e e e e e e e e e e e e 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 amen all right we're officially in roll call please president Mungi here vice president Matthews here member Furlong is absent member brire here member gardi here Council representative Cole is absent and for staff and ex officio members present today are executive director frandle community development director grahams and Eda secretary churny and finance director Winnick sounds good thank you very much if you don't mind i' just like to do a quick introduction of Riley Grahams um he's just started last week so he's our new community development director just wanted to awesome introduce welcome thanks for having me yes all right good can I get a motion to adopt the agenda please so moved so move a second seconded second Peter all those in favor say I I I all right approval of minutes do we need to go over anything with that or just to get approval for it no just approval for it unless there was any issues all right can I get a motion to for approval of minutes so moved so moved second so Brandon Council for um also uh Joe second all in favor say I I I thank you anybody you want to say something you're just you're not public you sit there till your turn all right good anybody online there Chris do we do online no more no more zoom that's right all right thank you all right up to you Eda thank you Eda discussions and action items we have uh Mr Winnick our finance director here to discuss several topics uh starting with Eda budgeting and Staffing welcome sir thank thank you very much uh Eda president and uh Eda members uh from our I think it was from the last uh Eda meeting we were talking about the budget there were some questions uh regarding um allocation of the Community Development director's time um to the Eda um so I'm going to kind of walk you through some of that information I'm going to give probably a little bit more than you were anticipating as far as the the budget and the financial components to it because part of it is is that we are in the process of developing the 2025 budget which you will have an input um again the final approval is up to city council but definitely want to have you participate in that so I'm going to give you some fin financial information and then the second item that I'm going to be talking about tonight is the um the facade Improvement program that has been being discussed um I've reached out to two cities so I have some information from uh the city of oale and the City of Northfield um on some of their about their program so we'll talk about that too um so the first item is going to be the Eda budget and Staffing and kind of want to give you a snapshot look of uh at the end of last year uh based upon our financial statements that have already been audited um that The Economic Development Authority um has cash and Investments of $479,000 um you have a fund balance of $528,000 so that's where you're you're you were at at the end of the year usually when you're starting to look at programs really the cash is the the bigger one to look at because you can see the fund balance is higher but uh part of that is due to that UF assets held for resale which is a a parcel that uh the Eda um owns um and obviously that's uh much more difficult to turn into uh liquidity um you know you'd end up having to sell the property to convert it over to cash um so really when we start to look at any programs or how much money you have I really like to look at the what you have cash um so you're uh doing halfway decent with $479,000 so that's uh keep that in mind especially when we get to discussing the facade Improvement program um in the makeup of that program um whether it's a loan whether it's a grant and so forth as we talk a little bit more about that one um right now the past couple of years we've been leing about $27,000 for the Eda um per statute um and I have the statute up there for you 46917 um it's a calculation based on upon a percentage um multiplied by your total estimated market value and I use the prior year um total estimated market value because it's final um finals don't come out for for a while because there can be um abatements and so forth uh that can change uh through the assessor process of open book that can change some of the values in the city so I usually calculate it on that because it can be no more than that uh amount so if we were to go to the maximum imum amount that the Eda could Levy it would come out to uh approximately $248,000 you have to keep in mind that that would be about a $41,000 increase um and again that has an impact on our our residents because that'll be passed on in their property taxes uh right now uh where we're at uh in the 2025 budget and again you can stop me at any moment ask any questions um want you to have a complete understanding because at the end of the day not today but before we get ready to um have uh city council your approval and City council's approval on the levy that we're going to launch which we have to certify to uh Ramsey County as our home auditor uh by the end of September so usually by that second meeting of the city council in uh September we certify our maximum Levy um what it means by when we certify that maximum Levy is that's the most we can Levy we definitely can come down um from that standpoint before we do a final um Levy which is in adopted usually in December after a truth and Taxation hearing so right now what we have in there is we've been actually I said 207,000 it's actually been about $201,000 that we've been levying um the last uh few years um very conservative as far as uh estimating other revenues the $2,000 is due to interest um obviously you can see that fluctuates greatly in in 2022 it was actually a negative amount because its interest in the changes that happen in Market values on your Investments and if you can remember in 2022 um prior to 2022 in Co interest rates went way way down um if you could get half a percent on an investment you were do doing well especially the the way that a local government can invest because are have to be very secure um and then when interest rates rise higher your market value on your investment and that's what we have to report it as goes down um and so we actually showed a loss even though we did get interest income uh last year obviously we did much better um as interest rates were coming down a little bit from from our investments um we showed approximately at 20,000 so the 2,000 is a very conservative um amount um that we believe that we can realize and then um there's the expenditures by category of uh Personnel supplies contractual Services we have no capital and then the transfer has been a historical transfer of $10,000 from the Eda that goes to the general fund um we will go and look at line items um and both the uh revenues um and um the expenditures and revenues um again uh there's not a lot to to show um for that um again you have your property tax levy up on the top there of that almost 21,000 um market value adjustment not budgeting anything for that you can see where both 21 and 22 that was a negative amount as interest rates are going up last year as they were dropping down a little bit uh the market value vales uh came out um better and then the the next line is your investment income and that's the actual interest that you're actually getting off of your Investments so you have to realize that the market value adjustment is really an unrealized gain or loss um but it has to be shown for uh Financial purposes um the only time that you would realize a gain or a loss on an investment if you were to sell it before um it matures we don't do that um we take it all the way through so even in some Years it'll show a loss it'll end up showing a gain later off later on and offs setting to zero um but it fluctuates from year to year just based upon the interest rates and how long of a duration the investment is for um and um right now we don't have anything um that's budgeted for refunds and reimbursements again that's an unpredictable um line the expenditures right now and this is where you'll have have a opportunity to adjust um the expenditures right now I have the revenue and the expenditures um equaling out um so there it's it's a balanced budget um we will be discussing a little bit more on that Personnel but you can see um right now for the 2025 proposed it's $145,000 in total Personnel cost and we're going to take a little deeper dive in that in a second and then um there's just a small amount for um office supplies and then you can see the different uh contractual service line items uh the general contract and Consulting Services being the biggest one and that's really what the Eda was looking at instead of having um the um econ uh the community economic or the Community Development director's position being allocated So High um because currently it's at 50% um to the Eda is to reduce that um to some percentage and we'll talk about that again in a little while here um and then those salary savings um would be utilized um and so we would end up increasing that consultant Services line item so you can hire a consultant um to do uh what the um Eda wishes to to accomplish um and so that's really kind of where our discussion is really going to take off but I kind of want to give give you an idea of where you're at with your budget now if you have any questions with that before we kind of do a deeper dive in on that salary allocation now any questions we'll take a look at right now all the personnel summary um is um allocation of time right now even all the way through 2021 all the way through 2025 the city manager is allocated at 10% of their time um the community development director we didn't have one in 21 and 22 um position was established in 23 um has been at 50% um and that was established by a former city manager and approved by city council um and then the um Administrative Assistant that's uh assigned to um the Eda U we allocate 20% of that individual's time and then um there's the assistant to city manager HR that 10% of their time is allocated so obviously you can see the biggest one is that community development director at 50% which is is a decent price tag um that's coming out in included in the Personnel Services so that's really the discussion tonight is how do we what do we do with that um how far do we lower that um in the 2025 budget if you remember in the last presentation my recommendation would be um no objection to um reducing that allocation the Eda um so you could then utilize those funds for a consultant um in the future um but if we could do it kind of over time would be the best way of doing it so what I mean by that is if at the end of the day you want to have 0% of a Community Development director's time allocated to to the Eda which I would not recommend we would do it step down over a number of years we wouldn't take a huge 50% reduction right away um because whatever reduction the Eda does gets shifted over to the general fund and the general fund then um so one way or the other is paid it's paid by the property tax owners um but this is going to be a tough uh budget year for the general fund um we have all of our contracts coming up um we have uh you know just the normal uh cost of living increases just for our supplies or contractual service agreement agreements um uh for Council Members um I did a pre-budget um look a couple of months ago and just at that point in time with a very small conservative amount that was in there for cost of living for the contracts uh we were already looking at a 7.5% Levy increase so want to frame that as we move to the next Slide the next slide is going to show you some options for you to Sure quick question bud just so just just high level what we're talking about is over the last 3 four years what we've Levi is roughly 200 Grand correct we could increase that this year but what we've levied has just offset basically the cost of staff and I mean it's just offset we're not we're not really saving any money correct me uh not necessarily yeah break that down a little bit for me yeah so if you look here at the bottom line in the summaries that was the first slide for the budget um it'll talk about the change in net position and you can see in 2021 it's a positive $143,000 okay that that means your Levy your expenditures were only approximately 56,000 while you had a levy of 198 so your position increase in other words more cash more fund balance um you can see in 22 um obviously there's a negative 56,000 the contributing factor to that $556,000 the Eda um approved a forgivable loan um that's reflected in that number got the contractual Services then we move to 2023 actual and you can see we're $72,000 to the positive so what what that is showing as an indication of just some of the past his is you have not spent all of the money that's been budgeted and so the levy that's part of the reason why my recommendation has been to keep the levy the same um because you have not used it now that definitely can change in the future um especially if you start to um do this uh facade Improvement program where you're going to start to spend um some of that money and and maybe it's above and beyond what the current Levy amount is then your net position is going to be dropped down okay well that that makes perfect what I and what I'm seeing is the Lev is coming in at 200 grand and I'm seeing you know the total of expenses of 200 Grand correct I just wanted I I understood I just I wanted to be clear oh absolutely yeah and it's just part of my preference is trying to build a budget that is balanced absolutely um absolutely you know in in other words trying to justify why you're even leving that dollar amount yeah um and so one good question I'm sorry came on in 22 right I'm sorry development director came on in 22 budget wise um was not included in the budget but yes they did come on in Mid midterm of the Year okay y so they'll be included in the expenditures um side to it y $10,000 transfer did you say something did I miss that the bottom there yeah it's uh transferred it's historically been transferred to the general fund oh okay so um will that will that $10,000 always stay the same or are we talking about if we keep decreasing the salary are we are we talking about moving more money over into the the general fund out of here I mean with that it's always an option it's not my recommendation okay that's um right now um you know between the Enterprise funds HRA and Eda because all Enterprise funds contribute to uh the general fund it's a total of like $820,000 um absorb that $820,000 on a levy hit um because you can use about approximately with our Levy $71,000 increases 1% in the levy so right there you're looking at you know um just under 12% Levy increase that that's not going to happen um over time the ideal would be to be able to get away from transferring um right you're just moving funds from one pot to another you're not solving the problem right at the end of the day right and um you know as uh you know the Eda president who's also our mayor um the in the pre-budget uh meeting that I had had was to make the um city council aware that um um of cities that are fully pretty much fully within Ramsey County we have the second highest property tax rate um and our utility rates um with the exception of Exel uh um our electric are all much higher than our local communities um and part of that is attributed because you're you're transferring funds from those um Enterprise funds the utilities to the general fund um so the general fund is not um we're not leving enough money for our core services that the city is to provide at this point in I'm hearing is that's that's not a good end solution to do that and and it should no over time that's changed drastically um way before you know that I came here and I'm not saying that I'm the one who who made this happen but at one point in time that transfer total was like $1.3 million on an annual basis so it has been dropped down um it's just that in time we should be moving it down further and further um to me that's the most sensible way to manage something um if you're transferring it from an Enterprise fund or Eda or H um it's because there's adequate funds that are in there and they're utilized for onetime purchases in other words for Capital they're not utilized for an ongoing basis um and um but that's something that's going to take again time to be able to adjust moving it forward you can't fix 1.3 million over one year no I'm sorry I wish we could but no okay yeah so here's um I gave uh six options um so uh all of the the options will show as a percentage allocated to the Eda and option number one is where your currently is at is 50% um what that dollar amount is for the 25 uh budget is you know $90,000 um and then I show um especially when we go to option two through six what the impact is on the Eda what the impact is then to the general fund because again it will be shifted to the general fund and then ultimately what the impact is on the the levy for the general fund so um again I gave options of increments of 5% if we were to look at reducing that 50% um again it's my recommendation that you know we do a a step down approach over a multiple years um to get to some sort of percentage that you know the Eda says is is what is the more accurate reflection of the Community Development director's time um that's devoted to Eda um and so if you drop you know from 50% to 45 um what it does is it reduces uh the expenditures that are in the Eda by 9,000 shifts it over to the general fund um and it increases the levy of 0.13% um and so if you go all the way down uh to option number six now we're doing we've done a 25% reduction to 25% from 50 to 25 that's $45,000 that it would save the Eda but then that shift goes over to um the general fund and it comes to a 63% Levy increase on the general fund side um and obviously if you were to reduce the Eda um Community Development to completely to zero again take that 990,000 divided by about 71,000 and you can clearly see we're we're you know probably in the 1.1 1.2% um increase in in the city's Levy and again in a reminder this is really going to be a tough 20202 2025 budget um as far as Levy um for the city so this is really kind of up to me the discussion is twofold one is there a sense or feel at this time and you can always revisit this over time is what is the percentage that you believe that you know the Community Development directors should be at and and that's probably not something we're going to be able to ask entertained today it'll be something that we'll have to revisit but what would you like to see it move from or anything from that 50% today as we prepare the 2025 budget I I have a question maybe for you guys because I went back and read a couple meeting notes but I obviously haven't gone back that far if if there's a desire to reduce that $10,000 amount which I think makes sense um this seems counterproductive that it would potentially increase the need for the general fund to need funds probably from this fund um so I I guess what was the uh was it just a question of how much how much time is devot is this position devoted to assisting the the Eda is that really the the Crux when it was when they were when the position was originally um filled it was um a hybrid Ada plus Community Development so that's where they came up with that but it didn't pan out that way so then we thought we would just use more along the lines of resources Outsource resources to be able to to get the Eda word out so okay I know did you at your last position did you do anything with the Eda or anything like that or I was the executive director of the okay interesting so how did you how did you uh go about what we ended up doing was uh and this is in the city of oio for those that's where I most recently worked as a city administrator there for the last n years I work there for 12 years in total but um what we ended up doing was uh we were transferring $50,000 in the general fund to the city's general fund to account or staff time and then about usually every three or four years we' uh all of our staff did a detailed our comp you know our check for every amount of time that we were spending on the Eda so that we could kind of rain that in and make that a little bit better but it Eed and flow with depending on project development projects happening if there was really nothing going on that mean that time really dropped so yeah so did you your position was paid by part of the Eda then partly yeah again that was that you know at one point had $7,000 transfer 50,000 every couple years we just get a reallocation of how much time is actually being spent Ona business each of our staff members that included everybody you know staff attorney well attorney was a SE staff members put together packets minutes and all that kind of stuff so you kind of kept a tally of what you did we did yeah we we tried our best to tally how did that how did that work out trying to keep it tallying to that was that successful you know it was a pretty darn good a pretty a pretty good approximation you know it's it's hard because in my position I was working multiple different things at different times and if I stopped remember of Eda time but it was you know it was a pretty good approximation because with the with the last position we had we had no idea of how much much time was and it was just one of those things how do we keep track of it is it can you keep track of it it's all dependent on what's Happening there's you not much happening and and so what Riley's suggesting should be being done on a periodic basis every couple of years it doesn't necessarily need to be that everybody's writing down each hour that they have it means that you create a survey um and give it to individuals and they take the best you know guesstimate of the percentage of their time that's allocated to different the problem that really comes down to here is that a past city manager before the individual was even hired um said we're moving forward with a Community Development director's position um to fund this 50% of their time is going to be here 20% is going to be here D now the question really comes down to is that the Eda commission has said hey guess what I don't don't really think I've received 50% of benefit from the community development director so now we we need to to kind of adjust that um now in our last meeting I had proposed do we make an adjustment now do we still want to move forward with a consultant um at that time or did we want to wait to after we've hired a community development director to see what skill sets that individual comes no in a week and a half I I I'm pretty thoroughly confident that we've made one heck of a great choice and a community development director that has a lot of experience now do they have enough 50% of their time to go towards the Eda highly doubt it um is there some percentage the thing and again we can relook at this at any point in time and we should be looking at this periodically but 50% I think is way too high um so I think we need to to and that's part of the reason I wanted to step it down um not just for the impact that it'll have on the general fund but to hopefully that we can right siize that over time um to what is actually being allocated or time actually is being allocated to the Ed Eda and then one other um Point um council member uh and I'm not I'm going to say you're you're okay um it is it is not my intention nor would I support presenting to city council if you were to drop your expenditures on the Eda because of the allocation let's say $20,000 it wouldn't be to then increase the transfers $220,000 to offset that again my opinion is we shouldn't be heavily reliant on all of those transfers especially if we're doing allocation of of the times um of Staff um that should really be where that where you heard from from Riley they're doing a transfer just a transfer where we've got a little bit different mechanism take the transfer out of the way we're doing a little bit different mechanism which is totally allowable um but it's really to look at those allocation of time um component to it also when we were discussing the position we were we didn't think we'd find a unicorn because we were like Eda plus Community Development we thought that was going to be impossible Absolut came across one anyways so maybe it's we have to understand and see where that value is to be able to help us relook at this now absolutely I was just going to say thanks for mentioning that I mean the last couple months we've walked away from the meetings of we're spending this money uh we don't feel as a board we're getting the return on investment on the money that we're putting into the staff at the time and super glad glad you're here um I would uh absolutely definitely not vote if we have a capable person uh that can lead us in the right direction as to then go and Outsource as third party that's wasting money right that don't make any sense um but I think that's that those are the frustrations we've had um that we try to resolve absolutely and I don't think we absolutely expected Riley to be sitting here which we're super glad you are here um but that definitely wasn't the expectations leaving last month um I was a Believer you're always POS okay the chair here you're you're always positive I I cool I do go back to and we're part of the overall success of the city from a budget standpoint okay I do think that we should focus on the next few meetings trying to figure out how we're going to step this down whether it's four years 5 years six years and have a plan in place MH and then stick to that plan yep not change the plan any year let's stick to the plan to help stabilize the taxes in the city at least we've got to be part of the solution not part of the problem Y and we're just we're just one part of how can we help yeah well part of the help is having a game plan seeing it and then executing it and we need to do that and if we can keep like you did at your other place where we got an idea of how many hours so that way we look and thought well I didn't realize we use that many hours or wow I thought we would use more hours so so I'm I'm and how can we how can we support Riley um to get him up to speed on things that are happening in the city projects um how can you help how can you not help this is in your exp uh expertise and understand as well as far as the budget is I know it's going to vary and and things are going to come up but a lot of the big projects has have happened in the city over the last 15 years that have finished what moving forward do we have on our radar over the next two years the next three years four years five years where are we I I do think we need to have a plan budget and there might be some V vacant properties are like you know is Eda interested in this where do you want to go but and things will pop up but I think we should have a pretty good understanding and idea of expectations of where we want to go over the next five years and then RI can be like yeah I can help you with this stuff okay how much time is it gon to take Riley like let's look at this let's let's put a game plan together here man you already started that process and also then all shut up no just like uh right across Margaret Commons over there they're calling it now that development we got all the we got all the information together the puds is it am I saying it right yep puds and got that ready to go and we got the Sidewinders so we are what we have so it's good but like I said keep moving forward and whatever we come with as far as other things but at least we know what we got now and how much it's worth we've done um appraisals which we never did before so now we understand how much this land is really valued at it's not what we paid for it how it got there whatever now we're looking at it in 2024 what can we actually do with this how much it's going to cost and understand what we what we have there yeah so that's a St step in the right direction so Dan knowing the budget as well as you do does it make sense to try to move that down say 10% down to the 40 you're I we're on the same pages I think you read my mind that's exactly where I would I would go at at first um and and the ultimate plan is I don't know where that bottom is yet y um it may be 20 it may be 30% um actually Riley probably is a little bit better gauge right now if we were to to say if you were to just give us 1 percentage what did you think on an average that you you at at oio um oh um good question um it was probably 20ish per I bet somewhere in that neighborhood that's what I would I would say probably would fall out at So the plan would be that it would be it would take us three years to get there um and every year it would you know drop down till we got to that 20% um that way it's being a good fiduciary resp responsibility of lowering the Eda showing the costs truly and and being funded from the general fund um and what that means it's it's an $18,000 impact um which is a 0.25% um I think you know it is what it is um but we do need to start making that that shift and that move um because I I firmly believe 50% is way too high especially with all the other responsibilities that Riley has there's no way you could dedicate 50% of his time to the plus we're help we don't want to add to the burden just like exactly so we're willing to you know take that 10 get more information understand what we have as far as what we're using for resources and ours and then we'll able to adjust accordingly I think that's the right way to do it and and then just at this point in time I I even though you can increase your Levy I wouldn't do that um I would take that 18,000 and move it into the consultant so we have a balanced budget but I wouldn't increase the levy until there's a plan in place that shows a demonstrated need that you're going to end up having to have more funds not free money it's not free money and that's the thing is I mean we don't we're not isn't we're just asking and you know somebody's paying for it right um and as you can see that you know you got about a $200,000 budget right now um so from a fund St fund balance standpoint I'm going to recommend which I have officially for the general fund fund balance policy of 50% why because we don't get our property taxes until well this year we'll get them June 20th so it's almost 6 months into it so you need to have half of that budget available to for cash flow so if you take half that budget you're approximately $100,000 I already showed you where your cash is at you're at $479 in cash so you're 379 above that what does your demonstrated need why you need to have a increase in your Levy it isn't there um so I would keep the levy where it is um at this point in time and and Ratchet down that allocation um and and then develop your plan Mr President I do apologize I I have a previous engagement I got to get to this evening but I just wanted to say thank you for the warm welcome and I was glad to be a part of this part of the of tonight's discussion so apprciate it looking forward to working with you all thank you everything sounds good okay now we'll move on to item number B uh facade Improvement program so I I've reached out to um Oakdale and um the city of Northfield Northfield Minnesota I'm kind of excited about the city of Northville Minnesota because their program is actually called facade Improvement um grant program um it's actually dedicated to a certain area they've got a map that shows you know which businesses qualify for for the program in certain area and it so I mean that that one really did really good but uh some of the the bit of bits of information that I had found was that um the city of Oakdell um called there's a building Rehabilitation Loan program um the program has been discontinued um they had about a dozen loans somewhere in the the range of about 10 to 20% um they uh they'd have a approximately about a 10-year uh repayment plan the terms um because I do have the information attached behind it for both of these um organizations about their programs um which I think will be very beneficial as the city tries to if the city decides to move forward with this instead of um Reinventing the wheel there's a lot of good information in there about the the terms um how they there and there's actually applications um and so forth um that's attached to your documentation but what their terms were is that it was am uh amortization over 20 years um the loan was for 5 years but you could renew the loan for an additional 5 years to get up to that 10year um program they had uh according to their community development director was approximately about a 2% interest um and then you can see this they call it standard operating policy um that's uh their program kind of defines the description of the program what what um what are eligible costs um what are the terms of the agreement and so forth um and then there's an application for that um part of why they got out of doing it um was that um in the beginning again this is a loan program so they have to be repaid uh that the city was administering it it became too cumbersome for the city to administer um and so then they turned it over to an organization um to uh to take over that administrative component to it and you know they get slight payment every month um to process those loan payments um they're no longer doing it so it moved back to the the city um and so they um according to the community development director they did away with the with the program um city of Northfield um it's a grant um so there's not that repayment it's not a loan it doesn't have interest um they started the program in 2020 ran it for three years um and then they just recently restarted it um I've got attached for you um you know so you can start to look at some of the items not necessarily that we're going to get there tonight and go through all of those components to it but it'll talk about their program terms and the eligible properties um and then um there's the an application and again as we develop ours I think these will be very good to kind of mimic or um you know instead of Reinventing the wheel um one of the questions that I had had asked um the Northfield um community development director is that um there's State statutes that are out there for HRA Port Authorities edas da D it tells you what authorities that they have I can I I can find and have it with me um a state statute that talks about um it's uh 469 9 .1 192 Economic Development loans um that says that statutory City Home R City and Economic Development Authority um may make a loan to a business a for-profit or nonprofit organization or an individual for any purpose that the entity is otherwise authorized to carry out under sections and it's basically um the rest so I can find Authority um for us to do a loan I can't find Authority for us to do a grant um so you know either need to have you know legal or somebody point out to us where that Authority is um his response to me was look through the statutes well I think I've been through them about 15 times I still can't find it I mean I and I I may I may miss it but um was talking to um our executive director frandle and uh one of the uh things that we're looking at is that okay if we can't do a grant um we still have two options one you can do a loan with some sort of bearing interest to it or you can do a loan and have it a forgivable loan um you know um the city has done that in the past and so then it sunsets you know straight line adverti it sunsets over a number of years based upon certain criteria um and at the end there's no interest and the loan just goes go away after let's say 5 years uh for sake of conversation um so one way or the other I think we can achieve um what the city is looking for um in this program um but the city and the Eda really needs to to start it is to develop you know is there a designated area that this loan is or this I I'll just say Grant even though we know Grant can be a little bit different term um that this that um eligible properties um are eligible to to utilize this fund how much money do you want to do I think uh Oakdell had a minimum of $5,000 and then they had um kind of a different caveat depending on the size of the program itself um they had that if the total projects cost was less than $100,000 they could um the again there's was a loan that you could get up to 50% up to $25,000 if it was greater than $100,000 you could get 25% of your total project cost up to $50,000 that's how they structured theirs uh city of Northfield you know a much smaller city um uh do you know the population from Northfield I was curious I'm not off the top I don't is they kind of like us bedroom they have a small I don't think they have a lot of manufacturing so they're more of a bedroom community yeah and they have uh according to community development director they right now they budget like $20,000 a year um um is what they're looking at again that can change with every budget um year um but they have it in there that the grants will pay for 30% of the total projects costs up to a maximum Grant amount of $10,000 per property um and again um so there's a lot of different variations that the Eda will have to you know discuss and and come to some sort of agreement and then draft up a you know an overall program um you know who qualifies how we go through it and kind of administer set dollar amounts and all that type of stuff but there's a lot of work that's going to need to be done but I think we have some good uh boiler plates that are attached here the to help us out in the future yeah this is this is great stuff um the one the one word that scares me in there and we've talked about it as a as a board just is loan um it's not your guys' job it's not the that's not the city's job in my opinion um you guys AR in't a bank um I personally think we should stay away from that structure it however we from a 5-year loan interest payments monthly payments who's going to keep track of that who wants to keep track of it I don't think we've ever even the the facade Improvement program that that they did before I don't believe there was any loan structured to that yeah no it was from my understanding you know you're having outside work done to your your building is 20 grand you know the city is on board to give you 10 match 50% of it you know we'll bring in I see the whole like the structure part of it for the businesses and you know deciding on where we want to Target it and have this done but I see the businesses we promoting this but the businesses and business owners putting some time and effort into this about you know I I want such and such done here are the bids for it and coming in and presenting to us M the more time that the the business owners are tied to this and have put some time into it the more they're going to get out of it rather than here's five grand here's 10 grand do let's you know have them do some due diligent make it meaningful MH and I think it's going to be more impactful uh for every body absolutely absolutely some put some time and energy into it absolutely agree Grant you feel like you're chipping in that mean it's one of those things hey you know we'll help you we want you to do this yeah and it's a relationship Builder it's a relationship Builder set some times and and have them come in and and present yep to us yeah there's are a lot of new businesses that have moved in to the city of North St Paul over the last 5 years 10 years that we might we don't know about great opportunity great opportunity to build those uh relationships indeed yeah um fantastic idea just some caution um with that is that make sure that you develop criteria make sure you develop some sort of scoring waiting um and justification make sure the process is transparent um so it would be good to have it you know being publicly you know available um and you know make sure that you're scoring it you're treating everybody you're treating treating everybody abely yeah um yeah that's that's my my caution no different than you know whether we're doing an you know an RFP um you know which is a kind of a a best value solicitation there should be a criteria you need to follow that criteria the scoring should be there you total it up and yeah and that's your winner because you're not or the one you choose because it's not based upon you know necessarily a cost component to and you want to take out any type of uh potential um you know Optics of favoritism or anything away from anything else so um but I think the program um there's a huge benefit for the city um especially in designated areas especially like in our downtown area um where the city's already invested qu quite a bit in there um Spruce it up you know the old adages you know you build it they will come the city has invested a lot in residential in the downtown area from an economic development standpoint that's building density um to make it sustainable for businesses to to be there um now it's to to make it attractive that somebody else wants to come into the downtown area um and do business so great great thoughts great program you got a lot of work to do to to we do get it get it off the off the ground sure be able to these notes Here was really good so be able to figure out some more as far as what they do for Grants and different things like that sure so those are my two items uh if there's if you have any further questions we' be more than glad to answer answer either that or I will leave you to continue moving on your rest of your business for the evening the next steps to try to get some more information about that's where we have to yeah I agree with Dan saying um I do agree with him on it's it's got to be a a strong criter criteria um you got everything you can from North from Northfield because I was reading through some of the stuff that's not allowed some of the stuff that is allowed for the improvements and things like that no HVAC no Roofing no you know stuff like that so by the way their population is 21,000 okay so but you know this their program was successful they're renewing it right now we go by just with information we got oakdale's tanked mhm Northfield smaller grants is succeeding so they're they reup it so as much as information we can get from Northfield I think to to understand what their success is would really help us yeah and you know and you know and every Community is going to be different yeah um and it's you know no different than you know looking at the right allocation for the Community Development position it's it's something we need to reevaluate so we'll see you know you kick something off you can always twe tweak it and modify it um and you try to make it as successful as possible um but uh you know I I mean you know a grant is more free money versus a loan I think you write a away start off I think with a better chance of it being successful if it's a grant and I think that's part of you know Oakdale had a loan where Northfield has a grant and we can revisit that every year maybe some years we can 30,000 some years you know it's going to be less but just without having to to raise like that to understand we have a little more control over it yeah and you know ultimately for for you know all of our residents and taxpayers that are looking um at this and saying okay well in certain ways you know your help Subs subsidizing a for-profit um organization by the flip side to it is if it is very successful and you do bring in additional business you're raising your property taxes which then helps offset um you know uh What uh you know our resident is going to be paying um over time so I mean that's what you're trying to achieve and and I leave that for people with much longer Vision than I have but uh yeah that's what you're you're trying to achieve with an economic development but yeah good information good stuff good discussion welcome to the two new members hope to see you around a little bit more thank you very much if you have any question or anybody else has any questions I usually can be found in the corner downstairs Brian lets me out every once in a while just to get some sunlight but outside of that I'm there t looks pretty good you me more than the rest of us that new pool shoot thanks Dan all right thank you very much thank you all right the next item up is the Eda meeting schedule so um for a while there we had some pretty good development going on in town um as you know that that has backed off now that we've had such a Renaissance really in development uh Once Upon a Time the meetings were quarterly um they changed when we had a lot more things going on uh it's been brought up a little while back about the potential of looking at going back to quarterly meetings and if we needed to do or meet sooner than that we could um call meeting as needed um so that's kind of what the topic is also we were waiting for our new members so we have one more to go we had some pretty good prospects um some couldn't do it so we're still looking at that but um some more to come on that but yeah we got one more one more to fill and then uh Terry said he's he's looking at winding her down so at the end of the year y exactly so just looking for input from you guys on what your thoughts are um if the quarterly would work and if we need to do it more often we can call a special meeting one thing I would like to mention before too just to understand we do have a little bit coming up here that's um um soon as the building Lily building's done we're on the clock we have a year to try to get um commercial into the bottom level of it so what happened during during the Final Phase financing retail I mean um commercial space went down so to be able to have them finish it they had part of the loan was they have a year and if they can't fill it within a year then they can start putting people on the main level is that what they preferred or they preferred real he wants to hit the ground run and help us get get commercial he'd rather have commercial there so that's why we're a little bit under the soon so as soon as they get their certific occupancy and we're ready to go we're kind of we got a year on the clock that he's you know he's he's said he's going to reach out to because they've done a lot of developments he's going to reach out to the different groups and everybody so we just got to we're going to have that kit in the ground we're hope we can rent out and see how it's going to be divided I know down there they did lower it from 14 to 10 or something like that they did lower the ceilings a little bit as far as that but there's different ways they can configure about how many spaces people need so that's going to be the one that's going to be loan of the gun for us so we have to try to hit that one as hard as we can right off the bat or if it's a bigger facility you know widen it up and they could take up two exactly that's that's where if we can find it they'll they'll be able to mold it we just have to figure out what it is you know what the size of that commercial allocations of the space is well a lot of them were live work which is you know have your little store in the front and live in the back and they were like about 1,500 square F feet something like that something like that so they had them like in a row but then people could buy two and just like condos you buy those office condos I want two then they could take the wall out or not put a wall there okay so that's kind of where they were divided at first was with they call the live work where it wasn't huge space it was long so you had your your in you know which is great for you don't have to live there but your insurance guy there you go and you want to have your microwave and your stuff in the back and then you know and then up front you know put your little tie on and go see a customer just what I need is another building your clip on tie your clip on not enough time TI it so that's the only real besides doing the that's the only one that has a little bit of urgency behind it right now so I hear you want to have another meeting sooner than later I would like to um be able to do another one um maybe do we we don't know when it's going to be done yet yeah they're talking late fall at late fall still earliest yeah okay so may that's when the year starts or is this soon as they get the I think certificate ofup yeah soon as they get that then we're on the clock Goa yep be nice to have a few people already all to go before that clock starts be just understand where kind of kick started but you know what can we do as a group to try to help that with you know understanding where rile you going to have a little conversation is this something you already talked about with that's something I we'll talk about here in a minute when I get the staff updates okay good all right so I mean it doesn't you know we don't we can meet in August I guess or if we want to keep going now we're still looking for another person what do you feel about I am I think we should meet um we've got to get this fac we've got a lot of work in front of us for this facade Improvement program um and to start helping the Lily building I I think we should meet yeah I mean even if you guys are you guys yeah I mean you okay I know you're going in between yeah I I think for me it's easier to get cut off the speed if we meet again sooner than later yeah that's what I was going to say we're new I I feel like we're probably more excited I'd be happy to keep meeting at the monthly until we figure out till we get our feet sounds good if it's a half an hour just let's bang this up out and I agree and the 4:00 still works good for you yeah is it okay for you yeah no it's fine okay good yeah yeah have to ask Tim I don't know maybe he's good yeah I think he just had something going on today okay so all right next meet next month then what would day would that be Chris is that the weekend is that good for everybody Fourth of July that kind of a yeah um so it's the week after the fourth that's the that's the first Tuesday right yep or no second Tuesday second Tuesday second Tuesday because July 4th is on a Thursday this year so it' be the second week of July yeah that's fine be outside yep all right that works perfect that sounds good that's what we'll do thank you so next up is just kind of the Eda project updates I'll just go over this quick uh article 7 also known as the previously known as The Lily project Redevelopment uh construction is well underway as you guys can see and uh plan to be completed and open to move into the fall of 2024 uh temporary leasing office is currently being set set up at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and Margaret Street so hopefully they'll start finding people that can sign up for it um Delaware Place plat is moving along Doug Anderson Anders built LLC entering into a contract for private development with the city to build 10 town home units um five duplexes of sorts on the city-owned property at the northeast corner of 17th Avenue in Delaware Avenue um preliminary plat planned unit development resoning application was submitted and that part is done they're waiting on um hearing from The Watershed at this point uh for the ponding the pond that they have to build there U then they'll move on to the uh final plat um and then move into the development agreement um and get moving forward on that uh they're excited about it in late uh marget Street Commons in late 23 staff engaged surveyor to replat the development site to combine the r development Lots separate them from the parking lot and establish necessary utility easements the plating process was complete with the final PL approval by City Council on March 19th of 2024 city-owned Parcels were conveyed to the Housing and Redevelopment Authority at the time uh a party is interested in developing The Market Street Commons uh we'll present a proposal to the city council coming up um next week um and that's actually the second one that was interested in that we've had another one as well so um we'll we'll see how that goes moving forward hopefully we can have a couple of options to choose from um Taco Bell's coming along they've uh site plan was approved in 23 they've tore down the old Oil Can Henry's building that was there and uh building permit has been applied for and been issued the project is underway pint Center uh fire inspectors went through the building about a year ago um I'm assuming people know that so that's the building on the uh southwest corner of south and 120 um so fire inspectors went through the uh the property about a year ago to make sure some of the minimum requirements were being addressed fire sprinkler system manual tested and inspected properly secured and exterior maintenance items the property only was given a list of items to be completed on the inside and have not been completed missing ceiling tiles and other items that could be addressed with a new tenant there's nothing at the time that would lead to Enforcement Officers to consider it a hazardous building or condemn it um staff attempted to reach the property owner but have not been successful in getting a hold of him I've left him a couple of messages and have not heard back from him either there was rumors that he had thought about developing the site at one time um so we're just not sure yet hopefully more information to come uh and as you know Pizza factories the last B business in that building um that has been bought out um now named buddies Pizza Factory um currently operating it but it's my understanding they might be moving out of town um in the months to come that's all other one is the one between side winders that the Eda decided to hold on to we really haven't done anything with yet yeah no good I'm glad you brought that up so the city wanted to sell the property or get it developed really um went to a developer or excuse me a realtor and the idea was the city wants to hold on to it so we can work with the developer so we can get something in there that we would rather have then somebody just buy it and then just sit on it and wait for it to you know the price to increase later to sell it and so we're looking to have the right people in there and develop it so we've held on to it and um that would be good to move on into the next part with the staff updates for that because as we were talking before with um we brought up a consultant and just so I'm clear I didn't know that uh the consultant was going to or the you know somebody with experience could take over the development um part of it or the consultant part of it because part of what they do is almost like broker work so if a developer is outstate you know doesn't live here in the Twin Cities but you know I'd like to invest somewhere in the Twin Cities how do I find out if you have property for sale the size of it and where to look for that I mean they're aren't going to know what to call North St Paul or excelsi or whatever cities you know so it's it's getting our name out there in a group to where developers when they look for that stuff they go to these groups and then our name could be in that hat um no matter who we are here I mean unless they call us we wouldn't know that that's what these services are for so and I reached out to Baker Tilly uh Brandy before she left put together a list um I talked to Baker Tilly uh she said she was going to get some information together and send it back I was hoping it' be here for the meeting today but I have not heard back from them so more information to come on that on whether a consultant is something that is worthwhile looking into and seeing if that would fit our needs as far as getting our name out there and making sure people know that we have some places that might be available for development I Mak sense I mean that's part of it where how far can you get out so people know so I mean those guys are in circles hey I got a place my wife in real estate you know oh you got looking for a house I got one over here in Hudson exactly whatever so that's the biggest part is the is the networking the word of M and clearly I mean a uh community development director is heavily involved when it comes to development agreements and working our way through the process and bring that information to council so um but it's just that extra step that we're looking for um so and the Margaret Street Commons across the street there like I said um we have had we have a lady that is going to be coming to the count or Workshop next week just briefly uh she was just going to put together a conceptual concept of maybe what they could be putting there I think the idea was probably more Apartments um but we've also had like I said we've had another developer that might be looking at that as well so be nice to be able to compare um any proposals that might come forward before Mak any decisions with those um we did have a side meeting um with one and they may be interested in asking for time to put a moratorium on looking other places or allowing other people to look at it to kind of get their ducks in a row for the finance and stuff but that'll be up the council to make that decision at that point when uh that comes forward wouldn't happen in a workshop I mean there's no official business there that we Council would make a decision on but she may stick around and and ask for that but that'll be up to you guys Department right across the street from City Hall with the fire trucks and ambulances it just sounds like it's and we are already having sometimes sizable issues with uh even the downtown area you know I mean Sentinel is a beautiful building I know the little building is going to be great as well but people really don't like having snowplows going down their Road at uh 2: a.m. and you know if you're backing up in the beeps and so we deal with that on a regular basis think that's just something to keep in mind for living right across that' be kind of tough yeah right right you hope people take that into consideration before they buy sometimes people move in and go well that's what's expected some moveing and say well that's got to change just have to realize it ain't going to change right and that is all I had for you so great thank you very much all right member updates well we don't have any updates yet we're going to have introductions because I don't know how to say your last name brire brire yes brire yep all right because I can't keep saying uh Brandon and Joe and and uh Peter I'll get in trouble for the for the official record and gig gari gardi gardi any chance you can change that there are some gag Le Aries but they're not related to us say it again gig gardi gardi gardi all right gardi I'll get it and do it brire brire yes okay got it Mr brire member brire would you please do an introduction and uh tell us about you sure uh Brandon brire uh um thanks for the opportunity um I I grew up in North St Paul I uh I am the current owner of Max Diner in Downtown North St Paul um I am committed to this town this is always going to be my hometown uh 1990 graduate of north um yeah anything that I can do to kind of keep the ball rolling I always talk about how many great things are happening in this town Town um and for you know having been around for a long time it was very stagnant for a lot of years um and in the last few years it's kind of uh you know really it's it's hardening to see the revitalization that's happening and I just hope that I can play even a small role in kind of keeping that momentum going awesome well thank you and welcome and appreciate it we always you know we appreciate your support you've given for all the different things so thank you so much thank you yeah thanks we you know we don't eat out much my family's getting bigger but we make a commitment to Max it's been kind of a thing that like it's it's an awesome Diner it's great going there thank you yes that's great why don't you go next and we'll go to the old-timers after all right I'm I'm Peter uh I am name I am Peter Gard we got to say it you got to say it I am relateded to the coach he's my grandfather um I moved here with my wife uh 7 years ago and um grew up in Hudson so just across the river Twin Cities uh Hudson is is a suburb it's basically Minnesota um so grew up in the area and and my family all all live in the surrounding area which is pretty big but um yeah we moved here seven years ago and uh briefly moved to Maplewood and then retreated back here pretty quickly and um hopefully are attempting to fix up a a house down on 18th but um you know nurse St Paul has was not on our radar when we were looking for homes but it had a great home and continued to have you know when we moved to Maplewood we we felt that loss of neighborhood life and and we're pretty quick to get back here so um we're happy to be here and and and you know doing all I can to encourage more young families to move move to North St Paul it's been great and I'm excited to be on the board and help any way I can awesome can you give some background in your business too yeah so I um I have worked for two startups so I'm a physicist by degree but um currently I'm in sales for um netw week consulting which is just business software um I've worked for two startups first one was a agricultural drone company and now I'm working for this netw week consulting company we um we opened up the branch up here uh me and and two of my brothers and uh we're in Oakdale now but maybe we'll move to North St Paul that'd be nice um we actually it wouldn't be the first time we looked at office space in North St Paul so it would be it'd be cool I'm interested to see what's what's downtown there but um yeah so my my degree is in physics but I've been working in sales and and E uh Erp Consulting for about four years now oh good nice good for you yeah well welcome glad to have you both on with us it's awesome thanks guys any update Oldtimer glad to be back in the chair and and having a meeting um super excited to have you guys be part of the meeting there are a lot of good things going on in the city um that I've seen uh over the last eight years that's how long I've been in the in the city it's it's fun to see it's fun to be part of see the growth and involvement and be a part of that little success that we can that we can provide so thanks for thanks for joining up and being part of the Eda thank you I same here I'm just excited to have us I was really looking forward to this meeting and uh being able to get together and all these good things that are happening so let's just continue and uh keep chugging at it and keep knocking it down and we'll see where we go all right if not I'll anything else I'll call for adjournment so moved so move member Matthews who's going to do second second oh M gallari no gardi gardi I was so close gardi all those in favor say I hi thank you all thank you appreciate it guys