[Music] welcome to agenda Edina a program summarizing the actions taken at City Hall that affect you most I'm your host dorothia Marty city manager Scott Neil has trimmed the city's 2025 budget by 1% as requested by the city council when it approved the levy increase in December the city council approved a formal budget amendment at its February 4th meeting finalizing a budget of $ 47.3 million with an 8.44 per Levy increase for 2025 the approval included a spending reduction package totaling $545,000 some of the items removed from the budget include a half mile of the Public Works Department's Mill and overlay program the chatbot feature on the city's website eliminating or delaying a revision of the Southdale District design guidelines and reducing money allocated for equipment replacement I was able to work with the Department directors in our police and fire and public works and parks and all of our other uh directors to to find areas where we could reduce spending that would have the least amount of negative impact on our residents I presented the the package of reductions to the council at the February 4th council meeting uh they received those they had a chance to look through them ahead of time uh they asked me some questions about it at the meeting and then they approved the package unanimously the early 2026 2027 budget projections with current service levels and planned projects require a significant Levy increase that is not palatable to members of the city council the finance department is leading the effort to get ahead in the budget planning process to examine all options for reducing those projections two work session were held with the city council earlier this month to provide members with a better understanding of each Department's Services before a retreat to talk more about the budget in March