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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=k9O5SvaXmDA

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Good afternoon and welcome to this regular meeting of the Board of Estimate and Taxation for July 8th, 2026. I am Steve Brandt, President of the Board BET. Uh before we begin the meeting, I would like to ask clerk to read the reminder

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to those participating in the meeting about diction. >> Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time

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captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to

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moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. >> All right, we will now ask the clerk to call the roll so we can ascertain the presence of a quorum. >> Member Chughtai is absent. Frye is absent.

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Olson >> Here. >> Payne >> Present. >> Vice President Bernstein >> Present. >> President Brandt >> Here. >> There are four members present. >> Let [clears throat] the record reflect that we have a quorum. I will now offer an acknowledgement that we meet today on the land of the Dakota,

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also claimed by the Anishinaabe. Uh we acknowledge the historical trauma that was caused by the dispossession of that land, and we um we acknowledge that uh their descendants live among us today as citizens of Minneapolis.

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All right, uh we will proceed to our agenda, a copy of which was posted for public access to the city's legislative information management system, which is available at LIMS.minneapolismn.gov. Uh Board members may have a motion to adopt

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the agenda that for today's meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Opposed nay. Okay, the eyes have it. The agenda is adopted. Next is the

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acceptance of minutes from the June 24th regular meeting. Uh may I please have a motion to accept the minutes? >> So moved. >> Second. >> And a second. Okay, we have a motion before us properly. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, uh all those in favor say I.

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>> I. >> Those opposed say nay. The eyes have it. The minutes are accepted as proposed. Uh and uh we now are at item four, which is public comment on any item that's on the board's agenda today.

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I will ask the clerk if we have anybody signed up to comment. We have no one signed up for comment. Uh just want to remind people that you have the opportunity to come to a board meeting and comment on any item that is on the board's agenda that meeting.

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Um up next is our our discussion of the charter change resolution, which is the result of a staff direction from our June 24th meeting. Uh Executive Secretary uh Christina

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Kiderling will present this item. And we'll try to keep our discussion today as brief as possible because we have a uh hard deadline on quorum, uh maintaining a quorum. Christina. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Not much of a

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presentation per your staff direction at the last meeting. A um resolution has been drafted to propose a pursuing a charter change via the Charter Commission and the City Council, requesting their help in making sure that the Vice Presidents of the City

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Council and the Budget Committee would be able to step into the President's role in order to help us achieve quorum whenever the Presidents are not available. Or President or Chair are not available. >> Very good. Is there Is there a motion?

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>> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? I would just note that this is response to the continuing issues we've had in achieving and maintaining a quorum at the Board of Estimate meeting during due to the multiple demands on some of the

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members of the board. Um and this is a way we hope that the Council and Charter Commission will see fit to assist us in making and achieving a quorum and keeping a quorum more more readily available. Sir.

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Uh Commissioner Bernstein. >> Can I ask a technical question? Is it just on the issue of voting, it says Council Vice President serve as a voting member of the board when the President is unable to attend or Vice Chair to serve. So, the person serving in the

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stead of the appointee would be a voting member? They could vote on anything just like vote would transfer completely. >> Absolutely. That's the intent. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. >> Okay. Uh seeing no further Commissioner Olson, your light is on.

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No, okay. Seeing no Commissioner Payne. >> Uh just was uh thank you, Chair. Uh was asking the printout I had had a blank for the author. Are you Have you signed up to be the author author of that, Mr. President? >> I am perfectly willing to be the author.

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Thank you for noting that oversight. >> Uh Mr. President, I'll actually step in here. Uh you as a board would actually be the author for this resolution. You're offering it up as a as a board. So, there isn't technically an author on this. >> That sounds good. >> Thank you.

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All right. Uh Uh member uh clerk, please take the roll. >> Member Olsen. >> Aye. >> Pain. >> Aye. >> Bernstein. >> Aye. >> President Brandt. >> Aye. >> There are four ayes. >> All right. The matter passes and the

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resolution is adopted. Our next item is the discussion on the staff review and resolution 2026-003. I'll lead the discussion on the subject. Uh the board I'll read uh essentially from the resolution.

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This is a resolution that has to do is titled Executive Secretary Christina Kiderling annual step movement. Whereas the Board of Estimate and Taxation met in a closed session to review the performance of Christina Kiderling on June 24th, 2026.

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And whereas based on that review, the board determined that Ms. Kiderling's performance was satisfactory or better. Therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Estimate and Taxation authorize an annual step increase for Executive Secretary Christina Kiderling to the

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next available step in the pay progression schedule based on a satisfactory or better performance review effective on the next payroll period following May 14th, 2026. And I am going to offer this

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uh resolution uh as the maker of the motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Commissioner Payne. >> Uh thank you, chair. Uh just really grateful for your service to

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the BET and I know it's been a rocky start, but you are starting something quite new here, I feel like, and we're just glad to have you here. Commissioner Bernstein. >> Yeah, I just want to say um yeah, we conducted a review and everybody agreed that we're lucky to have Ms. Keiterling

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and um she's obviously been a great resource to us and um we're excited to see what she does. So, happy to uh vote to grant this step increase. >> And I would add to that that uh although the resolution is worded in a fairly tepid way, I uh >> [snorts] >> I enthusiastically

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um back the conclusion that her set performance is better than satisfactory. And um we look forward to spending the next year with her. So, with that uh further discussion, okay, would the clerk take the roll, please?

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>> Member Olsen. >> Aye. >> Paine. >> Aye. >> Vice President Bernstein. >> Aye. >> President Brandt. >> Aye. >> There are four ayes. All right, the matter is passed. And we now are at discussion item number

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seven on our agenda. It's consideration of a board action uh supporting a voluntary pilot and that stands for payment in lieu of taxes uh support resolution. Uh I am going to ask uh

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uh Commissioner Bernstein if he would like to move the resolution and begin the discussion on the topic after a second. >> Um so, yeah, I'd like to move the resolution. >> Second. >> Second. >> Sure. I can jump in a sec.

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Uh and so, should I say a couple Okay, so I I I drafted this resolution. Um it is in response to the alternative revenues proposal uh presentation and report that we received a couple of weeks ago that was heard uh in a joint meeting of the BET and the City Council.

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Um essentially m- much of this resolution just rehashes what folks already know, which is that the City Council and the BET um you know, collaborated to do a study of alternative revenue sources in light of the limited revenue options that we have and the rising property

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taxes. Um, so this sort of talks about, you know, that we all agreed on those things and agreed on the importance of a strong budget. Um, but that the city has limited powers to, uh, raise additional revenue sources. We can't levy new taxes. Um, we can't even change the geographic

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boundaries of, like, for example, our sales taxes. And so, um, the two options that that were on this report that were options that we could pursue without, uh, statute change at the state level were a pilot program because it's a voluntary program where, uh, tax-exempt

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organizations pay, uh, of their own volition, um, into, uh, city budget, um, in lieu of their property taxes. Um, and also, um, that we could potentially raise revenue from different utilization of assets. So, that's something that we do, like, when we charge for parking,

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um, when we rent, you know, we collect rent from the timber wolves for the Target Arena. Um, and so, the resolution that I drafted, um, states that there that, you know, the the board would like the city council to pursue, um, a pilot program or to study a pilot program as

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they have, as it notes they have already, um, taken steps to do. Um, but it affirms our support, uh, for that pilot program. Uh, and then the other important thing that it notes, uh, is the nature of that revenue and what it could do. So, um, because it's voluntary

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revenue, um, it would be coming, um, it would be not guaranteed in the same way that property tax revenues or sales taxes have the backing of our legal authority. Um, and so, therefore, it would be inappropriate to use that money for year-to-year spending, like, um, to budget that we're going to get a certain

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amount of it every year. Now, hopefully, collections would be predictable to some degree, but they would be poorly suited for ongoing programs. And so, to make good use of this money, which we could eventually collect. Um, this res resolution proposes um that the money uh

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that the City Council consider using the money um for uh infrastructure improvement fund or something that you could call um a uh urban wealth fund um which would be you know a fund that ex- closed fund that exists to make investments in infrastructure

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improvement, public assets like parks, parklets, plazas um or even housing or commercial real estate that the city could own and operate as it already does to some degree like the convention center for example. So, we could use this money because we can't count on the flow every year, we could use this money

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to invest in public assets, to manage and improve public assets in a way that um we can make decisions about how much money we have in the fund um and how much we can afford to spend and also consider using it for income-producing assets which could include commercial

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real estate um or other um sorts of public assets that could produce revenue that would flow back into the fund for further use. Um so, that's the resolution and um yeah, I would love to hear folks' thoughts or I can answer questions if that was unclear. Thanks.

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>> I I would like to just jump in here. Um I have a I believe a friendly amendment that Commissioner Bernstein and I have talked about which would add a new paragraph 13 or whereas clause that acknowledges essentially that the City Council has

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taken action to move the pilot idea forward and it would read whereas the City Council has passed a staff direction uh uh excuse directing uh study of pilot. Uh and that would be simply it. And um

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Commissioner Bernstein, do you accept that? All right. >> Yeah, this is just noting that the City Council has already done something to move this forward, so we're affirming that action, agreeing with it, and uh adding these other points. >> And Commissioner Olson, do you have a comment? >> Yeah, well, then I have a couple of

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questions. So, so the BET, we would have no authority to say that these funds must be used for this priority. Okay. So, then I guess my question would be to Commissioner Payne. Council President Payne,

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what do you think are are the odds that funds generated from a pilot program would be put towards this innovative idea from Commissioner Bernstein, which I think is a fantastic idea and kind of a good idea to see something going further.

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>> Uh through the chair, I I I really like the idea personally. I think it's really practical considering the uncertainty of what type of revenue we could like would generate through a program like this. And so, I think being able to articulate a really direct way we would

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use this revenue given that lack of certainty makes a lot of sense to me. And I think obviously it would be a broader conversation with all the policy makers and city council. So, I with the chair's blessing, my comment was just going to

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be I just wanted to thank both the president and vice president president procedurally because this started off as a conversation on the dais in BET, led to a formal action by the BET to study this with a joint presentation to the

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council. I think having this the formality of the BET making this request is just a really strong expression of what this body can do to really demonstrate the leadership around thinking about revenue in a much more innovative way. So, just wanted to thank both of

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the president and vice president for how they approached this. >> Completely agree. And yeah, just thanks for Again, I think it's innovative. I think looking at land this way, you know, if done right, if done correctly, it could be something that in the future

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the city is really benefiting from. So. >> And uh Commissioner Bernstein, I want to also thank you for taking on the heavy lifting of writing this resolution. Um all right. Seeing no further discussion, uh the court >> say one more thing? >> Oh, Commissioner Brinsley.

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>> I Yeah, thanks everyone for the kind comments and and I echo like Steve uh sorry, Commissioner uh President Brandt, um you know, really has uh talked a lot about the need for alternative revenues, the importance and the value there, and so this is the fruits of a lot of your labor, so thank you for that. Um and

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I'll just mention just to agree with what um uh Council President Payne said, you know, the concept of using uh public funds in this way is, you know, new and will require a lot of conversation and study. This is obviously just a recommendation an idea, suggestion, but I think it's a

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valuable one. I've talked about it in different forms with a lot of folks um both on the BET and on the City Council and with the mayor. Um and I think there's broad interest in it, and so this is just to kind of cultivate that interest a little bit more and think about it, and it's not so different from the way we use money already in certain

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parts of our budget, and so this is just thinking about how can we leverage that strategy elsewhere. So, yeah, thanks everyone. >> All right, thank you. The clerk will call the roll. >> Member Olson. >> Aye. >> Payne. >> Aye. >> Vice President Bernstein.

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>> Aye. >> President Brandt. >> Aye. >> There are four ayes. >> All right, the measure measure is passed and we have uh met Commissioner Payne's deadline. Um we have any announcements? Any announcements?

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>> Actually, we got 36 minutes. >> All right. Nobody wants to make a speech today. Okay, [laughter] very good. All right, with that uh seeing no further business to come before the board, without objection, we're adjourned. >> Mhm.