Here. Leahy? Here. Meyer? Here. Melke? Here. Lawsonberg? Here. Linehan? Here. That's okay. Next, we have approval of the agenda. Are there changes to tonight's agenda? None, mayor. Are we gonna pull do you this would be the time to do that if you wanna do that. Yep. Yeah. I wanna pull, what item is it here? G 12. Thank you. G 12, from the consent agenda for discussion in the policy section. 12 to policy. Okay. By Meyer. Alright. So full. So to policy. Any other changes to tonight's agenda?
Mayor, no changes. Just wanted to note that the agenda was amended, on Monday to add two items, item consent g 14, the resolution twenty five one zero eight, accepting the resignation of Georgiana May from the environment commission and declaring a vacancy. And then we also added policy item h five, adoption of ordinance twenty five zero nine, amending chapters two and fourteen for, massage therapists licensing and backgrounding. Okay. All right. Those changes were posted on the website on Monday, correct? Correct. Okay.
So all those in favor of approving the agenda as amended, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries five o. We don't have a, presentation tonight, but we do have approval of minutes. We've got four meetings worth. We've got 10/08/2025 city council regular meeting minutes, the 10/22/2025 city council regular meeting minutes, the 10/22/2025, city council special workshop meeting minutes, and, the fourth,
minutes are the 11/05/2025, city council workshop meeting minutes. I hear a motion to approve the minutes of those four meetings or any changes I should ask first. Yes. Mary, I mentioned there were a couple of administrative changes made real small and minor. One other change that was a little bit more is to, November 5 workshop minutes. On Monday as well, staff added, beefed up a little bit of the paragraph on and some of the back and forth with home line and in that section. So originally, it was just kind of it summarized about an hour presentation.
We We just kind of added more of the script into the minutes. Into it so that there'd be greater kind of explanation to it. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Just because read that on Monday. Yeah. Alright. Any other comments? Motion? So moved. So moved by Meyer and Wattenberg. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries five o. Tonight, we do have a public hearing. We've got our 2025 truth in taxation and budget presentation.
It's our annual, report to the to the public and to the council and hold a hearing here for that. It's concerning our 2026 budget and our truth in taxation hearing. The process for the public hearing will be as follows. Staff's gonna present the topic. We'll then open the hearing to the public. Each person may speak for up to three minutes on the hearing topic. Mayor reserves right to limit off topic discussion. Four, after all who wish to speak have done so, we'll call an additional two times for speakers, then I'll call for a motion to close the hearing by consent.
And I'll open the floor for city council members to have a discussion on the topic. I ask that a member of the council make a motion on the recommendation to either approve or deny approving the 2026 tax levy and 2026 operating budget. Next, the, we always have the mayor reserves right to end discussion and to commence with a vote on the motion. And so at this point, I'd like to, have our city administrator, Linehan, and interim finance director, Landberg, provide a staff overview on the topic of our 2026 budget and truth in taxation
information. Thank you, mayor, council, members of the public. So tonight, we're gonna go through our truth in taxation hearing. Alyssa and I are gonna kinda tag team this. Each of us taking about two of the slides. So if that's a little clunky and we forget whose turn it is, I do apologize. So kind of the purpose of the hearing tonight in the format. So, the goal is to share information on our 2026 budget and how it impacts our levy. So we're gonna talk a little bit about how we get to that, budget number and then how that directly relates to the levy itself, and then also provide taxpayers an opportunity to express their views on the impacts.
So it's an opportunity for taxpayers to come and share their concerns kind of over our presented budget or for support. So as the mayor mentioned, we'll present. Mayor will open the public hearing. Residents may ask questions, kind of voice concerns, and then kind of at the end, we're not gonna kind of stop the questions during or answer questions during, but there'll be an opportunity for council to kinda ask those same questions again to staff or each other, and then we could direct them at that time. So there's multiple factors that impact taxes. The first and most obvious what we're talking about tonight is our tax levy.
So there's various tax bodies and we'll talk about that in a minute, that all directly impact the taxes that are paid. The second thing that does impact quite a bit is the change in market value of your property. We also have the market value exclusion, legislative changes, and then any new taxes by referendum are applied to the market value. So what happens is residents get, their proposed tax bill. So this is the truth in taxation publication notice. They get their bill. They get their notice of all the different tax paying entities. And it's important to note that the city of Falcon Heights is we play our
role in this process. Our line is kind of circled in red, is one of the tax lines. And so a lot of people, they do turn to local government as their first level of government. There is kind of a belief a lot of times that people's tax bill goes directly to the city. And that's not true. And so tonight is kind of our opportunity to kinda share a little bit about our role in that government and how they, what what role we play. So when you look at your average tax bill in Falcon Heights, varies obviously from person to person, city to city. But for us, we're generally about a quarter of the entire tax bill.
The county is at 36%. It's usually the largest right along with the school district at about 35%. And then the various special districts, met council and the others are take up about 4% of the tax bill. I mentioned earlier this market value exclusion. So that's the amount, it's used to calculate your taxes and as your value increases, this benefit and this removal decreases. And so for a long time, that amount was about exactly where our current valuation of properties is or median value at 411,000. A couple years ago, the legislature increased that limit to about 517,000.
With that increase, a lot of our properties actually started getting exclusion again, and they do benefit from that. But as your property gets closer to that that cap, that 517,000 mark, you lose that value, and we'll talk about that here. Did I already go through this? Alright. Picking it off to Alyssa. So for market value exclusion, as you reach that $517,200 your exclusion will get smaller and smaller. So if you have a lower property value, it'll have a bigger benefit to you.
So for, Ramsey County, these are the different median values of homes. Ours is about a 2.5% change. Everyone's kind of within that. It goes up to 6.9%, and I think the lowest one was 2.2%. So we kind of fit, you know, towards the lower end of of the change. So talking a little bit about our budget process and timeline, kind of how we get to this point, where we get to present this budget. So it starts in June. Departments meet kinda with the city administrator. We kick off the budget process. So start talking about ideas,
talking needs. They get together and they start thinking about what are some of the things that we need. We then meet with the departments in July. You know, we continue to refine these goals. So staff kinda meets, works through this process. It's a series of meetings talking about operations, equipment. We look at our capital. We look at, you know, okay. It's time for a new truck to get replaced. Can we wait a year? Can we delay that? And that's kind of where a lot of these internal discussions go. Starting in August, it starts to get more extra. So we bring it to the city council. You know, these are open meetings that residents can attend or watch online.
And so we the city council's five workshops to date on this topic. You know, first one back in August, the latest one last week. Back in September, the city council sets a preliminary levy based on these priorities and kinda what we know. One of the important things of that preliminary levy process is the city can reduce that levy down, but we can't increase it at a later time. This year, we went into it, with one of the lowest levy recommendations in Ramsey County, and we've stuck with that. And we'll get to that in a minute. And then in December is this truth in taxation hearing budget adoption.
So Ramsey County sends out the notices. People can kinda take that and then determine, you know, which of their various tax buys that they want to attend and and share their opinion on their taxes. So a little bit about kind of the proposed general fund, summary and increases. So, looking at our general fund revenue, so the amount that we need to fund our general fund, we're looking at about a 2.76% increase for next year. We're increasing our ad valorem taxes by 5.4%. Now this is different than levy. The levy itself is that 3.88.
That's the number that we're proposing adopted tonight. That's the number that goes to residents. Some of this is just in how kind of our various taxes aren't the only part that fund our general fund. We also had a discrete decrease in our fiscal disparities. So fiscal disparities is kind of a complex formula. Essentially, all communities pay into it and then they also receive some of that benefit as well. It's based on your commercial rates. It's based on your taxes and other parts. And Falcon Heights usually is a beneficiary of this. It had been going up year after year.
We've been getting increases. And then this year, we saw our first decrease in the last few years. We did have a decrease in our grant funds for the climate action plan. That impacts this total number of our our revenue, you know, is going down in theory. But I'll talk about it in a second that it's also an expenditure going off the books. So if our revenue is increasing by 2.76%, our expenditures are also increasing by 2.76%. And so we keep a balanced budget and tonight we propose a balanced budget. Some of the key factors, our fire contract has a contractual increase at 2.25%.
Our police contract is increasing by 8.6. This is the largest budget driver. This is the primary reason that we do have condo levy increase. That has been a a trend for many years. We do think it's stabilizing at Saint Anthony. They're getting up to their staffing, kind of in our contract. They're going towards the twenty four seven model. So they still, they have twenty four seven response, but they're not fully staffed yet. They do believe that that starts in 2026, and so we're preparing for that price increase. Some of our other increases, we have our Metro INET. They're our IT provider.
IT expend expenses have gone up. Needs have gone up, and so we are seeing an increase there. We are proposing kind of in the agenda tonight a cost of living adjustment of 3%. We also have our class and compensation study, recommendations. So that has cost as well. Minnesota paid leave is another cost for us. It's fairly minor, but it is something that does kind of contribute to this overall general fund expenditure increase. We have some consultants for finance and planning, that are included in kind of our various costs. And for some of our decreases, we are reducing one FTE in finance.
So this is a decrease in our personnel costs in the general fund of 14%. So fairly substantial, and that is one of the reasons our levy is not as higher with the police cost increases because of this reduction. And then also our, as I mentioned earlier, our climate action plan, that is completed, and so we no longer have to pay the expenditure. So removing revenue, removing expenditures, but that does impact the totals. So for the 2026 budget, there are some, new initiatives that we have included. Most of them tend to be in, capital.
We are working on the completion of the community park renovation. We are looking at an electronic sign for city hall, a refurbished street sweeper. We're looking into a water source installation at Curtis Field and also, funding for consultants for planning with the, golf course redevelopment. The, outside of capital, we are looking at, finance consultants for, different things, including, third party payroll services, in special revenue. We have an increase of garden plots, which will bring in more money for that fund and,
increased contract with, Northeast Youth and Family Services to support more services for the city. So we alright. I'll talk expenditures. So when we're looking at our 2026 expenditures and kinda how they break down, these are all of our funds. So this number last year, our capital projects was much higher. We had community park, kind of, totally budgeted for this year. We We ended up doing it kind of about sixty forty. So we did about 60% of the project this year, about 40% next year. So that's where that 1,800,000.0 in capital fund, expenditures comes in for next year.
We have our special revenue funds, as Alyssa had mentioned. These are a lot of our project funds that kind of maintain their own fund balance and are used for specific purposes. Our debt service funds used, for financing our debts. And then our enterprise funds. So that's our our, sanitary sewer and storm sewer. So both of these, we operate kinda like a business expenditure where, you know, the goal is essentially for them to cover their costs and generate what's essentially known as a reasonable profit to kind of keep funding the the various funds. Right. So within the general fund, this is kind of broken down for,
the expenditures by department. As you can see, the biggest, expenditure in the general fund is, police services. And then after that is general government. So basic, running of the city, all of the administrative stuff. Public works is about 15%, and then everything else is a little bit smaller. So that's fire services. I believe it's prosecution in there as well. And then contingency account is basically anything that kind of falls outside of that that is not expected every year. And then within the general fund, these are the expenditures by activity.
Again, police is the about half of the, expenditures for the general fund. Outside of that, the next one would be administrative, and then it kind of breaks down from there. Each of these is their own, fund that we, you know, track all of the the expenditures in there. Alright. So that leads that's kind of the discussion of the budget. So that's the budget that we've been working on for for many months, and then kinda how we finance that. So there's a couple of different ways that we get our revenue, but as kind of a a small residential community, most of our revenue comes from both property taxes and local government aid.
So those are our primary sources of revenue, within the general fund. And so our property tax fund is our ad valorem levy. So that's our request for property taxes to support general government. Year over year, you can kind of see as we've tracked it, this amount has has grown. And so this year, we are proposing an additional increase of about 86,000, in the ad valorem taxes or, a total levy there of 2,700,000.0. Our debt service levy, this is the second part. So we are able to levy for our general services.
We're also able to levy for our debt directly. And so we do levy this debt as part of our general obligation bonds. We are proposing a small for well, a slight increase about 21,000 or 14%. We tried to keep this fairly stable over the years, kind of hovering around the 180 mark. And we've done this by being very strategic in our debts. So as debts come, either close to expiring or if we have funds available, we've paid them off early. And we've done that and continue to do that this year, and I'll get into a little bit of the strategy we went into that.
Overall, we're proposing to ask from the taxpayers an increase of another a $107,649 to fund these various projects, the various operations, or our 3.88% levy increase. So as we look at a little bit on kinda how this impacts property taxes, so what we've done is we've kind of tracked this, going back, you know, twenty plus years for the city, but kind of for today's purposes showing the last few years. At the far left column, it shows what we're proposing in 2026. So you can see the median home increased by about 10,000
in value. After that exclusion, that amount is now at about 400,000. So that's the number that we use for our tax capacity. We take 1% of that value, which would be $4,000. We then apply our city tax rate. And so to get to that formula, it's a little complex, but essentially our city tax rate is 30, 7.57% for next year. And that would result on a median valued home on average of city taxes of about, $1,512, which would be a net increase of a $111 per year.
When we initially done this exercise, we were aiming for kind of a $100, per household. Ramsey County did change from our preliminary levy the tax evaluations, and that our net tax capacity, I should say, and that changed this number around. And so we have seen a tax increase kind of year over year. Again, a lot of that tied to public safety, and we do have, kind of, I think, a a a plan in place to keep those consistent and manageable. Again, with kind of our levy this year, kind of a a tale of a couple different stories. Our levy is increasing by 3.88%,
but our city tax rate kind of in how our net capacity changed, is increasing a little bit more. Alright. So this just tracks our city's tax rate through since 2004. We you know, it kinda is trending up, but I think what was it, 2022, I think is our highest at 38.74%. And, yeah, that's a calculation that is complicated, lots of different pieces. And so with each variable as that changes, then that kind of calculates out what the city tax rate will be.
Next one is the history of our property tax levy, going back to 2006, and that has been increasing. If if I could jump in on that one too. So kind of as we look at at the levy and then the increases, again, a story tied to public safety costs. So 2018 was kind of the original transition of our police agencies. That's where the city had, a few years of, you know, around 24% levy increase, for two years. And then since then again, kind of our increases increasing cost in public safety.
Obviously, there's been some other increases. The general increase in cost of government, inflation, we could draw a line here too. But directly kind of a tie all related to those. When we look kind of at the tax rate, tax rate's an important part because again when I showed that formula of how the tax rate impacts your property taxes, it it tells a story. So some city may have a 9% levy increase but if they have a smaller tax rate, that's gonna have a different impact on taxes than city with a 54% in, tax rate that maybe has a smaller tax in levy for that year.
So you can kinda see how we shake out to the nearby region. You know, there are communities definitely below us and there's communities that are above our tax rate as well. We take that then and apply it to a median value home. We look at that in each community, and kind of see how that impacts their like, what their what they would expect to pay in property taxes to their city. You can see kind of how we compare. We are on, essentially, the higher end of that. Part of that is too we do have, our valuations are also on the higher end too. So the two can kind of correlate a
little bit. Alright. And this slide is, the total property tax, for a median value of home. I we use kind of to do apples to apples. We do, like, the median value home of, Falcon Heights. So you can see how each of the tax rates in each of the cities has, it changes even between just the city tax rate and then complete tax rate with, you know, school district and everything else included. So the $59.07, the red there is all taxes? Yeah. That's including all taxes. It doesn't include the school,
levy that they just did. They're still voting? The the referendum. Yes. Okay. Okay. So it's just based off of the property tax statements. Okay. And this chart is applying, the Falcon Heights medium value, home value to these other cities. Correct. So it's kind of comparing apples to apples instead of each median value because then it would kind of be all over the place too. Got it. So oh, okay. So Falcon Heights median valued home located in Badness Heights would be paying $57.84. Our value home with their taxes. Okay. With their tax.
Okay. Cool. That's good. So some of the steps that kind of in those five budget workshops that the council took to, reduce this tax levy. So working together, trying to find ways again. We wanted to, you know, bring this in as low as we could, in a reasonable manner, while also understanding that we have costs and other contractual obligations. And so the first step kind of that the council had taken, was the recommended transfer of 49,000 from the parking management, special revenue fund to 11. This was the pay by mobile parking from,
this year. We're transferring that as a direct transfer into the general fund in the 2026 budget. That, in theory, would reduce the levy by about 2%. So by doing that transfer, about $25,000 is we say around 1% of our levy, using our budgetary numbers. So it becomes about a 2% reduction in the levy. Then we further, back in September passed resolution twenty five eighty six. That removed about 80,000 from our debt levy for our 2021 bond. So we still have one more year we're supposed to levy for that in 2026.
Staff kinda looking at our numbers, looking at the funds and availability, believe that there's enough, funding in that, debt service fund to not have to levy again a year, thereby saving that from the taxpayers, the 80,000. And then we're reducing our headcount, which, again, in some cities, reducing headcount by one is not a major change. But for us, it's about a, you know, a 10% decrease in our staffing, and it's a a pretty big change there. So we're reducing our full time equivalents. This is all of our seasonal, kind of our whole personnel budget,
is going down by one. And all of that has a direct impact of kind of the steps we took knowing these other circumstances, knowing, you know, our police costs and other contractual obligations were increasing. These are steps we took directly to help reduce that further. Okay. So this is additional information. So if you unfortunately, when we make some of these slides, some of this stuff has passed. So the Roseville, budget and levy hearing happened yesterday. But the Ramsey County Budget And Levy Hearing is tomorrow. And this also provides information about, Minnesota property tax refund programs. And,
yes, your statement will be or notices will be coming in March 2026. Just additional information for how to contact us if there's any questions or comments. We're always happy to walk, you know, residents or interested parties kinda through our taxes, breaking down people's bill for them. Happy to help them with that. Happy to kinda help people understand, you know, what they're paying for and what services to expect and what part of it goes to city versus county, etcetera. Okay. That's it. Thank you very much. And,
for for that summary at this point, we'll now open the public hearing to all who wish to speak on the topic. Please remember to state your name and your address for the record if you desire to come and and say something. I'm actually here before, later on in the agenda. Okay. Does anybody wanna step forward and speak at the public hearing? State your name and address for the record, please, Jim. Thank you very much. Jim Logan, 1734 St. Mary Street. I wanted to sort of correct something for the people watching. To challenge your 20 when you challenge twenty twenty six property taxes,
you have to you're challenging the valuation of your property, not the taxes. And it is, the the notice that you're gonna receive in the spring is not actually for your 2026 payable taxes, but your twenty twenty seven payable taxes. There is still a mechanism for challenging the valuation that your twenty twenty six taxes are based on, but that at this point is going to require you to file a petition, in tax court. And so, that information is on the Ramsey County website about how to proceed with that. But you aren't you don't look for it in the notice this spring.
That notice is for next year's taxes. Thank you. Thank you. Good clarifications. Okay. Anybody else wanna speak? See no one. I'll call a second time for folks to know. Call a third time, a final call for anyone who would like to speak. Seeing no one, I'll, can I please have a motion to end the public hearing? So moved. So moved by Wasserberg. Hearing the motion from council member Wasserberg, I will close the hearing, by consent and now open the floor to discussion from city council members. I did have, a couple of things. First of all, just a clarification,
in regards to the medium home village, home medium value home in Ramsey County excluded the school district, but not the county. I'm perplexed because, I was thinking it was because we're still waiting to hear from the school district, but they had their vote yesterday. So this is it includes the, school district. It just doesn't include the current referendum. That is not included on that. On that. Oh, it doesn't include the referendum. Yeah. Okay. And that's not present on your tax statements either that you would receive. Preliminary tax statements that you received in the mail.
Right. So Okay. Those will appear in the spring tax statements that that you owe in The real ones. Yeah. The real ones that you owe in May and, October. Yeah. Okay. And, I know that our biggest item is our public safety costs and, you know, we've come a long way in our struggle since, 2016, and I think our city, did as best they could in in, standing alongside and and, building relationship with Valerie Castile and her family with the loss of her son,
Philando, you know, when Philando was wrongfully, killed. Yet when we went through that whole process, it was like the police department was left out of the communication. The decision to not keep the contract going was not by our counsel at the time, but was still, you know, at some point maybe. And after having Ramsey County, you know, we then started a long process to come back to, having Saint Anthony, and I'm just grateful for the work that our former council did and our current
counsel to, to walk that very tenuous path, to get there. And I know residents are just pleased with having St. Anthony Police Department again, and as we heard from Chief Spies, in a recent, council meeting giving his report, how they're pleased. And I appreciate that he shared the work that they've been willing to do. They invited DOJ in, to look at things, and even though there was no formal report from DOJ, they still took it upon themselves to implement,
some changes to go from good to being a better, police department. And I know that they went through everybody involved went through hardship, not to the degree of the Castile family, but still the same, the police department, being shut out of the conversation. And then at the same time, even though it was one person's decision that ended Flandell's life, there was a lot of stress on the police department and, the individuals in the police department as well, former and current, and, you know, that's really unfortunate that that happens.
But when there's anger and shock and sadness, you know, a lot of grieving, as we're looking for justice, things can get out of control. And I think they saw a bit of that. And, you know, I'm sorry that they had to go through that, and I'm just grateful that they were willing to take the walk to, come back and be a part of serving Falcon Heights and them saying themselves that they always saw this as their community. So for them to be a part of this community again really means a lot,
not just to me, but I'm hearing it over and over again from residents and everyone in our city. And, I know our former council, you know, did the best they could and they endured a lot from residents and the greater community, and, you know, I wish that that wouldn't have happened. One person still on the council here from that time. And we can't undo things, but we can acknowledge. And I just want to acknowledge that that was a very difficult time that our council gave people an opportunity to speak and express how they were feeling and also our
staff, with emails, phone calls, letters, being present here, occupation out in the parking lot. Know, that was a lot to go through. And I wish that when we're seeking justice that we all could figure out a way to do it in a more graceful way, but we're doing the best we can when those situations happen. And so I believe, I just really want to communicate, gratitude for everyone's work in getting us to this point and, and even seeing that the Police Department of St. Anthony is growing.
They didn't expect it to grow as quickly as it has been. Sometimes when we reunite, we can, you know, still struggle and have things unsaid. Okay. And I don't want that to be so. Just wrapping that up and being grateful there. Thank you, Melanie. Any other comments from council? I'd just like to say thank you to staff for the work that you put in, starting early this summer, probably since January 1, it happens every year, but putting it together to see how to make it work and the efficiency
of our government operations are really well done. Like we were dug out of snow before the day started here. And now other cities are talking about putting on their snow emergency. So, little things like that. But thank you for all of your work putting the budget together and and for the council during our discussions on what our priorities should be for the city and making it work for our citizens. So thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion to recommend approval of the following two items? A motion approving resolution 20 five-one 103 adopting the 2026 tax levy for the city
of Falcon Heights as presented. I'll take that one first. So moved. So moved by Meyer. Council member Meyer has made a motion. Call for a vote on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion carries five-zero. I'd like to make a motion adopting resolution 20 five-one 104, adopting the 2026 budget as presented. So moved. Council member Wasserberg has made a motion. Call for a vote on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay.
Motion carries five-zero. So the 2026 tax levy and the 2026 budget are approved. Thank you very much. It's been a long process. It is every year. Thank you. Let the city move forward to, more success. Next, we have, a consent agenda. Any further comments, follow-up from council? Okay. Let's see. We have, 13 items now. We have our general disbursements through '25 or 12/05/2025 of $620,488.22
We have payroll through November 15 as part of that of $23,753.44 payroll through 12/02/2021 thousand $331.4 wire payments through December 2 Thank you, Alissa. We have, multiple city licenses that, now is the time where they're all, coming in. You can read those in the packet. It's available online. Our third item on consent is approval of resolution 20 five-one 105,
accepting the resignation of Erin Williams from the Parks and Recreation Commission and declaring a vacancy. Four, approval of the twenty twenty six seating city meetings calendar. Five, approval of pay estimate number one. It's the final one. To Farmer Asphalt Sealers LLC for the 2025 crack seal project six, approval of professional services agreement with Valley Rich Company, Inc. For on call emergency sanitary sewer repair services Seven is approval of setting the 2025 cost of living adjustment,
or COLA, at 3% for all City employees. Eight is the statutory tort limits liability coverage for the City in 2026. Nine, approval to replace two streetlights at Snelling And Larpenter 10, authorization of inspection and additional repair fees for dump truck units number 16 and number twelve Eleven is approval of city administrator performance review results. 12 is moved to policy five, so, approval of 13 is approval of Resolution 20 five-one 107,
accepting the resignation of James Morgan from the Planning Commission and declaring a vacancy. And 14, approval of Resolution 20 five-one 108, accepting the resignation of Georgiana May from the Environment accepting the resignation of Georgiana May from the Environment Commission and declaring a vacancy. That's the consent agenda. I'll move it and call for a vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. Anybody wanna make any comments on any of the consent agenda to draw attention to
our, viewers? Yeah, please. I'd like to just, thank you. Thank you. Thank, Erin Williams for her time serving on the Parks Commission. It's a pleasure serving with her. I've appreciated her thoughtful consideration of the items coming before Parks Commission. She's done great work, and, I appreciate all of our, our residents who participate in these commissions. That is what really helps to make city government work. So thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Jim. Anyone else? I'd like to thank, Jim and Georgiana for their service on the commissions and looking forward to their, next role in helping the city,
advance. Okay. Next, we'll move to policy items. We've got six of them tonight. Number one is approval of Resolution 20 five-one 109, authorizing an agreement with Bolton and Menck for planning and land use consulting services for the Les Bolstead Golf Course redevelopment. Administrator Linehan, I imagine that you had a large role in in setting that up. Yes. Thank you, mayor and council. Let me just turn real quick in my, massive packet for so back at our October 22,
city council meeting, city council authorized staff to go out for a request for proposal and RFP to find a consultant to help us kinda navigate this development. So kind of discussed during our budget workshop our budget hearing. We're a small staff, and, you know, this is a a large lift, right, of kind of our internal resources. We need additional specialty, and we need someone else in our bench that we can kind of turn to as we start to have to answer planning questions and other parts there. So looked at kind of how other cities will handle,
how do you go from a community that doesn't have a lot of permitting and, kind of this large scale development to potentially having that. And the answer usually is with the assistance of kind of consultants to help help guide that process. So as we went out, we got response from six firms, all qualified, all, extensive spear experience in this area. Staff met with the firms, kind of reviewed their process, kind of saw what they provided, kind of in a call last week, and we did rank them. And once we went through kind of the ranking, it was clear that Bultman Bank,
was the top firm in our scoring. They came extremely prepared, throughout the process. They've been following very closely. It's not one where they're just responding to the RFP. They've been engaged from the beginning. They come it's not just Bultman Mink that we'd be hiring. It's Bultman Mink, for the planning and other sides. It's Barr engineering for their stormwater expertise. Barr works with all the local stormwater agencies already as a consulting engineer. And for the environmental side, they're bringing in Braun Intertech, who the city's worked with with, you know,
various projects we've done with the Amber Union Mitigation and others. They're an experienced environmental firm. So, very well suited. We're, you know, happy to bring this recommendation. Again, it was a difficult decision just because there were a lot of really qualified firms that worked on projects. One other thing I wanted to call so usually, I'd have Boltman make here, Andrew Dresner, who's gonna be our, kind of our consultant. He has a preplanned vacation. He's out of the country right now. He's extremely excited. He normally would be here. So he's local. He attends he's actually been to a few of our, meetings kind of as he was watching and learning his his process for that.
But he had experience working on the Hillcrest, the TCAT plans, Highland Bridge. I mean, he's kind of one of the architects behind a lot of these projects, so it's not something new to him to tackle. And so it'll be good to have kind of his experience. He's already, you know, been helpful to bounce ideas off of as we talk and, think about these next steps. So, overall, happy to bring this firm. The budget for this, we've included 60,000 in the budget for 2026. We know that, you know, this could be a multiyear engagement. Even if you look at their timeline, they're kind of proposing 2028 as their,
as they kind of wrap up some of their project stuff. That could shift quite a bit. We also know that there's opportunity for additional funding from grant funding, from Ramsey County, Met Council, other partners there. And so we'll continue to seek that funding. So, likely, it's gonna be more than 60,000 over time, but we'll kinda build that scope as we go. The most important thing for us was to find the the right firm. So happy to answer any questions if there are on this. Good. Counsel. I just I'm impressed that, they brought into their bid, both Barr Engineering and,
Braun Intertech. So that's impressive rather than them feeling they have to do it all themselves and leave that component out. It's a way to get it included and to know that that piece is gonna be taken care of properly. Okay. I was, yeah, impressed with their proposal. And yes, it seems like you guys did the due diligence, so I don't have any hesitation, bowing in support of this. Yep. Looks like a good firm to help us out with what is undoubtedly going to be a complex,
next few years as we navigate this one. All right. Other discussion? Do I have a motion to approve resolution twenty five one hundred and nine? So moved. Okay so moved by Melkie. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five o. Thank you. Okay. So that's that one. Next, we have the adoption of ordinance twenty five zero seven, modifying chapter one zero five of the city code, rental ordinance changes.
Administrator Linehan, you wanna carry this one forward for, our administrative service deputy clerk, Kelly Nelson? Yeah. Thank you, mayor and council. So this has been kind of a long, in the process discussion as we talk about ways to, help our renters and help our, rental community in Falcon Heights. And so as we kind of went through this last starting last year kind of at the, December workshop, started looking at how, you know, we could look at everything from our air conditioning to, our other definitions throughout this chapter.
So it's kind of a combination of adding some new and then also doing some cleanup. So we've had a couple of recent workshops, but just to highlight some of the changes, the largest change is the section 603 through 60, one four added to city code. Those modify our air conditioning requirements, and they establish temperatures. So, again, kind of the the overall is that if you have air conditioning, if it's in the lease and the landlord provides it, it has to work. And that already might be the case in a lot of cities. The question is what is working. Right? And that's kind of a very loose definition.
We struggled with that. And so this what this will do is that'll make it very clear as to what working is. And so one habitable room, would not be able to get more than 80 degrees. And these standards would apply from May 1 to September 30. That was kind of our latest. So it kind of mirrors, there's a period of air conditioning and heat, and that sounds to be about right in Minnesota. And then kind of establishes fines and other kind of conditions in the in the code. A little bit kind of about the different roles is in here as well, who the fire code official, owner, property manager.
We use all sorts of different terms throughout, made it hard to track, clarified that. Mhmm. Added kind of some language in for our city inspections. You know, added that our multifamily, that each dwelling unit, can be inspected. And so now when we go and do an inspection, part of our process with this will be, the the property owner has to let all of their tenants know that the fire marshal is coming to an inspection. They have to give them their notice so that the fire marshal has the opportunity to go into units, as needed. And so especially if there's concerns that he's finding or other reasons to explore,
and help improve the lives of those tenants. You know, kind of additional stuff in here too, is kind of some of the, you know, the legal steps. We have a process for appealing. We kind of further clarify that. Added a reinspection fee, which is an important one in here too. You know, we are finding through our practice, there really wasn't any teeth that people showing up for an inspection, and so the fire marshal would go out, and do multiple inspections. So, this kinda makes that a little bit more clear in our fee schedule and our wording. You know, that again, we can kind of work with them on that,
that some of the other language. Also kind of if there's no shows refusal, that we can charge for that. Then let me see some of the other ones. So that kind of overview of the first section. The second one was our crime free housing program. So because these are both kind of in similar areas, talking about both, you know, the city council reviewed these changes, worked with our attorneys. They flagged for us that we needed a a rewrite of our current existing crime free. So took a look at that, continued to work through, how we do crime free. So crime free is a general understanding that property owners,
you know, will, if if they're gonna do background checks, here's the process for it. The idea is that they keep their properties, free from drugs and crime, because other tenants have an expectation of safety in their housing as well. So kind of went through, worked on that, clarified our appeals process of this. It was currently pretty loose, and so we're making it. So now there is an appeals process for that. We held an open house with we invited all the rental license holders, to an open house in November. We sent them an email saying, if you have any feedback, please let us know on these proposed changes.
We didn't receive any emails, and we had one person pen the open house. It was good to kinda talk to them. They had no concerns and seemed like, you know, they've kinda worked through this, and this all works with what they're doing already in their properties. And so multiple workshops kind of ready for our chance to look at this and consider adoption. So that's kind of the overview and happy to answer any questions or comments. Questions from counsel? Spent hours discussing it. Yes. We did. A good set of improvements. Yes. Nice summary. Do I have a, here and there in the call for a for a motion on,
on this to adopt ordinance twenty five zero seven, modifying chapter one zero five of the city code rental ordinance changes, and also adoption of summary ordinance twenty five zero seven that we can publish. So moved by Leahy. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. Next we have adoption of the class and compensation plan for full time city staff. A lot of year end,
cleaning up, making certain that we're ready to go forward for for twenty sixth tonight. So, this one will, once again call wanna get your vocal cords looped. Okay. And we'll call on, administrator Linehan for discussion of policy h three. Yeah. Thanks, mayor and council. So this has been something kind of long on our radar, is the idea of kind of how we compensate our employees. You know, just been a long standing challenge just of kind of turnover of staff knowing that, kind of the concept that we're,
you know, a little bit of a training ground here. But we wanna be able to assure that, you know, employees are paid equitably. And so what we wanna do is we wanna take a a look at this and do this in a scientific manner, manner, right, and not just kind of an arbitrary, pay structure. It's important to do in every community. It's especially important to do in Minnesota with state law and pay equity requirements for cities. So every three years, we, have to report on our pay and make sure that we're using statistical analysis to determine that we're paying, everyone in a fair manner. And so back in the spring,
we went out for an RFP to select a consultant to help us with this process, selected DDA HR. They had helped number of communities around us, with their pay plans, specializing in small cities, and they really specialized in taking a city that didn't have one and giving them their first one, which is what we're doing. And so with this kind of as we went through, we incorporate a lot of the feedback in our workshops, found a way again. This is not separate from the COLA. So the COLA still will be a vote like it is tonight. Every year, The COLA impacts this class and compensation wage scale.
And so as employees move through these steps, those steps do change with the cost of living, and that so that kind of impacts that. It ensures again that we have points for everybody and we know how we're paying our employees. It also improves a little bit of transparency too that it's very clear to show kind of what people's pay is, and so taxpayers know what our employees are paid. You know, we look at the cost of this. One of the concerns, obviously, is when you get a pay plan, there are costs. And so with this, you know, we looked at, okay, how does this impact our cost and how does it impact our current pay?
And we obviously do have mechanisms now to increase pay. And and when we looked at and did analysis over you know a course of a ten year period, it nets out that it is a little bit more. But there's periods where you know if you have new employees, our current pay encourages people to kinda come, get a couple years, and go. That's when most of their increases come. Here, it's a little bit better spread out and banded better. Mhmm. So I had employee meetings. I met with every full time employee to talk to them about this in advance. Kind of we went through every employee to the kickoff.
They scored their jobs, went through. They kinda said, okay. Here's the responsibilities. Here's how dangerous my job is. Here's how physical my job is. Here's how much analytical. You know, all the various things that make a job challenging in its own regard. Then their supervisor did kind of the same thing, went through, and scored their position as well, and then worked with the consultant to kinda put everyone in a rank. Then looked at 17 comparable cities that kind of the council helped us select, kind of the other peers in the metro area, similar size. All of this kinda led to our pay plan,
to make sure that we're right in line with our comps. So we're not one of the top communities in pay. We're not necessarily on the bottom. We're trying to be right in line with our comps kind of in the middle. And so that that's what this pay plan helps us do. Total cost for next year would be 38,000 for this pay plan. But we did have the reduction in the FTE, so kind of our net payroll is decreasing. But this did have a cost of, about 4.4% of our our budget on average for our existing employees. So there is an increase. There is a multiyear cost that comes with this,
but kind of that's the the overview of of this plan and what it helps us do. So happy to answer questions. I know we've talked about a lot of workshops as well. Yeah. That sounds good. Just to clarify, is that a 4.9% instead of a 4.4 looking on the total on page three sixteen? Yeah. Or 4.4? Yeah. That's a good question. I have to run the math. I don't know why my two numbers are not quite adding up a little bit. 38,000 is true. That is yeah. That is what you stated.
So we know that's accurate. Math. One might be how I rounded as well. That'd be a big rounder. Yep. That would make a difference on rounder. Okay. Other council questions, comments? It's good. It's gonna help us be compliant. That's a that's a big plus. Yep. Yeah. Being compliant with the states, they, always a a big task every three years. So Mhmm. Now we'll be able to know that we're compliant all the time. So it's not an ordinance or resolution? No. It's not an ordinance or a resolution. It's just adopting the plan. Goes into our kind of administrative manual type end of things to just kinda guide
how we Yeah. Run the city. And it's step one. Step two, we're bringing a larger personnel policy and, amendment at the December 22 meeting. That's gonna include paid family leave, and some of our other changes, and we're gonna reference that as pay. So it currently kinda talks about our current pay structure there. We're gonna remove that and reference the that the pay plan is our is how we pay employees. Okay. And it requires the satisfactory, performance evaluation to move steps. Mhmm. And this also helps with retention of good staff.
You know? Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt the class and compensation study for full time city staff? So moved. So moved by Meyer. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed. Same sign. Motion carries five o. Alright. Next, we have, item number four, adoption of ordinance twenty five zero eight, modifying chapter two of the city code to increase future mayor and city council pay effective 01/01/2028.
So two years from, from now. Two years and one month. Administration Lynn Ann, you wanna take the take on another one or Yeah. On there? Thank you, mayor and council. Again, this is another one we've workshopped quite a bit, looked at kind of pay. With this study, we did take a look at council pay. Again, knowing it's something that staff can do, it's a little bit biased. We wanted an outside source come in, take a look at our council pay. We knew that the city council's pay hadn't been increased since 1993, and that the mayor's pay hadn't been touched since 1999 set by ordinance.
And so took a look at it. We were low for the area. We were very low if you take into factor, the cost of living. And so to bring us kind of more in line with what our neighbors, comparable communities, the recommendation would be to go to $400 a month for the city council and $500 for the mayor. When we started looking at this and kind of how it works in kind of state statute, council cannot increase their pay, has to be done before an election, kinda for the oncoming body. And so, the recommendation here to kind of help push this as a future item to benefit
the future is this idea that become in effect in 01/01/2028. So of this existing council, you know, the the members that are here, nobody's terms go into that period. Right? And so that kind of helps look at it that way. Council discussed last week whether we wanted to have some sort of increase built in or some way, and the idea is that the city should take a look at this more than every thirty years. And, you know, a future council can make that decision if they believe pay is, you know, lagging or is not keeping up.
That would be kind of their, their decision to to make. Makes sense. So our current current pay is 300 for council members and $4.50 for mayor established in '93 and '99. Per month? Just per month. Yep. When I first ran for the council, I thought it was for the year. But I was pleased to find out, like, oh, okay. I actually can almost, get paid for that. And $300 a month can be a big difference, especially in today's heating world. Okay. Further discussion? Just a couple of comments for the folks at home.
I think It's a nice line on the budget impact. It's $5,400 a year, so not by any means the largest thing that we've probably addressed here even this evening. And, it it kind of I looked at the, the dates on my call. The last time this was, was addressed for council was when I was in university, and I'm a spring chicken. So it's, it's good to work out. Nice. Yep. Okay. We're here to serve. Garden right here. Yep. So the, so let's see. So do I have, a motion to adopt ordinance twenty five zero eight,
modifying chapter two of city code to increase future mayor and city council pay effective 01/01/2028. So moved. So moved by Walsenburg. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries five votes. Policy item five, adoption of ordinance twenty five zero nine, amending chapters two and fourteen of city code for massage therapist licensing and background investigations. Administrator Linehan.
Yeah. Thank you, mayor and council. So the reason we're bringing this to you is an amended item. So an update to state statute, is requiring essentially fingerprinting for massage therapy and for the other background checks you do, requiring some language we put in there. We're doing our licensing right now. So we're in the process of licensing all of our twenty twenty six massage establishments, and so we wanna be in compliance with state law. So working with the city attorney kind of on this language, amending a little bit, working with Saint Anthony Police and trying to find kind of a police agency that
does this for the public is a little different. Historically, it's been kind of our police agency, that does background checks and others. And so kind of as we're handling that, and as we have a couple of license holders that need to get licensed for 2026, they're all pending on this. We wanted to bring that today. Little bit of just clean up in our code. Also adding this as well to our pedicab drivers who we do the background checks as well. So already kind of established for our other processes, adding it for a couple of our licenses that we do these background checks on, you know, peddlers, solicitors,
massage therapists, pedicab, etcetera. So just making that clarified of who we do background checks on Mhmm. And adding that in to clean up, and then also this fingerprinting state statute reference. So that's why we're bringing it, and happy to answer questions on it. I appreciate that staff is, taking the steps to assist the massage therapist in, getting up to code, up to speed with, where to do fingerprinting and so that they can be in compliance as well. Yeah. Yeah. And there are a couple options. You know, it is they the the applicant does usually have to pay for that and kind
of the the BCA, the sheriff's office, a few of these agencies do offer it, and so kinda working with that. But one of the challenges we face is, you know, we have them fill out a consent form. It's for Saint Anthony or our police agency to do the search. So we're just making sure that everything kinda goes Saint Anthony. They're not real like, this isn't something that they do already. They do it for their employees. They do it for our employees. But kind of how they would do it for the public is still up in the air. And so that's where there's other agencies that the people could go to. So we're gonna modify our license application as well.
But these massage therapy, it's very it's highly regulated of a service both locally and then also through law enforcement, again, for all the obvious reasons, you know, kind of human trafficking and protection. And that's what this act is, I think, too. It's also so that people are fingerprinted to kinda help track that and protect against, the abuse that happens Mhmm. In, you know, around the country in that regard. So that's what we're hoping to clarify, and we wanna be legally compliant with this, especially if we're holding license holders who could potentially deny a license based on this.
It's important that our code, reflects that as well. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Thanks for being proactive on on doing that. Further comments from counsel? Questions? Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt ordinance 2,509 amending chapters two and fourteen of city code for massage therapist licensing and Background Investigations. So moved. So moved by Leahy. Those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Motion carries five-zero. Alright. Our, sixth item for policy
is the discussion of approval of, Bel Air Bond and Inducement Resolution 20 five-one 106 for the, Larpencer Senior Projects. Administrator Linehan, this this was on consent. This was known as consent to item, c or g 12 for those following at home. Yeah. Thank you, mayor and council. So a little bit about this kind of request. So we had the applicant at the workshop last week. So essentially, a Valayer development company known as Valayer.
They're proposing to purchase, the the 1644 Larbinder Avenue West property. This is the parking lot area directly, West of Amber Union's lot. City had previously approved Amber Flats a PUD for this site. Buell who developed Amber Union was also going to develop that. They decided instead to sell. They ended up selling to Valaire formerly MWF properties. They're experienced developer kinda throughout the area. They've done over 50 projects in kind of the Twin Cities area. Specializing usually in affordable housing,
but now they're really specializing even more into affordable senior housing. So they have a model. They've opened a couple, recently one in, you know, Saint Paul, Mounds View, and these other, properties kind of of this model. They're hoping to do that. To do that, they do need, the city's help in kind of the state bonding. So state, MMB, does their multifamily revenue bonds. This is a process for developers to be able to get affordable financing options that helps make these market viable. They're seeking 25,000,000 through that process.
The city would use as being the applicant, helping them. So a developer can apply for it. A city can. There's really no risk to the city for going through that process. You know, we we have that as an option to to help how, housing projects. For this, we'd collect a fourth percent in an issuance fee. Estimated to be about estimated to be about 62,000 over the life of the bond. And the project overall would bring in estimates of 70 to 80,000 in property taxes. So taking kind of a a a parcel and and bringing it up and and
providing affordable senior housing is the goal of that. With this, the costs, even our legal costs, so the city, all of the resolutions attached are drafted by Taft, our bond council. Valaire pays all those fees. So it's kind of a process that's tried and true throughout the Twin City area. And so, council by supporting this supports our application for the process. The caveat is if the developer comes, you know, in the future and ask for zoning or planning, this has no impact on that. So if there are future planning and zoning decisions,
those can still be made, in regards to this. So tonight would be a support of their application. So I'll, speak to this a little bit because it's my request to to pull this off a consent agenda. I had a illness last week, so I wasn't able to to, share my thoughts then. So, I think the main, my my main issue or concern with this project lies in the strict 50 and above in the in the building guideline that they seem to be proposing here.
I get that, that is that may that may be legal within the law. The more I dig into it, I'm not so sure. Maybe maybe they, within their policies, they talk about this a little bit more, but, it does seem to be ignoring certain situations that that might happen. For example, a live in aid with under the Fair Housing Act, Act. From from what I'm reading, they those people who are 50 should be exempt from any type of requirement of
being 50 or over. So, you know, if it's a senior who has some needs and maybe maybe they have an adult child who is willing to live with them and assist with those needs, it sound just looking at the proposal, it sounds like that would not be allowed. And, you know, there's other scenarios, like perhaps perhaps it's a senior with a, adult child with a with a disability. That seems like this might also preclude them. Now I'm not a lawyer, and I've only done a little a bit of research on this, but it does seem like the law,
in order to be eligible, under the Housing for Older Persons Act, to to be qualified as, as this type of housing. You actually only need 80% of your units to be occupied by 55 and older. I get why the developer, might wanna have, some guidelines for more than that, just for for market fit or whatever to be more attractive, to potential residents. But it it does to me, it feels a little bit
too too strict. And, yeah, I I wish, you know, I would have been able to share this earlier. But knowing that we have the December 22 meeting still ahead of their request to have this for January, I thought maybe we could, defer a decision on this until that meeting and get some responses from the developer about exemptions for situations like live in aids or, perhaps, you know, somebody a younger person with a disability living with a parent. Some, like, compassionate,
exemptions, I think, is is, what some of my reading on this call that. So that there's some some of my thoughts and what I wish I would have been been there to share last week. You know, I'm not gonna say I'm the expert, but I was the marketing director for senior care Serenity Senior Care, which is a very senior housing senior care is very, very regulated. And to be able to live in a senior apartment that they're proposing, you need to demonstrate you can live independently. Because beyond that, you would go to another level of care. So, that is that is would be a criteria.
And, So that that sounds like a criteria that the, the developer, the manager of the property, would would put in place, not necessarily like a legal requirement or anything like that. I mean, they have what did they say? 50 senior apartments, so they they know their regulations. Regulations. So if you needed care, then you would be need to move on to a different type level of senior care, or the family can move you home and provide the care there. But you need to demonstrate you can live independently. I I understand that's the developer's desire and what their,
intention with this property, is is to be set to just kinda set that bar. Like, look, we don't we don't want anybody in here with disabilities that can't live on their own. We don't want anybody in here, that's that's under the age of 50. To me, you know, on the council looking out for families, wanting wanting to provide that flexibility, that seems like an opportunity at least to dig a little bit deeper and and say, like, you know, us as a council of looking out for residents of Falcon Heights, both current and in the future, let let's, let's get some answers on this this kind of stuff.
And is is is this within like, are there any, exemptions that they have within there, or is it really just hard and fast? Like, tough luck. You can't live here, find somewhere else. So I They don't provide the levels of care. I mean, you if you move to assisted living, then you're, you have someone who can oversee your meds. I mean, it's it's levels. It's all about levels of care and liability. Right. And, and if if, for example, there a person was not didn't have a live in aid,
a family member wanted to take care of them, then, then this might not be the right place for them. Correct. But if they did, then it would not be available because of some, in my opinion, pretty arbitrary and kind of harsh restrictions by the developer. So that that's why I'm thinking. I'm not I'm not saying hard and fast like I think it's industry standards. It yeah. It's it's industry standards, because I did pose your question. Mhmm. Okay? For there and as the, as they answered. They had they go to provide independent
senior living, which is what this project is. That's independent, affordable, okay, ranging from a mix from 30% up to 60% of AMI to to be able to to get that to work. They follow the the rules for independent senior living, and that's what this building would be. They don't provide, services. It's not an assisted living, program or housing. It's seniors, looking for affordable housing. And
but not if not their family members if they're 50. The with their that it's independent senior living. If you need a care, you're not living independently. If you you're not living independent. And so it's one of the the facets one of the things that that we go if should we choose to to delay, okay, on this and say, we don't want independent senior living here. We wanna have a nursing home here. We wanna have an assisted living program for for the community.
It's not really what I'm talking about. No. But no. It's definitely a storm here. If we want to change if we want to change the type of, building that it's going to be, then that would be what what it would be. So this this is operating in an independent senior living. And they may have, ability for family members at over, you know, whatever ages. But the whole purpose is to do that for that portion of the market out of the care market. And if we decide not to,
not to support them by not, taking this step to to say we're in favor of this to to get the bonds. You know? And we don't you know, if we don't want the project, we don't want the project. But this is the project that we have available to us. And if that's basically it. Yeah. I remember going back to the Amber Flats discussion, you know, there are folks on this council who are ready to say no to that project, if there wasn't a very specific amount of parking required. And this, by the way, this is has a lot less parking,
which I'm fine with. But, the idea that, for this particular case, we're only willing to do exactly what the developer, we're only willing to do what the developer proposed and not suggest even any any alterations to their plan, which are They would need a do that. They would need a different level of licensing. I mean, it would be a whole regulation. They can't make that change. No. Yeah. They would because that person would need carrots, and that would be, would be someone would be a caregiver. That is not what I'm suggesting. Well, that's what you're requesting that they modify so they can allow for.
Yeah. It's a live in aide is different than being, like, an assisted living facility or a nursing home caretaker. Nurses on staff and, you know, all that. CNA. It's not not what I'm talking about at all. And the the fact that you guys are kinda jumping there, it it's I don't get it it makes me feel like you're you're, unsure of your own of your own argument here. Or maybe you're kicking yourself. You didn't think of this last week, that these situations, could occur, and we're saying no to this this whole group of people.
And, you know, forgive me for being, you know, a little bit perturbed that we have another project here that is subsidized housing for a generation that, has has, you know, plenty of advantages over those that are coming after it, has had a lot cheaper college education, a lot better paying jobs, a lot more affordable houses. And I realized the the economy is is still struggling and a lot of people are still struggling. But the fact that we are so ready to just exclude,
any type of multigenerational housing, because the developer asked for it, without even inquiring, hey. Can we have some exceptions here for different scenarios? Because it seems to be well within the law. And indeed, you know, you read up on some of this stuff, and it seems like they've allowed for situations that I'm describing. We're standing up for the developer. We should be standing up for the people of Falcon Heights. I'd support multi generational housing as definitely promoted for the a larger development such as
Les Bolson where, it would be designed with the, the en suite that's for the for the family member that needs the care, that's a better model than independent apartments. Well, that that's great, and I'm excited for that project. And but we, you know, we both know that it's it's gonna be years till anything like that comes online. This this is probably gonna happen a lot faster. You know? I I I love our city, and I love, you know, I love having my my mother-in-law around the block and my my dad moving up
here soon. I wanna if possible, and this is, I think, well within reason and well within our powers as a council, to, to allow for more of these situations to occur, I think. And without, I think, muddying the vision to have primarily a senior community here. But I it's it's been the three of us talking about this, and I'm I am curious what, council members Leahy and Wattenberg, think about it. Yeah. So, I mean, I I, I do understand that people who are 55 would like to live in a 55
community. It it confers benefits to them. As to the advantages of people who are 55 that they've had in their lives, I think it's pretty well known that, that poverty is particularly acute among some elderly populations. So this is serving that. I think the idea that they we would ask the developer to allow, someone designated as a caregiver to live with them who is not 55 or a spouse. I think that is probably a little fraught for the developer and maybe maybe why
they don't allow it because it's, I think, probably difficult to demonstrate that someone is actually a caregiver and not just your nephew who got kicked out of his apartment and those kind of things. My guess is that's probably why they do it. And they went and so they put in this this rule. Now I don't know exactly how hard or fast the rules are. Right? But if they had that rule, I can understand why. So, so I don't actually feel like I need, clarification from the developer to go ahead and and support a bond to get this
project done. And they actually probably I think there's a good chance they're not going to get done this year, but they'll have to this round, but they'll have to reapply in any case. So those are my thoughts. So my thoughts are, Council Member Meyer, is that I appreciate that Mayor brought it forward during the workshop and very clearly we took time to discuss it. But even before that, came up, the developer mentioned that they're pleased that this is gonna be near Amber Union, which allows for family members to live close by.
And I was pleased that they were thinking generationally that they're saying there's an apartment nearby where they can have other family members before, this issue even came up. My second thought is I'm in agreement with council member Wattenberg about, the opening up the gate where you could end up having a relative there that is not a true caregiver and then could end up creating other issues because that has happened to seniors out of the generosity of their heart, making way for that, but then it becomes a complicated situation and and in some cases even abusive for
that particular senior when they have another family member live with them. Not everybody, but it it has happened. And so in some seniors that they're just wanting, some are looking for housing that is just seniors. That's a desire that some seniors have. A second thought, well, not second, but, you know, as I'm listening and processing, there are opportunities in Amber Union, our other apartments, and even possibly, I don't know for certain, but our senior unit that is on Arona and Larpen Ter might allow for that.
I'm not sure what their age limits are. Someone else could speak to that. But there are other places where those situations fit well. But here, their situation is they're designed for seniors, at least 55, and if they have someone else, a spouse or another person living with them, that they're at least 50. Their focus is affordable housing rather than multifocuses. That's their niche, and I wanna honor their niche. Lastly, which is also very important that we need to be considering is them putting this
for for this bond. There's a time frame. And if we push this down the road, it could be even harder for them to bid a first time or a second time. So we're in a window of opportunity to help see a planner that has been successful in other communities doing this and providing this service. I am very much for multigenerational opportunities in our city as much as possible, but there are times where we have to realize this isn't going to be that fit, and I think this is one of them. Thanks,
thanks for sharing your perspectives. Yeah. Well, I I thank you for indulging me in in a conversation about this. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. Because, you you know, you you kinda you know where my head's at, on it where it it does like, even, you know, the 50. So you could imagine, somebody who's maybe in their in their mid or late fifties, and they could have a spouse in their late forties or mid forties. That could be. Could be. They And they probably wouldn't be looking for this for their kids.
They may not be looking for this this particular housing. They could find Yes. They could find affordable housing next door to Amber. I Right. Right. Maybe maybe they could. I ran into a peer at the Hendricksons. Like, woah. And she intended it to be temporary housing and, but loves living there. But it's most times it's people in their 70s and beyond. I guess I just point that out to sort of illustrate that it does feel kind of arbitrary, the numbers that they picked here. It's arbitrary to the extent that it's the industry.
Every their senior buildings are all that way, and, you know, they have their their different programs. The, yeah, and I'm hoping that we have multigenerational opportunities at Les Volstead. I hope that we have opportunities for single families. I hope we have opportunities for ownership, not just rentals. I'm hopeful for a lot of things at at less and if we can, do that. But this particular one is an industry standard, very successful
developer and operator of their facilities that's providing great service for the residents and should be a welcome member of, Falcon Heights and in our whole community. And and it needs a need for, for affordability and housing for, for that age group as well. So Yeah. But thank you for sharing and and bringing it forth and, as always, being an advocate for others. Yeah. Mhmm. I get you know, I guess the one the one thing that
makes me feel a little bit better about it is perhaps it is, you know, it's it's another place that gives seniors an opportunity to downsize and get out of their homes and make room for the next generation of families to to come through and achieve that that dream of homeownership there. So, in that sense, I guess, it's it can you can construe it as being, supportive of a different generations in housing. Okay. Thank you. Alright. We downsized to a smaller home,
and two people are living in our former five bedroom house, so go figure. Yep. Okay. Okay. Do, further discussion? No. No. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the, Valor bond inducement resolution twenty five one zero six? So moved. So moved by Melkene. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Nay. Motion carries four one. So that brings us to, information and announcements. All of our policy items are set.
The, as we look here, who wants to start? Hi, Ken. The, Environment Commission that last week worked on their 2026 goals and planning. Sustainability fair will be in April. Started their work on that, working to tie to the climate action plan and just on other passions. And the idea is to, identify a invasive plant a year. So the twenty twenty six invasive plant of the year is the creeping bellflower. I love it. Oh, yes.
That's a nest. That's a nest one. Yeah. That's a hard one to get rid of. So that was theirs. They also held, we had some money available from recycling money, I think it was, that, held another shredding event today in technology That's great. Event. So that's from the Environment Commission. Cool. Mayor. Planning Commission on that. And, yeah, I don't have any significant announcements. Yeah. Just hope everybody stays safe out on the roads And, oh, yeah, and then big, big props to our public works department, per usual. Indeed. Indeed. Okay.
Council member Leahy? Yes. The Community Engagement Commission, our next meeting will be on Monday, December 15 at 06:30 here. And, today is International Human Rights Day. And in observation of it, yesterday, the CEC held a gathering, with the focus on food insecurity. And, we had one, two, three we had four presenters and because of the snow, two of them were able to make it, but we still had slides, so we were still able to share about the others. And the information is going to be available probably even up to date as of
today on the residents' information portion of the city's website. But I just want to, extend gratitude to two groups. One to our residents who donated, food items. Those are going to be going over to Keystone within the week here. And secondly, to our different presenters that shared, we had Keystone Community Services. They're over on Fairview And University. We had Philando's Pantry. Their presentation, they were able to share, and we just learned about them within this year,
the last six months. Every meal they're located, they've grown just since 2011 when they started, and they're in Roseville in a large warehouse facility, so they're able to meet the needs of children in schools. That's their particular focus. And then we have right here in Falcon Heights, The Goodacre, and they provide a lot of different opportunities around food including CSAs. That was a good time that we had last night, so thanks for everyone braving the weather,
even close by, to be here, and just appreciate the work that the commissioners did for that and staff. Alright. Thank you. Okay. Just a couple announcements. The Parks Commission met, earlier this month, and we had a really good productive session, in planning for things for the future and particularly in, low cost community events, kind of spurred on by the success of the game night held here in these in these chambers, like, in November I believe it was. And, there were just a lot of good ideas. I won't, you know, break the news on what they are yet because we have to figure out whether
they're all viable and such, but they were it was a really good it was a really good vibe. It was a really good, experience to sit there and have people come up with really creative ideas to, to really serve the residents of Falcon Heights with, with good programming that is, that we would expect would be well attended and and low cost for the city. Now so thank you to the, the commissioners for their creativity. Also, I just wanna make a, a shout out for, Northeast Youth and Family Services. I'm on the board there as part of my responsibilities here with the city council of Falcon Heights, And, we recently held, one of our board meetings. They're, they are an organization that has deep roots in,
Falcon Heights. They provide low cost, mental health counseling and other services for youth, adults, and families. And they are going to be celebrating their fiftieth anniversary here coming up. So we were doing some planning along those lines. So so stay tuned for, for things that, may be coming out about that. And also just remember that they are there as a valued and and, really great resource for those who find themselves, in need of so much DocQUE. So please do take advantage of it if if that suits your needs. So that's it.
Cool. May may I may I add to what I shared about yesterday's event? Yes. So there are flyers that are available at city hall if you want one for yourself or to pass along to your neighbors, because some people aren't gonna go on the website to access that. So we do have those printed off as well, and there's opportunities to learn about the organizations, volunteer, or even be a recipient and share that with your block as well. That's it. Okay. Cool. The, and for Northeast Youth and Family Services, for those looking for a year end cash donations for your deductibles,
consider them for, for that, I would add. Of course. And, yes. And add to, Derek, I wanna put kudos out once again to Public Works for, clearing the streets and getting it, getting it done. It was, it was really good. The, then I had to travel into through Saint Paul after leaving, and, I was happy. I my short journey in, Falcon Heights, was was as as good as it was. And then they were even following up, after I had had to dig out. But,
Oh. You do have a four wheel drive Subaru Outback. Is that correct, Mary? Yes. So Because so that I can, navigate, Saint Paul's. No. Coming coming home last last night and coming up the Como Hill in, really cool looking, Toyota coupe was, we had about a three minute climb that half block as as they were working to get, but it was it was looking it looked really nice, but, yeah. So but, anyway, it was okay. That's there. The, we'll held our next meeting on,
Monday, December 22 because, our regular scheduled time, is the twenty fourth, and that's Christmas Eve. And, might have low attendance at that one. So our final meeting of the year will be the twenty second, where once again, we can probably expect a lot of year end wrap up, things that we do and trying to get them all to, to happen by the time that it goes. I wanna, once again thank staff for all the work that they put in year round to, to make it make it go and, administrator Linehan for working your,
your voice. I'm glad we didn't overwork it too much, maybe, and and it's working. And but I'll call on you again for, follow-up of, things to, to pay attention to. Sure. Yeah. I'll clear my throat. I'm pretty sure it stays clear. So the Les Bolston Golf Course RFP, we met with the university staff. We've been doing our biweekly check ins with them. Getting the latest that we're doing is we're working with all the various entities, Met Council, Saint Paul Regional Water, our own sanitary, and really getting all the utility information over to them, so they can provide that to submitters.
It closes on the eighteenth. And so after that, then we're kinda working with you and how it look like that our opportunity to maybe review some of this information is usually confidential. So we wanna work through that process with them and make sure Falcon Heights is represented and, the the best we can have kind of a seat at the table in that regard. The mayor mentioned December 22 meeting, so we have moved that. It will be a busy agenda. Usually, at this meeting tonight, we appoint all of our positions, our engineers, city attorney. We pushed everything we could to the next meeting. So please let me know if you can attend.
We're hoping for a quorum so we can get all this done. And if, if we if you kinda know ahead of time that you're not gonna attend, we may have to do a special meeting at some point. You know, one thing too, I know the city council and, staff have also gotten a lot of emails from residents in Saint Anthony Park and our University Grove neighborhoods, concern over the lifestyle communities, Luther Seminary proposal. And so when this initially kinda started coming about, we heard kind of over the summer a little bit about this. We started just touching base with Lauderdale, starting to get kind of, okay, what's going through this, followed the process.
And, again, kind of following this really good turnout from the residents in that regard. You know, followed up with Lauderdale again, checking in kind of where it's at, reviewing all their materials. You know, kind of the update right now. They have a two phase PUD process for it. So phase one, developer was working on a resubmittal as of last week, then phase two. Then the second thing, you know, we reviewed all the public information for, kind of the presentation on traffic and others. We reached out to the developer to get a copy of their latest traffic study, reviewed that with our engineers. They're currently under doing a full traffic study and traffic report.
We wanna see a copy of that too. Initial does show again that there is an increase in traffic in that regard. And so what we're looking at too is how our current capacity and size can handle that. You know, the the second part, there is no concern in that regard. Our our streets can handle that traffic. The first question, though, is important one is that it's not you know, it is a increase in traffic a large increase in traffic over current patterns and how that, you know, impacts neighborhoods are something that, you know, we wanna keep working with Saint Paul, keep working with Lauderdale on that and have that information.
And so if there's any questions that kinda come from us, we're happy to help answer that. I know the mayor had answered a lot of the some of the comments, and I know that, you know, there's more kinda continue with that as well. And so that's kind of where we're at with that one. In addition to the Commissions. It was mentioned. Public works was out this morning. 3AM, they wrapped up about eleven. They'll keep going through and doing cleanups as well. So tomorrow, they'll come back again. They'll do another cleanup. Expecting a lot of wind over the next twenty four hours. That's gonna blow a lot of this loose snow, and go through and do the sidewalks again.
So if anything comes up in snow plowing or others, feel free to always reach out to me and staff, and they'll make sure that we're on top of it. That summarizes some of the latest. Oh, yeah. And then the, thank you counsel for the budget, and then I didn't say it too, the class and compensation plan too. Great great team. Glad to keep everybody. Had the same group now for a feels like a long time, and so I wanna keep that group. And so I appreciate that support, and staff as well. Cool. Yep. Thanks. So any other follow ups on announcements? Thank you for I did forget.
You had more information on the Luther Sim project. So thank you for the more details on that one. Most of the call was that we talked to each other and we have been talking and we will continue talking with our neighbors and figuring out those things as bodies. But it's nice to see people engaged again, you know, on a project. At this time, I'd open the, the floor and the microphone to community forum where we have somebody please come forward and, he would brought would be referred for consideration.
We may ask questions, but no council action or discussion will be held on them at this time. But please tell us who you are, where you're from, and why you're here. You bet. My name is Steven McCarthy. I reside at 2286 Falwell Avenue in Falcon Heights in the University Grove neighborhood. And, administrative Littmann's talk I've not been quite here because I'm sitting far away from you guys, but, this is a good segment to be talking about the Lutheran missionary development. So lots of us live in University Grove are very, very concerned about this, and we're concerned about the traffic primarily.
I mean, we're not really concerned about the idea of the development. It might be a positive thing. It's gonna have about four times the density of the surrounding neighborhoods, so there will be an impact. And there'll be a short term impact in terms of construction noise and inconvenience and litter perhaps and, you know, lack of access to brick woods and so on. But our but our main concern is about the overall traffic impact. And I I was invited to serve on the San Anthony Park Task Force. So San Anthony Park being the neighborhood that's South of White Avenue that butts up against Falcon Heights. So I I'm an unofficial representative from The Grove.
I I live there, but I'm not here tonight or even on that San Anthony Park Task Force as an official representative. I'm just a concerned citizen, and I wanna be involved and engaged. But so unofficially, I I can speak for my neighbors and my, my community. You mentioned, administrator Lanahan, about the, the traffic study. Well, lifestyle communities is conducting traffic study. That's like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. You know, there should be an independent, neutral, sort of third party traffic study done. And it not only has to consider the estimated 1,200 more cars a day on those streets,
it has to consider that they're going to funnel it all through Hendon Avenue and Hoyt Avenue, including Fulham and then pouring onto Falwell, exiting Como, and so on. So, in spite of of, studies and experts, including Tom Fisher, who has the Minnesota Design Institute at the University of Minnesota. He's a national expert on urban planning and architecture, published numerous books, numerous awards. Ask Tom what he thinks, and and he would concur with me that, egress and ingress should go on the other side of that development, to Como Avenue or to Eustace Avenue,
and not empty onto the lower density, mature neighborhoods from Hoyt and Hendon. So I'm following some emails that you got last week, am I right? Correct. Okay. Good. So you can tell there's some concerned neighbors of mine that care about this as well. I'm the only one that braved the snow and ice to come here tonight to to, speak personally. But, the development is not in Falcon Heights, so so we don't have the sort of skin in the game or the the political clout to make something happen about this. But what we're asking of you, of our city council, of our elected officials, is to represent our concerns because it it will impact our quality of life.
It might impact our home values. It might impact the safety of our streets. So if you can have conversations with Lauderdale, with Saint Paul, with Ramsey County, with Ward 4, with the Metropolitan Council, to try to resolve this in a comprehensive way. And this will also set us up well to deal with the development of the golf course, which is going to happen in, you know, the next couple of years. But the Luther Seminary development is imminent. They're going to break ground next year. They're gonna put in their new, you know, 600 residents in that area, and we hope it'll all be a nice development, a nice community,
and add to the quality of life here. But none of the tax revenue will come to Falcon Heights, but a lot of the burden will come to Falcon Heights residents. So I'll conclude there. We're just asking for your involvement and your advocacy, and, you'll find that the the citizens in that part of your town, really care about this, and we're gonna continue to to make noise about it. Okay. Thanks, Steve. I'll conclude there. I'm happy to take questions. If you have any, I've emailed in. You could hit the reply button. It's, you know, Steven McCarthy. I'm a retired University of Minnesota professor. I still have my email address at the U and so on. So Okay.
Thanks. Thank you. You bet. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Yep. Thanks for your patience. Yep. Thanks for your patience. You know, I had too many, many years in Minnesota meetings that went on and on. That's one of the city business. Residents should know about it. Yep. Have a good evening. I counted. I counted emails. I got close to a 100. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just impressed with how it mobilized. Too much disco. Yeah. The, so, let's see. That's it. Anything else? Anybody else for a community forum? Seeing no one, I'll, close, community forum. And,
let's see. I gotta get back to what my time is. And, make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of adjournment, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed same sign. Council member Myers motion to adjourn passes Five-zero. Thank you. At that note