The clock's almost 20. I'll call the uh regular housing and redevelopment authority meeting of August 18th, 2025 to order. Our um first item on the agenda is the open forum. Uh there's no one in the chambers here tonight. Uh has anyone called in or sent any messages? We have not received any messages. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh just uh just a reminder to everyone who might be viewing that you can refer to the H agenda and the and the web page for additional ways to submit comments uh for future meetings. Um then I'd like to get approval of the minutes of the regular housing and redevelopment authority meeting of July 21st, 2025. >> Is there a motion? >> I make a motion to approve the minutes. I'll second. >> All right. A motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. The uh approval of the agenda is uh there a motion? >> I move approval of the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded for the approval of the agenda. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. That will bring us to item number two, the consent calendar. Thank you, Chair Hansen. Members of the board, the consent calendar can contain several separate items which are acted upon by the HA in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further action uh by the HR is necessary. However, any H commissioner may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular agenda for HA discussion and action. All items listed on the consent calendar are recommended for approval. The single item on your consent calendar tonight is consideration of a grant of a grant compliance agreement with Penn Station Apartments LLP regarding a tax-based revitalization account grant for 6501 and 6525 Penn Avenue South. And I submit submit this item for your consideration. >> I'll move um approval of the consent calendar. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion has been made and seconded for approval of the consent calendar. All in favor say I. I. I. >> Any opposed? All right, that brings us to uh item number four uh resolutions. >> Thank you, Chair Hansen, members of the board. We're going to present the budgets a little bit differently uh this year. Um just dividing them up. We'll present the HA budget along with this resolution for approval and then as part of the separate EDA um meeting, we will present the EDA portion of the budget. So, just to let you know, this will only cover uh the first portion. So, tonight you'll be considering uh a resolution to approve the proposed 2026 HRA budget and tax levy and the 2025 revised HRA budget. Um and thank you clerk for pulling up the presentation. So to a significant degree the growth, vitality and competitive position of the community rests with the programs that are initiated and administered by the HA. The city portion of our department budget which is approved by the council is largely focused on regulatory items crafting and and administering a regulatory framework like the zoning code and the building code. The HA and EDA portions of our work are about strategic investments in our community. The revised 25 and proposed 26 H budgets continue to place emphasis on work that aims to further the desired outcomes of the city's strategic plan. Specifically, activities that aim to create a vibrant downtown, diversify the tax base, and maintain Richfield as an affordable place to live. If you could move. Thank you. The HR is staffed by the community development department and pays at least 50% of the salary of 10 of our 21 uh community development employees. Some of that staff time is reimbursed by HUD for instance uh for the administration of the housing choice voucher or section 8 program. Additionally, the H pays a small portion of planning staff salaries as well as the city manager and finance staff who support uh our work. So the total HR budget varies significantly from year to year and the fluctuations in these numbers can be misunderstood. Our work doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens alongside of private investment and often opportunities present themselves that we weren't able to predict when we were presenting the budget to you in the previous year. Increases often indicate that we've been able to utilize some of our pool tiff or other fund balances to invest elsewhere in the community. The budget also reflects pass through funding like federal section 8 dollars and grants. Um it also reflects transfers. So some of these numbers that you see on your screen here can can be inflated from what is actually being spent because some of it is reflecting money that is just being moved from one fund to another. For instance, the spending plan, if we move spending plan money to the affordable housing trust fund, it looks like it's actually being spent out of both funds. The H general fund budget is fairly stable from year to year because this is more of the staffing and administrative costs versus the large projects. you'll see um you'll see more gradual growth there. Okay. Um so I like to break down the bucket into some larger uh and simplified buckets or budget into some simplified buckets to help everyone understand the overall picture. On the tap top half of this page um you will see new money that the H will be taking in. In the past, I have included transfers in this chart, but I I left those out this year because I think it muddies things and there was some important some important pooling information that I wanted to reflect. The taxes line um is simply the amount collected through the H levy 2020. The 2026 column represents the proposed 3% levy increase. Intergovernmental revenues are funds from other government units. The majority is um from HUD for section 8, but there's also CDBG grants. You'll see a large increase um in 2025 revised because we've got $ 1.5 million more um in grant funds for this year. And now also our LAA sales tax money and bring it home money are reflected in these columns. uh miscellaneous revenues. We've got loan repayments, land sales, investment earnings, and also the value of new assets on our books. Like when we purchase a property, sometimes you can see a large jump. You'll recall that when uh the properties along 494 were donated, you all of a sudden saw a $4 million bump, but that wasn't real spendable money. And then uh the last line in your chart, this is the housing and redevelopment fund, TIFF. These are poolled housing and redevelopment fund revenues. They're estimated based on the previous year's um increment that was collected. You'll take note of the drop in those revenues in 2026 as two large districts descertify at the end of this year. So, moving on to the chart on the bottom of the slide, this is what the HR spends money on. Um it breaks down the totals that you saw on the previous page. So, personnel, pretty self-explanatory here. This is total compensation. It reflects salaries, steps, insurance, all benefits for the staff that does this work. Administration is rent, insurance, equipment, and also things like prof professional development for our staff. And then programming or operating expenditures. That's everything else. This is the money that we are programming and using out in the community. Um, and so you can see that that again can vary significantly, but that is the bulk of the H budget. it's what we're putting out into the city. Okay. So, some key takeaways uh for 2025 and 2026. Um section 8. For many years, uh the HA subsidized our section 8 program through transfers from the HA general fund. We haven't had to do that for quite some time. Transfers have been small or completely unnecessary. In this past year, however, fewer voucher holders have been finding units within the city, and that means that we are getting fewer admin dollars to keep here. When voucher holders port out or find um a unit in another city, we only retain 20% of those administrative funds. That doesn't mean that we don't do the work on the front end. We are reimbursed by HUD for work. So there there is a cost to us. And um in this case, the HR is going to have to make we we think a significant transfer at the end of this year. So there's a 7.3% increase in the H administration budget to cover that anticipated shortfall and that will transfer from the general fund budget. We have money uh in our fund balance to cover that and our section 8 staff does expect improvement on this um next year. federal funding uh as the as the county has moved to a consolidated pool for federal CDBG funding and federal funding in general has become less certain, we've identified replacement funding for programming historically uh that we've historically used CDBG for. Also, uh LA, this this is the sales tax increase that was approved by the legislature in 2023. And the 2025 certified amount is $653,000. That is significantly more than was estimated, which was around $400,000. This is one of the replacement revenue sources for CDBG if necessary in 2025 and or 2026. For uh the bring it home program, we've applied and have been approved for funding that will kick off in 2026. That is the state's rental voucher program. Unlike many of our newer revenue sources, there's a provision that allows us to use a portion of that funding to administer the program, which will be very helpful to us. We're working on implementing the housing program evaluation. Um, you'll immediately see that in our housing rehab program budget. We're increasing the fixup fund budget for 2025 revised. We were already out of money in May for that program and again increasing for 2026. 2025 revised includes funds for an additional four to five loans this year. And then in 2026, we're proposing a budget of 90,000 for that program, up from 40,000. We're also adjusting the interest rate responding to market conditions. Um we heard strong support for this um at our um program evaluation work session. We're also making staffing adjustments to increase capacity in housing. We're applying for grant funds to increase hours for our part-time housing specialists and moving our housing inspections team to the building inspections division to free up additional time for assistant director Urban to uh focus on larger policy initiatives like our 4D study. Uh and then fund balances. We've looked for opportunities to lo to use loan repayments and fund balances to fund some of our ongoing programming and that helps us to keep the levy increase lower. And then once again, we're proposing a 3% increase for 2026. So this is the history of levy increases. Uh those of you that have been on the board for a long time or on the council might remember that prior to 2019, we had always maximized the HA levy. For the past several years, levy increases have been between three and 4%. We have not uh maximized that. The median home value in 2025 was about $327,000. So the impact of the HA levy on that homeowner is estimated to be $1.50 for the year. Okay. Wanted to uh focus on some highlights for 2025 um and some of the impacts on the budget. Um despite the fact that largescale development has been slower, we have been very busy and we have uh accomplished a lot. We've been at full staff for over a year, it's really made a difference. Uh we're still short on the city side of things. Um but it has we are thankful to be whole in the H and EDA for now. Uh section 8 staff was recognized for exceptional administration of the housing choice v voucher program. And if that sounds familiar, it is because they are routinely recognized for doing such a great job. Uh Penn Station received a tax credit award at the end of 2024, so it's moving forward and hoping to start construction before the end of this year. It's currently in for building permit review. The project brings deeply affordable units, units with three and four bedrooms, and accessible units to the community. The H approved significant financial assistance to per to preserve three Noah apartment complexes uh which is a total of 236 units home to over 40 section 8 and kids at home households and EDA funds will also be port put toward rehab activities in those buildings. This is our first year of first full year of LAAHA sales tax money. Like I mentioned, we're uh expecting or we're getting $653,000, which is higher than anticipated. And we're going to have to wait and see if this is a blip related to, you know, a larger financial picture um or if this will hold up and continue. For the time being, we are budgeting again in 2026 back at that 400,000 level to be conservative. And then we've completed our evaluation of the housing programs and we're beginning implementation. Quickly continuing on some other successes. Woodlon Terrace completed its utility work. They are now on city water. That's very exciting. We had success at the legislature in this last some success at the legislature in this last um session and lobbying for an extension to the temporary spending plan legislation. that gives us add the additional flexibility that those funds allow for one more year. So until the end of 2026 right now, um with the funding um promises that we have out there, anticipated funding, we still have $2.8 million to work with there. Uh Interchange West, Best Buy, and the Urban Village tax increment districts are coming to an end. that will be um an additional $2 million increase in the city's tax capacity for 2026. So that is very exciting. The city and the HA received seven grants for H projects between 2023 and 2025 for that total of 3.3 million that I mentioned earlier. And those grants will be expended primarily in 2025 and 2026. And then we're beginning to implement um some housing choice voucher programs. the Housing Opportunities through Modernization Act called HOTMA and Inspire, the National Standards for Physical Inspection of Real Estate Voucher Program. Um, some great acronyms there. Uh, covering a couple of the programs that we are continuing to do. We continue to provide rent assistance to approximately 270 households. Uh, 253 of those are section 8. The remainder are kids at home. We continue to administer our single family programs, first-time home buyer, new home, and Richfield rediscovered. Plus, we manage an extensive loan portfolio. We plan, organize, and run the annual uh remodeled home tour. We're actually going to be shifting that to even years only, just based on the number of uh homes that we have and people that are interested. continue to provide funding for a variety of popular technical and financial remodeling assistance programs like the home energy squad, architectural uh consultation program, CE remodeling advisor, and the fixup fund. Um and then administering our 13 active TIFF districts. Again, two of those will descertify at the end of this year. Um those will bring in increased tax capacity for the city, but it will decrease the funding for administration of TIFF districts and uh for other related activities. The housing and redevelopment fund supports a number of our other programs and this has been a dedicated revenue source, a direct revenue source for those. So, those funds will go down. Uh, a few challenges to talk about. The HA's first-time home buyer program has seen uh lower utilization this year as higher in uh as there are higher interest rates and fewer homes on the market. Typically, the HA has issued 10 to 11 uh loans annually in 2024. We did 16. Um as of the end of this month, we'll only have issued four in 2025. And while we're very proud of the work um and the impact we're having through that program, fewer loans right now is letting us focus on some of those other projects like uh with the program evaluation and implementing those. So, not not a terrible thing that we have more time to do other things. We continue to work on developing duplexes on the two remaining vacant HR lots uh to demonstrate how our zoning allowances can work in the community. Those projects are proving to be very challenging financially. Um, and we continue to budget for the possibility of giving them additional assistance. We're looking for possible new partners that can help facilitate that construction. This year, like I mentioned before, we'll see a large transfer from the HR general fund to support our section 8 division. That transfer we were estimating previously would be 38,000. Um estimating now it's more in the range of 70. And so you're aware uh at the end of the year what we do, we look at our books and we see actually what um that deficit was. So we won't transfer that money if it was unnecessary. Um there are many times where we budget for a $30,000 deficit. um in section 8 and all of the admin comes in and we don't end up transferring anything or we transfer something like5 to$10,000. So um we're hopeful that we don't need to transfer that but we can't transfer more than we plan for. So that's a high-end number. Um and then again exciting to see those two tiff districts roll off. Um, but it will be approximately $360,000 less to our housing and redevelopment fund uh beginning next year. Right now, that fund balance is at about 2.6 million in that fund. So, still a lot of money to do a lot of good work, but um the money coming in will will significantly go down. Capacity continues to be a challenge even though we're full staffed. We're working um on a couple of ways to address this. We've got an application in for LCA LCA grant funds um that will help us devise new programming for our LAAHA dollars. The funds would be used to increase the hours of our part-time housing specialists. So going forward, we're going to advocate at the legislature um that we can use a portion of LAA for admin, but in the meantime uh we're looking for grant funds to help us up uh the time that our housing specialists can work on that. And we're also making some changes internally. Our housing inspections team has reported to the assistant director for many years. However, we've made the decision to move that team under the senior building inspector um at the end of this year. That helps in two ways. Um first of all, we have a lot of housing work to do and we need additional capacity on on the HR side of things. And also, we've been working over the past several years to make sure that um our departments and our divisions are set up for success, long-term success, that we're doing succession planning by putting uh by giving the senior building inspector direct reports. Um the next logical step for that position is a building official position. So, we're growing that position um and making sure it's set up um to feed someone into the building official position if that position were to open up, which it please please do not open up. All right, for 2026, uh we'll continue to work with our finance department to understand the specifics of the HR. I wanted to report that I do feel like we're making good progress with finance on that. um hoping for 2025 on this one, but it might spill into 26 that will study the impacts of the reduced 4D tax rate. Um we've completed the housing evaluation, continue working on implementation, focus on outreach, making sure that our programs are reaching the underserved communities. Um we applied for bringing it home in 25 and that program will begin in 26. We received a $1 million two-year award for that and that does include setup costs. We're looking to evaluate and market our Howned properties. Um continuing to work with Beacon to get more new and deeply affordable units here on our site across the street. Uh we've adopted the spending plan for our poolled tiff. Uh now we're working to find projects that meet our goals. Again, these high interest rates are making things challenging. um supporting other redevelopment opportunities that arise and continuing our legislative advocacy related to housing trust funds, special legislation, 4D aid for cities, etc. Uh so that concludes the presentation. Um, our recommended action is to uh adopt the attached resolutions approving the 2026 proposed HR authority or HR budget and tax levy and the 2025 revised HR budget. And I will stand for questions. >> All right. Any uh questions from the commissioners? >> I don't have a question, but I have a comment if that's in order. I I certainly think so. >> Um I just wanted to say thank you because I really appreciate all the thorough explanations because it and then you added to it this evening, but reading through the packet there was a lot of good information and then you added even more now. So I really appreciate that and I appreciate all the work the staff's been doing. Richfield has a lot of really great programs and a lot good things going on. So and I I think that program evaluation really helped so we could do that careful planning and start thinking about the long-term future. So, I just wanted to say thank you. >> Okay. Any other um questions or comments? >> Well, I I would agree with that. It this really kind of brings to light. I mean, the the great volume of work that's being done here by uh by our staff here at the city. Um sometimes kind of on a meeting by meeting basis, we you know, we hear a small part of it, but when we have a presentation like this, it really brings it to light. So, we appreciate the work. Uh there are no additional questions or comments. I would uh entertain a motion. >> I move that we adopt the attached resolutions approving the 2026 proposed housing redevelopment authority budget and tax levy and 2025 revised housing and redevelopment authority budget. >> I will second that motion. >> Okay. A motion been has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. I. I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. that. >> Okay, that brings us to um item number five on the agenda. >> Yes, thank you. Um Assistant Director Julie Urban will present the staff report. >> Uh thank you. Um, Vice Chair Hansen, members of the HA, the Housing and Reevelopment Authority has contracted uh for several years with the Center for Energy and Environments Lending Center to provide loan and remodeling advising services to Richfield residents. Actually, going back to 2017, CE administers the community fixup fund, which provides home rehabilitation loans at a reduced interest rate to income qualified homeowners. The recent evaluation of the HAS's housing programs identified this program as an opportunity to leverage investment in the city's housing stock. Approval and amended of an amended contract is needed for CE to continue providing these loans to Richfield homeowners in 2025 as the $40,000 in funds that were budgeted for 2025 have been spent in creating seven loans the first four months of this year. The proposed contract amendment includes the following changes. It adds $50,000 for the fix up fund through 2025 and it increases the interest rate from 3% to 5%. The contract also includes $90,000 in funding for 2026 along with $32,500 in administration and remodeling advising fees. Since you just approved the revised 2025 budget and the 2026 budget, it seemed more efficient to bring this contract to you, both of these contracts, um to you at once rather than come back in December for 2026. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Uh any questions from the commissioners? Uh Commissioner Hoy. >> Yeah, this this seems positive and I'm glad to support it. I know this has been a popular program and a useful a useful niche that's not fulfilled other ways. Um I'm just curious, do we keep a waiting list or do people who were rejected after May get to know that this is available? >> So CE hasn't typically kept a waiting. I I think they maybe keep a a brief one if they had an application sent in, but then they don't they keep it closed. So yeah, we're excited to get it opened back up. It will take a couple of weeks for them to get it sort of going, but our hope is that it will now be available for the the rest of the year. >> And is this the first year we've run out this early or does this happen pretty typically? >> We ran out last year as well. >> Okay. >> Now, it'll be interesting to see with the raised interest rate if it's as popular. Yeah. But >> so each loan is less expensive to us because of the raised interest rate. Right. >> Right. Just so we can serve some more people. Exactly. Um because the current rate is 7 and a half%. So, we were we were writing it down very generously. Um, >> yeah. So, just trying to make some adjustments. There's some additional adjustments we'd like to make in the future, but we need to wait until the end of our contract with Minnesota Housing, which isn't until the end of next year. So, our plan is to spend some time next. We're thinking about do we create some tiered levels, so if you have a lower income, you get a lower rate >> um and explore some of those ideas, but then it would be in 2027 before we could implement some of those ideas. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Okay. Any additional questions? I guess hearing. Oh, um, Commissioner Supple. >> Um, I was just going to make the motion. >> Okay. Very good. Um, I'll move to approve an amendment amended contract with the Center for Energy and Environment for 2025 to 2026, providing additional funding for lending services through the rest of the calendar year 2025, increasing the subsidized interest rate to 5% and providing funding for 2026 services. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second the motion. >> A U motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Okay. That brings us to uh H discussion items. Is there uh anything that anyone would like to bring forth? Okay. Hearing none, we'll go to the executive director's report. >> Thank you. I do have a couple of items tonight. The first is that I have decided to move our H attorney services back to Kennedy and Graven. You'll recall at the end of the year um our longtime H attorney left Kennedy and Graven for another firm, Julie Edington, and we followed. Um we have determined that it really is in the best interest of the HA to have our legal services under the same roof with our city attorney services. Um so while we're very grateful for to Julie Edington for all of these years um of work, we will be moving to Kendy and Graven. Um our new HR attorney's name is Ron Batty. Uh Ron has a lot of experience in uh HA. He works for a number of other communities as well. But in case you start to see his name or initials on uh documents, that's why. Um a couple of other announce announcements. Not not this one is not necessarily HR, but just so everyone knows, there's a Penn Avenue reconstruction openhouse coming up this week. It's at St. Richard's on Wednesday from 4:30 to 7. There's also an online uh opportunity to participate in that. Um so just another opportunity to publicize that. And then beginning next month, the HA and EDA agendas will be in Civic Plus, our new agenda management system. um Latana Dubois assistant um our admin assistant will be helping you to make that transition um and hopefully make that as smooth as possible. And that's it. >> Thank you. And that brings us to uh claims. >> I'll move approval of the claims. >> Second. >> Uh motion has been made and seconded to approve claims. All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, and that completes tonight's business. The meeting stands adjourned. I'd like to uh call the uh economic development authority meeting of August 18, 2025 to order. Uh we'll start with open forum. Uh people may uh refer to the EDA agenda and the uh web page for additional ways to submit comments. It looks like tonight there's nobody in the chambers. Has anyone submitted any um discussion items? >> No, we have not received any. Thank you. >> Okay. Then I'd like to uh ask for approval of the minutes of the uh regular economic development authority meeting of a of May 19th, 2025. >> I'll move approval. >> Uh is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Um approval of the agenda. >> I move approval of the agenda. I'll second that. Okay, the agenda has been uh motion's been made and seconded. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Uh it appears we don't have any items on the consent calendar tonight. Uh so that moves us to item number four for uh I'll turn over for staff. >> Thank you, Vice President Hansen. And um again like we did with the HA, I will just present the portion of the uh I will present the EDA portion of your budget for 2026 and revised 2025. Um you'll be considering resolutions approving the 2026 proposed EDA budget and tax levy and the 2025 revised uh EDA budget. All right. So the EDA was formed in 2018 to fund programs related to economic development, business assistance, and also housing assistance. There are a few wellestablished programs funded by the EDA like kids at home and transformation loan program and also our apartment remodeling program. But based on priorities identified by the council, we've been working to build out a more robust offering of business assistance programming as well. Historically, the EDA did not have uh dedicated staff, but it was facilitated by help from several people spending small portions of their time on this work. That changed significantly in 2023 when we added the economic development manager position, and it's continued to evolve as we work to meet the initiatives of the strategic plan, specifically focusing on a diversified tax base through business growth and a vital and exciting downtown. The EDA still pays a very small amount of most of these folks salaries. As we continue to build our programming, we're going to need to uh look at whether or not that is sustainable or if we'll need to dedicate um either raise our levy, dedicate a a higher portion of our funding to staff costs. Uh similar to the HA, the EDA budget can fluctuate significantly based on opportunities in the community and the market. Uh, and you'll see some of that in the revised and proposed budgets. The 2025 revised increases 27% and this is all additional program funds that we're putting out into the community. There's an additional $200,000 for the apartment remodeling loan program, an additional $10,000 to increase our SAC assistance program. That's the sewer access charge um to to increase that program budget. And then finally, our work with Civic Brand. This uh work will be covered through grant funds from Henipin County, but it is shown there as an expenditure in your budget. In 2026, there's a 5.2% increase over 2025 adopted. Uh that is primarily for staff and ongoing overhead costs. It allows us to maintain the increased budget for that SAC assistance program. And it allows an increase in our kids at home budget to accommodate additional families and larger families. um who live in larger units and therefore require higher subsidies. For 2026, the maximum levy is about $914,000. The proposed levy represents a 3.5% increase. And like the HR, a median home uh an owner of a medium median valued home in Richfield would um expect about a $1.50 50 increase for the year in 2026 based on this levy increase. So the top half of this chart like with the HR shows you where the EDA budget money comes from. Taxes is the amount collected through the levy. So the 3.5% levy increase is reflected in the proposed column. And then miscellaneous revenues, that's loan repayments, application fees, grant funds, and investment earnings. The bottom half is what the EDA spends money on. um staff. You can see what that 6.2% increase looks like in 2026. It's roughly $9,000. Admin, this is professional services like administering our loans through CE office supplies, professional development, um rent, insurance, and those kinds of things are picked up by the HR in this case. So that's why this budget is smaller. In 2025 revised, you see the bump for the branding study. Again, that is covered by grant funds. So, you also see it in the revenue. And then programming is everything else. That's the money we're putting out into uh the community into the business community. The goal here is to keep broadening our reach as we continue to build out our programming. And once again, you'll see that in 25 and 26, our expenditures are exceeding our revenues. This is indicating that the money that we've been accumulating over the past several years is going out through our programming. So, this is intended. Um, additionally, I'll remind the group that we do have the money in the temporary spending plan and that we could potentially use for some business assistance program. So, we may not even need to dip into those accumulated funds yet. We had planned to spend into those fund balances in 2024 and then didn't need to. Um, okay. So, 2025 some highlights for us. Uh, the SAC assistance program is attracting some good interest. Last year, Open Hairspace was able to take advantage and this year, a new coffee shop on 66th Street has been approved. Uh, we thought we had a third taker in the new restaurant Brim in South Square, but we were actually able to work with Matt Council um to confirm that credits already existed. Um, and so we don't need to use that. So, that's exciting. We have a little extra money there. Uh, as a reminder, a one single sack credit um costs 20 about $2,500 and a small restaurant um would need about eight credits. So, this is a very large um a very large large expense for small businesses. We'll be reloing repaid apartment remodeling funds um getting more work out of those same funds in the properties purchased by Hemple. We had a great discussion earlier this year on a new small business assistance program, Revive, and that's going to provide microloans to small businesses in aging commercial buildings. Our branding initiative for downtown is underway. Our Elevate Henipin partnership remains strong. We had two Richfield businesses taking advantage of their newest loan program. And uh most recently staff is supporting and um it was voted on by the council at the meeting last week um a pair of new developers on the purchase of a property at 6440 Nicollet for a co-working space. So um the council approved a grant application support of a grant application for that. So phew last um and then again business as usual kinds of things um but still really important work. Kids at home continues to be strong and a successful program. We're exploring ways to connect uh to continue to connect with families in the Richfield schools, make sure that they know about the program. 16 families are currently being served, but they are larger families than in previous years and um six are just starting their second year. So again, for both of those circumstances where you have a larger family and a larger unit and where you're more toward the beginning of the program, those um those families get larger subsidies, which is why we're increasing the budgets in addition to adding capacity for a few more. There's been continued high demand for our transformation home loan program. Um part of the program evaluation next steps is to reook at how to target the program uh most efficiently. apartment remodeling program. Um we are having a lot more success in fully utilizing those funds which is great. And then the energy efficiency uh business grant has been a very successful program but we're starting to see a downturn as most businesses who would have been um able to take advantage of this have. So we're anticipating spending less money here and we put that money into the small business assistance fund for 2026. And I did I forecast this for you last year that I thought we'd see um reduced takers on the energy efficiency grant and perhaps be moving funds and that is indeed what we did. Uh so as I discussed in the bit in the beginning um we've started to put more emphasis and staff time into our economic development work but the staffing time dedicated um to EDA specific pro programming remains a small part of most employees time. Um the EDA is our newest programming and all of the employees also have HR responsibilities. So that existing work doesn't stop to give us time to work on new initiatives and our work is nearly always interrupted. There are things that we didn't anticipate that are going to come up. We did not anticipate the sale of the uh three Noah buildings that just came up and was something we needed to address um and think about immediately. the recent request to apply for grant funds to help this co-working space, you know, it came up one week and we needed to do something about it right away. So, um you know, things just come up and disrupt the work. And then unlike many much larger cities, we do not have different staff to focus on policy and program creation versus administration. We are doing it all. So, sometimes it feels like progress is slow um or slower than we would like. Um but it's a lot of work. We're doing a lot of good work. Um and then the market, you know, we can only control uh certain levers related to business investment and retention. And we do not control the market. We don't control interest rates. Um and right now that market is really tough. And finally, land control. We can't force private owners to invest. Uh we can encourage it. we can offer um funding support, but it's ultimately up up to those property owners to do that. And then I just wanted to end with this great picture from the grand opening and ribbon cutting for open hairspace. Um it was just a really fun picture. So the recommended action tonight is to adopt the attached resolutions approving the 2026 proposed EDA budget and tax levy and 2025 revised EDA budget. and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> All right. Any uh any questions? Uh Commissioner Supple. >> I just have a comment if I may. >> Go ahead. >> Uh like the other commissioners, you're doing a great job and every time I hear about all these accomplishments and all you're doing. I don't know how you keep it all straight and keep it all moving forward. I really don't. But I commend you for it and congratulations for a job well done. Thank you, >> Commissioner Supple. And I also wanted to add I think the taxpayers appreciate that you levy for what you need. You don't I think it's better to not m levy for extra just so we have if we don't need it we shouldn't levy for it. So I appreciate that we're holding the um H to three and the EDA to 3.5 because it's right sizing it for what we need and so I think that's appropriate and I'll I'll echo what Commissioner Young said. Uh, Commissioner Hayer Deliri. >> Yeah, I will say I apprec appreciate you sharing the story specifically of the frugality on the sack credits that in fact it was already paid for. So, it was a great example of the programs getting interest and there was money to be saved and you saved it at no disadvantage to the city. >> All right. Uh, I will uh entertain a motion. I will make a motion to adopt the attached resolutions approving the 2026 proposed economic development authority budget and tax levy and 2025 revised economic development authority budget. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Uh motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I.