All right, I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. >> Um, start with a call. Uh, roll call. McKe here, Lamperman >> here. Friedrich >> here. >> Baron Camp >> here. >> Nichols >> here. Perfect. Then we will go on to uh the two items today for the work session, which is just reviewing the two department budgets uh community development and public safety. And we're starting with community development. Who's gonna start us off? Natalie. >> Natalie. Perfect. >> Yeah. Um I don't. >> Go ahead. Green. Green. >> Oh, it's not green. >> Oh, tell me when you're ready. >> Okay. Now it's ready. >> Whoops. There we go. Okay. >> There we go. All right. This is our 2026 budget briefing for community development. And um in 2025, this was our organizational chart for our department. We have three divisions and we have it organized into planning and code enforcement, construction services, and recreation. We are making no personnel change or proposing no personnel changes for our 2026 budget. Uh just did want to highlight that in 2025 we added the community development administrative assistant position and that was uh they were officially on boarded as of January. That has gone incredibly well. It has unlocked significant capacity for all three divisions and I just wanted to thank the council for um authorizing the new position and hiring about this time last year. As far as the services we provide in the department, while it's three divisions, we have several responsibilities um including uh review of development applications, our long-term planning and implementation. Uh simply education for residents for property owners and developers about our ordinances, regulations, and plans management of development escros and financial securities has been something that I've been leading um in collaboration with finance and public works as well. So we also support our planning commission, parks and trails commission and the garden club. And we we've also been taking on parks planning and development, youth recreation programming, park amenity reservation. So that has included uh used to include the community room here at city hall. Obviously that no longer exists. Um it also has included the pavilion rentals at the uh city park, now known as Heritage Park. And this upcoming year we will be taking on reservations for the park building once that is available. Uh community engagement events also falls under recreation. So these are our um night to unite uh holiday toy and food drive is a big one. And then code enforcement and inspections, rental licensing and inspections. We started a new inspection program this year for new home construction. Um we also do building and land disturbance permits and sign and fence permits. So we are doing quite a bit um between the three divisions. For a quick summary of planning activity that occurred in so far in 2025, we have processed two city initiated processes and then 27 land use applications. Uh I won't go into each of these, but you can see that there's been a variety of different applications we've processed. Uh we still have 13 filed land use applications that have not yet been forwarded to lead the planning commission or city council. Um but they are on the docket. And then uh we anticipate three more city initiative processes this year. For construction services in 2025 we they have issued 975 permits total. That includes 165 permits for new homes. Um, so this has equated to general building inspections completed by Metro West of over 5,000 year to date. Um, and then staff inspections for construction services includes grading and new home construction site inspections and I should say final grading um, and new home construction site inspections. And so that has been about over 100 inspections this year completed by our internal staff. Um and then as also with all the building permits we've seen uh just wanted to highlight that this has led to an increased net tax capacity. So in 2024 this was at just under 19 million um and which increased to about 20 million uh 20,467 uh dollars in 2025 and then 2026 we are set for a market value as a city of 23,66 >> which I believe is either the first or second highest in Henipin County jump. >> Yeah, it's pretty significant jump. So um that has translated to a lot of work for permits. So, uh, 2025 rental licenses and code enforcement activity. Rental, I would say, is a collaboration between our code enforcement officer, who is also our planner, Dwight Clingale, um, and our construction services team. construction services has the building code knowledge whereas Dwight really has the he's the keeper of the map for density counts and um really has the the enforcement process down in terms of bringing someone into compliance and getting them through the application process. Um so we had 59 active rental licenses this year as of this report. Um, so this year we processed 17 new rental licenses. Uh, 10 rental licenses expired. Um, either because they weren't being rented out anymore or they had transition to a situation where they're being rented to a a family member. So, they no longer qualified for they were qualified as a a homestead versus a rental property. And then we process 13 uh rental license renewals. Um, so so far this year we've had 12 rental license expense in inspections completed by staff. Renewal inspections will begin in 2026 for single family homes. We've had implemented a three-year process. Uh we don't think that they need to necessarily be inspected every year. We do want to make sure that we're doing regular inspections. So once every three years a that a property has had a rental license, they will be inspected. So, next year will be the first time that we'll have properties that will hit that three-year mark. Uh, and then we do also would do inspections anytime a complaint comes up. So, it's not that we wouldn't inspect a property. Uh, it's just that we aren't going to do it outside of a complaint within the three-year period. Um, and then for code enforcement, we've had 33 new code enforcement cases in 2025. We've resolved 30 cases in 2025. So, those might be cases that were lingering from previous years as well as anything that came up this year. Right now we have eight active cases we are working through. Um and Dwight has completed 65 inspections this year for code enforcement. >> A quick question on rental inspections. Um, with the Maple Hill Estates changes, I thought I heard at one point they were starting to take over trailers and rent the trailers out. If that's true, would that be subject to inspection and lensure rather than just renting out the parcel that the trailers on? >> I'd have to double check our ordinance. I think we did that. Uh, I can't remember how we handled Maple Hills. a little differently than I believe it was a little differently than the rest of um like single family homes. Part of the issue with manufactured homes, particularly some of those parks, and I think we knew this when we were going into it, is they're not going to be able to meet CO. So, I think we treated it a little differently. Um not to say that we can't re-evaluate that, but I don't remember off the top of my head how exactly we handled it. >> Okay. And maybe Jeremy, are you speaking to like if the ownership group were to own the land it's on and the >> and the trailer and then they're renting it out >> and maybe that's different thing that maybe we need to look at here. >> Yeah. >> To me, it seems like that would be a situation where you would want to drive inspection to make sure that they are safe versus when it's an owner occupied structure on a rented pad >> where I don't think it would be as reasonable. Yeah, we can certainly I think we might need to re-evaluate our rental ordinance then I think to accomplish that, but we can certainly do that. Yes. >> Yep. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yeah. >> Can I ask the status of a couple of >> code enforcements and stuff? >> Um I don't think I would be the best person depending on what it is. Um Dwight would really I would say it' be probably a phone call to Dwight's >> gonna is he gonna be here for the meeting? >> Uh yes. >> So maybe either pet in between or at the meeting. >> Okay. Thanks. uh for recreation um the some highlights for their 2025 activity. It's a little harder to quantify some of the some of the activity that she's doing. Um and when I say she that's that's Jessica Christensen Bug, but uh she is a large driver of the planning efforts for 199. Um so the neighborhood party at public works estimated about 1100 people this year and that's the picture right there. Um taken I believe by a drone. Uh our I'm assuming that RPD licensed drone expert Tim took that picture. Um, and that included 18 additional neighborhood parties as well that do get registered for the city. Um, as and I believe some of you attended those neighborhood parties. Uh, she also facilitated a tree giveaway. Uh, so there were 625 trees provided for free to community members and this is funded by Northwest Area JC. So this is done in collaboration with them. Uh, we only had had youth baseball this year due to the construction project at the park, but we did have approximately 200 registrance registrants this year. And she also did some uh collaboration with garden club and parks and trails commission to provide the club with a shed in tools to uh further beautifification efforts of our memorial garden. Um in the back here, >> uh bark in the park. Wh There it is. >> Yep. Bark in the park. This was our second year. Um this is a picture of the bark in the park. As you can see, it was not ideal weather conditions. We had 50 attendees estimated. Um, we are hoping that next year we won't have it a rain event that kind of may probably make people stay away from it, but um it is kind of a niche group already, but it is enjoyable, especially for those that want to um celebrate their dogs. Um, and then still to come, we have the 2025 holiday toy and food drive. I just provided some stats last year um from last year's successes. So, uh we had seven neighborhoods participate, 1,500 pounds of food and personal care items donated, another $150 in monetary donations for cross services, and then um over $11,000 in toys and monetary donations for toys for tots. So, we do get a lot of participation with that event. Um and then finally, one of the highlights that we have all had this year um in the community development department, but again mostly with recreation is the planning of Heritage Park. Uh we finalized the design and broke ground this year and we are on track for anticipated completion in May of 2026. Uh the Diamond Lake Trail, we have been working through some reimbursements already from them and uh also reimbursements from our HUD grant. We've already received about half of that grant. Um and we are hoping the government shutdown the federal level might delay this but we are hoping to see the end the second half by the end of this year. >> We've already submitted for payment. >> Yeah, we already submitted for payment. We've done everything that we can to ensure that. >> And then we are currently working with the DNR for potential more funding for the heritage park through their grant. Um but we don't have much of an update on that at this time. >> That's the one that JCB brought up the other >> correct. Yeah. So we're working through that. Um again I think the federal government shutdown is not helping that at the moment >> for sure. >> Um and again with collaboration with our PD uh drone licensed >> specialist. There you go. This is what Heritage Park. >> It's a nice parking lot. >> But um >> got to start somewhere. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, >> but just the the footage and the quality is really cool. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. What is there any quantification of three rivers parks in any of this? Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, a lot of this stuff is our money and such. And uh >> we are supposed to get a tie it all together from the trail. Um I I don't have the exact numbers off the top of my head, but yeah, that that we have not submitted for that reimbursement yet. The 15,000 that we got was just for the design efforts of the trail and we did get that. >> Didn't we get it down to being reimbursed in two-year period? >> So that changed up. We we projected potentially 1.2 million and it came in considerably less than that. >> Uh as a consequence when they figured out the payment we're actually going to get it all at once it's all in going to be less than 700,000. I think it was uh 600 and something. >> Yeah. I >> That's because costs were less, right? Correct. The cost for construction of the trail was significantly less. >> Was it less because of the parking lot and the synergies of the equipment and that kind of thing or why was it less than uh bids? >> Bids are unpredictable, you know. So, we we had gone potentially thinking that we'd phase it because they didn't want to do more than 500,000 in a given year and then it came up to 1.2 million and they're going to phase it for two years and when it hit their budget process and then when the bids came back it actually they're willing to pay us all in one. Just the timing of it is it's a big chunk of that trail that they can get done >> at once. >> Yeah. And it's in you can see it. It goes, you know, there the western side >> all the way around to the M&I homes. >> There's people biking under >> now. We need our tunnel. >> They'll be working on that. >> Okay. not there but >> most. >> So for some 2026 opportunities on the horizon, we are anticipating uh formally kicking off the 2050 comprehensive plan efforts. Um the strategic economic development plan that's on the agenda at the uh regular meeting tonight. Uh we also uh have on our radar the potential for the a master park plan to move forward to identify and proceed with our next park development projects. Um and then we are in collaboration with the city clerk's office. We are working on a MUN code implementation that we're hoping can roll out in 2026. Um a heritage park grand reopening is anticipated including the park building to be available for uh public use. and then community engagement for our civic campus detail planning and then as I said earlier it'll be the first time that we'll have any renewal inspections of rental properties. So that is what's on the horizon for us. >> Can I ask one more question before you jump >> slides? MUN code. What is that? >> Amazing. >> That's an online hosting of our codes. We'll no longer have a PDF. It'll be a much easier process. So um the two that we looked at was American Legal and Beauty Code. Cool. >> Have you ever gone through Ro City of Rogers code? >> I've seen a lot of different ones and stuff. >> You can search it by word. You can find them. You can click to save random portions of code and then it prints it out on one page or saves it to one document. And >> when we had gone out to council asking for recommendations for the 2026 budget, that was one of the top three that you've all asked for. >> Thank you. >> You could even like in the appendix put our charter >> documents too just so everything is there an easy reference. I was thinking it was going to be a liquor store. >> Yeah, >> it would be nice either to have a AI interface where you can query Chad GPT or something on the codebase or have something people could copy and put into their own subscription like a word document version or a text version that could drag over and then ask questions. >> You can make a a word document copy. >> Okay. You just click if you if you want certain revisions, you click it and it prints out a word or saves a word document copy >> the whole thing. >> Or you can click the top and it clicks every one and makes it into a word document just verbating from. >> So you can get a 700page word document if >> you want it. >> Or yeah, you can get it by section, you can get it by subsection. >> And also I've I've noticed too if you give it like on chat GPD at least if you give it the link it will search. So if you >> I've struggled to get that to work. If that does that would be awesome. I've had success even with our code actually on the so happy to try to go through with >> please. Thank you. >> So then um one last drone footage for you and this is to show one of the opportunities. This is the open space park at um Bellather and this is where the bel the boardwalk is supposed to be going in >> imminently at this point. >> Um >> it's cold enough. >> Yeah. Uh, I think Kevin might have more answers to that, but yeah, I think they were expecting this year even to get started on it yet. >> Last conversation was the end of October, but it's contingent on weather. >> And again, thank you PD for your help. >> Looking for a scared bicyclist on that. >> All right, and then to the nitty-gritty of our department. So um overall we in 2025 we had a budget just under 1.5 million. Um for the overall department we are um requesting about 1 point a little under 1.7 million for 2026. This is an increase of 201,000 and some change and a percentage change of about 13.4%. Um in planning uh the primary increase is coming from our um personnel costs. So this includes its wages and benefits. So in the increases in wages uh including a cost of living adjustment in our annual step increases is where we're seeing most of that increase. Um about 21,000 overall and a 6.9% change. planning professional services is uh proposed to go down by about 8,000. Uh so we this is being driven by an estimated reduced reliance on landform for code enforcement. We have not needed to request help for them or very minimal help I should say for about two years now. So I we are basically taking that out of the budget at this time, but we still do um uh we are expected to pay for half of the cost of media code since a significant portion of our code is of the subdivision and zoning ordinance. Um and then we also um I should say this really isn't also but then the 2050 comp plan will be budgeted out of a different fund, our long-term planning fund. So that's not being reflected here. And then planning and training and planning, training and operating expenses. It does have a bit of an increase of about 3,00 500. Um, and this is actually primarily driven by increase in the costs for software and dues and memberships. All of that was projected to increase when I was looking at it for our budget planning. >> Can you go back real quick? >> Yes. >> So 20.4% for that one. >> 20.4% uh 3 450 cost overall. >> Gotcha. Um smaller numbers. >> Yeah. But because it's it's a pretty small budget to begin with, it it does look higher percentage. >> Makes sense. Thank you. >> Um and then I should note so material changes are what's going to be highlighted here in yellow. So that was defined this year as greater than 5,000 and a 10% increase. The the reason I want to clarify that is because uh as we fluctuate within the different department budgets, department heads have discretion over a $5,000 change. And so anything that went above and beyond their discretion to just I wanted to draw attention to it. And then also the reason it's and a 10% increase because as we just identified on that first slide, uh you know, it could be a 30% increase, but it might only be $800. And so that that's not really the level of concern that council has. And so that's why we had a $5,000 of 10%. >> So for the budget for construction services, uh the there is an increase for personnel expenses primarily just due to the increase in wages this year as well as the projected increase in employer paid insurance. So that resulted in about $32,000 difference and that is a change of just over 10% closer to 11%. >> Can I ask a quick question on that one? >> So if we have issues with inspections for example like at Bellweather and we get build by Metro West inspections. Do we receive a discount if we find that there's been something a miss with the inspections on specific houses at Bell? Like if there's an issue, like if someone has brought in a private, and I'm just making this up, a private person to come in and do an inspection and they find that I don't know their trusses were not connected properly or something and now they have to have their whole roof line redone because this inspection part was missed, >> probably have to look at the contract. >> Yeah, I'd have to look at the contract. I don't know that we get a discount because they did complete an inspection. Even if something was missed, I don't know that that means that they would give the city a discount for missing something. So like how do we hold them accountable then for a mist that's what I mean >> contract that >> and just trying to protect the city >> maybe if you could look into the contract and see if you can get contract with few other cities that use them. >> Well plus also does that become a civil matter. So in terms of in that would be a question for our lawyer uh in terms of a private homeowner having issue uh and that ultimately would be between them and the builder. But if the builder is contracted by the city and this and the contractor missed that, >> we didn't build it though. That's what I'm saying. So So even if we missed an inspection, the builder would still be the one who's liable >> because they're the ones who didn't build it with the right materials. >> Okay. >> While while we may have missed it on an inspection, we could look at a contract, but in terms of city liability, it would be the the people who didn't build it to standard. >> Okay. >> So the inspector would have no responsibility. Well, we'd have to look at the contract to determine what the responsibility is. But but in terms of you said you wanted to protect the city from liability. What I'm saying is a private home builder uh if it wasn't built to standard, >> the liability lies with the person who built it, not someone who inspected it, >> which is true. I just if that's our sub if if we're contracting with that company, I guess that's what my question is too is is making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing to ensure that the people that are moving into those homes that they're built to what they're >> well they're not inspecting it for the home built. They're they're inspecting it for the city to make sure it meets the standards. So if the homeowner has concerns about whether it's being built to standard, that's actually a homeowner issue. It's not we're not the ones that are saying, "Yep, this >> Well, and I also say building code is like a bare minimum." Um, so it's not necessarily going to be high quality. So if if the workmanship is under question, that might be a different story than whether or not it meant bare minimum building code per Minnesota law. >> Okay. >> So there is a difference between that and >> should we be concerned about that? I mean, if we have people moving into our city and if we have if if there's that kind of situation happening, I mean, I'm not just saying in Belle could be any new development because there's so much new development happening. Would there be something that the city should be doing more of to make sure that those houses are being built? Can >> Can I jump in for a second? Yes, please. >> I've got a co-orker who has told horror stories about her daughter's development, not in Corkran, but lots of people in that neighborhood have had a lot of water issues with infiltration and windows and they they think it was related to the windows themselves. But regardless, there's like 15 homes that had to have a lot of things redone. So I think your question is if something like that happens in Corkran, what is the city's exposure to that? Are we responsible to catch it? If we don't catch it, what's the recourse somebody could have against Corkran? >> Against Corkran, but also just like as good stewards of people moving into our city, should we be doing something? I mean, I know it's the bare bones minimum or is that just what it is? >> I'm not aware of a city that has a code higher than the Minnesota building code. We could look into it. I have not heard of that. and and and I would as as we're talking about tightening down, we're we're currently, you know, watching the legislature trying to take all of our authority away. And so I I do think we want to be very intentional about what and how we're we're implementing things. >> Uh because that could potentially become ammo that actually results in us losing authority alto together. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I I know. Thank you. >> Try to speed up my time here because I know we're hitting about a half hour mark. um the highest increase that we're seeing for construction services professional services uh that was a increase of 150,000 proposed which is a change of 33% and the reason why is because the last two years that is uh what we have been hitting for we've been hitting about $600,000 in cost I will note that any increase in this cost is offset with the expected increase in building per permit revenue that the city sees so for example if the permit revenue is less than anticipated in 2026, then we would not anticipate that we would be spending as much in professional services. assuming that we stay around 200 building permits a year and then uh commercial and industrial building permits are significantly more expensive than homes as well in terms of pro the revenue and processing um then I'm sorry but that if if we're assuming that we're kind of staying status quo at that level then we are uh really the revenue should be projected more at 600,000. >> Can I ask you one more question? This is just sorry I don't mean to stick on this but like if we're paying maybe not how much do we pay Metro West in a year inspections approximately >> it varies based on the number of >> reviews they're doing. >> Could I make a recommendation? >> Uh if you've got concerns about permits and the processes of it. Could we come back and discuss that at another time because because we do have another and I want to validate that. But yeah, >> this isn't a budget question. This is a process question >> and could I request that we do that at a an update time like we could provide a an update in the future. >> We bring more in revenue than we're paying Metro West because we also the building permits have to also account for the staff cost. >> Um so we believe that we are it should be a wash. It should be a wash to always be a wash. >> Yep. We're just at this point the last two years we have gone over $450,000 for the expense expenditure. So now everything that I'm processing right now is in the red. Um when really that it's just I think that the numbers need to reflect what we're actually >> It looks like it's in the red, but we're actually getting revenues in that are offsetting that red. It's just now the budget doesn't look balanced because now your revenues are way more than projected and your expenses are also way more than projected. >> Um and then finally there was a a small increase for training and operating expenses for them. So part of this so part of this increase and it was less than 10% and less than 5,000 but increase in operating supplies as a result of the specialized inspections that they're carrying out. So they do need some equipment to do carry out some of those inspections. Um and then increased in estimated engineering fees are based on 2024 and 2025 data as well. So that's where we're getting that number. Um and then for recreation this budget went down. So that was exciting. So, it was just a small decrease. So, there um there like everything else, personnel costs are up. Uh but this division, we were able to offset some of that because the budgeted overtime and employer paid insurance did decrease for them. Um so, we're just just less than $500 change for them. Um and then for recreation, training, and operating expenses, it's a reduction of about $2,000. And the reduction is uh in anticipated credit card fees based on 24 and 25 data. And then park planning anticipate is anticipated to be primarily paid out of park dedication. So we um don't need to budget for that here. >> Could I ask a question? >> Yeah. >> Could could you go back? >> The personnel wages, how how many people does this account for? >> That accounts for part of my salary. Um Christensen Bucks salary and that also accounts for part of our administrative assistant salary >> and a parttime >> and it also include this is not just wages this is also our benefits so that includes the insuranceances and even um oh yeah as well that we do have a part-time recreation staff and a seasonal recreation staff um and then um I can pull up the actual but it's more than just the the what they're seeing in their paycheck it's also all of the benefits all the insurancees including workers comp and things like that. >> And for you as well, right? >> Correct. For me and the administrative assistant. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That that that helps me a lot because just looking at recreation personnel, >> I I don't think of you as being in that group. So when I look at this number, it seems high. >> Yeah. But I am in that group. I am leading that group. She does a lot of the she's she's the face of it, but I am her supervisor. So I am very involved with it. And then I would say like for uh construction services they're at 329,000 but again that includes part of my salary a part of um administrative assistant and then same with planning. >> Good to know. Thank you. >> Can I add on something to that real quick? >> Um would we would it be beneficial to have like a separate community development item and then have separate budgets underneath each of those? like like you as the director have your own budget and then because you're overseeing those departments, each department then would have its own budget versus splitting your salary between the three of them >> or four of them. >> So, so the way that we distribute that there's a lot of different ways you can approach payroll, but that is a strategy that the city's adopted and we use it not just in that department but in several departments. >> Yeah. >> Uh and and that then allows us to adjust it based upon what we're assessing is the use of their time. So if there's such a time in which a particular area grows and it's taking up only 20% of the time, >> sure, >> then then the budget adjusts accordingly, it's a lot more difficult to do than the alternative that you're suggesting. >> Okay. >> It's very easy for us to adjust the dials. >> Yeah, it just seems like it'd be more transparent the other way. Just kind of piggybacking on what Mark had suggested or was asking the question, that's all. So I I would say in terms of transparency, uh when we do do the budget brief, it's actually in the notes. >> Okay. >> So it's it's explained how that's broken down >> in the notes of our budget. >> And that is my presentation. So um uh the request is to discuss the budget if there's any changes you'd like to see. Um but I am confident that what I'm proposing is fairly fine-tuned or not fairly is fine-tuned to the exact dollar that I meeting to you is in 2026. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions for Nal? Okay. On to Matt. Got 28 minutes. >> All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council. I will try and go quickly so that we leave plenty of time for conversations as we get there. Um, if you have questions about like process, structure, happenings, we'll take those as we go. And if you get to the dollar and cents question, we'll try and do them at the end because I'm hopefully going to hit them for you at the later part of the conversation. So >> um again first slide just for context um you know Monovide doesn't submit crime stats for this for the purpose of this but you are in a city that has ranks in the top two agencies this year for safety in the in the state of Minnesota. So our agency takes a lot of pride in what we do and we do it with um a relatively small team and I think part of that is because of investments by the council and the city in public safety. If you'd go to the next slide please. Um really this is we try and tie back to how we do what we do to our our mission and our values within the police department and really you know the I think the key part of it is at the at the bottom of the mission statement where it says our citizens will determine our success. So we try and be responsive to our community. We try and make sure that they're providing um exceptional quality of service and that exceptional quality of service takes extra time. Um, but I think our people try and do a good job of giving that extra time that a lot of other communities might not be able to do. Um, again, missing from this photo are our um, Officer Hoffman and off and our um, Officer Bolson, Lieutenant Bolson. Um, but that's that's the big part of your team right there and uh, officer Steve Warren that is in the middle there and we were able to celebrate his retirement. So, next slide, please. Um, now this isn't based on the calendar year, but we've had a lot of new faces since 2024. Um, and these are all these folks are a huge part of our success and how how we are able to be successful, but also don't forget the investment that it takes to get somebody up and going when we look at um several months of training and equipment and outfitting. Um, just the onboarding process for all of those for for anyone as an individual is a is a big lift. Um, and the fact that we brought all of them on and we're We're proud to have all of them on our team. So, if you've got a chance to meet any of them, um I think you'd be you'd be pretty impressed with the the caliber of folks that we've been able to add to our team. Um so, we're we're excited to bring them in and they are all picking things up uh picking things up quickly. So, next slide, please. Again, we celebrated um Officer Warren's retirement, 28 years of service. Um happy that he's been able to enjoy the retirement he deserves. And uh thank you for those of you that were able to come and help share in that celebration of his career. Next slide, please. And uh sadly this year, very recently, um we lost uh Lieutenant John Kefir um passed away and he was one of the original founding members of our Corkran Reserve program back in 1983. So 42 years of volunteering to our community and it his loss will really be felt across the department, but he gave so much of himself over those years and he's never one that wanted um pride or pomp and circumstance. So if we if you join me, maybe we can just give him a few moments of silence just to remember the impact that he had on our community. Again, thank you, John, for your service and uh like I said, we're we are in touch with the family um waiting for the opportunity that we can somehow contribute to his memory. So, we don't know what that looks like yet. >> Mr. Mayor, >> just for me and what I believe the city should or could do is some type of plaque something um posted somewhere. I know Jay, you and I talked about stuff like that, too. But absolutely, one of the pillars in our community and not one of those 42 years of service did he get a dime >> for. All volunteer. This is >> all in >> unheard of. Um in a lot of communities. He was a extreme participant and contributor to our city. So, >> very nice. >> Thank you, John. >> Well said. Um, we were able to celebrate some awards and recognition um this year in our police department. So, again, you know, talk about service, our our deputy director, Ryan Burns, 30 years of service to the city. Again, tremendous contributions over his time here. Um Pete and I had our 10-year mark. Um we had a couple of I94 chamber award winners. Uh Lieutenant Bolson, you know, fortunately we were able to bring him on full-time this year. Um I think he's been a a great addition to our department and and again his contributions recognized at the I94 chamber. And we were also able to to uh give out several public commendations awards for those members that have contributed to our uh to our community safety. So next slide, please. Um, again, I know, you know, I'm talking about I've said this a couple times, but we we run as far as full-time staff goes, and it was reminded again at IECP, we run a very small group of people for how much ground we cover, both in the community safety, but also the events. So, we we put a few of the events up there. Um, again, we get help with CB on a lot of those events and all of the city stepping up to make those things happen and to varying degrees. um you know, different parts are owned by different different divisions, but um it's it's no small any one of those is is no small lift and we're excited to be able to contribute even to the community events that are put on by outside agencies like the Lions or JC's when we're doing the rodeo and tractor pull. There's there's some significant planning and and participation and part of the reason I think that we're able to pull them off so smoothly is the commitment from our staff that you know they're changing they're they're working overtime. picking up uh schedule changes and they they take a lot of pride in them. Um if you you know if you come to firearm safety or you come to any of those classes and and talk to our officers, it's clear they're not just putting their time in. Um they really love doing what they're doing and I think we're blessed to have them and again it's seems like there's seems like as soon as one event wraps up, we're on our way to the next one. So um next slide, please. >> M Mr. Mayor. Yeah, >> Matt, one of the coolest additions to your uniforms was the hats at the rodeo. That just a lot of people complimented. How long your cops been wearing? >> Cowboy hats. >> Our our people had a lot of fun with that. >> That that's that's huge. Thank you for the small investment there. >> Yeah, absolutely. And again, some some shots from the holiday to food drive. And it goes to show that like our reach expands beyond our community. You know, when we're down at the care 11 and we're um doing some of those events, we're um our impact is felt beyond our community. And as many of you know, we have visitors at night to unite from other communities. And their impression of Corkran is what they see at night toite, what they see at Toys for Tots. And that's what people hear when they when they hear about Corker. this is how we want them to hear and think about our community because it it's a way I think to help project our identity and uh and show people what we stand for. So, we're our our people are proud to be a part of that and thank you for the opportunity to do it. Uh we continue to get better. Uh we're, you know, you'll see our training costs increasing, but really it's a lot of it is time investment is where the greatest impact comes. and Sergeant Dan Wilcox as he's been getting going has been developing our training program tremendously. Uh I can say that without a doubt our proficiency has increased dramatically. The officers love it and hate it because he takes them to task and they are hel constantly held to a very high training standard. Dan is very passionate about what he teaches and he will not stop teaching until he succeeds and until our people succeed. So he's doing it for the right reasons and he's making us better and our and our cops are being forced to work a lot harder than they ever have been at the at their trainings. So it is fun to watch the profic proficiency grow. If we can keep that same professionalism and increase our our tactics and our our specialty training, I think we're going to continue to um stay at the top of that community safety list. And I think it also helps us when we're bringing in new people. We have a very young department, so there is a very steep learning curve and steep expectations for the young people that we're bringing on board. It takes a lot of reps to get up to proficiency and to to operate at our standard and our expectations for our department. Dan's been a huge part of that and and we have several other instructors on the department and in addition to developing and training our patrol officers, he's training our next trainers. And so we're trying to build that uh spirit and culture of constant learning and constant improvement. So, as we continue to raise our base level, Dan continues to develop that and and really seek out folks who have an interest in expanding that. So, we aren't resting on our laurels. We aren't um sitting back and just happy to be where we're at. We we have come a long ways and I think we're going to continue to improve in the in the training and the standards that we set for our staff. Next slide, please. And we we're cross trainining with other our other communities and our neighbors as well. So uh you know mentioned on that slide multi-jurisdictional we do on shift trainings where our officers report the beginning of their shift go to their neighbors. So we we've done on shift trainings with uh recently we've done them with Madina Rogers West Henipin. So that training that's happening isn't just within our department. We're doing it with our neighbors who they might be backing up on those calls or who might be backing us up. And so we're continuing actually to have a regional impact and even when we have the in-house trainings here, we're on some instances we're inviting the other agencies to continue to train with us. So not only do we build that the collaboration and relationships, but we can hopefully try and elevate regionally uh our law enforcement presence. So again, some of the big successes that we've had and and I kind of call them community impacts, but uh Rocky continues to be a tremendous asset for us. Uh, I think we got another good one with a great disposition and he's >> a strong bite. >> Yes. And he's fun to fun to have around. >> Jay's works, right? >> He works. >> I'd like to see that again. >> I've got the video. >> We need someone. >> No, I need one. I need >> someone in the suit. >> Mark the sleeve will fit you. >> I I'm doing it. >> Rocky would break him like a stick. Um, so we're we're having we're still having success with that and we're we're uh we're proud of what he's able to do for us and and our neighboring agencies appreciate it as when he's able to help out as well. We were able to add a Lucas device to squads which is a tremendous life-saving tool when when deployed on scene for cardiac events. Those used to only available be available when the fire department arrived on scene. we have one it gets deployed um depending on the shift depending who's on they're trained and which squad it ends up in but the little things like that we were able to get that through a grant and that was initiated by our officers who identified the grant which through the same uh grant program that we got our AEDs so again a department initiated found the funding found created the training and uh we're out there trying to make life-saving impact with it >> was that like a CPR device >> yeah so it straps on to the torso And then it will do the chest compressions. >> Okay. >> Um ve much more accurately than a than a human would. >> Very good. >> Mr. Mayor, >> Matt, a question I have and I'm I'm starting to see them show up more frequently are the permanent speed signs in communities um was traveling through um Maple Plane on Saturday and they've got them in some pretty discreet neighborhoods. How much are those signs? They look like they're solar powered. >> You mean the ones that with a with a speed limit sign? >> Yeah. >> There's one on Hackmore, too, in Madina. >> Yeah. I I don't think they're that outlandish as far as cost. And I've actually approached Kevin um talking, you know, trying to asking him to talk about the feasibility of potentially making that part of our roadway spec on collector roads. >> So, roads like Steig, Gleon that are local, but also designed to see traffic. That's where we hear the most about it. But The observations that we see often times are that when we're data collecting that we're not seeing. So it's a perception thing. It's also a good reminder. So if you see them and you are traveling at a speed, it does slow folks down, but it also tells the neighborhood. >> It doesn't slow them down much when we have the one on 10 both directions. I hung around for rush hours and stuff and people don't slow down. They some even speed up >> there for a day >> down on Gleon. It was the same thing. and and I don't know if you've got statistics wrapped around um I assume you've patrolled that and those kind of things. Are there stats on how many people from Corkran were cited for speeding? Um those kind of things and how many people outside the city and then what can we do to get everybody to slow the heck down other than just code or uh the enforcement from your staff, our staff. So again, it's a little bit separate from the budget conversation, but so we don't sort them necessarily by where they're >> where they're from, but we do go out and data collect at times based on volumes and that kind of stuff. So we can talk about some of the individual stuff that we've looked at. Most recently was out on STE, but we could certainly look at >> I just those stationary signs, it would be nice to see a line for >> I agree. I think it kind of falls a lot in the in the public works realm because it's a road it's a right-of-way sign that's installed and maintained by the city. Uh it's not an necess we don't write tickets off of them. It's not necessarily a law enforcement tool, but I would with Kevin and I are both I think >> you can share the cost. How's that? >> When when are we looking at public works budget? >> Uh the 13th and the >> maybe someone have a conversation with Kevin just if you could put some preliminary information on that that we can look into further later. >> That'd be great. Can I ask one more question kind of along Dean's question? Um, so there are a couple cities in the in the Twin Cities area that are act that have actually implemented speed cameras. So I just was wondering if the cost is not much more than what a sign would be. Would it be beneficial to start looking at and what what does it look like? I have no idea what they look like. Are they like the the the ones that we already have for license plate readers? Are they like up high? I have no idea anything about them. So, there's legislative action to allow traffic enforcement by um camera, but they they ruled that that's not legal in Minnesota. There's a pilot program in Minneapolis where they've added cameras to be able to do camerabased enforcement, but without special legislation, cities can't >> can't do it. >> Can't send can't mail tickets by camera at this point. >> They did that in Germany, >> France, too. >> Started out here before it was used to have red light cameras in Minnesota. Um, and there was a I think it was a US Supreme Court. I'm not sure if that's where those, but they're not able to >> not able to do that without some legislative change. And there are cities to your point that are working on getting that legislative change. >> Chief, um, are you joining us for the council meeting this evening? Will you be available for questions? >> Sure. Let me know which I have some coordination stuff I have to take care of, so I'm going to dip out for a little bit. If you kind of give me an idea of what you want me in here for, I'll try and I'll make sure that I'm here for those. >> Okay. All right. It's um Hold on. >> 78. >> Yes. >> Yeah. No problem. >> I I I just have three questions for you. >> Sure. >> Sounds good. Um again going down community impact we were able to make that strategic investment in in a new lieutenant position and that has uh really been paying dividends. So, as we start talking about things like the IC Poet grant that we've submitted for, he added the capacity to be able to submit for that uh been a great resource as we're trying to continue to improve things like our FTO program doing some policy work and some of the the real u some of the higher level um stuff that's um not always hands on the street but is certainly makes a huge contribution to effect how effective we work as a department. So Darren's been a great addition and it's been been tremendous for our for our department and have gotten a lot of positive feedback. I think Jay's heard feedback from the department as well that um supporting that. So thank you for that investment. U we've kicked off our our coffee with a cop program which was again started up by grant funding initiated by one of our sergeants submitted for the grant from that was last year Minnesota chiefs of police grant uh to kick off that coffee with a cop program and that's been um we found varying levels of participation but we're going to obviously keep doing it um and we're going to keep trying to improve it keep doing better but it's been met with >> I'd say if like at least for me I I wasn't fully aware of it beforehand I saw on Facebook maybe like day of if you reach out to council members I think like and I know for the revenue and I could help get people there or at least like get the word out and I'm sure other council members in different areas could could help with that too because I think it's a cool idea. >> Yeah, we we appreciate that. >> That'd be great. Uh we've also started our this year began the Corkran Police Association which was initiated by the officers an association that is not specifically city funded. It's not cityrun. It's run by the group of officers and by the bylaws. You have to be affiliated with the Cork and Police Department in some way to be a part of it. But their impact in a very short time is already being recognized in the community. They've done some they made a donation to uh Shoulex's Breastfest. They helped initiate and facilitate the per pink and purple patch program where members of the public are able to purchase patches that are pink or purple. pink being breast cancer awareness, purple being um working to um elevate the presence of domestic violence and and you know that partners well with Maria's voice that you guys have have heard that we're we're partnering with and they've also facilitated the creation of our department challenge coins. So kind of a source of pride for officers being able to share that when they're working with other officers. And so those are a few items in a very short time that they're beginning to be seen in the community and really trying to make that positive impact both as a support mechanism for the for the officers internally and also trying to make that positive impact on the community that in ways that the city might not technically be able to on their own. >> So they make donations to specific groups in >> Corkran. At this point they made a they made a donation to Breastfest. Again, it's only six months old, so they haven't really been able to build up a a depth and their funding was paid by basically membership dues. The officer is paying to be a part of it. So, they'll be looking for partnerships either to um receive donations from nonprofits to be able to facilitate things like the pink patch program or the challenge coins or if there is, you know, a department member in need from a critical incident, they may be able to help support them or their family for, you know, flowers or cards or support. >> They had a table set up at night to Okay. Yep. >> Yep. Um and we'll we'll talk briefly in the budget about flock, but it's been a there's been some major accomplishments. Um, some of the the the high level stuff, you know, we at a high level, we had 173 different cases affiliated since we implemented them. Now, that's everything from low-level traffic related to warrants or, you know, uh, like cops alerts or things like that. But also on specific cases, um, we were able to locate and arrest an armed assault suspect that was in our downtown area. It was found he did have a loaded handgun with him was wanted for violent crime and was in town um making deliveries for for a company and that was spotted because of Flock when he hit the border. Um we were able to locate him and um and take him into custody. We had a a local first-degree criminal sexual conduct case that was one of ours that we're able to locate and arrest the suspect because of the Flock camera hit. Uh we also had a a business that was that was hit by a drive-by shooting and we were able to identify the suspect, taken into custody, recover the weapon and and prepare a case. So those were all directly apprehended because of it. So there's it's it's having the large scale like headline impact, but just daytoday as well, it's having that that positive impact on um being able to make sure that we're aware of things coming and going from our that might be that we might need to know about >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yeah. >> Um Matt, we are in year one coming to an end on flock. >> We are the bill for year three is coming up. So you will see that in this upcoming budget, >> but I mean we did are we in our second year? >> We are finishing our second year. Y >> gotcha. Thanks. >> So that's about a year and a half of data I believe. So, by the time next year, >> do we need >> it'll be mid next year, I think, when our when our uh bill comes due for >> do we need more cameras? >> I think right now we're doing well in the city and we need to do better and this is on the police department about engaging the HOAs and the businesses to contribute to that. >> Okay. >> Um we've been cautious. We've been sharing that that opportunity is there, but we want to make sure that this is going to continue before we get the private folks to invest in something and that we we pivot from it. So, >> as as we were driving around Denver, I was uh with with Matt, I was surprised outside of businesses, outside of HOAs in which I I obviously didn't see the contracts, but it was evident to me that it was intentional about the location. So, was either trying to impact potential theft in a business uh or was it an entrance to a HOA or a neighborhood? Uh so Matt's comment there like we saw it in real time as we're driving through some of these neighborhoods in Denver that this is how they've been able to implement it is leveraging those those partnerships. >> Chief, do you have any concerns about uh Flock's partnership that was just announced with Ring cameras? >> I do not. So I have not read the details of it. I know at a high level of their partnership. Uh I know that so Ring used to have its own interface with law enforcement. Um they ended that over public scrutiny and I think Ring is looking to try and find other partners to contribute to law enforcement through. So, at this point, I don't have concerns, but if you have concerns, I'd be interested in we can sit down and kind of hear what what that what the concerns are, and if we have if we need to post up questions to them, we're not afraid to do that. >> Great. Thank you. >> Um, some of the things that we're we're are challenging in our continued efforts in the departments, things that we're really uh we're working hard on. So, this past year, we've had multiple uh critical incident debriefs. Uh, a lot of people don't think that very much happens in Corkran, but our officers deal with some pretty uh pretty substantial incidents and we do everything that we can to keep them well and and give them the resources to make sure that they're operating at their best. We're continuing to do that, but as you've seen how how much hiring we've had to do, how we're bringing people on board. Um we're we're dealing our folks are dealing with a lot of stuff and so far we've got a tremendous team that's proven to be very resilient, but the the critical incidents are, you know, there's several a year that are happening and we're we're working through them. Uh we still the personnel and shift coverage just by trying to make sure that we're getting coverage at the peak times is you know we our officers have to be flexible. It's not always in their best interest. They do the best that they can to make sure that we have the coverage where we need it. Um since our retirement in February, we've had an open spot since March. We've interviewed a handful of people and the ones that we've interviewed we haven't been willing to lower our bar for. So, we have had an open position since March and that decision actually has been made by a lot of our in that first round interview is one of our sergeants and our patrol officers and they're the ones actually to their credit saying this isn't someone we can bring on to our team and so they they hold a very high standard for our department and our city but it costs them. They miss time off. They miss family events because they know they're they're not going to have the coverage that we need all the time and they're still trying to do it right. So, I credit them for making some of those decisions, but we need people and we need to find ways to get them. And we'll talk about that as we get into the positions that we're talking about upcoming that um the IC poet grant, that's one of the tools we hope to use. I would say even if we don't get the grant, we need people however we can get them and we need good people. not to the to the degree that we're willing to sacrifice our standards, but if we have a good candidate, um I I'm I would plead with the council that we consider to get any good candidate that we can on board to make sure we bolster those numbers. We're in a good spot compared to other cities. There are cities that are in far worse spots than ours. I'm happy that we're in a spot that we can still be selective because a lot of cities don't have that luxury. Uh we continue to have challenges with equipment delays. Uh we finally, you'll recall a year ago, we got early authorization to order the squad cars because we were behind in our fleet planning. That was prior to last year's budget, we got that authorization. The last car just came back from finishing upfitting today. So that's how long it takes us to replace them. And when we lose one because of operational stuff, um some of those are um those are challenges that take a long time to dig out of that hole. Unfortunately, we we had a one of our squads was was wrecked uh you know just this past week. So, we're continuing to work out of it, but the equipment delays are still still pretty brutal and impact our operations pretty significantly. Uh we still struggle with prosecutions specifically at the county level. Um and I don't think I need to expand on that. You guys have a good idea of what the challenges are there. Um >> it's not going to get any better either. Well, >> there's going to be a new person. >> Not going to get any better. >> It's not going to get worse. >> So, um, going on our our investigative capacity. So, we have a a fantastic detective. He does really good work. Um, but as you saw with last year when we proposed doing the SIU investigator, we we don't have any increased investigative bandwidth. So, we're looking at and as we talk about the potential physicians talking about just ways that we can add some investigative capacity even if we aren going to another detective or another investigator. How do we continue to create space so that we things don't get delayed, don't get backed up. We can be responsive and also we can have opportunities for our folks. Uh again, future fire planning, we spent a whole work session on it, so you guys know exactly where, you know, what our challenges are and figuring out the future on that. Yes. >> Um have you or are you aware of any uh cases that have been denied by the county attorneys? >> Yes. Uh, I would have to look through some specifics, but yeah, we have some. >> Okay. Is it possible for you to get back to me on that? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Could you share that too? I'd like to understand that too. >> Could you give that to Councilman? >> I will look at getting a summary. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Um, again, keep in mind every case has its own merits, its own >> mitigating factors. So, it's not a blanket saying there's only depending on the case type there is certain only certain information that you might be entitled to depending on what the details are but >> um again attempted other big challenge again I go back to attempted recruitment and hiring for multiple vacant positions we have vacancies in part-time police officer reserve officer and um we've had the one empty police officer and as you'll see I'm advocating for additional officers next year just so that we can get back to giving our folks some flexibility for time off create more space to be able to do that training and and keep supporting our growing community as the demands are increasing. Our call concurrency is increasing. Um, next slide. Again, we spent a whole work session on fire recently. You have a good idea of what the demands and challenges are facing it. You know, a reminder from the last time we talked, if Corkran were covered by only one fire department, it would be in the top 25% of all departments in the state based on calls for service. Um there's there's a lot going on and that's we get a significant contribution from our partners. Um but also our our costs are increasing from the partners. You'll see that we have about this year was about a 20% increase um based on you know a lot of that is driven by the formulas in our contracts. Um they continue to do very good work for us but the costs also are going up at a at a at a quick rate. We're a growing city. Uh so police department staffing, you can see kind of what's existing there. The black boxes are the empty positions. So you'll see on the bottom right we have a vacant police officer or a vacant part-time police officer position, vacant reserve officer position. Uh bottom center we have the the uh police officer position, the vacancy from officer Warren's retirement. Those are positions that are budgeted for that we're trying to find good candidates to help um to help fit in. And the boxes with green around them are the ones that are proposed in this budget. So, starting at the bottom, uh two police officers is what I'm proposing that we need. Now, again, we didn't we did we were able to lab add the lieutenant position this year, which was beneficial, but we didn't add any of the other public safety positions last year or prior. So we it it kind of the need continues to build up and still doesn't mitigate the future need of our growth. So we're trying to kind of get caught up but also stay on track as we grow. >> I I had a question on so the the vacancies that we currently have that have already been approved in previous budgets. >> Yes. >> Um when we don't spend that money, what happens to it within the budget process? Does that roll into >> So this past year, that's how we were able to add the lieutenant position was those two vacancies, but for those two vacancies, it would have been a different type. We also have flexible in our reserves. So that's a way that when when we add positions, so if you recall a year ago, we when we were going through the process with Sam and Danny, we had the potential of a third candidate that wasn't budgeted for and we had asked council for the flexibility that would have come out of our reserves. >> Okay. Uh so so we have the ability to flex and and hit those uh but that's not the way that we want to we want to project for for staffing at the level uh presuming that we will find the people that we need uh because there are good people out there yet. They just haven't made it here yet. >> And and that third position that we had asked for the early authorization was in anticipation of the retirement. Now that candidate ended up not working out as we went through the pre-employment process. So they were not brought on board and we ended up realizing that vacancy that we knew was coming. >> Okay. >> So again with the other two if approved that would be three officers that we're looking for that that candidate pool es and flows. So since that we posted in March we probably had four or five candidates that we had brought through the doors. A couple of which went on to a second round interview. One went to background. We ultimately ended up not hiring any of those folks. And I know that within the last two weeks, I believe we received seven applications. So, it it's we've hit a spike and we're going to vet them the same as we do other candidates, but you know, anticipate coming back that if if they're good candidates, we certainly want to bring that opportunity to the city that we can that we don't miss out on what we're what we're in need of. So, the IC pullet um advocating for that would be about a $50,000 um revenue from the state of Minnesota if approved. We applied. We were supposed to hear back on that grant. The possibility of that grant um about two weeks ago. They did not get back to us yet and when we called to check in with them, the uh the person who administered that grant program was no longer with the state. So, we're still trying to find out if we were awarded, but there were only eight positions throughout the state that were being awarded with leftover funding. Um, and then you'll also see, which was talked about previously, the deputy director relate for fire and emergency management. Um, if you go to the next slide, please talk a little bit about them. The the police officer and police cadet boxes that were on there, again, those are mission essential tasks. you know, straight up safety and law enforcement, trying to get back our midshift coverage for our officers to hit that overlap in those key busy times in our community. Um, again, depth of staff to cover training and absences, career development opportunities. Our hope is that if we can add those two positions that we can do like a short-term temporary some career development opportunity in investigations where they can job shadow or maybe get a few cases of their own begin to get that experience so that if you know if there comes a day where we're adding other investigator or if Tim you know finds a better opportunity that we have some folks that can step in internally and maybe step up for that. So it gives us a little bit of ability to develop our bench um and gives us that the depth to be able to do that. We we don't have that right now. We just we're just covering shifts. >> I I want to interject interject just for a second on the cadet. So at IAPP, I did have the opportunity to speak with several other chiefs that have cadet programs and and I would say that even if we do not receive the IC POET grants, uh this that would be a strategy that would help us build our own uh identify someone that that resonates with our culture and our vision for policing that then we can help grow through the process. Uh we've been trying the recruiting strategy, trying to get laterals, trying to get people fresh out of themies. It hasn't been as fruitful as we'd hoped. We this next round might be better with seven candidates, but we need to pivot to a new strategy. And that's what some departments have done with tremendous success. And so even if we don't get the ICO grant, I'd submit that the cadet program is a an avenue we need to pursue. >> What's roughly the annual cost on that? I think you average it out what an average officer cost is. Uh forget what it is. >> Yeah. I So the grant is about is for $50,000 and and it would include paying for their schooling. So this is a a degree. It's a transition program. So it looks for seeks out people with college degrees, tries to get them into the law enforcement field, pays for their transitional schooling and skills um while they're in school, including hourly wage. And then um then you'd also have to train them up like a police officer. So, it's really to help facilitate that transition and get folks who might be coming into the field with >> So, what do you think the end would be in? >> Um, well, I think with the the $50,000 revenue, I think we'd be it's hard to say depending on how much when they would start, how much we'd have for wages. I think the schooling part of it is generally around $22,000 um and then the remainder can be used their wages during their their schooling and their transition period and then once they're on the once they're on the department they have their standard wages and that kind of stuff. So it's >> so maybe something that would be helpful to get more information um before we go to approve the final budget would be updates on that grant and overall cost if we do get it versus we don't get it. >> Yep. >> Chief, quick question. You know, I heard you mention lateral hires and um do you do you find or do you have a preference in hiring uh students and training them in in uh the culture of Corkr PD? uh do you prefer that avenue or uh hiring laterally and accepting perhaps some bad habits that are that have been formed over the years with that officer. So, uh, bad habits if we're aware of them either through the background process or otherwise are a dealbreaker, but I think we need a blend of experience and new and fresh blood mostly from a diversity of experience and a diversity of a age and other everything else that candidates can bring to us. So when I look at the officers in our department that were lateral entries and we're talking about a a Dan Wilcox, Bo Hartneck, Pete Ekenberg, uh Tim Spellelacy, brought a lot of great experience, but we've also had tremendous young folks coming through as we look at um you know, Jack who just came on, Danny, Sam, who came from town here right out of college. I think we get a great mix. And I think the sweet spot really goes back to um character hiring and we make sure the most important thing to us is that they fit our community, they fit our style. Um and if we know that there's bad habits, we you know, it's it's different if it was a one-off. That's not a matter of character. Um if there was, you know, something that happened that was less than ideal, we look at the context and we look at long term. Um, but at the end of the day, I think it's making sure they're right for our style of policing. >> Thank you. I I appreciate your answer. Thank you. >> Um, and then we also have the deputy director of fire. You guys were were briefed on a lot of the functions last year. Um, again, it's it's really somebody that's wearing our jersey and looking at managing, exploring options really at what are our best long-term cost mitigation and maintaining our service level experts. Serving as a sorry, our subject Yeah. serving as our subject matter experts and looking at our city's best interest and priorities, how we roll that out consistently among our three agencies if we're planning for spending large sums of money on facility. um really synchronizing what might be competing interest between fire and EMS and then really uh owning taking a larger ownership of our emergency management items. So really really trying to drive home and execute on our strategies and priorities both in the work plan and direction that we receive from the council. Um we've talked about does it is the right option to consider starting with this with a consultant. That's a possibility as well. Uh, but >> is that something you can give us more information on prior to the final budget? >> Yeah. Uh, maybe we'll we can connect and I can get an outline from you while we're speaking. I I would envision um if we're looking at a consultant doing some what some kind of an RFP process where we're really outlining what their marching orders would be um and what what we want them to both do operationally and what we want them to report back on as far as data. >> Yeah. >> Data. Okay. might be an easier way and a slightly uh more cost effective way to ease into that position and figure out what exactly we need >> before we hire someone full time. >> Y what we need now might not be what we need in five years. >> Y >> All right, next slide, please. Um I'm going to get into this again. It was what whatever had a $5,000 change and was a 10% increase. You guys got the whole packet that showed all the items. Certainly everything's up for discussion, but I the ones in blue are the ones I I carved up for this the sake of this work session was those higher impact items and why they're there. So the police state aid, this is on the revenue side, that increase of 18% was assuming that we added the new officers. Um if we don't add officers, we likely would not have an increase in state aid. That's formulaic based on on the cops that we have on the department. Um the special event services, that's more of a calibration of what we're what we're working on. That's pass through funs. So you'd see an increased revenue, we'd see an increased expenditure on the other side. So it's not um not that we'd be changing our operations in any large way. And then the the fine data is really based on historical items. We I think it's be more responsible to budget for for 25,000 and then hope we do better rather than overbudget and underdel. Um getting to the the police budget, the personnel costs are a big part of it. that's in 5010130 365. So, um again, the same as other departments figuring the the COLA adjustment. We don't know specifically where that's going to come in for police officers. That will depend on contract adjustments, but also benefits. It has the additional cadet police officer and the remaining balance of the police lieutenant position. So, that's the the positions that we talked about are the drivers in the personnel cost category. Training, part of it inflation and part of it is we have new employees that we need to be training. We also have a young department that will be consuming more that's consuming more training just in a as a generality. Operating supplies uh we need additional tasers for our staff. We're continuing to grow as a department and then the inflation of costs um just the general cost to do business. Prices have gone up on just about everything that we're doing. So the alternative is less training or sta same training. And this this really the this this change reflects keeping the same standard of training. Um but we've our department's growing in the additional tasers needed motor fuels again is inflation and department growth. The professional services training uh I did you'll notice that that reflects differently. There was a clerical error in the first draft of the budget. Um but that one the big change is related to bringing the the cost on the books for the flot cameras. We're required to do an an annual uh we're required to do an audit uh every other year for the ALPRS. So that will be coming up or every third every three years. That'll be coming up this next year as we're going into our third year and looking at some video redaction or video redaction service software. Right now we have times where it will take weeks of work to try and redact video for one call and we need we think this will be a lot more efficient way of doing it. Um looking at this other software um uniforms again is related to inflation and growth. Um next one under the police administration uh straight up related to personnel costs only. um the any coal adjustment and benefits uh under fire contract costs increased by 19.63%. So our costs are going up there. So it's under professional services. All of the other increases there would be related to um the the position that we talked about earlier and only that position. Um, next slide there kind of we broke out the expense change both broke it out by expenses and by revenue those changes so you can kind of see in in summary what those changes might look like and I'm happy to get into any uh dollars and cents questions that you have on the specific changes. I think for me um oh I can start us off just the stuff I already kind of spoke on if you could bring that back to us at some point um ahead of final passage of the budget so we have some time to think on that um and see our options those really were the couple areas that I could see maybe there's multiple options to look at that are um feasible to change and might still provide the same benefit uh totally upending everything in the budget. So this just stood out to me that additional information would be great. >> Yeah, that was the a pivot to fire consultant potentially and also the IC pullet. What's the the grant benefit benefit versus the projected cost of the position if we can build that up? >> Yep. >> I agree. I continue to wrestle with having a dedicated fire expert given we won't have a fire department. I think the consultant vector might be easier to find somebody that can, you know, give us 500 hours a year and contribute that subject matter expertise that we lack um versus trying to find somebody who has that expertise and doesn't want to actually lead a fire service. >> So hopefully we can find a good candidate that way. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yeah, >> I can provide you with a name Matt if that would be helpful of a consultant. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think for sure. I think we we want to get the structure if we decide to go that route. We'll see how the budget stuff works out. We decide to go that route. I'll be asking specifically what are we trying to accomplish so we can do those benchmarks and we'll make sure that they get I would suggest an RFP that they get a a chance to dial in and respond to what we're doing. That's appreciated or one we can they can happy to talk through with them what they looking for. >> Perfect. Anything else? >> Okay. Thank you for having high standards. >> Both of you guys really well done on the presentation and explaining everything. I thought that really well done. >> I actually got some compliments on it. So, >> thank you all. >> All righty. And does anyone else have anything? If not, we'll I get a motion to adjourn the work session. So, >> move, please. Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. I.