[music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Good evening. Tonight is Monday, September 14th, 2026. This is a regular meeting of the Minnotonka City Council. I'll call this meeting to order. And for all of you who are able, please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Uh, Miss Tangley, correct? Please call roll. Talbert here. Rome here. Kley >> here. >> Foster Bolton >> here. >> Maxwell >> here. Wilbur >> here. >> Chick here. Uh our first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Mr. Funk. >> Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. Two items for your consideration for tonight's uh approval of the agenda. The first one was related to item 14C, which is setting the two 2026 preliminary tax levies and the 2027 preliminary budget. There was a public comment that was received after the distribution of the packet from last Thursday. So that comment is included. And then the second item for your consideration is related to item 14D, gun violence prevention resolution. Public comments were received again after distribution of the packet. So there's a number of those included. I will also note mayor and council that our deadline for a amendment uh to the agenda are 3:00 and so we did have just for the we'll retain them here uh with the staff but we did receive approximately three emails after 3:00 today and those emails were all in support of tonight's resolution. So with that mayor and council staff recommends a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Funk Council. I'll take a motion. Council member Calbertt. Thank you mayor. I move approval of the agenda as amended. >> Council member Maxwell, >> I second the motion. >> I have a motion by council member Calvert, a second by council member Maxwell. Miss Tangley, please call roll. Kelbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Uh, the next item on our agenda, item five, approval of minutes. We have two sets of minutes. The August 17, 2026 study sess session minutes and the August 31st, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Council member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. Um I did um tell Mr. Funk this morning that there was a typo in the regular meeting minutes um referring to Libs Lake is Liv's Lake. So, I'm assuming that got corrected, but other than that, I move approval of the August 17th, 2026 study session minutes and the August 31st, 2026 regular meeting minutes. >> Council member [clears throat] Romey, >> I'll second. I have a motion by Council Member Calbert, a second by Council Member Romey. Miss Tangley, please call roll. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. On to item six, special matters. And we have a couple of those tonight. The first, which we always are always bittersweet, but we do enjoy. Um, retirement recognition for fleet services [clears throat] mechanic Don Stewart. And I'll just read a little bit about Don and then we'll bring him up here and and congratulate him on his retirement. So Don Stewart joined the city in January 1985 after spending 3 years as a mechanic at an automotive dealership. Over the course of an exceptional 40 plus year career, Don became a highly skilled and trusted member of the fleet services team. Known for his expertise in electrical and hydraulic systems diagnostics and his ability to keep the city's diverse fleet operating safely and efficiently. Throughout his career, Don embraced the variety of and challenges that came with maintaining more than 250 vehicles and pieces of equipment serving every city department. Whether working on a fire truck, snowplow, utility vehicle, or lawnmower, Don took pride in the fact that no two days were the same. As technology evolved, so did Don's skills, adapting to advancements ranging from sophisticated snowplow system systems to hybrid and fully electric vehicles. Don's dedication to workmanship earned him recognition from customers, as well as commendations and awards from the employee action committee. His commitment to service, problem solving abilities, and willingness to tackle tackle difficult repairs made him an invaluable resource to both his co-workers and the city of Minnitonka. Behind beyond his technical expertise, Don will be remembered for the qualities that defined him as a colleague. Quiet, kind, patient, and efficient. His steady pres presence, positive attitude, and strong work ethic have left a lasting impact on the organization and those who have had the privilege of working alongside him. Thank you to Don Stewart for all he has done for the city of Minnotonka as he retires from the city on September 17th. Thank you, Don. [applause] [applause] Come on up. We'll give you your plaque here and give you an opportunity to make any comments if you'd like to. So, I'll just read this briefly. So, this plaque says, "A community reflects the character and dedication of those who serve it." The residents of Minnitonka are grateful for you and this could not be more true. Don, thank you so much. There you go. And you're not obligated, but please feel free to make any comments if you'd like. >> I just want to say I've had a good long career working for the city and I just like to say thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Certainly true to the comments as uh reflected by Will who I'm sure drafted this. Um we're so appreciative and really the work that you do is really valuable. saves the city a lot of money and allows us to keep the fleet working and and in operation really long beyond we've seen this as we've approved CIPs over the year long beyond what we had planned for. So we you will be very missed. I know you will be missed around the public works building because everybody talks about the work that you've done with such reverence. So, thank you so much. All right, with that, um, we'll move on to item 6B, which Hispanic which is Hispanic Latina Heritage Month proclamation. And I've asked Council Member Wilburn to please read that proclamation. [clears throat] Whereas Hispanic Latin Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th each year, recognizing the profound contributions of Hispanic and Latin communities to the culture, history, and progress of our nature of our nation. And whereas the city of Minnetonka is proud to celebrate the vibrant contributions of Hispanic and Latina individuals, families, and organizations who enrich our community through their artistic, educational, economic, and social endeavors. And whereas the historic roots of Hispanic and Latin heritage are deeply intertwined with the broader narrative of our nation's development, reflecting a legacy of resilience, innovation, and community spirit. And whereas this month recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments and struggles of Hispanic and Latin people in the face of continued inequity, racism, and xenophobia. And whereas the city of Minnotonka is committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful respectful environment where the cultural diversity of all its residents is celebrated and recognized. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the city of Minnitonka does hereby proclaim September 15 through October 15, 2026 as Hispanic Latin Heritage Month and call upon the people of Mitanka to recognize the contributions made by members of the Hispanic and Latin community and to actively promote the principles of equality, liberty, and justice. >> Thank you, Council Member Wilburn. on to item seven which is reports from city manager and council members. Mr. Funk. >> Thank you, mayor. Again, good evening, council. A couple things to you for this evening. First, uh last Friday, as we all know, was September 11th, which marked the 25th anniversary of 911. Uh to celebrate it, uh we had numerous staff members involved in difference and remembrance activities. So just want to acknowledge the work of our Minnitankka Fire Department and our police department because they participated in professional and a remembrance event that day. So again, appreciate their recognition and participating. And then as we look back on 911, I just want to point out that the city did plant a tree uh at that time. It unfortunately had died uh as my understanding. Uh but however, a series of trees were later planted near city hall under our flag pole out front. So when you walk past that uh just for everyone's uh recollection, there are trees in honor of uh 9/11. And then last two more things uh want to just mention that public works department is currently on their annual leak detection analysis. Uh this is an important activity where our staff conducts its annual leak detection analysis on the water system. This process identifies and repairs small leaks preventing them from becoming major breaks. And that of course then reduces water loss and treatment costs. So thanks to our staff, we're looking out for efficiencies in our system. Uh a big undertaking that often is one that we don't always see and notice. And then last, I want to mention that this past Saturday, September 12th, was our fall community drop off day. It's been reported to me that 775 vehicles came through our facilities. So our residents were active and we're appreciative of the of our staff. It does take a coordinated effort uh for staff to work that day. Want to recognize all of our employees that made it possible for our residents to come to the drop off site. It was a beautiful day for it. Uh and that event was again very successful. With that, mayor and council turn back to you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Funk. Council reports anybody? Council member Celver. Thank you, Mayor. Um the mayor and I did wish our Jewish community linatva a happy new year. It is still the new year and um yum kipur the holiest day of the Jewish calendar is coming up. So I wish all members of the Jewish community an easy fast and I and a good new year. Anybody else? All right. I've got a few things here. I made I made notes tonight. So, the first is um I want to send well wishes to officer good who was involved in really a a horrific accident which could have been much much worse on Saturday night. Um, ironically, this is the officer that handles our drunk drunk driving enforcement and he was hit by an impair an alleged impair impaired driver and it sounds like he's going to recover, but it was very scary and we want to thank him for uh his efforts. He's really committed to this work and wish him a speedy recovery. Um, on much lighter notes, I just want to point out there's a lot going on over the next couple weeks and we don't have council meeting for a few weeks here. So, I am hosting or um moderating an election panel that'll include folks from our election team here in Minnetonka, people from Henipin County and also Secretary of State Steve Simon just to talk about um anticipating the upcoming election as far as process and procedure. And so, please the community is invited to come to that. I think we will be listing it as a as a meeting so that council can all come if they are interested. Um there's another event and that is September 24th in the evening. I think it starts around 6:00 but I but I don't have that time. It's all over our website and on our calendar. Um September 26th at 6 at 10:00 a.m. That's a Saturday in St. Louis Park. There's going to be a big event. It's it is a event to um an where the date of service the opening of the Southwest light rail will be announced. So this will be um everybody's excited about this and I think we're trying to generate even more excitement. So I will certainly be at that event and invite the community to come as well. We'll um make sure that that gets posted somewhere so people can see where it's going to be. Um, also on September 26th in the evening, I think from 5 to 10 approximately in Hopkins, the Hopkins Education Foundation, who does great work on behalf of Hopkins School, is throwing Royal Bash. And that's um food donated by restaurants throughout the Minnotonka and Hopkins community. And I think three bands will be playing. It sounds like a great time. I hope the weather cooperates. and I will be there along with my husband and hopefully some of my family just to spend the night celebrating. So, that is um a good event if you'd like to join us. And then finally, A's annual fundraising gala is October 1st and that is at the Oakidge Country Club. um I'll be at that as well and that is a very cool event and it also raises a huge amount of money each year for a operations and all of you um know that a does really great work in our community. So, a lot going on, all fun stuff. So, if you want to um have some fun and hang out with me, there's my agenda. Um, all right. With that, I will we'll move on to item eight, which is which is citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda. Um, we we I was appreciative uh the screens indicated that if you wanted to speak on this item, you would fill out one of these cards. I didn't announce it at the beginning of the meeting, but if there's anybody here on this agenda item, raise your hand and we'll accommodate you tonight. Okay, not seeing anybody um and and not having any cards. We'll move on to item nine, which is bids and purchases, and we have none of those tonight. Item 10 is the consent agenda, and these are items requiring a majority vote. Items are placed on the consent agenda that are considered routine in nature, and those uh items can be read and then passed in one vote. However, if anybody wants an item to be discussed further, we will uh they can pull that item and we can talk about it more. So, tonight we have item 10A, which is a resolution amending Minnotonka Firefighters Relief Association lumpsum pension benefit and improving a state a fire state aid allocation agreement. 10B is ordinances making technical corrections to city ordinances establishing boards and commissions. 10 C, ordinance establishing the Economic Development Advisory Commission. And 10 D is a conditional use permit for we rock the spectrum, a sensory friendly children's gym at 10925 Bren Road East. And I think there may be some folks here on that. Um, but I don't see a big group, so we're not going to pull that item. Welcome. We're really excited about you being here. And, um, I hear that there was a very fun crowd of folks at the planning commission meeting, and we're so glad they had an opportunity to come and participate in that meeting. So, thank you very much. So, with that, um, any items need to be pulled from the consent agenda? Council member Calvert. >> Thank you, Mayor. I actually did just want to pull uh attendee to make a positive comment. >> Why don't you go ahead and make that is it do we need a discussion or you want >> No, I don't think so. Not say something controversial, which I will try not to do, but um >> I just was so excited. My my mother was director of a school for uh children with autism when I was growing up. Um and my daughter was an inclusion specialist for many years and my mother-in-law Many of the members of my husband's family worked with adults and children with special needs. And I have friends uh with children with autism. And this is just the most exciting thing ever. And I know that there are so many families that will benefit from this, including hopefully our um secretary of state son Noah. And uh that is just really exciting. So, I just want to congratulate you and welcome you to the city because it is a much needed um amenity to every community and um I'm just really excited to see that you're here. Thanks, Council Member Calbert. All right, so we have the consent agenda. I take a motion approving all those items tonight. Council member Maxwell, >> I move approval of agenda items 10 A through 10D >> and council, excuse me, council member Foster Bolton, >> I'll second. >> I have a motion by council member Maxwell, a second by council member Foster Bolton. Miss Tingley, please call roll. Calbert, >> yes. >> Raley, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, yes. Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Thanks again and welcome. All right, on to consent agenda item 11 or item 11, which is consent agenda items requiring five votes, and we have none of those tonight. Item 12 is introduction of ordinances, and we have none of those tonight. Item 13, public hearings and 13A is resolution approving special assessments for the 2025 2026 projects. And uh Mr. Funk, is that you? No. >> Mayor, it is going to be Mr. Nelson. >> Oh, there he is. Okay, Mr. Nelson. All right. I apologize. That's you. Go for it. >> Thank you, mayor, council members. Um, as the mayor stated, tonight is the uh public hearing for our special assessments for 2025 and 2026. Um, and so our staff recommendation is obviously to hold the public hearing and then we will we will have a motion to adopt the resolutions pertaining to special assessments for one, three, and actually it's 10-year nuisance abments on on that end of it. Um, this is an annual process. So, uh, we hold this public hearing for related to the, uh, the approved the collection of proposed special assessments related to property nuisances, disease trees, city court fines, um, those types of things. On that end of it, um, division staff associated with the specific type of assessment have notified or worked with property owner owners regarding the associated work to be financed by the city. Notices were mailed after the August 10th council meeting which set the public hearing for tonight. And then property owners will be given 30 days to pay for their or partially pay for assessments interest free as of tonight. So they'll have 30 days after today um to pay a portion or all of that assessment without additional interest or fees attached to that. Um for this year we have 19 total assessments. We have 16 one-year nuisance assessments and those are typically um yard work type of things, lawn grass, mowings, those types of things. um garbage um cleanup, those types of things. And so we have 16 of those for about $5,900. We have one three-year assessment totaling $1,800. And then we have two 10-year assessments totaling almost $44,000. And those are for unique um projects with uh that were more related to improvements, sanitary sewer improvements or replacements in homes, those types of things. On that end of it, uh the interest rates are benchmarked to the US prime rate, which is 6.75%. So that's tied to something similar to what um mortgage rates are at this day and or this time. And then staff did receive no appeal notifications, did not receive any appeal notifications. So notifications have been sent out and we haven't received any um notification that anybody's here to um to talk about those. But obviously we'll open the public hearing and see if there if there's anybody here. So So with that, staff recommends um holding the public hearing and then adopting uh the resolutions at the end here. >> Thank you, Mr. Nelson, apology for missing you back there. How how could I do that when you've got so much of the agenda? >> All good. >> All right, council. Any questions on this? All right. Well, I'll open the public hearing. And if there's anybody in the audience that wants to speak on this item, now would be your opportunity. I'll give uh regardless of whether this one whether you filled out a card or not, you can certainly come up. Last call. All right. I'll close the public hearing and council. Uh, any comments? Otherwise, we would take a, uh, motion to adopt the resolutions. Council member Wilburn. >> I move we adopt the resolutions pertaining to the special assessments of 1, three, and 5-year nuisance abatements. >> Council member Foster Bolton. >> I'll second. I have a motion by council member Oh, Council Member Calvert, did you have a question or a comment? >> This says 1, three, and five. Even on our um >> it it is actually a 10 year 10 year. My apologies. >> Okay, >> my air. >> So, your motion includes the 10ear. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Okay. Um I have a motion by council member Wilbur and a second by council member Foster Bolton. Miss Tingley, please call roll. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Raley, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> yes. Jack, >> yes. Motion carries. All right. Uh the next item is item 13B, which is a precious metal dealer license for Walla LLC doing business as Walla Jewelry Company at 18 Cedar Lake Road. And Miss Wishnack, this is you. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor and Council members. uh you don't often see precious metal dealer licenses. So I'll just kind of go through the different aspects of what that means. So a jewelry store itself does not require any special permitting as long as it's located in a retail uh zoned area. So that's not the part that requires your permission. Your permission is to have uh kind of a secondhand transaction. So they're buying gold or other precious metals and being uh paying the customer for trading those um different metals into the business. Um there are a lot of rules and regulations about how that occurs and the ordinance is very specific about how long you keep the records, how you keep your records, the fact that the police department has access to the records in case there are crimes associated with the uh precious metals that are given to the um property owner or the business owner rather. And so um that's kind of the process in terms of what precious metal licensing is about. We have uh I believe two other locations in Minnetonka that have um these types of uh approvals. And so what you do this evening is um you it's almost like um a liquor license where you have a first hearing and then you'll continue that hearing. We'll do some more background investigative work and then we'll bring back the whole package to you uh when you continue the public hearing on October 26. So with that, mayor, uh I'd recommend that action. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Wishnack. Council, any questions about this? Oh, uh, Council Member Romey. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just had a quick question if if this is a brand new business for this person or if this is like moving a business from elsewhere. >> Mayor Swiss. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council Member Romele. They already have a an existing jewelry business. Um, they just don't have it [music] at this location. >> Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? All right. I'm going to open the public hearing and I would certainly invite anybody to come up now or or when we continue the public hearing on October 26. If the applicant's here and wants to come up, I' I'd welcome it. Come on up. Just introduce yourself and tell us anything that you'd like us to know. Welcome. >> Thank you very much, Mayor. My name is Aaron Walla. I'm here with my wife Liz and my mother Jill. We're all uh Minnesota natives. I grew up in Lynen Hills. I'm an army veteran, an engineer, a tool and die maker, and uh and a craftsman. And I I love working on new new and old jewelry. And so part of the reason for this license is so I can restore and and bring back to life old antique jewelry. So, I appreciate the opportunity to come here and speak in front of you and become a member of the Minnotonka community. >> Excellent. Well, we're glad to have you and we'll just go through this process and hopefully voila, you'll be in business. So, [laughter] >> thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you so much. All right, council. Uh, any comments for tonight? Otherwise, our action tonight is just to continue the p open the public hearing and continue it to October 26th. Council member Romey should make a motion. >> Go for it. Thank you, Mayor. I'll make the motion to open the public hearing and continue to October 26th for final consideration. And council member Calbertt. A second. Great. I have a motion by council member Romey, a second by council member Calbertt. Miss Tingley, please call roll. Calbertt, >> yes. >> Raley, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilbur, >> yes. Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. We'll see you on the 26th. All right. Moving along to other business. Item 1414A is the 20 27 to 2031 economic improvement program. And that Miss Wishnack is you. Thank you, mayor and council members. I know you've heard the report before, but for the benefit of the viewing audience, um we'll just take about 10 minutes and we'll overview what the economic improvement program holds for different aspects of our economic development and housing work. You'll be asked at the end of the uh report to adopt a resolution that approves that document and four votes are needed in the EIP and I'll just shorten it when I talk about it to say EIP economic improvement program and it's really to describe our economic investment into all kinds of different programs and related um investments in different things. The also the consideration aligns the programs with the city's strategic plan. And we also talk about but for the city's involvement. Could this happen? And so it's almost like a little bit like tax increment when we talk about the but for test if if it's worthwhile in terms of the city's investment and is no one else doing it. The third issue is a consideration of this document is really what areas are we considering and in the document we talk about transportation. We talk about housing, business and redevelopment and which each pro program serves and we track a lot of data and a lot of demographic information in each of the programs that we propose and monitor for the council. This uh again these aren't the exact expenditures that we're proposing but think of this as the funds where those monies come from. So this is the first part of the document and really the fund uh that is quite large right now. It's at 4.5 million as a development account. And if you remember, we use that for things like financial analyses and uh maybe pass through gr grants that the city obtains and then the grant funds sit in there until they're expended. So sometimes that balance can go up and down depending on what kinds of activities are approved in that account. The liberal communities account has about $200,000. Uh this was previously where the homes within reach fund or was funding was coming from and uh that balance is slowly dwindling. We're almost done with that account and then when the balance is zero, we will no longer have that account. There's also acknowledgement of the community development block grant program that now is consolidated with Henipin County and there's a chart in the document that talks about that. And then of course our HA levy which later on tonight we'll do the actual adoption of the preliminary levy but this document tries to foresee the next 5 years in terms of the activity that fund balance is about 653,000. There is some commitment to housing loan programs emergency business assistance as well as business and marketing and commercial code compliance. That's a program that you offer to businesses. The trust fund is has a strong balance of 7 almost 4 million. Uh 7.4 million is used to do rental assistance on house response doing the pathways to owner home ownership program as well as you made some invest investments in the twin home projects for the mills and for Roland Road. And then we do have the sales tax money sitting there ready for a project. Um we're hopeful that there is a project uh this year that will be spending the 1.9 million for housing related activities. So, uh, just to highlight some of the conversation you had and also the EDAC had in the summer months, we had the commissioners talk about recommending 125 for Homes Within Reach. And at that meeting, they asked if Homes Within Reach could come back and do another kind of once over. It's been a while since they've done a whole review of the program. So, um, they've asked for that, uh, to be um, at a future meeting. There are also some questions they had about metrics, the various sources and collecting the demographic information for the various programs. They talked about is it voluntarily provided by the applicant, which it is. Um, and then talked about how we provide that data. So, you can see the charts and graphs. It's in the supplemental part of your report for tonight. You can see some of that information. And then um a lot of that information is also on the city's housing dashboard as well as on our story board about housing. And then uh we're thinking about another option for having another matrix. I think every year we have some improvement, right? So we just continually try to um provide better data and hopefully it is digestible for you and the public. And then under Pathways program, we have um the commissioners were supportive of having $500,000 in additional program funds for the 2027 year. And there was quite a bit of conversation too about housing improvement areas. There was a question about how many associations could potentially access this kind of um funding. There is a list that we have. There's 82 developments with about 5,000 units of housing. And that construction period was between 1969 and 2019. So that we do understand the level of maybe potential that could be asking for funding. The in our experience though it never happens all at once. We have people we visit with year after year and finally maybe in the fifth or sixth year they proceed with the project. Um of course we already have a policy that deals with all of this so we know how to manage and [music] consider those requests. And then you all weighed in in July. You had a conversation at your study session where you talked about a lot of things about housing and you asked for some more information about what was going on in the homes within reach um program and specifically about sales information. So if you didn't read this in your report, I'll just recap it here. 18% of the homes within reach homes um have been sold. So only 13 out of approximately 70 uh homes have been actually had a sale. There were two homes of those 13 that actually sold twice during the period. So if you think about when we started it, which was uh 23 years ago, that's the kind of activity that you had. The average sale difference for all 15 sales was about 3%. So that was the overall uh increase. And remember, when somebody has a sales increase of 3%, they're also getting the equity over time in terms of paying down their mortgage. They're consuming that as well. So, um half the half the sales were positive and um they had about 14% increase in the sales price, whereas the other half did not see an increase and they actually saw a decrease about 10%. So between the two is how you get to the 3%. Now ask the next question I kind of why would that be? Why are people losing value? Well, a lot of it has to do with sometimes the condition of the property. Um it happens if you look at some of the sales they were during the downturn of the economy in 2008 2009. So think of the length of time these numbers are coming from. We did see huge uh reductions in values during those difficult years of the recession. So, um, don't take too much into those values because, uh, a lot of the data was from those years where we had some challenges. Um, and then just, uh, if you forget all of this and you want to remind yourself, it is on the storyboard. There's a whole section on homes within reach that dates back to 2020 and it and it documents each of your conversations about it as well as the EDAC or any other entity of the city. So, and then one other thing you asked for is conducting an owner survey, which we will do before next year. So, this is the housing kind of matrix and hopefully uh you know what it says in terms of spending and I think we've talked through most of this. Um I think the only other thing I'll mention on this side is the eviction protections. We're talking about that later in October, so you'll probably start to see some of that work. Um and then also at your council meeting you'll talk about the comprehensive plan in October. So in terms of business uh this is the business slide the overview slide and just a few highlights in terms of what's happening in business. Uh continuing that strengthening of storytelling for Thrive uh is definitely a high priority. We also are working on uh partnering with our economic development organizations, you know, various organizations that do that type of work as well as drafting your new business subsidy policy. So, that's a big thing that we're ready in case there's a need for any subsidy from the city when there's a project that approaches us. And of course, you've seen some of the mines uh program financing that you've had a couple of transactions the last couple of months. and then working on a story map too to complement the housing. But on the business side and transit, I feel like you've had a lot of updates about that. Just for a highlight for the public is that there are uh efforts in the commuter services arena where we have commuter support and commuter transit advisory services. And then also, you know, that we have a contract with Metro Transit that runs yearly to talk about service in the city. Um, I don't these are all things again that you've heard and the Metro Green Line opening as the mayor referred to before. So, we'll have a date for the date and uh hopefully we'll know when that opening day is next year. And then in terms of development and redevelopment, this is kind of where we keep track of all the other agency assistance we get for developments and grants and redevelopment help. [music] And let's see, in summary, really just continuing to administer the existing housing programs with the available fund balances as a priority, exploring that manufactured home concept for some of our city-owned property for affordable options, and then implementing those new initiatives for the transit study, the business survey, and the commercial market analysis. So with that, the EIP does include a 2027 Housing Redevelopment Authority property tax levy to be $225,000. And instead of doing this report later, I'll do it now. 100 of that is for Mitaka Home Enhancement and Minnetonka, Welcome to Minnitanka, which are the home loan programs and the down payment program. [music] And then 125,000 for homes within reach. some of which is used for acquisition and rehab and some of which is used for administration. So with that, mayor and council members, I'll turn it back to you. Uh we're asking for the adoption of the resolution for the AIP. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Wishnack. Um council, any questions about this? Talked about it quite a bit. Council member Kley, nothing. >> Nope. Thank you. >> Yep. Okay. Um without questions and um I don't have I have a card regarding the 2027 budget. The line share that is on item C. I assume that's when this person wants to speak. Um if not, come on up now. Um other >> I was planning on speaking on the next line, but I I do have a question. Well, if you're going to speak, you got to come to the microphone because this is all being recorded. And so, so tell us who you are. And >> Hi, my name is Kristen. Uh, I have a card for later as well. Very exciting. I'm sorry. I didn't understand in the EIP >> direct your questions to the council here. >> Thank you. Uh, in the EIP presentation, was all of was part of that funded by the new proposed tax levy for 2027? Okay, we'll talk about that and we'll um address that in our comments. And in fact, we can have staff address that for us. Thank you. And Miss Wishnack, that do you want to address that question? >> Yes. Thank you, mayor and council members. Uh that actually reduces the levy from last year from 300 to 225. So that is a reduction. Excellent. Thank you. All right, council. Any comments about this? Otherwise, our goal, our task here tonight is to approve the 2027 EIP or adopt the resolution approving the 2027 through 2031 EIP. Council member Calvert. Thank you, Mayor. I move uh to adopt the resolution approving the 2027 2031 EIP and council member Foster Bolton. >> I'll second. I have a motion by council member Calvert, a second by council member Foster Bolton. Miss Tingley, please call roll. >> Calvert, >> yes. >> Raley, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Miss Wishnack. All right, we're moving on to um item 14B, which is which is a resolution adopting the 2027 through 2031 capital improvement program. That is the CIP. And uh Mr. Nelson, you've got this one. >> Thank you, mayor, council members. Um, similar to the EIP, the capital improvements program, the CIP, uh, is another document that we use for our long-term planning related to our capital projects and equipment throughout throughout the city. On on that end of it, um, the staff recommendation is obviously to a motion to adopt the the resol or the resolution adopting the 2027 to 202031 CIP. Um in regards to our strategic plan relatability, obviously the um bulk of our projects are are capital related. So infrastructure and asset management are a big part of our of this document and uh feed directly into the strategic plan related to the infrastructure and asset management. But also we have a lot of sustainability and natural environment related projects as well too which is also part of our strategic plan. Um so we we denote those projects in the CIP document with um special indicators um up in the corners of each of those pages. But we have a number of pages that have uh both sustainability and natural environment um uh uh uh dollars dedicated to those those pro projects. So the capital improvement program is a the city's 5-year plan to provide and maintain the public facilities for citizens and businesses of Minnitonka balanced against the constraint of available resources. Reinvestment and replacement, maintenance and increased efficiency of existing of exist existing systems will have priority over expansion of of existing systems or provision of new facilities and services. So we rank every one of our projects with a priority. So we rank them one through three. Um the projects ranked with the number one are projects necessary for public health and safety or to meet legal mandates. Um number two are projects with that help maintain and make existing systems more efficient. Cost benefits and coordination with related projects will will also be considered. A lot of times we work with other entities that we are able to um improve a project given um other funding sources that are in conjunction with a certain project. And number three related um projects are expanding existing systems. And so those are our least priority ones, but we often um take a look at those as well too and and they maybe make the the current CIP as well too. So So a little bit of background on our CIP. Um it's a multi-year program that allows the city to plan for its current and long-term needs. Project areas include buildings, parks and trails, equipment, technology, streets, storm drainage, and water and sewer utilities. Our CIP is not a budget. Um once the CIP is adopted, uh the 2027 projects will be moved into the 2027 budget uh for final approval in December. So all those other projects in 2028 through 202031 are really just planning projects at this point in time and they will be adopted in future um budgets along the way. And obviously our CIP is integral piece of our strategic plan. Um there are millions of dollars going through our CIP and making sure that those align with our strategic plan is crucial along that end of it. And the council did review our CIP back on the June 15th study session as well. So you have seen this document since that time. Uh there has not been a lot of changes since that that point in time. We did add uh two projects and one is for the community center renovation. So the council adopted uh that project back in the end of July. and we moved forward with the renovations for the community center. And so we moved that project um into the 2026 basically CIP process uh rather than the 2027, we needed that for bidding purposes to make sure that that project gets under gets done during the time frame needed. And then we added um a park project for Big Willow Field Lighting. And this is really related to um adding it um lighting to baseball fields at Big Willow Park. The city will work with the big Minnitonka Big Willow Baseball Association on a Henipin County grant um for funding to add lights to that. So, it's about $150,000 to add lighting to those fields. We'll be working with Henipin County to get funding for that and then the uh baseball association will pick up the remaining piece of that. So, there's no out of pocket cost for the city. We're just kind of the conduit to to get additional assets added to those baseball fields. And as we talked about earlier, en environmental sustainability and stewardship efforts are a big piece of the CIP. Um sustainability is is not only a guiding principle, but it's part of the strategic priorities. Um over the years, many CIP projects have had sustainability focus as we mentioned or provided positive environmental improvements and the proposed CIP continues with that strong initiative as well. So as I mentioned, there are symbols added to the various project pages that include both sustainability and stewardship pieces of that. So, what does a CIP fund? So, if we look at um 2027 through 2031, it funds over $213 million dollars worth of projects over that 5year time frame. This is a fairly large increase from last year's CIP. So, we're looking at about almost $50 million increase from last year. A lot of that is uh moving uh prior year or projects related to facility improvements, recreational facility improvements that were pending projects in previous years. we've now moved those to active projects. That doesn't mean that there's necessarily funding there for them. The community center we have dedicated funding for. Um but for the Marsh and Wilson Center, we don't necessarily have active funding there. We just move these projects into an active status versus uh a to be determined or a pending a pending status at that point in time. So that's really um really what the difference is between those two years of CIPs. Those projects were in last year's CIP as as well, but they were pending and so they didn't necessarily count towards the total um active projects being displayed on this table here. Then the breakdown of our CIP um we have obviously different types of projects but it also comes out of different funding sources as well. Um as you can see here streets as you would expect our CIP streets which is street improvement fund is 28% but also we have municipal state aid street improvements which is also kind of related to the street side of things. It's another funding source that comes from the state of Minnesota. It's not necessarily tax dollars. It's state aid um that comes from the state through gas tax dollars on that end of it. Um between the street improvements, water and sewer utilities are a big piece of that as well too. Whenever we go and do big reconstruction projects, water and sewer is addressed, storm water is addressed, sometimes trails are addressed, underground burials all addressed on on some of those as well too. So those are big pieces of our CIP on an annual basis. Then if we look at the recreational facilities that there again that's a bigger piece of the pie really related to bringing those um three projects into an active status versus a pending status. And the CIP also accounts for a major capital equipment as well too. So all the the snow plows, the police cars, all those types of items are obviously within our CIP as well. So if you look at the funding for our CIP over the last um number of years, it's been pretty flat on that end of it. we have been able to utilize some of our reserves within our general fund. Um, if we've had a surplus from year to year, we've been able to use some of those surpluses um and and transfer those over to the CIP related funds to help us kind of maintain a a fairly stagnant or flat levy across the CIP. on that end of it. We are looking at for 2027 to increase the property tax levy about $500,000 to just under $10 million, which um if you look back is about the same levy amount as it was back in 2025. We reduced the levy last year for 26 by about 500,000 and now we need to inc um increase it back up um to that same level as 2025 on that end of it. And it does increase in the out years. And we um um it's typically looks like that, but we always look at it from a year-to-year basis and make sure that um if we do have reserves to transfer over that we utilize those as well, too. Um but we do need to u continue putting dollars into our CIP as as things begin or continue to increase in cost. So, as we look at our other funding sources, so we look at um just the total breadth of what our CIP is. And we're uh we have about I think we have about $65 million in projects just for 2027. And so we're levying about just under $10 million. So we really leverage our tax dollars when we look at our CIP pieces of that. Um so obviously we have different there's user fees there as well too. So, water and sewer um user fees that residents pay. Those go towards water and sewer projects on that end of it. But we also utilize partners along the way as well too. We have um a prime example of this is a Hopkins Crossroad Trail that we did a couple years ago. That was a $5.4 million trail that we put in and we have state and federal funding for $4.1 million of that of that project. Um that outside funding really helped us to accelerate future trail expansion. So helping us build a trail along Manka Boulevard here or Excelsier Boulevard coming up. Um it really helped us be able to advance those trail projects on that end of it. So we really leverage outside dollars as best we can um across all the different avenues. Um we have every department we've seen um usually give a a grant update on our grants and we really have been active the last couple years and trying to receive as many grants outside funding as we can on that end of it. So, so then there are in our CIP about 117 projects. So, we won't go through all of them tonight, but we'll go through a couple of them. Um, there are a couple major ones coming up in the next um next year or two on that end of it. Uh, we've talked about the council's talked about the Kinsel neighborhood. That local street rehab project is coming up um kind of starting behind the scenes now and we'll be beginning next year on on that end of it. That's about a $13 million project. And there are no special assessments with any of our um street improvement projects. So when we go in and do a street reconstruction project, we upgrade the water and sewer utilities. Those are paid for by user fees. And so we have our rates that pay for th those improvements related to water and sewer. Storm water that is paid by the storm water fees. And then um our property tax levy piece for some of the rec street reconstruction pieces of that as well. Then if we look at the Excelsier Boulevard piece, um that is a major um project coming down the pipe here as well too. All the way from um County Road 101 all the way over to Willist Willist and that's about a 52.5 million project and the county is a big key um contributor to that project as well too. So we are doing um we're adding trails on both trails to that um road and there's a lot of uh storm water along with water and sewer utilities that need to be done as well too. um underground burial is a big piece of that as well too. So that's a big big project that we couldn't do without the county's um assistance on that end of it. Another project is a call nature preserve and trails and so this um project was added this summer. Uh we're looking to um do some improvements on a phased approach on that one on that project over the next 5 years. So, we're looking to install a gravel parking lot, signage, and wayfinding along with earn and limestone trails this next year um for about $345,000. And that total project is about $856,000. And then finally, we have our water meter replacement program, which um a lot of residents have probably had our contractors in replacing their water meters. This was a multi-million dollar about a $12 million project, I believe, over um now four years, or initially we projected it to be six years. Um but that is replacing all the water meters throughout the city on both residential and commercial industrial properties on that end of it. So that's a big endeavor that we're currently undertaking and hoping to wrap up in the next year. So with that, um I'd be open to pass back to the mayor and we'll look for a motion to adopt the CIP. >> Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Council, any questions on this? Council member Romeley. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I'm not sure if it can be answered this evening. Um I just saw this after my conversation uh this morning with Mr. Funk, but I noticed on page 192 um the Cullen um kind of plan and uh proposed budget. And um we had I thought we had discussed during the study session the possibility of doing a backto-front plan instead of doing the gravel parking lot. This is getting into the minutia and I don't really want to get into the weeds here. What I would like is to you know kind of flag this and because there had been discussion about um not doing a public parking lot before we had you know wayfinding and certain areas of conservation done. So, I I don't know if that was, you know, just maybe not buttoned down yet, but I I did want to kind of flag that and make sure that um we circle back to that. I don't think that needs to stop what we do here, but um just wanted to ask that question. >> Uh thank you, Council Member Romey. Mr. Funk or Mr. Manchester, do you want to address that? >> Yeah, excuse [clears throat] me. Thank you, mayor. Uh Council Member Romey, fair, very fair question. Uh so in the as Mr. Nelson just outlined. Uh so in the CIP uh for year 1 of the CIP, which is 2027, uh there's 345,000 identified for funding. And so I think as that project gets closer, uh our staff is working closely with the Friends of Mitanka Parks. And so if there's a different strategy, if there's a different approach that needs to be taken, I think we'd want to identify that. Uh primarily for tonight, you you are identifying 345,000 being earmarked for that project. So that's significant. Uh I should also I think Mr. Nelson mentioned this but then for the rest of the four years those are those are projected costs and those are all subject to change and we come back here every year and identify then 2028's primary CIP items but for 2027 yes we're identifying 345,000 that that does allow us flexibility so that's not cemented in per se and so we have ability to to be flexible on that end of it and then if Mr. Manchester has anything to add welcome his comments as well. >> No I think Mr. funk covered it and we're flexible certainly. We'll work with everybody as we get moving forward, but the dollar amount is important tonight to get started. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for answering that question. >> Uh council, any other questions? Okay, not seeing any. I know we have I don't believe we have any public comments on this. Um bring it to the council for any comment or a motion to approve the CIP. Council member Calvert. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make a couple of comments and I'll be happy to move the make the motion. Um, we spend a lot of money in our city and sometimes people wonder why. And I I'm hoping that the people that are watching and reading the the materials have paid attention to some of the um figures um that have been quoted and shown on the screen because for instance the Excelsier Boulevard project is $52 million and we are not paying all of that. Um and uh Mr. Uh Nelson did mention um how aggressively our staff has been writing um grant proposals and we have been extremely successful um especially as regards trail projects and some of our o other capital improvement and frankly um you know other o in other areas of our staffing even we've written some um very successful grant proposals that will allow us to, you know, hire certain kinds of staff. So, I just want to I wanted to thank staff for um aggressively going after money to help keep our um capital improvement um costs down to the taxpayer here in Minnetonka. and um all of the hard work that went into um really keeping our capital improvement um program uh very steady and without any sharp increases. So um I think Mr. Manchester does a wonderful job with his staff and um so I just wanted to um point some of those things out. Um, and with that, I make the motion to adopt the 2027 2031 capital improvements program. Thank you, Council Member Calbert. Council member Maxwell, I'll second the motion, Mayor. >> Great. I have a motion by Council Member Calvert, a second by Council Member Maxwell. I'm going to make a quick comment and just remind folks on all three of these budget related agenda items, and we spend really budget is year a year round process. So, we've seen many of these things. Well, we've been talking about it all year, but seen them in this forum. Now, this is our second or third time. And so, while it seems like we don't have a lot of questions or comments about it, we have flushed through a lot of this um by rolling up our sleeves and working with staff to make sure that our priorities are aligned with what we see here on these documents tonight. So with that, um, as I mentioned, a motion by council member Calbert, a second by council member Maxwell, Miss Tangley, please call roll. >> Calbert, >> yes. >> Raley, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. >> Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Moving on to 14 C, which is items related to setting the 2026 preliminary tax levies and the 2020, excuse setting we got a little typo on our agenda items relating to setting the 2027 preliminary tax levies and the 2027 preliminary budget. And I believe Mr. Funk's going to start with this. >> Yes, I am. Thank you, Mayor. Again, good evening, council, and to anyone that's here uh listening to our budget presentation or watching live online or perhaps we'll watch it later on a recorded session. So, as noted by the mayor, we do have a series of recommended actions for you at the end of tonight's presentation. Uh, the mayor referenced those, so I won't reread those here on the screen. So, if we could then proceed. Oh, if you want to back up just one second. I should just note the other item uh is a resolution that sets the preliminary 2026 tax levy collectible in 27 for the Basset Creek. I'm sorry, that should say, we've had a couple typos. 2027 tax levy 20 that is correct 2026 tax levy collectible 27 for the Basset Creek wershed management directory a lot of different dates that we use uh and timing on those. So with that if we could proceed to the next screen um as I'm kicking off here this evening again just kind of a what just already been noted by the mayor and myself. So we do have those staff recommended action items for you after tonight's presentation. So then if we can move on. U Mr. Nelson talked about strategic plan relatability in his presentation and I do want to just spend a minute just highlighting for again council I know we've been through this as you've already noted but for again for those that aren't as familiar with our budget process just how important our strategic plan is to the work that we do in setting our tax levy and our budget including our economic improvement plan and our capital improvement plan. Uh the city of Minnitonka, as you know, has a 20, it's called our 2025 through 2027 strategic plan. And back in 2024, the council spent considerable time framing up the priorities that are really important to you as a city and to us as staff, giving us guidance on really trying to achieve outcomes uh for the future success of Minnitonka. And so our strategic plan is important. We often see that uh play out in our staff reports. We as staff often point to decisions that you are making as a council and how it relates to the priorities set by the council. So I've set that stage because just the relevance of our strategic plan and how our budget is really framed up in making sure that we align our budget, our tax levy with the priorities that are important to the council in our six again strategic priorities. And if people want to, we're not going to dive deep into those here this evening, but if anyone has more interest in our strategic plan, that is found on our website. uh we have a very active presence on our strategic plan where we list our our six strategic priorities and all the related outcomes, action steps and metrics. It's such an important document and again encourage anyone to uh visit our website and learn more about those priorities. Next slide, please. And I' I've already kind of touched on this, but approving the preliminary budgets is that is such an important step as the mayor noted, and I have a slide coming up that really illustrates the amount of time that the council spends with staff throughout our our budget cycle year on the budget. It is really an important document. Obviously, as stewards of the taxpayers's money that we want to make sure as staff are working closely in alignment with our council to make sure that we're demonstrating that fiscal responsibility and prudency in meeting the needs of our community. Uh again, as the mayor mentioned and as I just also mentioned that it is a long uh process and it part of that process is illustrated here on this slide. This highlights all the different touch points that the city staff and council have throughout the budget. Um and our calendar year uh our budget year and calendar year are one and the same. And so it did start back in April. Uh and I won't read through all the different activities on this slide. Everyone can read that. It really starts in April and every month in our budget sessions we do tackle the budget. For uh reading this slide, you'll see notice some of the darker green X's that really kind of highlights where those major touch points are on different with all of our different funds within the city because across the top of this we have what we call five significant funds in the city which are the special revenue funds, our general fund, debt service funds, our capital project fund which Mr. Nelson just spoke of. And then our enterprise funds, that enterprise funds, you'll notice there's not a a green box on that here this evening because that's coming back to the council in November 16th at that study session where we'll look at our enterprise funds because with our city budget, it's complex. Uh we have uh roughly 40 different funds and we we package those differently. And so hopefully tonight everyone will have a better sense of how those funds look and how they get pulled together. But after tonight, the budget is not done. As I noted, November 16th is the next time we'll be talking about the budget. And then on December 7th, that is the official uh that is a regular council meeting, but we call it the public meeting in which there is public comments uh at that meeting because that is the final budget and levy adoption. We do have December 21st pencileled in as an alternate date. um whether that be weather related uh or if something um comes up during on December 7th where the council needs additional time to evaluate or study any parts of the budget, you do have an opportunity to come back on then December 21st. So the budget uh often times uh we might get asked well what's the city's budget and I just mentioned there's numerous funds throughout the city. This this slide illustrates all the different funds uh within the city and I mentioned about 40 of them. They're they're packaged I say packaged or in bundleized into what you see on this screen. I'll first speak to the left hand side of the screen. Uh the middle circle is blue highlighted that is called governmental funds and those are the funds that are supported by property taxes. So that's an overarching umbrella is our governmental funds. Within our governmental funds, there's four major categories. I'll quickly go around the outside of that. Starting with special revenue. That's where our cable TV fund lives. Ice Arena, the Marsh affordable housing trust fund, our electric franchise, HRA. There's others involved in that, but it gives you a sense of our special revenue accounts. We then have moving around clockwise, our capital project fund. That's the U projects that Mr. Nelson just spoke of in our CIP. We also then have debt service. That's any debt that the city has, and that uh relates to principal and interest payments on any outstanding debt uh for the city. and then our general fund. And that's where we're going to spend the bulk of our time the rest of this evening is really talking about our general fund. That's where all of our operations live. So we have eight departments in the city and all of our operations from policing to snow plowing, fire services, community development all live within that general fund. And then the on the right hand side of that is our enterprise funds. And our enterprise funds, as I mentioned, will be discussed on November 16th. Those are funds that are not taxup supported. And so they're basically supported by user fees which would be our water and sewer accounts, our storm water, environmental funds, our recycling funds, the Williston Center, uh, and Grace Bay. So those are the funds that again are independent of property taxes. Then on the very h right hand side of that, this really kind of illustrates a further breakdown of of really where does most of the tax dollars allocated and 81% in that dark blue is related to the general fund. That's where we do spend the most of our time and where a bulk of my time and Mr. Nelson's time will be here this evening. So again, I mentioned strategic plan uh and Mr. Nelson is our uh our guidepost when it comes to our financial strength and our our financial pillar within the strategic plan. This slide I'm going to quickly turn over to Mr. Nelson. He's going to pass it back to me for a few more slides and we'll be tag team taming it then back to Mr. Nelson after that. So Mr. Nelson, if you want to just talk briefly on the strategic plan piece of this. >> Sounds good. So, we relate to our strategic priorities or our plan. Financial strength is obviously a big piece of that. And so, not only do we have we have some desired outcomes within that strategic priority, but we have some action steps as well too. So, the first um uh desired outcome is to improve alignment between service expenditures and identified priorities. And so over the course of the last um almost year or so we've been looking at implementing priority based budgeting within the city. And so that's kind of a new term. Um we've been kind of doing it haphazardly I would say over the course of time with the city. We have done that with things that are currently in our um highest priority. So over the last couple years we've been looking at the public safety master plan. That's a program basically on that end of it. But what we're really trying to do now is identify all the programs that have been established throughout the years across the city on on that end of it. So this is really a strategic approach that kind of allocates our resources across all of our various programs um just to determine their effectiveness effectiveness and how it relates to our strategic uh plan in achieving community goals and objectives on that end of it. Um the next desired outcome is to expand sources of revenue for capital improvement projects. And so we talked about that with the CIP is really looking at grants and other financing sources um including potentially a sales tax down the road as well too by really leveraging um outside funding um sources as well as best we can um in order to help maintain a stable and tax levy across across the board. And then it all u rolls up into the the last desired outcome which is high level creditworthiness. The city has a AAA bond rating. We've had it for for many many years. It helps us when borrow when we need to borrow funds. We get really low interest rates. Um we want to maintain that AAA bond rating as best we can as well too. And that's why we um focus on long-term planning and financial um stability on that end of as well too. So um all these leading the budget really leads into that financial strength strategic priority and so I want to make sure that's always at the focus of our attention. >> All right. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Uh before we get into the numbers, uh mayor and council, and we have a number of slides that that dives deeper into the numbers and lots of charts and graphs coming up, but before we do that, just to really talk about, excuse me, community engagement. Uh Minnetonka, as you know, is really at the forefront of engagement and we do spend considerable time making sure residents are aware of our budget and our tax levy. We use number of different communication channels to do that. Uh for example, the Minnitankka memo has featured a number of our budgets. uh throughout the this last uh year. And our Mitaka memo, if you recall, it reaches every household in the city. So there's over 22,000 households uh that do receive the Minnitanka memo. We also use our citywide distribution list. We have over 10,000 residents that subscribe through our email distribution list. So we do send communications through our emails. Then we also then encourage through our social media channels to use Minnitankka Matters. And that is a a great engagement tool that we use as you know through with a number of projects including the budget. Uh we did have four comments received on the budget. I noted that earlier in tonight's agenda that you approved. Uh so we did have over over 300 folks go to our website looked at our budget. Uh you did see then four people did comment uh on that. Uh then after tonight, just to leap ahead, uh after tonight, uh if you do approve the preliminary tax levy, those numbers are then sent to the county. So the county receives the resolutions that are approved by the city. They prepare then those truth and taxation notices and those are then mailed out to all households uh beginning about mid November. That then leads us into that December 7th opportunity that I spoke of uh where the city will discuss uh and approve the final levy and budget in December. Next slide, please. This gives you again a a quick snapshot of what some of that communication looks like. Again, we use our different media channels. Uh the one on the on the left hand side is our Facebook page. Uh on the other side is excerpt from our Minnotonka Matters website. So again, gives you uh a sense of just the type of communications that our communications team puts out throughout the entire year as we educate and inform residents regarding the budget. Now, um setting the stage, uh now we're start getting into some of the deeper numbers. Uh while this is titled the 2027 levy analysis, this is what I think Darren and I would, Mr. Nelson and I would describe as our budget driver. So, I'll spend just a few minutes uh on this slide because this is really getting to uh our 2027 preliminary tax levy that we've been discussing for the last several months or actually since dating back to um April when directors first came to you. So, I'll first speak on the upper half or the upper quarter of this uh slide. Uh first it notes city property taxes, current services, and what that line item really captures is the ongoing operations. Everything from the littlest things of buying paper uh up to other items such as paying for our own utility costs and all of our operations to support the city. Uh so we're looking at increasing that general operations by8%. uh we look at then staffing and with our staffing and I have a slide I think it's the next slide that shows staffing is the largest component of the city's operations nearly 80% of our budget is related to personnel so as as such then our largest expenditure tends to be staffing with our market adjustments our union contract obligations that is 1.535 million or 2.6%. health insurance uh as noted in a previous study session that was estimated to be at 24%. Uh we I think as noted staff uh did go out for bids on that. So Miss Domen and the HR team went out for bids. We had favorable bids uh at around 12%. So while 12% is still double digits, um we're excited that uh where we were 2 months ago at 24% is now at 12%. And so that's reflective in here. Um and so we're happy to present to you um at the very bottom of this I'll it's a couple ten lower than we talked about a couple months ago. Again largely a result of favorable insurance uh bidding. So health insurance at 275,000 that's at.5%. Uh as noted also we had some good news in that our workers compensation premiums have decreased by 296,000. So that is saving us.5% on our levy. So in total uh that is 3.4% and that 3.4% I would identify as our continuity of operations. So this really sustains the operations and the service that we provide at today's level. So again that goes back to all of our snowplowing efforts, our police efforts, fire department efforts, all the work of the city really kind of falls into that continuity of operations at 3.4%. Then I'll spend some time just going through the other other budget drivers. Uh, one is a $50,000 increase for operations at the ice arena and the marsh. That is a.1%. The capital improvement program that Mr. Nelson uh just spoke of, this is a increase of 500,000 to support that activity in the CIP, that equals8%. And then with our public safety master plan investments in our public safety master plan implementation, that is roughly 974,000 or 1.6%. And then finally with facility improvements, this is the second year that we've made investments and this complements last year's decision to invest roughly 405,000. This is year two of that 405,000 or 7% that helps support the community center renovations and potential renovations to our other facilities. So that's been an ongoing conversation and will continue to be. So in total uh a levy increase of 6.6% 6% and then also action that will be taken later uh with the EDA is then an HA levy and as Miss Wishnack noted here a little bit ago the HR levy will be decreasing by 75,000 and that has a levy uh savings as well. So in total a city projected levy increase for 2027 of 6.4%. Okay, next slide please. So, further diving into those numbers, again, this is 26 numbers. So, it just kind of gives you a sense of where we are in 2026. This will get updated as we get closer to December and we get the final numbers. Uh, they won't change a whole lot percentage-wise because our budget is pretty reflective in 27 as it will be in 26. Uh, with the revenue side of it, again, property taxes really makes up about 78% of the city's revenues. The city does receive revenues from other sources and council, as noted also by Mr. Nelson, we've been really trying to pull in other revenues through grants and making a really conscious effort to find other revenue streams outside of property taxes. Breaking down then our expenditures by program, that's that middle pie chart. Uh public safety is the largest piece at around 46% and that is very consistent from city to city. Public safety in any city tends to consume the largest portion of any city budget. Police and fire and the personnel supporting that um is reflective there. And then usually what you see is streets and utilities usually behind that. And then as I noted here just a few minutes ago, expenditures by category, that very righthand pie chart. About 78% of our expenditures do go for personnel. Next slide, please. This is a 10-year look back at our overall levy history. Uh first, I'll start with the blue on the bottom. So it is colorcoded. Uh so the the blue on the bottom represents the capital improvement program. As I noted in a previous slide, for 2027, looking to increase the CIP by about 500,000. In 2026, that number is 9,363,400. So adding 500 to that uh gets us around that 9.8 million for 2027, which is consistent with where we were in 2025 and in 2024. And if you go back even in our 10-year history, we had higher years where we were spending more on capital. That's reflective in 2018 and 2019 when we're closer. We're over $10 million in our capital improvement investment. So, we've really tried to as a city be very diligent about our CIP planning to make sure that we don't have real big ups and downs in our capital equipment purchases and that's the effort of our staff and want to recognize Darren Nelson and our team for really working through our CIP because there's a lot of moving parts within our CIP with all the projects that have been noted and the part that we've seen growth in is in our operations which is that orange part. Um so our operations have grown over the last number of years really attributable to the investments we've made in our public safety master plan where we've added police and fire personnel that is attributed to then the increase in those operations aside from the inflationary factors um from any given year. The gray bar on the top that represents the debt and so as a city and I know council you know this as you hear from our auditors we have very low debt in the city. Uh something we can be proud of. Uh so that's that really kind of gray bar bar in the top that reflects our principal and interest payments on outstanding debt. And as of now I think Mr. Nelson for we have one outstanding debt issuance and that was related to the new public safety facilities with our police and fire back in 2020. We also then as a city in part of our due diligence u credit to Mr. Nelson and the work that he does in forecasting. So we do go through modeling and really taking a look at not only just one year's levy, but we look five years out. So we do these projections to really kind of see the trends that we're on. We do make assumptions in this in terms of staffing levels. We do people planning. Uh we also look at our expenditures and really try to again make sure we flatten out the best we can any types of levy increases. We don't want to have big ups. We don't also want to have big downs. So really trying to make sure that we're prudent in our our approach to budgeting. What you see circled there is those five, six years that we have made investments in the public safety master plan and it has been higher levy increases the last number of years. We know that and that's just been based on the investments we've made towards moving towards a full-time fire department, making sure we're streamlining and preparing our police department for the future. So really making those investments in public safety are reflective in these numbers as we look again kind of out into 2028 uh around that 7.12%. But again, we hope that's just a reflect that's just an estimate at this time. And of course, we always try to look to pull that number down. Once we get through the investments in our public safety master plan, we're seeing um future years at lower projected lower levy increases. Next slide, please. And at this point, I'll turn over to Mr. Nelson and he'll take us really through the rest of the program. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Funk. Um so this slide the council, you have seen this one before, but um for our for our audience on this end of it, this is the last 20 years of levy increases for our comparable cities. Um each color represents a year. And so really with Minnetonka, what we've done historically is try to and as Mr. Funk just mentioned trying to keep our levy as stable as possible where we don't have those big ups and downs on on attacks here and trying to keep our levy very prudent and fiscally responsible on that end of it. Um and as you can see by this this chart um we are about right in that uh right about in the middle actually we're right we are in the middle um of where these levies have been over the last 20 years. Um and Minnetonka's aggregate tax increases just slightly below the average as well too over the 20-year time frame. Um but really our our levies we what we try to do from year to year is make them as stable as we can and not necessarily have big flu fluctuations from one year to the next on on that end of it. So we also we also take in consideration our community survey each year and so we look at that um as it relates to both our strategic plan and for items that are um coming to the the public's attention as well too and making sure that um we're addressing their needs as well too. And so um we like to highlight a few questions um throughout that um survey that are related to the budget. Um so when you consider your property taxes and the quality services you pay and this is a question we've been asking for u many years on that end of it. Um what is the value of that service? And so um about 13% say excellent and 68% say good. We track that from year to year. Um and and 13% said only fair. And so that number has dropped a little bit. Um the only fair has increased a little bit. I think it was um I think it was 8% last year. Now it's 13%. So we're seeing a little bit of an increase on that end of it. Um which seems normal when we've had the little bit higher levy increases um with the public safety master plan implementation on on that end of it and such. So it's something we're cognitive of and definitely aware of on that end of it and such. Um and then we would have the question 29 there is how would how would you favor or oppose an increase in your city tax t property taxes to maintain services at the current level and so that's one again that we've asked for a number of years um and 80% favor and 18% oppose that one. Um and we have kind of graphed that out over the years as well too just to kind of see where that is trending and um we can see that obviously back in 2011 2012 when there was different economic times on that end of it was much lower um but it's been relatively stable at the at the current percentages for the last number of years on that end of it. So what's in the budget and what does it represent? Um as Mr. Frank mentioned the public safety master plan is in its uh fifth fourth year of a 5 to six year plan on on that end of it. So in this fourth year, the fire department is requesting six firefighters with a projected hire date of April 1st. Um that has about a a cost of about $837,000 for wages and gear. And our last hiring for firefighters was in mid 2025. Um we hired I think I believe it was six or nine at that point in time. I think it was six at that point in time. um fire chief wanted to see how that implementation went. Um kind of took a little bit of a breather on that end of it and now we're moving forward with hiring um six more or requesting six more for 2027. Public safety master plan calls for a total of 20 24 firefighters um to meet that need. Um we've hired 12 to date and obviously 27 would be six more and then we do have built into that those projections six more and 28 as well. Um, we have applied and we have applied in previous years for a safer grant, which is a federal grant to hire firefighters and and kind of bring them on quicker and and pay for their um salary and benefits over a three-year period of of that end time frame. We haven't been successful in previous years. We've applied again this year. We've had a little bit of interest from the feds on questions coming back to us. So, that um is hopefully a good indicator. I can't promise anything on that end of it, but if we were to be awarded a safer grant this year, I think we would go ahead and request to hire the rem the full 12 firefighters because that um grant would then pay for um the additional cost of those firefighters and would not be any additional cost out of pocket for us and then help us um into funding those over the next three years or so on on that end of it. But more to come on that we should know that by our November study session at that point in time. though. All right. So, continuing with the public safety master plan, the police department completed its hiring of personnel outlined in the plan um last year or 2026. Um but the plan also called for enhancements to the department's record management system and that system did go live this past spring and that is financed through a 10-year lease um through Axon that began in 2025. uh police department did apply for and was awarded uh nearly a $1 million congressional directed spending grant uh for the conversion and installation of this record management system. And so uh we haven't received those dollars yet, but we've been notified that we've been awarded those dollars and we'll be applying those dollars towards the implementation or the um installation cost of that record management system, which will help us um lessen those lease payments in 20 26, 27, and 28. uh the lease had little escalator clauses those three years to pay for that installation piece of that. So this a million dollars in grants will help offset those costs and help u reduce this year and future levies on that end of it. Um related to personnel as Mr. Funk mentioned um about 80% of the general fund is made up of personnel. So it's obviously a big part of our budget. Um this 2027 will be the fourth and final year of our non-un class and compensation study. So, we started that implementation a couple years ago to get every non-unit employee into a grade and step classification to help us with our compliance. Um, the budget is built with a cost or 3% cost of living adjustment and then a 0 to 2% market value adjustment based on bargaining unit and non-union wage uh scales on that end of it. Uh, the impact to the general fund is about 1.5 million and as I mentioned the uh personnel is about 80% of the general fund expenditure budget there and it's also as Mr. Funk mentioned the health insurance piece that we talked about at our a August study session um which was a big driver now is a is now just a a driver of the budget. Um was reduced from 24% down to 12%. And um it's been the city's practice that the employees and the employer share in those increases in health insurance. And so it's a a 50/50 split between um both parties on that. And it's about a $275,000 um um additional increase to the general fund for 27 uh workers comp. Uh Mr. Funk mentioned that as well too. So it's about a 20% decrease there. Uh decrease to the levy about 296,000. So that's really good news there. Uh we're seeing our city's experience rating dropping along with reduction in claims as well too. That's been um noted not only here but statewide as well too on on that end of it. Uh police department is requesting additional $120,000 for part-time wages to increase the hours of the real-time operation center to better allow with call volume. So, right now they have two full-time um employees that staff that center Monday through Friday during normal business hours. This would help with additional staffing on either end of that with some part-time additional um hours. And then just as a reminder, the council accepted a 2-year uh Department of Public Safety crisis response grant back in July that will provide a full-time behavioral health outreach specialist for the police department. So that grant will cover 100% of wages and benefits related to that position for two years. And then lastly in our um personnel budget and not related to necessarily the general fund, but community development is requesting a sustainability specialist to support the sustainability commission and its current sustainability coordinator. We're excuse me, we're not certain if this is going to be a full or part-time position at this point, but estimated cost for a full-time position with wages and benefits is about 133,000. And we're not proposing this to be within the general fund. We're actually proposing this to be funded through the environmental recycling fund, uh, which will be supported by user fees, which are estimated to be about $2 per quarter per household on that end of it. uh facility improvements. That was another that was that 7% increase to the levy for 27. Um the 2026 budget included the first year of a 2-year plan to increase the levy by $45,000 each year um dedicated to these facility improvements. That total of about $810,000 would be um the equivalent to what the annual debt service would be on about a $10 million bond issuance. And so we've identified the community center um refurbish refurbishment is one piece of that and then likely fire station number two might be another piece of that as well depending upon um additional funding sources that are yet to be determined um in the future on on that end of it as well too. And this is just a recap again of that analysis of the breakdown of the levy increase for 27 with the different u areas of focus on there. And then um we get into a little bit of some comparisons as well too with our comparable cities on where their preliminary tax levy increases are. I showed the council this um chart back in August. We had probably half as many respondents at that point in time. Um, pretty much these are the numbers that are accurate as of earlier today from what I've what I gathered. We're still waiting on one city's um information, but looks like um we're Minnitonka is going to be at we're at 6.6%. So, we're kind of right in that average in that mean um area on that end of it. The average I think Kira is about 6 8% or so on that end of it. And um or maybe that was the median was 6.85% 85% I believe and the average was about 6 point um about 6.4 I believe on on that end of it. So so again we're looking to be right kind of in that middle part of that. But um it should be noted with every city is unique and every city has a story and um there's a reason why cities have leveies of where they're at. And so this is really just truly just to um have a comparison just to to kind of see where we're at. and it necessarily shouldn't be taken with it should be taken with a little bit of a grain of salt and understanding what may or may not be drivers in other cities. So looking at the homeowner impacts, [cough] we have seen a shift over the last couple years with commercial industrial properties um the values of those are have not been increasing as highly as quickly as what single household residential and lakeshore properties have. And so we're seeing a shift in um property tax um capacity shifting from that commercial industrial over to residential. And so um what happens then is that if there's a we're looking at a 64% levy increase, the tax impact for that residential home is looks like it's going to be about 7%. And so what that means is that um some of that tax burden is shifting away from commercial industrial and over towards um residential household um units on on that end of it. Um so you can see for the average home value here of 549,000 um it's going to be about a 7% increase. And so when we ticked down the levy a little bit those couple tents it went from 66 to 64. This number changed from $150 to $143. So it's not significant. It didn't drop significantly, but it's still um a couple dollars here or there. And here you can kind of see that shift a little bit easier as well, too. This is a 10-year time frame of of looking at the tax capacity by class. Here the light blue is a residential. You can see that has increased um from 0.57 to 63 over that 10-year time frame. Whereas the commercial industrial has been reduced from.34 to 0.25. Uh fortunately we've had um apartments that have added to our tax capacity over the last number of years. So that's helping kind of um offset some of that burden of that other shift between the commercial industrial and the residential. And then we have the H le levy that we've talked about as well earlier tonight as well too that is um recommended at $225,000 down from $300,000 in the current year on on that end of it. So, with that, I'll turn it back to the mayor. And um there's our our motion to for the resolutions for tonight. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. uh Nelson and Mr. Funk on a great presentation. Council, any questions on this? Council member Wilbur, >> I'm sure you've answered this for me before, but um as talking about the the CIP and public safety, I know one of the challenges on uh equipment for the fire department, like the the big trucks, is that it can take four to five years to receive a truck once it's ordered. And um so when when that happens when the truck is ordered is is the is it paid in full upfront and goes into that year's budget or what how does that work? >> Mr. Nelson thank you mayor. Thank you council member Wilburn. Council members uh that's a really good question. So we actually ordered back in 2021 um the city received some public safety one-time aid from the state of Minnesota. Um I think it was $2.3 million somewhere in that nature. Um at the time we had three fire engines on our CIP looking to be purchased and we were struggling to figure out where the financing was going to come to pay for those and then this um public safety aid came in kind of last minute on that end of it. So we have set aside those dollars. So what we do is we encumber those funds basically. So we have those funds set aside so when those trucks come in to be um delivered we will pay for them at that point in time but um we have the funds set aside for that specifically and so we make sure that we um kind of keep them separate so they don't get coingled on that end of it. We don't account for things twice or misacounting for something. So um we um encumber those funds um when they are when they are ordered on that end of it especially with these fire trucks when it's four years and we haven't yet to receive those trucks yet either. So, we're hoping here pretty soon. So, >> wow. All right. Uh, council, any other questions? All right, we've got one comment here. Kristen, come on up and tell us what you'd like us to know. [snorts] Hi again. I'm Kristen. I was up here before. You guys know that. Okay. I wrote some stuff up. That was a lot of information. So, thank you very much for going over that. Um, I am here for my third ever city council meeting in my entire existence and I'm here again to raise my voice about the spending of the city. Last year was my first. I came in December and you told me that I was a little bit too late. You had said please come to us earlier when we are in the study session. So, here I am in September. And here I am continuing to be incredibly concerned at the spending in our city for 2027. I understand and again based on what we just heard that half of the proposed increased funds are for ongoing run rate business, right? That's just the basic things of running your business. And that seems very reasonable to continue our operations. The citizen survey if I understand again had 80% satisfaction for a levy to maintain the existing services. However, the other half of the levy that is being proposed is to expand services through about three 3.4% for run rate business and the remaining 3% and change to expand to new initiatives. And I love the city team members going out to identify additional resources outside through grants and federal and county all that. That is awesome and we need to continue doing that. However, it isn't covering up the 3% expansion. That is not making up the difference. Honestly, this is not the time to be expanding. This is not the time to take on new initiatives when your citizens I am struggling with increased fuel costs, grocery costs, and cutting in every aspect of our lives. In fact, several of the initiatives that you've proposed will simply create an ongoing operating run rate issue. For example, additional headcount. They may be covered in a grant today, but in two years they won't be and they will now become part of our run rate budget. But let me speak about me personally. Last year in December, I stood before you and the recommendation from one of our council members was for me to get a second job or to get a higher paying job to live in the city. Well, all right. I went out. I got a second job. I make$,575 at my second job. >> [snorts] >> That doesn't even come close to covering the property increase levy for this next year. So, uh, my main job, what I spend most of my time is actually as a corporate leader, uh, in corporate America. I'm an executive. I still went out and got a second job. And I wish my revenue numbers looked like the graph from the levy projections for the next several years. I mean it is up and to the right. Rather I am sitting in corporate America facing a totally different story. I am facing tariffs, geopolitical conflict, the increase of costs related to AI, the increased cost of benefits. I just did the same thing you all did which is go out to bid for benefits. So every day I am forced to make a trade-off decision in my personal life as well as in my professional life. Let me be clear. I am not asking the council or the city to abandon public safety or basic facility improvements. I know that is part of the running the business. But I am asking for four distinct things. First and foremost, separate the costs of running the town as it is versus expansive initiatives. Second, review the option to use more reserve funds to offset any one-time facility costs. Third, reduce the expansive initiatives. This is not the time to do it. In the last week alone, unled fuel prices went up a quarter, 25 cents in one week. And the fourth is to commit that if a sales tax, which I know has been on the docket several times, if that is approved, the property tax burden is in fact reduced. As an individual, I cannot take on the burden of the commercial tax base decreasing year-over-year. There is no way the citizens can take on commercial tax burden. It is incumbent on the city's economic development team and all of us to increase the economic and commercial base for the city to manage and for the city to manage on a tighter budget. Again, I urge the council to hold on new projects and support the citizens of Minnitonka in affording to remain in their homes and in the city. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. All right, council. Um, it's back to us on this and so I open it up for council comments. Anybody? Council council member Romey. Uh, thank you, mayor. I don't want to go on too much about this, but I did want to acknowledge the comments um from the resident um and and thank you for making them. Um we are all too well aware of the difficulties that are coming um economically caused by primarily things at uh levels of government above the municipal level that are having great impact on our residents economic lives. So um we are all going through that ourselves in our own personal lives. Um I think you know your the comments about you know 3% plus uh being for ongoing you know kind of maintenance of of current services. Um but that the understanding of the need for things like facilities improvements and public safety. Indeed, the bulk of the remaining um levy increase up to that 6.4 were was indeed for public safety master plan and for the facilities um improvement. We don't have big initiatives going on right now. So, I just wanted to make that clear. Um there's not a there is not a lot of fat in that. And in terms of the kind of shifting from the commercial base to the residential that really has to do with the ability, you know, both the economic climate. So we've had as if you're in corporate America, you know that, you know, obviously businesses have downsized in terms of their office footprint and that was a, you know, that's been a pretty big hit um to the city of Minnotonka. And so there's no magic wand to do that. But part of the way that we do attract businesses and economic development in this city is to have amenities like parks and trails and things that make businesses want to relocate. So their employees want to be here and their kids want to go to school here. So that's the conundrum that you know we face is how to continue to make this a really desirable place to live and a good place to live not only for you know the generation right now the current resident population but looking forward to our kids generation and the generations beyond. I'm fifth generation here so I have kind of a long-term view of what I want to see in this community. So everything, you know, if you think of things that are like fluff, I don't think that climate action adaptation is fluff. Um, you know, I kind of think it's essential to the ongoing sustainability of our planet in this community. So, you know, kind of those sorts of things. I guess I would ask us all to think about what what should be cut. Should we cut back? You know, the public safety master plan was started four years ago. Um, you know, we're committed to that. So, we really do need to um continue that. So, I mean, I understand that it's it's it's hard and we are all facing it and nobody likes this at all and it's made all the more difficult by what's going on at levels other levels of government far above this one. But we are dealing with the fallout. Thank you, Council Member Romey. Council Council Member Calvert. Thank you, mayor. Um, you know, I think all of us, I work two jobs. I my day job I work for our capital city, the city of St. Paul that has experienced doubled. I mean, we actually had a commercial property valuation increase 1.4% 4% which is nothing to scream about but it is way better than 13 14 15% or more decreases in commercial property values in the urban core in Minneapolis and St. Paul. So um you know I work in the finance department for our capital city and and it is a tremendous struggle to figure out how to pay for ongoing services you know in our in our state capital. Um, and you know, part of that is, you know, we we do uh invest and I actually want to give a shout out to our community development department because, you know, many of the, you know, we happen to be very fortunate to have um, you know, Fortune 500 companies and very large companies uh, employers, Cargill, United Health, Medicica, you know, in our community. But even they, you know, have vacated some of their large commercial properties and um they were meant for a specific purpose. We've looked at, you know, how to convert them, convert them to housing, even you know, luxury housing and conversion is sometimes cost prohibitive. Um, and so we're all I know that the community development um crew has been putting their creative thinking cap on, but they've done actually um heroic work in my opinion keeping businesses here in Minnetonka. And um as the mayor mentioned um before, you know, for those of you that don't know, it may seem that we don't have a whole lot to say about uh the the uh capital improvement program or the economic improvement program or even the levy. The fact remains as it as the city manager showed on the table, we've been studying the budget and various aspects of the budget since April and we actually continue to study it, you know, throughout the year because everything we do involves our bottom line. Um, and uh, I'm I'm married to a career emergency manager and wildland firefighter, and firefighters are very important in my life. And we just um, celebrated a very solemn anniversary of 9/11 where we saw the deaths of hundreds of firefighters that ran into the emergency. And um what I want to be able to do as a city council member is making sure that our residents have those people to look after them when they need it, not 20 minutes too late. and our our public safety master plan um did point out that because we are a city of culde-sacs and we don't have through streets, no matter how fast our paid on call firefighters could get to the station, the only way that we could improve our response times was by hiring full-time fire staff and keeping my residents alive is kind of like the floor for me. So, for me, investing in full-time fire staff is uh a very um worthwhile investment and hopefully you will never have to use their services, but if you do, I think you'll be very very glad that they're there. Unfortunately, that makes our levies go up. And as the you know we we got the shocking news that health insurance premiums were going to go up 24%. So people keep on writing to us saying you know keep your expenses uh you know uh keep your increase at zero. Well, just like our expenses go up at home, you know, the cost of asphalt goes up and the cost of fuel goes up and the cost of insurance goes up in the city just like it does for individuals. And we can't I mean, we we have demonstrated that we have found places that we've been able to cut. We've been able to negotiate better rates and so on and so forth. So, I again thank the staff and and all of us up here pay the same levy increases that everyone else pays and you know I'm 62 years old. My my years of um you know wage earning are you know coming close to an end. My husband's been retired for some time. My parents live here. They're uh clearly retired and on a fixed income. My sister is a disabled adult living with me. uh and you know we all have uh challenges and I'm very very very sensitive to it because it is indeed difficult um to pay for all that and I I share the frustration at the cost of living increases um um and so one of the things that uh I'm really hopeful for is that the safer grant will um help defay the cost of hiring the full-time fire staff that we need. Um we've already written grants um that were successful um and and are in the process of receiving for um mental health uh social worker professionals that will um help our uh police staff keep our residents healthy and safe. And um I'm very mindful I'm listening to you. Um, I I agree that it's very frustrating, but I also feel like, first of all, this is the preliminary levy. It could go down a little bit. Even since we last spoke, it's gone down 2/10en of a percentage point because our staff worked so hard. And I know they will continue to sharpen their pencils until we vote on the uh final levy in December. And um so you know none of us relish raising the levy on people um and I am very mindful of people on fixed incomes and um we are hoping every year to make sure that um we keep it as low as possible. But I'm I we provide goods and services that do attract businesses. Um, and when you look at some of the other cities that have lower levies, as our former mayor used to say, if you've seen one city, you've seen one city. Every city comes with a different set of variables. Some of the cities with low levies are newer. They don't have the aging infrastructure we do. They haven't started hiring full-time fire staff, even though they want to. And when they do, their levies are going to go up. when they have to fix their water and sewer, their levies are going to go way up. So, um, we've undertaken that hard work and that's why we have a AAA bond rating which keeps our borrowing interest rates really low and that also brings a bang for our buck. So, you get what you pay for. I think we pay for good services and it helps keep our interest rates low. And I'll stop talking now. Anybody else? Council member Kley, you're good. >> Yes, I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Um, I'll just wrap it up briefly with, you know, I this is a preliminary levy. This we cannot go higher. We can go lower. We're always looking to sharpen our pencils. I I'm uncomfortable with raising the levy every year. It's a very difficult decision. It is something we work very hard for. As a business owner, um, I understand the analysis, the difficult decisions that you're making, that our residents are making. The folks that wrote in comments, I really appreciate it. Um, you know, this is not a wish list for us with the levy. We're really working hard to put something forward that can still take care of our residents and provide safe services and make sure we're not letting our infrastructure erode to a point that it's um costing us more to replace or rehabilitate. So, um I'm not satisfied until December when we pass this final levy. We appreciate your comments. I I certainly do. Um and we will we'll keep looking for ways we can be more efficient, find more um resources elsewhere. And you know, for example, we have put off the community center investments that are really needed to sustain the revenue stream that we have and frankly to provide usable uh amenities for our residents such as accessible restrooms. And so we're getting to the end of our useful life on some of these things. As we talk about the next couple months, happy to continue, I think all of us here having conversations with folks about their concerns, their ideas um and we will um keep our our minds open most certainly. So council, what we are doing is we are approving the pre preliminary levy. And I'm just going to repeat this one more time. And this means we're letting our residents know that we may raise the levy up to what staff is proposing. That's that net 6.4% and that we will certify the final levy in December and it while it could certainly be less than the 6.4% it will not be and cannot be any more than that. So, with that, council, I will I'm looking for a motion and the um items that we are approving are listed on the screen. Council member Calvert. Thank you, Mayor. I move approval of the resolution setting a preliminary 2020 uh six tax levy collectible in 2027 and a preliminary 2027 budget and consenting to a special benefit tax levy of the Minnotonka Economic Development Authority and the resolution setting a preliminary 2026 tax levy collectible in 2027 for the Basset Creek WHED management tax district and a second. Council member Maxwell, >> I'll second the motion. Mayor, >> I have a a motion by council member Calbertt, a second by council member Maxwell. Miss Tingley, please call roll. Calbertt, >> yes. For Maitley, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilurn, >> yes. Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Um, all right, council. Thank you. And thanks again to the folks watching at home and in the audience on the input on these budgetary items. The conversation has not ended. All right, we're going to take a short break. We're we'll take 5 minutes. We'll come back here at just before 8:05 to finish up our agenda tonight. I usually dry my hair back in with the windows down. >> All right, council. Let's get back to it here. Okay. Um, we're back and we are on item 14D, the gun violence prevention resolution. And Mr. Nilson has this item. Thank you, mayor, council members. So, um, staff has prepared a proposed resolution for your consideration tonight, and our motion will be to adopt the resolution. So, I'll just, uh, present that at the outset. This, uh, the topic of this discussion really has its origins almost exactly a year ago in September of 2025 after um, the tragic shooting at uh, Annunciation School. And in September, a group or coalition of metro area mayors, including Minnotonka's mayor, uh banded together really with an eye, I think, toward the 2026 legislative session about advocating for certain uh policy based measures at the state legislature. Uh and at the same time, the cities were going to examine what they could do at the local level. And I think it's fair to say that uh in this area what cities confront is that almost all forms of local regulation are preempted by the state and federal government. Um, I know the council is aware of what preeemption is, but for the viewing public, um, in simple terms, preeemption is, uh, a legal principle that holds that a higher level of government can pass a law that either restricts or prohibits lower levels of government from regulating in that area. And by higher and lower, I simply mean sort of this the the notions of the supremacy clause. So what we have here is um the state legislature uh having passed state laws about guns that almost entirely restrict the ability of cities to pass our local laws which are ordinances. Um, so we discussed this as a group. Um, the council discussed this on July 20th at a study session and I'm not going to recap that entire discussion, but I will mention the preeemption because preeemption really drives this discussion at the local level. Um there are several forms of preeemption um uh in the gun area and a lot of times preeemption um can be express or implied. Uh uh in this case the preemp the forms of preemption are expressed. They're very clear. The law says that cities can't uh regulate in a certain way or the state law supersedes the local regulation. So I'll just mention a couple of the stronger ones and it's in the staff report. Um, as you know, Minnesota has a conceal and carry law or permit to carry law, and there are two at least two instances of uh preemptive statements in state law in that uh conceal and carry law. Uh, one of the statements uh sets out the the the state's scheme for uh issuing permits to carry and and regulations regarding the carrying of firearms and how they may be carried. And then it says that no sheriff, police chief, governmental unit which would which would include cities, governmental official, government employee or other person or body acting under color of law or governmental authority may change, modify or supplement these criteria or procedures or limit in any way the exercise of a permit to carry. So it's not just passing uh uh sort of examining whether we could pass a law that would be more restrictive. You can't even in supplement in that area. Um there are additional um preemptive statements in uh Minnesota statute 609 in the criminal uh law realm. The most direct one and the clearest one is in chapter 471. Chapter 471 of state law is a chapter that has just various forms of um municipal powers. Addresses municip powers in kind of a a broad fashion. And Minnesota statute 471.633 633 states, and this is the a very clear form of express preeemption, that the legislature, the state legislature, preempts all authority of a home rule charter city, which Minnetonka is a home rule charter city, to regulate firearms, ammunition, or their respective components to the complete exclusion of any order, ordinance, or regulation by them, except that a city can adopt the same regulations as a state, identical regulations. which a lot of help that is, right? And uh a a city may regulate the discharge of firearms. And then it says any local regulation inconsistent with this section as void. um the cities that were participating in the coalition um have looked at this uh state of the law and um there were uh a small number of cities that have attempted to craft ordinances despite the preeemption. Um St. Paul was the first city to do that and adopt an ordinance. They were quickly sued by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. that lawsuit. I just checked before coming to the meeting today to be sure, but that lawsuit's ongoing. Um the last uh the procedural posture of it is that the city uh filed and argued a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on ripeness grounds and um standing and that was denied by the judge. So the city has appealed that denial of their motion to dismiss to the court of appeals. Um and then Adina also adopted uh an ordinance. I would describe it as um maybe a little bit more focused ordinance than the St. Paul ordinance. Um uh I I I think it's fair to say that they were maybe threatened with a lawsuit that has not as well, but that has not occurred to date. Uh both both and and Minneapolis has not too has adopted an ordinance. All of those ordinances have no current effect. They all say essentially we recognize and acknowledge we're preempted. uh this ordinance, you know, it's it can't be enforced. Um some would say that's sort of a a symbolic ordinance, for lack of a better phrase. Um other cities have adopted resolutions. A resolution is an is a equal form of um municipal official action, which municipal actions take the form of uh resolutions or ordinances. Um and I think the resolution uh path um allows the city or a city to advocate for specific policy positions. It can function as a policy statement to um the state and federal government and um does not carry the same risk of of uh a legal challenge. So without putting words in the council's mouth, uh I think just in recognition of the clear preeemption in this area, the council on July 20th did direct staff to draft a resolution and that is what is back before you today. Um the resolution um and resolutions will will not have the same level of detail as an ordinance and and you know an ordinance ultimately is a law um and so it will have more detail. It's it it again is is a policy a strong policy statement. Um it lays out in the whereas clauses a lot of the background about current gun violence statistics that is direct from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Um and then notes that that the city calls for stronger protections against gun violence and uh urges the state and federal government to enact certain policy based or evidence-based policy recommendations. And so then it lays out some of those um and though a lot of those are um or mirror uh the policy recommendations that other cities have placed either in ordinance or um resol resolution. Uh there there are a few differences. Um for example um in this resolution we do ask that the preeemption of local regulation be lifted. Um, and so that is one thing that you can do in an ordinance that you wouldn't put or in a resol resolution, excuse me, that you wouldn't put in an ordinance. Um but we do include all of uh the other policy recommendations including the storage safe storage recommendations which um other cities have uh prohibitions on the sale of transfer possession and manufacturer of military style assault weapons and highcapacity magazines. Banning ghost guns, 3D printed firearms, bump stocks and conversion devices. Uh and then a strengthening of uh Minnesota's permit to purchase and carry licensing system including um and this would be a um I think a key uh they would go hand inand with lifting the local preeemption including allowing for more placebased prohibitions on guns uh I would say uh in city public facilities and buildings which we currently can't do. Um, so there was also a bill at the legislature this last session that was a League of Minnesota Minnesota City sponsored bill that would have allowed for greater prohibitions in city buildings and that did not pass, but I I anticipate that will be renewed. So with that, um, the proposed resolution is before you and I will stand for any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Council, any questions? >> Council member Calvert. Um I don't think the people here are in a position to answer the questions, but I just want wanted for the public to know that um I spoke with city manager Mike Funk um this morning, this afternoon, this evening and um I had a series of questions in terms of how background checks are conducted currently and um you know to my knowledge if you are purchasing a gun, there are background checks. And if you're purchasing something that resembles a uh what people understand as an assault rifle, um you know, there's a there's a federal background check, which is sent to the local police department and then the police determine the whether uh you get your license or not. So the so uh there are um there are provisions in this resolution um where those things are already in effect certainly in in Minnesota. So I just wanted to let people know that many of us have asked questions um and uh I actually um am going to pursue um you know more detailed answers. the police chief um uh couldn't be here um for good reason and neither could the deputy police chief and they have very good reasons for not being here but I am in conversations with them. Thank you council. Any other questions? Okay, I'm just briefly going to um relay. I did speak with former mayor Wearsome earlier today and I just be I feel compelled to relay because he did kind of kick off this action back at the end of 2025 and felt very strongly about it and he and I spoke before I um took over in this role, him asking me to carry this forward and he was very appreciative of the work being done by staff and the commitment of the C council to continue to have this conversation conversation. So, I felt compelled to squeeze in those comments at some point um before we get too far down this rabbit hole because I think had he certainly had the option, he would have liked to stick around to see this through. So, I wanted to relay that. Um with that, we are going to take public comment on this tonight. And I have one card so far, but I'll be flexible if there are other folks that want to speak. Um I I didn't have the timer going on the budget because we've had not a lot of speakers tonight, but um Mr. Ringhoffer, come on up and just be mindful of somewhere in that 3 minute time limit, please, and tell us what you'd like us to know. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh I'm Kevin Ringhoffer, 2200 Indian Road West in in Minnotonka and uh I'm speaking in favor of adopting the resolution. It looks like a lot of the resolution actually kind of mirrors things that were that were u in state legislation this year and did not pass. And so uh much to this dismay of a lot of gunrevention advocates um and certainly those u advocates who were led by the people from enunciation school as well. So that was uh very disappointing I think in one of in the house I don't even know if it got a vote. Um so so if the state isn't going to take action and there is preeemption in terms of what the cities can do a resolution seems like uh an important thing to do. um because it does make a statement about what the city is looking for. Um and that is important. Um I've worked in the field of prevention and if you look back in the field of prevention, we have a state law now that uh for tobacco use uh you need to be 21 years old rather than 18. But that started by cities taking action. uh in those cases they could do an ordinance but cities started to do the ordinance because they recognized the the harm that it was doing for young people to start using uh tobacco at a younger age as a teenager. And so they started putting in uh ordinances that said you couldn't be in possession or you couldn't purchase it was probably a primary one. You couldn't purchase tobacco unless you were 21 years old. And after enough cities did that, the state finally took action and passed a 21-year-old um legal age for for tobacco use. And I think this is just the start. I think if uh more cities do it, if what an ordinance is is what they can do or what they're limited in doing at this point, I think that's still important because it does make it does make a a statement and uh sometimes you can't do things that necessarily aren't enforced, but it does start to change uh public perception. So, I could talk more about how public perception has been changed, but I won't do that because I was going to say my time is up, but the clock didn't go on. >> Anyway, we gave you some flexibility. Thank you, Mr. Ringhoffer. >> Um, I don't have any more cards, but is there anybody else that would like to make comment tonight? >> Okay, council, back to us. Um, happy to to hear from all of you on your perspectives on this. Council member Maxwell. >> Yeah, sure. I'll go I'll go first. I am very pleased to support this resolution while we can't uh enforce an ordinance. I think making a statement as a council makes sense. I'm thinking about our last was our last meeting where we fenced a park for safety uh to prevent dog bites in our population. And I would argue that guns are more dangerous than dogs. And so um to be able to control that in our city, I think is is very important. So I'm uh pleased to support this. >> Thank you, Council Member Romey. >> Yes. First of all, I want to thank uh city attorney Nelson for drafting this resolution. I know a lot of thought and uh research and time went into it. So very much appreciated uh for that and kind of uh bringing forward council's will um from our July study session on this matter. Um I think others have already said this. I think um I'm also happy to support it. I thank the mayor and the former mayor for their bringing this forward as well and just hope that this is uh this is something that a majority of motans want. And um and so hopefully this is something that you know not only we but other cities will uh take a look at doing and adopt resolutions or ordinances that will help uh demonstrate that motans the vast majority of motans want common sense gun violence prevention including strengthening existing background checks and um and and kind of preventing this epidemic or doing something to uh cure this epidemic of gun violence that we have in this society. So, thank you again to uh staff mayor and former mayor worsome for uh keeping our eye on the ball on this. >> Thank you, Council Member Romey, Council Member Foster Bolton. >> Yeah, I I happily support this as well. And um it really was, you know, I commented to Mr. funk this morning how I don't think I've ever gotten so many emails in support of something that we're doing um and in in agreement of it. It's terrible thing to be united about, but um it it it this was a nice change. >> Thank you, Council Member Wilburn. >> Yes. So, I joined Mayor Wearsome last year um along with other mayors of the the group that was mentioned and council members uh at a press conference uh uh urging the legislature to take the the actions that have been discussed. Um so, I I am in support of this resolution. I have long been in favor of uh more gun violence prevention uh laws long before our recent tragedies which have only cemented that uh that desire. So I am in support. >> Thank you. Council member Welburn, Council Member Calvert. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to thank everybody that has taken the time to write to us. And, um, to those of you that care about this issue, that are here and might be listening at home. It is one of the most important issues of our time. And I 100% first of all, I just want to say um the people that that care about this are tenderhearted, well-intentioned people that want to protect our children and protect our neighbors. And I applaud that and I agree with that. Um, I think it is important to reduce gun violence and protect our community members. And I understand the passion on the council and the community to do something. I understand that our former mayor Wearsome promise uh that our current mayor promised our former mayor that she would carry something forward and um you know, many people have written um including our state rep. So, thank you to them. And you know, as someone that knew the four legislators that were shot, two of whom are gone, um, and their wonderful dog Gilbert, and I am a dog lover, so that was the, you know, a cruel cut. Um, the enunciation shooting and even, you know, just last week or the week before the, uh, shooting at the apartment building in Minneapolis. Um it is really important and um the legislation that is often written and the resolutions that come forward and the ordinances that are passed are often written by these wonderful tenderhearted well-intentioned people that know very little about guns, including the lawyers who write them. And so I thank Mr. Neielson for giving it a a you know a good shot. And um I will just say that [clears throat] out of the people on this body I I will be supporting the resolution but very reluctantly um for a variety of reasons and one of them is that if we're going to write legis this is not a piece of uh legislation and it's not an ordinance. So it is intentionally vague, but often I think as as Mr. Ringhoffer pointed out, this reflects what was at the state legislature. And when you talk about things like banning assault, the possession of assault rifle, assault style rifles or the manufacturer of assault style rifles. It it's not practicable because in the in the military there are assault rifles and then there are battle rifles which is what we think of as assault style rifles. People don't understand the mechanisms that different rifles use to shoot. They don't know what a bump stock is. They don't know what uh what is really a ghost gun. And um and so if we're going to support pieces of resolution, I think uh uh pieces of legislation or resolutions, it's really important to get specific and know exactly what we're talking about. Um background checks are required. The people that don't get background checks are the people that have illegal guns. We have many laws on the books um that can help prevent gun violence. Some of which are not being enforced in the county of Henipin because for instance right now and there are some good reasons for for why this may have happened. The county attorney's policy is that you may not uh charge a felony arising from a low-level traffic stop. She she made that decision without consulting police. And it most likely is because um motorists of color are disproport disproportionately charged for um illegal firearm possession because of those kinds of traffic stops. It did however take a very effective tool out of the toolbox for law enforcement to prevent gun violence and separate violent people from firearms. And so there are laws on the books and tools in the toolbox that we can put back in the toolbox to prevent gun violence. I would like to see that. What this resolution doesn't talk about is the very important role that mental health and the lack of mental health services in our country um contribute to gun violence. And we all know that so many of the things that have happened have happened because people did not receive mental health treatment or as in the case of the shooter in the apartment building in Minneapolis, the red flag laws either lagged behind the red flags or were not implemented for the for the violent person. And so the violence occurred um before the red flag laws could be applied to that person. So we have tools in the tool box. I personally would like to see them more consistently applied so that they don't have racistations and to make sure that we really are separating violent people from their firearms. Um, and if we're going to talk about, you know, getting rid of assault style weapons, we better know exactly what we're talking about. And if we're talking about not manufacturing them, we better talk to our military leaders first because they might have something to say about that. Um, and uh, you know, we might want to talk to our county attorneys and make sure that they are enforcing laws that separate violent people um from their firearms. So, um I think that this is really well intended. I love some of the provisions. I would love to make sure that people that come packing can't come in the council chambers or come in city hall where our wonderful staff works or where you come to visit us. Um I I understand about ghost guns. Um I think there are a lot of things uh that are useful but I do think that this um resolution [cough] has a lot of problems and training is also missing. Nobody talks about training uh training people to safely store, training people to use their firearms. Um and maybe using the training as another um opportunity for for implement implementing red flags if people have um irrational behavior when they're taking their training. Um, so, uh, that's just a long way of saying I think that there are a lot of, um, pieces of information and, um, missing and that the people that write the laws could actually do themselves a favor about by learning more about firearms. And then we have the whole issue of the second amendment amendment, um, which does give people the right to keep and bear arms. And it was meant to make sure that the citizenry could protect themselves from tyranny. And I think we we do need to think about the implications of that. And I will say that in 1930s Germany um by the book the German government um made it illegal for Jews to own guns. And so if we start taking guns away from people, it may not be from all the people. it may just be from some of the people. So, I want again want to make sure that any legislation that we pass um is applied equally. So, that's all I have to say. >> Thank you, Council Member Kley. >> Thank you, Mayor. So, I talked to Mike about this a little bit. I had wanted to um make a comment. There's a couple things I want to speak about. Um, there was an email that came in in regards to this resolution that I thought u was pretty good um that was sent from Steve. I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but um in the email it as part of the resolution it included um a public health they said um this should be a public safety and health issues in communities. um under section 106 um he stated that it should read local level to build safe, healthy and resilient communities and um my point is I like that he included public safety and health issue. Um I you know I know that um you know the resolution is in front of us but um if we could include more of that I thought was good. And then at the bottom, um, one thing that he pointed out as well, he talked about the, um, section 2011, um, F that would describe the city of Manito role in implementing the law and rule making on extreme risk protection orders. Um, he said the current paragraph F would be designated as paragraph G. Um and so he wanted to include that in there and I thought that was really good. Um um for myself as a person who um is running an organization, nonprofit organization who work with um criminalized survivors who experience domestic violence. I know this is not about domestic violence, but it's it so correlates with domestic violence because um 40% of black and Native American women are um um homicides are um are killed by homicide and usually it's a um gun that's involved in those homicides. And then um recently um this is a little story I wanted to tell. Recently, I met um a young lady um last month in July at a family get together and she um had a spinal cord injury and she um had a spinal cord injury from a um from gun violence. And so I just want to read something that she had shared on social media um literally like 17 hours ago. So, I did reach out to her, but um I just wanted to share this with um you all because I I think this is really important and it really just lays out the impact that gun violence have on our community. And so, um her name is Lia Ray and you can go look her up on social media. Um her goal is really to just get in connected with as many legislative folks as possible. Then also to really share her story about her impact um on her injury. So this month um is spinal cord injury too. So um it says it's spinal cord injury awareness month. It's been four years since the shooting. I've learned so much about my mind, body, and soul. I'm so grateful to be here. Life itself comes with challenges, but imagine a body that you not only have to re relearn, but fight against on a daily basis. It is like your brain remembers what it used to do, but your body doesn't follow. The memories of running, picking up socks with my feet, dancing, jumping, back flips, splits, the way the ground felt on my bare feet. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of a life with a spinal cord injury. I have also gained so much confidence, strength, resilience, patience, different sensations, a new perspective on the world. I can say a full life yin and yang. A balance of peace and grief, a wisdom only a few tap into their lifetime. A super power. And I just want to share that with you all because when I met her last month or in July, it was it was a really big impact on me because I had never really met someone in person who was like right in front of me who could tell their story about how they were injured from gun violence. And I don't really know how old she is, but I think she's in her early 20s. And so I know this really changed her life. and um I've been watching her on social media and I just want to share that and so I do support this res resolution. Um I did like I said I you know the public health um piece I think that would be good to have it in there but if we can't do that tonight that's okay. Maybe in the future we could add that as a later time but um you know if you want to get in contact with her like I said you can go to my social media page. she did leave her email so if anyone wants to get her information if you reach out I will give you her information and so I do support the resolution so thank you >> thank you council member Kley and thank you councel I recognize I'm I I appreciate all the input and I recognize there's certainly more that needs to be done in regards to many things such as domestic violence obviously that's something area that I work in very closely in my day job, uh, mental health and all kinds of really important missing pieces. Um, we have an opportunity to have meaningful conversations about how we deal with um, violent and and troubled youth and frankly adults and through the criminal justice system. And I think all of those are true, but I also recognize that guns are the leading cause of death now. And they've over overtaken cars. And we all have cars. And um to me, this is while somewhat symbolic in the sense that it's nothing that we can enforce. And and in that symbolism, I think it gives us a little bit of um flexibility and not as none of us are experts. I'm certainly not an expert on guns in um crafting language that might not be 100% spoton um in the sense of this would not be a statute that we would pass. This is not a law that we're trying to enforce. This is really telling our legislators both at the state and federal level that this is what Minnotonka values. When I spoke to former mayor wearsome today, he said, you know, I know this is presented by some people as a political issue, but it's not a political issue. It's a common sense issue. And I really agree with that. And I, you know, and and those of you that know former mayor Wearsome, he was not somebody that got entrenched in partisan politics and I really respect him for that. And so, um, that gives me a sense of comfort in moving this forward tonight. So, I can appreciate I think there are a lot of ways we could tweak and tailor this resolution. I I'm not sure it's necessary. I think we've heard from two of our representatives in the comments that they sent to us over the weekend, both Representative Patty Aum and Senator Anne Johnson Stewart indicating support for the resolution and appreciation for the council for bringing it forward. So with that, I I'm supportive of the resolution as drafted, although appreciative of some of the suggestions and language. I I just, you know, from my perspective, I'm not sure it's necessary. Um, if others have a different idea, I'll invite you to speak up, but otherwise, I would be looking for um ultimately looking for a motion. Council member Romey. >> Thank you, mayor. I will make the motion to adopt the resolution. >> Thank you. And a second. Council member Maxwell. >> I'll second the motion. >> Thank you. I have a motion by council member Romey, a second by council member Max Maxwell. Miss Tingley, please call role. Calbert, >> yes. Rome, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Thank you everybody and thank you for the respectful conversation on this and um the input and comments from the community. Item 15 is appointments and reappointments. We have none. Item 16 is adjournment. [laughter] >> I move adjournment. >> I have a motion by council member Wilburn. >> Oh, I'll second. >> A second by council member Foster Bolton. All in favor say I. >> I. Oppos. >> Motion carries. Oh, stay stick around. Council member Kley. We do have an EDA meeting, but it'll go fast. Okay. Um, we are adjourned on this meeting. All right. So, I tonight we'll move right along to the the EDA. Um, tonight is Monday, September 14th, 2026. This is a meeting of the Minnitankka Economic Development Authority. I'll call this meeting to order. Uh, Miss Tingley, please call roll. >> Here. Calbertt. Raley here. Kley >> here. >> Foster Balden >> here. Maxwell >> here. >> Wilbur >> here. Check here. Item three is approval of the agenda. And I don't believe we have any agenda. Miss Wishnack. No. So I would take a motion to approve the agenda. Council member Max or Commissioner Maxwell. >> I move approval of the agenda. >> And Commissioner Foster Bolton. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Commissioner Maxwell. Second by Commissioner Foster Bolton. Miss Tingley, please call roll. Calbertt, >> yes. >> Romeley, >> yes. >> Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. Shack, >> yes. Motion carries. Item four is approval of minutes. We have one set of minutes, the August 10th, 2026 EDA minutes. I would take a motion to approve that. Commissioner Calvert. >> I move approval of the August August 10th, 2026 EDA meeting minutes. >> And Commissioner Romey, >> I'll second. >> I have a motion by Commissioner Calbertt. A second by Commissioner Romey. Miss Tingley, please call roll. >> Calbertt, >> yes. Rome, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilurn, yes. Shaq, >> yes. Motion carries. Item five, business items. 5A is the 2027 preliminary HR levy, Miss Wishnacket. Uh, thank you, President and Commissioners. There are no changes from what I described before during the EIP presentation. So, 225 is the 225,000 is the amount and there were two uh items of funding uh that were identified. So, with that, I'll turn it back to you if you have any specific questions. >> Excellent. Thank you. Any questions on this? We talked about it earlier. No, not seeing any um comments. None. I would take a motion. Commissioner Calbertt. Thank you, Madam President. I move approval. Uh I make the motion to adopt the resolution setting the 2027 preliminary HA levy. Commissioner Romey. Thank you, mayor. I'll second. I have a motion by Commissioner Calvert, a second by Commissioner Romey. Miss Tingley, please call roll. Calbertt, >> yes. >> Rome, >> yes. Kley, >> yes. >> Foster Bolton, >> yes. >> Maxwell, >> yes. >> Wilburn, >> yes. Shack, >> yes. Motion carries. Item six is adjournment. >> I All right. And Commissioner Calbertt, >> second. I have a motion by Commissioner Wilburn, a second by Commissioner Commissioner Calbertt. All in favor say I. I. >> Oppos. >> We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. >> [music] [music]