Roseville City Council — Transcript
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month Proclamation
Support for Somali Community
2026 Budget and Tax Levy Adoption
Franchise Fees for Electric and Gas Utilities
EDA Tax Levy for 2026
Liquor License Renewals
Votes (7)
Proclamation: Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Stron [0:09:50] · Seconded by Council member Schroeder [0:09:50]
The council discussed the importance of raising awareness about human trafficking, noting its presence in Roseville and the protective measures of Minnesota's Safe Harbor law. The proclamation aimed to promote safe, healthy communities.
2026 Budget Resolution (Attachment 3)
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Grath [1:38:15] · Seconded by Council member Stron [1:38:15]
The council reviewed and approved the 2026 city budget, which totaled $82,818,474. This budget incorporates funding for public safety personnel, accounts for received grants (Safer and Cops), and reflects efforts to manage rising costs while maintaining services. Council members acknowledged the difficulty of making cuts without impacting essential services.
2026 City Tax Levy Resolution (Attachment 4, Scenario 2)
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Strong [1:49:00] · Seconded by Council member Schroeder [1:49:00]
The council debated three scenarios for the tax levy, weighing the impact on residents and the need to fund capital improvements. They selected Scenario 2, which involves a 7.59% levy increase, supported by franchise fees that help shore up capital funds (adding $2.8 million to capital). This approach was favored for its balance between lowering the property tax percentage and ensuring the long-term health of city infrastructure funding.
2026 EDA Tax Levy Resolution (Attachment 5)
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Stron [1:55:00] · Seconded by Council member Grath [1:55:00]
The council approved the EDA tax levy for 2026 at a reduced amount of $264,826. This reflected the EDA's continued efficiency and value to the city, even with budget adjustments.
Electric and Gas Franchise Fee Ordinances (Attachments 6 & 7)
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Grath [1:56:30] · Seconded by Council member Schroeder [1:56:30]
The council moved to adopt the franchise fee ordinances, which will implement a monthly charge for electric and gas utilities. This decision was driven by the desire to diversify city revenue, distribute costs more broadly (including to tax-exempt properties), and fund capital improvements without solely relying on property tax increases. The fees are a flat rate, not dependent on property value.
Publication Resolutions for Franchise Fee Ordinances
Dissent: None
Moved by Council member Schroeder [2:01:00] · Seconded by Council member Stron [2:01:00]
To save costs, the council approved resolutions allowing the publication of summaries of the newly adopted gas and electric franchise fee ordinances, rather than the full text, in the city's newspaper of choice. This required a supermajority vote.
Liquor License Renewals
Dissent: No action taken in provided transcript
The council held a public hearing for two liquor license renewals. One was for Red Lobster, which had a history of four compliance failures over 38 months. The other was for Breakthrough Rosedale, a newly approved license for a location in Rosedale Mall that was awaiting final paperwork before opening. A representative from Red Lobster was present to comment.
Notable Quotes (8)
The city of Roseville declares January of 2026 as human trafficking awareness and prevention month in the city.
So, yeah, the base budget was 81 million. Some change here with the addition of the public safety uh personnel and and such. Uh 82,882,818,474. A lot of numbers there. So, uh so $82 million. So, it's different from what was presented. That was the base budget in August. And since that time, we've advanced to add the...
But people also want services. So whenever I ask people, you know, where should we cut, I don't get much of a they don't want to cut parks, they don't want to cut the police, they don't want to cut the fire department. These are the major expenditures in our budget. So um I guess I'm just trying to explain where I'm coming from approving this budget. It isn't something we've taken lightly.
To me, that is um obviously way too high. I and I I hear that loud and clear. I see that in in in my own property tax statement, but everybody else's too. And so looking at um um scenario two and three, the increases are like six and seven, a little little over six, a little over 7%. So I would prefer to see um one of those scenarios because it would cut the property tax percentage by quite a bit.
I would agree with Council Member Schroeder's comments. I really want to keep this down as low as we can. I'm hearing loud and clearly from the residents and seeing it on my own taxes that we we need to be careful with that. But I do look at scenario two more favorably because the capital funds are really important. We have to keep them healthy.
The other thing that's appealing as I noted before was the fact that it's fairly flat uh and is not dependent on your property value and that includes for commercial properties. ... the fact that we can raise more money to help solve the problems with the uh less impact on the single family property owners uh was was a significant factor in support.
I'm amazed at the work they can the great work they continue to do even as they are continually finding ways to cut because uh we we get a lot of value from the EDA.
And I believe um um one of our our residents pointed out it is a tax and that's why we included it in when we um did the scenario look to put the number in there so people did see the number was add we weren't trying to like not have that um obvious but it was really important that we um you know could figure out a way to cover this and make it as fair as possible and and I just felt that this this really seemed to uh spread the the expense around much better.
Ordinances & Resolutions (10)
Minnesota law recognizing youth under 18 in trafficking as victims, not criminals, providing trauma-informed services.
Resolution approving the 2026 city budget.
Resolution setting the 2026 city tax levy (Scenario 2).
Resolution setting the 2026 Economic Development Authority (EDA) tax levy.
Ordinance related to electric utility franchise fees.
Ordinance related to gas utility franchise fees.
FEMA grant providing $3.9 million over three years to help fund firefighters.
Grant providing $0.5 million over three years to help fund new police patrol positions.
Federal grant dollars used for various city purposes, now depleted.
Funds used to pay for embedded social workers in the police department, now depleted.