Alright. Good evening. This is the city of Northfield city council work session for Tuesday, 04/14/2026 at 6PM. I'm calling the meeting to order and requesting a roll call, please. Mayor Zweifel? Here. Councilor Beamer? Here. Councilor Dahlen? Here. Councilor Holmes? Here. Councilor Ness? Here. Councilor Peterson White? Here. Councilor Soukup? Thank you. The first item on our agenda tonight is the twenty twenty six absentee early voting primary election and general election update. And the staff report on that is coming from Ms.
Peterson. Mayor, members of the council, Ben will be running the PowerPoint for me while I present. So we're just going to give you an elections update for twenty twenty six elections. The first slide basically, just says what we're going over the key election dates, election overview, candidate filing, state primary election, state general election, proposed absentee ballot hours, early voting, council input on proposed absentee ballot hours and candidate and council preparation timeline. All right. Just a second. All right. So this just is a slide with all the different dates, and we'll go over these more as the presentation goes on.
So I'm just gonna leave that with that, and we'll go to the next slide. So for the election overview, the city clerk's office in conjunction with Rice And Dakota Counties administers elections. This includes candidate filings, the state primary election, the state general election. We coordinate absentee balloting, early voting and staffing, and we ensure compliance with state and federal laws. The candidate filing period this year is May 19 through June 2. Filing packets will be available online the week prior to filings opening. And the open positions this year are a council member at large, council member ward one and council member ward four.
The state primary election is August 11. Absentee early voting period is starts June 26, and it goes through August 10. That we have at the 2nd Floor Training Room in City Hall. The last day to pre register is July 21. That does not mean that you cannot register after that. It just means that you have to register in person with your ID. And, Could you pause for just a minute? I I think we got out of order on the slides. Oh, sorry. You're right. You're right. Okay. Yep. Sorry. I forgot to tell him to move move the slide.
I just Okay. I'm just keep going. You're great. Now Alright. Now we're seeing the state primary. No. It's not your it. Yes. Clearly, administrator March 6. Sorry. I'm just so excited to present to you guys. Yeah. So now now on the screen, we're seeing the state primary election slide. Yes. So that's August 11. And then that absentee validating validating period is June 26 through August 10. And that's in City Hall. And then the last day to pre register is July 21. Next slide. The state general election is on November 3
and absentee early voting period for that starts September 18, which is forty six days prior and it goes through November 2. We will have that again at the 2nd Floor Training Room in City Hall. And we're unique in Northfield because we do partner with the county and we do all of all of Rice County. Every ballot is in our in our precinct up there in our absentee room. And anyone from anywhere in Rice County can come and do their early voting here. The last day to pre register for for the general election is October 13.
Next slide. So the early voting absentee process, in Minnesota, it's called no excuse absentee voting. Any eligible voter may participate and that is available by mail or in person at any of the precincts that are open, which the precinct our precinct for absentee balloting is in City Hall at the 2nd Floor Training Room. That doesn't mean all of our precincts in Rice County are open. It's just that that and then the, Rice County Government Center. Voting begins forty six days before election and it's open to registered voters or unregistered voters.
Unregistered voters can register with the correct verification during this process. The option there is the option to join a permanent absentee list, and that's where the ballots are automatically sent to you every election. So you can, request that right on the absentee ballot application. Next slide. For process and administration, the application is required online. You can either do it online directly, and it goes right through the SBRS system, through the state, or you can mail it in or come in in person and apply for an absentee ballot. The ballot is issued with instructions and return material.
They are required if they mail it out to you to have a return envelope with a stamp so you can easily just put it in the mailbox and mail it back. The voter completes the ballot and returns it by mail or in person by drop off or and the ballot must be received by election day in order to be counted. Next slide. The ballot is reviewed by the absentee ballot board during this process, and the they verify the voter eligibility and confirm the required information and signatures. The security measures include ballot there's a ballot tracking system online.
There's a, you know, unique voter identification, and there's a bipartisan review process. Absentee ballots are processed through election machines on Election Day and also through the eight throughout the eighteen days prior to Election Day. So the county will keep all of those ballots in their envelopes until that it's eighteen days prior when the election machines are in in use. And then they'll run them all through. Next slide. Now we have the early voting period. This is still considered the early voting period. It used to be called direct balloting,
and it used to be ten days prior. This year, it's changed to eighteen days prior. Any eligible voter may participate and it's it's open to registered and unregistered voters. Again, they can register in person the day of that they want to vote. And this is new for 2026 because it used to be referred to direct balloting and it used to be only ten days. This next year it's eighteen days. Next slide. For this, the voter will provide their name, address and verification information. They will look at what what the system pulls up and make sure that everything
is correct on their registration. Their registration is confirmed, or if there's something that changes, they'll have to re register. The voter will sign a certification. It's a shortened form from an absentee ballot application. They'll receive a ballot, mark their ballot, and then they'll deposit the ballot right into the machine. So their vote will be counted that day in the machine. Next slide. There is a new module that the state of Minnesota brought out for their statewide voter registration system, SVRS, for this process. Early voting will be staffed by at least two officials for bipartisan representation. And there is required daily balancing to ensure the number of ballots cast match the
number of voter certificates. So it's basically the same process as if on Election Day you go to the voting or to the polls. Ballots are sealed and securely stored each night. Next slide. Results are reported as part of the absentee ballot totals. And eventually, not for the primary, the poll pads will be integrated into future elections. So when you come in up to our, 2nd Floor Training Room eighteen days prior, eventually, we will have the poll pads and they'll be set up just identical to Election Day where you'll come in and you'll just we'll process you just like an Election Day. And it will replicate more of the at the voting at the polling place voting
process versus having all the forms with the absentee ballot application. And that that will not be for the primary, I've been told, because, they haven't they haven't not refined that process yet with the SBRS system. But we're hoping maybe for the general or in two years. All right. Next, slide. No, that's right. That's right. So, we are proposing for the primary and general election new hours here at City Hall. We are proposing to have Monday through Thursday, eight a. M. To 03:30 p.
M. And Friday, eight a. M. To eleven p. M. Eleven a. M. Eleven a. M. Eleven a. M, not eleven p. M. These hours match what Rice County is proposing for their early voting hours. In 2024, our hours were the same as city hall voting hours. So this would be cutting it back. Yes. Oh, sorry. City hall hours. Thank you. So we would be cutting it back. Instead of closing at 04:30, we'd ask to close at 03:30. And instead of being here at 07:30 open and ready to go, we'd propose coming in at eight or having them open at eight.
We'd still be here earlier. And then Fridays eight to eleven. Next slide. State statute does require additional early voting hours for both the primary and the general elections, and I'm going to go through those for you. The primary election, we are, required to be open the Saturday before elections. So that would be Saturday, August 8 from 9AM to 3PM. And then we're also have to be open on Monday, August 10 until five p. M. So we would not we'd have to close at five p. M. And take that last voter right up to five p. M. Early voting additional hours for the general election is,
two Saturdays before the election. So it's Saturday, October 24. The Tuesday be the Tuesday before the election, we have to be open 8AM to 7PM. The Saturday right before the election, which is Halloween, would have to be 9AM to 3PM. And then the Sunday before the election, 9AM to 3PM. And the Monday, eight a. M. To five p. M. Again. The benefits of the alignment of the proposed early voting hours are the consistency for voters throughout the entire county. It reduces confusion on the hours. It will improve the staff workflow,
ensure reporting is completed by city hall closing time that give us that extra hour to get all the reports done and make sure we're all sealed up and ready to go. And then it supports the accuracy and compliance, and it may reduce the staffing costs. The alternative option could be that we could extend the hours beyond the proposed schedule and extend either just the Tuesday hours to to a little bit later, like our hours are now for the building, or we could align, like, with the city hall business hours like we did in 2024. However,
extending the hours may result in additional overtime hours for hourly employees. So here we come to the council input. And we just need to I basically need a consensus on this if you if you guys are in agreement or not. Does the council agree with aligning Northfield absentee early voting hours with Bryce County absentee early voting hours? Thank you. Yeah. Administrator Martig. Do you all maybe just go through again even for the Yep. What what the city hall hours are. Do you know off the top of your head? Yes. Okay. So city hall hours currently are 8AM to 04:30PM or 07:30AM to 04:30PM,
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then on Tuesdays, they're 07:30AM to 6PM, and Fridays, 07:30AM to noon. What we are proposing is to do Monday through Thursday for voting hours, 8AM to 03:30PM, and then on Fridays, 8AM to 11AM. Yeah. Thank you. Councilor Ness. I agree. One set of hours, county and city. Thank you. Should we just go around councilor Peterson White? Sure. I think that's fine. I think it's it's, you know, more hours are good, but our budget is limited.
And, I think that making the hours less confusing for people by having them match the county has probably as much benefit as a few extra hours. Yeah. I like the consistency with the county. Right. I also like the consistency, and I would be open to a extension on Tuesdays. Councilor Beamer. I like the consistency as well. Consistency as well. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Holmes? I also support the consistency. Great. We have a consistent consistency consensus. Consistent yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes. Alright. I will relay that to both of the counties because they have both this week,
inquired about our hours because they are starting to put it on the website. And we will make sure our website has the correct hours. Now we do have one precinct in Dakota County, and they have a couple different precincts or a couple different early voting places, and theirs would not be the same as this. But Rice County would, which is the majority of our voters. Thank you for that. Alright. I'm gonna help on this one even though staff put together the presentation. And Lynette, and Sarah in our office certainly help a lot with this. And then we bring particularly when we've done in person meetings with our council candidate,
kind of onboarding, I guess, for lack of a better term here, has helped on some of the presentations we've gone through as well and I know some of you participated in those last year. So we're kind of ramping up to do something similar, a little bit of an add on. And so if you had any feedback, particularly those that maybe went through that process a little more formally that might have some fresh feedback to it, we're certainly open to that. So I'll quickly go through that. I'm not kind of I'm sure you probably looked at the packet. It wasn't super heavy here this evening, but the,
the next slides will talk about some of the other pieces we're doing. But one thing we didn't do the last election that we're recommending to do with candidates would be, first of all, loading information about, like, what does it mean, like, the council and board member guide and some of that, getting that on there along with, like, these filing deadlines for people. So I'm sure there are people already thinking about or decided or on on running potentially for council seat. But last time around, we didn't do after the closing the initial filing period and before the primary election. We didn't hold an educational opportunity at that point.
And I think in reviewing that last time around for the primary election, assuming we'll need to have one potentially, probably, you know, generally, you've had interest. Just like as we get those initial candidates in, getting them the workbooks, like the hard binders that we've created with all those handouts, offering a meeting with them, maybe talking about particularly projects that maybe have some legs around, and then just putting a face to it to be able to ask questions. I think it could be helpful, particularly as I observe some you know, sometimes the media and things get pretty active early on what policy positions you have.
So even understanding kind of like what's the role, what's going on, and to have a face to ask questions of staff, I'm sure some people reach out to you as elected officials for feedback too, which that's always an option. But so we're looking at adding that where we haven't done that in the past. We think that might just help that initial round, to to do a check-in person opportunity to make that available to people. I think we did a recording of it the last time, so people couldn't make it. We did have, like, an on demand ability to rewatch it, with that. But basically trying to help them understand kind of what's involved in being a council
member, probably offer them contact information to all of you, which they might be reaching out to that as well. So we're proposing to add that in. These are the resources that we put together the last time around. So, we actually had have physical three ring binders that we give out. So depending on how many candidates we get to file, it could be a number of them. But I think it's money well spent to put together a formal workbook, for people if they're serious enough to run for office. Try and get them available, so even things like dates or if the League of Cities have training for people to get it on their calendars and know when those things might happening,
organizational charts. I think we went through our city website with them kind of in person as part of that. So we kind of we'd probably do a more shortened version of this. The first one that we would be adding and even include some of our directors, the police chief, the public works director, so they can kind of get to see some of our key internal staff as well. And then between after the initial primary and then heading into general, this is when we did before. I'm not getting into all the details, but we did, like, a PowerPoint. We did an in person meeting. So we kinda have another step then to to allow people to kinda get a
deeper dive as they go into the final general election. So you saw the list of some of those materials. Anything helpful in the feedback? Anythings that you think were missing? Did you find it beneficial or not? And what other maybe resources might be helpful as part of that, I guess, is kind of an open question. So I know we didn't provide a lot of detail, but hopefully between seeing the resources and I know having some of you that have recently went through that, if you had any feedback, we're gonna be starting to ramp that up here, and we'd be happy to take some of that feedback to try and, see how we can improve that experience for people.
Great. Thank you. Feedback, on the onboarding? I don't I don't remember if you mentioned it, but maybe highlighting large capital projects that are either underway or in the pipeline? Yes. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. So this time around, I'd certainly provide the strategic plan that we have. So just kind of thinking off the top of my head, just recent council meeting, the dam removal process to give some history, context, show them the project page that relates to it, have an opportunity to understand where we're at in the process or if they have
questions for Dave, technical questions or those kinds of things. Because sometimes you get put on the spot pretty early on taking policy positions that are always up you are all living this. It's kind of an evolving process, and that one can be a little tricky where, you know, it's intergovernmental work. So that would be one example. Probably share our capital improvement plan, what that means. 27 projects are pretty much already in the works and understanding where those are at. But the 28 and beyond are going to be coming to these budget meetings and things. So just kind of explaining the planning and like how concrete the earlier years are
and then as you get later, we're still working on improving the financial management plan. So I mean, those are a couple of examples and probably varying degrees on the specificity we get into that or if they just are tracking certain projects and they have questions, just being able to have staff available to answer the questions they might have on their own. As a follow-up to that, would it be helpful to do it as both paper and electronic where the project pages could be in an email so they are linked resources are linked instead of printing out Oh.
All the project pay I don't know what you were thinking in terms of the project pages, but maybe it's some of it is a handy guide that you might want to have, the paper, but also having an electronic version that has links. Yes. Sorry. To clarify, to the projects, we did more on probably a PowerPoint slide where we would have kind of a general summary and then push them to the website for more of the detail. But, yeah, that's a good suggestion. We definitely would would do that. Other comments, suggestions? I would say we'll take feedback offline too.
So even if there are technical, more detailed issues you'd like to share more privately, we'd take those offline as well. Thank you. Counselor Peterson White? Well, it certainly seems like the folks who are on the ballot in 2024 would be the most able to weigh in on the what's valuable here, what else might be valuable, and I would appreciate hearing that. I think my question is, I'm not sure that this belongs in this in these materials, but I'm wondering, does the secretary of state still print a booklet of, like, relevant election regulations?
And is that included in this somehow? Are people responsible for learning about that independently? I you know, over the years, we've had various issues with signs and whether people have the correct disclaimer on their advertising. And, you know, the more kind of media like DIY media proliferates, the easier it is for those, statute violations to happen, and they, in my opinion, they really matter. So I'm wondering if we it it may not be our role to make sure
people have that information, but maybe this is an opportunity to at least point them in that direction, make sure people know that they're responsible for knowing those rules around like finance and signs and advertising and things like that. Yes. So mayor, members of the council, each, candidate does receive the election. The I don't know the exact name of it, but it's from the secretary of state, the election guide for filing as a candidate. And that has all of that information in there. And we even go to the point that we print out our city regulations for
signs so that they're not in the right of way, things like that. And that's all included in their filing packet. And we tell them when they do file, we tell them that it's there, whether they review it. And and we do tell them that there's certain certain guidelines for their finance reports and that they have to when they have to they have to file them so many days. And that's all in that manual. Great. Thank you. Councilor Beamer. Thank you. I was hoping somebody else was going to speak before I did just because I was processing some things on what to say. The thing I found I mean,
city clerk was amazingly helpful in answering questions and emails to, this rookie when when I was campaigning, a couple years ago too. So, to that, that's awesome. And I, you know, I had fired off some emails to to administrator Marta again and other staff members and also found them super responsive and and quick to answer emails as well. The the part about adding an an an additional,
briefing, like, after the filing period, that would be the one area where I would almost I would caution on that probably more so than anything. Just looking back for the reasons that I ran and, you know, a lot of the people that were running at the same time were running. I could potentially be viewed be viewed in incorrectly by those by those running would be, like, maybe, okay. The city's bringing us in trying to tell us how it's gonna be how it's
how this is gonna happen. I I just the optics of it, I would almost I I like the steps that we took back, you know, two years ago where after the primary, then we we had that cup a couple of meetings between then and the time that that we were all sworn in. I I thought that process actually worked out quite well. Just and I say that because a lot of it's gonna depend on the person and who's who's running.
That would be my only my only thought about that particular part of what you'd proposed. But I the resources that I was handed, from Lynette when when I did my filing and all that stuff was extremely helpful. Getting that three ring binder at the orientation meeting prior to the general election was extremely helpful. There's a lot of good information in there that allows you to kinda dive into some of the the high level stuff and and get kinda the the bare bones
of it anyways. So I guess that's kinda where I sit with it. So, anybody else has something to say, go for it. If I could follow-up and ask you a question. Yeah. Sure. I'm curious how information that you received after the primary. And so I think we're what I understand is we're talking about maybe providing that same information prior to the, prior to the primary. Mhmm. But I'm hearing you say maybe it wouldn't be helpful prior to the primary. It's is that what you're saying? Yes. To yes. I just
the primary kind of because everything happens so quickly from the filing from the filing deadline to the primary. That short stretch of time was a complete and utter blur to me. And and it was a it was a door knocking festival, basically. I I mean, it I was pounding the pavement as quickly as and and every spare minute, especially for somebody who works out of town, every spare minute is an extra minute to to pay attention to your campaign as well.
So that's just it's just my opinion. And, I mean, if everybody else is for it, then that's that's fine too. I do I just it's just just kind of my thought is all. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you for answering my clarifying question. I'm just trying to think about, yeah, what would be most useful to, potential candidates out there. So councilor Soukup. Thanks. I think regardless of if it's before the primary or after, I feel like one meeting, in my mind, is fine.
I don't know that there need I don't know. My kind of gut reaction is, like, thinking about it's hard to say without knowing how many people are gonna be running. There might not even be a primary at the city level. I just worry about it being a huge, like, administrative burden to make two meetings happen when they might be really redundant if the same people are showing up, but just a smaller number. I tend to think that sorry. I'm gonna say the opposite of what you said, councilor Beamer, but we didn't have a informational meeting when I ran,
or at least if there was one, I wasn't able to make it. It was four years ago, so I don't remember. But, I would think it would be really helpful just to ask questions, before, you know, door knocking starts really happening, especially before debates start happening, before you start being interviewed by local press to feel a little bit more confident talking about what the city is up to and whether what your feelings are on that, you know, can run the whole spectrum. But, I I agree,
though, that maybe the optics for certain candidates might kind of bristle at that, but then they could just not show up if they choose not to. I would've I think I would've found it helpful, to as a candidate. So, I would just think, though, that if you're gonna do it once, I think one one meeting is is plenty. And then people can reach out and ask follow-up questions as as they need to in my mind. Yeah. Thank you. So that's helpful so that we can I I that's really helpful to frame it
that way in terms of capacity and staff time? So if we're looking at offering it once, it looks like the question is preprimary or postprimary. Yeah. Okay. Counselor Holmes. Thanks. I this wasn't available. Don't worry. You didn't miss it. We didn't have it. It was just in the last election. You didn't miss anything. So so I can't speak to feedback on that, but in listening to the conversation, I think, do we have a clear problem statement of, like, what it is we're trying to solve for with this? Can you articulate that? I don't have one typed up.
I guess, I don't know, trying to wing it, I guess, is just making sure that people know who the people are to ask the questions, just generally the organizational structure, kind of the summary of the roles, some of those documents that are in there, just understanding it because, I mean, most people I think are in tune to things, but sometimes I've had candidates not even understanding really what the city government specifically does before. So just kind of giving some of that foundation. Of course, we have people across the experience level, very sophisticated people to not at all. So just kind
of trying to break the ice because a lot of times, the candidate filings, I think, at least from my seat, as they come in, they interact with the clerk quite a bit to kind of get the packet and that kind of things. But to know, like, if you have questions about this or that, a public here's the public works director's contact information. You'd be happy to answer a question if you have a question about some project that you're getting asked about or, I don't know, the police chief, kind of probably the department heads into some of that general contact information just to get at a high level. I I was struggling a little bit too because I haven't really thought it out
as far as, like, the duplication of the meetings. I do think, like, that in person one could be duplicative, so I think that's good feedback. I haven't really thought that through a whole lot. But I think it's just how do you make that experience beyond just the election process to understand questions and resources available to people because, again, I I was probably last election too just surprised how in-depth some of the questions on, like, the newspaper and the candidate forums that were asked. And, frankly, sometimes the questions that are asked aren't even really relevant directly to council people. So letting them know sometimes the people asking the questions might not even know
how to frame a question in a way that a policymaker gets posed it, and that's okay and that it's okay to ask because some of those resources too do give people time and it's okay I think to reach out and ask questions like whoever made the comment to. I mean, like people can have strong opinions, that's fine on it. But hopefully, we can help get them factual information if they want to have it so that it's so that their experience that they're not just going through blindly and not comfortable to be able to reach out with questions. And that's kind of even when I said with having contact with elected officials,
making it easy to I'm sure they can get a hold of you, but having another resource there. So, I mean, that's not really a problem statement. But trying to ease in the organizational operation to understand a little bit of that and the policies with it, I think, is just some of the the effort. I'll I'll just add that from my perspective too, it's also a best practice when you do something new like it was new to do this, to reflect on it and see, if it was helpful. Oh, I'm not questioning us for this conversation. That's perfect too. Okay. Yeah. This should be right. Yeah. I I guess I'm just thinking of if we have our problem statement,
do we have the solution that like, are are we finding the best solution possible for that? And and it might be a meeting, but I wonder if it also is a recording that then people don't have to come and sit together. Right? I mean, we ended up with seven. Do we have seven people running? Nine? Seven. A a billion people running for mayor. Right? And so I think I also wanna think about the, the time that the the the staff is opening themselves up to, which I think it's great. We should be open to these candidates. And, also, let's make sure that the time and that the time we're investing is equivalent to
what what we need. So just thinking, I think one meeting would suffice. I don't know if it needs to be before the primary or not. I mean, I kinda feel like, well, if we have a primary, then we should probably be investing in the people who are farther along. But, but also then, like, what what is the best use of your time? And is it a video? Is it this? Is it that? So I'm not coming up with a total solution, but just questioning if it needs to be the meeting. Okay. I'll go councilor Peterson White and then councilor Beamer. This is really interesting. I think it's a really great conversation to have. Back in my day, we didn't have any of this.
We had a booklet from the secretary of state. That was it. And then we came to council meetings to educate ourselves on, what was going on, which some people still do. I think that part of what I'm interested in about this and how I saw it play out in the last cycle as different from before, right, in in terms of candidates having more of the same basis of information is that in part, that is a service to the voters. Right? If, like, the candidates are not spending time extra time, like, deliberating amongst themselves about what the reality is,
then they, if they if they have sort of a shared basis of some amount of information, then I think that that in some ways helps the voters get through to, like, what are these people what are their values? What do they believe? What's their perspective? And which is, you know, I think that that's not necessarily the most important role for city staff to play, but it is a side benefit of doing this, I think. It seems to me that I like, I was sitting here thinking, like, well, why wouldn't you wanna go to a meeting about this if you're running for office? Right? Like, you're gonna be working with these people. Maybe you hate everything government does,
but still you're running for office, which is involved in government. But I think that now that I'm I'm sitting kind of imagining how such an event would go and like you're sitting there with all your fellow candidates hearing a presentation. And I I think it's that's very limiting in a way in terms of, like, what questions people will feel at liberty to ask, whether it's gonna really be more of a question or really more of a rhetorical question and a a presentation that a candidate might take the opportunity to make because, really, they're running for office. They're they're not there to take a seminar perhaps.
Right? So I think if there are ways that we can make sure that people have access to this information that doesn't require them to all sit in a room together, that might make a lot of sense. I think a recorded presentation could be amazing, and that could come along with an offer to meet with candidates. I think that there is some leveling of the playing field that could happen in terms of, you know, probably some candidates of certain demographics might feel more entitled to call city staff, or they might know city staff already.
Right? They might have relationships that would make them feel comfortable, contacting city staff with questions, or they might just have kind of an existing position in the community or other privilege that might make them feel more comfortable doing that. Whereas less traditional candidates, candidates that are perhaps from marginalized groups or who just don't have the same privileges or connections are much less likely to approach city staff or even assume that they
can do that. Right? And to me, that's what's most interesting about this is is giving all the candidates equal access to the experts who have the information. So and I I think maybe inviting everybody to sit in a room together is maybe not the best model. I think it could work. It would be efficient, but I don't know that it would lead to people really feeling like they can ask genuine questions as much as some other kind of format would. And then I guess I would urge staff to think about you know,
I think you're already being incredibly generous with your time and resources in thinking about this this way, And I'm sure that many cities don't provide staff time to try to educate candidates on the issues. As I said, you know, there I've run a lot of elections where none of us was, like, really available, and that's probably how it is in a lot of places. So I think we should look at this as, well, I just I think it's a really generous way to think about it and, is in the public interest to think about it this way, and I appreciate that you're all doing that. I think that to give some thought to
what the best way is to ensure that every candidate feels equal access to staff if you do wanna make yourselves available for conversations, questions, things like that. To me, that seems like an individual approach probably, per candidate, and I think I would just leave it to staff to think about what what the best way to sort of make yourselves available would be. Thank you for applying that equity lens. Sure. It was really helpful. Councilor Beamer. Thank you.
I I agree with councilor Peterson White. As far as, you know, last the the last go around, the first big meeting that we had with all the candidates was post primary. I believe it was probably September or October sometime if I remember correctly. It was a little awkward. I mean, you're sitting right next to your opponent, which the seating arrangements were a little probably awkward too. Excuse me. But with that also being said, I, you know, I sat next to my opponent at how many,
you know, forums and stuff there too. So, you know, there was there was a definite a definite, comfort level, you know, sitting next to my opponent. And and, so I didn't I didn't really find that all that terribly awkward either. Might have prevented me from asking a few questions, but I'd I mean, that that meeting to me was really more about information and processes and stuff like that. So, you know, questions that to me were more of an email type item.
I like the idea of the video of of a video put together by staff. So it at least that information is available to each and every candidate, whether they choose to to look at it or not. That's up to them. I also agree with councilor Peterson White. The and for any candidate potential candidates that would ever step into any sort of, local government, county government, whatever, attending the meetings is by far the best way to learn process,
figure out what's going on within the community. I think I looking back, I think I announced that I was gonna run, like, October. And, basically, I had think I had attended a few meetings prior to that and most meetings after that. So that is that is truly the greatest way to to stay up to date with what's going on, within within your local government. But just I the video part, I thought was a great idea.
So, thank you, councilor Peterson White, for bringing that up. Yeah. Councilor Ness. Thank you. I too think that having that material available somehow on electronically, video, whatever, I think would be very important. But it might even be a replica of that binder. You know? The everything in there on the screen so somebody can sit down at their house and look through it, but then still have a face to face meeting like councilor Beamer just said between
the primary and the general, pass out the binder so they all have a second copy or maybe looking at it for the first time. I think that might be important because I too am from the dark ages where we had none of this. We showed up for our first meeting when we were got sworn in. Look. I'm still around. You you made it. You made it. Yeah. We they used to deliver our packets. The police would drive up to your car and deliver the packets, and it took my neighbors forever to get used to that.
Mhmm. I will never forget the first time a sheriff's deputy, like, knocked on my door with my county board packet. I was like, what is happening? I just have this binder for you, ma'am. Counselor Ness. I used to tell him the police have to check up on him every week. Alright. Other comments for staff on this discussion item? This is all super helpful. Thank you. Oh, counselor Dolan. Yeah. Thank you. I see. I'll be short, brief. Thank you, mayor. I I hesitate to formalize the process because, a first time candidate is a citizen, and they could end up being just a normal citizen after the primary,
after the general. And so if you formalize it, it just puts a way of suggesting that there's a way to run your election or run to your campaign. And on the on the access part, I I chuckle because I met with sitting council members to ask what was going on. Or I as I as Chad and I would sit in the back row there, we would try to figure out what was happening at the meetings. So one has to inform themselves. And then I suppose when there are questions, if it's not available on the website, I was surprised.
Almost all the questions I had were available somewhere and even direct coffees with some people I'm looking at tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Dahl. Do you need additional feedback, Administrator Martek? No, I think that's really helpful. And, we'll take that to refine some of this, and you'll see as that comes forward. So thank you. Does that take us to our next agenda item, which is the budget? Yeah. So on this item, I didn't do any supplemental. I'm gonna basically do our an updated slide. There's more thought that goes into it than probably is what's going to feel like
on the slide deck that you're seeing. But I wanted to just talk about the these on your screen and I'll email this out to you. We probably post this slide deck on our on our information page for our city packets. But, basically, we when I went through the presentation last time from the city council, I think there was pretty clear consensus about liking some of the feedback on the back end post preliminary levy and budget adoption goals that we had from the last meeting, but there was interest to say what can we do to accelerate public feedback and presentation on the front end so that there's more runway length for people to be
informed and have the opportunity for some engagement. I don't have details on some of those engagement pieces, but let me just walk through some of the adjustments based on the feedback I received and then thinking what's what's realistic and what we're working on. And I'll share a little details of those as I'm coming forward. So I'm highlighting in yellow what changed from the last diversion, that you saw. So one of them that we're looking at doing at the work session in May would be to we believe that because we had just done our five year utility
rate study and so for the most part, we've just done some fairly significant projects at the wastewater plant and the water fund. So we're not going to expect to see really many changes on what we are recommending other than maybe some numbers are getting adjusted a little bit on updated construction cost estimates. So the thought would be is we could accelerate our utility run one to May to have wastewater, stormwater, water and garbage fund, basically, everything that people would get on the utility bill, capital plan, capital equipment plan, that rate study. And then I'd say,
optimistically, we might have our operating budgets actually ready to present because we can open up that piece just on its own to staff because we're not gonna quite be ready opening up the rest of the budget pieces to them. We think we can have a pretty comp comprehensive update to you. A lot of that might be refreshing too because we're we're we're, just hitting the refresh button. Because, again, it's probably gonna be more of what we presented last year to you just with some minor updates on where some things are at with it. What that'll allow us to do is we've always had this goal in recent history, and I think we've been successful in the past few years of actually setting the
rates as part of the preliminary budget. So the utility side of things actually gets adopted at the September meeting. So that would give us presentation in May. Maybe we have a follow-up at the June work session to say anything that you asked us to get more information on utility wise or any policy discussions that were carried over from that meeting. But if not, then pretty much July, August, we could be ramping up education on just the utility side of things for people and businesses, which I think is helpful. Side note, it's not on this slide, but we have now started starting last year.
What I think is a good practice that carried forward from a prior position was we are now annually doing direct communications now with our major industrial users around wastewater and water where we're giving them an advance notice of what's coming, when the votes would be and then offering an in person meeting to answer questions if there are any of that. So we did that in a prior job. And I think based on some feedback from particularly some of those more large industries, we are offering that as well. So that one, I think, could help us to accelerate.
We can still be communicating later some of the utility funds, but kind of get that wrapped up and then offer an opportunity where that one's in pretty solid shape to get feedback during that time period from basically June to the September adoption. There'll be plenty of opportunity for feedback on those utility funds. One little wrinkle, we are planning on coming back to you on potentially look at that composting discussion that we ended up not dealing with through our refuse contract last year. I'd say tentatively right now, we're making some progress internally with staff. We're shooting for May or June,
I would say probably right now more likely June, for it to be comprehensive to go to the Environmental Quality Commission and then back to the council. So it either be May or June that we're looking at trying to hit with them with some new information on the composting to come back to you with some discussion on that, which could change some of the service levels on the refuse side of things. But I think we could manage that within the schedule too, but just wanted you to be aware of that one. At the May, so the June meeting is we didn't adjust that one. It would allow us then not to have to deal with the utility funds at the June meeting, which should free up more time to dig into those other capital pieces of the
project because you get inundated with these with detail. So it might allow us also then to focus in more on that one on projects. There was an interest we were unable to pull it off last year, but I think we've heard feedback that council some councilors have expressed interest that was shared at the last meeting too about could we do a site tour. So I did talk to our public works director, and he thought it would be probably better to do it before you have the in person meeting if we could get out on some specific sites. It can be time consuming to do that too, though. So he hasn't we haven't had a chance to, like, look through the current CIP and which ones might be meaningful.
So I'm kinda thinking it's probably gonna be the 28 projects and beyond because 27, you're already authorizing designs and stuff on street projects. So you're kind of already in the middle of those. But if there are ones that are easy to go maybe on your own and take a look at that don't require a maybe a a dedicated time to get off of a bus or something, but we're gonna be working on trying to find a date that would work. Might even mean, could we free up either the second meeting in May or the first meeting in June possibly rather than having a whole separate night because you've already got that on your calendars? So we might we might look at doing that assuming you still think that,
that could be beneficial going into that CIP. Probably things like depending on the complexity of a street project, if there's like walking, biking infrastructure or something, those would probably be ones to focus on. One that Dave was talking to me about that we're going to want some feedback on is you know, the compost site that we have. We've been kind of carrying forward the idea of possibly doing another exit out in the fall if people get trapped with the trains in there. It's a pretty expensive project, though. But that one probably on paper, you could get the facts and go on your own and take a look at it, but those are the ones we're probably weighing through,
some details about that. So that might allow us to have more prep going into that capital improvement meeting, though, to hopefully have prompted you on like the projects in the packet maybe ahead of time, and then you could be thinking about policy questions and feedback going into that. Moving along, our audit is in good shape. Our auditors are here or have been recently getting that work done. So it's going well. We believe with that, looking at July to be able to accelerate up from August, the department detail for at least '27 because I think we're going to as as
I talked about, we are now we've been working on the budget and the five year financial plan drafting, just taking a little more time. And one there's three reasons why I think it'd be helpful to land that more detail in July, maybe June tied with the CIP. One is, I think it might help us. I think we'll have greater idea of fund balances related to audit report at that time that I think will be helpful on where we could maybe use some cash reserves if we have more carryover dollars, like if we have a favorable budget variance in the general fund. We're starting to see some of those details,
but it'll get fine tuned here in the next month or two. So that would be helpful. The NCRC fund has been one where we're working on updated lease terms and we the finances are now in good order and we had to push it off a month because we're going to meet with some of the tenants first to explain that. That will be coming in May. That's been a bigger cost impact, one that we wanted to include with that five year financial plan. With that and then I think the third one is we are looking at other cities examples because a lot of times the financial plan,
although we've been focused just on the levy, it should be broader than that. It should show all your revenues and expenses to illustrate that. So we're building the model a little bit bigger. Some cities have used consultants for that. We're trying to do that in house with our budget analysts though to save dollars. So we've been looking at some examples. So it would either be a standalone document or potentially like a chapter of our budget. That would be a part of that. So that could be helpful. So we're accelerating that to the department detail that we think we can hit that in July that would allow more engagement in August. We can talk more later about what that engagement might be.
We started to look into that a little bit more, but we want to research that further. But those are the adjustments that we made to that front end to hopefully give more lead time for engagement heading into September, where it was heavier post preliminary budget that we think we that I heard feedback from you on that one. So that's kind of an update on the calendar adjustments that we're making. There's a lot more detail than the summary slide that we have. But if this is helpful, I think we're going to I'm going to be ramping more up into this schedule
to refine it and then to hit these deadlines is going to be the goal with it and then probably some follow-up meetings about how information and engagement might happen that we would come back to you at a future meeting. So that's a quick overview. I'll turn it back to the mayor to see. I know this is just getting presented to you now. I don't know if you have any immediate feedback or if you wanna think about it. But if you had any thoughts on it, I'm certainly open to it because this I'll probably continue to work towards this goal, especially the May meeting. I'm going to be really ramping up with Dave and Justin to try and hit that meeting to have a lot earlier start,
which is probably, at least from prior years, probably two, three months in advance of where we were at before. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Let's see. Any comments or questions from, the council on this schedule? Councilor Sochup. Thanks. I have a question to a point you just made and then, maybe some feedback about that. May well, I'll just I'll follow-up if needed, but I'm curious about the you mentioned the public you'll be coming back to get feedback about the public information and engagement. And I'm just wondering if you have if you have initial thoughts
already about if that's going to take more form of, like, mailings and social media versus are you still thinking about how to format more of a town hall event? And, I guess, I'll keep it there and then maybe follow-up. Yes. Good questions. Those are the things we haven't really completely vetted out yet, and we'd want your feedback on those too. So we'd probably be coming back in May with some of that. But I think by first making sure I understood what we think we can achieve on like the utility funds moving up, then I think now that we've I've internally kind of vetted that with staff,
I think that might then allow us to move to the next phase of those questions of like how do we inform or do we want feedback and how is it helpful. I don't have any of that. But if you've been thinking about it and you have ideas you want to explore, totally would love to hear that because otherwise we'll be brainstorming it for you to react to something. But if there if you any of you have been thinking about that tonight to share or offline, definitely open to hearing about that. I also want to be realistic about capacity too, so that we aren't trying to go to all in and then we can't perform
on some of it as well because I also wanna make sure we're capacity wise in good shape because I kind of got almost three phases that I'm thinking of related to communications, especially if you break out utilities as its own then you got kind of working budget phase and then the recommended budget is kind of the last phase of it. So I'm kind of gonna be thinking about how we communicate on those three different pieces, and the utility funds are probably gonna be a little different than the that one's gonna be probably a little more informative than it is engaging back on those because they're pretty well programmed out,
currently. Oh, oh, I was just gonna note that if we are successful at the legislature and we have a local option sales tax, just thinking about the additional work that, that would be on staff as well. So just wanted to, fingers crossed, and just lift that up as we're talking. So, councilor Soukup, you had a follow-up. Yeah. And that that's actually a good point. I meant to mention that in the our last conversation. I think if that meeting for candidates, whether it's a video recording and whatnot,
if there is a gonna be a local option sales tax on the ballot, I feel like that's gonna be really important to inform earlier about what that is and what it means. Like, a good opportunity to engage candidates because they're gonna get asked that constantly. But, to follow-up about the just thinking about the calendar that you're presenting, I know last time we talked about this, we talked about the idea of more of a town hall format. I think I I would be a huge, proponent of that. As, as I said last time, I think, though, I've I've also,
I'm thinking about staff capacity and and just how people think what what, like, a average citizen of Northfield, I don't know, differentiates utility funds between the budget. And so when I think about, like, a town hall meeting, I think, like, in my mind, I would love to see that between July 14 and August 18 because then we can bring that feedback to that discussion on August 18 that's more that community engagement piece.
And and, yeah, like, kind of like the meetings for the candidates. I feel like that in in my mind, that's, like, one engagement in person opportunity for people to give feedback on kind of all of these things because I don't think people really differentiate between those or have the, like, context or knowledge base, like, the in the weeds stuff to be able to differentiate on feedback between, like, utility funds or departmental budgeting or you know,
it's just about the city city services and city budget. So, I would really hope to be able to see that that that kind of event happen between July 14 and August 18. Because then by the time we get closer to that September 15, September 22 time period, it feels pretty we're, like, pretty inundated with information and then have to vote. So if if we had a town hall on, like, September 13,
I feel like that might be getting really making that meeting on September 22 really, intense. So I think that's all the feedback I have for now. Thank you. Councilor Ness. Thank you. I like the calendar, especially like the May CIP tours. Either group or a list individually works for me. I do a lot of driving around looking at projects all the time, but if we had a list, that would be very helpful. I also like on here the five year CIP
and and the five year financial plan. I think those are getting more and more important. You know? They're subject to change, but at least it's something you can look at that says, hey. Here's what we agreed to four years ago or whatever. And, of course, then the end of the budget is pretty much dictated by statute. So I appreciate your work on this too. Seems like the budget is soon gonna be oh, December 2. We approved the budget on December 1.
Let's start next year's budget December 2. Yeah. Ideally. Thank you for the suggestion about a self guided tour. That's an interesting option to think about. Other comments? Councilor Dolan, I know you had a comment when you were one of the originators of having the town hall earlier. How do you do you have a suggestion about the timing? Thank you, mayor. I would just say that at some point, whether it's town hall or information being distributed more formally, just earlier is better. And I'm not sure when that will come up because I look at some of these highlighted in yellow and I think some of
that would include whatever is made available to the public so they understand what's going on and what's going on in the city council to reach that September 15 or yes, fifteenth date. So I just the earlier, the better. Thank you. Councillor Beamer? Thank you, Mayor. I'll kinda echo what, councilor Ness had said. I like the calendar idea and and the list straight up list of projects, you know, and what year we're hoping to to do those is is super helpful.
I very much like councilor Nest does drive around the town drive around town and check the projects out quite frequently. And it's just it's I like to do it because it's easier for me to answer questions when when I'm getting asked questions. And it just keeps me knowing what's happening without bothering staff about it either. So, those things would be helpful. Councilor Peterson White. I agree with everything that's been said. I think this all sounds pretty reasonable. I think I would just say that having participated in a couple of kind of
tours of various sites that are either current projects or proposed projects, with the council over the years, I think it's really, really helpful to all be in one, quote, unquote, room in a, you know, vehicle together with staff and to be looking at the same thing and hearing the same information from staff. You know? I go look at things too. And I think looking at things that are, that are currently underway is one thing. Like, we've made those decisions for the most part. But looking at things that are under consideration for, future spending
is probably a different thing to me. Right? And that's, that's where I think it can be, for me at least, really helpful to be in the same place, hearing each other's questions, able to talk to staff while we are looking at the site in question, because I think different things just come up in that context than they do when we're sitting here looking at a aerial view of something. It's very different. Thinking back to times that I've participated in that, I think think whether it it probably how much time it takes really depends on how many
times you get out of the van. And, I would just ask staff to be judicious about that because I think there is there are some things you can see from inside the vehicle and there others really can't. So, but I I do think that, it just gives us a really strong shared sense of reality, kind of. It's it's less abstract and is worth the time, in my opinion. Thank you. Counselor Holmes. Thanks. I agree with my colleagues. I think I'll emphasize counselor Sokup's point about the public engagement.
I think, to me, I feel like that after July between that July 14, August 18 feels like it's the right time to be able to get information. But I think it also depends on what how we frame it up and what the meeting actually is. To me, I see it as a share out of information, but then also, like, let's get as much data or feedback as we can get without promising that, you know, we're getting that information to collect it, to hear it, to help inform our decisions. So I think, how that meeting is structured and facilitated will I think that's where the brainstorming needs
to take place in terms of what's gonna be the most productive and feel people can feel people can feel like they're actually being heard, and that we're actually doing something with the information that that we're getting. So I think to councilor soak up's point, I think that the earlier we can do that in August, the more opportunity we have to actually do something with it or to to really leverage it. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Administrator Martic, do you have a final wrap up or follow-up that you'd like? It's really helpful in just one little piece I hadn't really thought of either is, like,
early even ex explaining, especially for the calendar can fairly get fairly concrete on some of the meaty meetings and what were we covering. Just explaining the process to the public to even understand, like, how utility funds can kinda stand alone and why. Some of those educational pieces we could do early and maybe even do some short videos on that. So that that wasn't it was kinda like an moment on that one. And then I think, I think those were all really good pieces too, and I would even like, on Holmes' thought too is is, like,
I do agree, like, having a placeholder, but, like, how you execute and actually do an actual meeting is gonna be really important because it could have the opposite effect if it's not pulled off well. It could turn people off. So I think making sure that we spend the time that if we're gonna do something like that, we think it through. The informational pieces, I think, are a little easier tactically, but I think it's when you're going to be engaging and wanting some feedback, how do we do that? Well, it needs more thought. So I think this has been helpful for me, and I think we're on the right track, but need to do some adjusting with it.
Thank you. That's our last agenda item. So, Councillor Nez? Move to adjourn. Thank you. Councillor Beamer. Second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.