--------- I just show the debt all collective in one for easier which makes sense. All right. Thank you. Let's start the July 1st workshop. Uh, roll call, please. Council member Nordby is absent. Council
member Woods here. Council member McKenzie here. Council member Schwar is absent. Mayor Muggy here. Thank you. I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please. I'll make a motion. So move.
Council member McKenzie. Second. Second. Woods. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you much. Topics. Thank you, Mayor. We got uh one topic on the agenda for this evening, which will be our first kickoff 2026 budget meeting. Uh just comprehensive look. We've taken the
time to meet with all the departments now. Um, and I think at first glance and first look, we're trying to keep the levy around six. Um, which right now we are. Um, I will turn it over to finance director Dan Winnick to discuss details.
Mayor, council members. So, here we are tonight. We get to start off looking at the 2026 budget. Um, you've got more information today than you've had in the past years. um you have a whole comprehensive look at everything where
we're at with each and every one of the budgets that we approve. So you're going to see the general fund, HRA, EDA, uh in your packet. You get to see all our enterprise internal service funds and special revenue funds. So you get to see
absolutely everything um where we stand today. As you can remember that uh um we had a a goal that was set by our city manager um Brian Frandle that we were going to be shooting for a 6% levy increase and to hold our utility rates
um the same. Um so what you're going to see tonight accomplish is that um kind of walk through how we got there. Um it wasn't easy. Um, and there's a big reason why it wasn't easy and and we'll get to that when we start talking about
the CIP, which you do have the 2026 20 to 202035 um CIP part of this package, too. So, you're seeing absolutely everything in the package today. I have a PowerPoint that kind of summarizes things at a
higher level. Um, but uh our CIP is what drives um so much of it. Um in the past years we've really um done an excellent job um as far as planning um identifying needs that the city has um from streets
to facilities to parks and so forth. Uh when we look at that um right there to fund what we're going to see in the CIP, that's a 6% levy increase right there. um that's not talking about all of the,
you know, cost of living in union contracts or if you start adding um staff or uh operational increases. Um so for us to come in at a 6% right now taking into all those factors is is
quite an accomplishment. Um that really goes to the leadership. Um we're not going to give the city council credit because you haven't seen it yet. Um, it really goes to Brian Frannle for his leadership. Um, and all of our department heads. Um, because they they
put together their budgets. Um, and they all had to meet with Brian and Brian drilled them on just about every single line item. Um, wanted to know what it was for, what it is, can you live lower, da da da, all the way through it. Um, so it was quite an extensive process with
all of our department heads. as a result. That's what we're going to show you tonight. So, tonight we're we're going to just take a quick look at the budgets that the city council approves. We're going to take a look at where we're at for the proposed levy uh for 26, the general
fund, heda, enterprise funds, internal service funds, other budgets, which are really our special revenue. Take a quick look at the 26 to 35 CIP, and then discussion. If there's questions that come along the way, please don't wait till the end. Jump in, ask questions so
we have clarification. There's a lot of information um that we're going to be going through. So, the budgets that um are approved, there's um the general fund um and that's really the primary governmental fund used to account for all financial
resources um except those that are required to be accounted for in another fund. Um and a question came up earlier. That's where debt is required to be in a different fund um to be by itself. Um HA um EDA proprietary funds are enterprise
funds and other permanent funds that we budget. Um our enterprise funds consist of the water, wastewater, electric, surface water, solid waste and fiber optic. Um and our internal service funds are information technology, insurance,
equipment, city mechanic, and the building maintenance funds. Um other budgets that we have are the community center fund, which is a separate fund, uh community event fund, fire relief fund, park fund, um street
maintenance fund, and asset preservation fund. You'll see those last three funds, park, street maintenance, and asset preservation. they all have a levy component. Um, and that's again, it's a part of being able to have a dedicated
levy to be able to afford our CIP, our our uh capital improvement plan. Um, and so it's going in for parks, goes into the parks, fund street, that's what's helping us pay the pavement preservation and also um street recon reconstruction.
Um, we do a a 10-year um look at that. and then the asset preservation fund which is really for our facilities. So, like I said, our city manager set a goal. It was a lofty goal for us to hit a 6% levy increase. Um, and no utility
rate increases. Good news. What I'm showing you tonight achieves that. Um, so I kind of want to take you into the middle part there where it says levy components. Um, so I I look at that there's five components
that are a part of our levy. There's the general fund and that's really funding all of the departments that are within the general fund. So you're going to see fire, police, finance, administration, community development. Um, you won't see
the enterprises in in there. They're all separate. So when you see water, waste water and those those are a separate fund. This is where our levy is at. If you look across for what it was in 25 to 26, it is only increasing $28,000 or
about a half a percent. You have to take into consideration that there was a cost of living of 4% per the union contracts from 25 to 26. In addition, there can be step increases and so forth and we still ma were able
to get it to a five um a half a percent. Street maintenance, that's that's the amount it plays off. If you remember when we built a 10-year capital plan, street maintenance and debt work the same or work together, I should say. Um
what our plan was was that when we instituted it 3 years ago, we we had a debt of about debt payments of about a total of about 1.4 million. The concept was to keep that steady at 1.4 million and start to dedicate a levy amount to
the streets. Um last year it was 3.5%. If debt goes up, which we did an issuance, then the amount that goes to street maintenance goes down, but over a 10-year look, we were able to afford everything that was in our street plan.
Parks gets a dedicated amount. Um, I think they were at about a 0.55% levy. Um, and then asset preservation. If you remember last year after we got more of a comprehensive look, especially when we got the facility assessment done and
looking at our needs that were in there, we ended up having to bump that up um to 2% which resulted in the $142,000. So, if you look, our city portion of our levy um is going up $466,000
or an increase from last year of 6%. Again, if you take all those other levies out of there, you know, we would have only had a half a percent increase. H and EDA right now, we're leaving them the same as we had. So if we take all
three of those components together up on the top, we'll see that we're at a aggregate of a 5.84% levy increase yearover-year. Not bad. Um I will be presenting I think in
September I will um present the EDA to their budget to hear if there's any comments or questions that they have. Um and um HR we've kind of left um flat. Um and part of that reason is um right now
what we're doing in the HA is is a very good program. The student build housing um we have ample cash in, you know, available in that fund to be able to fund it. And then we're ending up selling it. We pretty much have been at a break even point. So we're not
depleting that fund. Um, so there really isn't a need to increase levy dollars for that. Um, EDA so far, at least in the past three years, has not used all of its levy, so it's accumulated a little bit more. That may change a
little bit moving into the future because um you know as some of your members I know the mayor you you sit on the um EDA um that you've started a new um facade improvement program that may drop it a little bit depending on um how
many um participants um put in applications um and get approvals for for utilization of the facade improvement plan. Right now I think we're pretty good. something that we'll probably end up having to look at in years to come, especially when there's
additional programs that that come up. But right now, we're sitting at a pretty good position as far as where our goal was set. Doesn't mean that city council's in agreement with that. That's for you to decide. um to achieve that 6% like I said um we
had to make some some changes and and again it's been um our city managers and my approach in these budgets to be full disclosure to tell you how we accomplished um something and so how did we do that? If you remember last year,
we transferred um the city council uh approved to transfer penalty um amounts u from the electric fund to the general fund. Um we're continuing that. Again, that's you know contingent upon city
council agreeing with that. But for us to get to that 6% we had to transfer that. So, we have a transfer in of an additional $131,000. The Emerald Ashbore program, um, right
now the plan is that there's about, I think, three after this there's about three years of funding that's available. We've been funding that out of levy dollars, out of the general fund. It will go away someday. Um, and then you would realize that savings or drop in
your levy. We're taking that now. Um, and then the next three years will be funded from the asset preservation fund itself. And then we started last year reducing some of our enterprise funds, the transfers from water, wastewater, and
surface water. It amounted to just under $65,000. We're reinstating that. Again, any of these components can can be changed by city council, but just kind of showing you how we ended up getting to where
we're at. Those three um amounts total $287,000 or reduced our levy 3.7%. That's how we ended up making us to get down to that 6%. Um and roughly when
you're going to see some of the breakdowns um you know especially when you look at general fund you look at personnel costs that 3.7 is pretty much what the which what the personnel costs um increased again um there was a 4% uh cost of living and then their step
increases that um so we'll go to the next um slide here and it really kind of depicts what the city levy changes for 2026 are and that's where you're going Tennessee total personnel costs in increased approximately $300,000 or
3.84. Again, pretty close to that 3.7 that we ended up having to cut um on the previous slide. If you look at our supplies, contractual services and capital, we've actually had a decrease of $337,000.
A lot of that um is is really from the community development side and both on a revenue side and on an expenditure side for inspections. Um if you remember um I think uh Brian last year was our
first year with with a new contractor um Rum River. Um so we switched over and at that point in time we switched our rate structure. Um it used to be more based on value of a project. It went to more of a flat project fee. So you know
most you know like a roof uh roof now costs permitting is 125. You add in some of the others it comes to 146. Each and every single roof is is the same. It saves residents when they're doing um projects. um they're not having a big
bill um or a permit fee um based upon the the roof project or the value of the roof project, but what that does is it reduced our income. Um but it also reduces our expenditures. Um and so we're adjusting that down. Again, things
could change. If you remember back three years ago when we ended up having a a a pretty sizable hail storm. Um all of a sudden permitting went way way up. U so what I do is based upon the contract I
use a percentage of revenue and expenditures. Um, and we do make some money off of off of having that to cover a lot of our operational costs of our of our um community development staff that um handles all of those transfers. Um
there's a $20,000 um reduction. Last year we had a $20,000 transfer from general fund that went to uh the uh community center. I don't have that in there right now. I don't know what the decision is on the community
center, but we will see later on that the community center will need a transfer. Um, the community center is not a levy fund at this point in time. It is its own enterprise or not enterprise uh
proprietary fund. Um the concept behind it was that um you would generate revenues from um activities happening in the community center community center that would then offset the expenses. So there is not a levy component except for
this 20,000 which I we've removed this year. Again that's something that we'll end up having to discuss how we're going to handle that down in into the future. And then all other revenues there's a reduction of approximately 87,000. And again, the biggest component of that revenue reduction is is what I had
explained as far as um permitting um fees and revenue. So the general fund again has a levy increase of 28,000 or just under 4%. Not bad. And then you can see where the infrastructure that's
really where it's it's driving things. Um the street levy increased to 7% parks. six um and asset preservation 1.83 from from last year. Um debt increase 2.5. That's where that new debt
issuance that we just um issued in the spring. Um the impact that that has. And then um so if you added those up comes to 437,000 or 5.63%, you add those two together and that's where you get the 6%. So you get
to see the full break breakout at a very high level but from a categorical standpoint as far as levy is concerned. This kind of gives you an idea of what debt we have that gets paid out of the general
fund. Um and there's a a 2014A which we refunded and refinanced in 2021. There's a 2016 two components um of that. one of them um the abatement part to it
actually gets paid out of uh the park fund um because we give some of our LGA money to them and then and in tune they utilize that to pay their debt payment for their portion of of Casey Lake.
There's 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 and then the newest one 2025. And so that's really where the increases ca come to our debt service went up 194,000
185,000 of that is due to the new bond issuance. So when we take a quick snapshot look at our proposed general fund budget and we look at it by revenue by category I think I think you can see something very striking and that is there's a big green
portion that's over half and that's property taxes. That's the burden that we're putting on our our residents here through the property tax system and it amounts to just under 57%. Another big portion that you're going to
see is over to the left hand side. It's gray. It's intergovernmental and you see it's at 2.1. We collectively get a little over $1.6 million for local government aid.
Um we break it up in three components. Um a little bit of it goes to the park fund for that Casey Lake. A little bit of it goes to um I think our streets, but the majority of it is in our general fund. It's important to keep about keep
an eye on that local government aid from the standpoint that number of years ago there was a lot of talk that local government aid was going to be dwindled down and then it all that talk stopped. Um this past legislation there actually was talk again to reduce local
government aid. um and that can have a great impact. Um it didn't happen this year, but we have to remember and and had kind of shared a little bit with you that um you know the
projections the last projections that I've seen on budget deficit for the bianium for the state of Minnesota for 2028 to 29 was like a $6 billion budget deficit. So in this legislation, they were trying to make some cuts in certain areas to kind of get themselves ready
for for the 2829, which is going to be a tough one. So if projections, and they do change all the time, but if if they were to come out to that, you more than likely will see coming up a reduction in local government aid. Now, that's going to have a direct impact on us um because
we're going to lose something. And just kind of like a for a magnitude type of piece, if we were to lose 10% of our local government aid, that's $160,000. There's over 2% levy increase just to make up that revenue component to it. If
we lost more, we would lose more. But we also have a tenant in one of our facilities, and that's the Ramsey County Library. Ramsey County gets, I think, well over $20 million of local government aid. If we get cut, they're
going to get cut. Um, and so they're and and normally on at the county level, um, they lose the funding. They don't lose the mandates. And so they end up having to find some other ways to make those
up. Um, part of it can be a pro a property tax levy, some of it's cutting different services. Um, had heard, um, actually today, and I haven't had an opportunity to look at it, um, in our department head meeting, it sounded like there possibly could already be like a
freeze that Ramsey County has put on, kind of a hiring freeze. Um, so, you know, things are real. um you know and it can be reductions not just at the state level for the county it can also be at the federal level. So we need to be kind of aware of that but what you
can see on our revenue side is that we have a heavy heavy dependence on property taxes and intergovernmental you know to the tune of uh you know what is that uh 78 79%
that's huge. So we need to be aware of that. When we look at categories for our expenditures, you're going to see the biggest component and I don't think it's any surprise in our general fund is personnel and that makes up 69%.
general fund. When we're looking at our our budget, um again, from year over year, both revenues and expenditures decreased 58 um,000. Um again, you're going to see on our expenditures side, well, you'll see up
in the revenue side, you'll see where that permitting went down $182,000. That's again that's the the the change in in looking at um our permitting you know rum river and component and looking at it um from what we've done in the
past. So actually what I'm proposing is what we've got actual for 2024 um again it could go up could go down um but then so will the expenditure side to it. So we're playing a conservative approach of of looking at our our
permitting. If you look down below, you're going to see that personnel costs go up and it's, you know, rounded to just no decimals. It's 4%. It was, remember, it was about 3.8. Um, but all of our other categories, we've decreased.
If we look at it by department, which is another good way of looking at things, you're going to see that um two of our uh departments that take up a significant amount of our general fund funding um is the police and fire and
code enforcement. So, our public safety um when we look at that, police is at 47%. Um we have fire and code just under 16%. you add them together at 63% of our general fund is for public safety.
Again, this just shows what the graph shows, but you get to see all of the numbers. Um and you'll see that um pretty much across the board um you know uh there was decreases from inspections,
street maintenance, urban forestry, general parks. Um you're seeing a lot of decreases on our expenditure side to it to be able to to make this budget. And again, a lot of credit goes to the department heads. Um this is really the second year that they've been requested
to really tighten their belts. Um, and I think that they've responded very well. HA and EDA again kind of simply that we've leaving the HRA the same. We're leaving the EDA the same. Um, kind of
gives a little description and I know you all know uh kind of what what they're you know the purposes of those two um levies are for and and so forth. Enterprise funds gonna kind of give you a walkth through high level of
everything. So water fund uh revenues of a little over two million. There's a decrease again a conservative approach. Looking at last year um we had a real big reduction in our revenue on water um just because of the usage. Um
and so we've adjusted that uh downwards. Again, if we have a nice hot hot summer and people are utilizing more water for their lawns and so forth, um our revenue could go up higher than that. Um but that's where we're at right now from our
projection. Um the budget um increases 595,000. Um but 538,000 of that is is due to capital. It's what's in the capital improvement plan. That's why I've kind of been saying year after year after
year that that capital improvement plan is what really drives our budgets. And you can see it that there's a 6% commitment um to be able to fund that on a levy component to it. But it also impacts other funds because there's
equipment that needs to be replaced. Um over overall revenue and expenditures, we should still see a fund balance increase of about $100,000 in the water fund. Wastewater fund. Um revenues pretty much
stayed the same. Um we're at about 2.6 $2.7 million. Um our budgets at 3.1. We're seeing an increase of 992. Don't get alarmed. 853,000 of that is again capital. Again, it's you'll find that
same number in the capital improvement plan. If you look at the report that says um you know, funding sources um you'll see those tied up those tie out. Um and so they would see a decrease in their fund balance which um you know was
all part of our plan. Um electric fund we're seeing again last year we we had you know a decrease in our revenue. Um and so we've made our adjustment um on our revenue side to it.
So it's uh about 11.7 million revenue um decrease about 243 from what we had budgeted in 2025. Um the budget amount is 11.5 million. That's a decrease of 682,000. A lot of that um uh it'll show $560,000
reduction is just from the contractual service. So we we pay a lot to MMUA um as for usage. So but so if the revenue goes up, the expenditure will go up, but we still make a profit off of
off of those. So they kind of tie together. Um and so we reduce the revenue, we reduce the expenditure on the side to it, too. Um still shows that the fund balance will increase almost $200,000.
surface water. Um virtually the same revenue as we had in 2025. Um the budget's increasing again um of that $356,000 increase, 246,000 again is due to capital
um increase. Um and then there's uh some increase again you'll see in debt because remember we're we're we increased our debt um for the street project. solid waste. Um we're pretty much again
revenues pretty much stayed constant. Um the budget's increasing 103,000. Um you're seeing the the bulk of that increase is in contractual services. Um, and that's really, uh, a number of years ago, um, about
three years ago, there was about $650,000 that was in the fund balance of solid waste. There's not a lot of capital that's spent um on the solid waste really just for garbage cans, recycling cans, and so forth. And so the
decision was not to increase that rate um that we're charging our our customers and trying to draw down that fund balance. We will be going out um for an RFP. Um if you remember about a year ago, we brought an
amendment that we exercised with our current vendor for two more years. We'll end up having to go out for an RFP this next time. um maybe the same vendor, maybe a different vendor, but at that point in time, we would look at um adjusting the rate um at, you know, at
that point after we get all the you know, proposals, bids in from from contractors. So, this will show the way it's it's budgeted that there's almost a $200,000 decrease. And again, that's part of that plan of drawing down that fund balance in our solid waste.
And then fiber optics. Um what we're seeing in fiber optics is our revenues decreasing almost 29 thou and and the mayor is already on the edge of his seat. Um is decreasing almost $29,000 and that's due to the libraries have made the decision to get off of our
fiber. Um our budget is a slight increase and that's and and that may be even adjusted moving forward here. Um, and that's what we pay um, for fiber maintenance. We have there's a contract with with Zo for
that. Um, and and I believe it'll be could be even higher than that. Um, Brian and I will be looking at that. Um, so it shows an increase of $74,000, but if you recall, we got a $2 million negative fund balance. Um, so with a
$29,000 reduction in our revenue side to it, I think we pretty much have guaranteed ourselves we'll never pay off that $2 million that negative. So at some point in the future um you will have to find money somewhere else um to
make that fund hold because you can't have a negative balance forever. Um so that's kind of where we're at with that. Mayor, don't say anything. Our internal service funds, we have the
information technology. Um, our revenues, so in in internal service funds. Um, so the kind of the difference between an enterprise fund and internal service fund, revenues from enterprise funds come from outside sources. Revenues from internal service funds
funds come from within. So, in other words, these five internal service funds, we charge out to all of our different departments, enterprise funds, and so forth. Um, we've left the revenues the same, so we haven't changed
what we're charging um our departments. Um, the budget has increased about $47,000, and I know the mayor is going to love this one, too. Um, a component, there's two components. one. Um, guess
what increased again this year? Metro Inet. Oh, yes. What? Metro Inet. Metro Inet. Uh, it our it up to $390,000 is what they're proposing for for the 2026 budget. Um, as a
reminder, when I came here, it was about $221,000. and and this month a little bit later this month I'll have been here for four years. So that's quite the increase um component to it. The other part to it um
that's increase in there and you'll um hear about that later tonight at city council is um for uh an HR payroll um payroll services um system. So we had to increase um the the budget for that um
to be able to cover that contract. Um what does it do in in the information services? It decreases the fund balance 64,000. At the end of last year, we were at 280. So if you take the 25 budget, 26
budget, that's 81,000. We have enough in our fund balance to cover the two years. insurance um revenues uh increased a whopping $4 and uh our budget um increased a
whopping $4. Uh so basically there's no no change in the fund balance where we're at. At the end of 2024 we had $198,000 just under $200,000 in our budget or in our fund balance both 20 this current year budget and 26. Um I
have no changes on the fund balance. Um the equipment fund um and this is where where all of uh you know anything that's in the general fund all of their equipment and everything gets paid out of this this fund. revenues are the
same. Um the budget of $62,000 comes from our capital improvement plan. Uh our equipment replacement schedules. Uh it would decrease our fund balance $64,000. The fund balance as the end of last year was $3.4 million,
but there's a footnote with that 3.4. Um is it No, no, we're actually at the 3.4 million. There's a footnote on something else. Um so we're at 3.4, before, but you're going to see later on that everything that we have in that capital improvement plan, we'll go through that
and we're also going to have to start increasing our allocations to our departments by about 5% a year. And so we'll talk about that a little bit later when we get into the CIP. City mechanic fund revenues and budget are the same as 2025.
Um and we have a fund balance about, you know, $52,000. Building maintenance, um the revenues are the same. Um budgets increased just a slight amount. Um it increases our
fund balance about $70,000. Our fund balance at the end of last year um was about $28,000. other budgets that we have um community uh community center fund. This is where we kind of talked to a little bit before right now projecting no revenues. Um we
will need about an $85,000 transfer from somewhere. That'll be something that we'll end up having to discuss and and um and talk about u moving forward, but there's still a lot of decisions that need to be made on the community center. Um, that's with a budget of about
$97,000, the same as we have in 2025. So, we had some about $90,000 left in 2024. You can see that, you know, if you add up the the minus77, the minus 97, that's where that $85,000 is going to need to
come from. So, we're we right now it's not funded. We wouldn't be able to do this. We have to transfer something from somewhere. Um community event fund revenues are the same. Um the budget um has increased a
little bit. It's a decrease of fund balance about 15,000. We've got about 59,000 in our fund balance at the end of the the year. So we're we're okay where we're at right there. Fire relief is basically a a transfer in and out. We
get revenue from uh the state of Minnesota um as in the form of fire aid. um and we have to give that money out to the fire relief association. So, it's pretty much just a neutral um budget, but it has to be um captured in its own
fund. And then we have the park fund. Um we got uh we're estimating revenues of about 332,000. That's an increase of 46,658. That's the levy component. That's we we have a a levy um that we do for our park
system. Um the budget's at uh $748,000. Um 681,000 of it comes from our capital improvement plan. Um there's also that you see that $65,000 transfer. That's what I was referring to as their portion
of the Casey Lake bond debt that we that they pay for. Um fund balance decrease of about 415,000. They had 704,000 at the end of last year. street maintenance fund. Um we get
revenues of just under 1.6 million. Uh that's an increase of about $533,000 from 2025. Um and uh you know a large part of that what you're going to see is is really coming from um we got two different
components. we're going to start to receive our well the biggest component is is that we're going to start to actually get money from the MSAS program. Um if you recall when the city made the decision to um build the
Sentinel building and they did the roads on right there by McNight and 7th Street um we borrowed about $2.6 $6 million. And so we've been repaying that. Um and so this year we'll have full repayment of that and we get approximately about
$460,000 on an annual basis in return. Pardon? Return in return for that 460 on a return basis or is that that's what that's about what our annual right now has been but we just
haven't actually received it because we took that loan out. So, it's been re removing or lowering that that debt, that loan. And so, it'll be paid off this year. So, we'll receive it um this um in 2026. And then the capital is is
what's coming out of the the again the capital improvement plan. Um so, this will show a decrease in the fund balance of 1.1. Um we had or decrease in the fund balance of 1.1 million. We had 34
million at the end of last year. There is a change that needs to be done here and you're going to see the next fund, the asset preservation fund that um we do need to um again it requires city
council approval. If you remember the ARPA funds, the $1.3 million funds that we received and last year, city council um approved the use of it for public safety. Um, and so we had parked that
money in here in street maintenance. It really needs to go over to the asset preservation to be able to fund that. This street plan, this street maintenance plan, we take it wasn't earmarked with that. It'll be okay for the 10 years as long as we keep levying
approximately 3 and a.5%. um we'll be able to fund our street maintenance program, but the asset preservation will not be able to fund all of the needs unless that transfer takes place. That'll be something that'll be brought as a separate item to the city council for approval later on. We just, if you
remember, we we parked it in um street maintenance at that point in time with a decision to be made later on um by city council. So just for your awareness and then you'll see in the um the asset preservation um and and you can see
clearly why it's got a fund balance of 1.7 million and what's been approved in 25 and what's in the CIP for 26 you know totals almost $3 million. So, needs a little help and that's where that 1.3
million um will need to come from the street maintenance component to it. So, I'm going to stop right there. There's a lot of information, a lot that's all of your budgets that you approve at a very high level and just kind of, you know, any questions and thoughts of where
we're at right now. So, the library is moving on to some other fiber then. Is that what is happening? Correct. Uh, city manager, you want to Yeah. Um, the county actually has their own fiber system. Um,
prior to this, uh, the libraries had come on to the the city fiber. I think they had, correct me if I'm wrong, less restrictions with um our fiber than some of the things that they had over there. So, it just was a better fit at this
point. Um I think they're being pushed because due to future expenses and costs that they can see coming down the road as well, they're starting to tighten their belt a little bit where they can and so they're going to be going on to their fiber. So, you're renting out to people or if
you're, you know, doing things, you don't know how long it's going to last. Part of the calculations that, um, you know, that Dan and I figured out, a lot of it, Dan, um, he brings up really good points. I mean, he's really got a good 10-year outlook
for um, the CIP now, which is is critical. you know, as you've seen in our SIP, uh we have the next uh three road reconstruction projects, but it kind of stops there. So, we need to continue those conversations and consider those costs. There are some
unknowns coming our way that Dan kind of touched on of, you know, we don't know what's going to happen with the state fiscal budget, you know, come 2029. Um, you know, we don't know what's going to happen with the community center for sure just yet. But these are some large
expenses that could really hit us hard, especially even with the LGA and other costs. So, trying to tighten our belt up a bit now to uh in a little bit of anticipation of some of these things that be coming our way. Other questions, thoughts to this point?
Last year, um how much did we receive and tax disparity? uh in uh fiscal disparity. Uh you're going to make me go look. Yeah, I didn't see it in there. Um I think about 1.3
millionish somewhere about there. And if we would have raised our levy last year, roughly $131,829, how much would that have increased? Um it's not that simple. I I I know.
Yeah, it's not it's rough guess. I really don't want to wager a guess. Um I'll I'll just shoot out maybe 50,000. And so much of it's dependent on, you know, we're going to see and I anticipate that we'll see some sort of shift. Um and I haven't looked at all of
the the numbers from the assessors. Um but there's been article after article um just because of the vacancies in downtown St. Paul area um as far as commercial properties are concerned. So if they valued them downwards um that's
going to shift that whole and and they're going to have a big impact and so is the city of Minneapolis because it's you know it's a it's a metro um countywide um program for fiscal disparities. So there could be a negative impact on to us. So that's
what's harder to tell this year than than regular. But I' I'd say maybe about 50 if the other things didn't change. The the the reason I'm asking this question is I'm trying to figure out how much benefit there is for our residents.
If instead of transferring the penalties to the general fund, if we levied for the same amount of the penalties, but then refunded those
penalties to our residents because right now we're going to transfer $131,000 of penalties people paid. into our general fund. But the more we levy,
the bigger amount we get as a city for fiscal disparity. So if it's a $50,000, and I'm calling him to the carpet here a little bit on information he doesn't have. It's a if it's a $50,000 bonus
to the fiscal disparity, it's actually a $50,000 net income by raising the levy this amount but refunding that to the residents. Something to think about. Yeah. So, so what he's saying at the end of the day
is that we would levy 130 I'll call 130,000. um if fiscal disparities increases 50,000, the net impact that would go to property tax owners would be the delta or the $80,000 instead of the $130,000.
So, you're saving collectively overall. Um and then you're refunding what um council member Nordsby is talking then you would refund um all of your electrical users some sort of small amount um that would equate to that
$130,000. Um and and it's a concept you can definitely look at. Um I'll I'll say kind of a piece to it. I mean, especially when we start to look at the CIP and again, I've kept saying how much
of a driving force this is. Um, you've heard um the city manager just kind of allude to and make a little bit of a mention, you know, about our streets and where we're at and um you know, um some more uh major reconstruction projects that are going to be needed.
The one safety net, I'm going to call it, that we have in this city is our electric fund. Um, you know, uh, two years ago, we transferred $1.1 million to start advancing our street projects by doing,
I guess, a second tier of what we call pavement preservation program. Um, without that, you wouldn't have been able to get started onto to that program. So, it's kind of our it's kind of like our only safety net that we
have. Um, and we are going to be levying 6% year after year after year after year after year as a base to afford our capital improvement plan. And so, and and then whatever other decisions are are going to be made. Um and so we're
going to be putting a good burden onto our residents through the property taxes one way or the other unfortunately. Um and that's where um you know the decisions that we make are are very critical. Um so I don't disagree um with
your component to it um in in what you're saying. Um so I mean it's definitely something we can look at. Usually we don't get uh the first blush of of uh fiscal disparities and so forth um till like about middle later August.
Um but that'll be you know and then I'll then I'll do tax impacts and everything like that um for you. But roughly a 6% on a median value home and home values um went up 2.4%. Last
year they went up 1.5. That's pretty stagnant. in consideration the postcoid days where we were seeing double digits year after year. Um so the median value home value is just under $311,000. A 6% levy increase is roughly about $100
um is what the 6% would would create um for a medium value home for our residents. So that's not a small amount for for our residents to have to absorb year after year. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, it's it's it's
yeah, it's it's a it's a tough tough place that we're at, but I remember the story of the one year they didn't raise uh they did zero levy and then that bit us because then we didn't get our fiscal disparities. It's a onetwo punch. It was a one-two punch. You don't feel that
second punch till the year after. Exactly. A and the way I in my mind, the way I look at it is he's talking about a $100 increase for that median home is their value and making it a $115 increase, but
being able to give that home a $20 rebate rebate. So, in the end, it saves them $5. That's kind of where how my mind works with that rebate versus fiscal disparity is it it would charge them more, but with the rebate it in the long run it
should be less. They wouldn't know what to do with it. That's the electrical rebate getting through that, right? Rather rather than transferring the penalty back to electric, right? Yeah. Through the electric bill to get it back. Is that what you're How do you get
that back to the Yeah. Some sort of rebate on their electric bill. Okay. Do everybody have North St. Paul have is there any spot that's in on NSP or NSP I'm going way back XL or not on our underneath North St. Paul? Do we have customers? Yeah, we have many. Um
there's probably pushing a thousand. You know, we have a decent slice of Oakdale and then we have some Maplewood customers as well. But do we have is there any of our residents that are on XL? No. No. No. Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure that we didn't
cut a line somewhere where somebody is off and get their ping in North St. Paul. They wouldn't not for the electric, but there's water customers that have Excel Energy because they serve up into Maplewood. Okay. They have Excel
water. our our water department that serves uh some residents up in Maplewood get XL um gas and XL power up there from them. Yep.
Any other questions right now? I'm just thinking as a just shoot it out. just a homeowner, you know. You know, if I had these, if I looking at these bills I had and if I'm looking at what the future looks like, I'd be shoving some nickels in the couch, Christians. Yes. That's about uh we really don't have a lot of
extra that especially if we're asking staff and everybody to uh you know, cut and be at the minimum of things that there's really not a lot of extra that can go through to anything else. and our income, you know, middle to low income. You know, we have a lot of
people that are on fixed incomes, a lot of older people, too. And like taxes, you know, years ago, $600 with a, you know, 6% increase is a lot different than 35 $4,000 people are paying now on top of that, which is, like you say, round your $100 for the Yep. Yeah.
Correct. Plus, we have a lot of tiff districts, apartment districts that haven't started paying in on any of the real estate yet. So, yeah, they're not in your they're not in your tax base yet
until they I get that a lot for people. They go, "Well, look at all these new places, all the all the taxes they're paying." Well, it's not yet. So, it's you're we got 20 years or some 25 years. You're betting on your future with that. You're not getting it now. But we had to do a lot of construction and things to
get to there too and we paid for as a city. So it's it was it was not an easy. Now, can I ask with that fiber that we're losing from Ramsey, is there a way that we could offer to
some other area or is it so outdated that it is something that we should look to go into a different menu for fiber now? Or should how how does that all work? Because I realize it's in the community center.
How do we go about offering it to other locations? Or is it so outdated that if we did the community center options, we would move it to possibly another location? Is there somewhere we could
offer some more fiber to some other locations that could use it our system? I I'll ask Brian to help me out on this one, but I I think from the time the inception of the fiber network,
technology has changed so much, right? It's it it is it's it's cheaper to go and find a different alternative for for other the biggest user right now, unfortunately, is the city. So, we're we're utilizing it. So you would have a
cost one way or the other. Um for the city, we also have two two three agreements, Oakdale, Maplewood, and I think Roseville that you know have long-term agreements. We got about seven or eight more years with that. They prepaid money up front. They pay
maintenance on an annual basis. You know, I certainly would anticipate at the end of that their their contracts they would get away um because there's cheaper ways to do it. And I think at that point in time is where you're going to have to pay up the negative and you're going to have to come up with
potentially a different um plan alternative use a different resource um onto it. I can't speak to and Brian correct me if I'm wrong in any of that. But I can't speak to is if there's really any resell value um that you see.
There's some um I know uh Roseville is certainly or Metroid at this point uses some of that and then they turn around and then release it out. Um I know they have needs for it. Um as far as outdated
I mean I guess I don't know how technologies changed when the actual fiber strands themselves but there's probably technology updates in the IT rooms the way they split it down and break it down. Um, but yeah, the there's so many companies putting fiber in out
there and people who do it for a living and have all the infrastructure for it there, they're probably going to find better ways to get it from then from us at the end of uh these contracts. Okay. How many strands are in it and you know everything? No, there but there are
potentials and we're actually in the process of talking to one now um a company that might be interested coming and do literally doing fiber to the home. Um, but we have a lot of empty conduit around town that we installed um through the electric department. We'd put in the conduit that we need, but
we'd also put in a couple of conduits uh for the potential fiber when once upon a time we were looking at it. And we continued that on for many years after we looked into it. So, that has a lot of value. There's only so much real estate. There's only so much room down there, especially in the road rightways. So,
that has value as well that we'll be talking to that company about. So, you're figuring probably within 10 years we're going to have to pay the Viper on that more than likely. Yep. Which is okay. Simple. Yep.
Um, take a look at this 2635 CIP. Again, this is high level. You have all the detail behind it. So, it'll talk by the different funding sources. It'll show you each and every year. It'll give you the total. But if you look at it, and this is why I I keep saying because it's
really a huge driver because over 10 years it's a hundred million dollars. Um and so um that's where really need to spend time to go through that and have city council be comfortable. Um
to fund that you need to have the street and streets debt increasing at 248,000 249,000 year after year for 10 years more. Um right now that's a 3.2% levy increase. Parks
um if we look at their plan um they have put some additional needs. A lot of them have come from um some have come from um the HGA study that was done um last year. Um but to fund that you would need to increase it um $30,000 beginning this
year. Um so their total would be up to 76,000 or almost a percent. And then the asset preservation um is 142,000 or 1.8% of the current levy. The asset preservation does not include the $3
million addition that has been talked about from the EAPC consultant regarding community center that has not been included into this. Um but as you can see that totals $467,000.
That's a 6% levy increase. Um it drops down a little bit as a levy increase because your levy keeps getting bigger and bigger. the percentage goes down. But there's there's nothing that said that all of the numbers that are within that capital improvement pan plan are lock
solid and and we see costs of equipment and projects continuously going up up up. Um so that's kind of where that looks. In addition to that, um, our internal service fund, we're going to end up having to charge additional, um, charges
on our equipment and building maintenance of approximately 5% per year. It's not the huge huge increase, but for for the levy, it would be about a $28,000 increase or just under 4% levy increase. For non-levy increases, in other words, our enterprise funds and so
forth would be about a $14,000. um enterprise funds looking off into the future of of rate increases. Um still need to to do some work on that um before I present that to to city council.
That's everything all 401 pages. I was thinking that we would do kind of a Senate approach today and I was going to read each and every single line of those 401, but I decided we'll just do a summary onto it. So, it's it's really to get your your your your thoughts and and
and direction on the on the budget. And then I just because I'm corny, I want to leave kind of just my last slide after this is is just a little saying. Um, and there's to me there's meaning behind that saying. Um, but I want to leave you with that. But I want to give you
opportunity to ask questions. Your thoughts. Are you your first blush at it? Are you comfortable at that 6%? We, you know, we've heard the um council member Nordby talk about maybe ch changing that $131,000 transfer to be
more of a levy increase. There's also the potential of um parks to fund theirs that you would have to increase the levy $30,000 or that whatever just 4% levy increase um that would be needed. Don't
know about the community center that's still out there. Um, city council, you have to make decisions on onto that coming into the future. So, those are still out on the table. Those aren't included in that 6%. Thank you, Dan. Very good report. Appreciate it.
Anybody have any questions? I Okay, now I'm going to leave you with my corny little thought. And here's it's going to come up here in a second. And the reason behind it is cuz in the time
that I've been here, every time we present the financial statement to city council, um, in the time that this gentleman has been our mayor, he asks me the same
question about that fiber optic. And I think we can collectively say, don't know how the decision was made. I think there was really good intention, but at the end of the day, it didn't work out. So, I leave you with this as a
final thing. Your decisions today will define your tomorrow. That's true. Anybody? Thanks. Yeah. Thanks. No pressure at all. How many years do we
have to go? So, I'm just trying to do the math when we're looking at different things and projects where we have that $2 million coming up. We have the $3 million, you know, for the community center plus the ongoing stuff. I'm just
I'm It's very concerning. There's not a lot, especially when we're already cutting or staying neutral is I guess is pretty much where we're at right now trying to do it. So, I just don't see the numbers trying to hedge against a
potential decrease in Yeah. government. Yeah. I mean, it's just going to roll down to us. It's going to be the feds and the state and the state and the county and then it rolls to us and then we have to go out to the taxpayers for a lot of it because that's the only place we can go. We can't grab out anybody else's pockets. Our hands only fit in
our own ear. Anybody want to discuss anything else or as far as Well, we had two two great presentations. We had the the community center which was eye openening. I've
received quite a few comments about uh how, you know, the the amount we got to and and where things are. And now after today, hopefully people will be watching and be able to absorb and and see where we're at so we can make some of these tough decisions because we have it's
going to be tough decisions coming up for all of us here. where we have to. I mean, our main thing here as a as a city is infrastructure, you know, roads and public safety. Once we get those three right and good, then we can work our way out to other things. And I still think we have a ways
to go on on what we're supposed to be doing. So, before we can really focus on some of the other stuff. All right. If nothing else, call for adjournment. So move. So move. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council
member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you. Thanks, Dan. You bet. Part: 2
stand also. Roll call, please. Council member Nordby here. Council member Woods here. Council member McKenzie here. Council member Schwar's absent. Mayor Mongi here. Thank you very much. Motion to adopt the agenda,
please. So move. So move. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you very much. Consent agenda. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, item A, June 17th, 2025
workshop and city council minutes. Item B, general claims of 912,732.97. Item C, H claims of $10,72566. And item D, ISD 622, school resource officer for the contract of 2025 to 2027. Hold on. Sorry. Looking for a motion.
Yep. Anybody want to pull anything at this time? If not, can I get a motion, please? So moved. So moved. Council member Norby. Second. Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you.
Open to the public. You have one. Rachel. Catch you mid drink. Welcome. Say your name and address, please. My name and address. Yeah. Rachel Lucas, 222217.
Perfect. Welcome. Hi. Um, if you guys have any questions about the parks and wreck CIP proposals, I'm a park and rec commission board member, so I might be speaking later, but I figured while I'm here, I might as well say some things. Um, I know the website got updated recently, but I think it would be
beneficial if we could add meeting like bullet point summaries for both city council, parks and recck, arts and culture, the other ones. Um, in addition to kind of a one-stop shop of what has the board accomplished, what
are they currently working on? Because I feel like me personally when I was trying to get up to date on parks and wreck, it wasn't very easy to go to the meetings or the the minutes and then the meetings are like an hour, two hours. So I don't think that's very attainable for the average citizen to put in all this time and effort to review everything to
know what's happening. So an easier, more streamlined way to communicate what we're talking about. Um similarly, I know I think it was on the last website. I don't know if it was on the updated website where a list of all the city projects. So, um updating
the website or the roadwork construction by Casey Lake, um what the boards are doing, events, um if there could be like a a list of what all the current projects that are being worked on, and then you can click like update me on this, update me on this. There can be a little like bullet point under each
where it says this is the current step we're on, here's the next step, here's what we're working on. So, just making it easier for everyday folk to kind of keep tabs on what's happening. Um, and then I think lastly, I'm very
excited that you guys are looking into updating the community center. I think third spaces are very valuable for communities to engage with with each other and build a sense of community. So, I'm very excited to see you guys interested in making sure it's valuable,
how people will use it and stuff like that. So, I'm excited to see what you guys do with it. All right, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Thank you. All right. All right. City business action items.
Um, first item A and B. Okay, I'm going to turn over to our finance director Dan Winnick. First one up is the approval of addition 2025 park and recck capital improvement project and item B approving agreement with Paycom for human resource
payroll systems and payroll services. Mayor, council members, um I haven't spoke enough today, so I thought I'd do a little bit more. Um but uh yes, this this first um item that's before you is to approve additional 2025 park and
recreation capital improvement projects. Um truthfully um there were no 2025 um capital improvement projects for the park and recreation um that were submitted. I think part of it was due to HGA was doing their study and and they
were waiting for the the final on to that. um staff was approached by um the park and wreck commission um if there was a opportunity that they could um bring in some projects for 2025. Um, so I I spoke with uh the the city
manager and we kind of laid out kind of a process for them to follow and the process was that put in requests just like everybody else does. Um, and also make sure you have requests that are in the 26 to 35 um that will be approved
later on by city council as through the discussion. And so they I I had met with them um and kind of walked through the the process part to it. Um I have to say they did an absolutely amazing job. Um they put together very good uh requests.
Um we had a subcommittee that was made up of community development staff, our city manager, park and wreck, uh or I mean our public works department. We reviewed each one of those requests. Uh we made recommendations last Wednesday night. um uh Ron uh
Richie, our public works director and myself attended the uh park and wreck commission um over at the beautiful Housy Park um and that's an amazing um uh park um city block and we met with the park and um park and wreck
commission and went through um and had a very nice dialogue of why we recommended some things, why we decided to push them out to other years and so forth. Um, absolutely great dialogue. Um, very good communication. Um, a little disappointed
uh that council member Schwar is not here tonight because she does chair that and she was very supportive of of these items and I would like to have had the opportunity for her to to say a few pieces. At the end of the day, what what
we had agreed on um bringing forth um was for city council's consideration was there's uh Casey Lake open air shelter um for $10,000 of funding this year. um and is really um to um I think
remove um there's two older um shelters that are there that are in in in bad shape. Um and then there's there is funding in the 2026 to rebuild one. Further discussion needs to take place with the park commission on location and
so forth and if they desire to do that. Um there was one on the Casey Lake reutilization update for $100,000. It's basically um that uh you know we demolish the ball fields on three and four um open have some more open space
um in 26 add some soccer nets and so forth to make the make it a little bit more usable. Um originally it was the housy park um 2025 improvement for $2,000 to add a gaga um
ball pit. Um there would need to be some ADA um compliance components to it added um to HZY Park. Um but there was also a request for the Gaga Pit and two other um parks. So we've um changed it to be
we'll go with the Northwood Park um with a with a Gaga pit um is the recommendation. And then Polar Park Playground um to put in some additional um a lot of the old equipment, a lot of the equipment is old is to put in some
new equipment. That's at about $63,000. And then to look at the urban ecology center uh nature plane and seating um for about 2,000. And there's still some more discussion um on that one that'll take place to make sure that we're not
in DNR space um and that um you know it really does have an enhancement for that area. But again, the conversation with uh the parking w commission was absolutely fantastic. Um very good communication all the way around. And so
at the end of the day, um staff is is um a park and wreck last Wednesday uh unanim unanimously supported moving forward with this. Um and so we're taking it forward to city council to see if we can get approval. What it means is that um these five projects um totaling
just on under $177,000 would be funded from the park fund. Um and it would require uh there's resolution to that effect um for city council to consider um moving forward with that so we could start to do that and get them most of them all completed
this year in 2025 still stand for any questions. We've got Ron that can answer some questions and then uh we also have a representative from the park and rec commission. I have a tour. Would Ron be able to take me around so I can see what
we're doing, what the projects are. It's the first I've heard of anything, Ron. Sure. I'll ride in the back if you want. In the back. It is. Okay. Any other um uh my question is for Jack.
Um, have have you had time to review this and do you believe that this expenditure is in line and um correct with uh the ADA requirements for the city for updates to parks? Um,
uh, I don't know that I've looked at this one specifically. uh for ADA requirements. Um that is enough of a a technical area that I I usually defer to um you know the the the more technical design staff on that one. Um this
doesn't raise my eyebrow in terms of um the amount that we're putting into it. Okay. Doesn't have to be a certain amount of work done before that kicks in for ADA stuff. Is that this more falls under Morgan
along that if they excuse me, but if they have to if they're looking to remove a couple ball fields, will they need new 88 pathways back to the uh soccer fields or anything? Go ahead. What was the question, Council Member McKenzie?
um with the proposal of maybe moving a couple ball fields away from Mcnite Fields or um Casey Lake Fields, um would they need new type of access for our ADA accessibility for wheelchairs andor kids with walkers, things like that? Yeah,
the the answer is potentially and and I would say probably it's something that should be planned for um again from a a planning standpoint when you're planning parks improvements. Um my experience and the advice that I've always gotten from
uh registered landscape architects that uh with expertise in you know park planning and parks improvements is that um if you improve a portion of a park a public park um you should strive to make that improvement accessible
u to all populations right so not just u uh non-disabled populations but also including disabled populations and that goes back to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is federal law since 1994 or something like that, right? So, it applies to everybody. Um,
and sometimes the requirements are more stringent. Um, as we saw with the pickle ball project, uh, pickle ball court improvement project recently that was funded by, uh, DN DNR outdoor recreation grants. And so there was an expectation
if those funds were going to be used by the city that there would be more accessibility improvements made. So, you know, we tied in um the playground equipment in addition to the pickle ball courts and also the um the pavilion or
the shelter there as well too. So, um, again, backing up to kind of just high level guidance if you're going to provide some improvements, you know, which could be moving a field or could be building a shelter or it could be building a gaga ball court or pit or
whatever. Again, the the uh what should be planned for and strived for by the by the city, by the local community is to be able to improve it such that all populations can use it. Um there is some nuance to that meaning if there were like five Gaga ball courts throughout
the city um you know some of them as long as like at least one of them is made accessible uh to disabled folks there may be some acceptance of that as opposed to having every single one but each park and each amenity needs to be looked at individually because they tie
into one another and so uh like in housing you don't want to isolate uh handicap population from you know you can get to the pickle ball court but not the shelter right that's maybe not necessarily what the city would want to
plan for I mean but there are real budget constraints as you are all kind of talking about right now so anyway that's what I can offer at a high level is it should be planned for and you should expect some level of ADA improvements um certainly before 1994 we were not contemplating these things but
it is pretty much the standard these days So, Morgan, I I I'm going to put you on the spot here a little bit. Okay. If you were in my seat, would you vote to approve this or would you vote to table it and ask for review by someone such as
yourself to to make sure that these improvements are in compliance? Well, that is a highly hypothetical question, Council Member Norvy, and I certainly can't uh presuppose to be an elected official and making those decisions, right? So, but from a staff
standpoint, um I did at a high level review at least the gaga ball concept, not the plan necessarily, but with Ron and public works. So, we did talk about that and I know that he I don't know the numbers in front of you, but my
understanding is that he understood a need to make some connections there so that it would be accessible and and looking at least at the housy park location, it seems relatively straightforward and simple. you know, it's as simple as u some hard surface connection, whether that's asphalt or
concrete. So, not extremely expensive, but um something that should be relatively easy to do even by public works, you know, no need to necessarily hire a contractor. Public works could certainly do these things. So, um I can't make the recommendation to you to
approve like to answer your question, should I vote for this? But um with the information that I have and the conversation that the public works director and myself had, it seems like it's a reasonable thing to include certainly knowing that the standard is we need to plan for improvements that
are available to all populations, you know, not just some. So I think that as long as those expenditures fit within the budget and you know again finance has looked at those things um I wouldn't have a a reason for you to you know hit pause unless that's something that staff
is recommending. I think staff is bringing this to you in a fashion that you know um should be certainly um ready for consideration from your guys' standpoint. We weighing all of the options in terms of expenditures and
what are the amenities that the city should choose to install that sort of thing. Thank you. You're welcome. I got one more if I could. Now with our Casey Lake and we're going to do some work down there. Is the Casey Lake playground, has that been brought
up to ADA codes for all the kids to be able to get in and out of that playground in along the parking lot there? Is that all under ADA compliance? If if they're going to do the work down there, maybe they want to readress us a little
bit and make it more of a ADA program because I've got a disabled daughter in a chair. She couldn't go into that sand pit out there. She gets stuck. Didn't they put down something in that when they redid it for the after that
girl that would that died? Casey. Yeah, I thought I thought they did, but I Yeah, I thought they brought that up to Okay. Now, there's a diff there's a difference between uh making a playground area
accessible to get to and then having playground equipment specifically designed for uh correct for kids with that have mobility needs or that sort of thing. There is specialized um playground equipment for example, which I don't think that's in Janie's
playground necessarily. Um, but to answer your question, I think, you know, again, separate item from what you're considering here, but for the future, the council certainly could consider different levels of ADA standalone upgrades, uh, in addition with other
park improvements, you know, to be able to see if there's a way to combine what the park and recck commission would like to see in terms of additional amenities and additional programming, but then also some additional um, accessibility improvements as well, too.
But that would be a separate item, separate initiative, separate priority than what you're considering here tonight. Thank you. You good with your question? Any more on anybody? You're good. I'm good. Okay. All right. We have to vote on this if um
uh approval of the additional or we can I I'd like to interject something to make sure we're not confusing something. So this idea was discussed again um because initially the Gaga ball court was going to be at Howy when it um
interjected with now installing a sidewalk and making sure we had the right inclines and doing it right. The idea of these were to see if they would take off. I mean we looked around um at neighboring cities to see if any parks had these. We couldn't find them. It's
not to say that they're not out there, but we did not. they are more at schools for kids. Um, so instead of spending all this money and maybe putting this out there and finding out that maybe this isn't going to be used that much and now you have a sidewalk to nowhere if nobody's using this court the idea and I
don't know if they're bringing this back. Do you would you really like to speak before I step on myself here? That's why you're moving it the other part then. Right. All right. Um, so what Mor Morgan answered the questions that I hope that
you had. Um, what happened with the Gaga ball pit at What is a Gaga ball pit? I have no 100 years old. I don't know. I I had when I first heard about it from the parks commission, I had to look it up and find out what it is. It's bas basically an octagon. They come in different sizes. They're about let's
call it three feet tall. Um, and they're anywhere from 15 feet to 30 feet round octagon. And it's like a dodgeball that they play with, but they apparently they use their hands, they knock the ball around, and they get hit from the knee
down. And it's kind of like a dodgeball. And once you get hit, you're out of of that. So that's about what I know about it. Um, so I had to do some checking to see what they were, what sizes they were um before I went to the parks commission meeting. So what what they're talking
about um when I I talked to we decided on putting one a permanent one at housy um I talked to uh Morgan if we would have to make it ADA accessible and he said yeah just kind of pretty much how he explained it if you're going to do any improvements to the parks kind of
just plan on making that happen. So, the last conversation I had we had about it when I was talking to Sarah um who is kind of the liaison from the city for the parks commission is that we were going to put on hold the one at Housy so
we didn't have to go through a process of putting a permanent one in putting a a sidewalk to it. And I believe we were talking about looking at purchasing a portable one because the budget number that we had for the Gaga ball pit was $2,000. Obviously,
public works was going to build this. It was going to be out of green treated wood. It was going to be and we talked about building a permanent one because we didn't the portable there's portable ones and it looks like they could be folded up and taken. Um, so I believe the conversation was was that we were
going to put the idea for Howy Park on hold and put one at Northwood in the hockey rink, a portable one. So then it was accessible for everybody. Um the difference in a handicapped one versus a normal one is there's a swinging door on
on the gaga ball pit in order for people to be able to get in there. So that is what that is where the conversation was kind of what we talked about to stay within that that budget and not go through and put in a whole sidewalk to
something that may not be used. So it's all new. So that's what going inside the inside the rink with the boards. That's That's what we had talked about. Yes. I have to drive up there and see what's going on up there, but I do want to get down by
Casey and see what we can do to do some of these fields and that. I'd be interested. Yeah. In in the fields, from my under from from my understanding is what we were going to do is we're going to take out the egg lime in the fields and just make it make the two fields back there that are not used. Just black
dirt and and grass in there. and then we were gonna add a couple soccer nets out there. So that that's kind of was was the plan. So they're really not ch we're not really I mean you know if you want to call it an improvement or I I mean I don't know what that is considered but
that that was kind of the plan that we had talked about. Would we uh generate revenue by bringing in soccer teams to play there where they rent our fields? Yeah. Yeah. I I I mean I'm sure that I I
Yeah. I I I don't know a whole lot about soccer and what you know what they're looking for, but I know a lot of the bigger cities have, you know, Beenburg, I know they have multiple like lots of fields and other places have lots of soccer fields, so I have no idea what the appetite is for that, but
Thank you. All right. Oh, you got another one? No, you're good. Um, so I guess reading what you know, listening into what Ron said and what we have in front of us, what we have in front of us is wrong. Is that correct? I apologize. I didn't see that. No. So,
I mean, here we have uh Howy Park 2025 improvement of $2,000 to put in a a permanent gaga ball pit. And the plan is not to do that. Am I missing something? The the There's been an update. Am I looking at the wrong one? Uh, the the
second one that come out. Oh. Oh, I'm probably looking at Okay, never mind. You have to close it out and then open it back up again. The same thing over the weekend. I grabbed it. Then there was a revision on Monday. So, they crossed off housing input Northwood. Okay.
Good catch though. Yeah. Anything else you want to add to that, Brian? No. All right. Everybody feel comfortable with what we discuss? All right. approve the additional 2025 park and recreation capital improvement
project. Can I get a motion for that, please? I'll make a motion. Motion. Council member Mackenzie. Second. Second. Council member Norby. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. Appreciate it. You going to come back
again, Dan? You going to close us and open this? You know, I I still have one more item here. Oh, I knew you would. And then and then I'm calling it a night. Uh th this one's uh very exciting. Um I'm going to have to contain Jenny who's
sitting to my left here. Um but yes, it's uh asking for the approval of agreement with Paycom for a human resources payroll system and payroll services. Um and when I came came here four years ago, I was kind of a little shocked that there wasn't an HR system.
Everything's done manually, paper driven, paper driven. Um, and uh, you know, so PAFS are all handwritten. Nothing's entered on a system until it gets to payroll. There's another humanistic piece to it. We've been
fortunate. We've got a very good person who does our payroll who's very accurate, but there's always a chance for errors. Um you saw in our in our audit report for the financial uh statement this this past year that we were cited on on that because some
documentation um doesn't you know couldn't find it um that were number of years back well when you have a HR system that has everything electronically it becomes your data repository um and things are electronic
you'll be able to find it um and so this ends up being that piece. So what we did through a process part to it is um uh we uh issued an RFP um and um we ended up getting five
proposals and then we had a little um committee that re independently reviewed uh those five proposals and uh we rated them and we ended up coming down and choosing to uh request demonstrations from two of the companies. um Paycom um
being one of the the two companies, the other one being UKG, both of them did an an amazing job. Um at the end of the day um the uh selection committee um made a unanimous recommendation to go with
Paycom. Probably one of the biggest components with it is is that there's local representation. Um there's going to be somebody actually onsite um to help out with the implementation um training um and not just you know uh
you know HR and the payroll staff but also our employees um on what they can do. This uh system has an an app um where uh basically I think they call is it Betty? they call it Betty that uh after an employee has put in their time
sheet and it's ready to go through, they actually have the opportunity to approve their time sheet. Obviously, we can make adjustments to it and that stuff, but they'll know exactly at that point in time how much they're taking home, what their deductions were, everything. Um they'll be able to make um you know,
changes to um you know, their direct deposit. they'll be able to make changes to their um withholdings and so forth. Um we'll have it integrated with our benefit, make an open enrollment much easier. Right now um Jenny has the
headache of having to gather all that stuff from open enrollment, putting it into spreadsheets, and they're all manually updated on every single employee. Um and it's very time consuming and creates the opportunity for for many errors. Um, and the whole
application process will end up being an online process and a lot of the information that the uh applicant puts in will be stuff that'll go right into our system. So, we're not duplicating that. Um, and on uh the finance side um
to it, uh we have an aging uh finance department. Um and uh the person who uh we've been fortunate enough to have do our payroll um isn't that much younger than myself. Um and so what this gives us an opportunity is to actually have um
you know we still have to do all the checks and balances and that stuff but uh they take over a lot of the state and federal reporting. We're still responsible for it. We still need to check it over. Um and they also do a lot of the AC's and so forth and um
components to it. Um I think the annual um piece. So we we did we we got a 4-year term uh negotiated with them. We anticipate that the annual cost will be about $32,000 for the four years. There's a 0% in year
1, 1% in year two, 2% in year three, and then 4% um in the fourth year. Um there's a a little over a $3,000 implementation on one-time cost. Um which was significantly less than what our other vendor was and actually both
their annual and um their implementation costs. We we successfully negotiated them downward. Um and so looking for your uh approval on to that. But before I answer any questions and that stuff, I
really want to give the opportunity for Jenny to tell us how excited she is with this. And she I she's probably going to kick me here, but that's beat up tomorrow. Well, thank you. Uh Dan covered most everything, but uh it's very exciting both as a staff and as an
employee. So um with everything going uh smoothly for implementation, we are actually looking that we could have this all fully implemented by uh open enrollment the end of October. So timing good.
Yeah, she's going to Yep. give me my gonna be able to stay home later in the morning then. She just accepted that one. That was easy. So, if there's any questions um that you have um kind of a reminder, we we tried this a couple of years ago um
to move over to I won't um say the vendor's name. City council had approved it. Uh um they really let us down on their implementation schedule. They didn't meet a thing. Um and so we ended up cutting um you know, cutting that one off. So, it took us a little about a
year and a half to kind of lick our wounds and and build staff morale up to give it another shot. But, um I think we we uh you know um with Jenny and and then we have uh Jackie and uh and Melissa on the finance side that are all
eager um to get into this and and uh to see it be successful. And you know what the big thing is as they were walking through on the demonstration, you know what my comment was? I probably even could run payroll. See, did you hear that? She said, "I
don't know." Doubting you. So, if you have any questions with with this, but um you know, be happy to answer anything on to it. My only question is is um coming from a private to a um public side, are there
any certifications or rules that they have to follow um to be in compliance with um the public side of things that they're guaranteeing that they will do? Yes. The reporting. Yes. Um very it um
it was a very very extensive RFP. There was questionnaires like you couldn't believe, but it was including the 941, state, federal reporting, everything. Yeah. And um they had to respond to every single one of the questions that were that was in there in their proposal
and then many of them were asked again and to to confirm in and demonstration. So yes, so uh Paycom does a lot u with a lot of county government um in the state of of Minnesota. Um so they are familiar
with the the rules and the nice part about it is when changes occur they make the changes you know because this is in the cloud they make the changes we don't have to pay for another upgrade um and and go through another whole implementation of an upgrade so it's
pretty pretty seamless pretty slick and yes um that was a big huge piece that we we had asked all the way through it and again all the security components um yeah were all the questions were asked not only in the RFP, you made sure that
they put it in the contract as well. Yes. By the contract does reference. Yes. Um to and thank you for reading my mind. I should have worded that better. Um you believe the public sector is a big enough piece of their pie where they
will continue to do that. Um well, and nothing's guaranteed in this world, but I certainly believe um that they will be around. You know, Paycom's pretty big and um and yeah, I I believe that they'll they'll still be around the we
just have one piece left with it and and the resolution is written that way to be contingent upon our city attorney doing a a and I'm not putting any pressure on when our city attorney is done. We're asking for approval, but it I don't want
anybody signing it and until I hear from our city attorney that they're comfortable with everything and that's part of make sure that the language is clear enough that it's incorporating both because I'm customary and this is what that I want the RFP to be included
in the agreement and I want their response to be because that's customary of how I've always done things. So that's done with any contract actually. Yeah. I so the uh $3,000 implementation, you know, professional services or whatever
you want to call it, uh is that based on a number of hours that we get from them for, you know, implementation, training, things like that, or is it just a set, you know, $3,000 for getting it stood up, however long it takes? I I I Well,
it's $3,000 set for however how long it takes for them to do it. um to give you kind of a point of reference. Um one of the vendors, I'm not going to give, you know, the the name publicly unless somebody were to ask in a data request, but they wanted $17,000 for that
implementation because there is a lot of time that's going to be considered to set up. See, part of the system that all of our our policies and procedures, our rules have to be written in to this. So, that system automatically knows whether this is an overtime, it's not an
overtime. We've got some particular components with our police where it goes into suspense time and then suspense taken. Um so there's rules that have to be written to accommodate different different things. So they will um be spending a considerable amount of time
just in the implementation and then in training. Um so um I think $3,000 um you know I I mean the truth to it is if we were paying $100 an hour that's only 30 hours. I think they're going to
be spending well more than 30 hours on this. One one last question and this is just um for my own curiosity for you. Um are are you guaranteed a dedicated customer care representative or is it uh you call
and you get who you get? Um we have somebody who will follow us through the whole way through implementation and after that we transition into somebody else and they're local. Okay. Awesome. Minnesota. Yep. Very good questions. You you've you're
you're very familiar with this. Yes. Y All right. Thank you. Motion for approve the agreement of the paycom human resources payroll system and payroll services. So moved, your honor. So move. Council member Norby.
Second. Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. None. All right, city council. Thank you very much. Um, thank you very much. Yeah. Good job. She was excited. Yes.
Oh, good. Well, thanks. Appreciate it. All right. Next up, we have the Ramsey County Hazard Mitigation Plan. We have uh Fire Chief Jason Malinger to discuss. Still got a few minutes for a swim, Dan. So, you'll do all right when you get home.
Welcome. All right. Hello. Thank you, mayor, council members for having me. So, I'm here tonight to discuss the 2025 Ramsey County Hazard Mitigation Plan. And uh I guess to straightforward put
it, the HMP, as we'll call it, uh identifies mitigation goals and actions to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from the impacts of future hazards. And as you'll hear, we're going to encompass all types of
hazards here. into this plan. Um really this began well over a year ago and I should say the last time that uh we went through this was 2019. Uh this is my first time going through the
hazard mitigation plan with Ramsey County. Uh so it was uh it was a good process. Uh but with Ramsey County, they basically had consultants. Tidal Basin was the name of the um consultant that
uh conducted um these multiple meetings. And again, this is with every city within Ramsey County. Um and each city has input um on the planning process. And from the beginning,
it builds off of the previous plans. and identifications of risks and hazards that are specific to each community. So, we're building off of that each year or each plan, I should say. Um so again uh some of those risks and
hazard identifications that were uh talked about floods, hazardous materials, tornadoes, windstorms um years back the tornado that went through Hugo and how it impacted them
and how they were able to deal with it. winter hazards as well, the whether it's snow or ice. Um, human-caused hazards, active shooters, civil unrest, cyber attacks, terrorism.
Um, also infrastructure failure. So, something as enormous as the 35W bridge collapse years ago, something like that. but what would happen locally if we had a problem uh with one of our bridges or
something on Highway 36. So the goal of of this is really to identify ways to mitigate um some of these issues and to have conversations
with uh departments. So, uh, last year again meeting with public works and identifying, you know, what they were doing to reduce flood uh, reduction measures and kind of their
plan and how they were dealing with things. um working with the electric department to um do they have plans to clear trees and brush from power lines so that during a windstorm we're not having power outages that affect pe
affect uh large people or a large group of people and do they have plans in place to put power underground. So all these things are already in action and that we're doing. We're just putting them together in a plan and
incorporating them into the overall Ramsey County plan. Um, and the mitigation strategy is about the community's uh capabilities and assessing what resources they may need
in the future, whether it's locally at the state or federally. And once this plan is approved by all of the communities within uh Ramsey County, the
plan has already been approved at the uh federal level, but we're needing every community within Ramsey County to be a part of it. And then at that point is when we are approved for local mitigation plan
um which allows us to apply for and or receiving FEMA mitigation grants from the following programs. Hazard mitigation grant program. Um building resilient infrastructure and
communities. Flood mitigation assistance. Safeguarding tomorrow revolving loan fund. So going through this plan again, a lot of things we're already doing. It's updating to keep us moving forward. Um
but it keeps us involved uh with the county and the emergency management system as well. Uh another area uh talking about continuity of operations. So if we had an event that happened in North St. hall. What happens if our
public works building or our uh city hall, fire department, police department is um you know has some damage. How do we continue to operate? So we have what's called a coupe plan that's separate from this but is part of it. Uh
so we have those things in in place and how we could potentially work in other areas within the city or within Ramsey County as needed. So it looks at the disruption of governmental services and
basically gives us a baseline um within the community to kind of work off of. Um, I think I went through that pretty quick, but I know I know it's 214 pages of a lot of information, but uh, for me,
like I said, it's been, uh, a year and a half in in planning and and working with, uh, Ramsey County and Title Basin. And most recently, myself and the city manager, Brian Frandle, attended a a meeting that uh was held a few weeks ago
for um um all staff and those related, you know, with the emergency management Ramsey County. I can take questions if you have any. Hopefully, I can ask them, answer them. Questions? Are you in favor of everything that we're looking at here?
Yes, definitely. This would uh benefit our city a lot, wouldn't it? Yes, it's it's it's it's needed if if anything were to ever happen happen in our city. Um like I say, this will allow us um to have future mitigation uh
reimbursements if there's anything out there for us and and other resources needed if it again something large were to uh come through our city. Yes. So, um, for a city of our size, what do you, I mean, based on what
you're seeing from other cities, what I mean, what do you feel like we're missing or are we in good alignment with what you feel like we need? Yeah, it's, you know, it's it it really was interesting to be, you know, the
city of North St. Paul again working along with the city of St. who have dedicated emergency management team like a legit team of many people but you think of the size and what they have. I mean they have to many areas that regard
with regards to the river and the dams and those types of things. So they have um definitely a lot more risks than than we do. Um, but looking at what we have in our community and what is here and
what our staff is currently doing, I think we're doing an adequate job of addressing um what we have and what we need and continue to to move forward. And this even goes to the extent of our plan, you know, working with the school
district and what do they have and what do our um you know uh some of these uh facilities as that house is our um our our older folks, you know, do they have um a plan there as well? And do they
have a generator for backup power in case of those things? And is there ways that we can assist them with those types of things? So yeah, there's a lot. I think we're doing a good job for what we have here.
And I assume this is all cooperative. So if you know, one city were to have an emergency and another not, you know, we would send resources or they would send resources back and forth to Yeah. You know, and and that's kind of where it all ties back to. I think not too long
ago I had sent the capital city mutual aid agreement plan to you, you know, for the fire department that is a piece of it and the police department has that and I'm sure public works departments and our electric department have that.
So they all tie together. Um but definitely the communities do uh come together in in a time of need and this mitigation plan will once approved and
and solidify within the the county if something extends into an extremely long cleanup expensive project. you know, Dan's going to have his um some hours there tracking all this and making
sure, but there there would be a potential way to recoup costs. Yeah. It's going to be a everchanging updated thing you need to do, I imagine. And from what I've seen, it seems like
every five years or so, they they update the Well, good. Thank you for all your hard work on this. Appreciate it. Yeah. So, looking for your approval on that. Yeah. Thank you. County Hazard
plan, migration plan. And I have a motion, please. So, move. Council member McKenzie. Second. Second. Council member Norby. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you.
All right. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. City engineer Morgan Dolly here to discuss the Ramsey Washington Metro watershed district memorandum of understanding and flood risk reduction project at the PCU pond uh and 13th Avenue. Thank you, city manager Frandle,
Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, this item before you uh on the agenda next is to consider authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the city of North St. Paul and Ramsey Washington Metro Wershed District for the construction
and ongoing ownership and maintenance of uh some flood risk reduction improvements that the watershed district has designed and is planning on uh constructing uh sometime this summer. So, a little bit of background, uh, backing up to earlier this year, uh,
representatives from the watershed district contacted myself and Ron and Randy from public works asking, um, if they could share some ideas and, uh, some preliminary construction plans for um, basically reconfiguring some of the
storm sewer uh, on the south side of 13th Avenue and in the northwest corner of PCO, PCU or sometimes times called Target Pond which is between 13th Avenue and 11th Avenue west of Mcnite. Um there is an area and uh uh previous councils
have heard presentations from myself and I think um the public has had presentations from city staff and also wershed district staff with respect to floodprone areas throughout the city. The area just north of 13th Avenue is one of those areas. There's some
lowlying um areas there south of Shaun's Way, north of 13th Avenue in that general vicinity that are susceptible to flooding in during extreme rain events where the pond may come up to a high level uh and water may be searchcharging and backing up through some of the storm
sewers back there and filling in some of those low areas. And so a lot of that flood risk has previously been identified by the watershed district. And very nicely they are putting their own dollars that are collected from the taxpayers into improvements within the
city of North St. Paul. So now this project that they're contemplating kind of has two locations. One of them is in Maplewood, but one of them is in North St. Paul, as we said, on the north side of the pond. Um, in addition to reconfiguring some of the storm sewer pipes there, they're also proposing to build a relatively short, you know, two
to three, maybe four feet high burm and kind of a soft burm, you know, 4 to one slope, so easily mowable. Uh, public works does mow that area south of the road curb line, um, but north of kind of where the slope into the pond starts. So, that's currently maintained. But
what the burm does uh basically holds back some of the flow flood waters from tipping over from the pond into the roadway and then from the roadway then into the storm sewer. And then with some of this storm sewer pipe reconfiguration, they're basically isolating some of those residential
areas to the north. Um kind of protecting them from, you know, water during a flood situation backing up and going into those low yards there um between 13th and Shaun's Way. So um they have uh I asked them to quantify the the
improvement in flood risk and they were not able to do that yet. So I hope to come back like when the project is completed if you move forward with approving this memorandum of understanding with some hard well not hard data but uh calculated data from the watershed district in terms of how
much they think that the you know flood levels may be reduced because I believe what they will be doing is recalculating their 100year flood elevations in that area which will be of benefit to the people that live around that that uh location there. Um there may be future
opportunity in other locations throughout the city, but they felt like this was uh the first place to move to and and first place that they approached city staff with. Uh I reviewed the plans, public works reviewed the plans. We made several comments and suggested several revisions. They took all of our
comments and incorporated all of our um requests to change things. Mostly from my stand point was to protect the new investment in roadway pavement on 13th Avenue. You may remember that we overlaid that in like 2022, I think was the year. And so their original plan was
actually to rip up a lot of that to do some of the storm sewer. And I said, "But there's got to be a way." And they we did find a way. So the road's going to be protected. They'll still use uh 13th Avenue to access the area from a construction standpoint. They said that they would um they would take
responsibility for, you know, letting all the residents that live in the area know what's going on. They're going to run the project, not the city. will certainly be a resource and hopefully we'll get some information to post on our website to let people know what this project is. Uh if they live in the area
and if they have questions they can contact the watershed folks uh for help. Um but uh I'm very satisfied with uh their reaction to our comments, their incorporation of our design preferences. They're using all of our city standards.
you know, since we are as a part of this memorandum of understanding going to own and maintain the pipe. I mean, they don't have a public works department. So, that's where we come in. Like, we can maintain and inspect this pipe in perpetuity. We can mow the grass like we've always been mowing it. Um, and on
that note, I think I put in the memo, you know, anticipated budget impact is pretty nil, I guess. I mean, there's some linear foot of additional pipe to maintain, but we currently mow it. Um, we're going to mow it in the future. it's just going to have a little burm on
it. U so I don't see at least certainly within the first initial lifpan of you know these improvements which should be 30 to 50 years minimum I would say right that we shouldn't see much of an impact on the taxpayers or at least from a
surface water utility uh fee or funding standpoint that would typically fund these types of act activities for public works. So um again high level uh Ramsey Washington is going to pay for the construction. They're going to manage the construction. There's no ask for
city cost participation on the construction aspect of it. Uh they're going to manage the contract. Public works in the memorandum is agreeing to own and maintain the pipe, the new pipe and um and the burm I guess and mow the
grass uh over the long run. Um but it is a great example of a partnership between two uh organizations that have kind of a joint interest in you know uh making improvements that protect the public from flood risk uh or minimize we can't
always protect everybody from all risk but we can mitigate and minimize that risk and um there's a lot of work that went into this throughout the whole district and we're really pleased that they kind of zoomed in and picked one of our locations as one of the first places to go. So, um, staff's strong
recommendation is that we're comfortable with the memorandum of understanding and the terms that are laid out within. Um, the memorandum was based off of the exact sameou that was has been approved by councils previously for other joint efforts like the improvements to
Margaret Pond, the improvements to the pond by Cowan Elementary that I think came before this council earlier this year. So, um, pretty basic document. Um, with that I'll stand for any questions the council might have. Uh, and as a reminder, the action is to uh authorize
signatures on a memorandum of understanding uh between the watershed district, city of North St. Paul related to these flood risk reduction uh improvements planned for this year. There might be a little bit of light restoration um for early next year before they completely call it done, but
I think most of the work will be done. Oh, and there's a bench out there right kind of in this location in the northwest corner of the pond that looks out into the pond. And uh we've provided direction to them to salvage and protect that. Like we're not going to remove it and then not put it. They might
temporarily take it out and put it back. But um yeah, the bench will stay and if we need to slide it a little bit for the burm, we'll do that. But that amenity will go back as it is today currently. So with that, I'll stand for any questions. Will they be going
on homeowners properties to between Sea's Way and 13th Avenue to get into those sewer culverts in there or will this be in this is part of the drainage system that runs through the city and all the way down to Coleman Lake if I remember right correct. Um there is
storm sewer in Sea's Way in the Culdeac that comes through uh kind of on joint residential lot lines. There's storm sewer under 13th Avenue. There's pipes that go in and out of the pond. The ultimate pathway for the water is uh via pipe into a ravine that actually goes
west. Ultimately, it ends up in Coleman Creek and Coleman Lake. To answer your question directly though, no, I do not anticipate that they or their forces, their contractor will need to access private property. All of it will be expected to be within the city right of
way and also on the PCU pond parcel property which the city does own uh in fee title. One more question please. City manager Frandle, will this affect the sidewalk going along Mcnite Road?
And if they attach that sidewalk, that short sidewalk that our former councilman was looking to do, would that affect that process at all? No. And as of now, there's it was just a thought
that was brought up uh from that council member. Um there's no definite plan to put a sidewalk through there or trail through there, which would probably be more likely asphalt than anything. But uh either way, it's birmed up a little bit there, I believe. No. Yeah. And if I could add on to that, I mean, there's
nothing that with this project or with the improvements the wershed district has proposed that I believe would preclude um either in the near term using it as a a you know, a grass walkway like it's used today or long term if that winds up being upgraded to
a hard surface. Um there's c certainly a way to get you know over a burm or around a burm. There should be plenty of flexibility there knowing especially on the north side there's no sidewalk on 13th Avenue to connect to at this time. Right. So there's plenty of opportunity to plan that out and people can continue
to when the construction's done they can continue to use it as a cut through or walk through I guess on the west side of the pond to um 11th Avenue. So, this will eliminate any overflow that would cause people on the back side of Shaun's
Way on the south side and on the north side of 13th Avenue of any high water. That's the general um approach for the improvements. I would not use the word eliminate. Um we cannot um there's no amounting that can eliminate it. Yeah.
But we but uh the term and the terminology the wershed district uses I think is very carefully se selected in terms of this project being called a flood risk reduction. Right? So we can they can these types of improvements can reduce the flood risk but there always
will be some risk for flooding or in an extreme 100redy year 500year event you know which can and will happen at some time. Um you know there will still be water in those low areas as there might be today. However, the risk of that and
the calculated depth of those waters during a hundred-year event um based on the wersheds calculations does wind up being lower because of these types of improvements. All right. Thank you. So, um we're going to motion is Ranging Washington Metro
Wershed District Memorandum for understanding of the flood risk reduction project at PCU Pond and 13th Avenue. Okay, I got a motion. So move. So move. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member McKenzie.
All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. All right. Next up is the 2025 payment maintenance overlay. Um we read bids and award contract. We have uh Hannah here from WSB to discuss. Welcome. Thank you
for having me. Um, so as Brian mentioned, the item before you tonight is to accept the bids and award the contract for the base bid and alternate two of the 2025 maintenance overlay um, via resolution for Batuminous Roadways.
Um, little bit of background on this project. This was identified through the 2025 capital improvement plan through the annual maintenance overlay projects that public works does every year. This is a project that they work to identify every year different project areas and
then they also oversee the construction and execution of the project following the contract approval. So WSB's role with this project was primarily just to support the development of the plans and specifications as well as the bidding process because it did exceed the
minimum threshold for sealed bids. The proposed project locations are kind of all over the place in town here. So we've got a little bit on Hilltop Court with going east on Navajo and west on Shaunie for a little bit. Two segments on Margaret um Northwood Drive and then
Co Place. The project improvements include Batuminous Melon Overlay, Batuminous Reclaim and Pave and then some other minor spot improvements. This project was set up with a base bid which includes like the majority of what I
just listed as well as two alternates. The first alternate being co place and the second being a list of alternate items that allow public works to integrate those improvements throughout the project area without confining that
to a specific location. So by by setting that up as an alternate, we created more flexibility for them and how they select those improvements during construction implementation. The bid results came through with six bids, which is great because we feel
like that really brings a competitive bidding pool. The lowest bid was around $250,000 for that base bid quantity that does not include either alternate with the highest being around 384,000. Engineer's estimate was just beneath
300,000. So again, we feel like we got some pretty competitive bids. Um, Batuminous Roadways came in at the lowest with a base bid of 250,000. Um, alternate one of 51,000 and then alternate 2 of 153,000.
The two funding sources identified for this project um are well the first being the capital improvement plan funding that is dedicated for this work. That's the $394,010. That's the large majority of this project budget with an additional
$10,000 coming out of the contracted repair and maintenance fund. That brings us to a total of $44,010. Staff is recommending that city council accept these bids and award the resol by resolution, excuse me, the construction
contract for the base bid and alternate 2 um in the amount of $43,520.85 85 cents for the 2025 maintenance overlay to Batuminous Roadways. That does not include alternate one. That portion of the bid did not fit within
the allotted budget. So, if awarded, staff anticipates this could begin as early as July of this year. Um, at this time, I'll stand for any questions you may have. This total will be
the total for all all roads being maintained and and by tumis cut and put back down. Yep. So that total goes for all the areas that I listed Hilltop Margaret Margaret and Northwood. Um and does not include Corn, but it does
include all those alternate items that need to be integrated throughout all of those areas. So that in those alternate two lists, on a maintenance overlay project like this um who is responsible for quality control and how thick the maintenance
overlay is and how is that done? So, it's kind of a joint effort between, you know, the contractor meeting those requirements that are in the specification and then also the inspector who's on site. I know like Randy is really going to be coordinating a lot of the construction efforts. So, he'll be working with the contractor to make sure they're meeting those
requirements. And we do specify when we call out a mill and overlay what depth they need to be meeting. And for some of these, they are edge milling overlays. And so they'll be meeting that depth um with the milling on the edge and then a consistent section across the top. And that'll all be monitored by the
inspection, whether that's Randy or someone else on his team. Awesome. Thank you. Nothing else. Can I get a motion for the pavement maintenance overlay going to Pumis Roadways? So moved, your honor. Move. Council member Norby.
Second. Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. Great job. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, next item up is 2026 pavement preservation project for uh, city project 26-01 authorized professional
service proposal. Mr. Dolly. Thank you, Brian. Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, this next item for your consideration here tonight is um basically the start
or the kickoff to next year's um project, which is not a um in-depth full reconstruction project like what's going on right now in Casey Lake Park. So this is and you heard the finance director talk about more of a focus on pavement
preservation but at a little bit higher level than the maintenance overlays that public works um do on an annual basis that you just uh heard about and awarded a separate contract to just previous to this item. Um, I will say that uh the
areas within this potential project um were not identified in the capital improvement plan like some of the other areas. they're uh left open-ended and based on uh review by public works on an annual basis using qualitative uh
quantitative sorry data in terms of our pavement ratings. Um and also um the institutional knowledge that public works staff has in terms of maintaining these roads. um the areas within the potential project uh were identified,
double-cheed against potential budget numbers to make sure that it would fit within the number that we had uh worst case scenario if we had to reclaim all the roads, which is a little bit more expensive than just a simple mill and overlay. Um and so uh those areas are listed within the memo. There's also a
map there, but for the benefit of the council and the public, I'll just list them off. These are not written in stone. So, we have to do some investigation to make sure that they're all kind of well suited for these types of improvements and staff will report back to you about September with
information from the findings of this uh potential investigation that you're considering kicking off here. Um, but those streets are Mohawk Road from 17th to Mcnite, 7th Street North from the Culde Culdeac north of 36 to 9th Avenue,
Cow Place from 7th Avenue to 6th Street, uh, Sixth Street from Holloway to 7th Avenue, Cow again from Mcnite to First Street, Memory Lane from Cow Place to Northwood Drive, Memory Court, Polaris Place from Holloway to Northwood, and
Polaris Court. All of these uh areas are exhibiting pavements that are in need of some uh attention. Uh and some of the scope of the investigation that is included in the professional services proposal uh that will be in front of you
you for consideration here are data collection. Right? So roadway cing to figure out is the pavement thick enough to actually be able to support a mill and overlay. Is there enough aggregate base or gravel underneath the asphalt to be able to support something like a reclamation? And then based on that
information, engineering staff, public works will sit down. We'll review that information, arrive at a recommendation again that we'll bring forward to you kind of around September uh to be able to consider kicking off actual preparation of uh design documents, final plans with the goal of maybe
bidding this in January, February and having it under contract ready to go for next year in the construction season. Uh most recently we did in 2024 a very similar approach. Slightly smaller than what this project will be just based on budgetary constraints but um very
similar. It went relatively smooth. Um some of the roads were kind of right around Cowin Elementary. Um first um yeah so I I expect that this will be very similar. Uh it's not highly invasive. We don't we're not doing you a
significant amount of utility work and so disruption to the traveling public and the people that live on these roads is relatively minimal. um maybe some you know driveway access issues for a small portion of the project while we you know maybe potentially pour a concrete apron
or something like that. But uh generally they're uh fairly straightforward and can be completed in a relatively short time frame compared to some of the more heavyduty reconstruction projects where we're doing water main replacement for example. Um so uh again just overview of
some of the scope here uh doing some topographic survey um we're pretty highly vested uh in using technology to do things more quickly and efficiently. So we're using drones to pick up a lot of the survey information um and aerial photography to be able to pick up the
where the catch basins are and where the trees are and that sort of thing. um geotechnical investigation. Again, getting at those soils and making sure that there aren't any issues or problems that uh we're going to be investing a lot of money on top of that are just going to create issues for us u in the
short term. And also some uh underground manhole inspections, right? So, it's very important to public works that we have an aggressive program of not leaving something and paving around it and then it, you know, it's an old brick manhole, for example, that only has another five years left. now would be
the time to try to get at that. Um, so that's generally it. Um, now I can't make a recommendation to you that you um, uh, authorize WSB to proceed. In the past, we've had the city manager kind of take that part. So, I'll leave that out.
Um, but we would anticipate if approved tonight that we would start immediately. uh again come before council September time frame with some recommendations on what exactly might occur on uh what streets and a little bit of an update in
terms of uh the costs uh preliminary engineering and a schedule and a proposal to move forward uh between September and January February uh with the plans and the bidding basically for the improvements. So with that, I'll stand for any questions and uh Brian can certainly relay the uh recommendation
for the action item for you uh with this uh consideration for professional services for uh the 2026 pavement rehabilitation project. Questions first. I'm going to ask kind of a weird one. Um only because I'm a member. Uh so recently the adopted drain
program asked us to take a picture of all of our drains. Um, is that data public knowledge and is that data included in a study like this? That is a it's a city effort, right? It's not the watershed district that's doing the adopted drain.
Yeah, I don't Yeah, that uh I have not been involved in that either specifically. Generally, it's a fairly common program whether it's uh run by the watershed district or the city. Um, certainly it helps to
raise awareness and education. um to avoid things like not that this would ever happen in North St. Paul, but somebody changes the oil on their car and they just kind of pour the old oil down the drain and which you know all of our storm drains lead to wetlands, uh
creeks, uh you know, lakes and rivers basically, right? And so um that adopt a drain gets a little bit uh more um support public support and some ownership I think between uh behind it with the people that live kind of
immediately adjacent to that. It that doesn't necessarily dovetail in here directly. It's uh more educational and it more relates to our uh MS4 program in terms of obligating educational and support items to um prevent illicit
discharge of things like motor oil or whatever into our lakes, rivers, and streams. Um but it does impact um what we do with these projects because we are looking at uh at a very high level just making sure that none of our catch basins need to be reconstructed at the
same time that we're doing the pavements. But we are mostly focused on the asphalt and the pavement rehabilitation, some curb and gutter. Um so uh but we are not planning just in case this was kind of where you were going. We're not planning any augmentation on that. Um but if folks
are interested, I thought I remember seeing there is some information on our website or maybe it's the Ramsey Washington Metro Wershed District's website related to adopt a drain. And so there should be more information there or they can always reach out to city staff and we'll help anyone with those questions if they'd like more
information. Awesome. Thank you. We had programs like that a while back uh when we had an environmental advisory commission. We put uh plaques. Yeah. Plaques by the drains and show that this goes to the lake and picture of a fish on there to try to do a little public
outreach and education. That was a while ago. I don't think we after storms. If you go by it and you see that there's leaves and stuff plugged, just pull it out. So, no more questions. Um, I would like to make a recommendation to authorize the professional services as proposed.
Please a motion. So moved. So moved. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member Norby. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. Thanks, Morgan. Mayor, appreciate it. Council, thank you. All right, we got reports from city
manager and departments. Um, so we'll be starting I think I informed most of you that uh starting a process now for looking at the solid waste contract which will be up next year. Um it's looking at a year to what 16 months or
so to kind of do that whole thing. I would imagine there's going to be uh some public outreach but uh also looking for your input from maybe feedback you've heard from the public about bulk pickup. Um there's many different ways to do that. You know, do you offer it
quarterly, you know, at a free cost or do you just do a blanket across the board, uh lower cost? Um but we'll look at different options, find out what maybe what more common options are out there. Um this is a company that is through Ramsey County and they do put
together an RFP at no cost to the city. So nice feature. Um department's been busy with the storms lately. There's been some tree damage, but uh they do a really good job with their tree trimming and keep them back from the power lines. Um past couple
weeks, we've only had probably six powerages. Uh and only one of them was more than one home. So, they're up and going. Um they have a actually tonight they have a scheduled power outage for Richardson Elementary School because they're
putting a large solar system on top of the roof of that building there. So communications. Ava's been busy with uh her events. We've had uh kids music in the park. Had 44 attendees which was good at Howy Park. It was kind of rainy but it worked out good. They got them
all inside and um had a good time. Uh they have next week is going to be their second event for uh fitness in the park. So that'll be on July 9th at uh Howy Park again. Uh community development's been busy reviewing uh the town home
project. They have another we have another meeting scheduled uh with the potential forplex and 3plex there at South and Seventh Street that they're looking at. Um doing some zoning updates on home occupation and uh townhouse
ordinances that are under review. Um and updating uh ballfield maintenance agreements and fencing with the high high school again looking at those. Um HR has been pretty happy with the paycom
looking for that coming forward as you guys heard tonight. Um Michelle's been working with the paid family leave implementation come in 2026. Uh public works is got some signs out uh especially along where the DNR trail crosses some of the roads that we have
having issues of some vehicles and trucks parking too close so that they can't see around them so nobody gets hit. Trying to keep the trucks back further from where it crosses. Um also uh down at Mcnite Field trying to get uh some of the parking taken care of
down there as well as on over on Henry. We got uh give them tickets in one place, they move to another. Um we they have the temp water up there on Bule proper. Uh the properties up on Bule now. Um
they have uh we're they're continuing on with their uh inspection of the water pipes to find out if they got the lead or what they have in there. It's uh just slowly picking away so we have a more full picture with the whole city. Um, and they're working on uh the plans for
the next uh student build house over there that we're working on. So, that'll be exciting to get that going. Fire department, uh, they're working on their coverage for the Fourth of July. Things always pick up this time of year. Fireworks going off. Um, and actually the fire departments seems
like year after year they keep getting their higher and higher callouts. uh they've already reached 1,000 calls for this year, which last year they didn't hit that until the end of July. So, um they have their uh picnic, fire
department picnic coming up on July 9th. Um and they're hoping to have their uh new vehicle here by the end of the month. Uh and then they want to kind of open to the public type deal. We might set it up up up on 19th by the beach and just spray the water and let the kids
run through it and have the public enjoy the new vehicle. Uh police department's got three new hires starting on July 7th, which makes them full capacity. Nice. Yes. Um a long time. It's been a while.
Um and they do have their uh formal swearing in. Um and Ramsey County Honor Guard will be there and that will be on Monday, July 28th. Um, so they'll be talking to you about that for participating if you're available. Uh,
and they're also working on their coverage for July 4th. Uh, um, you know, they've taken into account with Rams County for any kind of backup things and just try to keep an eye on everything out there. And that's all I got. Thank you.
All right. Reports, council, commissions, committees. I have nothing from the EDA this week. Nope. Thank you. The Arts and Culture Commission will be meeting here in council chambers tomorrow at 6:30.
The planning commission that was scheduled for uh July 3rd has been moved to Wednesday, July 9th. Um unfortunately, due to previous commitment, I will not be able to attend that one. Where are they going over that one
again? What? What is the Isn't there something that they're looking at doing that? I'm trying to remember what the agenda is for that one. I thought it was something something there was a reasonzoning that they were looking at. Um was that is that for uh along 7th
Avenue? Um those homes along in there they're uh Yeah. Okay. And if I remember right, it it was to basically make things that are what's the word? um not in compliance
into compliance. So it it it clean up some cleaning updates. Yeah. Good. All right. Thank you. Any general business? Well, with fireworks coming up, are we have any kind of a trailer system going to be parked down there to kind of eliminate
some of the riff raft that could potentially damage our park? Uh I talked to the police chief today. Um, last year he had borrowed one from, I believe, Ramsey County. They had a spare at the time. Uh, he reached out to
them. They did not have it. Um, so I referenced him to how White Bear Lake does it. They have rentals that they use actually and put them out all summer long at some of their beaches and different areas. So, he was going to look into that to see if that was available. Uh, part of our issue was we
didn't have camera coverage over the parking lot, which is where we had tended to have some of our problems. Um, we do have camera on the parking lot now, so that'll be helpful. But, uh, hopefully we can still get a trailer out there. Okay. Just want to make sure that's safe and that doesn't get damaged
again. And if not, they will be doing drive-throughs there, he said, on a regular basis. Okay. Could we put a car down there with lights on for a couple hours just to deter everything? I'll I'll talk to him about it. At least scare the people away, you know?
Otherwise, I'll sit down there. That'll scare him. It will too. I know. All right. Um, I would just like to remind everyone listening that with the new motorcycle laws going into effect today with filtering and splitting, please, please check your side view
mirrors when you're driving. Yes. I don't like that law. I was at the car show last Friday. Was the banner turnout? Lots of people. beautiful evening for it. So, it was a great that was a another great success
indeed. There's nothing else. Our next meeting will be July 15th. I ask for adjournment. So, move Council Member Mackenzie. Second. Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you
all and have a great night. Just before