudos to them. City Square Park, I don't know if you guys have driven by and seen the gazebo. It looks wonderful. >> I thought it was going to be so ugly and it's not. No, it's very very nice. So, just wanna I just want to give a small shout out to them. I know that this has been a very long process. A lot of people and agencies involved and so great job and I know they're continuing to do the rehab work and it shows. It's beautiful. So, >> and sidewalks, uh Brian, well, the weather might affect it this week, but sidewalks will take about three weeks. We're going to start this week. Uh we'll see about weather, but once we start, it's about three weeks to get them in. And then just last thing, our next meeting is on August 4th. Um, and we have a work session before that. So anyways, that's it for me. Thank you for all participating and we have an EDA meeting coming up right after this. So I'm sure you guys are here to have fun with that. With that, uh, if anybody doesn't have anything else to talk about, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn the council meeting. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> All right. Motion from council member Hatfield. Second >> and second from council member Benish. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Meeting adjourned. All right. And Christa, you just let me know if you want me to go right into it or if you need a minute. >> We are good to go. >> Okay. So, I would like to call this meeting of the Chaska Economic Development Authority to order or Yep. to order on Monday, July 21st at 8:29 p.m. Um, roll call, please. >> Commissioner Hav >> here. >> Commissioner Bennishes >> here. >> Commissioner Chevlin, >> Commissioner GR >> here. >> President Hard >> here. All right. Next is the adopt the agenda. Does anybody have any additions or corrections to the agenda? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion to adopt it. >> Motion to adopt agenda. >> Okay. >> Motion from Commissioner Gra. >> Second. Second from Commissioner Bennish. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> The agenda is adopted. Let's go on to approving the previous meeting minutes from these meeting minutes are from June 30th uh 2025. Any additions or corrections to those? All right. Otherwise, I would entertain a motion to adop adopt the minute. I talk too much. Adopt adopt the meeting minutes. Okay. Motion to approve the previous meeting minutes. >> Second. I have a motion from Commissioner Benes and a second from Commissioner Hatfield. Any discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Meetings are adopted. Our minutes are adopted. Wow. Uh, next we have 5A discussion items here. The first one is letter of intent with autopros to purchase and expand on EDA property atif 1595 old road. >> Uh president and commissioners this uh item we're going to drag it out longer because we know appreciate your patience. We know that you want to stay a little bit longer. >> Um but uh uh this this has to do with expansion of autopros uh down at their current location, the EDA site that's owned to the south of that. We have Brandon here from uh uh uh AutoPros uh representing them and Julie can go and talk about uh uh sort of the the plan for expansion of their business down there. All right, I'm going to see if I can get a map up gone. Okay, thank you Madam President, commissioners, and thanks Matt. um staff was approached by AutoPros um in May um and they requested that we um sell them an EDAowned property so that they can expand their operations. The property in questions, it's a vacant just under a half an acre lot and it's directly south of AutoPro. If you look at the map on the screen, um, AutoPros is outlined in blue, the EDA site is outlined in red, and if you look to the right, the red star there's that's the city map. It's just kind of give you a general location of where it is located in the city. It's just south of it's between Angler Boulevard and Highway 61, just west of Autobon. Um, their property was originally acquired by the city during the downtown levy and diversion channel project. It's one of several remnant parcels in the area that were not needed for flood control and have since been sold for redevelopment. This EDA property, the one in red, was also previously part of a two lot industrial development that was approved by the city council in 1997. The northern lot, the one that's outlined in blue, was sold and then it was developed in the building that AutoPros is currently in and owns was built. The southern lot remains vacant and is still owned by the EDA. AutoPros is a long-standing locallyowned auto repair business. It's outgrown its space, proposing a 3,000 square foot expansion. It would add four new service bays, a new lobby, and between seven and eight new jobs to the area. The expansion aligns with our industrial land use for the area and our goals. Uh if this parcel we're allowed to expand um the business can stay in Chaza and it can keep the jobs in the city and the EDA can um remove one of the properties from the or add one of our properties to the tax roles. Uh, as outlined in the attached letter of intent, the negotiated sale price is $35,000, but the purchase would be contingent on completing planning approvals and going through that process and dedicating a larger easement for existing sewer line. This is a large I have a new map up and it shows it's a large sewer line that runs north and south. It's on the west side of the property and it's just west of the existing Auto Pros building. City staff is currently working to enlarge the easements that would be needed for this sewer line and that will um be finalized through the planning approval process before any um closure if we agree to sell the EDA site before that closes. Um, upon approval of the LOI, the staff will start negotiating a purchase agreement and that's what would be brought back to the EDA for consideration and then if approved, the sale would happen right after that. Both of those would happen after final site and building plan approvals came before the city council. Uh, some benefits for this project um is that it includes supporting a local business for the area. It contributes to job growth in the community and it represents a productive reuse of EDA property that is currently vacant. Staff is recommending approval of the motion in the staff report and requesting the authoration of the executive director to sign the letter of intent. I and as Matt mentioned, Brandon is here and he may be willing to answer some questions if you have any and I would be happy to take any questions myself. Does anybody have any questions for staff first for for Julie? No. Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Brandon? >> I don't think so. I think it's just a I think it's nice that that'll get used for something and I know the business has been growing. You can certainly see that with um lots of vehicles. So, that is uh I think will be useful and it's always great to see a local um business expand um and if their space makes sense. So >> yeah, I mean I think it's kind of a you know that property is not very big and I'm sure you know it's challenging in the sense of like an enduser outside of that. So I think it's great that we're able to have an opportunity. >> It'd be very difficult if not impossible with setbacks and stuff like that parcel as an independent parcel. >> The only way that really works is if you combine it with the parcel to the north, >> right? So, I just think it's great that this is, you know, something that can meet the growing needs of one of our businesses in town, which side note is a great business full of honest, integrity, um, mechanics. Um, just as a past customer. So, thank you for being a part of our community and choosing to continue to invest in our community. >> They also expanded in shock PE, too. So, all right. >> I won't hold that against that every time. No, I'm I'm Yeah, I did see that. >> I say right by KFC like that. >> So, but I just think this is this is just a great opportunity to yeah have um grow jobs and grow a business in town that wants to continue to keep their roots here and stay here and expand here. So, >> yeah, I was going to echo that and took my line about just great. So, I will share that I was super excited when I saw this because great business, Chesca Ruts, Chesa Connection. When I first moved to the city and I had that first like I'm new to the city, where should I go because I have a car problem. Um, and I'm not a car person and was recommended. Uh, it also helped. I still remember the day they had like the punch sheets for oil changes, right? Those were awesome. I wish we I wish oil changes were still that price. Um, they're not anymore, but at several years ago, he's writing it down. >> Several years ago, that was awesome. Just hooked me in. >> But what actually sticks out to me, and I think it's worth saying because you talked about the integrities. I had a family member who went to a different place. Won't name it. Um, for a fairly simple fix, >> was quoted a pretty astronomical price, truthfully. Went to Autoros, which would have been the first choice in general, and got a very honest, integrity, reasonable price and was the right answer. And I just think that is awesome because again, I will self admit that I am not a car person. So, I put a lot now I know who to get. >> Now I know who to get. I put a lot of trust in that, right? And I call my father-in-law and everything like that. But in that situation, it just showed me like the people, the connections. Uh, and so when I saw that expansion piece on here, I was just super excited because, uh, I am I drive by the Shakapi one every day. I do not Oh, I technically drive by this one as well, just off to the left, right? I don't go up the road, but it was super awesome because again, that just sticks out to me and I just was like, this was the opportunity. I never was be able to tell that story to to an audience, but it was awesome because it was it was night and day different and it will forever spent my, you know, kind of that connection to that to that to that group. it that was my exact experience and it was actually back in 2001 and uh you know went there had the exact same experience have been going back there ever since and you know Gary his dad um you know is somebody in Rotary with forever and we do a four-way test in Rotary you know is it the truth is it fairll concerned and I think your dad always really took that very seriously and and I think uh Brandon's done a great job of of continuing that on. So, >> this is worth sticking around for, right? >> Get emotional, but >> if you want to come up and talk because uh because outside of us, no one can can hear and we want we want to give you your 15 minutes of fame to our 1.2 million viewers on YouTube. Oh. >> Um, yeah. I I don't have 15 minutes, but I got, you know, maybe 30 seconds. So, uh, no, that means a lot hearing, you know, your guys' individual testimonies and being able to carry on a family business that, you know, my dad started and like third generation auto repair shop owner. Like, it's just super humbling and I feel very, you know, fortunate to be part of the Chass community. I grew up here. So, >> yeah. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. Yeah. Thanks a lot. >> Yeah. Absolutely. We we like we love you being a part of this community and like like I said really grateful that you're choosing to continue to invest >> trying to get more involved with like sponsoring like athletics and chaser river city days and all that >> or joining Rotary [Applause] about that once or twice. So um just trying to find my footing here and then something I want to consider for sure. >> Sure. >> Awesome. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Awesome. Does yeah does uh does anybody since Brandon's up at the microphone here have any questions for him? Otherwise appreciate that. Um otherwise I will um entertain a motion to authorize the executive director to sign a letter of intent with Autoro of Chesca for the sale of the EDO ADA owned property at 1595 Old Ottabon Road to support their expansion. But yes, go ahead. >> You kept going and I was >> Well, I was trying to read the whole thing, but yeah, she's excited. She wants to she wants to get on record. Okay. Uh >> my word. You're my word. I appreciate you. Motion from Commissioner Hatfield. >> Second. >> A second for Commissioner Benish. >> Um yeah, pick up the slack. Good job. Um any other um comments or questions? Otherwise, uh all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Congratulations. We are excited to see the the future of this coming about. So with the expansion, >> thank you very much. Yeah, looking forward to growing and helping serve the community. So >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for sitting through all of that too. >> Yes, >> first council meeting. I actually thought it was a lot of fun. >> You got to you got to be a part of the audit council meeting. I don't know if that's >> I feel like this is maybe a different >> usually fun is not the word described, but um very cool. All right. And so then moving right along, we have 5B. Do we have authorized letter of intent for TIFF assistance for the proposed EDCO project? >> Uh, President and Commissioners. So, I don't think we need to probably go through this again. It's the exact same item that was in the council meeting. >> Sure. >> Uh, just we need to have it approved through the EDA as well. Uh, so unless you have any questions, uh, staff recommends moving forward with this. >> Does anybody have any questions for staff? All right. And like you said, we're not breezing through it. We have just if you rewind the uh video recording back you will find our discussion on this item. So um with that I would entertain a motion to um uh execute the letter of intent for tip assistance for the EDCO project. >> So moved. >> All right. Motion second. >> Motion Commissioner Hville and second for Commissioner G. Sorry. I'm sorry Josh. Um okay. Any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. >> I >> I opposed. Motion carries. And that wraps up that of the discussion items. Do we have any other business that we'd like to discuss at this point? Anything. Roll call. No. Okay. All right. So then I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion from Commissioner Hatfield. >> Second. >> Second from Commissioner Bennish. Good job. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.