Let's open the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. All right. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the city of St. Paul Park regular council meeting for July 20th, 2026. Um, this meeting is being recorded on True Lens Community Media. You can view city meetings live and replayed on cable channel 799. Meetings are also livereamed and archived on the city of St. Paul Parks YouTube channel. Um, first item on the agenda this evening, we are going to be recognizing um, Marathon Petroleum, uh, the refinery that shares our town with us and has always been great partners um, for a grant that they are so graciously giving us for EMS. So, I'm going to step down here and maybe meet Eric and we'll go from there and then we're going to get some pictures. >> Perfect. I suppose we could have just used this but whichever way you want to do it. >> Um I'll just start off by thanking you on behalf of myself and our city um for this grant. Um this money is going to be used for those of you that do not know um to train up all of our uh public safety personnel, police and fire um to the level of EMS. Um this is a big deal for our city and for our partnering and neighboring cities. I believe using these funds in this way is going to help save lives. Um, it's a big thing and uh for us and like I said for the communities around us. Um, personally, as long as I've been involved in this city, I would like to say that I've always felt that Marathon's been a great partner. Um, and since you've come on board, you've been a great partner and the communication between you and your team has just been wonderful. Um, I've lived through several iterations of the refinery um and ownership and I believe right now is one of the best forms of communication we've had with our city and your management team. So, thank you. Thank you for that. Um, would you like to say a few words? >> Yeah, I'll just say a few quick words. Um, yeah, my name is Eric Bonard. I'm the general manager at the refinery. Just want to say uh we appreciate the opportunity to be able to be involved in our community. It's one of our core values is to make sure that um we are good partners in the communities in which we operate. Uh public safety is obviously something that's very important to us and so we're thrilled to be able to partner with you guys uh provide these funds to help get that training folks need so that hopefully we can have a positive impact on the St. Paul Park community. So, thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. >> And thank you. So, at this time, let's get some pictures. Um I believe you have some of your management staff. You have Yep. >> Kristen Hootmach. I always want to say hooper, but it's hoot maker. >> And John Hamming, who is or Hemingson, you got me screwed up. John Wright Jr. [laughter] And for those of you who don't know, John Wright senior is a former fire chief of ours. So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. >> And that's Heather. And I'm >> Yep. Heather. >> Someday. I got to >> And I would like the entire council to come up here for this picture also. >> Yep. Do it over here. And you guys too, please. I'm the best. >> One, two, three, and three. >> One motion to turn. >> Thank you. Thanks again. [clears throat] >> Thanks for coming. Thank you for everything. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. [cough] [clears throat] [snorts] >> All right. That was a turn around. All right. >> Yay. Thank you. Bye. >> All right. Well, thanks everybody for that brief interruption and I think that's a wonderful thing um for our city and for our staff. Um I think it's going to be a good thing. So on to item number two, we have the minutes. Um number A is approval of the minutes of the June 15, 2026 regular council meeting and wave the reading of the same. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. 50. Approval of the council workshop minutes summary of May 12th, 2026 and wave the reading of the same. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Motion carries 50. Approval of the minutes of the July 15th special council meeting and wave the reading of the same. >> So moved. Second. >> I don't think you can. >> Oh, >> you weren't there. >> Second. >> You're right. >> I have a >> I was there. >> Motion from Council Member Swintson and a second from Council Member Whip Red Heming. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. A. Motion carries 30 and two. >> All right. Items from the public. Do we have anybody? We have one person. >> I don't believe we've taken care of that. That he's >> Oh, he's >> Yep. Bruce, you're out. Correct. >> All right. >> We got that settled. All right. Um item number four, we have a presentation from Smith Schaefer. >> Not here. Mayor, council, um how many of you from out of town? Um we're we're we're actually um uh waiting on the presenter from uh for the audit. So, uh, Don is, um, quite familiar with it. She could start us off and then when staff come, if you're comfortable with that or >> not. >> Okay, then, um, uh, yeah, they were scheduled to be here and confirmed to be here, they're just not here yet. >> All right. Well, we can move on and if they show up, if they show up. If not, we will continue them at the next council meeting. >> Fair enough. >> Fair enough. All right. Consent [clears throat] agenda item number five. We are going to approve paying the bills through July 21st acknowledging the receipt of the commission minutes from the public works and parks and recreation. Adopt resolution 1781 expressing appreciation for donations. Uh, we will be removing city admin administrator Hugo McY from his probationary status. Um, adopting resolution 1782 for gambling premises permit. Uh, Heritage Days Lions Club liquor license. Um, we need a mixer at the water tower for Broadway. >> [snorts] >> uh paying for the Lion's Levy Bridge. Geisinger and Sons getting paid some more money for Third Street. Um we have an Pollinator pathway grants of $8,000 for Abdellet Park. Good work there. And approving the Washington County Records Management System Joint Powers Agreement Amendment. And that is it this evening for the consent agenda. Thank you, Mayor Frankie. Uh, I move that we approve tonight's consent agenda. >> Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as listed. Any further discussion? >> Mr. Mayor. >> Oh, Council Member Conra. >> Uh, did I did I get it under the bell? >> All right. Council member Swenson, go ahead. [laughter] >> I heard you first because you're the loudest. Don't be so excited. I just want to state that the uh administrative committee uh is ex excited to have Hugo McY here. He performed exemplary during his probationary period and we're excited to take him off. >> Thank you, Council Member Swinson. Council Member Conrad, >> I have a few things if I may. Um just quickly um on the public works commission I didn't have an opportunity to read that but I was wondering where um where is the right place to discuss maybe it's here maybe it's not about um um the acceptance or denial of my application for being on that commission. Um I think that would probably be best set for probably the maybe next Monday during the work session. >> Okay. >> Um this is just approving the minutes. >> Okay. >> So >> Okay. Um >> we can discuss those issues then. >> Okay. And then um the repair um services and mixer replacement. I'm just trying to understand what that is. I kind of read a little bit of brief but that it does something with mixings for temperatures especially in the winter so that doesn't freeze. Um, is is this a routine replacement? Um, what causes it to be replaced? How many years does something like that last? >> Well, not seeing Tony here. >> Mayor, council, uh, council member uh, Conrad, I can speak to that. So, um, uh, periodically we have inspections of, uh, the water tower and other, uh, other infrastructure. And uh four or five years ago uh this was identified as something that we should repair. The impeller at the base of the uh of the unit um uh was damaged from an ice up uh in previous years um as a matter of routine. Staff had uh another inspection crew come through and it again came up as a recommendation for it to be um uh there's some touch-up painting on the interior as well as fixing that augur uh augur device. So, uh, staff is recommending that that comes forward and it's been delayed somewhat. No impact to water quality, etc. Um, but, uh, it's been identified twice now to be, um, repaired. So, hence the the presentation coming forward, but it's it's been a known um, uh, repair item and, um, uh, staff has seen fit that we should get it fixed this before this winter season. I was just wondering is there a projected lifespan of something like that that we would look forward to possible replacements cyclally or if it's just random when it pops up? >> Um yeah, I don't um I I don't have the um life cycle of of that particular component. Um but I know the uh tower gets inspected every couple three years and um so >> okay, >> that's usually when we find out if there's a defect or what have you. Thank you. >> Um, >> this has been since 1990. >> So, the one that's in there now. >> 36 years. Yeah. >> Correct. Okay. >> Yeah. >> That's a good lifespan. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um, one other thing was um the bridge. I'd heard something about that the cement isn't right. What does that entail? >> Oh, the on the payment thing. Sure, you can. I or I could, but go ahead. Um, uh, mayor, councel, council member, uh, Conrad. So, um, the, uh, concrete pad that the new pedestrian bridge rests on, uh, does not appear to conform to its original specifications. So, um, WSB is working with that subcontractor to correct that. Um, and so that, um, that's not currently, um, asked for reimbursement yet until that gets, uh, vetted. So there appears to be an anomaly with how the concrete was poured and the bridge is resting on that. So um staff are working with the contractor subcontractor to correct that. >> Okay. It came up in the alliance meeting last week. That's why I said I'd just see what I could find out. >> And then the one other thing is kind of my personal thing, but um I too would like to really acknowledge your presence here over a year. I think we as a city have been able to do a lot of stuff. You mentioned that, but I hear it all the time at the car show. people compliment what's gone on. They credit Scott. Um um so our city's made, you know, huge strides and I think that uh you being kind of one of the first hires with this transition, I think you're very creditable for that. Thank you. >> Agree. >> Uh thank you. I have a lot of relatives in the city. I'm just I do not I do not. But uh kind words from council. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Well, before Hugo's head gets any bigger. All right, >> let's move on. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries 5-0. All right. Reports from the council. Council member Hagerty. >> Uh yeah. So, uh uh public works commission. Uh our next Let's see. We need Yeah, we still need one more person. Um and our next meeting is September 1st at 3 p.m. So, we have changed the time. uh was previously at 6, I believe, but uh we're going to do 3 p.m. Um so, look forward to seeing everybody there. [cough] >> Thank [clears throat] you, Council Member Hagerty. Council member Swinson. >> Thank you, Mayor Frankie. I'm here to talk about public safety today. Uh the commission says, >> Yeah, that's what [laughter] it says. Uh commission does not meet again until September 3rd at 6:00 here at city uh chambers. I don't believe we have an open seat. I think we're we're full. So, >> all right. >> But that's all I have. >> Thank you, Council Member Swinson. Council member Conrad, planning. >> Uh, the last planning commission meeting was cancelled due to lack of agenda. Their next scheduled meeting is August 10th here at city hall. >> All [snorts] right. And while I have you, why don't you give us a quick update on Heritage Days and how that's going? >> Okay. Heritage Days is moving ahead u quite well. we're into the final uh levels of getting things booked, scheduled, and uh whatnot. And uh it's August 14th and 15th is the event up at Heritage Park. August 16th, I know that there will be uh tractor pull down on Broadway between 5th and 3rd. starting at 5th going towards 3D and that will be from 3 to 6 pm. I'm not sure at this other time at this time um any other events that are are or aren't going on. I think that'd be uh an independent uh sponsorship of any of the businesses down on Broadway. Um everything's full speed ahead. We still have uh the Heritage Days meet raffles at ParkPlace uh Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30. anybody that's interested, they're $2 a ticket and uh for a $30 pack of meat. It's been going pretty well. Um there will be car show there on Saturday um the 15th following the parade as well as touch a truck and all the events will be listed on uh Heritage Day's Facebook page and websites. >> All right. Thank you, Council Member Conrad. [snorts] Council member whip Brad Hemson. >> Um our next event is movie night in the park August 3rd at dusk. This is for our um heritage days. Um movie will be decided. We have about a little over 100 pounds donated to basic needs from our community garden that is going absolutely marvelous. Want to thank everybody that's been helping why some of us go on vacation. And I am not sure when our next meeting is going to be because um our next meeting night is on night to unite which mayor you can tell more about that. >> All right. >> That's it. >> Thank you council member Whit Hemson. Um first off I too would like to uh congratulate Hugo. Um he has been doing a great job. Great communicator, great personality. um uh been a a tremendous leader for the staff around here um and a definite role model. So, uh appreciate all the great work you've been doing. Um the administrative committee will be doing um down the road sooner than later an official um wrap up uh what's the word I'm looking for, Jeff. >> What's the word? >> I'm not in your brain tonight. >> I don't I don't know. Anyways, um a review if you might say. Um we're going to continue with that process. Something that we hadn't done. I'm sure this one will be harmless. Um but I would ask that the council if anybody has um any comments or questions, pros, cons, negatives, positives, however big or however small, um email them to me um by let's say, I don't know, August 1st. Um so within the next week or so. um so we can get something together and put him out of his misery >> um quicker than later. Um also, yes, as council member um Whip Hemingston alluded to, Tuesday, August 4th, uh night to unite. Um great event put on by all of our public safety. Um uh the community market will also be on that night. >> All of this will be taking place at Heritage Park. So, we will be shifting the community market from for that evening from city hall here up to night to unite um to add to the festivities. I'm sure there will be a lot of great things as usual. Um so, we hope to see you all out there. It's always a good time. Um hopefully we get the helicopter back. That is just an awesome sight to see. Um but more to be determined. So, that's all that I have this evening. Um, anybody have anything else this evening? And do we have >> We have the auditors here. >> We have the auditors here. >> Uh, mayor, council, uh, we we are ready to go with the, uh, with the auditor's report. >> All right. So, since we are now all done, we will move back to the presentation from Smith Schaefer. If you feel free to come up to the deas over here. Do we have her set up over there? >> Um [laughter] 2022's on there. [clears throat] Do you have it on a zip drive? >> I don't. >> Um, is it a uh Macintosh or is it a P or a laptop? Because I could get I think I have a zip drive. >> I emailed it to Don. Yeah, >> Oh, okay. Can they put it on the >> Oh, sure. Um, do they have electronic curtains? >> They do. Okay. But I just don't get it. Technical difficulties everyone. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> You hear me? I can't. Oh, there you are. >> Should just be a cord over here. That's a Mac, isn't it? But I'll put the [cough and clears throat] >> USPC. >> No, it is Windows, >> but it's actually a a Surface. >> Do you have an adapter? >> I have an adapter in my office. >> HDMI to Cuz I just plug it in cuz it go right from there from the laptop cable. I could switch it. >> Okay. >> Oh, you're doing it. I'll leave it to your expertise. Not here. [laughter] Oh yeah. Little hotter than I would like it to be. [clears throat] It's okay. [laughter] [clears throat] >> [snorts] >> I see movement. >> [snorts] >> So justides, >> you know, this does mean you're just going to have to talk fast. >> It's a lot of pressure. >> Yeah. After all this, I got to bring some razledazzle for you. >> Right. >> The tap dance is looking good though. >> Perfect. [snorts] [clears throat] >> Family vacation up there. >> Now I don't know how to make it bigger though. >> This is a PDF, right? >> Correct. There you go. There you go. >> There we go. Oh, yeah. I can't do that. >> Okay. >> Sorry. It's better. >> All right. We're good to go. >> All right. We're good. >> So, so after all that, um, >> can we please get your name? >> Yes. Thank you for having me. My name is Jill Schultz. I'm a partner with Cone Resnik. We're an accounting firm in Minneapolis. Um, I know Mayor you said something about Smith Schaffefer. So, Smith Schaefer merged with Cone Resnick in January. Smith Schaefer's done the city audit for a number of years. I've been here seen a lot of familiar faces. So, um we merged with Conresnic in January. Like I said, all the same people worked on the job. It's just uh a new name. So, hopefully that's all that that your team saw was a change in the name and nothing else. But I'm just going to do a highle overview very quickly to kind of go over the uh financial statements. If you've been through this before, it's a lot of trends, you know, kind of where we are coming from, where we're going to. So, first, just getting into the audit. So, [clears throat] our job as auditors is to provide reasonable assurance that the city's financial statements are materially correct. So, that's kind of a lot of lingo. Um, but basically, we issued what's called an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion, meaning we didn't have any um any doubt that the financial statements were materially correct as presented. There's also a portion of the financial statements called management's discussion and analysis. That's kind of where the city can kind of do their, you know, if they want to talk about um bonding or, you know, upcoming highlights for 2026. Um Hugo and Don both went over that before this was issued as well. So that kind of had had their stamp of approval on it. [clears throat] Also, as part of the audit, we look at uh various areas that the state auditor requires us to look at as far as um deposits, conflicts of interest, things like that um in the legal compliance area. So, we didn't have any issues, any uh findings noted with that for this year. Uh so, before we get into the numbers, just a reminder, the city has several different types of funds. the governmental funds, the um will be the general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, and capital project funds. And then the enterprise side, we have both water and sewer. So then looking at some of the governmental revenues, we'll start with property taxes. So you can see in 2025, property tax revenue increased by about 7%. This the same increase in 2024. Um overall, that was about a third of total governmental revenue for the year for 2025. You can see it's grown from about $2.3 million in 2021 to just over $3 million in 2025. And again, that's actual cash collected. So that's not necessarily the levy, but that was cash brought in the door. So it could be um delinquent taxes from prior years. Doesn't necessarily include all of 2025 if there are additional delinquent taxes. So that is just cash brought in for property taxes during the year. The next [clears throat] slide then is the LGA, the local government aid. Um, St. Paul Park is a little unique. It's the only city that I work with that receives LGA. So, it's a nice bump obviously to your uh to your bank accounts. Um, you can see in 2025 it was just shy of $800,000. So, pretty similar to what it was the year before. That's obviously all done through a um calculation by the state, but again, it is a nice boost for St. Paul Park to get that that money. The next slide then looks at governmental fund revenues in total. So this one, the blue bar on the left side is the property taxes. So obviously a very big number every year. Um you'll see the spike in 2025 and the yellow bar that's um other government revenue. So anything that you get from the state, from the county, from other cities uh goes into that bucket. So the big increase in this year was the mindot um grants and other revenue that we got for the third street reconstruction project. So that's that big uh bump there. Usually uh it's a little more obvious that the property taxes is a big part of the total, but for 2025 it was a lot of the the state revenue there too. [clears throat] Then looking at some of the expenses, so general government expenditures. So that's kind of the the day-to-day cost of running the city. Um, you know, as if it were a business. So it's uh administration, assessing, accounting services, um, planning, attorney, just anything that kind of, like I said, goes into the running of the government. So in 2025 is about $843,000, which is about 20% to 21% of the total expenditures for the year. You can you can see quite quite an increase in 2025 over 100 grand higher than the year before. A lot of that was due to some of the turnover in the administration department both with the administrator uh and the finance director leaving. So a lot of those kind of final wrapup payments but also um recruiting and uh advertising and all those things for the replacements. So um that's a lot of one what went into that increase there. public safety then obviously fire uh the police department but also building inspections and animal control are in there as well. St. Paul Park also is unique in that they have obviously their own police department. So this is a big number for St. Paul Park. Um just shy of $2 million in 2025. You know, almost half of the expenditures for the year. Um pretty similar to what it was last year, just a little 3% increase. Then highways and streets. So that's our public works, um streets, uh street cleaning, those kinds of things, storm water management, all included in there. So that was also about 21% of the total expenditures. So you can see a drop there from 24 to 25. In 2023 and 2024, we're starting to ramp up the third street construction project. And so there's a lot of kind of those planning costs in those years. um in 2025 when the construction really got going, those costs went into uh the capital project fund. Um and so they were shown differently. These are kind of just the general planning um architecture, things like that. Finally, then the parks and wreck department. Um again, that's primarily personnel costs, so salaries, benefits, insurance, things of that nature. So about $373,000 in 2025. Uh $34,000 last year in 2024. So almost a 20% increase there. A lot of that had to do again with some of the construction on the pedestrian bridge uh at Lion's Levy Park. So that was a lot of that increase. Then looking at our expenditures in total, again, you can see the the dark blue bar on the left is the general government. Obviously the kind of royal blue in the middle is the public safety. So you can kind of see how how each department makes up the total for the city. Uh the next slide is the same information just in pi form. So again, it's maybe a little easier to see with the different wedges how much each department is of the city's total. From an audit perspective, we like to see these kind of similar from year to year. Obviously, they're going to fluctuate based on construction projects and things of that nature. Um but for the most part, these are pretty similar from year to year, and that's what we like to see. you know, not big big swings in spending in any one area. Then looking at the reserves for the city, the reserves obviously are very similar to, you know, you think of your own savings account at home. The reasons that you have a savings account to be able to um have a rainy day fund for unexpected expenditures. It's even more important in a city where you get so many uh big chunks of money. you know, you get your big property taxes in July and so you want to be able to weather that, be able to spread that out, but also have money in the first six months. And so having that reserve kind of lets you spread out those those funds a little bit more. And then looking at the the reserves as a percentage of the expenditures. So the orange bar is the general fund unassigned fund balance. So basically what the general fund has available for operational spending and then the blue bar is the general fund expenditures. So you can see on there for 2025 is about 45% the general fund balance was about 45% of the expenditures. Meaning at the end of the year we basically had enough in our fund balance to cover half of next year's expenditures. Um that's right in the range that the auditor recommends the state auditor recommends 35 to 50%. Um, you can see in prior years it's kind of been in that range. Also, there were some larger transfers done out of the general fund to kind of get to that number, but that's good because then those transfers go into, you know, the capital project funds to allow you to pay for more capital projects independently, not have to issue new bonds, anything like that. Um, also, you know, can go into the debt service fund to make some of those payments as well. Looking at the debt service then uh the first slide then looks at our debt balances. So again the orange bar is our bonds. The smaller blue bar is the um public facilities note. So you can see the totals on there for 2025. Um but obviously you can see those balances coming down on the slide on the graph. And then the next slide looks at the five-year requirements. So over the next five years, what we're going to pay on those bonds and notes. Um again, obviously those numbers are coming down. That is all the principal and interest. So in 2026, we're going to pay just over [cough] 700 grand [clears throat] in principle and interest on those obligations. Uh and as of right now, the city is scheduled to be debtree by 2035. So obviously if you issue new debt, that will change, but at this point um 10 years. So that's that's [snorts] pretty impressive. um looking then at some of the capital projects. So this slide um it's a little funny to me. The bars are so different in in size, but the list of our capital expenditure projects in 2025 seems very small, but they're obviously all very big projects. You know, new squad car, new public works vehicle, and then the third street improvement project is obviously the bulk of it. So that's kind of the again the big blue bar um is all the infrastructure and improvements that go along with the third street project. Then looking at the enterprise funds. So the water and sewer funds. So these are um the funds where the city really is running like a business, right? Um [clears throat] taxpayers and residents are being charged for what they're using. They're not, you know, it's not based on property tax value or anything like that. they are charged for their usage. So in the next slide we'll see kind of again those trends in those funds. Um just a note there that the revenues are you know the actual charges for services but then also connection fees um and special assessment income on the water and sewer side. The expenses again are personnel costs um utilities. the wastewater disposal obviously a big one in the sewer fund and then depreciation is a big one in the water fund. Then we do have some other income in those funds. So the the rental income that we get from the uh cell towers from those cell phone companies is in these funds. Again any intergovernmental revenue we receive is um in other revenue and then investment earnings. So overall looking at our water fund you can see uh year-over-year the first bar on the far left the orange bar is our operating revenue. So again those charges for what we're charging people for their usage. The operating expenses is the blue bar. So obviously um in 23 and 24 much larger than the revenue there leading to an operating loss the middle kind of uh royal blue. Then the yellow is that other income. So, kind of the rental uh income, investment earnings, things to kind of help make up for that uh operating loss to get to either a net loss or net income um before any transfers from other funds. So, again, keep in mind the dark blue bar, the expenses includes depreciation in the water fund. So, on any kind of equipment that the water fund holds, uh in 2025, that number was $450,000. So if we take that out because it's an expense but it's not cash that we're paying. We actually had uh an operating income. So the middle blue bar u becomes income of about 300 grand and our net income comes up from 170 to about 620,000. So this looks maybe a little concerning but again that depreciation the biggest expense is not a cash outflow for the city. So just keep that in mind in looking at this sewer fund is a little bit more balanced. The the revenue and the expenses are a little more in line with each other. Um there's not as much equipment on the sewer side and so the depreciation isn't quite as um impactful there. So again, you can see the the revenue and expenses. We have smaller uh operating income and losses and net income and losses each year in the sewer fund. And then finally looking at them in total um again kind of levels out that water fund a little bit especially in the current year. So uh in summary again we gave an unmodified audit opinion. We did not find any legal compliance exceptions in 2025. Our unassigned general fund balance at the end of the year was about $1.6 million or 45% of our expenditures. And at the end of the year we had $3.9 million of debt outstanding. Any questions or concerns that I can address while I'm here? Jeeoff, I see you looking. You always have questions. >> Nothing. Okay. >> Um, >> always [laughter] just Yeah. >> Thank you, Council Member Swinson. [clears throat] >> There Jill. Um, on the water and sewer fund. So, it looks like we're operating little to no um income there. We are not. So, if I were a citizen um looking in, we're not making money. We're probably losing a little bit of money on our water and sewer funds. >> Yeah, it's it's >> even though we had that transfer, but >> Yep. Um, and it is so depreciation, as I mentioned, it's not a cash outflow, but it is our equipment's getting older and so we'll need to replace it eventually and so it is still a cost to the city and so it's a little bit hard to look at it um just in this graph. You know, this is more of just a kind of high level. Um, but like I said, there are replacement costs that come with some of that equipment as well. So, >> and we're not banking very much at all. >> I don't believe so. >> Yes. Okay. I just want that's kind of was the gist of what I got here, but just checking. Council member Swson, >> Mr. Mayor, may I ask a question or two? >> Council member Swinson, be my guest. >> Thank you. Thank you. It's nice our continuity with you having you for the years that we've had. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Um, and I just have a couple of questions. Um, the management letter I've been releasing. I know you said there aren't any legal compliance issues, but is there any uh material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that uh we need to be aware of? >> Nothing new. Um I believe um we maybe don't on a lot of our cities that we work with we include segregation of duties as a significant deficiency basically because of the size of the accounting team. You know it's it's hard to separate things >> separation separation. >> Um we might not actually include that on St. Paul Park. I I didn't look at that uh this morning. Um I think because previously they kind of had things set up so that there was a lot more segregation of duties and so with the new kind of overhaul of the finance team um that would be something we look at obviously next year to make sure those things are still in place. So >> no uh disagreements with management. >> Nope. >> Okay. And like you you were saying that with the new team in place and normally you know if you're sitting on a normal board this is when they leave but we have to ask these questions with the cameras on and them here. >> Right. Right. >> So >> yeah I will say for as much uh change as you had and as we had I think it went pretty seamless from our side. Um I know we were up against the deadline but hopefully it was a seamless process on on the city's side as well. Um, like I said again, just with the change that we've both had, I think it went as well as could be expected. >> Okay. Well, thank you, Cindy. Again, it's great to have you back. I just have one more question, and I'm wondering if you could u explain it to the board one more time uh or for the first time. >> We saw that, you know, the the uh state auditor requests between 35 and 50 or uh and states and we understand the 35% because you want to have liquidity. >> We get that. But can you explain to us again why they say 50% as a ceiling? >> Um I think just to be able to have those things available for other other projects. Uh again there was a you know a large number of transfers or a large amount of transfers out of the general fund. So things that come into that fund you know still go to pay for other things of the city. And so it it it's allowing that fund to look a little bit more. You don't want to look at it and see, oh, there's all this money in the fund >> overt taxing. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> That's what I was getting to. >> I didn't want to say that. >> I didn't either. I didn't want to say it either, but yes, because those things are still paying for the city's operations. They're just paying for debt payments and capital projects. And you know, you had a $3.5 million capital project in 2025 that you didn't have to issue debt for. And like that's that's great. That's phenomenal. That's the goal. Um because of some of those things that because you had a healthy reserve, because you had the MDOT funding. Um and so all those things still go into running the city. It just doesn't all happen in the general fund. Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah. But >> yes, if >> I could um would would you say you see more commonality of cities saving for things like roads, water, sewer throughout um their longevity of planning? Um especially if you don't if you have an aged system or roads and you you don't have any you know fordrawn savings. What do you typically see there? Yeah, I don't I think I mentioned a couple of times that St. Paul Park is unique and I think you are in some ways, but in some ways you're like every other city that we work with in Minnesota. You know, it's all all the same challenges that you're coming across. You know, aging infrastructure, both roads and equipment, uh, and finding sometimes creative ways to help solve those problems. again some of the the state funding is helpful obviously um to you know to not have to issue debt um I think it's a a concern for all cities so it's not just St. St. Paul Park getting the LGA obviously helps a lot too in that. You know, that's money that a lot of our cities that we work with, like I mentioned, don't get uh a lot of cities in this area don't get. So, um I think a lot of cities are doing exactly what you guys are doing as far as, you know, your capital plans and things of that nature. You're looking 10, 20, 30 years down the road for those uh replacements that will be needed. And do you see anything um due to the high cost of say like fire equipment, fire trucks, I mean at roughly a million dollars a vehicle, what do cities have a plan in do you see if I mean having a plan in place for saving or having some kind of allowance for those types of things? >> Not really. We had one city I feel like every city we've worked with has bought a new firetruck in the last 5 years. Um one city issued debt for their fire truck. Um, but it is a million dollars to your point and they're smaller than St. Paul Park and so that's a a big number um for them. I I haven't seen people start to budget or anything but given the cost I think it's important. I think it also um we've seen that it takes a long time to get that firetruck. I think the manufacturers are behind. I know for a while it was you know importing all the parts and the steel and everything. Um, but we've still seen it be two to three years to get a new firet truck. So, that helps obviously with the budget process, but it's still coming up with a million a million plus dollars to be able to pay for that and it's obviously needed um to have the best equipment in those departments. So, >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you. Good to see you again. >> Thank you. All right. Mhm. Anybody have anything else this evening? Nothing further before this council. This meeting's adjourned.