##VIDEO ID:b7gaehXHLdQ## good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of St Peter Minnesota it is Monday January 27th 2025 at 7 p.m. we are called to order would all please rise for the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh everybody's received a uh copy of the agenda are there any revisions or corrections to the agenda hearing none is there oh Brad oh the agenda never mind y the agenda um hearing nothing is there a motion to approve the agenda so move second all those in favor say I I I any opposed the agenda is approved as distributed next up is approval of the minutes the minutes are printed on pages 5 through nine of the packet are there any revisions or Corrections Brad um I want to I have a question on the apaa legislative rally is it uh council members ramp and shrom going because it says council members are after and wise andf in in in the minute so all right are there any revision other revisions or Corrections darl uh the year on the date is 24 instead of 25 okay anything else hearing nothing further is there a motion to approve the minutes as corrected all those in favor of approval say I I I any opposed the minutes are approved with those two Corrections uh next up we have time for visitors we have first time for visitor comments on agenda items is there any visitor who'd like to address the Council on an agenda item seeing no one we have time for General visitor comments is there anyone who'd like to address the Council on uh any other matter hearing none we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda the consent agenda begins on page 10 of the packet and concludes with a resolution that is printed on pages 28 through 29 the consent agenda includes the following employee appointment Carrie meast as office coordinator in public works at the wage indicated in the packet the following board appointment shall be made Seth putts to the parks uh and Recreation Advisory board he will be the School District representative uh the following licenses approved the address and dates are printed in the packet that's a tobacco license to iMart in St Peter a Gambling License to the governers and a temporary Gambling License to River Valley Rock Mountain Elk Foundation uh the following purchase is approved a 2025 GMC Sierra pickup truck for with funding coming from water Wastewater and storm water the price and vendor are listed in the packet as well as the schedule of dispersements for January 8th 2025 through Jan January 22nd 2025 uh is there any discussion or questions on any uh consent agenda item hearing is there a motion to approve the resolution so move second we have a motion and a second call the role please council member Pettis I council member Ram I council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I the resolution is approved we have no items of unfinished business before us tonight our first item of new business is the adoption of a resolution declaring the official intent of the city of St Peter to reimburse certain expenditures from the proceeds of bonds to be issued by the city mayor members Sally and I will tag team on this usually Shannon is here for this but this is something that you've done on a regular basis when you are intending to issue debt under the IRS regulations any expenditures that you have that may occur more than 60 days in advance of the issuance of debt require you to call them out and provide in a number so that you can reimburse yourself once the debt is issued and you receive the cash the resolution that you see included in your packet on page 31 and 32 does just that again we do this on a regular basis and Sally are happy to answer questions as best we can about this issue thank you anything you want to add or questions for Sally Brad um so it says in here uh reasonably expects expenditures um to be estimating the principal amount of 8,400,000 what happens if we go over um we still can go over but we do have to declare our intent and then document why we were over okay thank you y additional questions hearing no further discussion the resolution declaring the official attent of the city of St Peter to reimburse certain expenditures from the proceeds of bonds to be issued by the city appears on pages 31 through 32 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second call the role please council member r i council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I the resolution is approved next up adoption of a resolution adopting electric rates effective for services March 1st uh 2025 and January 1st 2026 and then we'll move on to a resolution adopting the electric fund budget Sally and I here for this one mayored members since I was here for your last Workshop I would mention the goals that we discussed at your last Workshop in that the rates and the budgets are set with a couple three primary goals one of which is to meet the short-term needs that you have for Revenue um while avoiding substantial revenue or rate increases into the future so there's a balancing act that needs to go on related to that continue to fund the capital needs and the people needs that you have within this fund to maintain reliability and serviceability within your within this Enterprise fund within the electric utility and maintain a targeted amount of cash which has been suggested by Bond folks namely SNP um so that as we look to issue larger debt within the future we meet some of the goals that they really have kind of set for us so we're really trying to balance these three or four things out as a part of the overall process um I'll be quiet and let Sally talk about the changes that were made from the first Workshop to current and that includes changes within how we're going to fund some of the CIP and rates Sally um mayor no Island City Council as Todd said since our first workshop on January 6th we went back at peror um Direction and made some modifications to rates um the first one would be we were proposing uh February 1st it's going to be pushed to March 1st 20125 and then January 1st of 2026 um the rates were lowered from the proposed January 6th Workshop the changes in the rates decreased revenues in 2025 by $361,500 53 535 for 2026 the current rates and structure are found in detail on pages 42 to 43 of the packet depending upon you know uh residential commercial and all the different rates we have industrial and then the resolution is on page 52 to 56 the staff also made some changes to the capital Improvement plan a detailed Capital plan is found on pages 44 to 45 for 10 years and the funding for 2025 is found on page 46 the changes that we made were um we de we decided to increase the um Capital bonding for um CIP from 700,000 to 1, 152,000 uh over 10 years is what we're um going to amortise that over the items are listed in CIP and then the other change we made is to the purchase of Ami meters we were going to stretch this out from for 25 26 and 27 we decided this we're going to pull that ahead had using um bonding and get it all done by the end of 2025 which is increasing it from 108,000 to 3 138,00 and what that will do will put electric Ami meters in all residential and all homes within St Peter and that will help us monitor um usage for people um it's a lot more effective for if there's a spike or if something's going on we can notify homeowners and then we will work towards in 2026 um getting some portals out on the website where people can go and look at their usage during peak times when it's 90 degrees out and 90% humidity and see what's going on and how bad it's going on and give people ways that they can look and see um how they're using electricity it also helps the um line workers they aren't doing limiting meters or disconnects we can do all of that from the office and help them out so it's um better use of time and resources throughout the city so we think it's the right thing to do we are going to do it anyway so let's get this one out of the way it does not address all the water meters at this point but we'll eventually get down there and see how that works so it does decrease capital for 26 and 27 in the budget um with that with the rate changes and bonding changes year-end Reserve balance is um projected to be at 2,178 578 which is above the 2 mlion um Reserve Target and then 2,023 20101 at the end of 2026 which is again slightly above the $2 million um just so everyone's aware weather does play a role in our revenues that come in um if it's a hot dry summer we do better like last summer we did not get as much revenue as we did the prior year just due to less kilowatt sales so we will be watching that and we will come back for reviews throughout throughout the year um with that um we are asking you to approve the resolution on pages 52 to 56 adapting electric rates for services effective March 1st 2025 and January 1st 2026 if I could just add one other item related to the budget as we talked about at your Workshop now in two separate occasions we are and the budget does include doing some analysis on additional generation within the community and we talked a little bit about the parameters for that but I wanted to make sure to call that out as a part of the budget for 25 and 26 um certainly if it can't meet the financial criteria that we've discussed in Broad terms um we'll make sure to alert the Council of that if it does we'll be coming back to you to talk about the value of that and how that may or may not make sense for you and your rate payers and um for the distribution system and our ability to continue to provide Power even when we have transmission failures so that's also a part of this and wanted to mention that because that has the potential to be a really big project frankly any questions or discussion R um I just like to thank staff um you came to us with uh initially consecutive 6% increases and we challenged you to drop that significantly you did but you didn't just cut expenses you reallocated resources and changed uh your your Capital plan uh to better meet what our needs are at this time so I I do appreciate um the effort that you put into this in meeting and meeting what we were looking for thanks hearing no further discussion uh the resolution adopting electric rates appears on pages 52 through 56 of the packet is there a motion to approve so move second we have a motion and a second to call the role please council member Shone hi council member Doos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member Ram I resolution is approved our next resolution uh would be to adopt the 2526 electric fund budget is there any discussion before we vote on that all right hearing none um is there a motion to approve that resolution so move second all right we have a motion and a second call the rooll please council member dasas I mayor Noel I council member SHRM hi council member I'm sorry council member Johnson hi council member Pettis hi council member Ram I the resolution is approved uh next up adoption of a resolution adopting uh pay Equity report mayor and members this is something that we ask the council to do based on the state statute and the state rules from the Department of employee relations um pay Equity as is included in your memo is a mechanism that the state uses to ensure that local units of government are paying equitably between genders um again it's required that you provide for a resolution um submitting the report and that resolution is included in your packet the one thing that I would like to mention is that as always we continue to use this as we evaluate pay and pay structure including pay Equity points for in job descriptions and so we do have some things based on this report that we hope to enhance or more significantly improve over the course of the next couple of years so that we achieve even a higher level of compliance in the future we meet all of the standards that are required as a part of this and as you may recall as I talked to you typically at the end of November beginning of December about pay this is one of the issues that I at times bring forward and say modifications may be necessary to pay to ensure compliance again we are in compliance but it's something that we continue to evaluate on a regular basis thanks any questions for Todd or Sally anything to add say one more thing this is done every three years so it was due it's pay as of December 31st of 2024 due in January of 2025 so the next time they'll come forward will be January of 2028 based on um pay as of December 31st 2027 uh hearing no discussion the resolution adopting Equity pay the equity pay report appears on page 67 of the packet is there a motion to approve we have a motion and a second call the role please mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I I council member Ram I council member shrom I council member dasas I the resolution is approved uh thank you Sally uh next up resolution authorizing the purchase of a pickup wait yes a 2025 f500 4x4 regular cab I don't need to read the whole description because Pete will tell us all about it m mayor and city council as you're aware it's our practice to come back to you and we're looking at purchasing something off the equipment certificate uh part of the budget process for the streets uh section of Public Works here uh we're looking to replace one of the vehicles that we have in our Fleet um this unit would be a 2025 Ford 550 with a regular cab a V8 engine and we would be purchasing that from Midway Ford in Roseville on the state bid um at the same time uh we would also be looking at a 9ft stainless steel box very similar to what we had now with a vlow setup uh total cost of the Box the truck and the vlow is right around 10,116 32 uh once uh we order this unit and it comes in we will start the process of rolling other vehicles down we usually try to get rid of the weakest vehicle in our Fleet uh in order to maintain um a lot of consistency within our delivery of service uh so the Environmental Services would then inherit the unit with the lower miles uh but maybe a little more wear to it and so our process then would be to keep that vehicle in the environmental services and our Environmental Services the Toyota hno would be uh declared surface once everything comes in so that's got higher miles has been a good service truck for us um but in the meantime it's getting up there as far as miles are concerned our request tonight is that you authorize the purchase and that we finance that through the equipment certificate thank you Pete any questions questions for Pete seeing no questions or further discussion the resolution appears on page 71 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second all right we have a motion and a second call the rooll please council member Johnson I council member Pettis hi council member Ram I council member shrom hi council member DeVos I mayor Noel I the resolution is approved thanks Pete our last item of new business tonight the adoption of a resolution requesting City assistance for the St Patrick's Day Parade mayor members you'll find included in your packet a request from the ambassadors who have hosted the St Patrick's Day parade and events for many many many years in St Peter it just so happens that the parade here in St Peter occurs on St Patrick's Day which is March 17th um they're looking for assistance with the parade route um they're expanding the route by about one block or lengthening it by one more block as compared to previous years and City staff would provide provide some of the signage including no parking and helping control some of the intersections um this is something that you've approved in the past we do require the appropriate amount of insurance which is $1.5 million that lists the city as an additional insured um the recommendation from staff is that you approve the resolution providing for this assistance and allowing for the parade to take place um again the ambassador's hosting on March 17th at about five o'clock um for the St Patrick's Day Parade the resolutions in your packet on page 74 questions for Todd I appreciate how responsive the ambassadors have been in you know varying the route and things like that it's a great event there's great turnout but it also means crowds can get very dense and sometimes spill into the road a little bit and and the ambassadors care a a lot about having a good event that is also safe so thanks to them for always always working in those ways all right I don't hear any other discussion so the resolution adopting or authorizing City assistance for the parade is on page 74 of the packet is there a motion to approve so move second we have a motion and a second call the RO please council member Pettis I council member Ram I council member shrom I council member dasos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I the resolution is approved uh next up we have reports I have no report this evening uh are there any council members who'd like to make reports at this time how about us our city administrator no ma'am I don't have anything else for you this evening all right in that case is there a motion to adjourn all those in favor of adjournment say I I any opposed we areed thank you everyone better