Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of St. Peter, Minnesota. It is Monday, September 22nd, 2025. At 7:05, we are called to order. Would all please rise for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. >> Uh, everybody should have a copy of the agenda. Are there any revisions or corrections? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as distributed? >> So move. Second. All those in favor of approval say I. I. Any opposed? The agenda is approved. Moving on to approval of the minutes. The minutes appear on pages four through six of the packet. Are there any revisions or corrections? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as distributed? >> So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor of approval say I. >> I. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. We have time on our schedule tonight for visitors. Is there a visitor who'd like to address the council on any agenda item? Hearing none, we also have time for general visitor comments. Is there a visitor who'd like to address the council on a different matter? Hearing none, we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda begins on page seven of the packet and concludes with the resolution that appears on pages 29 through 30 of the packet. The consent agenda includes uh let's see we have some tempor we have licenses and registrations. We have temporary gambling and temporary onsale liquor licenses for Nicollet County Feeasants Forever. The dates and locations are listed within the packet. We have a peddler's license for Eric Rickus DBA Edward Jones for the dates indicated within the packet. We have cannabis retail registration for Healing Harvest and Rocky Thunder Visions LLC locations and dates listed within the packet. There is a whole long list of election judges for the city of St. Peter for November 2025 elections as well as the schedule of dispersements for September 4th, 2025 through September 17th, 2025. Uh is there any discussion of any item that's on the consent agenda? Good. >> Um, I will be abstaining from the vote just due to a potential conflict of interest. >> All right. Thanks for letting us know. And, uh, any other discussion? I will only say, although I am not reading the full list of uh, election judges. Thank you to our election judges. You are vitally important and very much appreciated. Um, is there a motion to approve the resolution? >> So, >> second. >> We have a motion and a second. to call the role, please. >> Council member Sharon, >> I. >> Council member Devos, >> hi. >> Mayor Noel, >> I. >> Council member Johnson, >> I. >> Council member Ram, >> Epstein. >> Council member Weisenfeld, >> I. >> The resolution is approved. We have no items of unfinished business tonight. So, we will uh continue to our first item of new business, which is the 2025 preliminary levy. >> Members, I'll kick things off while Perry comes up to um the uh presentation table. I do want to mention to I do want to mention to start out with that um I do have an error in the resolution um that's located on page 136. And so that error is on item number one. Um and so the number that's located on that page under item number one should be 2,772,624. And so that can be confirmed by looking on page 39 on your tax theory sheet. Again, that confirms that amount. Um so I'm happy to answer any questions about that, but Perry can verify that. Um how we move forward um is um frankly me talking a little bit about process and then Perry sharing a little bit about the numbers. So as you're aware, council members have discussed the general fund budget and some of your special fund budgets over the last month or so. Um you provided us with a number of questions and suggestions related to that budget which have been incorporated into the final recommendation that you see here setting the total amount for the preliminary levy of $4 million um $614,000. I'll let Perry bring the news related to where we're ending 2025, but we do want to be clear. This brings a levy increase in raw dollars, the dollar amount, the gross levy increase to approximately $297,000 or 6.9% increase. It has an impact of raising your tax capacity from approximately 49.95 to 52.79. Um, we have and as you've discussed, bundles of information here, more than 10 and some pages of information. Um, and so we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to discuss this, ask any questions that you want, but I'll leave it to Perry to talk a little bit about maybe some of the changes and some of the things that he thinks it's most important that you are aware of. So Perry, I'd leave it to you and I'll follow your guide following the memo or any of the documents that we have included in the packet. >> Yeah, let's start on the first page of the uh tax theory spreadsheet. >> All right, >> where there's a green column on the right. That's the one. get my glasses on as I go back and forth. I'll just watch yours. Um, so what I'd like to point out, um, first and foremost is, uh, despite the increase in overall levy, we are actually tightening our belt, uh, within the general fund by 152,000 or 5% um, decrease. Uh, that's due to a variety of factors. Um, some of it is just pencil sharpening on the budget. Some of it is related to the dispatch change that we have. Some is is related to looking at how we are staffing different positions. Uh a big change also in this part that Todd's showing on the screen right now is the $50,000 increase to the library that we are levying as an increase of funding for them. So where the real changes come, if you could scroll down just a little, Todd, uh is in this debt service area. So our big two big changes for next year is um well, it's not a big change. We typically do have an equipment certificate. Uh this one is $713,000. It's with inflation adjustment. It's really in line with the equipment certificates we do each year. But the other one just above that is the $350,000 um in debt service on the new city hall bond uh which as the sideline uh gets priced tomorrow. Uh as the council knows, but I'd like to make the public aware. We had a an standard and pores rating call. uh about a week and a half ago and we our rating was changed from double A minus uh with a negative outlook to double A minus with a stable outlook which in my 30 years in government finance uh I haven't seen that kind of a change um so much of as a result of a ratings call. So, I think we really um if not a home run, we got a really solid base hit on that one and I'm really happy with what we were able to do. So, we are going to see some savings. Uh $600,000 actually over the life of the loan. Uh $23,000 a year. So, we're very excited about that adjustment. So, this $350,000 for the first year of debt service is very conservative for us. If you'll scroll down just a little bit more, Todd. And so you'll see there that as Todd mentioned a little while ago, the 6.9% that's our how much we're increasing the levy. Um that's very much in line with the increases we've we've had in the past. Um and what really matters is on the next page, which Todd is almost there, is how that levy impacts um individual folks. So, $250,000 home is going to see roughly a $17.71 a year increase from the city portion of their property tax bill. And for other folks looking at this at home or, you know, watching this video later, there's a lot of other uh property values in there so you can get a rough idea uh of what you're looking at. We don't expect the county to change the valuations materially. So, we we plan on this being um where we're going to be when the final levy comes through uh in December. Todd, if you'll move down to the next page, and we might have to slide over. That's part Let's go to the bottom part of this page. Um I'll remind the public that we've been this has this budget has not changed since our last workshop, which was seven days ago from here. Um, it's hard for me to, of course, talk about this and not feel like I'm a broken record because I've talked about the same things over and over again. But one of the things I I think it's really important uh for the public to understand is that in this budget, we are budgeting for um spending into our reserves of about $488,000. And that's all related to capital expenditures, which are one-time expenditures. We never want to deficit spend on operations. And if you go down just a little bit more, Todd, you can see what we're trying to do or what the council has expressed as a goal is to manage our our operating reserves between 35 and 50% um of fund balance. And our plan with this one and and you know, if I look in my crystal ball, I don't think we will get down to 45%. Uh but the goal is to get it back below 50% um and be responsible stewards of the taxpayers's money. Um we are not a mutual fund or retirement for our citizens. Uh we want to hold on to the money that we need uh to make ourselves run efficiently and to be ready for a rainy day or a tornado siren or something along those lines. But at the same time, we want to make sure that we are running ourselves efficiently and responsibly with the tax dollars that we are entrusted with both from our property tax holders and from all of our Minnesota taxpayers where we get local um state aid. So, if we go to the graph on the next page, you can see this is a slightly adjusted graph. Um, I'm I've chosen to to present this in a slightly different way than it was in the past where we kept capex um in there with our reserves. It's hard to do that when when especially with a city that has lots of big capital projects. This gives us a nice um something a lot more akin to looking at our operations which should not drastically change from year to year based on one project or another. So trendingwise, I think this brings us back where we want to be. Again, that 49% for 2025, we don't know yet. Um, but that's where I think we're going to be. Uh, we tend to outperform our budget. Um, largely because of vacancy savings and some other things like that, but we're always tend to be the city has always tended to be very conservative with its budget to make sure we can make that both because we do this at the preliminary level and by the end of the year, we don't we can't ask for more money. We want to make sure all adjustments between now and December have to go down. Um, and I think with that, there's lots of other detail in here, but that's the big picture of where we're going to be. Uh, again, for folks watching this meeting later or reading the minutes, please take a look at that impact page and see where your properties are. Um, understand, you know, where those changes are. We did, you know, we're making a very big investment in a new city hall and that's costing us a lot less than we originally um were hope, you know, were planning for a lot less than other cities would pay if you're building a new city hall. And I think it will really make a difference to this community um as we move out of what we've affectionately called the bomb shelter um and move to somewhere with a little more sunlight. And I'm happy to take any questions that you have. Any questions? >> All right, Brad. >> Um, no question, just comment. First of all, thank you, Perry, for the presentation. I think you did a great job explaining things. >> Thank you. >> Um, and as Perry indicated, I this is a substantial increase for next year. Um, and it is and it is attributable to the mostly attributable to the purchase of the new city hall. Um, but this is a decision that the council made with a look on the long-term future as far as actually saving the city money over the long term. The cost of either expanding on the current city hall, uh, as previously stated was 10 million um, and and projected costs for new construction were 13 million. We're going to get in for probably a little under nine or about 9 million as well as getting 18 acres of land. Um, so this is not some a decision we made lightly, but it is one that the council took a as a way to from a long-term perspective to alleviate costs in the future. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussion? We've talked about this a lot at workshops. So Carrie, >> I don't have any questions. That was a great presentation, Perry. Um, thank you. >> But I think I just wanted to say the thinking behind being on the higher end of our um, reserve policy just really is there are some unknowns um, in the future. Um, we don't know how federal and state um, changes will impact uh, and trickle down eventually. And so I think we're the council has been really thoughtful about uh, making sure that that's in in a good place. And I like what you said about making sure that our operations um don't factor into that. It's really the capital. I've not heard anyone say that before and that's something I've always thought about. So um thank you for your presentation and thanks to everyone's work on this. >> Thanks. >> Any additional comments or questions? All right. Uh hearing nothing further. Uh, we do have the resolution to consider adopting preliminary 25 tax levy collectible in 2026. That appears on 135, pages 135 and 136 of the packet. As Todd noted, there was that one correction uh on page 135. Is there a motion to approve the resolution as corrected? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. >> Council member Devos, >> I. >> Mayor Noel, >> I. Council member Johnson, >> I. Council member Ram >> I. >> Council member Weisenfeld. >> Hi. >> Council member Shstrom. >> Hi. >> The resolution is approved. >> Mayor members, the only other thing that I want to mention as a part of this is that as a part of your resolution, we do declare when you will evaluate this and review this in the future. And so that's your December 8th council meeting. In the olden days, we used to call that truth and taxation hearing. Um, but that is the date that will be put on proposed property tax notices um that your property owners receive here uh in the next month or so. >> All right. Thanks. >> Thanks, Carrie. >> Thanks, >> Moving on. Our next item of new business, Sunday liquor sales ordinance modification. >> Members, this is something that you heard from some of the licensed uh liquor license holders a meeting or so ago. um you had a discussion at your workshop and directed staff to move forward with a draft which we've published according to the state law for modifications here. As you may recall, we discussed three primary options and the option that uh the council asked staff to move forward on was the option that essentially put your ordinance for times of sale um in direct agreement with the state statute. And so that's what you see as a part of the ordinance or ordinance modification that's included in your packet. Um, so what you see here is the um proposed draft. Again, the state statute and your ordinance, should you approve the ordinance change, would allow Sunday liquor sales at 8:00 on Sundays. Um, the close time end time is the same. All other provisions related to this ordinance are the same. >> Thanks. Any questions for Todd? Dustin? No specific questions, but I did have three different establishments in town ask me to thank the council and city staff and attorney for doing this. It may seem simple, but to them having this opportunity was a big deal to them. >> Uh yeah, and I would just like to mention showing up at a council meeting does make a difference. I feel like as a group we don't we often hear from uh residents, but the fact that people took time to come to a meeting and address us about uh address their concerns to us uh really is helpful to hear directly from residents. So, thanks to everybody who came out. Carrie, >> I'm gonna give a council report later on uh the international economic development trip to Ireland that I went on, but I have to say that this resolution, this this um potential change was discussed at Irish Parliament because I shared that we were this was going to come up for at a future council meeting. And they thought that that was so interesting and how people wanted to be able to watch the game when the Vikings are over in Ireland against the Steelers. And um so I had shared that story with the senator and then now that we're connected on LinkedIn, he said, "I've been sharing that story over and over again with my colleagues in parliament." So we're famous internationally >> and and Vikings football is obviously very important in Minnesota. Um any further discussion? Hearing none, an ordinance amending St. Peter City Code, Chapter 4, Alcoholic Beverages, Article 3, Liquor Licenses, appears on pages 140 through 141 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Call the RO, please. >> Mayor Noel, >> I. >> Council member Johnson, >> I. >> Council member Ram, >> I. >> Council member Weisenfeld, >> hi. >> Council member Charstrom, >> I. >> Council member Devos, >> I. >> Uh, the ordinance has been approved. And when will that go into effect, Todd? >> Now. immediately this Sunday. >> Well, technically Sunday morning, but >> Sunday morning. [Laughter] >> All right, last item of new business this evening. Community Center lease with St. Peter Public Schools Community Education. >> Mayor, members, you've had a lease with Community Education, really St. Peter School District 508, for more than 20 years. This is for the space that they currently occupy, using it for a number of different purposes. So, it's not just community ed, it's ESL, um a number of different programs that they have. It also gives them access to the gym um for activities based on the scheduling that we've had within the past. So, it doesn't expand that or retract that in any way, shape, or form. All this does is extend the lease a few years through September 20th of 2028. So two two years and increases the lease amount 3% in each of the upcoming years which is very consistent with the modifications that you've made for other tenants within this building. Um the school district took action on this last week. So you'll see included in your packet a signed version of that. And um this lease will generate about $47,000 um in the first year and up to slightly over $50,000 in that third year. Happy to answer any questions that you might have. You have discussed this previously and I think it does show a ongoing continued great partnership and it does put many of the family services that we see in community services in one place which um has I think been beneficial to the community overall. Um, so Madame Mayor, that's included in your packet and there is a resolution providing approval for that. >> All right. Any questions or discussion? I'll just add as a as a parent and a user of our WCK programs, I've found it very helpful over the years to have uh the community education office sort of so so closely and conveniently located to our wreck program because sometimes people get confused if they're registering for a wreck program or if it's a community program. And um so I also appreciate the the relationship that we have with the the school district and the the good ways that we work together for the benefit of our community. So hearing no further discussion, the resolution entering a lease with school district 508 for community education in the St. Peter Community Center appears on page 149 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> We have a motion and a second to call the RO, please. Council member Johnson. >> I. >> Council member Ramp. >> Hi. >> Council member Weisenfeld. >> Hi. >> Council member Charstrom. >> Hi. >> Council member DVOS. >> Hi. >> Mayor Noel. >> I. >> The resolution is approved. We will move on to uh reports. My report tonight is just to thank all the organizers and everybody who who participated in the art stroll this weekend. It was the fourth annual art stroll. continues to be a terrific event and a great opportunity to shop local, support local artists, and um if you missed out on the art stroll this weekend, come down to St. Peter any weekend and shop and visit our local uh local artists. So, uh are there reports from council members? Carrie, >> um so I just got back from a trip to Ireland. It was our international economic development trip with Greater Mano Growth. I'm really grateful to the council for um helping approve me to go on this trip. I was representing the city of St. Peter, but also um as chair as the re of the regional economic development alliance, which we call Rita for short. And um it was very very productive. Um so busy. Um I gave uh at least six or seven presentations along with um Ryan VC from Greater Mano Growth to really highlight our region. And so we met with several chambers of commerce. Like I said, we met with um representatives from parliament. We umworked with various businesses um business leaders. We also um went to several universities. Ireland is really well known for investing um very heavily in entrepreneurship and innovation and to see that in person was really inspiring. And it is not just the government um invested in that. It's all it's cross- sector. So it's the universities with the governments with the government with nonprofit and then industry collaborating and so that was really inspiring to see and it was also so it was a lot of learning but also a lot of highlighting what we have to offer in our region. So when we had the opportunity to speak about our area plus St. Peter. Um I highlighted specifically our industrial park, our quality of life, um our access to major highways, our proximity to the Twin Cities. Um we had to talk about time zones a little bit. Um but one thing that they're very um interested in is what what is housing like um and and what is the unemployment rate like? And so it was pretty cool to talk about all the things that we've done um from the housing perspective creatively. Um and they were really interested in that. And I think when we work really hard on housing, we kind of think of it on the local level. Um and of course from our our business's perspective, but we don't think about like how that can attract potentially international business and industry to our area. And so um the work that we have done um was really highlighted on this trip and uh so it like I said it was busy it was productive. I went to the largest agriculture agricultural expo in Europe and we were very strategic on how we um made contacts with various businesses because there were hundreds and hundreds of vendors um thousands like 10,000 people um or more. And so we uh so Ryan BC from GMG really focused on this Enterprise Ireland tent. And then I went around to um we targeted certain businesses that would that would be more than likely to consider setting up um their business or expanding in our area. And so I met face tof face with those people, collected business cards. Um, I've had over 20 LinkedIn requests from people that I've met and then several messages, follow-ups. So, I feel like it was very productive and it was a really good use of time and I'm just again grateful for the opportunity. Um, and it was just, I think, a a well, um, it was a great use of, you know, our resources and I'm very conscious of, you know, how we spend our resources and to send me there is a big deal and I I hope that I represented, um, well, and I think I did. So, um, it's so fun to talk about the greater Mano area and especially St. Peter. And what was also great was having brought along two other St. Peter folks. So we had Hannah Bretts from the Small Business Development Center and also Tara Caden Head from Gustavis who also got to highlight how great St. Peter is our amazing institution that we have um Gustavis and their um efforts to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship as well. Um so it was a great trip and it's been fun to talk about and to share pictures. So, if anyone wants to see pictures, they're on my council page. >> And I'll be giving um presentations uh the for the next few months on the trip um with Ryan VC. So, we'll try to hit up hopefully uh the St. Peter Chamber at some point. >> Be great to keep us in the loop and when you do those presentations. >> Yeah. Thank you, Carrie. Any other reports? Mayor numbers, I'm hoping um that I have a couple council members that will chime in related to the Senate, what we would commonly call the Senate Bonding Committee was here last week. So um Council Member Sharstrom and Deboss were there. Um they talked about our three primary requests from the state of Minnesota. One of course is Gorman Park, one of course is utilities under Highway 169, and then the third is a wastewater treatment plant. So gentlemen, if you'd be willing to share a little bit about your thoughts about it, that'd be great. >> Absolutely. I'll start. So, we had the bonding committee meet us at Gorman Park and all of the members of the committee and their staffers got off the bus. Um, we were able to spoil them with cookies from the co-op and that kept them standing there and and actually keeping their mouth shut and and listening for a little bit. Um, so we gave our presentation about our same bonding request we've been working on for essentially three years at this point in time. and we w gave the request pointed out that we have funded nearly 50% of the project already and we have additional grants coming in and funds coming in and we're asking for a very small portion. They seemed receptive. We then walked around to the other side of the park and they asked questions about what was going in and what was part of phase one, what was part of phase two and hopefully fingers crossed it will get in the bonding bill again and they will actually pass one. >> Brad, you want to share about you were like uh you were talking utilities. >> I was talking utility. I have the super exciting job of wastewater >> and utilities in general um and just running into random extended family members. But when you have 62 cousins, it's going to happen. Um uh but yeah, so I I uh the first thing I highlighted was uh our need for upgrading our wastewater treatment plant and the 15 to$8 million ask we have on that. Um thing I pointed out was while we have uh what while there are guidelines that say based off of St. median income uh that that we can afford more. I actually showed thank thank you to Perry for pulling the for pulling the rates of our neighboring communities how an average family like mine um how our utility bill how our wastewater bill would stack up to our communities and I showed particularly like compared to Mano compared to the lake we are significantly higher um and we're higher than North Mano. So, while they we're while they say we could potentially afford more, my point to them is we're already paying more. My other point to them was one of our largest uh uh users is the state of Minnesota in the regional treatment center. So, any rates that any rate increases we pass along are going to have to be borne by the regional treatment center. Um I and that did actually not that part not the original treatment center but the part of showing what our rates were compared to our other communities. That was very helpful and I and thank you again to Perry for being able to provide that. I think that caught their attention when they were able to see stacked on top of each other St. Peter compared to Mano compared to the other cities. Um and then also just brought up and ask for well in two years we're going to see 169 torn up on the north side of town. We've got a lot of utility work going on. We have about $2 million worth of utility work. Other communities uh along 169 have put in a similar ask that we we would like some help. Um we would like some help paying for this utility work. Once again, it comes down to any assistance we don't get will go end up going on the rate payers and um and once again that will be borne out. Um we're already paying more. So, we would like a little assistance because of the fact that we're taking care of our system in advance versus waiting for it to deteriorate such to such a spot that it's an emergency issue. Um, we're trying to save money by doing it now versus kicking the can down the road when it's more expensive. Um, so and so it, you know, utilities and wastewater aren't exciting, but I did catch their attention. Um, it it I think it's a good uh good example of providing examples and comparisons to your na to your neighbors so that they can actually see what you're talking about versus just saying we don't want to pay more. It's see we're already paying more. >> Well, I have to disagree with something you said. When since when are wastewater and utilities not exciting stuff? Brad Pet's got to agree with me on that. you followed up presentation. >> All right, that's true. But they're critically important and people definitely notice when they're not working. So, >> thanks to both of you for uh participating in that staff. >> Yeah. Yeah. We want to thank the um bonding committee for stopping by. Certainly, Senator Papus, who's the chair there and the administrative exec there, uh Jake was fantastic. We will have likely very likely another another visit from the housing capital Finance Committee or the House Bonding Committee. So, we would expect that to be the third week of October. Stay tuned for more information on that. It's just in kind of the early planning stages, but um we'll be ready. And uh some of the information I think that we provided was really well done. And uh never hurts to have a really good cookie when they stop by at four o'clock in the afternoon. So, >> that was great. True. Yeah. [Laughter] Madame Mayor, I don't have any other reports unless other council members have reports. >> All right, I'm not seeing any hands come up. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So move second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Thanks everybody.