--------- just kind of like call the council meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under
God, indivisible andice for all. Thank you very much. Roll call, please. Council member Nordby is absent. Council member Woods here. Council member McKenzie here. Council member Schwar here. Mayor Mongi here. Thank you very
much. A motion to adopt the agenda, please. So moved. We'll move. Council member Schwear. Second. Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Presentations. All right. We have two this evening. I want to start off with uh Tom Spence
this evening. Tom, if you could come on up, we'd sure appreciate it. Bring your family, too. Oh, come on. No. We all know that behind every man's boss. You got that right.
Well, Tom, I really appreciate you coming here tonight. Um, this is really just to honor you and recognize you for all the work you've done in the city. Um what it's been 15 years you've been doing. It has been 15 years. Um no 17 17 years because I believe our first house
was a 2008 2009 academic school year. Okay. And we've done 15 houses. Wow. Uh would have been a few more but COVID came into play. So one less and then one year thanks to the city we had a household lined up but then well you're
aware of what happens when you try to transfer a title of property. doesn't go always as planned. And so was there was a delay and then the city said, "Hey, you want to build some park shelters and do our baseball press box?" And so we we kept going and that was kind of a fun project to do. And so thank you for
those opportunities. Even when things were difficult, you guys stepped up and helped us. So that was awesome. You've done just such an amazing amount of work in this city and improved these neighborhoods. um you know getting rid of some of the blight and I mean increasing value of the houses around
them and even besides just the houses themselves the your ability to work with those kids um with the city with um you know just the contractors that we have working around here you're just such a well-rounded person I really wanted to see what they were going to come up with
to try to replace somebody like you and uh it kind of worked out unfortunately but um you're you're a hard man to replace but uh well you double-edged sword on that one. You know, it's an honor, but and and sometimes uh it's it's it's challenging. Um there's been
conversations about St. Paul College taking it over. Uh and you know, to respect St. Paul College, they did not want to step in until they knew for sure the 916 was going to step out. They didn't want to come in and take anything over until it was okay. So, I give uh St. Paul College a lot of credit for
that. And St. Paul College has been working with the city for quite a few years. Um they have a wonderful cabinet making program and it's an opportunity for their students to do a capstone project, design the cabinets, build the cabinets, finish the cabinets, come out and install the cabinets. So it's one of
their highlight programs as well. So now hopefully with the carpenter program stepping in to take over, uh a very competent instructor at the college level. He is a general contractor himself, so I feel very confident that he can take over for the program. and then they can work together on a
collaborative effort with the city of North St. Paul and and keep moving forward. I mean, I give St. Paul a lot of credit, North St. Paul a lot of credit. A lot of cities sitting complain about depleting housing stock and what are we going to do and how do we address these things and you guys gals are very
active in saying, "Hey, let's do this. Let's let's look at identify our distressed properties and and let's do something about that and let's obtain those properties that are unfit for habitation. they're not feasible to fix up anymore. It's it's take care of them,
remove them, um deal with any asbestous issues the correct and legal way, and then we'll provide a building pad and we'll have somebody come in and build the house. And our goal is not to make money. Our goal is to break even and basically, you know, replenish our depleting housing stock. And so I
commend the city for that. That and the education that you give the kids that they bring on into the workforce and make a career out of if they want to. Yes. I was talking uh earlier that Dave and and shared with me your son's story. My son started in 97 with the Connie
Bones was one of the first classes where at that time they were going out and home building the my son would get out of school at 10:00 a.m. out of North. He'd get his truck and he'd go to wherever the job site was where they were framing and building homes. He'd go
to Plymouth. He'd go to uh Chaza, Chanhassen, Lake Elmo, still wherever they were at, and he that's how we learned to build houses. And right now he's a job superintendent for a major construction company. Yep. Great future. Yeah, we've had a lot. That's nice. We
could have it here instead of having him travel all over the place. Being able to do it right here locally was really a blessing. It logistically worked out so well for us to partner with North St. Paul right down. Like also our team back there, why don't you guys swing up too? Come on. Because you know what? You guys
work just as hard. Yep. I mean, you guys work great together. I mean, that was something when it came to the foundations and and being able to do the work together. So, I know you had a great team as the city along with it, too. So, question. What was your favorite house you did? Anyone
you can think of? Always the first one. Always the first one. Always the first house. How about the worst one that gave you the most headaches? your house, the one Ron helped me on. No, just kidding. You know, if there's anything that stood out, every house is unique. Yes. And every house has specific
challenges. Uh and and I would say a few years ago, we we were kind of in a tough situation dealing in a community with a lot of needs. And to accomplish that and get the respect of the community, I think was probably the biggest tribute. Yeah. And that's what I've always heard
is the houses fit in. They look so good. I just talked to you. We just went to the one you have right across from Webster and it looks like that house has been there forever. The way it fits in that crazy lot. I mean, we looked over that lot. I think there's a few times it was like, "Wow, we really can't do anything on that lot." Well, we're able to, you know, take a piece that we had there and be able The house looked
great. Yeah. So, you know, you're and I worked on that one for a few hours and try to come up with an plan and kind of Yeah. broke apart a little bit just because we needed to go our separate ways as far as planning stuff. and then we come together back together at some other plans and um you know it's
it's so easy to be um cynical. Uh but working with the city which is so supportive and then that again is probably something I'm trying to stress more than anything is working with Ron and Randy and the city and the mayor and the council and HR. It's It's been uh
really good and I've been out and talked with other schools about this partnership and um other schools are trying to mimic this which is great. I'm helping like Stillwater wanted to mimic this as well but they can't do it with their setup on their periods of high
school classes so it can't be done but we're going to keep spoing other you know schools that want to partner with us other cities too and mayor the maple of the mayor of Maplewood she's always threatened to try to steal you. She always told me we need that program for I said oh that's ours. You will be a
traitor retiring like going to Hill Murray. So that's right. You're definitely uh definitely noticed and you've left your mark in in North St. Paul for all these houses and all the you know the what you did for the city. So and also Connie Bones who started the
program back in 97. Yes. And you were part of that with Brad Holmes. That's how I got started as I was the first mentor in the youth apprenticeship program and uh after two years of that the builders uh said you know it's a great program but we probably need to
get some kind of a class up fronts so they can learn some of the basic how to tape measure technology. So they thought they should probably start a construction occupations program. That's what they did at Sentry and that's what they hired me to and so I came from the
industry. So I have 17 years in the trades before I started teaching. And I always look back at my daughter who was 6 months old when I started teaching. She was 26. Yeah. I was going to weekend college. My wife was going to weekend college. It was like three years of a
blur. We're both going to So when our kids said, "I can't get the assignment done." It's like, "Oh, we ain't buying that one. Not happening." Because we were both full-time employed. Sure. And both going to weekend colleges to pursue degrees to enhance our career. Yeah. And I love going to the open houses. The
kids are so excited. They're running around. Look what I did over here, mom and dad. They're showing everybody, you know, the work they did. It's just the the pride. I mean, it was it's very, you know, you sit back like a fly on the wall and you look at these running around and showing all the work they did. So, it's it's definitely a blessing
to our neighborhood. Um, this year's house is going well. Um, so we're pretty much done trimming on the inside. um flooring. Trying to get that scheduled to go in next week and keep moving on that schedule. Uh on the exterior, we've got a little siding to
wrap up in the front deck. I'm I still plan on having that mostly done by our last day of school, which is June six. Okay, nice. Awesome. And then landscaping. Typically Randy deals with that a lot and schedules that in. Um and then there's some scheduling issues to
do. So, end of June, we want to put that on the market and have the open house again. Well, the student build are hot commodities. They sell quickly around here. There's a reputation, the quality. So, that's definitely great. Well, we want to grab some Tom. You mentioned you use the word mentor and I think that's
important that you recognize that you've been a huge mentor to all these students and you have instilled your work ethic into themselves. And something that a takeaway for you is that you have hundreds of students that you have mentored and you have put them in a
better place and they will forever remember your name. Thank you. Definitely. I still run into some of these like I I'll always call them kids, but they're like 40ome years old now and and they will remind me of that one house we built, you know, that's on
Highway or excuse me, off of 694 in Mcnite and kid I drive by that every day and I tell my wife I built that house when I was in high school. His wife's like, yeah, I've been hearing this story. So it is an impact that we all have as a
community on all the children that we raise in our village if you want to say that. Yeah. The opportunity was there and and I was just blessed to be able to help these kids out. Um just kind of find their passion and and like with your son, he found his niche in high school and that's awesome. He didn't
wander through college trying to find himself. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. So I'm glad we were able to be part of that. Yeah. It is a blessing. Well, thank you so much. Our residents are going to miss it as well. I will say those open houses they look forward to every year. Now that I'm
retired, I plan on using your bike trail here. Hey, it's a good one. I'll still be there. I know we have a presentation and we like to get a couple pictures. I know your wife's going to be taking pictures and can you do it too, please? Why don't the whole council let's go down
together? Crystal snowman. Oh, wow. Thank you. That is heavy. Yeah. So, I don't know if I take it out the bottom. It's in there tight. I'll hold on to the top if you want to pull out the bottom. Yeah, you got to fight for it. It's the greatest
snowman I've ever seen. Yeah. Everybody, let's get around. You too. Come on, everybody. I give Yeah, you go behind. Yeah. Can you see us all? Start with Jenny first. There we go. And then we'll do Congratulations. Thank you again. Appreciate everything. Let's do a
few more with Tom. Okay. Oh, you Tom, did you want what? You should come up here. Yeah. No. Get up here. Come on. You supported it. Come on, daughter. Okay. We're scooting over. All right. I usually put my arm around. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks
again. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, Brian. Yes. Thank you very much for the support. Always fun working with you, Randy. Ron, it's fun to work with you, too. Ryan, it's all right. I see a preference
there. All right. All right. Next, uh, we have the proclamation for Memorial Day. So whereas Memorial Day is a solemn occasion dedicated to honoring and remembering the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service
to our country. And whereas this day of remembrance originated after the Civil War and has grown to include all American military personnel who have died in all wars and conflicts. And whereas the people of the state of Minnesota and the city of North St. Paul hold deep gratitude to the valor,
courage, and sacrifice of these heroes and are committed to preserving their memory. And whereas Memorial Day also serves as an opportunity for our community to come together in reflection, unity, and support for the families of the fallen and all those who have served or continue to serve in the
armed forces. And whereas we encourage residents of North St. Paul to observe this day with reverence, to attend commemorative events, and to honor our fallen heroes by displaying the American flag at half staff until noon as is customary. Now, therefore, uh John
Mangi, mayor for the city of North St. Paul, Minnesota, does hereby proclaim Monday, May 26, 2025 as Memorial Day in North St. Paul and urge all residents to join in honoring the memory of our nation's fallen service members. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Absolutely. I appreciate you reading that, sir. Next time they vote, they vote for one doesn't have dyslexia, maybe. All right. Next up is our consent agenda. Right. So, uh, item A, May 6,
2025, workshop and regular meeting minutes. Item B, general claims of 1,850, 345.90. Item C, HR claims of $40,62028. Item D, acceptance of the 2024 financial reports that were audited
by the city's audit firm of LB Carlson LLP. Item E, resolution accepting donations for April of 2025. Item F, building permit reports for April of 2025. Item G, approve consumption and display permit for the
garter toss. Uh, item H, gambling premises permit, White Avenue Business Association. Item I, tree brush grinding and removal services. Item J, Ramsey County Sheriff Emergency Response Teams joint powers agreement. Item K, Metro
Inet, uh, memorandum of understanding regarding the data center and agreement and item L, management services agreement between the city of North St. Paul and Triple Crown batting cages. Thank you, Brian. Would anybody like to pull any at this time?
I'd like to pull item J, the Ramsey County Sheriff Emergency Response Teams. Okay. If nothing else, can I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please? So moved. So moved. Council member Schwar. Second. Second. Council member I was going to
say Norby. I thought you were going to say Wong at first. Exactly. Yeah. We're going back in old Mackenzie. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you. [Music] All right. Going to move that one up then. All right. Move that to uh
business. So we'll go to open to the public. Open to the public at uh 6:47. Dennis Bartharm. Okay. Three minutes. Name and address, please. Dennis
Bartholomew. Which one do you want? 2308 East 10th Avenue? Sure. Triple Crown. Okay. Or 2050 North Margaret. So, um, you know, I came up because I hear the agenda where we had Triple Crown
with that management agreement and I think that's passed, right? Okay. There there was one issue that I didn't hear come up and that has to do with the fact that when we went through this um I had
to fill out a tax exemption because the Ramsey County came in and assessed me property taxes and the reason was because the management agreement that was drawn up by the city was done wrong. It told Ramsey County
this was now a commercial building and it's a public use facility which it had been since all this time and reaffirmed back in 2010 with Victoria Reinard in the city of North St. Paul due to the
fact that there were things missing in that contract that we did in 2023. Part of it saying that I'm the leasey. I'm not a leasey. I'm the contractor. So, I got hit
with first half taxes. Now, I went to them and the county commissioner, Kelly Miller, and her staff agreed 100%. They said, "Here's what has to be done." And we had we had a nice conference call between Dave and Brian and and them, and
they explained the procedure, what we have to do. I had to file with the tax court. That's the only way you can stop those proceedings from going through. Basically, I had to pay the first half taxes to Ramsey County. The
tax court filing, which I did, stops that after they have it and then they will give you a date down the road. They have have basically intercepted that and said, "You're not going to have to do that. Get this thing done and we will
reimburse you for that money. The issue I had was that I had to pay $170 for the tax court. I had no choice. If I didn't file with the tax court, I would then have to pay taxes for the full year. They said there's nothing we
can do that's in the law. But since I paid it, we held it up. Now, I went down there and we spent over two hours filing this, basically doing the application with the people who do it took over two
hours. And they had to make calls to the courthouse and that to make sure they had things right. I asked them, I said, "How does a normal person do this if they had to?" And they said, "You got to get a tax lawyer." And I said, "Well, that's got to be
expensive. $1,000 or more." They said, "Try two or three." I said, "No kidding." But they, give him credit, walked me through it and basically did the whole thing for me cuz I there nobody nobody would understand
that. So, we saved that kind of money. All I'm asking is that $170 had nothing to do with me and any mistake I made that I be reimbured for that by the city. So, anybody got questions regarding
that? No, but thank you for speaking. It's something that Ryan and the council can talk about. Okay. I thought it might have been talked about, but I want that's why it came up tonight. I wanted to make sure that we discuss that. So,
um, thank you. And I've got and I've got from the uh Ramsey County, it shows that they have already changed this from a commercial building to a public use building. So that's already filed and everything. Okay. So they're just waiting for that. So I appreciate that.
Thank you. Now I think you got to get done so we can watch the Timberwolves. There you go. No. Thank you. Thank you, guys. All right, that that's it. 652 close to public.
All right. So, city business action items. Um, item A will be what was pulled down for the SWAT arrangement agreement. I just wanted I I just would like a little more clarification about this because it seems like this is going up from 5,000
to $12,000 a year. Um, and you know, I guess my take on it is, um, how many times have we needed the service? It seems like it's a me like we're buying into a membership for something on the off chance that it's
something that we might need in the long term. So my concern is is this money that we need to be spending for this in you know on the off chance that we
need this service. It's you know it seems like a lot of you know $5,000 is one thing when it's more than doubling becomes kind of questionable I guess in my mind. So, I guess I'd like to I don't know how this works if it goes up for I
don't know what the explanation thought is. Yeah. Start with Yeah. Their claim was that Ramsey County had held the $5,000 fee there probably longer than they should have. That their their costs were going up higher um than what they
were asking the participants to um that are in it to pay. Yes, it is uh random. I mean, hopefully you don't ever have to have them called out. Um, we've had it called out a couple of times. Uh, when Phil was here, um, we had those kids
that stole that vehicle and drove through our city at high speed, ended up crashing in another city. But, um, then after that, they were having gatherings of the public that were So, it's almost like a retainer. Well, yeah. I mean, so we'll we'll pay this, but you know, we you help us out
if we if we need it type of thing is kind of what it looks like, huh? Yeah. Um, and semi similar, you know, we have the the BCA that that can come in and help out during certain situations. Um, but that's a state deal. We don't pay pay for that, but you know, we have participation in it. Um, yeah, you hope
you don't get it. Um, but you know, besides serving as the ability of having those services come in and them having to send you an invoice even if they if they do or not, but a small uh city like us that don't have a lot of room of
growth, I mean, the these little opportunities kind of help out with the officers being able to kind of expand their wings a little bit and be involved in other um, I don't know, aspects of their job, you know, and and we do things like the
the pilots for the um drone program and you know small cities like us don't have a lot of stepping stones. Um you can go to sergeant um but then there's chief um not that that is why we do this but it it is certainly something that helps out the staff as well training learning
opportunities for indeed force. Okay fair enough. So that's just bringing more resource training resources. It does. And we I believe we have four people in there um that participate in that. So, it's not
them helping us like I thought that I was mistaken. It's the training part of it. No, no. I mean, it is certainly uh them helping us out when needed. I mean, they're an automatic call when we're in crisis situations. Then I you were talking about training, so I thought maybe I was misunderstanding. That was kind of a side note. I Okay. All right.
So, that's pretty much to help them. Okay. Yep. And we have had them. Um, is it a straight for everybody or is it go by population or the fee? Straight everybody does the same. I asked Ray that today and he told me that that is a straight fee for the cities. Yes. Okay. Did we use them for last May? Mhm.
Last May. No, B that was BCA that came in. Okay. Um, but we have had people um secure themselves in them their houses to where we've had to bring them out and um actually the house right next to the current student built um had issue there that that SWAT came out on. So we've had
them intermittently here and there went down there on south. Yeah, but that's a valid question and reason why you pulled it. I think Yeah. Are you good with Yeah. Okay. If you're good with then we'll have to just vote on it. So, and they did bring up to the the timing
wasn't great. Uh that we need more notice than what was given here because I mean we follow our budgeting and try to plan ahead with this stuff. So, um there was feedback to the sheriff as well. So, so they wouldn't budge for the remainder of the year. They Yeah, it was
kind of a last minute deal that they they and going forward they won't be doing that. They'll give us that consideration which will be nice. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. If no other questions, can I get a motion for So moved. So move.
Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member Norby. Norby. Council McKenzie. Oh boy. You did pretty good. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Poor Norby. He's He's going to think I
didn't even take the day off. Probably mention my name more than everybody else. All right. All right. So, reports from city manager and departments. Uh, we had a staff meeting today. Um, PD has been um they're doing interviews. They believe that four today
um which will hopefully get us to full staff, full complement of staff. Um once we get all these on, we still have uh one person that's about halfway through their field training. Um and bringing on this one more will get us up to full staff once they get through all their
training. We have our new um detective that is on. Been on for a couple weeks now. He's doing well according to Ray and uh picking up the where others left off. Um we have the new uh cso that started uh what last week and uh so
Brandon's been training her. Brandon will be up for taking his post here uh within a a week or so and then uh hopefully pull him on by the early June to be an officer. So looking forward to that. He's he's really good compliment for the
department. Um, electric's been busy with their getting um the conduit in for up there at the road reconstruction project. Um, they got most all of that in now except for road crossings and they'll get them in when the road is dug up. Um, we did
get our wire in finally for 17th in Delaware. So, they'll be resuming that work that they've started up there um more than a year ago. Um, they're also putting in uh some doing some work at Target. So we can do a loop feed to the target building. Right now it's a radio
feed. So that will be a nice addition for such a big load. Um feed radio feed. You got to say it now. I got to know what's Oh, I'm sorry. So if you have just a transformer that goes straight out and and feeds um a business or a
resident. Well, if that gets uh broken somehow or um interrupted, that is the only feed for it. So now you have to fix that to get them back on. While loop feed, they're fed from two different directions. So if this goes down, you can just feed from the other direction and it causes much shorter power outages
to help them out. So all right. We had any power outages during this high wind session at all, you know? Uh yes, and that was mixed up here. So we got um we've been doing pretty good with these storms. We've had a couple of uh big uh
limbs or trees come down on services. Uh we've had just a couple of small outages. Um our biggest outage was somebody trying to tree trim and tree went the wrong way. So Oh, that was a week and a half ago. Um not us. Not not them. Thank he talks
back. Look at him. Uh we I have electric working with uh Zo um trying to get some fiber to the housy there. So, that'll be part of um the new lock system that we're going to be looking at to help with that and also for get some security cameras out there.
We don't have them now. Um and then talked about the storms. And of course, finance has been busy with this audit and now we're kicking off the budgets and getting moving on that. Uh community development, we have Sarah's been out for the last week and a half. She got
married, so they're picking up the Yeah. slack on that. And then um working on new uh policy updates um with Ken and having him update some of the ordinances that we had issues with and been working with Jack on. Um fire department's been
busy with they have some training and then they've had uh their new engine. It looks like they got about eight week delivery times. They're hoping for mid July to have that new firet truck. Um working on code enforcement issues right now. seems to be the tall grass for no
more. Yeah. So, yeah, especially with the all the rain. Um, and they're actually at a very high roster point. They're about 39. They haven't been that high in many years. So, they've been having more people start on um the department. So, that's
good for them. [Music] um public works. They've been of course busy helping 916 with the uh student bill program. Um he already went over where the house
is at. Cleanup day went pretty well. Uh we're going to look at ways to streamline that. We're going to actually bring that back to you guys and have a discussion on ways we can improve on that and get your guys' input on that as well. um probably at the next uh workshop.
Um did the concrete work down there in front of article 7 um that's blocked off now, but they'll have that open up what come Thursday. So be ready. It was just damaged from some of the heavy equipment that they had working around there. So they had to replace it. They just didn't
want to do it last fall, so it was there for the snow plow season. But um then couple what else is left? We have a a little bit of patching on some of the asphalt on the backside on sephila. Um, what else we got? There's also some
warranty stuff. Um, our seasonal staffing. They got three more workers started this week. So, won't be long they'll be able to get out and do some patching on the road, get some potholes taken care of. Um, and we're looking at street restru uh
reconstructions starting uh around June 1st. So, contractors will be in town. We'll start digging the place up. So, progress progress. That's all I got for you. All right. Thank you very much, commissions, committees.
Parks and Recreation had their cleanup days. Uh, I unfortunately was unable to attend, but I um understand that Troy was able to attend, so maybe he can speak to it. Um, but it I believe it was a very good success. Um, a couple community members that I know had said
that they seen people out in the parks and thought it was neat that we were doing that. Uh, next meeting is next Wednesday at 6:30 here in council chambers. Awesome. Thank you. Uh the EDA meets in June 10th coming up and we're going to further up the ED city uh
fascia program. Thank you very much. Um the arts and culture commission met uh just after our last meeting on the 7th and just talked through everything. Um just continuing to make progress on
all the projects going on, the classes going on at uh for the art projects as well as the um they're going to do our call for artists actually yesterday um for the historical society mural on the west side of the
building there. So hopefully that will get done. Uh the plan is to review the artist and decide by the end of this month and then mid next month notify everybody that who's doing it, what it's going to be and everything. So um and then as far as the park cleanup, it it
did go well. Um I went to Northwood Park and um sounds like the public works had already been out mo at most of the parks mowing, so a lot of the trash had already been picked up. Nothing major. Um, so the parks commission uh member
and I that were there um went and did Mcnite between 36 and uh the daycare, whatever that is. Is that 17th? 11th 11th 11th 11th. Um so we did that section there. Um wound up
getting two huge bags of trash out of there. So awesome. Awesome. Did a little bit of extra work. So good. Went good. Thanks for volunteering. Appreciate that. And then I guess one other thing I will say is um I attended the 62 state of the union uh for the school district
last week and um sounds like they've got big plans for the school district and everything and it was well represented. So thank you general business. Um I helped out at cleanup days. It was lovely. It
was busy. I went into the yard and um put some work gloves on and hauled some tires and hauled some trash. It was I enjoy it's one of my favorite events. These guys may think otherwise, but I enjoy doing it. That's what this meeting's about. Yeah, exactly. You like
it too much. Um a lot of people I believe there was was it 318 cars that we had come through. So, and yeah, uh, tennis team was on top of it. They rocked it. Trucks
in and out. Um, welloiled machines. I think once they get in there, they know what's going on. So, when you said tennis team, I was thinking North Heights tennis. I'm like, they volunteer for this. And I also did the uh city cleanup and
uh the city public works was allowed me to get on a gator and and I uh worked the corner of uh first and seventh and there was such a tie up down there we had to think quick and I got it all lined up where it worked out really well
and the uh no complaints, no yelling and no screaming. That was the biggest thing. Awesome. And I told them, "People, it's just going to be a long wait, but just be patient." They said, 'What do we do if we have to go to the bathroom? I said, 'Well, you're going to have to get
out of line. Great. Any general? Um, no, just same thing. Uh, participated in the city cleanup, uh, the spring cleanup day. Uh, talked to Ava quite a bit about some, you know, change or not changes, but some things we can do to improve it. Talked to Ron, you know, about some
changes. So, um, yeah, I think it'll be it's a good program. I think it's great thing to do. Just got to figure out the, you know, what can we do to make it better, um, for everybody. Um, the park cleanup went well, like I talked about that and then the, uh, 62 State of the
Union thing. So, yeah. What was that? What was it? Did they? Yeah. Can you explain? So, the uh district superintendent uh talked about the it was at North. Um district superintendent talked about the schools, the improvements they're making
to the schools, what they're doing with the schools. Um all the schools, including elementary schools and everything finally have air conditioning. I know when my kids went to Coworn, they did not have air conditioning, so it was hot in there. Um but all the schools have air conditioning. all the improvements that
they're making to the schools, to the programs. Um just talking about what the future looks like for the school district and um you know what we can do as cities. Um there were representatives from you know obviously me from North
St. Paul, representatives from Oakdale and Maplewood there as well. Um just talking about what we can do um to help. So yeah. Awesome. I thought it was really good. Thanks for representing. Yeah. Mayor, I'd like to add one thing um that's worth bringing up here is we have a couple of areas around town that
uh we're finding commercial vehicles parking and uh even private vehicles parking. So, which is one is like on north of 7th Avenue on Henry along the Burwald property. We've got uh some semis that are parking there overnight,
even dropping um just their trailers at times. Uh we also have issues down there at Mcnite Field to where uh I see that in a lot. There's quite a few big panel trucks in there. So we brought that to the attention of the police department and they're going to follow up on that and uh start getting people to move along being that uh when it comes to
commercial vehicles there's a 2-hour parking limit and then there's 12 hours for overnight parking. Um so there's things that we can do to get that moving. Just want to So what is it? 12 hours for residential or is it 24
is or it's 12 hours residential? Every 12 hours that vehicle has to be moved residential and then two hours for commercial. That's our lots. Y lots. So it's on third street.
Henry Henry Henry Mayfields. Yeah, I know down where the community center where the apartment is. They there seems to be a lot out there all the time from the apartment. So where the where the um Franklin Apartments? Yeah, you got the the
community center there. That that's the public lot, too. Every once in a while we're we're hitting them as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Great. So Yep. myself, I had a meeting with uh the local bars in town. So, we got together and u they were just
getting ready for for summer and talking about the car show and how things went last year and this year. So, they're it went very well. They got a good group. They want to make sure, you know, they're good to the North St. Paul and uh we wanted the same way make sure that there was nothing that was major that we
needed to address and uh it went really well. So, we're good there. So yeah, if anything else, if nothing else, I should say, can I get a call for adjournment, please? So moved. So moved. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member
McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you very much. Next meeting is June 3. Have a great night. Part: 2
Welcome to the May 20th, 2025 workshop. Roll call, please. Council member Woods is absent. Council member Nordby is absent. Council member McKenzie here. Council member Schwar here. Mayor Mongi here. Thank you very
much. Can I please get a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. So moved. Second. Shwver McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. All right. Topics, please. All right. We got one topic up for this evening and it
is the review of the 2024 financial report with the city audit firm LB Carlson LLP. I'll kick it over to Dan to start us off. Well, mayor, council members, uh here we are again. We've got some uh results to share with you in the
financial statements uh for another year um completed. Um you know, the financial statement doesn't happen overnight. Um there is a lot of work that goes into it. Um the audit itself, uh there's
three visits that come. It starts in January, we have one in February, and we wrap up in in March. Um and then there's the compilation of putting everything together um and then the review um from uh you know the city of North St. Paul's finance department. It doesn't happen
without all of the staff. Um, and it's not just our staff, but I kind of want to just first of all give a quick, you know, thank you to our staff me members and Taylor and Melissa, Angie, Barb, and and Jackie uh for uh their tremendous
amount of work that they put together uh during the audit and getting this uh to this completion. Um, and it doesn't just happen on our side. It happens with um the individuals in community development and it happens with this individual that's sitting right next to us um Jenny
um to be able to give the information when the auditors are are looking for there. Um I used to once upon a time I used to have a fear um of the auditors when they would come in. Um you know um I think a lot of people look at them from a adversarial role. Um, but I've
over the years and definitely um with our current audit um comp uh firm that we're using, LB Carlson, that um really have embraced that whatever they find just makes us better. Um and really look
for them to do their job. Um give them all of the information and make sure that we're doing things the right way. Um if there's something that they find, I think that's fantastic. It means we need to make some corrections. so we do things better in the future. Uh, one of the things that I had when I first
started, obviously credit cards was a big issue. We haven't had anything written up on that for a number of years now. So, we've made improvements. Um, always looking for improvement. Um, the person who's going to be presenting um tonight for LB Carlson
um her name is Jackie Heagel. Um, she is a tremendous um asset for LB Carlson. Um LB Carlson um took over MMKR at the beginning of this year um and she's still around. She brought in a a two um
person audit team to audit us. Uh I'm telling you those two um young women um did a absolutely tremendous job. They were very well organized. Um they were honest for information from the get-go.
They did one heck of a a great job. Um it all happens um underneath um Jackie's um you know reign. Um and she does one heck of a great job. I personally have learned a lot from her um not just from the audit standpoint and accounting
standpoint but also from the standpoint of watching her as she interacts with her staff. she has uh an innate ability to be able to teach and um if and uh and
to mentor um her um staff um and I've taken some of those things that I've observed from her and utilized it even at my age with my staff um and she just does a tremendous job. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to her. She's
going to walk us through, I think, primarily the management report. Um, whatever questions you have, uh, please ask, um, and, uh, get all the information that you need, this will be at the city council for in the consent item for your acceptance and approval,
uh, which needs to be done. Um, and then I'll take it from there. I'll do the state reporting um, and submit the financial statement to the state. We've got to do it to our bonding agency and then for the GFOA um, award. So, I'll take it from there, but it has to be
officially adopted um by city council, which will happen later tonight. So, make sure you ask any questions. After she is done, if we can take like a 5m minute recess um like to thank her and escort her out. Um, and then I'm going to come back and just kind of give a little bit of
information um on some of the numbers that are in the financial statement for I think a little bit different perspective of of looking at it because there's just so many numbers and so much information that's in a you know in the comprehensive annual financial report. Um, but after that long- winded
introduction, I'd like to introduce Jackie Heagle from LB Carlson. And um, remember, don't be shy, ask questions. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome back. Thank you. Uh thanks for having me. Thank you for the introduction, Dan. Uh as Dan
said, my name is Jackie Heagel. I am a partner with LB Carlson. Um you formerly knew me as a partner at MMKR. And as Dan mentioned, we did merge with LB Carlson effective January 1st. So nothing's really changed. Otherwise, we're operating under a new name, but our whole governmental division has just
moved over and still operating. same process, procedures, uh just getting used to saying a new name. So, after 20 years, it's hard to not say MMKR. So, you have a new look to your covers as well. Dan and I were commenting if you're seeing your covers, uh they do look a little different than what you've
seen in the past. Um, but you do have in front of you a few documents tonight. Uh, the first one is that annual comprehensive financial report. Uh, then there is that special purpose audit report uh that summarizes the audit opinions of the city's audit. Um in the
current year you're seeing a third small document uh the report on compliance for the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds. So I do just want to comment um with those CSL or F FRF dollars. Uh the city did spend those in
2024. Um that triggers what's called a a single audit. If you meet if you spend federal dollars in excess of 750,000 there's normally a separate audit called a federal audit. Uh the federal government did come out with an exception that if these were basically the only federal dollars you're
receiving, um they had what's called an ACE audit, an alternative compliance examination engagement. So as a city, you did qualify for that. Um so we didn't have to go through the full federal internal control evaluation of the federal portion. Um but as part of
that, there is still testing. Um we did have to review transactions and there's that compliance letter that you have in front of you related to that. um which was all clean. There was no issues or concerns with that. Um but that is something there is a process that does have to get to the submitted to the
federal government uh related with that. And then the last document uh is our management report which is our LB Carlson report. That is what I'm going to be speaking from tonight. So as you follow along um I'll be referencing pages throughout that management report.
So starting with that document on page one, um I'll just give a little background about our responsibility under auditing standards. Uh no, it should have a gray cover should say management report. Top one. There we got it. Yep.
Okay. So on page one, just giving you guys a little background about our responsibilities as auditors. So annually the city is required to issue a financial report audited in accordance with uh generally accepted auditing standards and with government auditing
standards. Um as part of that process we issue an opinion on those financial statements noting that they are fairly stated. All the information in that annual comprehensive financial report does rest with the city. It is the city's responsibility all the information that is going in there and
as an auditor we're issue an opinion on that. the plan, scope, and timing of the audit. Um Dan did mention we come out a few different times throughout the year. We start our procedures right after year end. Um in January, we come on site and do what we call our preliminary fieldwork procedures. Um from there,
we're back a couple more days in February where we do some interim work. Uh we start into the audit process, but then March, we do the rest of the final field work. And from there, um there's a process that goes through with getting this whole ACT for annual comprehensive financial report prepared. you know, the
binder is reviewed. Uh the city has to review it and sign off on their approval, and it even then goes through a quality control process at our office before it can be issued uh to be here tonight. Um as we walk through the results though, you're going to see all very positive operating results,
financial results, and compliance opinions. Starting at the bottom of page one there, I'll just summarize the audit opinions that are issued. So in that annual comprehensive financial report, we issued unmodified or clean opinions
on the basic financial statements. That is the opinion you are looking for as part of this audit process. Um if you're looking in the opinion, you're going to note that uh there was some new governmental audit standards that were required to be implemented. Uh the one that did have an impact on your
financial statements was an audit standard relating with group assets. So in previous years if you were purchasing groups of assets um and individually those were less than your capitalization policy you didn't have to include them
in your capital asset records. Now as you move forward if you're purchasing groups of assets and in they are significant in the aggregate you need to include them in your financial report. Um so we had to the city had to do a look back kind of looking back a couple years. Um some of the items were not
material such as some computer technology equipments. Um the one item that did have to get picked up as part of this uh accounting change looking back was under the solid waste fund. Some of the recycling bins that you're purchasing um and just that has a lower
materiality threshold. This is a smaller fund so the thresholds are smaller requiring it met the threshold to pick it up as part of the audit. But as you're moving forward you will uh include all those types of assets. you know, if you're buying computers in bulk or any other types of equipment in bulk as you move
forward. As part of our review of the internal controls over the city's financial report, we had no deficiencies to report in that area, no instances of non-compliance with the government auditing standards. As part of our testing of that Minnesota legal
compliance audit report, we did have the one comment to report there. Um, and it relates to just paying your bills within the 35day payment period. Um, as part of our testing, we did have two of the 40 dispersements tested that were paid outside of that 35 days. Um, this hasn't
been a consistent issue in the past. Um, but it is something we noted this year. You know, as part of the transactions we pulled, you know, there were a couple paid past that 35day payment period, which is state statute. Moving on to the top of page two then. Um, as part of our audit process, we
always follow up on any findings that were issued in the prior audit year if there were any. Um, and so looking back to 2023's audit, uh, there was one audit finding with Minnesota statutes and that related with group insurance. Anytime
um, a local government provides group insurance for 25 or more employees, you have to follow a request for proposal process. And in 23's audit, uh, dental group insurance was not did not properly go through that request for proposal. Um, but there was no issue in the
current year. Um, you're only required to do that every 5 years. So, there wasn't really a lot of testing with that this year, but keep that in mind as you continue to move forward. Some other observations and recommendations I'd like to talk through. Um, these aren't considered findings. Uh just like I said some other
recommendations and some of these comments uh you've seen in previous audits. I just like to comment on the individual fund deficits. So if you're looking through that annual comprehensive financial report uh you are seeing some funds that have a deficit fund balance or a deficit net
position. Um and we just want to remind you to monitor those funds. I mean there could be reasons why there's a current deficit but trying to match the revenues and expenses as much as possible. Um, I think in some of yours, you know, some of your TIFF funds, uh, when they start
generating that tax increment revenue, you're going to start getting that revenue in. So, they're currently in that deficit position. The second comment there relates with that fiber optic fund. Just every year like to remind everyone of the significant deficit that is sitting
in that fund. Uh, the unrestricted component at year end is about 1.9 million. um continuing monitoring that fund or what is the plans of that fund as you continue to move forward. Deposit and escrow reconciliations. Um that is a comment
that has been in the report for several years. Um it's not like a huge audit concern, but it is an area that could eventually raise to more of an internal control finding. And what that relates to is just the various customer deposit and escrow accounts um that the city um
receives of funds. And there needs to be a reconciliation process of that as you're receiving those escrow balances or paying them out. You know, who's tracking them and what is the city's policy over those and making sure they're fully being reconciled from year to
year. And then the other recommendation on the top of page three that I wanted to comment on uh just relates with some payroll withholdings and documentation. Um so as part of our audit testing in the current year um we did have a situation just where a W4 that an
employee had submitted didn't get properly entered into the payroll system and also some of the payroll deductions. It didn't we they weren't able to provide the documentation to support all of those. Um we didn't find this pervasive throughout our audit. It was a
isolated instance. Um, but I did want to just put a recommendation making sure as a city, you know, maybe reviewing your policies and procedures as far as when uh payroll withholdings and deductions are, what is that process for making sure you have all that documentation on file to support the
information. So, at that then I'm going to move over a couple of pages to page six and start talking through some of the financial results. But these first few uh graphs that I'm just going to briefly talk through I just like to
comment on just shows the taxable market value of the city for the past 10 years. Um for the 2024 you're seeing an increase in your market value about 7.8%. Um I always say I feel like this graph we can go and put in about every cities and they're all they all look
very similar the same. Flipping over to the top of page seven, you're seeing the same thing with your market value going up, your tax capacity. Also increase for the 2024 year about 7.8%. And then the bottom of page seven,
uh we just show the table of what is for a resident of the city of North St. Paul, what is your average tax rate um for all the different jurisdictions. And so overall, you that tax rate's going down. the city is staying pretty stable if you kind of look at over the three-year information
there. And talking more specific, the financial results of the city on page eight, I show a table there that shows all your governmental funds of the city. Um, kind of rolled up to the together, the top portion of that table shows it by what we consider classification of
fund balance. Um, that's that order of spending. if you have non-spendable fund balance, the dollars that are restricted, committed, assigned, and unassigned. And then that bottom portion shows um all the governmental funds, but it shows that what we call major funds
with all the non- major funds combined together. So overall, when you're looking at your governmental funds, you saw an increase in that fund balance of about 2.7 million. Um, a lot of that if you look at the top of the portion, you're seeing that unassigned fund balance go up about just
under 1.9 million. Some of that is due to the improved financial position in the general fund. Um, as well as the uh improved financial position in that non- major uh MSA capital project fund. Then you're also seeing the committed fund balance uh increase in the current year.
Most of that's in the street maintenance capital project fund and that's due to some transfers that were made in the current year to that fund which are committed for future street projects. Page nine and 10 then uh this is some information on governmental fund
revenue per capita and expenditures per capita on page 10. This is about the only area where we do have some statewide information to compare yourself to. Just keep in mind the statewide information is a couple years old. That's the most recent data that the office of the state auditor does
have available. Uh but for this 2024 year, you're seeing your revenues per capita at about that $1,330. It's an increase of about $239 from the prior year. When you're looking at this, remember it's all your governmental funds. Most of that
increase you're seeing in that intergovernmental revenue area. And that's due to in the current year you spent your FRF dollars, your coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds. So you have a one-year increase of those federal funds and probably will go back down um in
2025. You also saw your property taxes going up. That's just as approved with the levy process. When you look at your expenditures, you're seeing pretty consistent from 2023 to 2024. Overall expenditures per capita
increased about $40. Most of that is in that top portion where it's the current expenditures. You're seeing that total current expenditures are going up about $135 per capita. Most of that's in that all other bucket which would be your
economic development area. So there was some increased economic development payments in 24 comparing to 23. Let's offset then the capital outlay in construction. You saw a decrease in spending in your governmental funds on street projects in the current year
compared to prior year. Moving on to page 11 then the next few pages I'll comment on are specific now drilling into the general fund of the city. So starting on page 11, that graph there shows the general fund financial position. It shows the fund balance, the cash balance, as well as
the expenditures of that fund. So overall, you saw your cash and investment balance increase about $725,000. You also saw your fund balance in the general fund increase about a million dollars. Um, and that was compared to a balanced budget that was
approved by the city council. Overall though, uh, the city ended the year with an unassigned fund balance in the general fund of about 57% of the subsequent year's budgeted expenditures. So, you are in line with that fund balance policy that the city does have in
place. Page 12 then shows a couple graphs showing the general fund revenues. The top one showing comparing it to budget. Uh, the bottom graph then shows it uh just the various revenue sources or the categories of revenue. Overall, the general fund revenues ended
the year about 155,000 overbudget. Most of that was just in the other revenues like investment earnings and intergovernmental. That's just due to conservative budgeting, not exactly knowing, you know, what interest rates are and how the year is going to end. When you're looking current year to prior year, the general fund revenues
increased about 660,000. you saw some changes, some increasing in the intergovernmental revenue area, the grant area, as well as uh property taxes went up and then that was offset. You did see your license and permit revenues going down. I think a couple years ago
there was some hail storms. So, you saw some significant license and permits and you're looking at that graph, you're probably getting maybe more back to the normal level for the city. Page 13 then shows the similar graphs budget to actual just of the general
fund expenditures. Um overall the expenditures and the general fund end of the year under budget about 2.2 million most of that or pretty much all of it is in public safety. So with that, you have to remember with the spending of the coronavirus state and local fiscal
recovery funds, those salaries were taken out of the general fund and put into the pandemic response special revenue fund, which is where the F FRF federal dollars were recorded. Um so that's a one-time kind of shift of where those expenditures are being funded by
and then would shift back for 2025. Um but that was the variance for why you're seeing under budget. And when you're looking current year to prior year, I mean, overall a decrease of about 900,000. Most of that, once again, is that public safety and the onetime
shift of the salaries over to that pandemic response fund where the federal funding is. Moving on to page 14. Then, uh, the next several pages u moves from now the governmental funds. We're going to switch over to talking about the enterprise funds of the city. Um this
shows a snapshot for those enterprise funds of what the net position is and then the bottom portion shows it by each of the funds. So overall the total net position in the enterprise funds increased about 2 million. If you're looking at the top portion of that table, most of it's in that net
investment in capital asset. Um so just the continued investment in the utility infrastructure throughout the city. If you're looking in the bottom portion, you're going to see the majority of the funds did see an increase in net position. solid waste had a slight decrease in the current
year. We'll kind of walk through each of the funds. We have a page summarizing some graphs on each enterprise fund. Starting with page 15, the electric fund there. Just summarizes kind of the financial results for the past five years. Um for the
2024, you're seeing an overall a gross profit very consistent with the prior year just down slightly. If you're kind of looking at your operating revenues, you saw a decrease. Just decreased consumption in 2024 compared to 23. Obviously, as your operating revenues
are going down, your purchase utilities of that electric is also going to decrease. But overall for the year ended the year at about operating income before any transfers out of about 1.9 million. And then the city does transfer
or did transfer out about 1.4 4 million to other funds which left the year with an increase in net position of about 580,000. Skip then over to 17 talking about the remaining of the enterprise funds. Page 17 shows the financial
results of that water fund for the past five years. You're going to see very positive results here as well. You saw your operating revenue did decrease in the current year uh due to some decrease consumption. Um operating expenses were increasing mainly in materials and
supplies and some professional services. Um but overall did end the year with operating income of about 611,000. Um then at year end did transfer out about 205,000. Surface Water Fund also ended the year with positive operating income of about 288,000.
Um overall the revenues you're seeing an increase in some the operating revenues there. Most of that is due to the increased number of customers and the approved rate increase. Um operating expenses also increased about 20,000. That nonoperating area line you
can see that kind of shifting up and down just depending on the activity going on. Most of that decrease in the current year was just due to the grants. Uh sometimes you're receiving some grants in that surface water area. So you did have a grant last year. not in 24. So that's that non-operating
change. Next fund is the wastewater fund. Saw positive operating income in this fund of about 658,000. You saw your operating revenues increasing mostly due to the rate increase that was approved by the city council. And then your operating
expenses also increase mainly in that materials and supplies. End of the year though, like I said, with operating income before any transfers out of about 775,000 and then transferred out about 145,000. The fiber optic fund at year
end 24 did end the year has that deficit net position um but it did see an improvement of about 62,000 from the prior year. Um, as we previously discussed, just a reminder to continue to review the operation and what is the plan as you continue to move forward
with this fund. Then the last enterprise fund is that solid waste fund. Uh, this fund ended the year with an operating loss of about a 100,000. If you're looking at your operating revenues, you saw a small increase about 12,000 um from the prior
year. You also saw your incre or your expenses go up about 85,000 primarily in some professional service costs. So ending the year with a operating loss of about a 100,000. And then the last page I'll comment on page
22. This is what we call a summary of the governmentwide financial statements. So throughout the audit or the management report so far we're talking about all the different funds of the city. Um when you're looking at your annual comprehensive financial report, there's all the different funds of the city and then they're rolled up into
what we call the governmentwide financial statements. So at the front of that aer there's two statements, statement of net position and statement of activities. Um that is a full acral accounting presentation where it takes all those funds of the city. It rolls up any capital asset activity, any
long-term liabilities, which would be any bonds or any pension liabilities that you have with PERRA and it gives like that snapshot on that full acrrual basis. So at year end 2024, um you're seeing an increase in that net position in total for the city
of about 6.3 million. If you look towards the top portion of that table, uh your governmental activities net position you're seeing go up about 4.2 million. Um most of that in that unrestricted area is just due to the positive operating results and the
approved financial position in those governmental funds. The business type activities you're seeing go up about 2 million. That's directly related, you know, to the business type activities. Each of those enterprise funds that we just discussed in those operating results. Um and then you saw your economic
development authority uh saw a small increase of about 80,000 in the current year. So with that, I can open it up if there are any questions or want to discuss anything further. Oh, I
uh go back to my favorite one, the fiber. Let me get back to there. So, um the 1.9 is what we have left to pay that was borrowed. Correct.
That's correct. So, was that the total amount that was borrowed for it? Has there been anything paid back ever or is it paid there's some paid back every single year? If you look at um the fiber optic um found on page 20.
Mhm. Yep. It'll it'll show you that the unrestricted um fund balance was 2.4, then 2.3, then 2.2, two then about 2.1 and now it's just under two. So it is being reduced year after year. It's just
going to take you what was the original amount do we know that they took out of the fund? That I don't know. Okay. Um I I definitely can get that information for you. I'm just curious because when we look at the fiber, there really isn't a plan we can't fix. It was just a bad
decision. So we can't fix this. So when you say, you know, look at what you can do, there's nothing we can do. We got holes in the ground where they did to put the fiber in, but they never did. We got an outdated center that the fiber goes into with switches that, you know,
are everything's outdated. So really, we don't have a way to fix this. So how do we get out from under it? So we don't look at I mean, I know with businesses, you can write off bad debt, bad investments, which exactly what this was. So you you have some long-term
agreements with a couple of cities. Um I don't know the exact number of years remaining on those. It was a 20 years. Um so I think you probably got at least nine years left. Um so you want to be able to hold it through at least that
point in time. Um at that point in time whenever there you know whatever the deficit is your options are you're going to end up and if you wanted to close it close the fund you would end up having to transfer for something from somewhere else. Right now the only viable option
of really transferring funds to make this one whole and to be done with it cash and everything would be the electric fund. Can we just keep it? I mean I don't do I don't see it getting better. Do you? Well, it is getting better, but yeah, but you're looking at
another 20 years before it's How much cost does it take to, you know, to keep it maintained and stuff like that? I was looking for that, too. Yeah. So, you had in 2024, you had operating expenses of about $108,000. You had revenue of $214.
Then you have depreciation um of 44. Um so, you made you net change in position was 62,000. on that page 20. Yep, I see that up there. Y I know we had somebody that's going to be jumping off of ours. I think that's
what I heard. Maybe libraries. I mean, right now you can get a, you know, 100 meg fiber for 500 bucks a month. Yeah. Yeah. I So, I mean, we're there's really no way to to turn this ship around. No. No. So, you're going to be facing it
at the end of those agreements, you're going to be facing a decision on what you want to do with it at that point in time. You'll probably be down hopefully somewhere in the vicinity of $1.5 million of a deficit and you're going to have to make a decision on what you want to do with that because yeah, you're
you're correct. The revenue streams aren't going to be there. Um especially after those agreements are done. I just didn't want the auditor to get hopes that we're going to be able to fix this cuz we can't. It's an unfixable situation unfortunately. Okay, thank you for that information.
Um, one question I did have back on, let me find page here. Um, page 13, you talked about the public safety and how we um were one I don't remember the number.
1.2 million under budget or whatever there. Is that right? 2.2 million. 2.2 million. Okay. Um, in total general fund, but that was because of some additional funds that we got from the other thing that you brought up, right?
Yep. going to shift in 2025. So in the last few years, I can't remember what year you got the coronairus state and local fiscal recovery funds and you've been holding those funds and now you've spent them in 2024. Okay. And so the salaries that were in the general fund
got shifted over to the fund where those federal dollars are. Oh. But in 2025, your salaries would go back to being in the general fund. It's a one-time spending of those fiscal recovery funds. Okay. So the money that we had in that budget just didn't have to be paid to
those salaries because they were allocated from somewhere else. Is that that's basically that's the gist of it. Yeah. Yeah. So to kind of give a little bit more information on to that. So when we um were fortunate to receive some of the corona coron corona virus money which we got about
1 three and a half 1.366 actually um from corona virus uh the original intention on to that that was passed by city council that we were going to utilize it for um the 2022 street projects
um which included seventh street um that was out there um through bidding and other things after we bonded and the bidding environment and everything that came in um we ended up uh not needing those funds. So,
um, last year at the beginning of the year, um, came back to city council, um, and had city council pass resolution to allow, um, the funds to be utilized to pay for, um, public safety, which is a
qualifying activity for the use of the I call them ARPA funds. Um, and um, that's what we did. So that's why you'll see the police is really coming from the police underneath the public safety was reduced by that
1.3 million and it was moved over to we had a fund called a pandemic fund um that those expenditures were and that's what was audited. Um the requirements for those funds they needed to be spent andor encumbered by
the end of 2024 or you would lose them. So that's why at the beginning of last year we made that switch. Now the intention right now is where we've parked the money based upon um the resolution that was passed last early part of last year was that we would put
it into the street maintenance fund. Um however we are going to change that um because of um subsequent to that we had um our facility assessment done um and the plans that were presented through the CIP show that that is going to be
moved but it'll end up having to be moved by a resolution in in the near future. Okay, that makes sense. I know there's a lot to digest other questions almost seems like if you're not an accounting major it
sure it's hard it's hard to interpret part of this too I would like to have seen I'm trying to find the chart of from 15 from 2015 to 24 we almost doubled. So that's nine years. Be nice to if we could have gone back just
kind of see what it's been from you know 15 back to you know is there a certain amount of time that you know it goes up. Are we in a more of a you know the swing kind of is more of a history when you look at the stock market you go back one five 10 years to kind of look at the
loop. So this, you know, be interesting to see, you know, how far back because right now we were at just about, you know, 700,000. Now we're at 1.5 million. So, and what what what page page six
taxable market value? Yeah, sorry. Oh, you would like to go back further than the I'm just curious to see, you know, how that swing goes, you know, if it's been, you know, when you look at the longer history of it because right now it's pretty much doubled, which is Yeah, I think we still I think
we still have some data that goes back further on. You have to remember that I think it was 2008 that uh you had the housing market crash. Well, I guess I'm sure it's going just like that. But yeah, it's definitely on on swing for the property tax, right? But I think you'll find historically that it's
increased quite yes quite a bit. And you said uh this is pretty much on par with what you Yeah. I feel like this graph you could almost put in city management report and you're seeing the increase. Okay. Y Oh well I appreciate your overall
summary. I think what we need to work on as a city is the deposit and the escrow reconciliation. And that's what we need to focus on given the fact that this is a continuous um audit trigger as it's come from year
to year. So I'd like to see us work on that. As for the payroll and withholdings documentation, I think Jenny has a great plan moving forward and the city does. So I don't think there should be any issues with that this upcoming year. So I think we addressed the fiber one. There really is nothing we can do about
that. I think you got that taken care of. I think we're going down the list of what you pointed out. So, so if that's something that we can work on as a city with the deposit and escrow reconciliation, have that clean for next year. So, so technically that's a combination between community
development and the finance department. We've had numerous ch turnover in in the community development. we where we've started with them um because they are the ones who do the escrow records and hold on to those balances piece to it.
Um and so yes, it's been on the radar. We've made some improvement to it this past year. Um, but yes, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but um, really it's staff consistency that, you know, we need to to and hopefully
we're there with that to to make that real big effort to get it there, right? And at the end of the day, it comes down to accountability and what we're doing right and wrong. I mean, if community development is doing something that's incorrect and it brings it over to the finance side, then we should probably
correct it better, right? But they what I'm saying is that the records for the escros are kept on the community development side to it, you know. So when somebody makes an escrow deposit, it's recorded correctly. It goes into
the GL correctly. There's expenditures that are that come out of that component to it. So I'll give an example. There can be an escrow that's utilized on a permitting project and um there's going
to be engineering services WSB. There could be attorney um services. Those need to be coded by community development to come out of that escrow account and then there needs to be a tracking of um that individual escrow
account. So, um, John Doe, um, made the escrow there need or made that deposit and put in $10,000. It's all accounted for correctly. The expenditures need to be coming out of out of that and tracked separately onto that. The financial
system does not have the capability of setting up all of those individual escrow accounts. That has to be done pretty much on the on the community development side to it. So, there's a couple of different components to it. If bills aren't coded correctly and they're not routed to the person who's checking
on the community development side, they're not being deducted out of that record. The error, the component that is of more concern, at least from a finance perspective, is that we may owe individuals a refund from their escrow
account that we can't accurately give to them because we don't know what those true balances for an individual are. So, that's the reconciliation component that needs to be done with that part to it with the records that community development has. And we've had a number of people in community development start
that process and we get some headway and then we've had departures and so then we kind of back up a step or two but we've made some progress this past year and then we've lost we had some turnover again. So do we have an SLP on it? A I'm
sorry an SLP a standard operating procedure. Um that I don't know. Okay, good point. I don't know. That's something I'll check into. Well, appreciate this great hard work on your team, Dan, and the rest of the staff to try to, you know, keep this and
thank you for uh for your hard work, too, on the audit side of it. So, I know we sat down together and had a conversation or talked on the phone, I should say, and had a conversation. So, I appreciate the hard work from both sides. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very
much, Jackie. I will ask if we can take five five minute break. I'll I'll escort ask for that for Jackie out. Um I think police officers are downstairs. All right, there you go. All right, we'll take a fivem minute break.
welcome back from your commercial break. All right, Dan. Mayor, council member, thank you for uh the break. This is not popping up. Should I I gave you a handout. I was going to try to pull that up on the
screen, too. Um there's three little spreadsheets that are there and they they'll uh they cover the general fund, um our enterprise funds, some of our special funds are internal service funds. And really what it's trying to
depict to you is that when when you heard about the the management report, we really focus on the change in net position. um that's good um to look at the change in the net position. Um but there's so
many moving parts to um a financial financial statement. And so what you'll see and then I'll walk you through there there's a change in that position. Um, and then and what that one's doing is it's taking from what we budget and what
you approve from the budget of the 2024 to what end up being actual and then showing you the variance. And I'll talk more about that in a second. And then the second spreadsheet is the un unassigned unrestricted fund balance. And then some funds um they're not
unassigned and unrestricted, they're assigned and restricted because they're for specific purposes. um example HRA funds, they can only you be used for housing and redevelopment authority um type of activities. Same thing with the um EDA uh economic development authority
um functions. So that's why they're shown as assigned or restricted. Um and then the third um spreadsheet um that's attached there will show the change in cash and
investments. And so when we prepare the financial plan uh financial plans the 10-year financial plans really end up using the cash um the change in cash and investments it's what you know basically the liquid assets that we have on hand
to actually do something because there's so many liabilities and um other assets that are showing in the net position. So I give I'll give kind of a really good example. When you look at the change in net pos because it's it's so dramatic.
Um if you look at the change in net position, you look at the electric fund from what we had budgeted. We were budgeting, if you remember, we transferred $1.1 million from that fund to the street uh maintenance fund. From a budgetary standpoint, we were looking
at that we were going to have a net change um a change in net position of a negative 1.1 million. The end results was $581,000 to the positive including that transfer. So that's a swing of almost $1.7 million.
Yet, if I look at the actual unrestricted fund balance, the change from one year to the next year or from the beginning of the year to the to the end of the year was a negative
$221,000. So, why net position looks like we went up a total of 1.7, the unassigned fund balance went down 221,000. Part of that reason is there's
$700,000 that we spent on capital items that will show as um restricted for capital investments. The reason for that in the fund balance category, the reason for that is because over time they'll be
depreciated and they'll show up as a depreciation expense on the income statement and then they reduce that amount that's invested in capital. um placements. They show as an expenditure from a budgetary standpoint,
but they don't show as a budgetary uh expense when it comes to the financial statement. And then if we look at the the change in cash for that electric fund, it shows a minus $58,000. So looking just at something with a
change in net position isn't necessarily reliable. Um, and that's where the more accurate way of looking at something is looking at either your unrestricted fund balance or the cash. Um, and that's
where when we do our financial planning, we look at what cash is available um for um for each one of the funds. The exception to to that one is is the general fund because the general fund doesn't have as as uh your enterprise
funds have a you know have a pretty full full acral method that's applied to them where your general fund account um does not um if you remember what Jackie had said when we pull it into the first reports they see governmental funds then
we do a full acrruel um everything but if if you're looking at just the general fund it it doesn't Now, what how did I our general fund perform this past year? It performed very well. I mean, we were positive over a million dollars. Um and
um fantastic. Now, does that mean we have a million dollars just to move anywhere we want? Going to caution you and hold up a little bit. And here's the reason. We have a fund balance policy that we are trying to maintain 50% in our fund balance. We're currently at 57%
of our subsequent budget. So, if we take our current year budget, what we've been talking about, and we'll be getting into the budget coming up u in July, um presenting to city council, um we're looking at trying to target somewhere about a 6% levy increase. So, if we were
to increase our budget 6% for the subsequent year and we take our current fund balance of where we're at, that million dollars quickly goes down to get to a 50% that we would have about
$380,000 that is over where we would need to be to maintain that 50%. So that million dollars went quickly down to $380,000 just because of how the fund balance policy is based upon subsequent
years. Um because that's to have 50% of what your expenditures are going to be and it's really comes down to a cash flow issue. Um if you can remember property taxes um we don't receive our first half until um June. Um so we're
almost you know half a year into the year. Um, so that's kind of what these three are trying to depict for you overall. If you look at, you know, on our, and then it'll go right back to the cash and investments. You know, our
general fund cashwise increased 3/4 of a million. Electric fund didn't go down nearly as much as we thought. Um, so I mean that only went down about 58,000. Water fund was positive 208. Surface water was 145. wastewater was down 211.
A large part of um of that um component to it. Fiber optic you know cash there is no cash so it doesn't change at all. And then solid waste reduced. If you remember um two
years ago um when we moved into this current existing contract with our current um trash hauler, we decided not to change any rates because we had like about $600 some thousand in fund balance. We decided to wait till the term of this contract's done when we go
out for a complete RFP. At that po point in time, we would look at if there's any rate changes that would be necessary based upon the results that came back in. So we we are dropping our fund balance down without changing um our
rates for for that for um last year and for this year and I think it expires contract I think expires next June m middle of next year. So then there's still a process that a full RFP has to go out um and then there'll be a
selection of a vendor and at that point in time we'll look at what we're going to do with the the rate components to it. again um just based upon how our cash in um and our unrestricted fund balances turned out in our enterprise
funds. Um you can see except for with the electric fund um on unrestricted but then again you have to remember it went down um $221,000 but we transferred 1.1 out. Another true operation you can remember some of the things we actually did very
well. No rate increase is is necessary. Um if you look at the water, surface water, wastewater, um we're we're sitting in a positive way and that's where we were kind of looking at um going into this 2026 budget of not changing any of our rates. Um we're
we're sitting pretty close to, you know, we performed a little bit better than our projections. Um so on our financial 10-year plans, we're going to hold right now with our current rates. Um and we'll look at those into the future if we're going to change any of those, but not
for the 2026. So, with the results of what we've seen tonight, um we're pretty much on that pace. Um department heads are we're on that target of trying to go for no rate increases in our in our utility
rates and a 6% increase in our levy. predominantly that 6% is street maintenance, parks, facilities, um levies on on those. So that's what we're working on. Um department heads have to
the end of this month, the 30th, um to submit their CIPs um and their budgets. Um then, um I'll put everything together um set up meetings with uh each one of the department head and the city manager. We'll go through their budgets
and then I think it's in the first in the schedule the first meeting in July, we'll be presenting our our um the city manager's proposed um budget for discussion with city council and then we have a series of meetings that are are set from thereafter. Um so um that's
kind of the game plan. I think you see how we finished in 2024. Um yes I agree with you there's work in certain areas to do um escrow fund um and other components to it. Um but I think from a performance standpoint I think we did
very well um and um hopefully that will uh continue into the future. It's always unpredictable. We never know where we're going to go. Um but that's part of why um we try to to give and again the next update will be in July where we'll give a quarterly update on how we're doing um
this year in our general fund our enterprise funds to keep you um in tune to what we see as our performance is is is going and and happening. Um so um but at any point in time if you have any questions you certainly can ask me um
send me an email um I can prepare any documentation and come and speak. But um next time that I think that you'll see uh me up here will be in July and we'll be in full force ready to go with the budget. So
hope it be warmer by then. I sure hope so. Um, so it really other questions that you that you have. Um, appreciate the the work, like I said, plus we got our bond rating that went too. So that shows that we're doing the
right things as well. So yeah, I I think I think all in all, it's been very positive. I think we've come up with some very good plans. Um, and we're moving forward um with everything. Uh the uh the bond closed last week
where we re uh all documentation was done. We received um the $6.5 million. Uh and I'm still here. We receive uh that's my that's my weird sense of humor. Um but wait until we see
the then you know we'll know. Uh but so we're all set ready to go with uh with that project. Um and uh yeah, so I think we're pretty much on game plan. Um and I I think do you have middle of June an
update on the community center piece to it? 17th coming back. Yeah. U to give and then seek some direction from uh city council and what the consultants done to date. So things are moving. Brian's Brian's cracked the whip on us and and making us work hard. And I don't
know. I'd like to add um you know tremendous amount of works put into this and you know a lot of attention is brought to the auditor clearly because they're here and they're doing all that work but there's a tremendous amount of work that is done by finance and their staff to gather all this information and pull this all together. So, uh, just
want to recognize that for all your work. Works is only as good as the information you get, right? You know, what what truly is and thank you very much, Brian. You know, it's truly is it's not just finance that gets, you know, gets involved in this audit. It's, you know, it's the whole downstairs
that's that's included. But what what pleases me the most is that our our auditor and auditors that have come, you know, on and and you have to realize that they ch turn over so much because,
you know, they're mostly they're getting younger and younger, but they're coming out of college. Um they get there a couple of years, they take sit for the CPA, and then they usually end up moving to somewhere else. And so we do see a lot of new faces every year. Um and
again they're getting younger and younger or I'm getting older and older. I haven't figured that part of it out yet. But um they do they have a lot of questions. But you know what's kind of interesting? The ones who are there from for more than one year they actually want to come back to the city of North
St. Paul. And that isn't me, that's the whole staff because everybody is so welcoming and so helpful and get the information like that for them and boom boom boom boom everything goes really smoothly. Um, so to me it it's a credit
to this organization and I'm going to give the credit to who's responsible for the day-to-day part of it and that's Brian. um because he's given a very good philosophy and a very good culture that has developed here and everybody there's not a hesitation. You know, I usually will
tell them ahead of time, you know, when they're going to be there or when they're going to be on site and everybody is willing to whatever they need, whatever they need. So, it's just a great a great organization and I give a lot of credit to to Brian on that because it's changed the culture here.
Um, and there's no push back and or or anything when an auditor is coming here and we're pretty much an open book. Um, so that's a good thing. And and even when there's something that they I call gig or they find something on it, that's good because that means it's something we need to correct and get working on.
So I mean those are positive um components for it. So, and then I I don't I I I truly do have a philosophy that I want to see what they have to say so we can make the the changes to it. And what's nice for me as the finance director is that I don't have a fear of
coming here to the ultimate, you know, city's decision-m process because you are fair and and will ask those tough questions um and be understanding and and allowing us the time to make the correct changes. So I thank you too.
Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other biz or should we close her down? All right. Close it up. Uh we'll ask for adjournment at 6:21. I'll I'll first I'll first it. Okay. Council member Kenzie seconded. Second.
Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. We'll see you at 6:30.