All right, I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Start with a roll call. McKe here. Lantern >> here. >> Friedrich >> here. >> Baron Camp >> here. >> Nicholls >> here. >> All righty. And we will just jump into the work session uh with three budget or three department budgets and I will hand it over to Jay. >> All right. Uh so we're going to start out with the admin budget. Oh, you're kidding me. is not pull over. >> Yeah, it's not uh >> started with some technical difficulties. >> Yeah. So, >> it's okay. >> So, uh we're going to talk about the IT budget. >> One of those computers sounded like it was about to take off about a half hour ago. It was fans were going like crazy. >> Um yeah, so we're going to start out with administration. Then we're going to go to public works. We're going to talk about the our our two enterprise funds. Uh, and as soon as I get a green light, we will be a go. >> Oh, sorry. There we go. >> So, good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. I'm going to present the administration department budget in conjunction with Jay here. Um, so before you you have the uh or charts, you'll see that there are two highlighted boxes. Um, those are for proposed 2026 positions, which we'll talk about later in the presentation. We have the finance director up at the top there. And then we have an election specialist which is a part-time seasonal position. So for 2025 the human resources department achieved several key milestones that strengthen operations and employee experience. Um so the first bullet point here we recruited four external full-time positions two part-time positions and then two seasonal positions. We also implement an online recruitment process which improved candidate experiences and then we developed and implement an online onboarding program. We also completed and implemented the compensation classification study earlier this year. Looking ahead, some 2026 opportunities include preparing and navigating um the Minnesota paid leave program which is set to start January 1st, 2026. And then we'll also be working on updating the employee handbook which reflect some current policy and compliance standards. And then we'll also be doing labor negotiations which will hopefully start at the end of this year maybe carrying into 2026. And then we'll be um developing and implementing a citywide performance review and management program. Um so next I'll highlight communications department. So for 2025 uh we had a we had the quarterly newsletter go out. So, we expanded the content and we transitioned printing to an external vendor. We also developed and implemented the core print compass which is it's fairly new. Um I think we just started that about two months ago and that essentially recaps monthly meetings and it's designed to keep staff and residents more informed about some things that are happening at council meetings and commission meetings. And then we also developed and implemented the mayor's memo or the mayor's minute. Um, that's a communication tool that staff has been working on with the mayor that kind of highlights other city initiatives. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yeah, >> great job on both of them. That hits a whole bunch of checklists and such. So, our parks, our planning group, all of those folks should get copied on that. That should bridge some of the questions they've been having. So, outstanding. Thank you. Um and then we also just improved overall internal employee communication. And then also earlier in 2025, the council had asked staff to look into trademarking the city logo and we have completed that. So the news the city logo is now trademarked with the state. Uh we also created social media policy and then we held a photo contest right here um that um encouraged resident involvement and pride in the community. Some 26 opportunities would be um website improvements and implementation of um the new vendor which will be revised and then we're looking to improve and identify ADA accessibility requirements that will be in effect beginning 2027 um for the IT department. So, we now have fiber internet connection here at city hall. And then we also um distributed iPads and training to council members, commissioners, and we launched the I legislate app for meetings. And then we also improved our internal IT budget process. Some 2026 opportunities include the scale computing project, which was the VMware server upgrade for onremise applications. And then we have council approved this at that September 25th meeting. Um and then we're also looking to expand our SharePoint sites and capabilities. And then public safety is looking to um upgrade their Motorola servers. And this would essentially expand their service size for their video footage. Um and their video needs to be retained for a certain period of time. So they're just kind of running out of space there >> for like body cam or >> just all of Yeah, it's their body. I don't know. They have video footage, but >> yeah, >> dash cam probably. >> Yeah, probably. >> Cool. >> Alicia, do you know how long we have to keep those? Like what the >> um >> I think it depends. >> It depends on on on is it is it an active case and then what is the nature of the case? There are some things that we have to maintain in perpetuity and then there are some things that sunset depending on the nuances of particular information. Okay, for the city clerk's division. So, I just want to provide a brief recap of 2024 elections. So, there was approximately 91 days total of absentee voting that took place for just the primary and general election combined. So, 91 days out of 2024. And then, um for the general election, we had a 93% voter turnout at the state program. So, that's pretty great. >> Um some 2025 accomplishments. uh charter commission amendments will be coming to the December 11th city council meeting and those amendments are just essentially bringing us in line with practices and statutes. Um and then we also had the recycling services contract. We're starting a new contract in January with the public services and then you know we were able to launch the grant agenda management online. Um, and then some 2026 opportunities include Uni Code with the community development department and then we'll have 2026 elections coming around again and then we're hoping to get laser feature web link up online. So >> cool. So in in 2025 uh we had uh looked at our different operations and we were having a challenge in meeting our cycle requirements for claims uh because we have a high volume of claims and um it was recommended as we went to staff and and we talked to council members we hired a part-time uh payable accounts payables clerk that has been a huge win for us. Kathy is fantastic. Uh internally it's helped us out a lot, but externally it's really helped with our relationships with our vendors. Uh we're we're more timely than we've ever been in the city's history and uh that has really helped our positive relationships with all the different people that we partner with. Uh we completed the 2024 audit with an unmodified opinion and uh we improved payroll functions. We added some new processes and procedures for 2026 opportunities. uh the finance director uh we had projected that coming in midway through 2026 and since that time since we started the 2026 budget process uh if you remember Kesha who is our contracted finance director with ABDO she left and we have a new person that's been with us and uh there's just a difference that that's happened and then it's also extremely frustrating for internal service that they're in Arkansas and that they're not year. Uh we've tried to work with ABDO on different ways to try and and solve that. And in addition, the contracted services with ABDO are are going up incrementally as projected by the contract. Uh and as we had a change in personnel and not at the same skill level, we started doing assessment internally and we believe that it would be in our best interest if we're going to train somebody to understand how our escrow works and do our stuff. let's train somebody that wears our jersey that's going to stay here for a long time rather than train another cycle of somebody contracted staff. And so we do believe that there'd be some financial savings and a transition much earlier from the finance director from the ABDO contract. Uh but when that transition happens is really going to be contingent on what the market will do for us. Uh so um been paying attention to the market very closely. Part of the reason we didn't go with one before is because there were like six different cities that were looking for finance directors about the same time as we were. And at that point, we were not in a price point that we would have gotten the talent that we need to deal with the challenges that we have. And when we did the comp and class study, uh we had them look at the finance role and that's why it's now a director role for the scope of responsibilities that we had. Uh just from the job description, they said that was the more appropriate title and where it scored. Um, and so, uh, that's that's a big deal thing for all of our departments. That's probably our most important priority in terms of staffing for 2026. >> I I think it makes sense to make that ad. I was looking at the ABDO cost in the packet. It looks like we're planning for 2026 about 300K. Will that be going away then in 2027 we can actually hire a finance director? So, and it should go down significantly in 2026. Already we've made some modifications. So, uh we've had some challenges. Quesa was fantastic for us. She originally was handling our escrow transition. Uh and our escros are very complicated. That work is not complete and the people that they put on the project aren't able they're not at the same level. And so, we're hitting pause on that project because I don't want to pay a whole lot more money to train somebody else to do it. So, that would be savings that was part of that that would be included in the finance director salary. So I'm I don't know exactly what that balance will be because it will depend who we're able to attract. >> So we may have to supplement uh the skills of the person that we attract with some contracted service but it should decrease significantly >> and that's in 2026. >> That's in 2026 not 2027 definitely in 2027. Uh I wouldn't foresee us I hope we wouldn't need someone except for unforeseen projects for 2027. >> Okay. >> But it depends on the scope of all the things happening and the capability of the person that we bring on board. >> Okay. >> Because of the complexity of our our finance operations particularly our escrow. Uh you know kudos to Natalie and Kevin. uh they have done Yman's work and they they're there are the smart people on our team but the mechanics of it fall into the finance realm >> and one of the things that we recognized is we were training somebody else to do it and when they left they left with their knowledge. >> Yeah. As they do. >> Yeah. And and and so we really we really need to have that knowledge internally. um our accountant doesn't have the capacity and the complexity of that is really beyond the the the experience and skills of our basic accountant position. Uh we could train them up to do that but then it would be a reclassification that position and uh we need him to be doing the duties that he's doing uh and doing quite well. And so the the shorter answer to your question I hope in 2027 that will be if not gone next to nothing. And in 2026 what that transition is uh asymmetrical reciprocity yeah it'll it it will adjust based upon the skill level how fast are they learning because another big project that we have to do that we put on pause is the Questica budget software implementation because as Quesa left we're like okay let's go out and we we uh checked in with different vendors that could do it and I wasn't okay with the costs that they were asking to help us with implementation and we didn't have the capacity on our bench to do it. So, Questica has been really great for us. They're like, "Okay, they sheld it and they're waiting for us." And that will be the primary first job of our new finance director whenever we on board them is that quest of implementation because it's a great opportunity for them to understand how we do things uh to get into it and then collaborating with all the departments and building the mechanics in order to give us the feedback that we need. And then uh the the bonding that's necessary or the financing plan uh for the projects that we have that that will be their big uh opportunity for 2026 to fine-tune that uh so that we understand what we're doing and we're communicating with the public and getting their feedback to ensure that uh we're doing it the way that makes the best sense for the long-term financial stability of the community. Uh so now we'll just look at the big cost drivers for the administration budget. Um next slide. So looking overall at these cost centers, communication is increasing just due to some intentional re reallocation. So we're taking out the communication specialist from the administration budget and just moving them to the communication budget. Um so that that includes some of their personal We have the new website implementation included in there and then we also have the current website vendor's maintenance fee. So in 2027 we should see about like a $10,000 decrease because our maintenance fee will only be about $3,000. Um and then we also included newsletter printing and postage in this category. Um city administrator city administrator cost center is increasing just due to personnel costs. Um administration is decreasing. We've included the League of Minnesota Cities uh dues here that was moved from central services and then again like I mentioned communication personnel was pulled out of here for legal. I do want to highlight that the city attorney fees are not increasing 82%. Um there is a rate adjustment in there but um we also included some legal fees for labor negotiations. Public safety did not include um legal fees under their budget. Um we a closer look at this to just make that more intentional. Um, and reduce that cost. I think in just past practice, we haven't used a labor attorney. So, um, we'll take a closer look. >> I'm assuming it be Maggie. >> Yes. >> Yeah, we've already got her contract. We've already discussed with her her time. >> Okay, perfect. So, yeah, we can probably refine that number a bit based on that, I would think. >> Yeah. And and and how the negotiations go, right? uh you know how many sessions it take will determine uh and and we still have four open legal cases and that's part of the we we don't know what what all that's going to happen. Thankfully uh a significant portion of that is covered by our LMCIT insurance. Uh but we still have a a pay requirement that's going to happen. One of those is our is our big uh ongoing one we hope will close here which means our final payments on that will be in 2026. Um just don't know what that bill is going to be yet. Okay. >> Um okay. Again we have elections in 2026. So the budget will be increasing due to personnel cost. We are uh proposing and looking for council approval to hire that seasonal part-time election specialist which would be about 20 hours a week just June to December at the rate of $20 per hour. That and we came up with that rate just based on what neighboring communities were offering. We are >> Nicia. Could I ask you a quick question? Is that for a full day or for like half days? >> Oh, those it's 20 hours a week. So, kind of whatever they can fit in. >> Flexing it. Okay. >> Yep. >> And then we are looking at election judge rate adjustment just based on, you know, we're having some tenure election judges that are planning to not return in 2026. So, we have to do some recruitment. And, you know, we we did a comparison of neighboring communities again. You know, Madina, day in Maple Grove, their rates are than what our 2024 rates were. So, we're trying to just kind of, you know, bring ourselves up to alignment with that. Uh, central services, uh, we reallocated $25,000 to the IT budget for software. Um, professional services also coded here. We had some increased costs for HR, HRIS, and then background checks and miscellaneous. And then we're including our office equipment leases here. And then we have the Elm Creek wershed membership du here which is about 23,000. And then the victim advocacy per service is part of public safety. So that's included here. And then just overall city hall maintenance for the IT budget. This is increasing due to you know personnel cost. We included 30,000 for the replacement hardware for 2026. And then again that scale project and then the public safety Motorola server upgrade. And then um we did move 25,000 from central services to it >> and and the re the redistribution or the reallocation of those is trying to put the nature or the character of the expenditures and the cost center that they align with better. Um so we we had a lot of conversation about why uh we're we're doing that. We're also trying to clean up uh all of our different accounting codes so that we make sure that the that reflects the character of the transaction because it's not always really clear where am I supposed to put this and and so our chart of accounts uh we're we're in the process of reviewing that to make sure that our chart of accounts aligns with the the nature of our transactions. In some cases, we're getting rid of certain lines because we don't use them and so why muddy the waters with it or we're changing the n the the descriptor on it so it better reflects what the transaction nature is. Uh so with finance uh as as alluded to earlier um for 2026 I anticipate that this should be a sliding scale. It should go down as we bring on a finance director, but the scale that that will be, I I would prefer to be investing in our employee if we're spending money rather than uh paying a premium to someone who who is wearing our jersey temporarily. >> Great. >> Jay, do you know offhand what is the cost of our contract with ABDO for 2026? >> I think it's 142. Off off the top of my head, >> it might be 146. It's 140 something. >> Okay, thank you. >> That's the end. >> There you go. Thank you. >> So, any other questions? smooth transition. Uh go ahead and bring it up. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'd like to say we kept the best department for last in terms of presentations, but that was a really well done job by the admin team. So, we have a high bar here to finish off the night. Uh, so the first presentation is operations um, which is primarily streets and parks. Here's a a photo of us winter maintenance activities and then summer uh, street maintenance activities that we do. Couple highlights. Just just want to recognize that it's kind of lost in the effort. We do have 35 miles of gravel roads that involves dust control, grading, snow removal. It's it's a it's a different animal plowing a gravel road than a paved road. So that's a skill that not every plow operator has. And and then along with that and other paved roads, we have 90 plus miles of ditches that have at least by annual mowing, tree trimming, culvert replacement. We self-perform a lot of culvert replacements that saves the sunaves the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Um and then uh pavement rejuvenator and then actually this year we partnered uh on the city property north of city hall in 116. We've actually planted and seated uh with that partnership with Henipin County. So just highlighting the different aspects of our team. Here's our organizational chart for just just kind of what we're calling operations which again is streets and parks. Um there's a there's a unique color combo here and really the intention of the color combination is to show you where the personnel costs were allocated. So one of the biggest changes in our operations department was purposely reallocating personnel cost appropriately essentially moving them from streets to parks. We weren't really transparent with the level of effort you not unintentionally but we're refining our budget and improving those transparencies. So um so the color coding is just for a cost allocation. It's not an assignment of an like a maintenance worker in parks or maintenance worker in streets. They still coingle on task. The color coding is just simply a reflection of the cost allocation later for reference if you want to look at that more closely. We currently have one vacant maintenance worker position. What we are proposing in the 26 budget is really an uh elevation of that open vacant maintenance worker position to a fleet lead uh which we would expect if it moves forward to open up internally and move forward with that process as soon as possible. In addition to that, we're also proposing a reassignment of our current crew leader position um over to a more focused parks and facilities lead. So where that lines up is is the second row from the bottom. You see the green parts and facility lead and then you see the orange and red dashed uh fleet lead. So they're still required to plow snow. They're still kind of facilitate, but there are new points of contact uh you know new focused responsibilities and really growth areas that we see in the department primarily internally focused. So we have an expanding fleet. It's kind of stepping into like a mechanic type role long term, but just a more focused approach to making sure we're handling those areas. Uh, and then the same thing with facilities growth and parks growth. They're definitely areas that we almost need a more point person. We can't funnel everything through through one silo. So, it's really an effort to create better service within, you know, most of those are internal, but they do have an external extension specifically the parks and facilities. Here's a overall summary of our larger kind of buckets. Um, we'll get into these in more detail. The highlight under that I want to call under unpaved streets. The third one from the bottom between the preliminary budget and now we we bid dust control. So there was a realized savings of $40,000 that will be reflected when we bring back the the final budget. So, that's already been included in the numbers, but I just want to call out that is a reduction in the overall you'll see at the end. And that was a two-year bid and the bids came in exceptionally well. So, now we're locked in for next year. Um, we do have other items that aren't bid like the gravel will be rebid going into 27. So, it's kind of fluid. Just what bucket are we pulling out of that year? Uh, ice and snow removal was a single line item before. We're removing that and then tucking it under our highways and streets, which makes sense to us. So, just a cleanup item there. Uh, and then and then the decrease in highways and streets is is primarily personnel. And then the increase the parks is primarily personnel. And that ties back to the previous color coding where we're assigning personnel for those departments to more reflect true costs. Next slide. So, like I said, we touched on some of these. A lot of these finance and employee ones are reductions just primarily from that shift of highways and streets to parks. I do want to call out overtime. There was a, you know, we had in previous budgets we had sewer, water, streets, parks, all that co-mingled into one. As we get more sophisticated and start breaking out, there was a redist, excuse me, a redistribution of that over time. And then we did adopt the on call policy. So there is some estimated on call projections as needed for that. Next slide. Uh operating supplies. It's a $10,000 increase 20%. That's just really increased demand, increased cost. Uh you can see the ice and snow removals. Here's where we dropped it in. It's a small increase for cost. Um building repairs. the disclosure amount, but it's just simply more demand and more price increases there. Next slide. Similar with sign repairs and workers comp. Next page. Uh a little more focus pave streets. It's an individual line item. This is a combination. It's a request for 135,000 increase for a pave overlay pavement, so street pavement projects, and a $15,000 increase to to keep up with uh the pavement rejuvenator, which are all life extending applications as we maintain our investments in our roads, unpaved streets. Uh this is just we got a little better with our cost coding between gravel hauling and dust control. So there's not really a red the reduction we're seeing in gravel hauling is just a was really a poor line item last year. We didn't have them lined up right. This is reflective of threeyear trends. So that's just a the adjustment of the negative 20,000 just went down to the 30,000. So it was more just a cleaning up of those two line items. And these numbers do account for the 40,000 that I mentioned before in the dust control. These are the real numbers that would carry forward. uh operating supplies. This is just that line item that we eliminated that uh that header bucket for ice and snow removal engineering. It it met the mark to pull out. Um and it's really just an increase, a little bit of increase. we had underestimated some of actually my uh PE professional engineering development needs to make sure we're reflecting that um pulling it out into engineering. It was kind of buried in streets and parks and ops. So just trying to be better in our cost centers. So now we jump to parks which you'll see the inverse what we saw in streets. Now parks will look like we have big jumps all over the place. It's just really due to an allocation of three staff members to the park. So that's carried through with very similar things, demand and supply increases. We have more parks. We have more uses in the park. We have cost increases. So you'll see kind of nominal increases in those areas. Water and sewer is just, you know, paying for anticipated paying for some of the irrigation on our multiuse recreation fields. Another item that changed or was we changed the name. So now we call out snowmobile trail maintenance as a call out. It was buried under um a generic reimbursement line or something that didn't make sense at all. So we've highlighted that as a clear. It's a 100% pass through grant from the DNR. I think it actually came in at like 42. We just got that in 24 hours and we'll update that. It's 100% 42 um but it's a net to neutral line item and then just bringing uniform expenses um per employee into this budget. >> Sorry Kevin. So >> on the revenue side there would be 42,000 in trail maintenance that we would take in as well. >> It would place that's just where it slots in passes through. So it's got a Z difference to the overall. >> Okay. There was there was a question that I did get uh before our meeting and I think it's apppropo to this that that there's a lot of things in our cost centers that are that are balancing out. In this case, it's a pass through that happens with our uh TZD grant towards zero deaths uh with the police department. That's that's a straight pass through. There's other instances in which our expenditures are directly correlated to our internal or our incoming revenues. So for example, permits uh if if our revenues exceed what we projected, you can expect that our expenditures exceeded too because uh permitting requires building inspections and so we're going to have more building inspections that we have to pay out if we're processing more permits. Uh so that there's a lot of the way that we do some of our services that are cost centers that that don't really move the needle. They're if they do, it's It's not uh material. Uh >> another good example is in Joe's presentation, water meters. We buy water meters. They're passed out per fee schedule with a small administrative markup on them, but they're directly related to each other. Uh revenue. So, one revenue source that's changed uh is increased is just what with our streets, our stadium aotment for maintenance. We're we're implementing $50,000 increase of 250,000. Uh our current projection is 266, but it's not final. So, one thing that we can talk about is how aggressive do we want to be? Do we want to do 266 if it goes under our preliminary number? I put in 250 hoping that we get that final number for now and and be able to add to it. So, if there is direction on that, be rated against best available information or you like kind of being a little under. a little buffer. So, >> when do they think we'll have the final number on that? >> In January. >> Okay. >> Wow. >> But that's another example of if we are getting more uh MSA then we are able to do more on some of our projects. Uh if we aren't getting the MSA, then we're discussing do we want to do this project because we didn't receive that revenue. Um and so it really is if we if we don't if we aren't too aggressive, as Kevin used that word, uh We're conservative in this regard. If we have more, we can do more. But if we're more aggressive and then we don't get more, then do we say no? >> Bigger issue that way. >> Yeah. So unfortunately, we won't know by the time. So in the past, we've been trying to do 10 15 grand under not knowing what will happen. >> And then just for for as a reminder, there's two components to state aid. There's a maintenance component and there's a construction component. This is the maintenance component. We max that out. It's 35% of the a lotment. Most cities do 25 or even wave it, but we have so much gravel roads. That is basically what pays for a lot of our gravel road, you know, dust control, gravel, gravel hauling that that exceeds that 250 relatively quickly. But that's that's really why we want to maximize the maintenance line. A couple other items that came up over the last uh year is just you know storm water fees. It's been a past conversation. We don't currently have storm water area fees or utility fees. We might be few and far between at least in Henipin County in that aspect. We're a little unique. Um our current approach uh we meet regulations current regulations. So, as in terms of storm water, whether it's Wetland Conservation Act, whether it's the Elm Creek WHED, whether it's the NPCA, we meet all current rules. So, we're not by not having one, we are not out of compliance. Um, we also do look really closely at and require mitigation of off-site impacts. So, it's not that we just look in the box, we look at what's the impact from the box very specifically, which essentially functions as a storm monitor area charge in So, examples of that, Rush Creek Reserve, there was that work offsite of the project that was significant. Uh, Ravenia had some off-site stuff. Bass Lake Crossing had some off-site work that became Cook Lake at the time. It was private property. Garages too that um there's a kind of a shared deal there where the developer had some improvements down that steep slope and then we piggybacked off of it were appropriate to finish the project. So those are the things that we look at in downstream drainage scenarios. U in it's been man the times fast in 2022 was the last time we really talked about it at council uh in in any kind of significance and we kind of explored that conversation. Um there's information if you're curious I can send that data to you. Um but it really there's different ways to set up the fee different parameters. It could be acres developed. It could be impervious. It could be number of lots. We talked about some ideas. We never really got into it. There was really wasn't a ton of traction because we at that time the council felt that they were, you know, satisfying the needs through our kind of off-site mitigation practice. Um, if you had storm water fees, you would obtain resources, financial resources that then you would use to address a similar situation, right? You collect the fees and then the city would lead the projects and be responsible. But the project still should have a nexus to that development. So you can't just collect the fees and then use them. You can't collect a fee in like Ravenia for example and then use it in Northwest Corker. There needs to be a nexus for the fees. And so some of that gets a little complicated. Uh and so we want to be very mindful when we set up that policy that we're doing it uh correctly and legally. >> So one of the reasons Kevin's bringing this up is is council was very clear when we had strategic conversations of exploring the potential opportunities that we have for other revenue streams. So, this is one. There's there's others that that may come up tonight, but we've talked about some of those. Uh, and so, um, as we look at 2026, this is something that is on staff's mind. Is now the time to revisit this. Uh, as as we've got the complexity of our operations, we're trying to be very intentional. Uh, and then that provides some of the resources for some of the things that we either just haven't been able to do or as Kevin said, it's more complex because where we we're having to I think about the project across the street that was turned into five years of staff time. We weren't able to build for all of that five years of staff time. >> Uh, it could have looked different if it had been a a different kind of project. >> Yeah. I think with the potential for activity on the west side of 116 where we have so much wetland over the next five or 10 years, it's a good opportunity for us to put something like this in place so that we can maybe deal with what we would expect to occur um before it becomes a problem and you're stuck out in your hip waiters for another five years trying to chase things. The other kind of component that I touched on in addition there's area fees which is more when the development comes in kind of similar to our sewer and water fees where you collect it when it develops. Uh the utility fee is more typically assessed on a billing monthly billing basis or billing similar to water utility billing. Would we entertain that there really was no appetite from council to really continue the conversation. There is some logistical challenges. It should typically citywide. we didn't have billing citywide, you know, so there's some logistical staffing issues with implementing something like that. Um, you know, it can vary between residential, commercial, industrial. It's very similar to sewer and water type uh situations. Um, the one benefit of utility fee would be that it would be a steady stream of revenue for which you could kind of build a more reliable like base. So you could almost staff out of that more appropriately. You'd want to design a plan where you're gaining value. Um, there is some, to be frank, there is some MS4 compliance built into our operations budget at public works. So, you could pull out anything related to storm water and put it into that and kind of house it more appropriately if you had that, but staff really at this time wouldn't recommend it without a consistent steady stream. You wouldn't want to staff >> for something that wasn't built. So, is it at some point in Corkran there may be one. I'm not advocating for against it tonight. So, but just kind of you kind of where the conversation was and some of the advantages of each and what they could do if they were considered if that makes sense. >> So this is different than a franchise fee that we've talked about like on electricity bills, gas bills to support say road infrastructure. This would be specific to storm water, right? >> Correct. Maybe it's storm water drainage, water resources, but yes, definitely the the water then storm water component measurement >> and that would allow us to then when we do have storm water projects currently, they're either housed in someplace else or we're we're covering those expenses through a transfer. >> And we generally I mean we've looked like we did Corkin Trail East West project that neighborhood flooded. So we we looked at that and we did a upsized kind of match today's standard. It didn't solve everything, but it kept the water off the road. >> We also have kind of a I don't want this might not be the right term, but like a storm water fund, but it's not it's not active, right? It's not generating active revenue. Occasionally in the past, we've dump money into it. Uh I don't know if that's the right term, but it's not >> transfer is the phrase. But, you know, we've tapped into that for some of those, but we do get a lot of resident, you know, a lot of our rural parts of the city have some sort of flooding issues. Uh, we're aware of them. We don't have a great solution for them. I mean, if a development came by, we would analyze it thoroughly, but there in some of our older neighborhoods, I don't, you know, that were built 40, 50 years, there are challenges out there related to storm water. Um, If you're going to do storm water, it's got to be comprehensive because it will kind of do do compliance based or you start a program. It it it will generate some conversation. So, you want to be mindful about it and what your strategy is or our strategy >> ballpark. I I know you guys have a list of projects that people have asked you to do. What would it take to do all of them? >> I don't know. >> Analysis. Are you including I mean a lot of times you wouldn't do like that without like a street improvement with it so it really snowballs fast. I mean like I mean half a dozen to a dozen neighborhoods have potentially significant storm water issues of some sort. So it's a real >> a real issue that in the nine years I've been here we don't have a solution for if I'm being frank. >> I mean you did garages too in concert with development happening in that area. And I think there was a transfer to support like 180k or something sticks in my head. >> Y >> um are all of them likely typically around that same area or are some of them much much more expensive than that? >> They could they could be a 100,000 to a half million. >> Okay. >> And and you're talking about one that we knew. Then there's also the episodic, the oh, >> we weren't expecting that because drain tile failed. >> Uh there there's there's lots of different factors that can that can create a situation and we're responding. Uh so this this is considering long-term potential revenue source to have a strategy to strategically identify and create problems and then create a reserve for those episodic unforcasted events and with all these new neighborhoods with their new storm water systems that somebody will have to fix in 30 years, >> right? I mean that's another factor, a dimension we haven't had to worry about before. If I were to raise my concern, I think we do a really good job on the development because that's where we can like I think a lot of the new developments have very like not would have very little issues with storm water because we really focus on it. We don't have a plan or program to address the rest of >> the plan is uh be as intentional as you can when you can seize the day current >> uh and sometimes seize the day because it just popped up and it's in your face. >> I think Jeremy your point was >> at some point those aren't the new developments in 40 years, right? It's just another >> what's new today is worn out tomorrow, >> right? advantage there. So, we have some time to figure that out. >> And and then another strategic question with with all of the opportunities that we have, >> does this make the cut in terms of the juice to squeeze? Is this going to help us today? There might be some more pressing issues uh and with our limited capacity and we have to do identify our priorities. Um, we're just raising this in response to council's feedback that this is one that is an opportunity. >> Uh, and then as we go into strategic planning at the beginning of the year, uh, it'll be a good opportunity for us to clarify what you want us to focus on. >> Well, I think we raised it in the last strategic planning. What was the action that we took at that time just to bring it up like this or was there something more concrete you were expecting? >> So, as staff, we talked about it a lot uh, particularly on the finance side of things. Uh, And um the decision was we don't have the capacity to move the needle right now and so let's seize an opportunity to raise awareness about it. Again, Kevin did a great job of, you know, instead of just storm water and here's a couple pe actually giving us one pager of here's the issues, here's the opportunity uh for future discussion. So >> it's a complicated discussion. It would take a while to implement and create fun. So it's a long play conversation. >> Is that true even for the utility fee version where you don't need the nexus necessarily? You can just start collecting for a future program >> that yeah the the utility fee makes implementation and use of funds a lot easier because in theory you're charging everyone for something because it's the water basically hitting the cities. So >> but the challenge there is you don't assess utility fees to everyone because everybody is on city water. We'd have >> you would have you could we would have to if we did a citywide one, we'd be sending people not on sewer and water a storm water fee. >> Oh, good. I've never had it before that that have had their their drain their uh ditches taken care of uh or the episodic issues resolved >> and and they they were getting a bill for it. >> The con of side of that is it probably be a similar response like when they were doing dust control billing. similar to a lot of people that aren't getting bills, monthly bills, utilities or anything from the city that would be >> kind of awakens a sleeping giant because there's a lot of deferred asks out there way beyond my career here >> now that $5 a month. Can you do this for me? >> Need a fulltime person answering questions I suspect for a while and how it's going to be deployed. So, it's got to be super strategic or it won't be successful. A and I think that sleeping giant is a great phrase because we're not going to generate the resources to deal with the problems that people raising right away. Kevin's point is this is a long play and so we're going to have way more demand than we're going to have capability to meet the demand near-term and maybe even long term. Um, so there there's a lot of a lot of challenges to to look at uh in implementing it and you can anticipate that probably nobody's going to be really excited about it in the near term. They will uh years down from now, but uh if I'm not seeing a a benefit to me immediately, I'm not really excited about seeing an increase in my fees. >> Reasonable. Uh and then a kind of another topic that's been brought up revenue revenue source and the challenge that that needs uh it staff has been building a plan for but we'll take more urgency here and in conversation with council just really relates to a pavement management plan. Uh so our current approach and that this is this is more broadly our current approach is we are still working through what we call in our uh assessment policy our free overlay. So I've labeled it a payment management plan. I don't know if that's a correct label but we're basically chewing through that list of free overlays. Uh and that's got a projection of three to five years depending on budget cycles opportunities. And so really now is the time that we got to start saying what's the next pavement management plan for the city and and it's broad and comprehensive. It includes the new streets, the old streets, the gravel road, it's the you know everything would be in that plan. It's a it's a massive comprehensive plan. Um and we as staff are gearing up for that. So our intent is to mostly do that internally. So, we're kind of preempting you on some stuff and you can talk about it at planning if you where do you want us to long goal setting where do you want us to prioritize? But this is something that's out there that definitely needs a priority or consideration of a priority. >> We should develop a citywide program. We should determine costs and prioritize needs. Uh and one of the things to do that was, you know, really leveraging software assessment programs of the street even to to get a better basis less basis to at least position us. We can always move this stuff around on individual needs, whether there's a storm water issue in the neighborhood that might change a priority, but I would like to consider um and we bring this back to you at some point leveraging some sort of software to help us with that assessment. So, it's it's got more basis. It's not staff driving around selected roads, which is fairly our current practice. Uh and it's also a goal that um we would need to identify revenue sources. We anticipate a pretty significant gap. Our current policies, the general levy, the line item tonight of 500,000 to put towards that. Um, that's just pavement, right? Uh, and we do have an assessment policy. So, in the future when the free overlay runs out, we our assessment policy currently says for an overlay, you are getting considered for an assessment. So, if we do nothing in five years, we're looking at assessing every maintenance project in the city. Uh, is that what we want to do? >> Which we already do, right? I mean, what's that? >> No, we're doing that. >> We don't if it's a free overlay, we do. If it's more than a free overlay. So, if it's just a free overlay, we deal with it. Uh, if it's a street or like Chisum where we think it's more than a free overlay, we give the assessment the credit the free overlay, but then there is an assessment for more than the overlay if there's a benefit there. >> Have there been any projects where it is just the overlay? Have you had to do a full remedation? >> We do. We've done a lot. We the ones that we haven't are Corkran Trail and Chisum. So, as we're getting to the end of our free overlay, what we're seeing is more wear and tear on the roads and we're seeing maybe we need to make a more significant investment. We still want to give them the credit for the free overlay. But that's that's a good example of when we run out these for 15 years, the ones that were in best shape in 15 years that were kind of last on the list. >> Now, the road is failing enough where we don't really want to invest in just an overlay. It's not good. noted. So that's just a good example of why we want to be a little more ahead of it with resources. >> So sorry if you already covered this, but when you say that we're nearing completion, is that the roads that were identified as eligible for it, most of them have already gotten? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. We're down to I mean there's a list. I can give you the updated list. We're down to three to five years worth. >> And we pro they're kind of like neighborhood driven. So I don't If you're interested, I can send out the the list. I suspect that some of those on the free overlay list, we just did a drive-thru, some of the on the free overlay list are going to need to be more than overlays. Some some will probably be able to be overlay still, but I'd say half of them are probably at least in a conversation to try to do more like we've done. >> When is it too late to do the reclamite treatment to extend life? the sooner the better. So that's why we're really fronting the new streets or the new wear. So if you put a seal code down, it doesn't work. Okay? >> So it's really the benefit is really in the first 10 years. Um so you'll see you'll see you know you'll see us kind of cycling through some of the new neighborhoods twice. >> Uh and it's like why why are we putting our resources there? Because that's the value. We're extending those roads for really pennies on the linear foot compared to other projects. So for the folks out there watching, you'll see another, you know, sweep through Bass Lake Crossing in Ravenia relatively soon because the the data and it's still a relatively new product and and the product is actually performing well. It's extending out more than they think. So you can extend that out. But that's where the benefit of the rejuvenator is. Once you do a seal coat, you can't do it. It kind of seals up the surface. So but if you do an overlay, you're in the rejuvenator. That's what I was wondering is if you're doing that overlay, >> can you extend the life of the overlay with that kind of a system? >> In in an age street, it's really the subbase that controls the road. Water in the subbase is the performance of your road. So, it's you're going to get less run out on an overlay than you are in a new neighborhood, right? So, the value of the rejuvenator is in the newly built streets with our new standards of the last decade. We should be able to extend that life. If you look at like some of the first roads They're holding up really well. Um, and so we want to maintain that so we don't have an issue so we can extend the life of the rooms. >> And then that last comment there, the franchise fees as we're looking at, uh, it's important to note that we don't currently have franchise agreements with all of those partners. We have to have those agreements in place before we really can talk about the next stage of a fee. And so, uh, it's taken much longer than you'd think. So, we started the franchise fee, uh, updates when I started, and we haven't finished one of them yet because it it goes back and forth between our attorney and their attorney and happy to glad and all of that language uh, adjustments in order to make sure that it reflects it before they'll sign it. Uh, we're really close on some This is a picture of our operations and engineering team. And we borrowed Kelsey for this picture. She's really a blend of all our teams. But um I'll turn it over and if you don't have any other questions, we can jump into water. But happy to answer any questions. >> I think we're good. >> Yeah, it's 6:30. But yeah, we'll try to go. >> Yeah, >> that's not a a super strict time. >> Go a little I think no attention to the man behind the screen. I wish I was behind the screen. >> All right. Once again, thank you, uh, mayor and council. I'm here to talk about the utility budget and the improvements to the utility team. Um can start here. Uh couple quick facts for us. Uh we had over 2600 locate tickets this year. Issued over 288 water meters this year. That was at the end of October. And uh obviously opened our brand new water treatment plant and and tower. And we've since then we've pumped almost uh up to 17 million at the end of October through the >> Yeah. >> Does 288 I'm assuming that reflects how many new homes are being lived in? >> Correct. >> Is that correct? >> Correct. >> How does that compare to previous years? >> Last year was 346 >> for the whole year. >> For the whole year. So we're >> similar. >> Similar. >> Thank you. Next slide. Okay. So, uh, as we kind of alluded to, here's our org chart for, uh, public works and operations. We are on the far right for utilities. Uh, we have added two new employees this year, which both been a fantastic fit and done a great job so far this year. Um, we are highlighted there. We are using the rate study to help with our determination of future needs for maintenance and staffing. um that'll be a lot of determined by project acceptance and maintenance needs to fulfill those projects once they become our our problem or our issues. Um yeah, we go to the next slide. Um yeah, this is basically the overall uh water and sewer operation budget. Um pretty generic. As we go through this, please feel free to ask me any questions. Um, I will note there is a lot of duplicates, a lot of funds that are split between water and sewer. So, a lot of them are basically mirroring each other and uh and we have split some of those to help clarify some of the funds to so some of them are just brand new. So, they've triggered the the need for to discuss them. Um, here's the staffing information. A lot of these have gone up because we do have the um on call policy like like Kevin mentioned, but also the staff is going to be there for a full year. So we've also instead of starting in May and August, we're a full staffing year should be good here. Um with the new system, we have new operating supplies and needs. um some like motor fuels, uh chemicals for the treatment plant, our operating supplies then go up, new new policies, new maintenance things happening there. Um water meters on the bottom, that's same thing that that Kevin referred to. That's a money in, money out, just a transfer of funds there. Next slide. Um with that we have tried to do a lot of the stuff internal with staffing here. Uh the top one being professional services. Um we did reduce the amount allocated for the rate study trying to handle a lot of that internal to help reduce costs. Same with the inspections. The inspections um I believe between that and the treatment plant has you know with that being complete that's really dropped in that in that bucket. Um, yeah, we do have some uh obviously just general stuff there with some software if there's any questions there. >> Sorry. Can Can we go to the water purchase line? >> Yes. >> What time is it? >> What? >> 55 page 55. >> I believe that's that's the deduction yet. I think that's the rate increase plus the addition >> volume increase volume. >> So we talked about that >> uh in my pre-conference or sorry premeating call. I just wanted to elucidate a little bit. So 5% of that increase is fee increase per gallon which would mean the other 32% is volume increase which sounds like an awful lot of increase year-over-year for water. >> Uh why do we think it's going up as quickly as it is? Is it really just we're getting that many more people connected? Are they are existing people starting to use more water than they had before? Do we have uh breaks that are causing leaks? >> There really hasn't been more breaks as far as that goes. Um we have added, you know, you think of 288 homes and we only have 2100 total. That's a significant 25, you know, or 20% increase almost or 10% increase right there. But irrigation's a big one. I mean, we added even Dominoes. I mean, they've used 5 million just in in irrigation alone this summer. >> Really? >> Yep. So, irrigations are are big big users. So, those are the ones that we got to focus on, too. So, >> so educational component, you know, when we start getting more dialed in, there's going to be some conversations of how do we educate these businesses because they don't >> It's a pretty small lot for a half million gallons of water. a lot of money. So next year that might go down >> when you're first a lot of water, especially for single family homes, too. >> Oh, I remember my water bills when I moved in. >> Yeah, first >> I think my biggest bill was like 700 bucks that first month. >> I think the developers crank it up a little. That that's an interesting point that uh all those new homes have new landscaping. >> Yep. >> Yeah. But that's not new. We've had that every year. >> It's just interesting to me that >> maybe there's some cons conservation discussions to be had. >> Completely agree with that. I personally on a fundamental level I think we should avoid irrigation with our drinkable water. I think also just we have seen a slight increase in the amount of building permits over the last couple years compared to previous volume >> and won't this also be adding like we have some areas in city park that will have new irrigation or in heritage park have new irrigation and stuff like that. So there's an addition to the home >> splash pad is going to be quite the bill. >> But but we do you know if we go with the recirculating the water bill is going to be different. Uh the system that I had in Shakipi was a pass through but then we took it to a collection pond and then we reused the water pumped it out in order to irrigate the park. So there's different strategies that you can use depending on what your conditions are and what you're trying to achieve. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um, here we broke off utility locates just to uh to isolate that to make sure the funds are going to the correct area there. Um, postage went down a little bit. A lot of people using online billing. We uh seen a drastic decrease. So, we've decided to lower that. Um, with our new facilities, we do see a large increase in the um utilities themselves. you know, gas and electric electricity for the tower plant are significant. Um, and then we did break off and add a couple for some vehicle maintenance. We highlighted the motor fuels before and then some repair maintenance to our water buildings. >> I I do want to talk about the inter fund transfer. Uh, staff spent a lot of time doing some analysis on the transfer from of the water and sewer fund. So, as we looked back at the historic records, there was a significant transfer that happened over many years, and we couldn't find all of the explanations as to why the transfer was what it was. So, we sat down and we did some analysis on what was the rubric that would make sense. And so, we looked at those different areas that aren't currently connected to the water and sewer fund that are providing services to the water and sewer fund and then came up with a rubric percentage-wise so that they were doing the transfer in order to come. So administration, finance department, some of those things that weren't already connected. So it was a significant decrease from what it was before. Uh but we think that it better reflects or at least is more defensible than just the transfer without explanation that was occurring before. And over time we'll be able to refine that as we get better better understanding of what our actuals are as we mature our findings. All right, some revenues here. Um, number the line number two, you can see that's the water meters where we reflected the water meters going in. Here's the water going out for a payment. Um, next slide. >> Sorry on this one. I think it might be good to have a little more discussion too. Um, for the connection charges and trunk charges dropping 30 to 40% Nicia gave me an explanation. I don't know if the rest of council knows the story behind how we came to that change. >> I don't I I'll leave it to you guys to explain. I don't want to get >> a reflection of our baseline anticipated like permits. Um so it's it's t it's area charges, but that's how many permits are coming in. what uh entire land is coming in. So it's it's always a little bit of a guess, right? And so when you know looking back the 10 years I've almost been here, we tried to look at trend lines of building permits and be a little bit conservative. And so you know the philosophy of the council at the time was always be under try to calculate. Um and then we then went to like a 10-year average. So it dipped a little bit. Um and then most recently as staff we had a conversation. We looked out like what's available in title land. starting to get chewed up a little bit. You know, you know, Tavar's all platted. You know, there's there's hope, but hope is not a lot of acreage, right? It's dense. Uh they're just not I mean, Fairway Shores is new, but that builder is not a national builder. They're not going to do 50 to 75 homes a year. So, it's going to be a slower moving. So, we just looked at a lot of the entitled land. Uh not to scare, just there's less entitled land in this next year. So, we wanted to that and compare with the trend lines in the 2040 comp plan. So we went through this exercise we kind of landed on I think it's 225 building permits that >> yeah 230 >> 230 and then so that number is reflected in the general levy kind of budget line item that's also reflected in the long range plan and that's reflected in this. So we wanted all three of those data points to match. So it's a combination of looking where we're going for 2040. essentially we're overperforming our 2040 projection right so what we would have thought 10 years ago where we live 30 years from then we're building up faster than that bit of straight trend line would have done um that's that can be that's necessarily we're kind of in terms of sewer and water enterprise funds it means we're kind of pre-colcting that money to use for an investment later that's not necessarily a bad thing from an enterprise fund standpoint >> that's a helpful point right there that Kevin's making. It's not that we missed out on the revenues from those homes. It's that we collected them sooner than we projected that we would. And so now we're adjusting our projections to ensure that that it's reflecting the reality that's occurring to develop. >> Yeah. From an operating standpoint, we're looking at yeartoear. Are we meeting our operational? So it's a snapshot in that year, not necessarily a reflection over 20, 30 years. >> So what we're doing is lowering that and we're trying to be real with data we have. We have way more data than we had five years ago. We have, I would argue, better qualified staff in key spots that will help us navigate that. Um, and so we're just getting better with our refinement of our numbers. I think if we had more entitled property, uh, that number might have been, you know, elevated a little bit because then the the developer in theory has a little more control because they're meeting the preliminary entitlements, they can go. >> Um, if they're not entitled, there's a bigger hurdle. in terms of our ability to project when they come in. So, it's a little it's a little bit gamesmanship, but I I really think we're we're using the same assumption in all of our planning, and I think that's appropriate. >> I think we're becoming more keyed in on the assumptions in the data more than we've ever been. Um, and I would also say like this is a snapshot of the data that we have had really as of July. Um, and you know, things could come in January That's a different picture, but we have to base the budget off of the data that we have at this time. >> I would rather overperform than underperform. >> What do we see in the funnel? I know you've talked a lot about there's lots of things pending or in process of negotiation and so on. I know back in 2022, we had a similar situation where a lot of the entitlements were used. there wasn't a lot and they had to basically refill the hopper with a bunch of new developments. Do we see that happening at this point or is that not happening at this point? >> Our southeast district is getting pretty tied up for first and to unlock the second we have to talk about some serious infrastructure projects to basically unlock sewer capacity for the southeast. I think as part of a content update, we're gonna have to reevaluate our northeast district. I think there is more potential development opportunity up there and we might be ready to start moving for that side of the city. Um, but the problem is I I think we wanted to have a comprehensive part of the comps for people who've been shown in second phase for southeast district because they simply were not ready for it because we don't have the infrastructure. So I think a little bit of land left in our southeast district. It's mostly in our downtown area. Um I think it makes sense for that to remain open. So want to continue to encourage this area to develop. Um this is where we have the infrastructure and then um and then I think really it's the northeast district that we could look at. >> Okay. And so this reduction in anticipated revenue, does this have any relationship to the overall levy? Because this enterprise fund is there any relationship there? >> So this doesn't matter at all to what the overall tax picture is going to be for it. It doesn't impact the general levy. Uh it impacts our long-term picture, but as Kevin said, so we've realized some revenues like those TI funds earlier, so we've already got the money for the infrastructure that's been installed. >> Uh And it's just a matter of we have policies in place and procedures in which when it comes in, it'll come in. If if it does, if it should unlock, the magic key comes, >> uh, we're ready to deal with it. But we don't want to give a a picture that isn't what we foresee happening right now based upon what's entitled. >> Okay. >> I don't have any concern that we're running up against some trend that is bad, right? This isn't a reflection that I feel like the market is changing. You have to have willing buyer, willing seller, and you have to meet the vision of the city >> and all that has to fall into place for it to work. This is just a an operational assessment of the next year >> and it is really intended to show that our operations are not upside down. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, sewer is going to be very similar. So, I'll try to fast. There's their uh staffing um increasing that second page got operation supplies. Um as we obtain more projects, we have more operating um costs, water, fuels, professional services. Um same thing with the utility locates and the utility services. That's all brand new. We have new facilities, new stuff to pay for. Same with the building and the vehicle uh maintenance to keep funds in there for upcoming things. >> Um sewer revenue um want to talk about anything about revenue at all. >> I think it's it's parallels with our conversation sewer and water parallel a lot. >> Is the interest earnings how how much do we have in the sewer fund? 15th in the next meeting. >> Yeah. Um I I can bring that up for you, but I flipping through right now. Uh >> I mean it's it's a substantial sum. >> Yes. >> Is 25,000 really all the interest we can collect on that? >> I think that's a that's a number that finance generates. So I don't know if that how that's generated. >> I mean I would imagine you could use for that and you could maybe get a few%. So, so, so we are, I mean, even just last week, Corey calls me and he says we have an opportunity. My concern is to maintain liquidity. Uh, and so as long as we're doing that, so so we just move some things around last week with the potential of earning $25,000 a month more than what we earned. >> Uh, and so, um, we're paying attention to that in ways that we didn't really have the ability to before. Uh but but the key thing there is we're we're not putting a ton in long term because >> because we want to maintain our liquidity. >> Yeah. >> As as uh emerging demands are not as predictable right now >> I would imagine for sewer there's not huge projects pending that we would like we're going to have a lot of foresight what we have to spend out of the sewer fund. >> So the water fund has more you know more projects that are going to happen in the next 48 months. It's roughly $8 million and we have some transfers out of that that would lower that at the meeting later tonight. Roughly 8 million plus >> and that's pretty much it. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any question other questions on that? >> Just real quick, Mr. Mayor, >> you guys great job tonight. Uh like you said, obviously we are calibrating, learning all the things new for water and sewer and those kind of things. Great staff hired on everybody that's been there and existing a lot of forethought. So thank you. Um there is the one question I don't want to spend a lot of time. What could we have done better with the water tower and the treatment plant? Anything? hire Jo. >> So he's laughing, but that's there's also some truth to that. >> I I I our HR system that was a challenge for for a lot of different areas >> that inhibited our ability to get the right people in the right seat at the right time. Uh made it harder. You know, Kev Kevin was wearing multiple hats trying to make it all happen. Doing a fantastic job at it. But the capacity that we've been able to unlock in all of our different departments so that we can be more effective and more efficient. The reason that we have better numbers is because we have the right people providing the right analysis that that have the experience to to help us find better answers. Uh and so that's one thing. Thank you for the support in getting those people on board and and now the next step is how do we keep those people because other cities are growing too and and they want to poach our amazing our amazing team uh in all of our different departments. So So how do we make this the place that uh while they're never going to be bored here, they're going to stay busy, uh they're challenged and satisfied in a way that they don't want to work anywhere else. And that that's a big challenge on our side is how do we keep them here and I I hate to say it. Development goes hand in hand with with those options and those benefit increases and those kind of things for everybody. So um it's a big deal. I just it's kind of the answer I wanted to hear. It's nice to have people on board. So great job all you to to speak kudos to them. Uh, when I look back at what happened with our tour, I I've done dog and pony shows for 25 years in the army. That's that's what we used to call them, you know. So, we're we're we're trying to put on a show to make everybody happy. And the feedback that we got, you you all had, but from the other people that helped us get the money >> Yeah. >> that the continued feedback that I got, I had uh I had coffee with Kevin Anderson. He wasn't able to make it, but he's going to be coming out, but he heard from some of the electives that were there. He's like, "I'm so sad that I missed it." And and to a person, they've been involved in helping other cities get that, but they've never been to an opening before. >> And so to get there and see how the sausage is made and understand why it's important to Corkran and to see the forethought that went into why did you build it for three cells? Because we're growing. We don't need that third cell yet, but when we do, we're ready. And we're trying to have that same intentionality with all of our different operations. that we don't need it today or we're way past needing it, but we also recognize the things that we're going to need tomorrow. >> Perfect. >> Great job. >> Appreciate it. >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor. >> With that, with the time, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All >> those in favor say I. I. I. You said it before.