What is your Oh, there it is. Looks like they're getting interesting information. There's no way we can't. They're getting interesting information. Here we go. The Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is now called to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It is typical for me at this time of the meeting to to read um make your sure your phones are turned off. Mainly that's to council members obviously. No, I'm teasing. I want to read an open podium invitation for our residents. Open podium is an opportunity for Eden Prairie residents to address the city council on issues related to Eden Prairie city government. prior to each council meeting. These open podiums typically occur from 6:30 to 6:55 on the first and third Tuesday of each month when our normal meetings are, except during the summer and two other months of the year. Um, if you wish to speak at open podium, please do contact the city manager's office at 952-9498412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, your phone number, and the subject matter so we can be better prepared for you. Open podium is not recorded or televised. If you have questions about open podium, please do reach out to the city manager's office. Mr. Gro, I um mentioned that we do have a couple. We always have exciting meetings, but we have a couple of particular um things going on this evening that make this meeting special. Do you want to go ahead and introduce the first one? We do, Mayor. Thank you. Actually, the majority of our meeting tonight are is proclamations and presentations, and we have um four of them. And the first one is our heritage preservation award. And I don't want to steal the thunder from our heritage preservation commission. Um, so I'm going to let them do most of the talking, but this is an annual award um in Eden Prairie that we've had for a number of years now for an outstanding um individual that has made a contribution to Eden Prairie Historic Resources. Um, an individual, an organization or a group. So, um, Rod Fiser, our Heritage Preservation Commission member, one of them, um, is here to present the award. And there are um a number of at least two other commissioners in the audience along with Beth Novak Krebs, our senior planner who is the liaison to that commission and the president of the Eden Prairie Historical Society is also here as well. That's very exciting. Who might that be your mention James there? Yes. The most um the most important case in the room. Well, that Yeah. Okay. I'll absolutely go with that one. Dr. Fiser, welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, council members, and staff. Nice to see you. Tonight, I have the privilege of offering a few remarks and providing some background on this year's Heritage Preservation Award recipient. This is the ninth time the preservation award has been given, and there is one award presented here tonight. As you recall, in the past, we might have done multiple, but tonight we just chose one. The award recognizes an individual in general, an individual, family, or a business who have made an outstanding contribution to Eden Prairie's historical resources, whether it's public or private. Um, the recipient of the 2025 Heritage Preservation Award is Eden Prairie Schools. In 2024, the community celebrated a century of school history. The consolidated school was built in 1924 and included a state-of-the-art gymnasium that included electricity, exciting, central heating, and running water. Today the school building is used for school district administrative offices due to the efforts of the historical society uh which we thank very much and the gym task force which is a combination of the schools the historical society. The gym was restored and continues to be a historic community landmark and functional space for the school district. To celebrate the 100th year anniversary, Eden Perry Schools in partnership with the historical society and the gym task force hosted a citywide prom in the historical gym which is all which also hosted a historic artifacts gallery, guided tours, and a family funday. These events allowed people of all ages to connect with the spac's legacy. By integrating interior branding, a commemorative plaque, and an exterior signage, Eden Prairie Schools elevated the gym's role as a living piece of Eden Prairie's historical and educational heritage. The 100th year celebration brought awareness of the gym to hundreds of people. The celebration and continued maintenance of the gym demonstrates Eden Prairie's school's commitment to the preservation of a treasured landmark and we are greatly appreciative of that. So on behalf of uh historical uh commission I would invite up members of the school Josh Swanson, Dirk Tedman, and Grace Becker. And then Beth's going to come up too for just this award. The mayor is going to make the award. So, first, thank you. Thank you very [Applause] much. Would you like to? Yeah, I would love to follow. It's up to you and then I'll Yeah, that sounds great. Uh council and the commission, I just want to say thank you for this and this is truly a partnership. You know, our schools are reflective of our community and the great success that we have with students and families every single day is a reflection directly of that. We have a long history of excellence here and it's because we keep building. It's not just about one person or another person, but all of us coming together. And a huge kudos to to Dirk and Grace behind me for helping design and spearhead this celebration that took place over the whole year because it truly brought our community together in all kinds of ways. And I think about the moments that we had from, you know, Dr. Case, you and I leading off the parade last year to the events and different things that were celebrating truly us being together. And it makes Eden Prairie a really special place. the partnership that we have and that ongoing work is something really special and to be proud of and I'm really proud of our staff. So, thank you so much for recognizing that uh this evening. Thank you, Dr. Swanson. I'll say a word or two as well. Um Dr. Swanson knows this as well as Rick Etcho as he uh goes around and meets with various city managers of other cities. I meet with mayors from other cities. I don't think um you can close your ears from Richfield, Annie, Dina, Heather. I don't think there's another city. I mean this probably in the state if you look at the type of city we are uh 65,000 people if you look at our peers 10 15 20 cities there's not a city that has the positive things going on that we do right now the partner the close close partnership with our school district. We're one of those, as you've heard me say, only cities that actually share 96% of our borders, our school system. And then we have uh we're one of the only cities, certainly our size, that has a chamber of commerce. And so you put together the chamber of commerce, the school district, the city, and our partnerships amazing. And this this award really acknowledges and recognizes the involvement with the Edenbury Historical Society, the Heritage Preservation Commission, the city itself. And you know, again, for our residents to to I'm going going to underscore what Dr. Fischer shared, but our residents may not realize that the gym is the oldest community space. I mean there may be older buildings than well there are than the administration center but the the the inside of the gym it's the oldest community space in the city of Eden Prairie and it was near getting gutted back in the late 90s and virtually in terms of its historical significance being destroyed and to have a school district today that values it the way you did in Durk you you gra I don't know who Grace Durk who had the impetus originally I I know you chatted with my wife a little bit, but but Dirk, to have you uh take the bull by the horns and really run with that and to acknowledge and recognize from a marketing perspective, we're a hundred years old. We have a hundred years of excellence as a school district. What a grand great idea. And you all ran with it. And Grace, I understand you did a boatload of the the leg work. So, thank you, Grace and Durk and and Dr. Swanson for uh spearheading that and allowing that and supporting it and endorsing it. So, we're proud as a city to be part of that and to acknowledge um you all today. So, thank you so much. Council, anything else you want to share or add to that? Maybe a round of applause for our school [Applause] district again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um Mr. Go, we now have um speaker representatives from other cities. No, that we love and adore as well. Richfield and Dina and Bloomington and but we're really really I'm I'm going to steal something from you here and then I'll throw it over to you. But um partnerships that's been such a big I've been mayor now for six and a half years and I think I ran on that word and I I value it so much today. But we have I think the best partnerships with our commissioners that I in my 28 years that I've ever personally experienced um in our two commissioners. And again, our residents may not realize that our city, uh, the way that we're laid out, we fall into two of the Henipin County Commission districts. Um, and so twothirds, I think, of our district. Is it more than that? Belong to Debbie and and then about one-third to to Heather. And so they're just wonderful, hardworking commissioners that um I as a mayor and I know you as a city manager, I I don't know if you all have tried. I don't know if they want to hand out all their phone numbers, but they are so accessible and they return my calls. I mean, just instantaneously almost. So I I'm just I'm so thankful for the partnership that we have and we get to hear from you one time a year and this is our really important big uh time that we look forward to. Okay, now I'll turn it over to you, Mr. GTO. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. No, you you covered quite a bit. We have Sorry, it's okay. It's good. Um, seven seven commissioners and and two of them cover parts of Eden Prairie of the of the seven commission members. And for being one of the largest counties, um, in terms of operations and budgets in the United States, um, having two of your elected officials be as accessible and respon uh, responsive as they are is is that's correct. That's very well said and that's very helpful. and even even getting them together at the same on the same night at the same meeting. We appreciate that as well, coordinating their schedules and providing a report to the council. So, if that's okay, mayor, with that, um they can certainly approach the uh council and provide an update to the community and the council on Henipin County activities that our uh commissioners have been working on. Since my wife got mentioned, I think we should also acknowledge you brought a really key staff person tonight. I understand to maybe take pictures. You can introduce him really quickly. He's a pretty important person in your life. Well, I gave my staff the night off to be with their family. So, this is my husband, Total Likeness. Most of you know him because he follows me around to almost all the events and we come down to your Fourth of July. We come to your Memorial Day celebrations. We love being down in Eden Prairie. We shop here. We eat here. This is a wonderful community. Heather, you better say those same things in just a few moments. Oh, she's still laughing. I did not bring my husband. I No, but do you shop any is pretty good place to shop to? Well, yeah. Well, Mayor Case, council members, uh, city manager, colleagues, and the residents here in the room. Thank you all. Uh, Commissioner Heles and myself, we're really honored this evening to provide you with the Henipin County update. My name is Debbie Gotel. I'm represent district five which includes my hometown of Ridgefield, Bloomington and a southern port portion of Eden Prairie about twothirds and a small portion believe it or not of southwest Minneapolis commissioner. Well, good evening everyone. It's good to meet some of you and see others. Um I this is my 16th city council presentation. I have 16 cities so I represent the western suburbs. So, um, before being elected as a Henipin County Commissioner, which no one I'm figuring out knows anything about what I do now, um, I was in the House of Representatives and represented to the mayor's point Edina and a portion of Bloomington then. So, really excited to be here. Um, and we'll just keep it moving here. And so, the slideshow is up here. Is this it? Okay. Thank you, whoever already did that for me. Okay. I'll let you run that then. Okay. We'll go to slide two. So this is uh while Eden Prairie and Council may understand what we do as Henipin County the board of commissioners um many of our residents don't understand what we do. This leads to a lot of questions when we're at the doors. We hear from residents most of the time. What is it that a Henipin County Commissioner does? Henipin County flies under the radar despite our far-reaching investments and communities and our impact. We are Minnesota's second largest government after the state of Minnesota and the largest local government unit statewide. Next slide, please. Our board is made up of seven commissioners, which you already mentioned, and it functions like a council. We steward roughly $3.1 billion annual budget across a range of topics including human services, public health, public safety, public works and residents services which also includes your libraries and your elections. Despite reduction dis um disparity reduction is also a driving principle that we have embedded in all the work that we do through our HR. We also steward considerable investments in housing and economic development. We do this on behalf of 1.3 million diverse residents. That is one in five motans who call Henipin County home. Next slide. So affordable housing um creation and housing supports are some of the most important investments we make to increase the quality of life for Henipin County residents. In 2024, we are the primary funer of affordable housing and development in Henipin County. We're awarded 19.5 million in capital funding to create and preserve affordable housing. We funded 23 projects with 1,493 affordable rental units and 10 projects to create 69 affordable home ownership opportunities. We awarded grants totaling $17.3 million through our local affordable housing aid to help restore and to boost local nonprofit capacity to develop more affordable housing. There's so much work to do in this space, but we are making large strides to bring down the cost of housing and make it more affordable and accessible to residents. And one of the other facts is that with our nonprofits, we are usually the first dollars in so that the financing can actually take place. That's one of the biggest problems these projects have getting off the ground is first dollars in. Slide five. Thank you. Elevate Henipin, a resource hub connecting local entrepreneurs. We expect advisors. We we give them expert advisors at no cost on a wide range of topics. um for one just piece of a broader strategy to grow and support our entrepreneurs and our business owners at every stage. There are some right here in Need and Prairie because I've met with them and talked to them and seen their wonderful businesses. Thousands of businesses have used Elevate Henipin, including more than 3,262 entrepreneurs who have accessed over 41,712 hours at no cost. one-on-one advising, our cohorts, learning opportunities. These are great opportunities for your entrepreneurs. You just can't spread this this word. They just never believe it when you say it's no cost advising. Anything from accounting to setting up a website to how do you run a business? How do you get a permit? It's it's great business uh for our businesses. 222 businesses have launched with all these efforts that we have done so far. And we just keep growing and getting more inquiries. Slide six, please. I wanted to talk a few minutes about the school-based mental health program in Henipin County. It's a program we love to share because it's such a great effect in our student body. A recent study from the University of Minnesota showed a significant drop in self-reported suicide attempts among 6th to 12th grade students as a result of these efforts. Researchers believe school-based mental health services have resulted in 260 fewer self-reported suicide attempts by Henipin County students from 2004 to 2024. That's quite a drop. We are providing services to 6,600 students yearly. And this program is in every district and in every public school countywide. Despite potential funding cuts to these types of programs at the federal level, Henipin County is committed to maintaining this essential lifeline for our students. Next slide. May is mental health awareness month and Henipin County is working to build out mental health supports across our entire continuum of care. One crucial space where we where this can happen during is a police interaction. Starting in 2019, the police embedded social worker program became an essentially news response method serving all municipalities in Henipin County with nearly 50 social workers. In 2024, Eden Prairie Police made 466 referrals to embedded social workers with 460 referrals in the range of social services. Through quarter 1 of this year, Eden Prairie has made 116 referrals to the program with 75 referrals to a range of social services including mental health, drug treatment, housing, and employment services. We're excited to share today that Henipin County Board approved an extension to the joint powers agreement with Eden Prairie to offer these services. So, we're really glad for this great partnership. to really add commissioner not only an extension but adding a second yeah social work area. I know you guys are doing great work down here. Next slide. Established in 2017, the child wellbe and advisory committee helps guide the the advice and advise that county staff on updates to the county board and progress toward the child safety and well-being outcomes. Since this time, the child well-being advisory committee has supported an ongoing transformation of the county's services and supports of children's and family, especially within the child protection system. Commissioner Eden and I both sit on this child well-being advisory committee. So, I'm going to pass this off to her for her portion of the presentation. She'll give you a a better idea and some details on that. All right. Uh, okay. The slide is gone. There's me. All right. We Is this it? There we go. I get it. Okay. Wow, my voice is loud. Um, all right, everyone. So, human services at the Capitol. I was at the capital for six years, by the way. And just like a little bit about me, I have three sons. I live in Edina, but I love Eden Prairie, too. I shop here all the time. Vonmar is one of my favorite stores. All right. Okay. So, human services. Um, so human services. I background was a clinician when I ran for the county seat. Uh the reason I ran is because 42% of our budget is health and human services. So uh at the capital when I was on the human services committee it was always waivers and the waiver program. Here um this is we're directly dealing with the waiver program. So every year how the county interacts um is that we people come through the first kind of stop for them to come to the county um to get to the waiver program is we have to assess them and say that they what services they qualify and if they are a person that has a disability every single year we have to do this talk about barriers that we put in there right now these are federal and state requirements we are helping administer them uh unfortunately right now uh at the state level it's interesting being on the side of the legis legislative session um my first time uh is we're being cuts are being considered right now and it's really going to be hard for the county um and hard to make sure that we obviously have to pay for the entitlement programs of waiverss they're necessary um but just so that residents know this is a big struggle that we're facing right now in the next week and a half we're hoping that the legislature um and the governor's budget can turn around a little bit so mental health and substance use right now um we talk about COPE. COPE is uh we have a 247 line that is addressing youth needs um as well as adult needs with mental health crisis. It's a mental health uh team that can go in and help. We also um not on the slide, but we have a crisis stabilization center that's opening up this fall. It will have only about 15 beds, but it's for youth with complex mental health needs. This will be a really big uh gap. It will help fill a gap. And you might say 15 beds. Um the reality is is we don't have places for young people to go. We also have conversations with other counties like Scott and Dakota about what that next tier would look like. We have um reports for vulnerable adults and child abuse. It's actually the my first um when I was 24 years old, just graduating uh college, I was a Garnadim with Henipin County Child Protection. Um and so it was my first time learning about how government and systems work and sometimes how they don't work. uh economic supports. You'll see um we had a steady uh increase with them, the little chart up to the right, but it's just finally starting to level out and that is with I would say the good work that Henipin County is doing to intervene with families, making sure that we're getting in there, that we're trying to do preventative work. We also have a pathways program where we're ensuring that people um are are getting employment and steady housing. And we'll go on to the next one. And actually um you know I did want to just talk about our EMS group here on this one. Um we don't have a slide on it but I've called two EMS groups because I represent district 6 has henipin EMS actually responds to all district six and so Eden Prairie thank you for coming to those meetings with everyone else um and trying to address that. I know that there was a firefighter um from an Eden Prairie firefighter that was actually taken by Henipin EMS to Southdale today and it sounds like he's doing okay. Just an update. I was just texting with the um EMS chief. So, but we've been having good progress. We have uh what is called the paramedic response unit is what we came up with at the last meeting and this is triing out all throughout Henipin County where Henipin EMS is responding. It started on May 3rd and um getting I'm hearing good results. So, thank you for participating in that. So public health is something else the county does that a lot of people don't think about. Uh we talked about the embedded social worker program our commissioner um did. We talked about cope the 247 line the family response but radio communication. So 911 the pap calls come in through us when you're calling 911. Oftentimes people don't think about where that calls goes to um and it is going to one of our facilities where people are answering calls directing them to their emergency services and they're doing a really great job. We also have we supervise about 22,000 people, youth and juveniles, every single day on probation. We also run the adult correctional facility in the juvenile detention center, which I've been able to uh visit that and the jails. Um, and I'm happy to hear that we're replacing one of the elevators of the juvenile detention center because I am very claustrophobic and I would not go in it and apparently it breaks down all the time. So, not great. Um, and tours of the community. I actually just last month was in Eden Prairie. I toured the community center in India Palace. I'm sure you all have been there, but it is so good. Um, and their practices uh we have our environmental health team which goes in and ensures that uh people are having good our restaurant owners are having good practices so that you can feel trusted where you're eating and also Eden Prairie Community Center is a pillar of how you should run a pool and keep it safe. So, it was really fun to see those two locations in in Eden Prairie. I think that's you. Thank you. And by the way, Eden Prairie has our own 911 dispatch. You knew that, Heather? Yes. Oh, you do? Oh, yep. Sorry. You know, 16 cities. I'm still trying to figure it out. Who has You're right. And so, so I wanted to start talking about um the grants and the trees. Everybody loves trees. If you're in the city and if you're a mayor, when you cut down a tree, everybody seems to know that that tree got cut down. So, I know that that comes directly to you because people love their open spaces and their parks here in every city I have ever talked to. So, you know, at Henipin County, our goal is to plant a million trees by 2030 in collaboration with our local partners. We estimate that uh 76,000 trees have been planted since 2020 and that by the years year's end um 576 will be planted by 2025. So, some of the really great things that I wanted to highlight about our programming here is that $500,000 is available through our healthy canopy grant program um annually to cities, schools, districts, affordable housing, providing nonprofits with up to $50,000 grants available for for planting trees. We also have wholesale trees. Um so, you have opportunities to buy those at a discounted price from Henipin County. Um, cities have purchased 575 trees from us during 2025. I just wanted to say that you probably don't know because of the climate change, we now have a variety of peon trees that we offer up here. Isn't that astounding? It's just astounding to me. Um, back to you, um, Commissioner Edel. As long as we don't work our way to palm trees or it would be We don't want that. Very sad. Get warm enough for palm trees, but Oh, that's interesting. Um, okay. Well, good. So, we covered the trade youth activities grants as well as business recycling grants. Um, those have we've seen some pretty impressive grants since I've been at the board now for about 10 11 months. Um, so you can I just were encouraging as I've been going to other city councils, the other 15 I've been encouraging them if you haven't. Um, I guess I there will be a question if you guys could answer that. How many activity grants or some of these grants have we received in the past? I would be really curious. um I guess to know so that we can make sure that we're helping you in terms of Yeah, we we can get you that detail. Amy could weigh in too, but but I think that we've had quite a bit of success. Oh, good. And we appreciate your support, but I mean, I don't want to say there isn't a cycle that goes by where we don't get something, but it feels like we usually do. Good. That's great. And I'll be going I'm going to be visiting um some of the businesses, a lot of senior um uh senior living facilities. Um they can qualify for some of the business recycling grants and so I was doing some outreach. My team and I were going to do that uh throughout the district this summer. Um but yeah, I think that's as long as you're getting them, that's what I've been doing a lot of checking on. So commissioner Oh, that's just that's just one of those shots of me. This was out out planting some of the trees in some of our boulevards and some of the road projects that are Henipin County roads. So we go out there and and work with the city and plant trees for you on your behalf. We want to green up as much as we can and we want to thank you for being a great partner in helping us do that. So I I really appreciate that. Um and you were going to cover some of the Eden Prairie Henipin County uh transportation projects. Yeah. Funny story actually. Last uh last week I'm going to stay on this for just a second. Last week uh my team and I came out to with Tree Trust in Eden Prairie. We helped uh unload and distribute trees. And I really, it was funny because I was like, why are why aren't we planting trees? Why am so when the huge like 10 foot trees were coming out and I am like 5'4. So that was need to make sure we're planting next time and not distributing. Um and so and here are just some of the transportation projects that uh we have listed here. um Pioneer Trail, County Road One, bridge replacement, we have the Emprairie Road, County Road 4 bridge replacement, and then we have some pavement preservation and bridge preservation on Townline Road. Um and then of course the partnerships with MDOT on the 494 corridor as well as the Green Line, which is all done in Eden Prairie from the meetings that I've been attending, which is exciting. And when when are we scheduled for the Green Line to be open? Yes. Well, it's 2027. They won't tell me exactly when, but they're saying sooner rather than later. That's all I can say. But they will have trains down here soon. And you'll be able to see the trains on the track. And we're hoping to have enough of an open house so people can come in and look at the trains. That'll be great because I'll I'll certainly come down here to see that. It's really looking beautiful around that area. You've done a a beautiful job with the redevelopment around that, too. So, I think when people finally see those trains, it'll really become real for everybody. Great. We're all ready for that. So, uh, with that, council, we are happy to take any questions. Yes. Thank you. Well, thank you for being here. As I've said, both of you, um, we're so lucky to have both. Council, um, questions, comments? Yes. One question. Um, all the chaos going on in Washington, how much that affected Henipin County in terms of funding or grant or We don't know yet. Well, we do know two. We know two grants were not awarded um because of that. But what we really don't know is because they haven't passed the bill yet. They haven't passed that. So we are bracing for that knowing that some of the things in the bill already have cuts that would be substantial and affect counties. That's what we know right now. I'm talking about the federal level, not the state government. We're talking federal. This is federal. There are two grants we didn't get from federal that did not come through. And then we don't know until the budget bill gets through what actually makes it through. But we do have a team that's working on watching and trying to figure out where we can cut things and try to maintain our services because honestly it's it's I think anybody in government that tells you know they know what's going to happen out of Washington in the next month is is making things up. We just none of us know. It's chaos. But it'd be a year to two years before it would hit us really substantially. We're already putting a strategy in place in the budget. But I'm sure you are too because you know those same kind of cuts are coming down except at the state level from everything that we're hearing about that budget. We're also hearing from the state that there's there's actually cost shifts to the county. Do you have a very round number estimate on worst case if um federal I mean how dependent is the county? Um, I know that it gets deeply into all the things you do, but in terms of this these surface level grants, are we talking a 10% hit or do we have I can't tell you that, but I can tell you this about transportation. So, we have a formula that comes down through the tab and I said on the tab and so those dollars, the formula dollars are all going to come down. What they're talking about is all the discretionary grants. A lot of those were just disappear. Those are a lot. Now the cuts that'll come down to the state, we get a lot of our dollars from the state. So the state will be making decisions on that. So again, that's why it's so nebulous for us is we don't know what the state is going to do and decide where they'll distribute the dollars in and what they can because it's usually specific to certain programs. Well, and I will say if we know from bypass by history, I always think you can kind of you make some deductions. Um they'll I'm imagining what we're going to see are work requirements and things like that on some of the federal programs that will make it harder to get them. Um and I mean I imagine that some of that will absolutely happen. We should anticipate it. But I don't think anybody can make estimates. I mean genuinely I just don't think it can be possible right now. Sure. Yeah. One more question. Do you see anything positive happening to Henipin County? all the things going on in the federal level from a federal perspective federal perspective we're doing a lot of positive things I'm thinking is all the all the cut and other things that shifting and all the thing going on is anything positivity happening to us in hip county I mean this of course cut is not a positive right but anything positive I've tried to weigh well yes I do think and and it probably doesn't go to these cuts but it goes to through the pandemic and the dollars that we got, we became more efficient at a lot of things that we were doing. And those efficiencies have paid off. And if we can take some of those same efficiencies and then implement them in some of our other directions, it it it may help us save a few more dollars. And we are along on that path um from when those days, you know, the pandemic and getting those programs going. So So Debbie, that before the 100 days, I'm talking about last 100 days. Yeah. There isn't anything that I can see positive so far. I think there's a a big difference on how governments are run versus how businesses are run. And I think people come in and they say, "Oh, well, we're going to run it like a business." And and it's it's very challenging because we're in the business of trying to take care of systems and people and and by default that it's it does it's not the same profit and loss sort of situation. So I think it's really challenging to see the positives. Yeah, I can clearly understand because I was a businessman then I ran state of Minnesota the minute for six years, right? And it's not safe. I agree. No. And the chaos is not good for folks and and I think it it breeds a lot of fear in people and people are upset and there's a high anxiety and so people are upset when they're calling into the county on the phone already. We have had a 300% um uptick in SNAP um applications and we've had a large uptick in mental assist medical assistance and we're trying to get ahead of that. It's because of the economy and these people seem to be have a lot of anxiety and pent up you know frustration on the system but also the economy that's hurting them. Can I ask one more question? Okay. Just want to make sure my is okay with it. is all the cut in the um in federal workers in Minnesota. Do you know how big was that in Minnesota or Henipin County? There were some VA workers that were um that were a part of some of of the reductions um by by the secretary. Um I haven't heard of a great deal more than that. You know, have you there's transportation folks at the federal level. So when we go to do your transportation projects that are that have federal funding like through the tab and everything that you go for in a regular basis, there are fewer of those people. They've cut that whole about half and so it will be a slower process to get things reviewed and through the process. That'll be something we're looking at. But yeah, I heard about the VA cut and possibly education, right? Education, we don't know. I haven't heard that. I think I think that's currently on the chopping block. So um we'll see what happens there. a new day. So, in other words, we don't know how many unemployed people in Henipin County or Minnesota with all the cuts, right? I mean, no. And they're not letting a lot of that information out. Yeah. So, it's really hard to track it until they show up at the unemployment office. Sorry to ask hard question. I was curious myself how that affecting us. I mean, you hear news all the cuts and everything, but how's our hometown, how that affecting us, right? my neighbor or you know or your neighbor you know is he out of job or he has a job some park people have lost their jobs a few of the federal park reserve folks too I've been hearing about it's been trickling in and trickling into our offices well and the prop up is like going to be trickle down right in so many ways when I think of what what the state is doing with waiverss and saying that you know the county needs to have skin in the game which I I we do we've been paying more and more to ensure that people have these very important again I don't mean to talk about human services but this is in my area that I really value. Um, and some of these cost shifts are are going to happen and when we don't have the resources to pay for them, they are shifting onto property taxpayers. And so by default, um, so when you know it's it's it's like trickle down. So it's like it's going to leave it to us potentially to say, okay, what do we do here? Because ABS federal law says that they have to be covered and we are the ones that are making sure that they are covered. So, it's it's a challenge. So, by Thank you so much. Really appreciate Yes. Um, thanks again for coming in. We really appreciate you being in the position you're you're in. Um, there are I think Kathy Nelson when she runs for council always says, "I run so that she the people of Eden Prairie don't have to stay up late at night worrying about she'll worry on their behalf." And I feel like that with both of you. I don't feel like I have to worry about decisions at the county level because the two of you are there among the seven. But I really um know you two and appreciate your um thoughtfulness and thinking processes and the way that you go about the work you do and the connection and partnership you have with the cities you represent. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're really grateful for you as well. Thanks. Applause. [Applause] I'm going to uh do a mayor's prerogative here and uh just move item D up ahead just um uh because the comprehensive financial report might be a little bit longer if that's okay. Um so if um Mr. GO um you may want to call up whomever, but I do have a proclamation. I I think we're also going to go down maybe for a photograph, but uh go ahead. Uh thank you, Mayor. Uh we as we've done many years uh the council mayor and council have proclaimed May as senior awareness month and um so we like to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of the seniors in Eden Prairie and a big part of that is our senior advisory council uh that we have in Eden Prairie. So I'm going to hand things over to Amy and she's going to speak on behalf of senior awareness month. Uh recognize our council members. I believe one or some of them may speak as well. And then the may a mayor has a proclamation to read following that. There is no action needed by the council um other than uh the mayor reciting the proclamation. Yeah. Thank you, city manager Gau. City um recognizes our senior awareness month through this proclamation and it is a time where we celebrate and acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of older adults. We want to recognize the many organizations that serve older adults in our community and also that enhance community involvement across generations. We have a variety of activities planned at the Eden Prairie Senior Center to celebrate this month. Uh so several of our senior residences across the community and agencies that serve seniors have special events. Uh we have seven throughout the month of May uh including educational opportunities, a special dinner at the end of the month uh and games such as trivia and bingo. So we invite all of our seniors to come to the the senior center and get involved. Uh it's a wonderful community of people. Uh we have three from our senior advisory committee here tonight to accept the proclamation. uh but many of them get involved with programming with volunteering and we're we're just so appreciative of their time, talents, and and contributions that they that they bring. So, thank you. Great. Um do the let's see, Mr. Gro, should I do you all three want to come up? Do you want me to read the proclamation first? Yeah. Or do you have something you'd like to share as well? I'm not putting putting you on the spot, but a five minute speech now without notes. Go. My name is Gail Smith. I am on the senior advisory council and two of our my fellow members are here. Area Dickinson and Jane Davis. Uh we just want to say we are very grateful to the city, to the council for their support of the senior center. Josh and Sue are doing a wonderful job in providing programming and we could not do what we do without your support. So, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. If you want to stand there and look um I don't know if that's uncomfortable, but I'm going to read this and then I'll come down in just a moment. It's uh not not super long. A couple whereas statements. Um this is a a proclamation. City of Eden Prairie, Henipin County, Minnesota. Whereas the increasing number of seniors in Eden Prairie, four of whom are sitting up here on the council, bring many opportunities and challenges for all components of our city, families, businesses, and government. And whereas every segment of our society is influenced by the needs, the resources, and expertise of our senior seniors and awareness improves participation and action. And whereas our Eden Prairie seniors play a pivotal role in formal and informal education, sharing years of accumulated experience and wisdom which will impact our future. And whereas a community wishes to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of our seniors in our community and recognize the organizations that service older adults. And whereas senior awareness month recognizes that seniors are an integral part of our community. Now therefore, the Eden Prairie City Council does hereby proclaim the month of May 2025 as senior awareness month adopted by the Eden Prairie City Council on the 6th day of May uh 2025. Ronald Ease Mayor on behalf of council members Kathleen Nelson, Mark Fryberg, PG Nan, and Lisa Tumi. So come down and pass this to you and we'll get a photograph. [Applause] table. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming to this. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, Caroline and Tammy, you guys have been waiting so patiently. Um, Mr. Go, I will uh turn it back over to you for our um synopsis of the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. Thank Thank you, Mayor. Uh, as you know, we spent um our several minutes in workshop going through this as well. Um, but we have this on the regular agenda tonight because a council needs to accept the 2024 annual um comprehensive financial report known as a caffer in uh the accounting world. Um Minnesota statutes require that every city repair prepare a financial report um in accordance with um generally accepted accounting standards. And those reports um actually I think the of the 440 pages in the packet tonight, I think 400 pages are devoted to our caffer and our audit. And so, uh, our financial statements are audited as well every year. And our auditing firm, uh, Kervin KDV has done that for the past few years. And Carolyn Stzman, a partner with the firm, is here to present the audit results and to provide a a short overview of our financial statements. Um, as anyone who may wish to locate the entire report separately will be posted on the city website. I think we have um all of our caffers, our our annual financial reports dating back decades on the finance page of our website in addition to this council packet, but she's here to provide findings of the audit and a quick overview of last year's the 2024 financial statement. Great. Welcome Caroline. Well, thank you uh Mr. Gacho and good evening mayor, members of the council, and um other city staff as well. Thank you for your time tonight to go through the results of the audit. Um the main reason you asked us to work with you is to provide an to provide an opinion on the financial statements. That opinion is housed within the independent auditor's report. So also within the independent auditor's report, both management's responsibility as well as our responsibilities are outlined. and management's responsibility is for um the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with GAP meaning they are the ones that determine the numbers that are within that 400page document that you talked about our our um responsibility then is to audit that information and to prov provide reasonable assurance that financial statements are free of material misstatement. So again that opinion the opinion we're providing is what's called an unmodified opinion. That's the highest level that you can receive, not a change from previous years. Meaning, we do believe those financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects as of December 31st, 2024. In addition to looking at the numbers as we went throughout our process, we also conducted our audit in accordance with government auditing standards. That requires us to consider internal controls as we go throughout that process. We did have one internal control finding this year um just as a result of an audit entry that needed to be made. Um nothing of significance there. Um those routine things happen um like I said very routinely. No compliance findings related to that. Um one final component of the audit is in relation to Minnesota legal compliance. The office of the state auditor compiles a number of Minnesota state statutes that we are then required to ask questions about. We did not have any findings related to that either. So great job there. So just for that quick overview, we start with the general fund revenues. Revenues did increase for the general fund by nearly $4 million. Um some of the categories that contributed to that increase are taxes and assessments with an increase in the levy. Um an increase in intergovernmental revenue as the school liaison reimbursement um is back in force and then charges for services increased as well with registration and membership increasing. similar presentation for you here for general fund expenditures. Those expenditures increased by 3.3 million for the year. Um police and fire as well as parks and recreation um functions did increase mostly as a result of wages and benefits as well as facility user charges. Here we have a budget to actual snapshot. Um little hard to read but I'll summarize the numbers there. um is that um the first two columns are the original and final budget. Both anticipated fund balance would decrease by right around a million dollars. Actual results are in the third column there showing that fund balance increased by 105,000. So essentially break even year for the city and the variance column is in the far right column. So looking at total revenues in that variance column, we see overbudget there. If we apply a percentage to that, it's 6.8% 8% over budget. And a couple of line items just to touch on there briefly. Licenses and permits and investments. That's really investment income or market value change. Very common for those to have a conservative approach from a bud budgeting standpoint. And this sort of um overbudget standpoint because those can be volatile line items that can vary just depending on um development activity as well as market value at a you know December 31st time frame. So very common practice there. um expenditure side of things. Um again the variance item there we see underbudget in that far right column. Again if we apply a percentage to that it's 1.4%. So in the size of budget you're dealing with um outstanding work there from a expenditure standpoint. Um following the chart down we see transfers out. Um those transfers are mostly out to the capital improvement maintenance fund where you are um planning for future capital costs or projects with those dollars. So here we bring the general fund all together. We've touched on revenues and expenditures already. We see cash and investment balances presented there which steadily increased over the five years that you're seeing presented. Then we also show unassigned fund balance. So this is in essence the equity position of the fund. Um this is also what your fund balance policy um relates to or your guidance as far as where you would like that balance to be and you are in compliance with that. You have a pretty detailed um fund balance policy and you are in compliance with the policy you've established for yourselves. I just have to add one clarifying thing. thinking from a resident perspective, if I saw this slide and I saw $33 million in unassigned fund balance, it looks like we are flush and tons of extra money. And do you want to real quickly talk about that goes into the next year and we Absolutely. So this time of year, um May, June is about the time you start to get property tax settlements. So essentially that fund balance has to help get you through to almost this time of year. um because we only get paid twice a year out from Yes. May and November are the largest. Um it does get used each year and we carry that every year. Just wanted to clarify that. Very good point. Yep. And the last slide that we have for you takes a look at your tax capacity, the levy, and the impact on those on the tax capacity rates. So the green bar is the tax capacity showing an increase there of 7.3% in 2024. The orange bar is the levy which increased at 5% for the year. So as a result of that tax capacity increasing at a greater rate than the levy, the tax capacity rate decreased for 2024. And one more one more thing for our residents. Yes. Uh I said this down in the workshop this evening. Um this is a really good story that the city of Eden Prairie has to tell. Uh reason being that if our tax rate that's the amount the percentage of tax based on whole a bunch of other formula components but um the amount percentage per thousand of value. If that's going down then in theory if all other variables stay the same you would pay less in tax this year. And if other cities around us tax rates going up we would continue to pay less for the same value home. Now, there's other variables, right? And how much work did you do to your home and the state formulas and and it causes our taxes in most cases to go up. But if our tax rates going down, that's a critical driver of our of the taxes we pay. And it also is representative symbolically but in reality that we have a really healthy economic environment when our tax base continues to grow faster actually than than all the numbers that we're dividing it by. So um anyway that's that's a great piece of information. It's a phenomenal story to tell of our city uh that we have a tax rate that's decreasing. Thank you staff again and all the decisions council makes and we're of course standing on the shoulders of others before us that made really good decisions the last 30, 40, 50 years. Absolutely. That was what I had prepared to go through with you. If you'd have any other questions, I'd be happy to take them. Council. Um, okay. Thank you so much. and and you did present to us downstairs and we did have a lot of questions for you. So yes, we had a longer conversation there for sure. Thank you for that. Um and and and for the positive report. Um not that that's not you're doing what really that's our Tammy. Tammy, thank you so much for what your department uh people around you. I'm sure in preparation for this, you all did a lot of work and just that you maintain this uh high level of integrity for our city and for our residents. And then we as council members are deeply indebted to you and um the rest of the finance uh department staff. So council, we do need um uh I thought we need an action to accept. We do. There it is. Oh, that's right. I switched in the agenda and I couldn't find it. Um so we do need to accept this. Um are there any other questions or comments you want to make? Not just for Caroline, but about this report before we take a vote. We already thank you. Thank Tammy, right? So, we don't need to do it the second time and she deserves it. So, um, go ahead. I will accept You did then. I will accept a motion then from someone. Go ahead, Council Member Fryberg. Oh, nope. Too late. Sold. Sold. No, I was going to make the motion. That's That's what I'll move to accept the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report AF ACFR. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Passes unanimous. Thank you so much. Now we are ready to move on to the approval of the agenda. Seems pretty late in the meeting to be getting to that, but just the way it broke tonight. Um, any items to add would be primarily council member reports. Does anyone have any items to add this evening or or Mr. GO? If not, is there a motion to approve the agenda? I'll move to approve the agenda. Is there a second? Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos. Council minutes from the two meetings held back on April 15th, the workshop minutes and the council minutes. Um any item anything in the either minutes to um clarify edit ask any questions about if not is there a motion to accept approve both minutes? Move to approve the following. Move to approve the following city council minutes. City council workshop held Tuesday, April 15, 2025. City council meeting held Tuesday, April 15, 2025. There second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. And I opposed. All right. Moving on to the consent calendar. I think we have students in the audience this evening. Is that right? If you want to raise your hand. Yes. Okay. This is for you. You may already know this or anyone listening this evening, but we clump a lot of important items, but that typically don't need discussion and we clump them on to the consent calendar and pass it all at one time. Um, most organizations that follow Robert's rules of order do something like this. So, tonight we have A through O on the consent tech calendar, but council has the ability to pull any of these items if they want to learn more about them or even vote on them separately. So, council, any items on the consent calendar you wish to temporarily talk about or remove and talk separately? If not, is there a motion to approve items A through O? Move to approve items A through O on the consent calendar. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. All right. No public hearings and meetings this evening. Now, students, you chose a short meeting. if you want to come back because you're having so much fun. Some of our meetings are longer. You can come back every two weeks for a while. Well, in the summer it's once a month. So, moving on to payment of claims. Um, council. The, by the way, for again anyone wanting to know what this is, these are the expenditures that the city in a classic old days wrote checks for, but it's all the money that goes out, individual line item, pages and pages. And we approved this because this is really important to approve the money that goes out. So council, any of those um payment of claim items that you wish to wonder about, question, learn more about? If not, is there a motion to approve? I'll move to approve payment of claims as submitted. Is there a second? Second. So this will be a roll call vote. And the reason is because it's really important for us up here to approve the money that gets spent by the 300 full-time staff and 700 part-time seasonal staff. So with that, roll call. Council member Fryber. Hi. Council member Nion. I. Council member Nelson. I. Council member Tumi. Hi. Mayor Casease. I. All right. Council and uh city manager, is there anything else to come before the council this evening? If not, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn the city council meeting tonight. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. This meeting is adjourned. If any students want to come on up and chat with us, you're more than welcome to. Some sometimes takes pictures.