Okay. >> Welcome to the Mountain City Council. Today is Tuesday, September 8th. Uh can we rise 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, we got our agenda. Do we have any amendments? >> I have a couple. It's mostly housekeeping stuff. Um, we are going to move we're going to get rid of A from the new business. Uh, there's there was nothing associated with it in the packet. Um, B was meant to be a presentation. So, it will be a budget presentation rather than part of new business. and city attorney Lans will be able to speak to this a little bit later, but we would like to change get rid of 11 and change 12 to just adjourn into close session versus going into close session, come back into open and then and then adjourning. So hopefully that makes sense. Happy to uh explain it as well. >> Okay, so 9A we're we're moving. >> Yes. >> And then I I missed the middle one. >> Yeah, me too. N 9B becomes 6C as a presentation because it's there was no action to be to be done on it. >> Okay. So 9B is six >> C >> 6 C >> C. >> Do you have a six seat? >> No. It's on It's on sitting down. >> It's on this one. >> This is the new one. It's already >> Oh, okay. >> It's already been modified. >> She's just moving that. That's the new one. >> It was It was >> Oh, you sent me on a second. I think it's >> You said 9B. >> 9B is preliminary approval. >> Mine 9B says 4805 Island View. Yep. Your yours is updated. >> You have an updated agenda already. Mayor, >> is this the update? >> This is the old the color one. >> Yep. The old one is like this. >> Oh, okay. Got it. >> Oh, yeah. >> And then that's moving out later [clears throat] to 6 C. 9 become 6C. [snorts] >> 6 is this. >> Yeah. Yep. So, that was 9. That was 9A before. >> Okay. >> Or no, I'm sorry. That was which one? No, that was 9B. I'm sorry. 9A is going away. >> Yep. >> And 9B is moving up to 6C. >> Okay. And we're still keeping Y. >> So, this is now eight. >> Right over there. >> Um, there's still an act. There's still that public lands permit, >> right? >> Oh, we're keeping that. >> Yeah. >> Yep. We're keeping that and keeping >> So, that is >> Yeah. So, this is right. [clears throat] Is that everything on that? >> Two versions of agendas. >> Yeah, I have. >> All right, we got our agenda with the amendments. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. Those opposed. All right, that passes. Uh, number four, we got public comments. If you want to come up and talk to the council, give you three minutes. All right. Hear none. We're going to go to number five, consent agenda. Does someone want to go through those? >> I can do that. >> Okay. >> Um, uh, five consent agenda items A through K. A, minutes of August 25th, city council regular meeting. 5B, 1 day to 4day temporary liquor license for Gillespie Center. C, Constitution Week proclamation. D, approve resolution 26-60, debt service transfer. E, um, August check registry. F. Approve resolution 26-61 approving front and side yard variances for new uh slashreplacement house at 1908 Shorewood Lane. G approve resolution 26-62 approving Lakeshore setback variance for house edition project at609 Bluebird. H. Approve pay request number seven in the amount of $917,8983 to Minger Construction for water treatment improvements project 25-12. I approve pay request number four in the amount of $66,117.15 to Peber companies for Lost Lake Commons project 25-10. [clears throat] J. Approve pay request number three in the amount of $353,122.112 to GH Asphalt for street improvements projects 2601 and 2602 and K. Approve miscellaneous pay request in the amount of $391.68 to Kelly Green for water treatment improvements project 25-12. All right, we got our consent agenda. Does anybody on council want to talk about any of those? All right, hearing none. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve. >> You got a motion. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Got a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Sorry. Roll call, please. >> Council member Heric. >> I. >> Council member Mcanini. >> I. >> Council member Pew. Hi, >> Council Member Castellano. >> Hi, >> Mayor Holt. >> Hi. Okay, all that passed. If you're here for that, >> it's approved. >> All right. Number six, we got uh 6A Orno Police Department with activity report. >> Welcome. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Uh the August report I went through and looked at Nothing was spiking. Everything is still as we as we handle things. A little more of the juvenile activity with the motor, ebikes and stuff, but we're staying consistent with that. Um our usual uh response that is you know if we can uh grab the kids we either have parents come and grab the bikes educate the parents or we for repeat offenders which we do have we typically impound the bikes and they have to pay the fee to get them out. So that's where we kind of stand in that. But other than that things are kind of going to start winding down now with school in session. So, we'll still have the some amount of but it won't be as active as it is. But other than that, that's all I saw. Mostly was the juvenile complaints and they all linked to ebikes and stuff like that. So, but again, we're we're staying steady with that. Uh traffic issues with around the construction. Uh it's as expected, but our officers are on it uh as much as we can be. I know during the day shift when they're free, they're down there monitoring, making sure. They had quite a few wrongway drivers over the past month, you know, trying to go down the make a shortcut and go down the wrong way. So, we've been working with that. But other than that, that's what we've been dealing with this last month. Uh it's been a kind of a busy month for us. Uh with everything going on uh now coming into the fall, uh we are going to have heavy months of training ahead. So, a lot of uh orno officers are going to be in involved in firearms use of force training. We just got done today with our first responders training. So, that's just the start of it, but uh we should be pretty busy with that coming up. The Lakes Area uh Lake Minnetonka SWAT team, we will be uh rolling out here next weekend for our MOA conference up at Camp Ripley. Um I explained that before where it's just a um everybody in the area as a SWAT team gets together and we train up on um critical incidents that may or may not have happened in the area or in the nation at the time. So we kind of compare notes. Um this year is our year. Uh we're hosting the the conference ourselves now with another team like Plymouth and Maple Grove. We're all getting together and we're going to host it and put on the training. So, it's a little busier year for us on that end, but it should go okay. It ain't our first time. Uh, we also just recently appointed two no two new use of force instructors to uh come up and start training our department. So, they'll be starting here. They have to go through their training in a month and then they'll be up and going. They'll be taking over the training of our department. Uh, our two new officers, uh, Officer Wesley, he is out on the road running on his own now. He's a solo officer. So, he's on our day shift side on Wednesday side. So, uh he'll be out and about. You'll see him. And then we also just started a new officer today. Uh Lexi, she's going to be out and about. She's in FTO right now and it'll be a at least a couple of weeks to couple months before she'll be sole patrol. >> Any questions? Does council have any questions? Um I have uh we were kind of talking a lot about like the county and statewide like ebike regulations and I don't know we haven't for like six months or so. Has there [clears throat] been any like updates? I haven't changes or >> I haven't got anything other than what we have now on the books and we I should say that when we do we give them these uh state counties come up with a like a cheat sheet and we hand them to the parents so that they can see >> that you know if they have a 10-year-old they can't be riding these things. You know if they're riding something they have to be within these regulations. So it's a little simpler form. >> Okay. >> And we've been putting that out to the parents that we've encountered with these. I know there's been talks about even an educational um deal like like we have to go through driver's training something that the schools or somebody I don't know know exactly how it's going to happen but they're talking about those educational options to teach these kids how to ride these things. >> I just remember as you guys were saying like we drive through you know three different cities and you can't have like three different rules. I didn't know where the where it was left off. >> Yeah, it's pretty much like the the cheat sheet just gives the basic, you know, like parents don't understand that 10-year-olds can't be riding, you know, these these certain bikes and they get them for them anyway, then, you know, now they're out a lot of money and they can't ride them. So, >> thanks. Any other questions? >> All right. Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we got uh Build Club, Little Free Libraries in City Parks. Welcome. [clears throat] >> Hi. Um, good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Um, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyrus Magnus. I am a senior at West Honka High School, and today we are showing you a club I started called Build. So that's Builders United and Local Development. Our goal for this year, our first year, is to place a little free library at every park with a playground in mound. [clears throat] So our team is uh is me as our president, founder, and then I'm Sheamus Dion. I'm the vice president build >> and then our community outreach director Addison was not able to make it. Um but as far as our purpose, our goal is to give back. Um my family has been in mound since the 60s and uh been in the school district the whole time and really want an opportunity to give back. Um our goal is to create a student organization focused on hands-on community um service. So, we want there's not many organizations like ours where we're putting something that we built into the community um all throughout all designed and built by students. Um this will give a student this will give students a way to apply practical skills um to real needs and it'll produce visible and lasting projects in our local area making great use of uh the school's new facilities. And then our mission um build brings students together to volunteer their time and skills to improve local community through building and repair and improvement projects. So this year it starts with little free libraries. Next year we plan on doing something bigger as I hand it off to another student, another handful of students. Um but that's our starting goal and it'll grow access to reading materials. I like to think of it as people are heavily influenced by what you surround them by, especially children. So, if you surround a child by books, they will pick one up and read. If you bring them to an Apple store, they're going to want an iPhone. So, yeah, like we said, um our initial goal is just to place one of these free libraries in every park in Mound with a playground. Um, this goal is pretty clear and I would think it's pretty achievable. Um, and it kind of just puts us on track for success. Um, and families in mount have free access to books and entertainment that's not in the form of devices or stuff like that. Um but yeah, community valuewise, um these books increase literary access for the younger generations. Um it also increases our sustainability because we're repurposing books um that bookstores or libraries or people who are trying to get rid of books um they can just donate those and these books get a new life. Um and that also encourages community donation and collaboration. And the whole thing is um student love and student led initiative um that should kind of continue on for many years at the high school. So, for our next steps in this process, we're seeking approval to place these um and then we're going to grow the club and we've already started building um constructing them with high hopes. So, um and then we would need we would have to have uh public works obviously uh make sure there's no water lines or um you know cable in the locations we wish to put them and then we start placing them. Um it's also important to note that all these libraries will be funded by the club through donations. We've already raised $860. Each club is roughlyund each library is roughly $150 to build and then uh make official through little free libraries their website and all that will be done by students including the placing of them and uh the materials the building. So >> any questions? >> Yeah. Does council have any questions? >> I do. um once they get built and placed after you work with public works, will you be placing all the books in and kind of organizing it throughout the year or is that up to us public works or >> um so as far as the books, we have actually partnered with uh Excelsier Bay books and excelsier and they've agreed to donate all the books we need. Um but we're also happy to take outside donations um if they don't have enough that they're trying to get rid of. Um but the students of the club would be taking care of these libraries consistently. And then we also plan to work with another um organization at the high school called National Honor Society um to work with them. So, so students can earn service hours by maintaining these libraries and making sure that books are stocked and uh obviously they're looking fresh and clean and uh if they need to be repainted, redesigned, that'll be done by the students. >> So, if neighbors start donating and it gets over wrought with books, is that something you're going to be checking on weekly or I just want to make sure it's going to be maintained. >> Yes. Yes, we we plan on we plan on meeting as a club at the school once a week and then me personally for as long as I'll be at high school I'll be checking them myself and then we'll also have people coming in and checking them regularly. >> And how many libraries or how many parks have you indicated with the playgrounds? I've lost track. >> The last time I counted was 15. >> Okay. Um, so that's what we've set as our number. >> What's a great goal? >> Yes. >> So, in line with what Kathy was asking about, I do think this is a great idea. Um, I would like to see public works heavily involved with this as to the placement. >> Um, because it could interfere with some of the things that they do as far as maintenance. Um, and then also someone from your group make sure you keep contact with through the years with public works so that when there's an issue or a problem, they know who to contact. >> The great thing about that is I work for [clears throat] the city of [laughter] M as >> that's great >> as as park maintenance. Um, so I'm in good contact with um Jordan, the parks lead and uh and I we've already discussed staying in contact through this whole thing. So I do not >> It's just the long term, right? >> Yes. >> People come and people go. You will go on to college. You will leave. >> Yes. >> Ryan will hopefully stay and his team. But as you know, >> I I plan on seeing it through for a long time as long as I can. >> Um coming back and checking in on it. >> Like I said, mound is my home. I don't see myself straying too far. So >> I have a question. Um, will you have the ability to do audio books for people who can't u visual read? >> Um, I have not thought about that or how we would be able to do that yet, but that is definitely something I would look forward to thinking about. Maybe even including a few books in braille and uh see how we can accomplish that. I see that as being a possibility for sure. Might take a little more time for us to develop that. >> Thank you. >> Any other question? >> Uh this maybe kind of a weird question, but so you guys originally stock the books, right? >> And then anybody can come and just place books and take books, right? It's like an in-n-out thing, right? Mhm. >> Um is there any like uh someone puts maybe not a good book in there? >> Um so we will um we plan on working with our uh librarian at our high school as an adviser. That's another thing that will help keep these clubs and checked on is we have we'll have two teacher adviserss to the club. >> Okay. Um and uh so we will make sure all books that go in there are recommended by a teacher and uh agreed upon by the group. And >> there's like an age limit that you're targeting. >> We want it to be accessible for all ages. So we have uh we've already collected novels, historic novels that are, you know, big and long and uh tough reads. And then there's also we have graphic novels and stuff for five-year-olds who are great readers. >> Well, to your point, Mayor Holt, [clears throat] you know, we have several in our neighborhood and anybody can take them and anybody can put them in. >> And I think maybe that's the oversight you're concerned about. You know, if somebody slips in a, >> you know, a >> less than desirable. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I love that. >> Or a dirty book or something. you know, if you're only checking it once a week and what if all the books are gone and nobody returns them? I I'm I'm just more curious about the maintenance of this. >> I may be naive and thinking that we are it's a better city. Um I I'd be shocked to see it happen like that, but if it did, we would uh deal with that immediately as we see it happen. We obviously will not be able to prevent that from happening in its entirety because we can't monitor them 24/7, but we will be actively doing this as a club. We expect high numbers in this club since there's none like it at our high school. Um, so we'll have plenty of hands on deck to make sure it goes smoothly. Have you considered maybe getting a neighbor of one of these parks to kind of keep an eye on it and notify you if they see it's running out or if it's over jammed or >> we I I think that's a great idea and I think we can put that into our social media platform so they people can reach out if they see an issue if they notice something and we aren't there at that time we can address it immediately. I think that's a great idea. >> Speaking to that issue, >> um, >> have you haven't presented anything to the parks commission? >> Um, we were not sure how to go about this. This is a first time I've been to a council meeting. So, >> well, we have a park board and they have a list of people who have adopted some of the parks. And not all the parks have been adopted, but some have. And maybe working with the park adopter on sort of um monitoring a little bit of the book library would be a good connection. So, I'd say you should contact the parks commission. >> I think that's >> they meet on Thursdays. >> Sounds good. I will get on that. >> That's a good idea. >> Thank you for initiating this and it'll be fun to see what you build. Yes. >> Yeah, that sounds fun part. >> Yes, it'll be fun. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks. >> Do we need to do anything official? >> I I don't think so. I mean, maybe a direction to staff to work with the group and I have access to the park adopters, too. So, I can uh help with that and we'll coordinate with Ryan and public works. Just see how far we can get this fall, I suppose. >> Okay. Someone want to make a motion to direct staff to work with the group, the build group. >> Motion to address staff to work with the new book club to get things rolling. Does that work? >> I'll second that motion. >> All right. Got a motion in a second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. All right, that passes. Congrats, guys. Thanks. Good luck. Thank you. [clears throat and applause] >> Yes. Good luck. >> All right. Next up, we got our budget presentation 2027. >> Thank you. >> Good color right here. That's what you got. >> [clears throat] >> You want to feed potatoes? It usually just works when I plug it right in. Thanks. >> It was just plug it in. Needs the screen. I never got >> this one. Just presentations. >> These Let's see if it >> didn't. >> It's the public lands permit. >> That's That's on nine. >> Yeah, that's nine. That's on the >> but it's not on our new on our new agenda that question. >> Oh, wait a minute. >> Yeah, this one is presentation. >> There's no here. >> No, it's not in here. >> That's the actual lady. >> Yeah. All right. >> Touch nothing except forward. >> All right. Well, apologies. I think it's time to replace this cord in here perhaps. Um but mayor, members of the council, thank you very much for our very first public uh budget prop presentation for the 2027 fiscal year. Um as we've discussed uh a number of times throughout this past um spring and summer, we've had some shortages in our staffing in our finance department. Um we've worked really hard to try to recruit an accountant to join our team and we have not had great success in that. So, um, this budget process is not perfect in that we, you know, we had hoped to be here sooner in some of these conversations and tonight we're we may not have all of the answers for you as we go through this budget. Um, we'll talk a little bit about the timeline, but the benefit of the way that cities do budgets is there is time to refine this. We don't adopt a final budget until December. And so, um, I just wanted to start with an enormous amount of gratitude for your patience as we work through a lot of questions. Um, there's some changes you're going to see in here today that, um, we've learned about even just last week, right, around the environment and the economy that we're working in here. Um, so again, thank you, a big thank you to the finance committee for their direction as we put together this budget. So, um, and a a really big props to Director Urban who's put a lot of work into what you see before you tonight. Um, this has been a huge undertaking. Um, the budget has sort of had to be rebuilt from scratch. And so, um, I really do want to give a big kudos to the amount of effort and energy she's put into, um, putting together a budget that really reflects your values, reflects what we want to do as a city and as an organization. So, um, thank you very much. Um, so first I do want to talk about a little bit about why are we here? Why do we do this the way that we do it? Um, cities must set a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Um, this is something that's pretty regulated by the state of Minnesota and administered by Henipin County. We must set both a preliminary levy and a um final levy. The preliminary levy that we set is the highest that we set a levy and then most cities set that a little bit higher and then we workshop it and get to where we want to be by December. So, um that is a big part of what we're going to talk about today. The budget is inclusive of all of our operating expenses. So, that is what it costs to do business, right? to have people in city hall at public works um in fire trucks, the sticky notes, the pens, um the computers, but it also um is debt service. So, the money that we pay to um pay back debt on projects that we've done previously, as well as um new capital projects that we'd like to undertake, whether that's road construction, lift stations, um maintenance to keep our building safe um and updated. The city levies property tax dollars to pay for most expenses. So when you receive your property tax statement from Henipin County, um it's going to have a line on there for the city um as well as the school district, the watershed district, um the Lake Minnatonka Conservation District. We are one of several lines on that. Um and that is our biggest source of revenue. Um the city of Mound does not receive local government aid. Uh this is something that is unique to the city of Mound and unique to um to cities at a certain income threshold or property tax threshold where the state has decided that Mound could levy enough from its property taxes that they do not support our general fund by giving government aid from the state. We do have several enterprise funds. So, our docs program, um the fire department, the liquor store, um these are uh funds that are considered revenue generating. I know it's odd to see fire in there, but that is because we do charge fee for service on our fire department. Um but our docs program and our liquor store um do generate revenue for the city. So, these are a little bit different than what we think of our traditional general fund. Director Erdman is going to go fund by fund tonight. Um, but those are ones that can offset property taxes and historically have offset property taxes through the liquor store. Most um, specifically, one thing is that tonight is one of many opportunities to engage with the budget. So, this is our starting point. There's going to be a lot of opportunities for residents to um, interact with you as council members and with us as staff. This is not the only meeting. It is one of several. I would expect a budget component to follow most of our meetings um from here on out because there are just things that are still to be talked about. Um as well as the water treatment plant is a core component of the 2027 budget and we already know that we have several items related to that in future meetings. So from June to September, staff works to review our revenues and expenditures. This is what we use to put together the budget. on September 30th is that is the deadline by Henipin County for which we need to set a preliminary um levy. This is again the maximum the city can um [snorts] levy for taxes. So from that point we cannot raise it anymore. That is the highest taxes will be. Um we will have our preliminary levy meeting on September 22nd. Um, so not this meeting but the next meeting. Um, because we do have to submit that again to Henipin County. Um, what we, you know, will do in the interim from the time that we set that preliminary levy until December is refine the budget. So there are some components that have not been completed yet, which is the review of the fee schedule and the re you the review of utility rates. Um, that is done for a couple of reasons. one on the fee side in a future year we will have fees ahead of the budget so that we have a clear picture of our revenue right now we just don't have the capacity to do that and put together the preliminary levy um so those will come forward in November that's actually pretty common for what you have done here in mound historically is bring the fee schedule later um it's better practice to bring that fee schedule earlier so we will do that in future years uh but we will see that about on schedule with when you've seen it in the past the utility rates um are going to be largely determined by whether or not this council deter decides to move forward with a water treatment plant. And so utility rates will also come later this fall. Um, we'll also have better estimates from service providers and vendors on a few items where we've estimated what that inflationary increase could be, like our insurance coverages, um, and other items that we still are kind of taking a a ballpark guess on what we think those will be um, using pretty conservative estimates. So, on December 8th, we'll hold our truth in taxation hearing um, as well as adopt that final levy. Um, and we kind of will talk a little bit through what that's going to be as director man goes through this presentation. This budget also is inclusive of your council goals. The council has talked about a lot of things that they envision for this city starting back in January during your council goal setting and throughout this process as we've gone through the budget process. Um and we did have um a workshop in a in August um prior to director man making kind of a first overview of what the budget schedule would look like. Um and so here are some of the kind of highlevel things the council is focused on. First is using the financial management plan as a guide. Um, Dr. Irman is going to talk a little bit more about the financial management plan, but that plan is um the city's good faith effort in keeping taxes stable while also meeting the fiscal needs of the organization. We also heard from the council that there's a real desire to reduce the spending on consultant dollars um and working to find ways to um bring services where we can inhouse um and figuring out how to give our residents an even better level of customer service by ensuring that we have the staff in city hall and at public works to support it. Building on to that, we heard um you know there's a critical need for public works and communication staff. Um these are positions that cities of a similar size um have more staff in. Um we don't currently have any communication staff. I fill that role as well as um the other hats that I wear. Um and looking at sort of pre-recession numbers of public works employees, we've had we used to have significantly more public works employees. um especially those who take care of our parks and streets um who are out there really uh doing the things that make Mountain look beautiful. Finally, one of our biggest needs as an organization is enterprise software. So, this is software um that would oversee both our human resources and finance sides of the organization. Right now, we use a very outdated software that takes significant time from staff. Um it is literally not usable unless you are in city hall. Um which makes it really challenging. We don't have electronic time cards um or electronic recordkeeping for any of our human resources things. Um but then it's also just it's very outdated. Um my only anecdote about this is that while on the phone with our finance software, they said, "How big is your town?" and I told them how many employees we have and they said, "Oh, it's really big to use our software." Um, and so it's just it's not the right fit for us, but it also limits what we can do as an organization. Um, one thing kind of in line with that reducing consultant dollars is the idea of bringing back utility billing. Um, bringing monthly utility billing back to the city. Um, we can't even begin to go down that journey unless we do new finance software, but we would like to do that. We know that quarterly billing can be um a tummy ache for residents. Sometimes you get that bill and um it maybe didn't look that bad if you had gotten it month by month, but you see three months in a row and it doesn't feel as good as it might have a different way. So um this budget is is crafted really trying to keep these council budget goals in mind um as well as the things that department heads have identified as needs for the next fiscal year. So tonight's goals, um, we're going to discuss the 2027 budget. We are going to go fund by fund. So um, I I ask you to have patience and buckle in. Um, spoiler alert, there are 45 more slides. Um, so we are going to get fairly detailed. Um, and I will kind of turn this over to Director Erdman, but our goal tonight is really to um, give you that opportunity to tell us if we're really off base on [clears throat] things um, or to give us that support on the things that you're excited about um, before we fully submit that preliminary levy, set that on um, September 22nd. So, thank you very much. I'm going to turn this over to Director Erdman. I'll be back as we get towards the end of this presentation. But again, just a real gratitude and appreciation for your patience as we move through this for the very first time with a lot of new staff at city hall. Um I'm very excited and proud of the work that Director Man has put together and is going to show you this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Lindsay Erdman, the finance director for the city. Um, we've got it. Okay. Uh, so the agenda for this evening is to first kind of ground in the financial management plan. Then we're going to talk about the housing redevelopment authority budget and levy. And then we will go through the remaining uh funds that the city is comprised of. And then we'll also talk about the capital improvement plan. then look at the city's levy [clears throat] and the next steps in the process. So, first the financial management plan. You may also hear me refer to it as the FMP. We can also think about it as a long-term financial management plan which really provides guideposts for decision making. Uh this is like a living document that is updated uh pretty frequently. Uh most recently all funds went through an update in 20 uh 24 and so we're working off data from then. Uh we have done some uh select updates to enterprise funds this year uh due to the consideration of the water treatment facility and then staff are recommending that we update all funds before setting the final levy this year um since it has been a bit of time. And uh just as a general assumption, the FMP H was used as a basis for crafting this budget. All right. So first we'll start with the housing breed development authority or HA. This is a separate legal entity um that this uh and fund that the city oversees and so we have to look at it independently from the rest of the funds. Uh so the budget for excuse me for this fund um is right um up here we see as we're holding revenues flat um while increasing expenses by about 23%. So, this fund is primarily funded with a property tax levy and then lost lake slip revenues. And so, keeping uh revenues flat, we can still do the things that we need to do like taking care of the uh parking ramp as well as doing some maintenance on the um slips and then there's like a little bit of staff time that goes into that which is why we see $3,000 in personnel. Uh so since we're holding the operating levy flat uh we don't see any increase there on the levy and then our debt levy has a a small um decrease for an overall levy decrease of um81%. >> How did you come up with the um update for the non-personnel um between 2026 and 2027? Uh so the main drivers of of that are the um maintenance to the lost lake uh slips and then um the admin cost sharing um revenue model that we or updated and as well as maintenance to the parking garage that needs to be done. >> Okay, thanks. >> Okay, so next we're going to uh look at the general fund. Uh so here are all of the departments that make up the general fund and it legal and police are three departments within the city that are um fully provided through contractual services and so that means there are no city staff providing that service. All right. So, um, first I wanted to go through some of the new spending, uh, in the general fund. So, this is grouped by one-time spending, meaning we'll only spend these dollars in, uh, 2027, and then ongoing means we would fund this item in perpetuity unless the council decided otherwise. So we have three one-time expenses which are the 2050 comprehensive plan, a possible spe special election and then that enterprise software. And so in addition to doing finance and HR, this can also do um inspections like permits uh building inspections, permits um and other um things like that. And so it's really looking at the ways in which we can um like streamline all the different workflows that happen in city hall into one software um instead of being really segmented. >> So Lindsay, are we buying that software or releasing it? We are purchasing a um license each year and then there are significant like startup costs of like migrating data, cleaning data um all of that and this also includes money for uh support for day-to-day work while staff work on that transition of the software. Um and then we have the three ongoing items. Juan is a full-time communications and marketing coordinator, the park maintenance worker in public works, and then 5% of the deputy fire chief's time to emergency management because we still need someone to attend county meetings um and engage in like relationship building to be eligible for um FEMA dollars if something were to happen um and to maintain connection throughout um the lake communities. So all of those new spending items are built into the budget here. Uh so the uh far right corner shows the change from uh 26 to 27. And some of them look pretty drastic and others look pretty minor. So I kind of wanted to go through just some like um general changes that were made. Most of these were to decrease administrative burden on staff. So for example, we moved like employment advertising expenses from each department all into finance. Um there used to be a separate promotions department and that was all moved into finance and admin as well because of this new communications um uh function. And so this included like money for like the TV planning commission um and other things like that that the communications person will oversee like preparing the newsletter. So that money was moved. Uh we also uh like relocated some expenses that were like previously in the uh fire protection other transfers category into like the appropriate department. So, for example, there was an expense for abatement and we move that into planning since that's where we would ideally want to expense that from and then recover the cost later. And then there were uh copying and postage, other kind of like small charges like that in every single general fund department and that can be just like really burdensome to account for each month. And so that was all centralized into the city hall department budget. Uh shredding is like another example where that was in a couple of departments. So it was all moved to city hall. Uh the Gillespie Center appropriation was moved from the city hall uh department to city council's budget. And then um previously all the different um health and wellness benefits that are offered to employees were itemized um and so by account code. And so I moved those all into a singular account code just for budgeting [clears throat] purposes like on the back end we'll still need to itemize it. Um and so those were some of the big changes. And then um the other jumps you'll see like in parks finance will be because of like those new positions. [clears throat] >> All good. Okay, I just want to make sure there's no questions. I know it's a lot to take in. Uh, so next we have a personnel schedule which shows the number of FTEES by department um from 26 to 27. And so I can go I can give you just some like general highlights. So for example, like the city manager was at 1.25. Um, that's because one of the front desk FTEEs was partially allocated there. We just moved it all to [clears throat] admin and finance. Um, and like the emergency preparedness line, there used to be.3 of an FTE working there. Um, as well as planning and inspections and that was reduced to just 5% of the new deputy fire chief's time. Um, so I hope this will um provide just some like clarity of like where the FTEES are distributed in the enterprise. Okay. So, next we're going to move on to revenues, which is how we fund all of our expenses. So, all revenue sources uh in this budget except for the administrative cost sharing charges and interest followed the FMP's increase of 2%. However, for interest, it was increased from 20,000 to 120,000. And then on the administrative cost sharing side, it increased from about 188,000 to about 578,000 and or 77,000. And that was uh due to the update in the model that we went over um earlier this summer. And then we'll also be using a one-time uh use of fund balance to fund some of those one-time costs in 2027. Um, and then we'll also need to complete the fee study on the business licensing and permits revenues um to make sure that we are recovering the costs that it takes to administer um those programs. So that includes all of like the planning fees and permits. Docs is an example of that. So we'll come back this fall and discuss that in more detail. So for now, all of those revenues are um increased at 2%. Uh so this is the general fund revenue budget. Uh most of our revenue comes from property taxes and property taxes in this budget are uh within the context of the general fund revenue budget um increasing by 3.7%. And then our other um biggest increases are the charges for services uh which is where the admin cost sharing uh revenue line is. And then the other revenue category um which increased by about 114% is where the interest um budget increased. [clears throat] Okay. So next we're going to go through our special revenue funds. So we have two special revenue funds um area fire services and the uh docs fund. Uh so in the fire department we have two new um spending items. One is duty crews uh for about 50,000 and this is the cost of having firefighters as well as all of the tax liabilities that go with it. And then we have the um administrative cost sharing charge. And this is the uh total cost of that not the difference between 26 and the 27 estimates. And then this is the proposed budget. Um we're seeing about equal increase in revenues and expenses. Uh most of the drivers on the expense side are that admin cost sharing as well as um personnel like the D duty crews as well as bringing on the deputy fire chief full-time. And then on the revenue side uh new this year is budgeting for donations, grants and reimbursements. So in the past there had not been a budget line for this item despite having really reliable revenue here. So um that helped um decrease the amount as um that we ask or ask for from our contracted partners as well as mound residents. And then in the upper um right hand corner is the FTE count and shows the change from 26 to 27. Next we have the docs budget. Uh so in the upper right hand corner again you'll see the FTE change and this was just movement of um like program management as well as parks time on the revenue side. We're keeping the permit uh revenue flat for now until we do that fee study and the weight list fee um had the 2% increase per the FMP and then uh the expense side again the personnel change is due to that movement of program oversight um and otherwise held flat. All right. Next, we'll get into the enterprise funds. So, we have five enterprise funds. Uh the water, sewer, storm water, and recycling utilities, and then the liquor store. I just need a drink of water. So, there's also some new spending in the water and sewer utilities. Uh we have the comprehensive plan again and this is just the portion of that work that belongs in these funds and then we have technology updates to um a program called SCADA and then the administrative cost sharing charges uh uh for these funds as well and then the totals are broken out at the bottom. All right. So on the water side we have the FTE count change in the upper right hand corner and we're proposing about 13 uh% increase in revenues uh and about 8% increase um in expenses. And the reason why this is like a little bit more um of a gap than we've seen the other funds is the FMP works to bring the water fund [snorts] out of debt over time. Um on the sewer side again we have the FTE change in the upper right hand corner. Uh we're having a 3% increase on uh in revenues and about a 10% increase in expenses. And so this is one where we'll want to look at it a little bit more closely when we do the um FMP or yeah FMP update um this fall. All right. So, uh, next we'll get into the liquor store. So, I first want to just start with a policy change that kind of came in at the 11th hour. Uh, so the city will no longer be insured to sell THC drinks and edibles at Harbor Wine and Spirits. This is effective November 26th, 2026. Um, a federal law is scheduled to take effect on November 12th that will make certain types of THC infused drinks and edible products illegal at the federal level. And so, uh, the city was notified on September 3rd, on Thursday, that we'll no longer have insurance coverage for these products. Oops. Um, and so everything that I'm about to say was, you know, built under um the assumption right now that we do have insurance coverage. So, we'll have to continue to um talk about this and like refine this budget um through December. Is this insurance coverage change statewide or just Vermont or >> the insurance companies can't insure us if it's a federal law? >> Oh, got it. >> So, they're going to have to pull their insurance. >> Good. >> Yeah. Mayor and members of the council, I I want to clarify this because this is a significant change on the liquor store budget and so we're going to kind of have to go back to the drawing board should this law not pass out. But um so any of the THC products that we sell at Harbor Wine and Spirits or that you can purchase outside of like a traditional cannabis store um are are um THC that is derived from hemp. Um, and that hemp derived THC is something that was like a loophole basically in the farm bill. And in the budget bill two summers ago, they closed that loophole, making those products illegal. So for states that have legal recreational cannabis, that cannabis is derived from marijuana plants. It's not hemp derived. Um, and so you could still purchase THC in a cannabis shop. Um, but similar to this, um, it is still federally illegal. And so while like hemp derived THC is legal to consume in Minnesota and is still legal to sell, um, our insurance company will not uh, cover that. And it is it is something that is ongoing. This has actually already been pushed back to December. the the law taking place has been pushed back, but the League of Minnesota cities who ensures the liquor store um has said that they will no longer cover us effective November 26. So, the liquor store has been directed to stop purchasing this product. Um we have a lot of it. They had literally placed an order that day for some product. Um and so we'll have to figure out how to offload this. I'm sure um Council Member Castellano, you're already thinking about that as well. we may be able to find additional insurance. Um, but we may have other issues like insurance is not the only problem when you're selling something that's federally illegal. Um, it also means that you typically your bank won't take money from you. It's the reason that most cannabis shops are cash only. Um, and so this just is a new complication for us because um, frankly given just like trends in alcohol consumption, THC has been very profitable for harbor wine and spirits. So, um, a really big caveat on this, and we learned this Thursday afternoon, um, and so we will have to kind of go back to looking at this budget in in a lot of detail to try to figure out what we're going to look what we're going to do because frankly, the THC is about $245,000 worth of revenues for this fund that will have to either be made up for or um, accounted for in some other way. All right. So then we can take a closer look at the budget. So this is assuming everything you're seeing is assuming selling THC is status quo. Um excuse [clears throat] me. So the uh operating revenue projected increase was about 3% um with total expenses um reducing by about 2%. Um, so we I don't have like the itemization on here, but like as we come back later this fall to talk about other items, this is something that we can continue to look at. Um, and then we have some uh liquor store key metrics here as well. Um, looking at our gross profit, which is just revenue minus like the cost of sales, so the cost of purchasing goods. Um, and then net income, which is just revenue minus expenses, um, before transfers because we transfer out um, $300,000 in 2026. Um, and so looking at those changes from 26 to 27. And then the net income ratio just basically um, tells us what um, percent of revenue the liquor store turns into profit after all of the expenses are paid. Um and so in a typical situation you'd want to see a higher um percentage. Uh okay. So next we'll move on to the storm water um operating budget. This just follows the um FMP exactly. Uh no changes were made here uh because we really need to do a deeper dive into this fund because as you can see expenses are outpacing uh revenues. A couple years ago, the FMP um said that more revenue needed to be identified, but hadn't increased utility rates. And so, um this is kind of the result, but we'll continue to look at this um as we do the FMP update uh this fall. And then the recycling budget um here uh revenues uh are slightly over expenses which is okay because we still haven't um finalized our um recycling contract uh our new recycling contract yet and so we'll expect this to fluctuate a little bit and we'll also be included in the FMP update. [snorts] >> That is the end of the enterprise funds. If there are any questions otherwise we'll move on to capital. Does council have any questions? >> Not yet. >> Okay. All right. So, next we have the capital improvement plan. Um, in the past, capital has been shown um by projects and I've just taken a little bit different of approach where we're going to look at it by fund um and would like to like formally include this as a part of the budget whereas before capital was not budgeted for. And the main reason that I'd like to do that is just to improve transparency. Um so for we're just going to be looking at the funding year which is 2027. So the capital program looks at um takes a longterm perspective but we'll just be looking at 27 for right now. Um so in the main summer takeaways of the program are there will be about $8.5 million um issued in new debt for streets and waters projects. uh the levy, which we'll dive into a little bit more, has about 17% dedicated um to capital projects, so funding it with cash directly, and then 13% of the levy is directed at debt service for capital projects that are underway. Um so repaying those projects and this is just a breakdown of how um the uh departments are receiving funding for uh their capital projects. So, first we have the capital improvement fund. Um, we have the uh projects listed by department and the total cost. Um, if you have questions about specific projects, our public works director is here to answer those as I'm not your best resource for that. Um, but on the right hand side, you can see that our projects are primarily funded through bond issuance and property taxes. And right now, we're coming in a little higher on the revenue side than expenses. Um and so uh once it's time to like go out for bid for the projects and complete the projects, we can always lower our debt issuance um in those situations. All right. Next, we have the capital equipment replacement fund. So this is uh replacing um like vehicles and mowers and things like that that um public works needs to get their jobs done. Uh again, this fund is primarily funded with property taxes or cash. Uh so um these are the four uh different pieces of equipment that um public works is going to purchase through this fund. We'll see other equipment um and other funds later, but um streets and parks are general fund funds and this fund is used to pay for general fund equipment. Next we have our road maintenance capital reserve fund. This has a large liquor transfer into it. Um and this does the crack and steel coat and pavement repairs. And then the community investment fund is basically a parks um capital fund. And so for next year we have the Dundy um park play structure programmed. And you can see that we have 150,000 in property taxes planned to fund that. And the reason why that is um more than the cost that we need to do the project is that we need to build the fund balance over time to do the next phases of the Lost Commons uh park um because that does cost significantly more to do. Um and then we don't need to bond for those projects when we can pay for it in cash. Uh next we have um the capital replacement fund of city buildings. Um so in 2027 there are a number of projects planned. City Hall and Centennial both need new fire suppression um equipment. Uh and public works building needs uh two new garage doors and the depot is planned to have the deck there resurfaced. All right. And so next we have the capital utility plan. So the excuse the water utility capital plan. Uh so within the water utility we have already gone over like the operating expenses and now this is these are all the projects that happened out out of the fund. So like recoding the water tower is paid for in the fund. So you can see that there's an other financing um revenue line and that is primarily um net profit of the cost of paying your water bill. And then next um largest revenue source is bond proceeds. So again if we don't need um that much to in debt we don't have to issue all of that to complete these projects. uh sewer utility. Um this one we'll need to look at a little bit more uh since the uh projects are coming in slightly um above our revenues, but we can kind of iron that out as we um do the FMP update. Any questions on capital? >> Council, any questions? >> Okay. Um next we'll get into the levy. So we're only going to talk about the city levy. So which is the general fund, enterprise funds and uh special revenue funds. Um so we have an operating revenue line in the levy. This funds the general fund departments um as well as part of the uh fire service. And then we have special revenue line in the levy which is the debt service um for streets, sewer and parks projects. And then we have a capital revenues line which is basically all the cash to do a bunch of the projects that we just went through um for parks, vehicle replacement, city building stuff and um uh big capital uh street projects. Uh so our preliminary recommendation um uh funds the council priorities and some of the necessary expenses that we went through and also allows time to complete updates to the utility rate study which is within the FMP and then the FMP ex um uh itself and so we'll be funding SCADA which is a technology which would need some technology updates the comprehensive plan for them at council um as well as on the enterprise fund side um funding the um admin cost share charges and this also gives us additional time um to analyze the fee schedule revenues. So the preliminary recommendation is a 9.85% levy. So this is the maximum that we would recommend we levy. And so the general fund levy um is 4% which is what the FMP calls for as and the fire revenue line is what the FMP calls for. The uh special debt levy I um decreased a little bit from what the FMP calls for so that we could uh meet the general fund uh levy target. Um the capital levy, like I said, funds cash funds some of those projects. And then we added in a um operating revenue levy for the water and sewer funds while we complete uh the FMP because we added some significant expenses like the admin cost share charges, SCADA, comp plan. We just wanted to give ourselves a buffer so that we um can continue moving forward on some of these critical projects while doing the analysis bringing it back for decision making. Um so the final levy goal is the 7.79% which is what the FMP calls for. So you can see we're just removing the water and sewer revenue um fund line which is the very bottom um to get to the 7.79%. >> And this yeah follows the FMP >> council have any questions? So would it be easy to to or not easy accurate to say that like 90 grand would equate to like 1%. You know like if you eliminate that 180,000 it goes down roughly 2%. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> That seems correct, but I >> make sure I can add. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, and so we also, uh, like we've been talking about the we have to set the preliminary levy by the 30th. And so most cities are continuing to go through this process like we are. So we're not, you know, entirely sure where everyone else is at, but we do have some preliminary um, estimates um, from other professional staff. Uh so we have Tonka Bays 42% Excelsier Orno Minnotonka Beach Minotarista um and Shorewoods up here uh as a reference point and then for next steps I'll hand it back over to the deputy city manager. >> Great. Thank you, Mayor and Councel. I assume that Director Urban will likely come back up for some questions. Um, and I can stay up here as well if you'd like. Um, but I just want to recap what this will look like moving forward. Um, again, this tonight isformational. We continue to work through this and revise it. Um, but as Director Urban said, we'd like to select that preliminary levy at that 9.85 and then we'll work down to the FMP's recommendation of 7.79% between September 22nd and December 8th. Um, I will just say in, you know, this will be my second budget that I've been here for the final levy for. Um, and as you'll remember, last year we set it 1% above the FMP and we actually did maintain that 1% above. Um, so you know, Director Man has worked very hard to get down to the 7.79. Um, but if we were to just like tack on that 1% that we kept actually the FMP because we don't update the FMP every year, we'd really be looking at 8.79 because we kept 1% last year and we um Dr. Erman has sort of worked even within that to really reduce expenses and keep us at that 7.79 even though we did use um that additional 1%. So, um I think she's done a really fantastic job of getting us to a number that um meets that FMP despite some I think some big economic changes that we've seen as a as a country and a region. Um fuel prices are really expensive, insurance is really expensive. Um nothing has gotten cheaper since we did the FMP in 2024. So, um I think it will be very helpful for us when we update that later later this year as well. Um, building into this is also the water treatment plant. So, on October 13th, you will receive the bids for the water treatment plant and decide whether to accept bids. While this doesn't have a a budget impact in terms of like the general fund, it does have an impact on utility rates, which is part of the budget process. We set those utility rates and we'll need to set utility rates that are inclusive of beginning to pay debt service down on the water treatment plant. So, um, should we, uh, accept a water treatment plant bid, then utility rates will be adjusted. Um, on the 13th, we'll have sort of a preliminary update to what was presented in April around um, that very conservative estimate of $30 million. We already know that the engineers estimate has come in lower than that. It's at 28.5, but then we'll be able to update that and present that again at whatever that um, lowest um, responsible bid is. On November 10th, we are um planning to bring forward the city's financial consultant um to bring forward that updated financial management plan and utility rate study. So between October 13th and November 10th um we will kind of clean up those numbers even further. We will be using very conservative numbers still on October 13th for what utility rates will look like because until we get further along in the process. We won't know the full um percentage rate that we'll be able to borrow money at as well as what that term length is. Right now we've been assuming a 20-year length term, but we could get a 30-year length term. And so we are optimistic that before we set the final utility rate studies, we'll know that and have a clearer understanding of the full financing picture for the water treatment plant. Um on November 24th, we will update that updated fee schedule. So again, this is those utility rates. We're going to talk about utility rates a lot. Buckle up. It's going to be great. Um but we'll also have an updated fee schedule. I want to clarify that one of the lines that's really increasing in the budget is um fees for service. You saw that be a very large number. Those are not fees for service for residents. And I just want to make that very clear. Um that is that administrative service charge. So that charge that is an internal fee for service for um other departments to use Lindsay and myself um and our staff to do things like payroll benefits um APR. We have not yet updated any external fees that will be fees to customers. That will come on November 14th. And then finally on December 8th, you'll adopt that final levy and hold the truth in taxation hearing. Um so that is the point in which um we again our goal is to be down to that 7.79% and that will be the final um levy number that you accept. So with that, um, 50 slides later, I am certain you have questions for us. So um, thank you again, mayor, members of the council. >> Does council have any questions for either >> for the You did a great job presenting it and putting it together. Um, we're going to hear a lot more soon, so it's pretty understandable. Thank you, Lindsay, and Ila for all the hard work you did on this. >> Appreciate it. Can we get a larger print size though in the future? Thank you. >> Two slides per page. >> Yeah, two slides per page would be wonderful, but I mean I would even take four, you know, [snorts] >> talk about the handout. >> Yes. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Anything else? >> I don't think I have any questions, but maybe like feedback. Um, should we expect I guess this is a question, but like the interest I don't know what slide it was on, but it was like went from 20,000 to 100,000. Is that something that's like that we can plan for every year or does it just like >> Yeah, Council Member Castellano, that's a great question. We talked about this um a couple of times over the last year that the previous um direction from the finance department was to like extremely underbudget for that. They like used a very conservative estimate. Um all of the city's money as it stands right now is in a money market account. Um so we have a fairly good approximation of what that is. It is not $20,000. Um and so what we have done is move it in alignment with what it's and Lindsay could speak to this more um specifically. I'm not sure that that's even I think that's still a conservative number at 120,000. >> I just remember that um Lindsay was talking about [clears throat] that we could improve on that a while ago. >> That's correct. And I think another way of like looking at it is like you were kind of saying like about 90,000 is like one percentage point on the levy. And so we want to like strike that balance between, you know, being conservative, being responsible, but also being um when budgeting, but also, you know, being responsible to taxpayers because um if we're under budgeting, then we have to levy for more. And so that's kind of like where I was trying to go with that. And so, you know, it's we're budgeting for the future. And so we kind of just have to be mindful um with that. But you know, $100,000, as you can see on like the new spending slide, is a comm's position or is a parks position. And so um it does have a a serious impact um on the budget. >> Okay. >> Okay. I'm not going to go for 20 minutes or anything, but I just wanted to specify exactly what we're doing here. Um, so just remember we don't get local government aid anymore. And that was what, three to 400,000 a couple years ago. It's a lot of money. So again, talk about your 1%. >> Yeah. >> I mean, that's a lot of 1%s. So unfortunately, we have to come up with that. Um, this does stay on our long-term financial plan that we put in to place a couple years ago. That was very important, obviously, for for for me and for the council at the time. Um hopefully we can stay as close as we can. Uh last year again we we were what six uh on the levy. Um we're we were planning for five and we just left that extra there. Um what this does if if we move forward with this remember on our uh back in what February when we did our uh meeting with the meeting of the minds over in the the room over there we also we also said we wanted like communications person right this is our time that we need to fund that right and if that's still a priority that's that's good uh public works again that was another comment that you know Ryan needs more people it just is then he's been short for for a long time. Um, and then you know another thing that's really big is our finance software. Um, again, this isn't like the things that you see when you're driving around mountain, but these are, you know, we're we're on pretty dated stuff, like completely. And unfortunately, you know, when people wear hats and they kind of do that for a certain amount of time, and they're kind of like the only ones that know what they're doing, and then you get other people to come in and other people. We need a software program that actually can be more transparent to, you know, to multiple people as they come and go. Um, >> and because of [clears throat] that, mayor, isn't that why you've kind of >> taken this and stripped it and kind of started over, which >> yeah, >> is time consuming. >> Time consuming, but also really noticeable as you went through it. >> Yes. Thank you. And up software, you can actually just do budget software and not Excel. >> So, you should see her Excel spreadsheet that she put together. It's multiple everything. >> It's kind of diabolical. I can barely read it. I hope I'm I'm so happy that she knows what she is doing in there because it is it's been a lot of work. Mayor and members of the council, I want to be clear that like the spreadsheets that Lindsay is working off of, especially the 2027 are missing a lot of data. You know, you'll have like the liquor store just had like a a round number for all of the spending in all of the categories. And so we've had to try to make sense of of stuff and and to Mayor Holt's point, it's impossible to do in our current software. and um it wastes a lot of time. We aren't able to answer resident questions as well. We could never ever in a million years do utility billing at city hall with the software that we have. Um and and we know those are services that you all would like us to have. >> When when the city stopped doing their own billing, >> which was a number of years ago, I mean, we're talking what 20 years ago, 15 years ago. It almost sounds like we have never kept up with any kind of technology since then. That's how archaic it all is. >> We we outsource >> to some billing companies and you know we've approved those over the years that we're on but it's all mix match stuff, right? >> But it would be great to bring it all back in house. >> Yeah. Much more control. First thing we got to get this new software then you know that might be a process just to get it everything over there. Uh and then we can start building off of that because I've been a big proponent of monthly statement uh >> water rates, right? >> Nobody wants a quarterly statement. >> Yeah. >> It's just it's a lot and a lot of people pay it monthly by you know through the bill pay and then do the difference at at you know at the end of it. Um, so 7.79, I mean, again, if you go through our, uh, long-term financial plan back in the day, a couple years ago, that's exactly the number that we had. >> Um, we didn't go into, you know, big, uh, detail here, but, you know, we're we're in the whole lot in the water fund and the sewer and, uh, and I'm talking like millions of dollars. So, we need to we need to do this. We're going to raise unfortunately some of the these rates uh when we start talking about the the actual utility rates in in a in a month or two here. Uh and that just gets us out of the hole, you know, eventually. I think we're we're originally shooting by 2030 and I think we're on track for 2029. So, I mean, we're doing all the things we said we were going to do. We just spent an hour putting people to sleep, but it's transparent. We're throwing it all out there, right? And this is again the the original. We're going to come back on the 22nd and then, you know, if we agree with all this, we're going to approve it. So, I would say if anybody on council has any, you know, issues with this or wants to modify or change or anything, you know, reach out to them and Jesse and, you know, we'll get the final product going. And then just lastly, you know, at 7.79, we're still, according to preliminaries, we're I mean, we're still way lower than every other place around here. And I that we wanted to make a point of that also. Uh last year I think in the county can't remember I'm probably gonna screw this up but we were one of the lowest um out of the however many cities are in a county in Hamilton County. So we're trying to be very uh disciplined with the taxpayers's money. >> All right. >> Thank you. All right. 9A we got Ashlin uh Lane public lands permit. Uh Dixon >> welcome. >> That was [laughter] >> um Sher Wallace uh 2135 Overland Lane. I am the chair of the Harrison's Bay uh water quality committee and we were here last month. I think it was a month ago and talked about Ashland and our grant to put a water a rain garden at Ashlin. Um what we're here today is I think in front of you do they have a copy of the permit or I'm not >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, I guess we're here today to talk about getting your approval to move forward. Um, we have actually probably the cost of the project was going to be more like $8,000. We are using we have approved uh using Norlings um to come in and actually do the construction of the rain garden and we will be doing planting um next spring uh with the approval of Henipin County on that. >> Were they your lowest bid nor? >> Yes. Yes, they were. Um, so we're here to um and I want to thank the city for grounding down the stumps. Um, the area looks really good and prepped and we expect that Norlings will be available within the next week or two depending on weather or whatever to get started on it. Um, do you have any questions? I mean, I know we went through a lot of it last time. >> [clears throat] >> No, >> no. >> All right. >> Yeah. So, we would just need a motion to approve the public lands permit. And Harrison's Bay Association's also requesting a a waiver of the application fee, which uh would if you're amable to that would be part of the motion. >> Yeah. Someone want to make that motion? >> This is just one quick question. When you were here a month ago, >> Mhm. You estimated it would be probably around seven grand, didn't you? >> Um I think >> prior to getting bids, >> um I think our budget that we had allocated was a little less than that. Uh we have about 10,500 in grant money left. So this is 100% paid for through the grant money. Great. >> Yep. >> Give us the motion again. Uh it will be a a motion to approve the public lands permit for Ashlin Lane Commons and uh waiver of the application fee. >> Okay, I'll make that my motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Two seconds. All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed. All right. That that's approved. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thanks for hanging out. Thanks. >> All right. [clears throat] Number nine, we got 9B4805 Island View Drive Dock Program Violation Hearing. Kelly, >> I will uh start this one up. >> Um, okay. So, this is an appeal by the owners of 4805 Island View Drive um of a staff determination regarding their existing dock in the comments. The only issue on appeal is whether the dock is configured the same as last year. Meaning, is the dock in an approved location? Does it exceed length restrictions? And does it infringe on the Jason dock sites? In making this determination, the city council can affirm, modify, or reverse the staff determination. I would ask that, and you can also table it for another date, too. But I would ask that when once you make your decision that there's also a direction uh to to the city attorney to draft a resolution that is brought back um to the next city council meeting. So the process of this appeal is uh first for the city uh Mr. Kelly will provide an overview of the matter. Um then the property owners will make their presentation and then the city council can then discuss, seek more information, ask questions of staff, the property owners or me um and then make a determination um uh on the matter whether or not to uh as we said to modify, reverse or affirm. And anytime during the process when anybody's presenting the council can ask questions um you don't have to wait for the presentation to end um by either side. Um so with that in mind with the with regard to what the issues are, what the process is, I'll ask that Mr. Kelly come up to provide that presentation. Um and he's looking for like it's going to be a brief overview or overview of the matter, right? Welcome. >> Thank you. Kevin Kelly, city clerk and I'm also the doc program administrator. So, I'm just going to go through just a real quick synopsis of the the appeal. Um, so the kind of the facts of of the situation is the NYU Peter and Natalie Nus did turn in their uh doc application. Um the date was stamped February 27th. Um and there's a question in the dock application, you know, has your dock configuration changed from the prior year? And the NIOU circled their response which was no on their application that was provided in the materials that you received. So um so uh from that during the springtime the doc administrator me myself um did go out to the site to as I check you know different areas of the commons in the spring and during [snorts] the season um and I noted that the NY who dock configuration was 16 feet uh to the east and was out was 16 feet longer than what was um the dock structure from the previous year. So um I did go out and measure water depth which is another requirement that a dock is required to is the requirement is that a 4T of water depth is where your dock should end and there that additional 16 ft was was in was farther that whole length was more than four feet of water depth. So, um, so [clears throat] I didn't, you know, I did that in May 12th. I went out and measured not only the NYU stock, but the neighboring dock to the east. And then there's a city slip at the end of Devon Lane, which I also measured length and water depth from our slip. And then the two dock site, abuing dock sites to the west of the Nihus dock. and their dock was, you know, two sections, two eight foot sections longer than all the than the other docks and three sections longer than the city dock. So, um, so I did have conversations with the NIHUS um that, you know, they had not received prior approval for the for their dock configuration change. Um, you know, I requested that they voluntarily come into compliance with my request to um not infringe on the dock to the east and also, you know, to adhere to the 4oot water depth requirements and not be extended out beyond the neighboring docks. um denio is then you know I sent I sent a letter after that discussion um didn't bear um you know any um any change so um the the requested um the appeals process which was provided to them and they had a hearing with the city manager which was held on July 21st. Um after the hearing um city manager, uh denied the appeal of the NYUS and that affirmed um the decision of doc administration. So um and then from that time the nus has requested this appeal hearing with the city council. >> So so if you have any more g specific questions or anything I need to clarify certainly can do that right now. >> Does council have any questions for Kevin? You're none. All right. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Appreciate. >> All right. Do we have I'm here. Okay. >> All [clears throat] right. Can you give us your name and address? >> Yeah, I have a one more uh supplemental just a hand. Okay. >> I didn't have camera requested. This is just by survey. All right. Well, my name is Peter. I'm at 4805 Island View Drive. Uh new resident of Mound and and happy to be here. Um good evening, mayor and council members. Appreciate your time. Um we respectfully disagree with the city's position that our dock is out of compliance simply because it was moved from it its historical location. It is unclear why the length of the dock is also a concern since it was previously approved and is consistent with other docks in the vicinity. We actually purchased the dock from the previous owner and the length it length is identical to what it what we purchased. Um, the city's ordinance, specifically chapter 78 and the LMCD code, regulate whether a dock remains within its approved dock use area and avoids encroachment on adjacent sites. Notably, neither regulation requires a dock to remain in the exact position from year to year or even as depicted on an annual license application. The city's approved dock location map for our site does not identify a specific footprint alignment or location that we are required to follow. If there is a council approved plan requiring a specific location, we would respect respectfully ask the city to identify it. As noted above, we do not believe there should be any specific concern about dock length. If there is such a concern, this should be evaluated separately from the dock location. Our request tonight is simply ask for consistent application of the city's ordinance based on the standards that are actually written and approved. So, I just I want to address the two concerns that have repeatedly come up and then just um kind of wrap it up and answer any questions from from our end. But the first one being the application said the dock configuration had not changed from prior year. Uh respectfully chapter 78 only requires the annual application to provide certain information including the applicant's identity, address, signature, watercraft declaration, insurance information where applicable and fees. It does not say that the dock must remain in the exact same configuration as the prior year. Nor does it say that answering a no to a configuration change question makes any later change unlawful. The ordinance does not prohibit a dock from changing configuration from one year to the next or says that a changed configuration requires separate preapproval after an approved license application. The relevant question is whether the dock as actually installed complies with the standards in chapter 78 and the approved dock location map and addendum. We contend it does based on the ordinance, the published dock location map and addendum and the professional survey I just handed out, maps and measurements from Granberg Associates establishing that fact. Please see the supporting documents section two and three and the related exhibits that I submitted prior. The second question is the dock walkway was moved 16 ft to the east and extended 16 ft further out from the previous year. So notwithstanding the threshold issue above, the fact that the dock moves 16 feet from its historical [clears throat] position does not itself established a violation for our property. The approved addendum identifies site number 07804, but does not show a surveyed dock footprint, required center line, precise angle, or mandatory historical position. The historical placement is not the legal benchmark. The legal benchmark is the approved doc use area as outlined in the LMCD code. If the current structure remains entirely within the 07804 dock use area and does not infringe upon the adjacent city control dock site. The fact it was installed 16 ft east of its prior location does not establish a violation of 78-103C. Additionally, the city's clerk told us by phone on April 29th of uh 2025 that we did not need to move the dock on the phone. I followed up in writing to document that conversation via email immediately after. The city's clerk later said he would like to see us move the dock, but acknowledged we did not have to move it. Um, let's see here. In spite of that confirmation, we were subsequently threatened with a revocation of our doc license the day before the Memorial Day holiday. See supporting documents section five and related exhibit. We appeal this demand. See [clears throat] supporting documents section six in the related exhibits that I submitted. Uh, respectfully, we assert the real issue is the neighbor's dock, which is both larger than their waterfront size of a 40 foot lot with a 47 foot wide dock structure. And that crosses into our dock use area. This is clear both from our final exhibit photo that we provided in the submitts as well as the survey I handed out of our doc use area. Uh yet despite repeated requests, we have not been given a clear answer to the most basic question. What specific provision of the city code does our dock violate? The city manager denied our dock while acknowledging that it is within our doc use area. If the city believes our dock violates the code, then we ask the city to identify the relevant provision, include the specific standards and measurements. And most importantly, we ask that the city apply that same standard to every comparable property in Devon Commons seat supporting documents section 34 and 7, which I provided in the related exhibits. In particular, the dock at home 4857 Island View Drive appears most comparable to our dock and has been consistently improved since at least 2015. We believe that the dock complies with chapter 78 and the city's written ordinances. The written requirement is that the dock stay within the dock use area. We intend it does. The city also asserts that the dock is too long. However, the dock was previously approved and is the exact same dock that came with the home that was approved last year. In addition, a simple visual reveal of the docks noted as A, B, and C. our dock is B shows that our dock is neither longer nor larger than either of those two docks, each of which is presumably approved by the city. As noted previously, [clears throat] the dock at 4857 has been consistently approved since at least 2015, and our dock appears to be consistent with that one. We have also reviewed the city's official dock location map addendum and it is clear that docks in excess of 24 ft have been fairly regularly approved by the city. If the city contends that the dock remains too long, we respectfully request a variance pursuant to LMCD code 1.07 07 subdivision 3 which allows a variance on dock length in order to meet a water depth of 5 feet for navigation and to protect the environmental quality or natural habitat of the water adjacent to the dock. So in conclusion, we're not asking for the council to favor us. We are asking the council to require the city to treat us the same way it treats everyone else. So today we ask for a clear answer. What specific code provision requires our compliant dock to be moved? And is that exact same provision being enforced against the comparable docks throughout Denton Commons? If there is a violation, identify and apply the rule uniformly across all properties. If there's no violation, then please confirm there is no reason for us to move our dock. And in closing, we believe we have complied with the city's approvals. We're confident that our dock is within our dock use area. We have provided the survey. We simply want the same rules applied consistently that everyone else is entitled to. in light of the neighbor's dock apparently having been approved to exceed their dock use area and 7 ft wider than their entire lot and the fact that a similar similarly sized dock has been approved since 2015 we are concerned that there may be selective enforcement against us and while we hope that is not the case we want to at least draw this to your attention thank you for your time >> thank you does council have any questions for him >> I do I I don't know if this is relevant, but why did you decide to move the dock over 16 ft, which is almost on top of your neighboring dock? >> Yeah, it's it's a good question. It was like it was multiple. There's a boat house, as you can see on the survey. So, really, we have two we have two spots to move the dock. We can be on one side of the boat house or the other. And so with where the home is positioned on the property, we have young children and from our our windows in the home to be able to see them from the home. We we moved the dock over for better sight lines to see them uh was the main driver and all within our our uh being cognizant of our doc use area. It was really driven based off of our children uh visibility and just the layout of of the the property. >> I mean, it is really tight next to your neighbors. >> Well, yeah, especially because they cross over. Um and we and in full, you know, this issue as I spoke uh with the city clerk back in May or April or May, May, I believe. Um I I did speak at length uh to work with our neighbor and presented, hey, can we both move 3 to four feet each and you know do the neighborly compromise and that neighbor was was unwilling to do so. So that >> but but unwilling because you were the one that decided to completely change the shoreline right there by moving your dock 16 ft. >> Well, we didn't change the shoreline. Well, I I mean where it butts out from the shoreline. >> Looks like >> if you look at we have a boat house at the middle of the property. >> I see that. Yeah. >> So, our option are to have the dock come on one side of the boat house or the other >> but you could plop the whole thing. >> We opted to put the dock on the other side of the boat house and the boat just went on the the other side. It's the exact same configuration dock. It's the exact same length of dock. And our uh our property, as you'll see, is is 96 ft wide. [clears throat] Our dock structure is 37 ft wide. And um the 47 foot wide dock structure to the neighboring 40 foot wide lot um really uh comes into our dock use area and impinges upon our enjoyment of that site. So, it appears that you added a dock up by the boat house. Is that not the case? It looks like there's an extra >> panel. Yeah. I don't know what that's called. >> Yeah. So, the dock originally came >> off of here and now it just comes out. >> But that bump didn't that bump it out and not >> It did not because this is the exact This >> was where it came out previously. So, it extended it >> there. zero ft of extension from previous approved years [snorts] and that is shown in the submittals as well. >> I'm confused because this looks like that piece doesn't appear to be in the previous picture taken on >> No, we we added that piece but it didn't add any length. That piece just allows us cuz there's no walkway on that other on the other side of the boat house. >> Has have you had any complaints from your neighbors because you moved it over so tight to them? >> Uh the the gal or the the Yes. the 40 foot lot to the right on this photo with the 47 foot wide approved dock structure. Um they they were you know they called it and we spoke and they were uh you know uh telling us you know this is very close. we had our doc in first which which we >> which we would agree um and that's why we had initially spoken with them in in in the event of >> you know knowing that we were within our doc use area but being willing to compromise but that was uh not something that the the property owner is willing to do. >> I mean if you're talking about being neighborly I don't know why maybe even just moved eight feet instead of 16. So, you gave a little relief to the to the neighbor. >> Yeah. I think if you saw the the boat house, I think it would make more sense. >> Well, I I looked at it online. I mean, I I've seen the whole thing. I just It feels like if you flopped the whole thing, I I realize it may become an issue watching your children, but it would solve a whole lot of problems that it sounds like Kevin you're talking about here. Have you ever dinged them for having two 8ft sections too long in the past? I >> mean other other sites previous the previous >> not this site because it wasn't there was no compliance issue. I mean it's been moved 16 ft. It's pretty clear if you look at the 2025, >> you know, satellite that it's been moved. And historically, the walkways always come out from the west of the boat house. And we've had other um situations similar to this on Devon Commons one like about four years ago and the um the abuing dock license holder did shorten their dock 8 ft had similar you know wanted you know because of his boat want needed more deeper water. So he claimed you know there's claims like that every year. I mean, it sounds like we need to clarify our language in because you can't I guess we can't assume everybody's going to think we mean by that language, not moving it from prior years. So, that alone seems like we'd be good to clarify the language. >> Can I >> going forward >> respectfully ask the council to address the you know, you you'd put kind of put it back on me on the neighborly piece. So with the the neighboring dock being 47 feet wide is an approved dock structure on a 40 foot wide lot that crosses into you know the usable space that that is you know kind of the root of the issue. >> It does look like a a dock section over your >> Well hold on Mr. Mayor Mr. Mayor, members of the council, may remind you that the the issues on hand for this appeal are limited to the dock structure at 48 that's associated with 4805 Island View Drive, not the any adjacent doc structure. Um, and so your questions in the review is whether or not the confi on this review is limited to whether or not the dock configuration has changed from the previous year. Um if you remember based on the application there was a question that says has your doc configuration changed from the prior year the answer was no. So in doing looking at the dock configuration um you need to look at um what did I say it was is it in is it in an approved location does it exceed the the length restrictions and does it infringe and and it and you don't need to have it's not an an you don't need to have all those defined whether or not the configuration change those are the just the factors that you looked at look at. So the adjacent doc structure whether or not it >> overlaps >> possibly overlaps is not the the the decision of staff that that is on appeal. >> Yeah. >> I was going to say without trying to sound like flippant or snarky. It's like we can't we're not even talking about that doc. >> Correct. That's kind of what you're saying. >> Yeah. Correct. So, can you explain this drawing that he gave us and explain how property rights don't go in the water? >> No. Everybody has certain specific repairarian rights if they're adjacent to property. Um, if you The issue we have here is that Devon Commons is city property. And so the only repairing rights that a property owner would have at say 4805 Island Drive are rights that are granted by the city through the permit process. >> Um and so the lines themselves are just for for purposes what I'm looking at are probably just a indication of um possible indication of where not where the lot line extends but maybe as he's stating where his dock use area is. I have seen cases where um on lakes, not this lake, but other lakes where a judge will look at this and next thing you know the line goes like this and goes like that. So, right, >> it's until >> it's not it's just a representation, not a determination. >> Right. >> So, this boat house is on Devon Commons then. >> Is that >> right? My my understanding is that there was a uh there's a a public use permit for that boat house. >> Okay. And that's grandfathered in obviously. So, Mhm. >> Well, it's No, it's not grandfathered in because it's city property, >> but you can't build boat houses anymore unless >> Well, right. I mean, it's there. It's allowed to be there without the setback, obviously, but it's on city property, so it's only there by a public use permit. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Before we debate this as council, do we have any other questions for [clears throat] >> No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. So, we're determining a couple things. One is the uh language on the application, right? And if if it has changed or not, um what if we don't if we can't use forms and and put different verbiage on there, how I mean, is that not enforceable? Does it have to be in the code to to enforce that? I mean if every single person on the doc program is circling yes I have moved it or or no I haven't is that enough or does it have to be specified in our code? Well, a couple of things is that if it's not defined in code, then you can look at the ordinary meaning. Um, and so the ordinary meaning is um an arrangement, positioning, overall layout of a structure. That's configuration. Um, and under that interpretation, a substantial change in the orientation or placement of the dock could constitute a change in configuration. Um so I said if it's not in code you go to the or ordinary [cough and clears throat] um dictionary meeting meaning meaning and that's where that that's that's where configuration comes from. >> Um and so to answer your question even though it's not specifically in code doesn't mean that that you're you not able to um um enforce or make a determination. And does it help the fact that the city has a form that you fill out that says yes, you have moved or no, you have not, you moved? >> Well, it it doesn't hurt because the the question the specific question is again um has your dock configuration changed from the prior year. >> Yeah. And so it's it's your you have to make that. So it's it's it helps because it's [cough and clears throat] either has changed or it hasn't has changed or hasn't changed. >> So my my kind of point on this is if everybody's filling out the thing and then this uh this applicant said it did not change but it clearly did change. [clears throat] >> I mean >> well the followup question is that not enforceable? >> Yeah. The follow-up question if you answer yes then it says send us pictures illustrate the shape change whatever. So that would have been clarified right then and there. >> Yeah. >> If the process had been followed >> right and it is so it does say there configuration this is what they're looking for. >> Correct. >> Which falls in line with that dictionary me >> the process was followed because they said there were no changes. >> So that I I obviously have an issue with that. The other thing is I mean this is just common sense and no pun intended with the comments but uh this is I mean it's just yes if your doc went in first I get it but it's you know crooked you can jump to the other dock from there [cough and clears throat] like with uh council member Mcini you know flipping it you know maybe keeping the same you know 16 feet on to the east >> yeah east uh but flipping the other part of That would would make a whole lot of sense to me. Or maybe >> like if you're saying if it's like a lowercase H, you just flipped it. >> Yeah. >> I mean, then it would be right in the middle of your property line. >> Be the right way to do it. >> Well, remember we don't have >> It's not true property line. >> Well, I I guess I should say once you if you flip it, it would your boat house would I I'm not sure where your view is that you're watching your kids. Um, but even if you flipped it, it would only move it over probably eight eight feet. >> So it would just >> be roomy for everybody looks like to me. >> So the other thing is uh the depth and again we clearly have you know stated that it's 4 feet. So once we get to four feet we stop and it's 16 ft past the four feet. In my understanding that follows LMCD rules, >> right? >> So, [cough] >> so what do we do next? >> So, for me, I I think it's pretty blatant that I I I know the city manager has said you can leave it there this year. >> Yeah. >> I would have said pull it. >> Yeah. >> Personally, but said pull it tomorrow. But, >> um I guess we can decide what we want to do. Uh for sure next year. I it needs to be changed. But >> what does council want to do? >> Is this a >> I would uh >> what's it's not Well, it's not a it's not a public hearing. >> Oh, I just thought maybe they contributed. >> Yeah, I would uphold Kevin and Jess's decision. >> Staff's decision. >> Okay. Uphold staff's decision as well. There three of us. You four. All right. >> Okay. So, what do we have to do for this? meaning next year you would be moving it back to a different >> previous I'm just want to clarif next next year what it is is still the same permit process and so if he wants a different configuration >> um I would say >> yes >> well he would say and then he'd have to work with Kelly on that configur Mr. I'm sorry Mr. Kelly in that configuration. Correct. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I mean typically um especially with new of butters, you know, if they would come come to me, you know, before they put their dock out, it was optimal. And yes, we don't have hard and fast rules because shoreline ch is different. Water depth along the shoreline is different. Um the dock use areas sizes are different. There's a lot of variables that make it really difficult to have a hard and fast rules on many things in the dock program. What I've typically councled new abutters, new non-abutters, is look at look at what the length of docks are out in the water of your neighbors. That should be your guide of where you meet that 4 foot depth requirement. And you know, one of the one of the three questions was infringement of that dock to the the use of the dock to the east. When you have a boat house, you know, you know, less than 12 in from your dock, to me, that's a that's a, you know, a case of infringement. >> All right. So, what do we have to do? >> So, I what I would look for is you can make a motion. Like I said, it's the the three things that you can do is make a you can either make a motion to affirm, modify, or reverse a staff decision. And then what [clears throat] I would look for in that motion is to direct city attorney to draft a resolution of findings to bring back to the next council meeting. >> All right, I'll make that my motion. >> I'll second. >> You got a second. Any discussion? >> Can I and can I ask in there? I think the discussion was um which I you know if there is a violation considered to be a violation um based on the season do you follow um manager Dixon's recommendation on it and we and let it stay there for the end of the season >> that's what he recommended so I will go with the staffirm follow staff's recommendation yeah okay all right got a motion and a second any other discussion All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. Those opposed. >> All right. Uh, number 10, we got comments and reports from council members. Council member Pew. >> Um, no comment. >> You want to talk about the park? >> Sure. >> Well, yeah, I am working on um a little ceremony to dedicate our new signage. And the date that we picked is the first Saturday in October. It's October 3rd during and we would be overlapping with the farmers market which I think would be a good thing because this park is created because of the farmers market actually. Um and so um probably from 10 to maybe 1 or something like that. Uh I haven't gotten a response back from the historical society if they would be there to give added story to it. Um, and Gillespie is going to check to see if the um what they call it um the ukulele band would play for 30 minutes. And I've got a call out to Greg um about asking the uh um country jam group to play. So, we'll have music. I've got a face painter and um I think it'll be just a nice dedication. >> Yeah. our our farewell. >> Yeah. >> To the city. So, >> all right. So, October 3rd, 10:00 a.m. Los Lake Commons. >> Mark it on your calendar. Right. And then can we do some uh promotion material on that? >> The city to put a press release for us >> and then maybe the what are they called now? West WCC. >> Uh connect west. >> Connect west. >> Connect west. >> Yeah. Maybe get them involved. Uh let them know that we're doing that as well. >> All right. Is that it? >> That's it. >> All right. Uh, Council Member Mcne, >> um, I I've been meaning to email you and I know how busy you've been reorganizing this budget, but have we done anything to put word out for um, citizen of the year? >> Council member, we literally talked about it today. Um, >> because usually we start in July. >> Yeah. So, we will start um, I would the next week or so and then have them the second evening in November for the accepting we want to do the same day as the budget meeting. Um so yeah, we'll start working on that now. >> Thank you. >> So this will be completely digital. >> Yeah, because I had a request from someone as to who who should they turn in their recommendation to. >> Um our next newsletter is not until November, right? >> Yeah. number, >> but anybody who signs up for news and events, maybe you could add that to get floated out to >> Yeah. >> If you signed up for that portion, >> mayor, council member Mcini will put it on the website and >> but what I'm saying is, you know, when you go in and sign up for news and events, >> that would fall under news. >> Yeah. in an event when they win >> an event meaning it would come to my if I asked for tax it would come to my phone. So >> So just a thought do we want to wait until the last meeting and I know that we're going to have a lot that night but um then we can put in the next newsletter and you know say close the nominations on you know before our second to last meeting of the year. Well, when is um when is the Christmas tree lighting? >> Yep. So, that's the third week >> of November. >> Thursday. Yeah. >> Thanksgiving. It's nice if we could get them there. That was a nice touch having them at >> I'm just scared that we're not getting enough people that, you know, you get the newsletter in hand. That's >> So, you want to you want to move it a little bit later? >> I I think we'd probably get more. Yeah. >> More people. So move it to maybe the 1 of December. If we're if we're going to not do the um tree lighting, then I'd say move it to December. >> So I'm saying like yeah, if the newsletter goes out the first week of November >> and people have that in their hand for two weeks and you could say, >> you know, it's due, we'd have to do it before November 20, whatever council meeting because we have to like >> Yeah. >> go in the back room and decide who it's going to be >> getting ready for the next meeting. >> Yes. Um, and then we also need to have two weeks for them to tell the people to come. And >> when's the tree lighting again? >> Like Thursday the right before Thanksgiving, whatever that is. >> I was just [clears throat] wondering if we could even kind of promote it at that, you know, have a booth since we have stuff sitting around or something where they could fill out the form and put it in a box or something. So this so we would basically on on our last meeting of the year we would just say you know who the person is you know do the the ceremony with them probably do it before all the other budget stuff. Um I don't know just the thought it gets into more people's hands. >> Yeah. More ways we could get people to notice it. So, we'd have to make the deadline, you know, a couple days before our last meeting, like >> Friday or Saturday before that last meeting. >> Yeah. Mayor, members of the council, um I want to come up here since when I'm talking there, you can't hear me on the recording. But, um you know, I think that there's I I understand the logic of having open for a really long time, but I think what that leads to is like the procrastination [clears throat] of it of like, well, it's open for the next four months, so I'll get to it. So, I do think a shorter window is um is better from a communication standpoint because then we can just like it's due in two weeks or it's due in a month. Um so, we were planning to do that communication to come out in the next week or two and then that November 24th. Um I think even if we did it, we could still fit it in the newspaper if the newsletter goes out the first week of uh November. If the deadline is the 10th, you know, I don't You guys could make that decision [clears throat] ahead of the meeting on [snorts] the 24th or we could make it pretty quickly after people will get their newsletters rather than saying like it's in the newsletter and then people have two weeks still. It's it's the tail end of that promotional period >> and last year was an obvious win. There wasn't much to discuss, >> you know, >> so I I would say we would start the online and you know the social media promotion part >> a couple weeks before the newsletter. >> Yeah. So then we are short shortening the window. Yep. >> And you say, you know, we have from >> October 15th through November 15th. You got a month to make your nominations. Yeah. >> We'll hit them online. We'll get them in the newsletter. So at least you have a week or two to get a quick nomination in. Gives us time to talk about it and then we give them either award on December meeting. >> You'd like to do December? >> Well, I I think we're here. We're are >> Yeah, >> that part of that's my fault for not remembering to put that in the last newsletter. I I think we had maybe other ones this year. Maybe not. >> No, we have >> We had a lot of stuff going on this year. So, I >> to make it back up. I I think it'd be important to have it in a newsletter. >> Okay. We can do December 8th then. >> Okay. >> But I I agree with the shorter window. I think it'll give a sense of urgency rather than >> so we'll come up with something like middle October, middle of November. >> We're on schedule for it next year [clears throat] too. We do the shorter window. Maybe like the citizen of the year could like do the tree lighting or something. That'd be kind of cool. >> Yeah. Maybe. >> Well, it's not our tree lighting. >> Yeah. >> You know, so we have to be careful. We We're not to take over their >> Yeah. >> Good point. >> their event. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any of [clears throat] >> all right, >> I'm good. >> All right. Uh I don't have anything either. Uh let's see here. Any reports from the city managers? >> No, I'll have a few. Uh got it. We had spoken [clears throat] last week about >> Wasn't there was there There's two things that we're going to talk about. That was one. What was the other one? Oh, the other one was um moving the moving the outgoing council and board members. Uh >> traditionally it's in February after the election. >> Oh, the talked about >> volunteer appreciation. >> Wednesday. >> I'm glad I'm glad we just So, we're looking at Wednesday, December 9th. that's the day after the 8th that we're gonna, you know, have some of some of our last meetings here, you know, for you and me. >> Um, instead of coming back, you know, two, three months later, uh, do it that night at Surfside. Um, just copy what we did last year, but just picking that date and then like >> I think we did what, >> five [clears throat] or six. >> Yeah. >> Sevenish, eightish, >> somewhere in there. Just look at what we did last time. the time like it was. Yeah, it was >> 5 to 5 to 7, 5 to 8, whatever. >> So, I would just >> 5 to 7. >> Yeah. Are you guys good with that'd be the Wednesday right after our Tuesday meeting? [clears throat] >> I don't have a calendar, but it sounds good. >> Sure. >> Well, let's pencil that in. >> And then if we need to do any uh resolution or anything, I think we don't because it's minimal cost, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's It's a budgeted expense. >> Okay, got it. >> Okay, so we're going to do that. Thanks, Jesse. There's two things. >> All right. Uh, next >> Thanks, Laya. >> City Council meeting is Tuesday, September 20th, uh, 22nd at 6:00 p.m. >> And then, uh, you going to do it? >> Yeah. >> So, um, mayors and member of the of the council, the city council will be adjourning to a close session pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05. 05 subdivision 3B. This matter pertains to the active litigation of the city of Mountain versus Sylvia Roxburg, case number 27-CV-25-19479. The need for absolute confidentiality to discuss litigation strategy and for the city attorney to provide legal advice outweighs um the discussion to be um public as any discussion could result in the expenditure of public funds. I am asking for a motion to adjourn to a close session. >> All right. Can I get a motion to adjourn to a close session? >> Make a motion to adjourn for a close session. >> We got a motion. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Those opposed. All right. return.