Lakeville City Council — Transcript
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Parks and Recreation Quarterly Report
Resolution Adopting Assessments for Unpaid Special Charges
Preliminary 2025 Property Tax Levy and Budget Adoption
Votes (3)
Parks and Recreation Quarterly Report
Director Macy Arin reported on Grand Prairie Park construction with main building footings installed and grandstand footings anticipated mid-September. Voyager Park design in progress with SRF consulting for 2025 construction. Recreation programs achieved 3,383 registrations across 27 new programs. Adult athletics grew 204% with 306 teams (primarily sand volleyball return and pickle ball expansion). Art center saw 157% increase in programs with 1,298 registrations and record 48 pottery sessions. Environmental Learning Center achieved 35% registration increase with new nature-focused programming. Heritage Center reached all-time membership record of 1,520 members. Live at the Lake concert series ran 12 weeks with successful beer and wine sales test planned for full implementation in 2025.
Resolution Adopting Assessments for Unpaid Special Charges
Moved by Unknown [Timestamp] · Seconded by Unknown [Timestamp]
Finance Director Julie Stall explained the annual certification process for unpaid utility bills, false alarms, and nuisance charges. The certification timeline was moved up one month due to October ERP software implementation, creating a tighter grace period for utility customers. Cycle one bills mailed May 31st with June 27th payment deadline; certification letters mailed by July 15th. Total utility accounts certified increased to 973 (from 893 in 2023) totaling $97,300, representing 6% of utility customer base. False alarm charges totaled $424 (4 accounts, down from prior year). Nuisance abatement charges totaled $2,078 (8 accounts, up from prior year). Residents have until August 16th to pay and be removed from certification list, October 3rd to pay without interest (with $50 administrative fee), and October 4th-November 30th to pay with interest accruing to payment date. After November 30th, amounts are certified to county property taxes.
Resolution Establishing the Preliminary 2025 Property Tax Levy and Preliminary 2025 Budget
Dissent: Dan Walter initially expressed concern that the levy increase was too high and questioned whether the city should add to residents' cost-of-living burden, but ultimately supported the motion, acknowledging public safety as a priority.
Moved by Joshua Lee [Timestamp] · Seconded by Unknown [Timestamp]
Finance Director Julie Stall presented preliminary 2025 budget with 12% overall levy increase totaling $48,815,500. General fund portion increased 8% to $32,977,000. Debt and park referendum levies total $12,773,000 (with park referendum debt representing 2.4% of the 12% increase). Remaining $3,000,000 allocated to trail improvements, pavement management, technology, and park improvement fund. Key budget drivers include public safety expansion: six additional full-time firefighters (plus recognition of six hired in 2024), three captains, and one police cadet (funded by $50,000 grant). Total public safety expenditures increased 133% from 2024 budget. General fund expenditures increased 3.3% overall with 3% cost-of-living adjustment on wages. Fund balance reserves remain strong at 48.5% of 2025 expenditures (within 35-50% policy range), with zero fund balance transfers used. New state homestead market value exclusion increased from $413,000 to $517,000, benefiting more homeowners. Median-value Lakeville home ($413,000) will see $132 annual increase in city property taxes. Council reduced preliminary levy by $700,000 from prior week's work session through: $400,000 increased liquor fund transfer, $200,000 debt service reserve draw, and $100,000 building fund reduction. Final budget hearing scheduled for December 2nd, 2024.
Notable Quotes (11)
I'm just astounded by the numbers so kudos to you and and and the team there um you know for me this these programs were kind of a hidden treasure just when I started on the council because I didn't know much about them but clearly a thousand of people participating they're not that hidden so um good work
is that just focused on Lakeville or are we trying to reach people outside of Lakeville yes and if so have you talked to visit Lakeville about partnering on doing some promotion
we set a 25 mile radius from the facility is what we set okay uh and the marketing is really GE geared at this point to females 30 and above is how it was designed um and we thought we'll in these next few months continue to keep an eye on how that's going and if we're reaching residents outside of the area
the certification process this year was a little different we had to move it up a month which created some issues but it also saved a lot of manual processes what drove this was our Erp implementation our software implementation moving to that new software in October um and then to minimize the amount of manual labor in between we had to move the certification process up a month
thank you for walking us through the timeline because I think at first glance the move a month early seems like a lot but the opportunity to pay these without uh additional charges and fees well I should say without interest um is helpful to know so so thank you for outlining that specifically
we are using zero of our fund balance reserves so no transfers out no supporting use of fund balance to have the balance budget and we are also keeping our fund balance rate IO at our at the top level so at the end of 2024 we're expected to have a 50% fund balance ratio of the 2025 expenditures and then forecasting at the end of 2025 uh 48.5% fund balance so still very high up in our our policy is 35 to 50% of fund balance reserves
thank you um again a lot is packed into this um last week at our work session we asked for a decrease from that proposed budget by a percentage could you walk us through what changed from La what we saw last week and what we see this week
I um I just like to say I want to extend my gratitude to all the directors and to the administration for putting together a very thoughtful budget you know obviously with uh challenging economy things it makes things uh certainly between Cola and uh cost of health insurance going up and all those things and at the same time still maintaining uh all the critical infrastructure in our city public safety and then also thinking about the future so I appreciate that
um I just want I to me this is still too high um I understand that this is the highe this is the process you set the the high part and then you work for a couple months to bring it down uh and and hope things align so that we have more more liquor fund or or other things happen um I I you know just talking to people people are struggling um with the cost of living and I'd like to think that the city of Lakeville would not um add to that um through this
to me the the public safety which for me is a top priority those costs are significant they are a meaningful investment it's you know at the doors that I'm at that's what I hear from people that they um that is a that's a priority for the for the public as well and um so I think this is um this is appropriate so thank you
this really uh presents a tension between wanting to keep it as low as possible I appreciate the uh the drop down to the 12.05 and you guys did a lot of hard work uh to meet that um but Public Safety is also a priority and so I look at this and I I for me it's it's always you know what do we do is this reasonable and I do believe it's reasonable I believe a number of our our citizens that I've talked to understand that investment and that uh it's a worthwhile investment
Ordinances & Resolutions (4)
Annual resolution certifying unpaid utility bills, false alarms, and nuisance charges for collection. Allows residents until October 3rd to pay without interest, with $50 administrative fee. After October 4th, interest accrues until November 30th when amounts are certified to county property taxes per Minnesota State Statute.
Preliminary budget setting maximum levy at 12% increase ($48,815,500 total). General fund increase of 8% ($32,977,000). Includes debt and park referendum levies ($12,773,000) and allocations for trail improvements, pavement management, technology, and park improvement fund ($3,000,000). Sets final budget public hearing for Monday, December 2nd, 2024 at 6 p.m. in council chambers.
Minnesota State Arts Board grant managed by art center. Third year of reporting (July 2023-June 2024) documented 658 teachers and performers, 24,000 participants in visual arts and performing arts programs, with estimated 5,500 ages 0-18. 2024-2025 grant award of $9,969 is highest received from state arts board.
Enterprise Resource Planning software implementation scheduled for October 2024. Drove decision to move utility billing certification process up one month to minimize manual labor between systems.