CompletedCity Council Work Session May 6, 2025

City Council Work Session May 6, 2025

Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 2:08 PMActual: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 2:08 PM

1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Meeting Topics 3.1. 2026-27 Budget Discussion 3.2. Water Treatment Plant #5 at Yorktown Park 4. Adjournment   Where to Watch: Meetings of the Edina City Council are typically held 7 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of the month in Edina City Hall, 4801 W. 50th St. The Council holds other special meetings from time to time. Meetings of the Edina City Council are shown live on Edina TV and the City’s website. They are rebroadcast on Edina TV at 3 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays and Wednesdays, and 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays until the Council’s next meeting. Edina TV is available to Comcast subscribers (https://www.xfinity.com/) on Channel 813 (high definition) and Channel 16 (standard definition).   Listen Online: Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/6Xz19PKI4KRbV1CBjOKDHz?si=f8c977f118ad426f) Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edina-city-council-meetings/id1760404514) YouTube  (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlz4oOYMFxF-E7lwoGL2RHd38IO2fLVM2) Amazon Music (https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/36681e98-f083-4c32-9ba4-085727009b8f/edina-city-council) Pandora (https://www.pandora.com/podcast/edina-city-council/PC:1001090290) To learn more about the Edina City Council, visit EdinaMN.gov/citycouncil.  

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TranscriptAnalysis ready

Published Wednesday, May 7, 2025

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[0:00] well uh good afternoon everybody it is uh Tuesday May 6 2025 [0:06] 5:31 p.m or so and we'll call to order the meeting of the Adina City Council in [0:13] their work session for this particular date and I'll ask our clerk chair and Allison to call the role council member [0:19] Agne here council member Jackson here council member Pierce here council member is absent mayor Hubling here uh [0:28] we got a couple of meeting topics uh this evening one is uh budget discussion [0:33] 2627 budget discussion another work session I think we've got scheduled on that very topic for the next meeting on [0:40] the 20th of May and so this is a continuing dialogue it's important to [0:45] everybody on the staff and council level and then we're going to talk a little bit about um uh water treatment plant [0:52] potential water treatment plant number five at Yorktown Park and we've got some good help to lead us through that [0:59] conversation here as well uh so I'm going to turn it over now to manager Neil and let him introduce that first [1:05] topic which is our ongoing budget discussion right so we have um update [1:11] for you tonight on some aspects of the budget um we'll have another update for [1:16] you on in two weeks from tonight on the 20th uh PA and Ari have been our our [1:22] kind of co-point people um on our on our budget development process this year so [1:27] I'll turn it over to them and and they can run through uh this we think this is about half about 50% of the of tonight [1:34] but if we get done earlier we'll just go right to Chad okay thank you all right [1:40] so uh like uh city manager Neil said this is a continuation of our discussion from retreat as we continue discussing [1:48] the 2026 2027 budget development we're still in the very early stages of the [1:53] budget development for this next bianual budget um as far as when you're going to [1:58] see the city manager's proposal on these two budget years you'll see it later in August and then like u manager Neil said [2:06] due to limitation of times we have that second um schedule work session for May 20th so with that being said the [2:14] schedule is as of what you see up there we did add in the a red notation from [2:20] May 20th for an additional work session and then you'll see manager Neil's uh preliminary budget proposal in August so [2:27] with that uh what we're going to go over tonight is um some of the council [2:33] suggestions that was taken in after the council retreat staff has commented on it uh and so those are in your packet um [2:42] we'll gloss over some of it uh as there's time but that's in there and then we're going to have a little [2:48] discussion on our capital budget 2026 discussion um as far as what we brought [2:53] to you last time at council retreat some feedback we received back from council and then we just want to touch back on [2:59] that and then we'll talk about following up on the tiff Centennial Lake Southdale 2 uh and Centennial Lake a…

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Topics Discussed (6)

2026-2027 Biennial Budget Development

Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) 2026 Discussion

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts - Centennial Lakes and Southdale 2

Human Services Task Force

Utility Franchise Fee Structure and Rate Adjustment

Water Treatment Plant Number Five - Yorktown Park Site Feasibility

Full Document Analysis
No formal vote; work session for continued dialogue. Second work session scheduled May 20, 2025. City Manager to provide preliminary proposal August 19, 2025.
No formal vote; work session for continued dialogue. Staff directed to: (1) run scenario analysis with differentiated residential/commercial rates, (2) provide individual property tax examples comparing levy reduction to franchise fee increase, (3) prepare narrative explaining how residents benefit. Ordinance to be drafted for July-August approval to meet January 2026 implementation deadline.
No formal vote; work session for continued dialogue. General support expressed for Yorktown Park as site for Water Treatment Plant #5. Staff directed to: (1) proceed with rate study in 2025 to model cost impact on water utility rates, (2) coordinate with Parks Department on Yorktown Park master plan development in 2026, (3) schedule potential construction for 2030 to align with master plan implementation. Building demolition decision deferred pending master plan and future council action.
No formal vote; work session for continued dialogue. Staff directed to schedule policy discussion when full council complement is present. Decision deferred pending state-level interchange project funding determination. No impact on 2026-2027 budget proposal.
No formal vote; work session for continued dialogue. Staff directed to extend existing human services contracts into spring 2026. Task force will be reconvened in spring if council directs following August budget review.

if we wanted to have a budget that didn't exceed a certain percentage... my answer is I don't know... maybe it should be less maybe it should be more... I'm rather interested in how do we get to a percentage of a potential levy increase that I would say tracks more along the lines of people's property value increases

Council Member (James) [6:28-7:01]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

what Carolyn felt very strongly about at retreat was not wanting that to be... to reduce capital as the way and means... of value choices of how we go about doing that

Council Member (Carolyn) [8:39-8:51]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

the problem though is... August is when we would see the department budgets... it's not really okay that on August 9th we'll know if we're at 8% 9% 10%... it's almost too late at that point... we're trying to get to that answer sooner

Council Member (Carolyn) [9:12-9:54]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

I do think that the conversation that we had at the retreat... getting to that rough number that we were kind of able to equate to what's the rough percentage felt like a good step... I also think that August this time around is going to feel a lot different because of this preparation... we have these two options here now of the 1.4 capital improvement plan versus the 2 million capital improvement plan

Council Member (Kate) [13:27-14:24]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

could we get this list to the stack ranked priority that we want to see and then once we see some of these numbers then we can snap the line of what's in what's out

Council Member (James) [15:35-16:08]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

we had talked about a staffing study... why is it long term... what if we do drop into a deep recession... do we have any kind of emergency scenario setback... I'm getting increasingly concerned about that... I think we ought to have a rainy day or tornado day scenario

Council Member (James) [16:20-17:32]2026-2027 Budget Development - Capital Improvement Plan Direction

I really like it the fact that big users pay more because we're trying to reduce energy consumption... that's my two cents worth at this point

Council Member (James) [40:25-40:31]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

I'm trying to rationalize us saying we're trying to reduce the levy which impacts residents and we're going to take this cost out of the levy but we're going to increase the fee that then gets allocated back to the residents... I struggle with that... I would want to see everything that we're taking out of the levy that still has to be allocated somehow... I want my allocation to be less than it was before

Council Member (Carolyn) [40:45-41:37]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

if we're saying we have we need another we need 2.6 million and we want to reduce the burden on the taxpayers... we could say we're going to spend $2 million less... we're going to roll back the pedestrian the packs fund... we're going to do less conservation and sustainability... that's the rich conversation that we need to be able to have

Council Member (Carolyn) [43:21-44:03]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

I think you you pointed out we have two questions one is to do the percentage and then the second is to add the street reconstruction million dollars into it... I would be in favor of doing the percentage... and the million dollars... I don't I don't have an opinion at this point

Council Member (James) [46:14-46:47]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

why do we like this model... because so why do we like this model now I would say one when we look at the direct impact to the residents it is relatively small and we are already talking about potentially increasing that we do see more of the impact of commercial and industrial so I like that part of it the second part that I like is it gives people more of a lever

Council Member (Carolyn) [47:23-48:06]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

my assumption is in terms of payment out the door for residential whether it's through tax levy or through franchise fees residents are going to see a more... they're going to see a cut on their bill at the end of the day because now you're shifting it to the commercial... we just have to let us run we just have to say that like we got to put that story together so people can say if it's true

Staff (Chad) [48:31-49:34]Utility Franchise Fee Structure - Percentage-Based Model Consideration

the current building does not meet the building code for this type of facility it has to store hazardous chemicals has to meet fire safety standards for operations has to hold large volumes of water and they have to process large volumes of water... we basically have to take the building down and dig a swimming pool for this... there's really not a point to keeping that existing building

Staff (Ross/Manager) [52:22-53:15]Water Treatment Plant Number Five - Yorktown Park Site Feasibility and Recommendation

we asked that question well if we didn't build a plant could we just do it with water storage needs and we learned that we can't... we need both we need updated storage we need some better efficient storage and the treatment plants needed

Staff (Ross) [55:00-56:09]Water Treatment Plant Number Five - Yorktown Park Site Feasibility and Recommendation

I just hate to tear the building down... I don't know what we do with it but I feel like that skate park is hitting basically roped off behind there it gets no use... if we unwind that three city deal put the water tower back or the water treatment plant back there and hang on to the building for the time being we see if there's a future use for it

Council Member [1:00:30-1:01:02]Water Treatment Plant Number Five - Yorktown Park Site Feasibility and Recommendation

we don't have any action tonight we just want to see if it was generally supported... there may be future actions on demoing that building which would come back to council and we can have whether or not that's supported at this time or not

Staff (Manager) [1:00:51-1:01:14]Water Treatment Plant Number Five - Yorktown Park Site Feasibility and Recommendation

the threshold question I think for the council would be should we continue to use that money the way we've used it in the past or should we be thinking about turning it back... I've got my own personal feelings about that i like the way you've used it in the past as a security blanket for rainy day fund others may have different opinions

Council Member (James) [23:45-24:31]Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts - Policy Direction on Fund Use

we'd like that too to have an understanding of of the council's kind of collective position on that as a policy so that we don't have to so it doesn't have to be in flux every time we have a question about

Staff (Manager) [24:19-24:46]Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts - Policy Direction on Fund Use

we're not going to hold a task force this year instead what we're going to do is give you guys more time to see the budget proposal in August think about whether or not you want to make any changes... we would just extend those contracts and then do a task force if you wanted us to continue to do this again in the spring

Staff (Manager) [25:03-25:39]Human Services Task Force - Deferral and Contract Extension

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