One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Uh, first up is open forum. Individuals may address the council about any item not contained on the regular agenda. Maximum of 10 minutes is allocated for the forum. If the full 10 minutes are not needed, we will continue the agenda. If additional time is needed, we will continue the forum following other business on the agenda. The council will take no official action on items discussed at the forum with the exception of referral to staff or commission for future report. So, we do have two guests tonight. Um, Donna, you're first. If you want to share your name and address, then go ahead. So, I do want to say I apologize for coming here today to talk about and my private dirt to be honest. Um, it's a big problem to me. It's not a big problem. Um, the city council I think intervened a year ago to help me get my permit to start building. Um, but we had to sign some documents with the city in order And so we didn't think those documents were going to come back to fight us. That's hard as they have. So we built our house. Um and then they wouldn't let us move it. They said we needed to spend a bunch of money to move dirt around our house and then we had to put in a driveway and we had put in grass, but we couldn't live in our house until we got all of it. So that's about 65,000. We've gone out to different contractors. Some of the contractors don't want to work with us because of what the kids been doing and they're afraid because of the infections they're having at our house that they're going to get in trouble doing our dirt. Um he bought a lot that was subdivided and so we are we're on 4 and a half acre acre preserve. There's a 10acre BM next uh not 10acre BM it's a 14acre preserve. It's a 10- foot BM that runs 200 feet long inside. And so we put in the thing they told us, but they made us draw like these lines around the back of their property that represent something. To get those lines to match, I have to probably bring in five loads of I have to hire another excavation company, even though I've hired one. But my silk fence, I have to reinstall my silk. Um, it's a big deal. And so we went back and forth and I don't know if this ended up on your desk or not, but my pretty diagram of what they want. And the pink numbers are where our dirt is now. And the yellow or the green ones are where like Albert the dirt next to us. People who bought property next to us, his father owns Schwan's construction company. They have no silk fence. Their entire yard is dirt. They were allowed to go in their house in April. The other day when they came out to inspect, I have a silk fence. There was a cop in the silk fence so I could back my property. They wrote us up and said we were in violation for this. I said, "What is going on with this?" And he said, "Well, well, I'll talk to them." And the next day, 20 truckloads of dirt poured on their yard and they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. So confused. I don't want to get clients. I don't want to do it, punk, cuz I have 60 days to get it done. I don't even know how to get it done. Talk to the contractors. Two contractors that we had for paying refused to bid for us because they were afraid they weren't going to do it right and then we were going to sue them because we wouldn't be able to use it. I'm at a loss and I don't know what else to do. That's the only two times. The reason we got in the house was because I said I was going to come. The next day they gave us this agreement. They wanted to charge us $2,500 for cash escro so they could come up and then start pile and then $400 for something else. And every time they come out it's $275. What if it is perfect? I don't know. I don't know what kind I could get. I don't know if I'm going to be able to comply. I don't know what the penalties are. They haven't I just want to explain my information. I don't know who you me to because talking to my elders getting me anywhere. >> Okay. Thank you for sharing. >> Um, Director Cody, are you familiar with this situation? >> Yeah, Madame Mayor, council members, I am. And I did provide the city administrator a detailed response to the email from the resident. >> Okay. Well, we have your information. Somebody will reach out. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have it. Say, what's your >> Yeah. Were you just signing in or did you want to speak? >> Well, welcome. No, let's find it. follow up. >> Okay, thanks for coming. [laughter] All right. Um, we'll move on uh to the next item. We have no presentation, so we'll move on to approve agenda. Council members may add items to the agenda for discussion purposes or staff direction only. The council will not normally take official action and items added to the agenda. Anyone have anything to add? All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I >> All right, that motion passes. We'll move on to consent agenda. Uh these items are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member so requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and placed out elsewhere on the agenda. Does anyone have anything to remove? I would like just a clarification on 54. Didn't prepare any staff on that, but uh I think it's pretty readily available. >> 54. >> Yes. >> Okay. Do you want to pull it? >> Please. >> All right. Can I get a motion for the rest, please? >> I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda minus 5.4. >> I'll second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I >> I >> All right, that motion passes. 55.4. >> In regard to 554, I just want to know what the amounts are that were delinquent on and the process of filing those. >> Yes, madame mayor and councel. Item 5.4 is calling for a public hearing to adopt proposed assessments for delinquent utilities. And so the process that we utilize for delinquent utilities is as of 8:31 we look at any past due balances and over a certain dollar amount they go through the certification process. So what that entails is that within the next week or two the property owners that are subject to certification will receive a letter. So I do not have full amounts right now yet. I know it has increased in the number of residents and the value. Um but individually I do not have that. Um but they will get that and they will have the chance to pay and so a month from now the first meeting in October we will hold the public hearing and that is residents chance to come and speak to the item or there's an appeal process as well and they have until November 13th to pay and then if amounts are not paid by November 13th it gets certified to their property taxes for payable. next year in 2027. >> Good. >> Thank you very much for the explanation. >> Yes. >> Move to approve 5.4. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I >> I >> All right. 54 passes. >> All right. We have no public hearings, so we will move on to general business. We have one item 7.1 adoption and certification of the 2027 proposed preliminary levy. >> Yes, madame mayor and council. It's that time of year again where we look at adopting the proposed preliminary levy for taxes payable seven. So the preliminary levy is an estimate of the amount of money a city plans to collect for property taxes for the upcoming year. So the amount that gets set tonight will be used in the truth and taxation notices or those estimated property tax statements that get sent out in November to residents. And then one thing to note is that the amount that our preliminary levy is set at tonight cannot increase between now and December. Um it can only stay the same or decrease. So the preliminary levy process started back in June. All staff were required to gather their requests or their changes to their budgets and what they needed to provide um the city services related to their department. Upon doing that, it gets entered into our budget and there's an internal review of those individual line item budgets. I believe we had our first council workshop at the end of July and that was a very highlevel um budget workshop. So in August we had two um budget workshops as well. The one earlier in the month was a half a day workshop where we spent a significant amount of time detailing out and going through individual requests and changes to that um to the levy comparative to the prior year. And then at the end of August, we had a workshop to kind of do a a bigger discussion on where do we see the preliminary levy um being sent being set. So tonight, we're here to approve that preliminary levy. Um between now and December, there will be um more discussions on what the levy will look like. Um but we do need to certify the levy to Henipin County by September 30th. So up on the screen I have the proposed preliminary levy amount. We're looking at a $20 million pre total preliminary levy that consists of both debt levies that are required based upon our debt agreements and funding sources. And then you have the general levy which consists of your general fund and your essential services as well as your special revenue funds, our capital reserves, and any inner fund loans that we do especially for our equipment borrowing. So when you compare that amount to the 2026 preliminary levy, that is a 19.28% increase. And we know that our tax rate and the amount of taxes residents pay are a factor of not only the levy, but what the tax capacity does. So in total, as of right now, we're seeing a 4.71% increase in our total tax capacity. So that that makes our estimated tax rate slightly under 45. and what that would mean to a median valued home. And a median valued home right now is about 467,000 which is about a 2 and a half% increase over the prior year. That would mean approximately a $275 increase on an annual basis portion of the property um property tax bill. Um so 19.28% is a significant increase. Um, I don't think anybody would argue that point and as you can see from many news stories going on within the state that we aren't the only ones looking at significant increases and I know that council will continue to um scrutinize the requests that are in there. So when we look a little more a little more detailed dive into what that increase is due to, we have growth driven staffing and operational increases within our union contract and then our personnel costs programmed across across different departments. So the personnel that we currently have, we saw inflationary and rate increases especially within contracts, utilities, insurance and technology. We updated revenue projections. In 2026, there was a one-time use of fund balance that we now have to factor into the 2027 budget process. We have personnel requests and that includes new requests for 2027 including a information systems service coordinator, property and evidence clerk, a patrol sergeant, a deputy fire marshal, building inspector, custodian, and program and events coordinator. The personnel um amounts also include requests that were budgeted for in 2026 that did not get budgeted for a full year due to the timing of their hiring. And then the levy also includes some increases for capital reserve savings for our information technology parks and facilities. So, looking forward between now and December when the final levy gets set. Tonight, we called the final levy to be set at the first meeting in December, which I believe is December 8th. We will continue to talk final levy. We'll go over fee schedule, enterprise budgets, and capital improvement and equipment plans. And we'll come back in December and approve that as one large budget package. So, with that, I would take any questions. >> [clears throat] >> This is my first >> on that bag or >> Yeah. Unless you're unless you're dying or not. >> Yeah, >> they don't even have it that high. >> We understand that is more than we expected or wanted as well, but there's >> Yeah, I think it's the highest in my 12 years. Um, so we've got a lot of work to do between now and final, but we've done a good amount of work so far. I'm all right with preliminary. A lot of folks are um they don't like to see the number. They're uncomfortable with preliminary, but the reality is it's preliminary and we have to communicate it and we got a lot of work to do between now and final, which is how it always is. But yes, it's the highest I've I've seen and we just >> I've seen it on seen it on Fox 9 News. That's why >> work to do. >> I'm going I got to go over and find out what's going on. >> Yep. They mentioned Roger in the 19. >> Yeah. I mean, we're not um excited about this either, but I will say there's some things that we have kicked the can down the road too far and now we have to do and that's part of the reason. So, we have um >> yeah, years of 2% increase are catching up and they're catching up at a bad time after COVID. So, Ro isn't the same anymore. It's not We moved here because it was a nice little small town and now it's >> roundabouts and just crazy. All the farmers are gone. >> Yeah. But that was by choice. We didn't push them out. They sold their >> That's right. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. I get what you're saying. I absolutely do and we agree. Um there's some stuff that we have to pay for that and there's inflation and there's employees that we have to pay and we have public safety. That's not a small amount of money. Um, but I hear you. We're going to approve this tonight so that those truth and taxation statements will go out to everyone. We'll probably hear a lot from everyone when those go out, but we still have the ability to reduce it further um before December se first meeting in December. Um and so we at this point we are pushing it forward so that those statements can go out um because there's a deadline for that and then those statements will not be 100% accurate. They're just preliminary, right? Um and then the final word is in December. So we always do this. We do this preliminary um vote statements come out and then typically people will come talk to us when they see those. >> Yeah. >> Um and we will keep trying. >> Yep. [clears throat] >> Any questions? We have booklets. I I mean it's not currently published. Um but typically at the end of the year, >> yeah, we're about 15 years late on a city hall. City hall has been squatting in public works building space for how long, Stacy? 21 years. It's things like that, big items. >> And madame mayor and councel, the 2026 budget document is included on the website and it does include our capital equipment plan, our capital improvement plan, our financial management plan. But the thing to note is that it is a point in time document. So, as those items get pushed back, we continually update that plan to push them back and figure out how to fund them going forward. Right. I was going to say what you should >> the current >> Yep. So, Madame Mayor and Council, the current information as of 2026 is available on the website. Council has not approved generally within the full budget package that gets approved in December. It's a adopted capital improvement plan at that point in time. There's still changes throughout the year, but we really don't post that until it's formally adopted within the full budget package. >> Is that in the agendas or is it in the on the website? >> It's on the website. Generally, we have this full budget book and it has um several tabs and one of the sections within this budget book is financial management plan, one is capital equipment and one is capital improvement. So the 2026 current is out there. >> So if you go to rogersmn.gov and then budget and property taxes is its homepage. Um but if you like just search on the site for budget, you'll see there's one that's it'll pop up as budget and property taxes and then the final budget from 2026 is posted here. Um the presentations from last year and the year before are all out here too. Right. So there's paper docu I mean we've we're getting them in documents that we're still talking about right now. Um but if there's something specific you want it's a lot of documents. So if there's something specific you want to see we can um Right. >> And that's the conversations we've been having. So no >> he's talking about proposed budget. >> Yeah. And madam may counsel, I would say the best way to get the current information until it's approved is to come to budget workshops when we discuss it. Um, I guess I'd have to ask our attorney as to like the legality of giving out all the documents ahead of time, but it if you contacted me, I'd be happy to share some of that information with you. >> Yeah, the budget packet budget packets that have been out for past workshops and future workshops are all public information. >> And then one more thing I'd like to note is that after every budget workshop, the minutes of the budget workshop are also posted. And that would probably be a very good place to start. We had the meeting on August 10th where that was our 4-hour meeting where we went in detail of the different um significant requests that are for the proposed 2027 budget. And so those minutes should outline the discussion that occurred. That would be under the page for city council. Any other questions? Anyone? >> No, I [clears throat] made all commentary I wanted to make, but we need to move this one forward. So, I'll move to approve resolution number 2026-8. >> A motion. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. All in favor? I >> I >> All right, that motion passes four and then we have one out today. >> All right, that was our only item on general business. So, we have no other business. Correspondence and reports are online. So, we are adjourned. >> Madame Mayor, >> yes. >> I'm sorry. We're journed. No problem. What? >> I just wanted to ask uh Brett and Dorne if next meeting we could have an update on John Deere. >> Next meeting is fine >> so we know where you're at. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat]