No, you're all good. Well, we're going to have to have a performance review, Joel. Right. At least I caught it right away. At least before like anyone before I got to respond. Yeah. Yes. Good job.
All right. Hello everyone and welcome to our special city council meeting. I'll call to order this meeting, Monday, July 28th. If you could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Ryan Wmer here. Kyrie Miller here. Tom Berg
here, James Oka here, and Scott Balavo here. All right. Approval of the agenda. Uh, we only have 10A. Are there any additions, deletions, or corrections to the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve. Motion by Miller.
Second. Second by Palava. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. All opposed. All right. Approval of the minutes. There are no minutes. Public hearings. There aren't any public hearings. So, presentation of citizens
petitions and comments. Comments limited to two minutes. So, if you're not on the agenda, now is your time to speak. All right. Seeing none, uh there is nothing on the consent agenda tonight. There is no old business. On to new business. Discuss the city's preliminary
2026 budget and property tax levy. Joel Ericson. All right. Thank you, mayor, and members of the council. This is our fourth meeting pertaining to uh the city's 2026 budget and property tax levy. Uh departments proposed to go over tonight. Uh administration, planning and zoning,
police, and then obviously anything else that you guys would like to go over. Uh departments that will be presented in August will be the EDA, library, parks, and liquor. Um, included in the staff report is uh
the property tax levy that the council has discussed and the impact. Um, as I've said, I'll include that in in every packet so you guys have that information when you guys are uh making decisions. Um, but with that, I guess we'll get
started in uh departments uh administration. Basically our main revenues are the property tax levy, LGA and uh investment interest. I mean we have a few minor charges for interest and thinker I'm sorry charges for
services but at the end of the day those are the three main uh revenue sources for for city hall. Uh expenses would be wages and benefits. Um I am uh reached out to our uh insurance bro our health insurance
broker to start that process of where rates are and and getting that budgeted for and to see if um there's anything else that we can do. Uh typically in the past what we have done is um we well we went from having one health insurance
plan to providing three plans so that the employee can make a choice on um well their premium right how much they have to pay and then obviously it's associated with the deductibles based off of um how much your premium is.
Uh so we'll have that meeting and um allow staff the opportunity to meet with the broker and ask ask any questions if there's any questions with claims that they may have had in the last year. they can uh use that well they can use any time throughout the year but use that time um after the meeting to kind of sit
down and hey I had this issue and they only paid this you know um Al's been pretty good about reaching out to um uh our insurance company and you know figuring out a solution or nothing else getting them an answer.
We'll have uh two elections next year. We'll have the state primary and um general election in 26. So we've budgeted for uh election judges, rental of the IC church civic center, ballots, and then um Rice County.
Oh, we started using Modus, I believe, for our last election. It's um a software program. It it works okay. um it's good for tracking and our expense is minimal compared to um the other cities. So as of now we did include that
in in the budget and um speaking with elections. Um Joel, there was talk about doing the election here. Yes. I just don't know if there's the space.
Okay. Um, you know, now that we're on even your elections, Mhm. we were going to be pushing 2,000 people through here. Yeah. Um, parking, you know, that was the thought. Yeah.
You know, when you're like, "Oh, we have this building envelope." And now that you're here and you see the design, it's like, could it work? Sure. Yeah. Park parking definitely. I could see. You know, the old city hall, we pushed probably at the height 11,200
people through there. Sure. And that was like single file in, single file out. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was it it was pretty tight. Obviously, there's more room here. Yep. Um, you know, I guess if that's something that the council wanted us to look at, we we we certainly could.
What is the cost for the ICC? Oh, you had to put me on the spot, huh? Sorry. Um, it's fairly minimal. It's minimal. Maybe like 700 750 bucks per election. And we always get our deposit back because we always make sure that we
clean up and everything garbages are dumped and swept up for the most part and looking good. So, uh, training, education, um, as far as administration, uh, either the al the League of Minnesota Cities Conference or the
Minnesota uh, City Managers Association, SAFESure is is a is a for sure and in administration is pretty minimal. Like we talked at the last meeting, uh public works, water, sewer, uh streets and parks is probably
75% of of that expense. Uh civil defense is just the uh power for the sirens and then any repairs that that are needed. Uh building repairs and m or repairs and maintenance are just general building repair items. Um, since
this is a new facility, I'm anticipating that at that they're minimal, but there were some things that were pre-existing that, you know, a water softener or, you know, something like that. So, it's it's pretty minimal.
Uh, as far as professional services, this is where the, uh, outside of wages and benefits, the majority of the expenses are. Uh we fund mosquito control out of there and it's just a lot of things like our copy or rugs um it
with tech support of Minnesota is there um financial disclosures that we're required to to provide to the um the state board of investments or I don't know the exact name of it but um every year we have to submit our um debt
disclosures and bonds and there's there's a few more things but they're minimal but Um, I think I budgeted about $90,000 $92,000 for that. Um, well, more than half of that is is mosquito control.
I think for next year I'm up to almost 50,000 for for mosquito control. Uh, utilities would be electrical and gas and that is based off of uh the current facility that that we're in. I'm
not budgeting for uh the old city halls. I'm anticipating that that will be be sold by then. Um and I do plan on tweaking that. I basically have, you know, construction costs, what electrical was and gas was in basically
one month, June of us being in here. So, you know, obviously gas is going to be way low, electrical is going to be high just like your households are, right? Then in the winter it switches, electrical is low, your gas is high. So um I'm anticipating that to be uh pretty
close to what it is, but um do plan on adjusting that after I get a couple months of um numbers. And do we have a programmable um thermostat so that it's saving when people aren't in um so the way that our HVAC works is
it's all online and um we have 12 zones in here for the offices, the council chambers, the front conference room. There's so there's 12 zones in here and we can regulate them. Um they say they recommend leaving a couple degrees difference in between. So that you know
kicking on, kicking off, kicking on, kicking off as far as you know cooling, it'll rise to a certain temp and then when it cools down and averaging Yeah. Exactly. Um, but we have a program now that when it's unoccupied, basically after 4:30,
uh, it'll go up to, um, I haven't seen it yet, but 80° and then at about 6:00 in the morning, it kicks on to kind of the occupied, uh, temperatures. Perfect. Oops. Uh, subscriptions. Here's what we
were talking about, the clerk minutes. Um, Corey researched them and then actually not too long ago there was a question on the League of Minnesota Cities list serve about how do I cut down on the amount of time I'm typing minutes and um we were already using a
free kind of test trial for clerk minutes and Corey says that it it at least cut it in half. Oh, good. So, um, basically picks up on people's voices and put the agenda in there and it picks up on people's voices
and then basically types it out. So, um I think wow I think I put about $1,200 in there and that was like the minimum one and that was like five meetings um five users or something and I was
like 1,200 bucks but then it jumped up to three grand for 10 meetings a month and it's like well we're we're right between there and there's there's no option of course right do you know what that was called? You know what program uh clerk minutes?
Okay. Yep. Because I had seen this local lens. It's a beta and it's been pulling up other council meetings throughout the state and it even has icons on there that shows like the actual minute to the
YouTube video and all that. So again, it's called local lens beta. I don't know if you guys can look into that a little bit more. I got it pulled up right here on my computer, but while we're checking out, it's pretty descriptive, too. So,
yeah, we will uh we'll definitely look into that. The amount of time that we spend type of minutes is ridiculous. I I'll keep an eye out, too, because I know my uh my company's really deep into different AI stuff lately. The COO is
like or CEO is constantly posting stuff whether it pertains to us or not. So, I'll just keep an eye out. But you can build your own GPT using chat GPT, right? Which is it's actually once I saw how easy it is. So, I'm sure there's
options, but if we needed something for at least a short term until we can research I mean in a year there's going to be probably five things that are 10 times better. Mhm. So, whatever software we use, I'm just looking at saving time because
however long the meeting is, it's more than double. Yeah. Easily to type minutes. Yeah. I guess, you know, I'd be curious to see, you know, I mean, not necessarily have to put a lot of time into it, but the cost and staff hours
versus the cost of the five or 10 license, either one, because I mean, if we can use it for all meetings and, you know, we estimate, let's say, staff time costs at $5,000 a
year, then 3,000 doesn't seem like that bad of a deal. Yeah, that is. Yeah, we would definitely spend way more than that in typing minutes. Yeah, that's why we need one of those little court reporters that we're Yeah, that's that's going to be cheaper.
I know. I'm just strike that. Uh, our League of Minnesota City's annual dues. Um, they're 6,500 to $7,000 a year. And then Civic Systems is our accounting and payroll
software that we use. And then uh we're a member of a a purchasing organization. It's like $39 a year to um get good pricing and we buy a lot of stuff through that. So it's well worth it. Very worth it.
Joel, the uh League of Minnesota Cities dues, does that include our insurance? Uh it does not. So, that's a separate line item, correct? Yep. Um, yeah, I just our work
comp was like 120 and I didn't look at it today, but I'm pretty sure we got our um property casualty insurance renewal uh dollar amount. So, and I'm guessing that that's probably
not too far from that as well. So, maybe a little bit higher. Sure. Well, I'm sure the library will tell you it's worth it. Before we hit this last point, Joel, um, one thing from the comp study is they're
they talked about dental insurance for employees. Is that something that, um, that we're still kind of discussing with Tessa? Yeah. Um, absolut Well, not so much with with Tessa, but if that is something that that the council wants to
incorporate, I can uh definitely provide that that dollar amount. I think it would be I think it would be worth it. And then um the for the sirens too, uh whenever we start a development, uh
funds are allocated for sirens. So if Bigsby were to come around, they would have to fund their own siren in that area, right? Uh we have in our fee schedule, we have I believe it's a per lot amount. Yeah. So
over the years, what we've done is worked with um it fed federal signal federal siren um and they provided us a map of uh where our um sirens currently are. And if you propose one, they'll
kind of provide a a radius of So we try to keep them where it's there's no dead spots, right? Yep. Okay. So I think right now we're Fig, 10th Avenue, and Sean Hills.
Yep. But they Yes, they would have to contribute to that uh to that fund. Okay. Um there's been talk about a a community survey. Um I guess looking for direction from the
council on on you know if you guys would like that incorporated and you know um maybe the process that we would like to go about. I mean, obviously there's, you know, cheaper routes of the survey monkey or, you know, things like that that, you know, maybe if you get that
many responses, there's probably a a cost associated with that. Or do we put out a RFP and solicit firms that actually, you know, this is what they do? They do the surveys. They, you know, statistically analyze it. you know, they
asked the right questions where no, we don't want an open uh ended question here, but yes, on this one, we do. Um, I haven't got any costs for that. I know um I saved an email from maybe about a month ago. Northfield's looking at doing a community survey, so I was going to
reach out to her to see what she got for a response. What did we do last time in 2015? Uh, we did it in-house and did all the mailings and stuffed all the envelopes and it it was okay.
Was there an electronic option, too? Uh, at that point in time there was not. Okay. No, we mailed it out to everybody and just kind of kept, you know, here's another mailer, here's another mailer, and just tabulated at city hall. Would
you be able to get us a um like a cost total of what that ran back then so that we could see if it's you know obviously inflation and things like that but we could also have the electronic options nowadays for people and then have a paper format.
Yeah. I I mean there was a lot of hours staff time spent on it. Mhm. I mean, as far as the, you know, the mailing, we'll say postage was 50 cents at the time and there was 1,500 households. So, you know, 750 bucks
probably the cost of of mailing. Mhm. I know. And I think wasn't there only like 316 households that responded back then? Yeah. So, you're at pretty low response rate. A fifth. Yeah. 20%. That's why I think it'd be really
helpful to have the electronic version nowadays because people sit on their phone all day anyways. But could we structure it with the same questions so that we have that baseline from the original survey and then see how things have shifted since then with our
demographic change? Yeah, I think you know once we get to that point that's that's the main thing. What what do you want it to be? Is it hey, how good are we doing? Um, what do you want Lawndale to have in the next year, 5 years, 10 years? Mhm.
So, yeah, all of that. I I think it would be well worth it to if if we go this survey route that we look at amending the comprehensive 2040 plan and uh even take a look at it past
20 240. But I mean, I had looked at it and um we should really go back to it and update numbers and so I don't know what the cost of it would be either, but that would be something that we should probably be looking into. I think they say on average comp plans
are what that 10 12 years. Yeah. Then you look at them and reevaluate them. So yeah, we're right at that 10. We're right there. So yeah, I definitely can bring more information back for for the next meeting. Absolutely. I don't I don't mind trying to tackle
this in-house. It would be nice to hear input of other communities such as Northfield um about what they're going through. So, um I would kind of suggest to leave it kind of open-ended with both routes. Um
if you could get a price on that and see where it goes. But I think uh inhouse would be uh preferred, but I'm happy to volunteer my time. Yeah, me too. To help out. And I took statistics in college.
Yeah. the Beler. I like statistics and flowcharts and graphs and fun stuff. Okay. So, kind of a comparison to
uh the last survey. Relatively consistent. Perfect. Um otherwise, yeah, city hall's not flashy. It's pens, paper, a copier. I'm obviously this gorgeous building, but
but yeah, we're not getting vehicles or, you know, any cool equipment. You got steel coat parking lot. Yeah, it turned out nice, didn't it? Looks fake. It does. It's like it's a picture or something. Yeah. When are they scheduled to do the lines?
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. We got paint today. Okay. We got our sprayer back. So, and you're doing that in-house? Yep. Perfect. Well, I hope it doesn't flood.
I know. A couple little bird bath spots. We'll just take a backpack blower, but none of them appeared to be in any of the lines. So, yeah, it'll look it'll look really nice. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's
a little touchup on just where the old sign was on the uh east side. And I think we're kind of wrapping up as far as the city hall. So yeah, the new the new sign turned out nice. Mhm. Yeah, it did. I haven't seen that dark yet. So it looks cool.
But I want to see it dark tonight. But all right, let's drag this meeting out so Joel can see those. I'll send you a picture. Well, those storm clouds might be rolling. [Laughter] But yeah, even during the day, it's just
the clouds and the rain, it kicks on cuz it's on the photo sensor with the lights and everything. And yeah, even just lit up during the day when a storm, it makes a big difference. So, yeah. Yeah, it turned out really nice. Mhm. So, I think uh maybe the parking lot uh
light poles, but I don't know if we'll do that yet this year, but next year um that lower north side is I don't know from the salt from Highway 19 if it blows this way or whatever, but that lower side of both those poles is just peeling off.
Never noticed it until I looked at it. Now I can't not see it. But the other three sides are just just perfect. Now everyone is going to see it. Is that is that something that we painting house do that? We talked about it. Um, we certainly can. I don't think it's as good of a
product as taking it down and having them powder coat it again. Mhm. Um, but we certainly can. I mean, it's just a matter if we do it inhouse. It's probably a touchup every year. Sure. But that's a definite possibility.
Um, maybe just get the estimate of what it would be for Yeah. Yeah. Get a hold of Deutsch or whatever. Deutsch. Yeah. Um the other thing, u the the handicap parking signs, some of those are kind of
tipsy. And yeah, we'll get those straightened up. Y to make sure that they're at the the certain height of 64 and 1/2 in to 66 or whatever the bottom Yeah. elevation is and everything. So, and then I did get pricing today, too,
for the lights that are missing around the building. Oh. So after those couple of things, when do we close when do we close this? Uh I I get that we got our punch list item, but considering the fact that we
still have like what 120 130 remaining. Yep. At what point in time is it where we can't apply anything more to that? Is it just kind of open-ended till the end of the year? Um, so on the next council meeting of a change order for like $1,800 of stuff
that needed to be done. Um, uh, there was a pay request that I held off on for like $3,300, but otherwise I think it's the retainage and we're we're wrapping up. And then that gets applied straight to the lease
again, right? Correct. Yep. To that to that fund to that balance of what did I say it was like 100 120 or something like that without the sale of uh the old city hall. Okay. So it'll be holding 5%. So
yeah, starting nitpicking. Oh, no. We already had a um we already had one punch list walkthrough, but now that you're here every day, it's like boom boom boom boom boom. So yeah, um you know, just like the two doors here are not, you know, just moisture or whatever.
So come out here and readjust those and you know, a few paint touchups, but but for the most part, everything is um couple ceiling tile that they need to um put in place, but
for the most part, we're basically done. Very good. Any other questions or thoughts on admin? Brian, you got anything? No, I don't think so. Curry? No. Jamie?
No. Scott? Nothing today. All right. So, next apartment, planning and zoning. um main property t or excuse me, main revenues, the property tax levy, uh building permits and and LGA.
We've got wages and benefits. Uh some training education would be either the league or the Minnesota planning conference. Um I've had a little bit of discussion, but want to have a little bit more with uh the community development planner on
um you know, should should we have in the past the planning commission members have attended um kind of like PNZ 101. Um so I want to have that discussion and and finalize that. Um can't remember the acronym of the company, GTS or GST or
something. Um but I know we've partnered with Elco New Market in the past, Montgomery, just you know, you know, here's variances and conditional uses and the purpose of zoning code, things like that. just
basic kind of general stuff that honestly every commission member should have some type of you know general knowledge on. So most of the community should too. You think that's something we could probably get in contact with Montgomery
and possibly have here? Oh yeah, absolutely. And then that way it's live streamed and Yep. Yep, for sure. Uh, repairs and maintenance. So, you know, city hall or admin would be the building we, you know, if we need
breaks or whatever on the the car that we have would come out of P&Z because the majority of that is cruising around town, um checking things for uh the upcoming council meeting, enforcement, uh things like that. professional services. Every department
has it uh coding the city code online and kind of just general stuff document recording and general. So um pretty pretty basic stuff in professional services. Uh engineering would be uh just general stuff that comes up,
building permits and with the construction of the Highway 19 roundabout, anticipating that we'll have uh some engineering involved with that, whether it's meetings or um just hey, this is going to affect the city this way type of thing. So, um those are the
three main things for engineering. uh inspection fees. Over the last couple years, we've been averaging about um 55% of the building permit revenue is allocated towards um the the building official.
I think this year we're at about 150 160,000 in uh revenues. I basically cut it in half to to 75 for now. Uh we'll see how the next few months play out. That's obviously something that that can change, but uh for right now, just being
conservative and being cautious. Not to get too far off, how's the new building inspector working? Um, so far so good. Okay. Um, he's been in at least once. So,
well, two times for sure to to meet Corey and I. And I think he was in last week as well. So, Okay. It's the same guy every time, right? Correct. Yep. Kevin. Yep. These are uh dedicated personnel. Uh
do you know if we pay anything to the American Legal Publishing that um has the website for code and ordinances? Yes. Do you know how much that is? And is that mandatory?
But they have it uh to put it online. It is okay. Uh let me see here. You can get back to me on it too. No worries. That would fall under administration or no.
Uh we we code it to planning and zoning. It's under the professional service city code online. Let me see. Get it for free in a second. Oh, of course I got it up on my other computer, so it's read only.
Uh, let's see here. for DS and subscriptions. I budgeted $1,200. Okay. And then uh do we have an update on LGA? What that amount might be? Is it going to be the same? Um I budgeted the same. I don't
anticipate it to decrease. Um, we've been fortunate over probably the last five, six years that it's actually went up uh quite substantially actually. Yeah. Um, I looked as early or as recently as Friday afternoon and didn't see anything
for the uh 26 certification. So, okay. I believe it's uh the 31st. So, coming up here on Thursday, I believe is when they have to certify it. Okay, thank you. Uh on um building fees, I know um when
we went out for RFPs for um building official, we did contract kind of a as a a gap to or to fill that gap of until we decide what we want to do, whether we want to continue contracting or if we uh
want to hire someone inhouse. So, if I guess if we're going to change from contracting in 26, that's a discussion that we should have now as far as um getting someone in house. I did look on the the league's website Friday and
surprisingly there wasn't a lot of uh positions open, but just for building official the pay range, I believe there's only one actually. Um, so basically 48 to $60 an hour and then inspectors, there was two or three that
were uh posted and I just took the low and the high. So basically what $38 to $48 an hour for for an inspector. So yeah, we should probably decide um which
way we do want to go. Um, we should budget for it this year, uh, this next year or not. Um, what's council's thoughts on this? Would we have enough um
jobs for somebody to be staffed full-time to make it worth it to have somebody hired uh for building based off of eight lots? Probably not, right? Um you know, with some of the the projects that um the council wants to
see get done next year and the year after that potentially. Um, we contracted for years and then we did hire a building official inhouse for about 10 months and there was enough
work but filling that downtime. Everyone's in their lane. So when it came to doing other things, even though there's a job description, it was well,
you know, and it was, "No, this is in your job description. This is what we hired you for." Mhm. So I I think overall with with code enforcement and uh plan review and inspections
probably I think the the bigger thing is um oh I guess we kind of deal with it now too where if you know a current building official is sick or on vacation people need to adjust where with Metro
West now you know they can fill that gap where if we go to, you know, a city employee, there'll be days where, you know, there's no inspections or um it's one thing if you can schedule for it, but it's, you know, the correct scenes that
Well, and and a most contractors, I think, are are know that, hey, you got to give a 24-hour notice. It's not All right, mud showed up. I'm calling for an inspection in 30 minutes. You know, you get the you get the
building inspector that's, you know, got a young family or something, kids are sick, got to take the day off, you know, the the the 7 a.m. callins, that sort of a thing. I'm kind of okay with
um trying out Metro West for the year. See what happens. when when does their contract what what is the hard date of uh when that ends? I don't believe we have a termination date on that. I think it's just a 30-day
notice or no, I'm sorry, it's a 90-day notice. Okay. Yeah. So, it's uh yeah, I mean, because we got a quick trip coming in next year, um there's there's possibly something else being
built next year. I would kind of wait until uh development kind of starts ramping up and then possibly look at it. Possibly something else. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, since we kind of pulled the trigger on the
contract mid year, it's hard to say if it's not working. Yeah. By this time, you know, I mean, we've only got a couple months in with it. So, I, you know, and if he's only already been in it just
once, you know, um, we just don't have, we're just not right. We're not, you know, doesn't have that volume. Yeah. And that's where my concern lied was with having enough workload to justify paying a full time position plus benefits and things like that. So
yeah, and I really don't want to have a building inspector going out and um looking at blight and you know I want to keep them busy with
um actual construction. So, okay. So, I think we're okay there. Um, and then, uh, last thing in planning and zoning is just our dues and subscriptions, which would be our GIS, uh, software, I work, um, budgeted the
the funds for that, Adobe, and then Canva is kind of a artsy digital make flyers. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, is Canva for all city staff or
It could be. Sure. I I'd have I'd have to verify that as far as how many users we have cuz doesn't uh the library also has a subscription. I was going to bring that up and say, yeah, we look at a combined make sure we're not doubling up on dues
and subscriptions. Yeah, because I know the library uses it as well. and they've been doing a great job with their social media postings. They've been having so much fun with Canva. They're doing a great job. But um
I mean, is it really used? Uh, is it just that it's thrown on PNZ or um I would have to I would have to confirm with uh the planner how much it's actually being used, but it's minimal.
It's like 150 bucks. Yeah, I I get that. But but Well, yeah, if we have another Yeah, because it's probably cheaper to have two licenses than two separate instances, you know.
So yeah, we'll definitely reach out to Margaret. Yep. The library director and because I think they only have a single license, I believe. Um but I know they use it pretty regularly. So yeah, definitely something that uh that they need.
Yeah, I guess I I don't know. Um cuz I I'm looking at it and it's on planning and zoning and I guess what I'm trying to ask is
why I guess we just allocate it there because the planner is the one that uses it. Okay. Does EDA have one? No. Okay. I want to start seeing some planner canvas come. Yeah. I want to see what Cory's been
working on. We can notice it. Hey, that might be it actually. So, I use it for uh then the last department is police. You want to go over that?
Yeah. Thank you for the council. Um for 2026, obviously staffing um for chief's position um patrol sergeant, which would be new for 2026 is not an added position. It's going to be a
promotion with them. Um and then five patrol officers, one part-time officer in the records receptionist. Um and then like five patrol, that's based off their contract. Um, and then at some time here in the
future, uh, we will have to discuss for patrol sergeant as far as what grade we'd want to start them at. Um, office supplies, um, typically we've been running around 3,000 a year. This
year, uh, increasing it to 500 just because of the increase of, um, supplies. And then two, I mean, we're dealing with a larger building. um takes more cleaning supplies to clean it than our old one. Um and then two that goes
for liners for our pharmaceutical box. Um typically we end up buying probably getting a set of three once a year which typically runs around $700. So
uh gas utilities I don't see any change at 7,000. Um, we had did have some of that was funding the old police department. So, now that we're done with that, um, if we do see a little increase with the
gas, I don't see it going above that. Uh, professional services, I don't see any change in that. And that's kind of for uh, the drug task force membership fee. um the emergency response unit membership fee which is kind of school
your SWAT so if you ever have the need for SWAT um they get called up and we don't get charged for it. Uh Rice County K9 fee um they have the Kines's if we ever need a K9 in town they respond with the K9. So which is
pretty minimal. I think it's like $250 that we kind of contribute to help them with that program. And then a lot of the BCA criminal justice data network connection fees. Um our NBC connection fee which is uh our squad computers. That's for four squad
computers. Radar calibrations. Uh field op subscription which is basically um I just have that. I think it's like 120 bucks. I can pull up calls on my cell phone. Um if I'm at home or wherever I can just pull them up on my cell phone.
It's kind of a nice feature to have. Um, tech support Minnesota for all our IT stuff at the PD safeguard security um, which is the police department camera system, security system they have there.
We have monthly fees with that. Our PMI evidence software support system just for updates with that whole evidence software program. And then the license fee for mobile
computers and our printers. Guess any questions on any of those I've gone over? Council, you got anything? The question I have is um and this might be Joel for you. Um
the the fees we pay to the Rice County Attorney. Um where is that in the budget? Is that with the police or is that through administration? Uh, so for Rice County, it's through the police. Okay. And then everything else, so criminals
through the PD and we do have a couple hundred dollar minimal, maybe 500 for any civil, but otherwise any civil would be um in their respective departments because was it last year that we
renewed that contract? Correct. And that that included the dangerous dog piece. It did. Yes. Okay. And that's so that's all budgeted through the police. Correct. That's in here. That's the 235 prosecution service contract. A little further down.
Gotcha. Okay. Perfect. So on the motor fields, I don't see any change from the 15,000 that we've had. Um I don't know if it depends on where we're at with staffing. You know, obviously shorter staff. um not as many
cars are being out. So postage, obviously we saw an increase in the stamps, so I did increase that by just $100 from 300 to 400. Um a lot of that is mailing out uh ordinance violations throughout the community.
Uh motor vehicles, we typically on a two-year squad replacement schedule. Back in 2022, we ended up replacing two squads. One was scheduled to be replaced and then we had one that was involved in a crash, got total out. So, we ended up replacing two and then we replaced one
in 2024, which kind of off with having two newer cars. Um, we're able to get by for three years or go three or three years before we have to buy another one. So, and that's not scheduled till about 2027.
We do budget every year approximately 20,000 for that. Typically equipment and vehicle um runs about 60,000. So electric utilities uh based off what has been spent um I don't
see any change in that at 11,500. Uh repair maintenance um typically that's around 7,000. I did increase it to 13,000. Um, part of that is to do a seal coat on our parking lot for next
year because that is going to be four years old. Um, I think I got a quote from them for right around that 4500 or 4200. So, and then with older vehicles, um, maintenance goes up a little bit. So,
dues and subscriptions, uh, we got archive social, um, which is our Facebook thing. I think we um split that between all the departments. Uh then Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Fair Rifle and
Pistol Club um which is where we do our training at. Uh telephones uh include cell phones, data cards, squad computers, and I believe the park cameras are on there too. Yes.
So the data for the park cameras and then obviously the office phones, uh email uniforms, six officers. I figured about 1,000 um per the contract vest replacement. We have one officer that's going to need a vest at 1,600 and then
outfit a new officer if not hired in 2025. Obviously, if we have someone hired, get someone hired this year. Um I'm not going to need that uh 12,400. We typically typically runs probably about 5,000
outfit an officer and part of that depends on if they come from an agency and they're able to take their vest with them then obviously then we don't have to purchase a vest. Then we do advertisement um twice a year. Uh we'll do a public safety campaign advertisement, you know,
typically during the holiday season uh through Kch Cch check. Uh and then training education. Uh no change on that, but that's about 8,000 which is used for ammo, taser cartridges, online patrol training
courses that the officers do throughout the throughout the year. Then we get to the legal fees for our prosecution services or 23,500 for the prosecution services. That's for the county attorney. Um I know our contract ends this year. I've reached out to Brian
Mortonson with the county attorney's office um to see if he wants to hopefully renew that process or that contract. So, I'll wait to hear back from him. And then that 500 is for the city attorney if we ever need to contact our attorney or the city
attorney. Um, licenses. Uh, this year we have four part or four park cameras um where that license fee is going to expire. So, we're going to have to renew that. Um,
I figure What the heck did I figure? It was close to 800, but I know some parks have two cameras, but so I figure that's going to be about 3,600. And then we have a officer that's going to need his peace officer license
renewed in 26. And then capital equipment. Uh we do have one of our squad computers is reaching that five are going to be six years old. Um, so I budget for that. If it does go down, um, you know, there's funds that
are replace it, but if it still working fine, it's it doesn't get replaced. So, but typically, you typically have five to six years, you start to see issues just because of all the temperature changes in the squad car, the vibrations and stuff. A little
tougher on the laptops. Um, and then I waiting on a quote for furniture for the uh sergeant's office and to kind of finish off the receptionist office. So, I'm kind of waiting for that. And then the uh
computer for the patrol sergeant sergeant's office uh typically about 1500 and then the Exxon body incar camera system for five years of coverage. it basically, you know, the total cost is going to be 140,000.
Um, or you basically they also have like a five-year plan, so it's not such a huge hit on a city. You can divide that out between five years and with that it would be basically 25 thou 28,000 a year.
So, and with that um kind of like a like a cell phone, I mean, you get the equipment. I mean the equipment's yours but then you know the support behind the system is what they do kind of what they figure is every
five years they look at you know just replacing everything the body cams and if it requires that software because I know they come in with uh uh what is it called
their own server so and uh in our cameras. So that server, it's a stand, it would be their standalone server at our facility. Yes. Do we have room in the technology room
for it? Okay. Yeah. So the way that works is or the way this system works is um basically you get within range and it just dumps everything onto there. Um and besides that any evidence photos that officers take with their cell phone gets
dumped on there. If we have somebody that has video that they want to submit for evidence, we can give them a link. They can send it right to it. And then it's pretty easy for
Candace just to go there, pull it up, dump it into um a program called SharePoint, which is with the county attorney. So they just basically go onto there and get that information.
So it kind of saves a lot of time. That's just the standard Microsoft SharePoint. I don't know. Okay. I'm assuming it's all encrypted and secured and everything. Yes, it's um they actually had to provide us
uh with jeez, I can't even think of the name of it. Uh they had to provide us some advice in order for us to be part of this SharePoint. Yeah, I'm assuming it's probably just the standard. Um I it's a common
application for file sharing within organizations. So I just want to make sure that uh I mean I guess I should trust the Rice County Attorney's Office that it's Yeah. I mean it's it's just not us that uses they they they manage it, right? They
just have access. Yeah. So and it's not just us. I mean it's us. The sheriff's department has it. I believe Furbal Police Department Yeah. has it. I'm guessing that Northland has it. Sure. It just makes things so much easier. I mean, before it requests a video, but
it's tough to send a a video because it won't, you know, the can't attach it. It's too large. Yeah. File limitations. Yeah. So, then I end up having to drive it down there for it. So, yeah. Yeah. What's pretty nice about this is
uh the sergeant position. it's um given these officers another step up and so I'm excited to see that come to fruition. But uh also with the squad cams and the body cams um we had heard
back just recently that it's going through uh to get funded through that grant. So that's pretty exciting. Yeah. I what is it just a vote to fund at this point Joel for all the projects? They selected all of them and then now it's just
Yep. So that made it to the point where it's included in the bill. Yeah. And then they just need to basically debate that and Yeah. whether it's included or not or you know um anticipating to cuz what they should
have something done August September for October 1st. Well, it won't be August. They took August off. Yeah, I know. But uh federal fiscal year is October 1st. So in theory, they should have it
wrapped up by then. So I'm anticipating getting a decision by by the end of the year on that. But yeah, as the mayor said, all indications are looking positive. Good. Oh, that's great. And then in addition to that, it was about 40,000 of 800 meghertz radios for the
fire department as well. Yep. Yeah. And that's another capital outlay for another department. So, uh, but yeah, I I do like the idea of still kind of putting money towards it towards that
fiveyear. Yeah, that's something that um will have to be considered. Yep. You know, possibly in 2026 um to start funding, you know, so there's money there, right? um after this after the five
years are out. Yep. So, um council, do you have anything you'd like to add for Chief Schmidtz here? Ki, I'll start with you. No, I think it looks good. I'm excited about that grant coming through. That'll
help. Yep. Uh Jamie, I'm excited about those body cams also. So, that's all I have. All right, Scott. Nothing. Brian, uh, that sergeant's position that would
require some discussion with the union, correct? Within the contract, cuz that would be a new because that's that's a union position, right? No, it is not. Okay. No. Okay. That's what I wanted to make sure about because isn't there is there a
separate I thought I saw something because I I I looked at some of those contracts and they have separate some cities have a separate contract for a sergeant. Yeah. Or lieutenants. I would have to look into that because
some of that is obviously you have other cities that have multiple sergeants. Yep. So y I don't know how that's going to work with just one okay sergeant. um kind of representing himself, I guess. I'm not sure. Okay.
Oh, you know, I'm not sure on that. Sure. Yeah. I'm just self dues. I just want to make sure that, you know, we're prepared for whatever we we need to do, you know, if we have to have a discussion with the union on it. If it's
a non-union position, do you feel like some of the internal candidates might see that as a um u an obstacle to wanting to apply losing that union protection?
I don't know. I don't see it as an obstacle, but I think it's up to whoever is promoted to that position. Sure. Um, it's probably going to be on to them if they can form a union. I don't know if they'll be able to form just being by themselves. I Yeah, I guess I'm not sure.
Okay. So, they would have to take the in that position yet. Okay. Um, is is that all you have, Brent? Yeah. I just wanted to be prepared for, you know, what we're looking at. Yeah. Contractually for that. I'm sorry.
Uh, one thing I I do want to ask you, Jason, is um when are you guys planning on doing department issued fire nerves? Um, that's something I thought about. Um,
whatever. I guess it doesn't matter to me. Okay. I can I know it's been brought up not specifically with this council um but at other councils and it was kind of nobody wanted to really touch that.
No. Um, I got to do some more digging, but uh I think I had heard there was a certain firearm you could buy that came with that kind of insurance where if a police officer bought it um and then they had
to use it, that manufacturer ends up sending them another gun while their Dewey firearm is Yeah. pulled up. Well, and you know, I myself I have more than
one firearm. So hopefully we never get into that type of situation, but if we do, um, then obviously that's ever that's involved, I'd make sure that they have replacement. Okay. So, um, I got some too, so they can
they can come over. But the only thing that is nice about the department issued is if if we do have that I mean that firearm is basically tied up for seven 10 years. Yeah.
And that's that would be their basically their personal firearm that's tied up in that process. Yeah. Not saying that. I mean, I I mean, I think the city would go ahead and replace that firearm for that officer,
you know, regardless. I I definitely think it's it's worth discussing. Um, what do you think? Yeah, absolutely. I know we've kind of worked with uh through negotiations that they can use their um clothing allowance
to to purchase firearms. Yep. I would just kind of see what your guys I mean I would try to stick with one manufacturer or something. I don't know how you'd want to do it. You know, whether you go all Glocks or
whatever it may be. Yeah, it would be all it would all be Glocks. And basically, that's all I allow officers to carry unless we have someone that comes in that for some special reason they just have a
extremely hard time with accuracy with the Glock and they feel a lot more comfortable with a different type of firearm. Mhm. um that could be it. But yeah, right now we're basically all down the clock and it's and that's the way it's been for
years and we're down to either a 9 millimeter or 40 cal. Cuz I mean, how much how many are we actually talking here? Five, six. Uh yeah, seven.
Yeah, I think it would be worth I can and I can definitely get a price in that call Jay over at uh Ace. Yeah, no kidding. Yep. Local.
Shout out to Harway Hanks. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Hardware Hanks. Very nice. Yeah, I definitely would entertain it. I'm not sure how they do that. I know individual law enforcement lock is a discount
agency purchase. I'm not sure if that discount applies, but that's something I could easily look into. Sure. Well, I think you did a good job, Jason. Well, thank you.
I'm glad you're our chief. [Applause] But if council has nothing else for the chief, Brian, nothing. Nope. Curry, I just want to say thank you for having
um Officer Todd come to the community celebration. I really appreciated that. Yeah, he really enjoyed it. And and the firet truck, too. I know they're not here tonight, but it was awesome. No, thank you. Yeah, no, no problem. Thank you, Jimmy. You got anything? No. Scott? No.
All right, Jason. All right. Well, thank you, Chief. Thank you, unless the council has anything else. Those are the three departments for for tonight. So, all right. We will have the uh final
presentation of the compensation study at the August 14th meeting, I believe it is. Um so I'll I'll work with them to um we already established a job description for for the sergeant position. So come up with a placement for that.
Nice. Is that going to include the um longevity information that that we talked about? So, uh I I talked to uh Tessa Melvin about that and she's going to provide a couple options. Cool. Good.
Um not so much implementation today, but but options of you know what we're familiar with. you know, if you're our pay scale is 12 years. So, if you're at 14, it's um cola plus negotiated amount or,
you know, instead of waiting till year 12 or 14, you know, is it based off a years of service, right? So, you know, so after five years, is it something? Sure. You know, 10 years, is it something? Mhm.
You know to uh reward not just the people the milestone years. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But no, we have discussed that and that'll be um at least options. They won't be costed out or anything just going with the new pay scale. Yeah. Yeah.
Is there an anticipation of what grade that sergeant would be on? We'll bring that to the 14th meeting. Okay. Um officers are on 11, I believe. Yep. Uh, chief's at 17. So, I'm guessing it's going to be
16 or somewhere around there. Probably closer to the chief than than the officers just given the uh responsibility cuz I'm assuming this is going to be hired from within. So, assume so.
Yep. Well, Jamie, you got anything? Nope. Scott? No, sir. Ryan? Nope. Curry. No. Joe, I'm good. [Music] All right. I'll make a motion to adjurnn.
All right. Motion by Miller. Second. Second by Miss Gersonian. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. All opposed? This meeting is now adjourned. Have a good night.