I just want would like for us to get an update on the conversations with the Minneapolis Park and Recreational Board given that it's very much being highlighted right now a lot in the media and the concerns of what it would mean for green spaces, rec centers, parkways, and trails when it comes to the mayor's proposed budget.

If you're okay with it, can we note it for administration response so we can get a clear understanding of where things are um, as it relates to the MPB levy.

Click considers and prioritizes capital budget requests, better known as CBRS, and those are submitted by various city departments. Click does not originate or propose capital projects. We may, however, suggest the city consider a specific project when we get public input about an unmet need.

The committee also believes that it is important to balance those goals against realistic capital budgeting and declining NDB allocations do not seem very realistic. Finally, it is important to note that increasing the increasing the allocations in the out years of the six-year window does not commit the city to issuing that amount of debt.

Unfortunately, the park board continues to submit projects that exactly match the MPP $20 that they will receive from the city. This effectively makes clicks work with respect to the park board nothing more than a rubber stamp.

I mean I think that's I I think that's great but I also do think again there are people who are new here that don't understand that dynamic. There are vacancies and there's a cut off and that is it's not a vacancy it's a cut like there's a pause. So like for me if it wasn't to shame people it should say pause not vacant because you can't fill it. It's not open. It's not available for you to put anyone in that seat right now except for the first one like the people who are not assigned to one person but the other ones are paused for now and not vacant.

It's really important to me that we do have um this type of way for constituents and community members to participate in a participatory budgeting format that we do have. I think it's integral and I I think we create a lot of barriers if we require professional finance staff.

The reality is sometimes it's what fits with the budget. We have a hole in 2028 and there's $2 million that we need to spend to get to the maximum and there's a project that needs $2 million in 2028, but it's 10 points below the cutoff. There's a motion made and that gets in because of that. So, it's a there's a whole bunch of pieces to this that you know, it's classic sausage making.

At the end of 2026, we are forecasting that will be about 14% or about $22 million under our financial policy. And why is that important? Well, the general fund provides us the most uh ability to quickly and nimly react to situations throughout the city.

Public safety $26.4 million unfavorable over budget. We'll get into the individual departments here shortly. And then finally all other expenses $1.6 million over budget. That mostly is just the contingency fund. We have $14 million contingency which we don't apply costs to directly. We apply those to the departments.

So, the overtime expense, it's it's difficult to quantify here on the spot. We could do some analysis, but just as a um to put it in perspective, we have roughly 25 people out on PTSD leave right now. And so we run three shifts. Um 20 two 24-hour shifts or 48 hour shifts. So if you say there's eight or nine people on each shift out on leave, and we have to backfill each of those people, um roughly backfilling one individual in the fire department for a 24-hour shift is $1,500. So eight a day, that's $12,000 a day.

So when we first um were starting to implement the settlement agreement back in 23 or so >> we had a really healthy fund balance and we had a lot of uncertainty around what exactly would be required by the terms of the settlement agreement and so we established a process of allowing for legally required spending um to happen from the fund balance.

And the thing I would really appreciate your help with is if you can usher along getting a response from MPD. I've tried asking. I'm still waiting to hear back. Perhaps if you ask, you might be more successful in getting an answer because I haven't been.

I do want to note that administrative adjustments may increase a department's FTE count or it may simply reflect a change in funding source. Um, so for example, moving an existing grant funded position to the general fund does not change the department's overall FTE count. However, we still track and report these funding changes as shown in the emergency management example, which I'll start with.

Ultimately any specific legislative budget process uh should be reflective of the respective legislating body and designed to function effectively in each unique city environment.

One of the unique um things that the city of Minneapolis has to accommodate for is the existence of an independent bet um and the additional parkboard um conversations um as they relate to the budget and the subsequent levy.

With the condensed processes um as lovely as the one to two month timelines seem um one thing that's definitely present there that I don't necessarily know we have reflected in our current process is there's a lot of coordination on the front end.