Keeping our community safe is one of the most crucial responsibilities that we have as a city. Our police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel work around the clock responding to calls, helping in emergencies, and protecting our residents, businesses, and their properties. We must ensure our public safety team has the support and staffing they need. And public safety is a priority in the proposed 2026 city budget. In late September, we set the preliminary property tax levy to support the proposed 2026 city budget. The preliminary levy, including the city and the Woodbury Housing and Redevelopment Authority, is an increase of 10.7% over the 2025 tax levy. This equates to an annual increase of around $130 on the median value home, or just under $11 a month. We know that an increase in taxes is something residents feel and this decision was not made lightly. The goal is simple. Keep our community safe as we continue to grow and thrive as a premier community. Of the additional 16 full-time equivalent positions in the preliminary 2026 budget, 13 are in the public safety department, including four police officers and nine firefighter EMTs. The firefighter EMT positions will fulfill the new 24-hour full-time EMS fire staffing model and union agreement in 2025, as well as help reactivate the Actton Road fire station in 2026. The levy also supports a portion of the EMS fire operations with a majority of the EMS operations supported by the ambulance service build rates. A few years ago, we set a goal to bring police staffing up to the model ratio, which is one officer per 10,000 residents. These four new police officer positions will allow the city to meet that goal. Like many cities, we're seeing more calls for service and higher costs for staffing. This investment helps ensure our teams continue responding quickly and effectively whenever help is needed. It will also help us continue to meet our high public safety performance ratings on our bienial community survey of residents. We can lower the city's 10.7% preliminary levy increase before final adoption in December, but we cannot increase it. Both the city and the Woodbury HR preliminary levies must be certified to Washington County by September 30th for the truth in taxation notices to be mailed mid- November. It's important to note that the city's portion of the property tax bill will range between 26% and 32% of the total depending on which schools district serves your area. Aside from the city and local school district, the remainder of the property tax bill is distributed to Washington County and other special taxing districts. The city's budget process extends throughout the entire year with many levels of scrutiny. Staff and council have been working hard to reduce the tax burden on residents. Original budget proposals were closer to a 13% levy increase and the council and staff worked hard to bring that number down to 10.7% with hopes of further decreases. Personnel have the largest impact on the budget and the property tax levy. Approximately 77% of the city's general fund expenditures are committed to workforce support, including wages, benefits, and the new statemandated Minnesota paid leave program. Labor costs for 2026 are also impacted by new contractual commitments with four collective bargaining units. After further discussion and refinement at our November 5th workshop, we will adopt a budget and final property tax levy for 2026 at our December 10th city council meeting. I invite you to learn more about the 2026 proposed budget in our current edition of the city update newsletter. We also have more details of how the funds will be used on the city budget page of the city's website.