This transcript has been edited to include speaker names based on the provided city official list and the internal context of the meeting (roll call, name mentions, and motion assignments). [5:41] Matt Kline: I'm sweating a lot for September. >> Oh, you should be able to see it, too. >> Let's give it a sec here. Let me see. I might have to just reboot the >> You want to give that back, Mary, or whatever. [6:01] Mary Goulette: Thanks. >> Matt Kline: Give me Can I just >> get under here just for a sec? Sure. >> Of course. >> Yeah, that's fun under there. >> Yeah, lots of fun. There's >> a lot of things just [7:23] Orin Kipp: No, I mean he's working. I know he left there for a long time. >> He's just like doing some fixing ATMs or I don't know. >> Oh, totally out of >> Good luck, man. >> Talk to you about >> maybe having a little Son's gonna ask his girl question like a little familyiz [Music] >> depends on motion how expensive it is per person how many people he's going to be nine after the meeting to see if they have anything Okay. [8:23] Mayor Michele Hanson: Check. All right. >> The light works or not. >> All right. I'd like to call to order the September 16th, 2025 special meeting of the Bayport City Council. Um, can you um call the role for us, Matt? [8:46] Matt Kline: Yep. Uh, Council Member Bliss >> Carl Bliss: here. >> Matt Kline: Council member Gilmore >> Ethan Gilmore: here. >> Matt Kline: Council member Kipp >> Orin Kipp: here. >> Matt Kline: Council member Hill >> Katie Hill: here. >> Matt Kline: Mayor Hansen >> Mayor Michele Hanson: here. All right, we are here because we need to um adopt a resolution for our preliminary budget. And first we're going to hear from Matt kind of going over it so everyone can hear where we're at. [9:14] Matt Kline: Thank you, Mayor Hanson, uh members of city council. Um this uh is the uh presentation for the 2026 preliminary budget. Um, as you know, we've been working hard at it for the past several months. Um, budget preparation starts roughly in June. Um, where we start handing out um to the department heads, getting acclimated to how much we think we need for the next year, different things like that. Um, department heads tried their best to get uh budget material back to me sometime in July. Um and then um this year on August 4th, we held the first very preliminary workshop um on the budget. Um really the bigger discussion occurred on September 8th um with our second uh workshop um that really went over all the components um including the levy um the actual budget and then capital improvement projects related. So and then here we are today with the uh resolutions that are required for the preliminary levy capital improvements and also the full budget. [10:31] Matt Kline: So the requirements um for the preliminary tax levy and also the final tax levy include us uh deadline of September 30th to get the preliminary tax levy to Washington County. um that gets certified by them. At that time you can after that point you can decrease the levy but you cannot increase it. Um December 1st would be our um our meeting our first meeting in December, our only meeting in December where truth and taxation occurs. Um so there the city council um could do it a different time but the city council tends to do it the that first Monday. um adoption of the final tax levy budget in CIP much in the same fashion, same presentation if nothing changes as what the preliminary um occurrences. So then uh December 29th is the final day to certify the tax levy, final tax levy in the budget to Washington County. [11:35] Matt Kline: So as everyone knows, um we're a full-service city. Um we provide a number of services. um that are somewhat unusual for a city our size. Uh that would include uh fire um and also police services um and then we also have a library that um is kind of unusual for our size city. [11:57] Matt Kline: So with this though comes um significant cost. So that's reflected in the current budget. all of those items um as discussed and of course all three of those items uh do play a somewhat major role um in how much our budget is. [12:15] Matt Kline: So for 2026 some of the major expenditures um include um putting more money aside for capital improvements. So, the 2024 financial management plan um that we completed um indicated that we had been spending down our general fund to help fund capital improvements, purchases um and recommended creating what what could be considered savings funds essentially for different departments um such as police equipment fund, fire equipment fund, and then also a street reconstruction fund. So those types of items um that'll get shown later in this uh presentation. Um so the 2026 budget continues that effort and actually increases those numbers so that we do have money set aside for future capital improvements. Um another component um this year is there is the potential salary implications um due to the pay equity salary study. [13:19] Matt Kline: there is a contingency in place within the budget um that um is set aside just in case there are increases to any salaries um that that study might see. So there's also a 37% overall increase in the city portion of health insurance. [13:40] Matt Kline: Um part of that is an increase in insurance rates and a part of that is additional people or additional employees coming on along with additional members of some of the employees families who who weren't on before. [13:59] Matt Kline: So, some of the revenue factors that we're seeing in the 2026 budget, um we are seeing an increase, a fairly good increase in fiscal disparities distribution of almost $30,000. So, um that is essentially a it's a pot of money that the Twin Cities metro cities puts in um and combines and it has to do with um commercial and industrial um tax base growth. And so what it is is all the cities contribute to this and then it's redispersed um on a basis of need. So, cities that don't have a lot of growth in commercial industrial get more money. Cities that have it um get less money back. [14:45] Mayor Michele Hanson: and just to clarify, Matt, the pay into that is from commercial industrial property taxes, not residential property tax. >> Matt Kline: Correct. That is accurate. Yep. Um we're seeing a very small increase in local government aid, only about $1,800. [15:07] Matt Kline: Um, of note, potential revenue from the Bay Haven development um is not factored into the 2026 budget. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Bay Haven, you mean you said Baytown. >> Matt Kline: Sorry. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: That's okay. >> Matt Kline: Um, so that growth potentially is property tax that we would see from uh houses being built there. Um, also um funding for parks and different things like that. That's not accounted for. and building inspection fee is um not accounted for within this current budget although a likelihood that we will see some impact from that development. So um we did see an increase in interest income or have estimated an increase to that um based on what our investments is and what we're seeing interest rates return at. So um excuse me. And then finally, excuse me, a 1.7% increase in the residential housing market value. So essentially housing prices um median value went up about 1.7%. [16:26] Councilmember Katie Hill: Is it median or it says average market value overall average? >> Matt Kline: Yep. So it's the mean versus >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Okay. [16:26] Matt Kline: Um, two items I did want to talk about that aren't directly related to the budget but do have an impact on people's um cost of living essentially and um affect um different things in town. So a couple rate increases in our enterprise fund. Um one would be the storm water rate which was just implemented last year. It's going from six, and this is for residential, it's going up from $6 a unit to $9 a unit. So essentially, if you have a single family home, you're going paying $6 a quarter in 2025 to $9 a quarter in 2026. So this does help us offset some fees associated in the um in the general fund that we had been using for storm water. Um, and but it also is a disbursement that we can have out there. So instead of just using it as property taxes, we're able to also um implement storm water fees onto places like churches, the school, prison, entities that don't pay property taxes. So the fees are also weighted towards commercial industrial and institutional properties rather than specifically towards residential properties. [18:01] Matt Kline: So um the other rate that we're going to see increase is the sewer base rate increase. So that base rate will include the uh minimum fee that we pay or that um residents pay and also the usage rates. So um that is a 5% increase onto what the increase was in 2025. Um, as I had mentioned previously, our um, funding for capital outlay projects. [18:22] Matt Kline: Um, and that could be a a multiple of different things, right? So, um, for this year 2026, you can see the list. We're putting $18,500 away for municipal buildings. That could be anything from a re-roof um on the um on the library building to um something um at the public works building. So that's kind of a universal one that covers municipal buildings. And then all the other ones are pretty self-explanatory. [18:56] Matt Kline: Um down the line, police equipment, public works equipment, street reconstruction. Um, wanted to note the fire department equipment one. So, that's a shared cost with our contract partners. That's all um within the current budget that's shared with the other entities um that we have a um contract with. That would include Oak Park Heights, um Baytown Township, and West Lakeland Township. [19:37] Mayor Michele Hanson: Just for clarification on that one, Matt, that that 179 is not just our portion. That is everybody. So, we're a percentage of that 179. >> Matt Kline: Correct. That is correct. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Thank you. >> Matt Kline: Yep. So, next I just want to go over the capital projects for next year. Um there's not a huge list, but we're doing a couple things next year, which is all included in the budget. So, um the first item is the safe roads to school project on Fifth Avenue North, which includes sidewalk construction um along the park in Fifth Avenue from 8th Street to the um to Barker's Alps. [20:09] Matt Kline: So, that total cost of that project is estimated at about 411,000. Um roughly 300,000 is from the Safe Routes to School grant. 100,000 is going to have to come from city um components which we set aside money in the um street reconstruction fund and we will be drawing about $100,000 or thereabouts from there. So um next item is the a new police squad car. Um same thing we've been setting aside these last two years um for police equipment and our um replacement fund. So, we have the ability to draw $80,000 um for the replacement of that vehicle. Um there is potential for land and water legacy improvements. Um we are currently working through a grant um that may fund the entire amount um but likely not. And so there are some parks funds that we could potentially use there. I didn't list how much specifically um and we are potentially seeking other grant funds or grant opportunities um with the major fund that we're looking at. So um and then finally there's some water and sewer improvements. These are not technically part of the budget. They are get paid for by enterprise funds. Um, but those, um, just, uh, to note them in the capital outlay portion, I'm not going to go real in depth about those. [21:38] Matt Kline: Um, most people don't know too much about programmable logic controllers, so unless it's Orin. So from there, the 2026 budget revenue summary. [21:56] Matt Kline: So revenues are increasing about 15.9%. So a significant portion of that is either grant money that's being brought in or has been received um or transfer in from those savings funds essentially. [22:14] Matt Kline: So what we're seeing is the street portion of it. We see a big increase in the street portion. Um that's from the safe routes to school grant. And then we're also seeing a um a fairly increase in the transfer line item. So we're transferring in money from police equipment. Um also we're transferring in money from two other funds that are going to get phased out. That includes the non-major permanent fund and the tax stabilization fund. So those two funds were part of the 2024 financial management plan. And essentially what we intend to do with those is bring those down to zero because currently we're setting money aside in these other funds um for future savings and the thought is that we don't need those funds at this point in time. [23:00] Councilmember Carl Bliss: Does this transfer in take those to zero or >> Matt Kline: it takes—good question council member Bliss. It takes one of them to zero. It takes the tax stabilization fund to zero. Um there still is approximately probably 280,000 in the other one. So you'll see this probably this transfer in from the non-major permanent fund over the next couple of years. Okay. Um what our intention is to kind of soften the blow to potential property tax increases by using these funds to offset some of that increase. So the longer we can hold out the better for that. [23:48] Matt Kline: Um yeah the projected input the last two years has been less than what the 2024 financial management plan called for. >> Councilmember Carl Bliss: Okay. Good. Thanks. >> Matt Kline: Yeah. So then we have budget expenses summary. So again, um obviously if revenue increased by 15.9%, expenses are likely to increase by the same amount. So um some of the bigger ones here, police you can see is a a fairly decent increase. Uh a big portion of that is um union wages, but a larger portion is the purchase of the squad car. So some of this you have to remember that the way we report this is you have revenue and you have expense. So some of this is not necessarily an increase to property taxes. These expenses are being offset by us bringing in money that we have already saved. So which is the intent of those savings that we're doing. So um the other project or the other big increase is the streets and lighting. So, as indicated before, the safe routes to school project is approximately $400,000. So, that accounts for a fair amount of that. [25:08] Matt Kline: So, I will note to that the um uh there's two line items specifically for the fire department. One is our contract portion, which is what we charge back, not only us, but the other cities. It's just shared cost. And then there's a non-contract portion which is the cost that exceeds that agreed upon budget from the other cities and that the city of Bayport is paying outright. [25:38] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah. Just to clarify, we are held by that contract to a 3% increase in our budget each year and things cost more than that. So the city of Bayport has to cover that. >> Matt Kline: We pick up the check. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Yes. So that's why we're eager to renegotiate our contract when that comes around. [25:57] Matt Kline: Yeah. So just to note that that non-contract portion currently includes the full-time fire chief that we intend to hire and also a bond repayment to the water department um that was used to uh purchase the pumper from last year. [26:34] Mayor Michele Hanson: and those two alone probably make up most of that. >> Matt Kline: those are the only two things under the non-contract portion >> Councilmember Katie Hill: we had been setting aside more money like we as a city were putting more into like a capital outlay or something didn't we have another line item that we zeroed out this year? [26:34] Matt Kline: Yes. So in previous years we set aside extra money um in for the uh fire equipment replacement. This year we did not include any of that in the non-contract. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Okay. That's not as bad as it first looked. >> Matt Kline: Right. Okay. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Yes. [26:49] Matt Kline: All right. This uh slide is just a a budget comparison essentially. Um you can see that our budget is increasing um from 2023. Again, a big portion of this is how it gets reported also, right? So, um, last year we didn't specifically put our, um, and I'm I'm learning as we go too here. So, um, we didn't specifically put all our capital improvements in the 2025 budget. We had saved for stuff, um, but they didn't get included in the budget here. Moving forward, um all capital improvements will get included in the budget and all expenses that are coming from our transfers in um from our savings funds will also be included. [27:38] Councilmember Katie Hill: did that start—sorry—that started this year? >> Matt Kline: So it's it's been on again off again. Adam Bell, the previous administrator, had kind of started doing that in 2021 just to make sure that it's being seen how much we're really spending, right? And then I didn't include it last year just because it was the first year of our savings funds and it was kind of like a transition year. Um but moving forward, the intent is to at least to the best of our ability and to without any emergencies happening to put any expected um capital improvements or equipment purchases into the budget. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Okay. [28:23] Matt Kline: Um so just uh moving on to the property tax levy. Um just a definition here. So the levy is the total amount of money that local governments intend to raise through property taxes um in a specific year. So um you can't really compare that to your tax bill which has all of the taxes included in it. But if you look at your tax bill, there will be a city of Bayport line item and that's the specific amount that you are paying in for the city tax levy. [29:10] Matt Kline: So um this portion is the actual tax levy summary. Again this is not necessarily what your tax levy will increase. This is the city's um tax levy increase or that's what we're proposing for our levy increase. So um the general fund is expected to increase about 11.64%. um our general obligation debt service. Currently the only thing we have for debt service we actually have two items. Um one is the fire hall um which is included in the property tax levy and the other is for um Minnesota state 95 which we did water and sewer in 2020. Um that does not get included in the general fund budget line item. That's part of the water and sewer fund. So, um, and then the library is increasing, um, the levy portion 4.66%. So, overall there's a 9.83% increase to the property tax levy. [30:10] Matt Kline: So, as you can see, kind of similar to the um general fund or the overall budget, property tax levy is definitely increasing, right? Um, so some of that is is due to increases inflation, increases to cost of purchases. Some of it also has to do with the fact that we're trying to save more now so that we have the ability to um pay for things in the future, capital improvements, vehicles, things like that. [30:44] Matt Kline: Um this uh slide just indicates uh kind of where we are um in our property tax levy increases um from 21 to 25 um kind of a comparison to um surrounding cities right so if you find Bayport's um we're kind of middle of the road uh 26.4%. Um obviously you have um cities on the far end of each end, right? So um I know Lake Elmo, it's hard to compare Lake Elmo to anything. They're growing really fast. So they're um levies are going to be very high, but they also have property tax increases or revenue coming in offset that. You have Afton who and Grant who aren't growing at all but they also don't provide any services and so their property tax levies are very minimal. [31:18] Councilmember Katie Hill: and West Lakeland—is that for all the street reconstruction they need to do that they just weren't saving for? >> Matt Kline: I believe a couple of years ago they bonded for a significant amount of street reconstruction and I think like probably 100% of that occurred in like one year. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Oh, yeah. Um, is that growth too though? West Lakeland. >> Matt Kline: Um, well, that's their levy increase, so it could very well be offset by some growth. Yes. Um, but a huge part of it was having to redo roads, I believe. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Mhm. [32:12] Matt Kline: So then the city property tax rate, um, that's the city's rate, um, as a percentage of your tax bill essentially. So, um, if you look on your tax bill, you'll have the school ISD834, you'll have Washington County, you'll have the city of Bayport, and probably a couple of other items on there. And so, our percentage, um, you take what your line item is for the city of Bayport, divide it into the whole thing, um, and that's the city tax rate. essentially it's meaningless. [32:50] Matt Kline: So finally, whatever the obvious question um that's on everybody's mind, right? How much will my property taxes go up? So um for a median value home, if you go across the top line item here, um a median value home currently in the city of Bayport is $390,000. So that same home was valued last year at 383,000. So that's roughly about a 1.5% increase. Um your 2026 taxes are going to be roughly $1,230. Um and then the actual increase over '25 is $56.89. Um there are comparables here for $250,000 home, $450,000, 600,000 and $850,000. So um the actual increase on a percentage basis is somewhere between 4.8 and 5% for this range of homes. [34:10] Mayor Michele Hanson: So it actually is—I think that parenthesy on the bottom, which I didn't catch before, I think it actually should say 1.7% for the median. Yeah, I don't remember. >> Matt Kline: I don't know if that's last year's percentage or... >> Mayor Michele Hanson: No, last year it went down. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: Last year it was a negative one. I think this year it actually happens to be a positive 1.5. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, but it is 1.7. I just did the math. >> Matt Kline: Oh, is it? Okay. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: And I think that's where that one came from the front, too. You might have just mistyped. >> Matt Kline: Yep. Yeah. [34:30] Matt Kline: So, either way, there's a slight increase to the median value home. um we're asking for a slight increase to um the city tax portion of everybody's property. So again, even though our overall tax levy is increasing 9.3% the um residential portion of it is somewhere between 4 and a half and 5% for individual residential properties. Um part of that reason is um we we don't do a good job or um mostly because it's difficult um to estimate the commercial and industrial um property tax levy impacts. Right? So, um, it's likely because of that discrepancy there where our property tax levy, the city overall one is 9.3% and we're seeing residential ones at only about four and a half to 5% is that the commercial industrial uh tax is seeing a very good increase or their value is seeing a better increase. So, their portion of the levy is more than residential. [35:43] Matt Kline: All right. Um that's uh all I have for the budget summary. I'd like to thank city council and staff. Um so obviously with that high level of services um we sometimes have very difficult decisions of making increases to the tax levy um and having that impact on our residents. Um I believe that this budget is resulting in a pretty moderate or modest tax impact. Um and so and still allows us to put money away for future projects. So um I think it it ensures the high quality of life and the amenities that are expected in the town um and that um hopefully the impact isn't felt um too harshly by residents. With that, I will stand for questions. [36:30] Mayor Michele Hanson: I don't have questions. I just I want to thank you again. I know that you put a lot of time, you and the department heads in coming up with all these numbers. You specifically, I know, spend the most time. Um, and I feel like it's a good mix of, you know, being pretty conservative with, you know, not hiking it up too much, but still being able to save something since we hadn't—we've been just drawing down our savings these last 12, 15 years. So, however long it was, it's been a while. [37:15] Mayor Michele Hanson: So, um, I think it's time we need to do this or we're going to be in a tough spot soon if not. So, but I don't think that's a huge hit. Median home is over a 12-month period increasing their city portion of their taxes by only about—not even $60. That's the median. Um, houses that are valued lower than that, it'll probably be slightly smaller increase. And as it goes up in value, um, so does the increase. So, um, I think it's palatable for our residents. I hope. We'll see what they say at the Truth and Taxation here. No one's here complaining right now, I guess. Did they see this? [37:54] Matt Kline: December 1st will be the >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, I know. That's their first time, right? Okay. [37:54] Matt Kline: So, I'd also like to point out um this is obviously a small portion of the whole presentation that we always do at a workshop, right? Where we practically go line item through line item. So, um to do that at a city council meeting would take three, four hours, right? Um, so obviously the city council puts in more work than just standing up here and listening to a 20-minute presentation also. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: definitely >> Councilmember Katie Hill: um and our residents can see that sheet that you gave too. [38:22] Matt Kline: yeah, absolutely. So this presentation is online and available in the minutes or in the agenda packet also what we had at the workshop totally available for residents to see. [38:56] Councilmember Orin Kipp: I just maybe something I wanted to mention and and I appreciate this presentation and every year I sort of pick up new things and understand it a little better, able to glean a little bit more. Um would it make sense to rather than have people search this out—kind of this your presentation tonight—feature this in social media somewhere or something so people could click on it and watch it. It's a pretty nice little tidy snapshot of the city finances and levy versus your, you know, when you see the the bar graph, you know, how much the budget comparison for '25 to '26 is, somebody's going to look at that and get really scared. [39:28] Councilmember Orin Kipp: Yes, that may be a little, you know, it's it's hard because this is only sort of a snapshot in time and and it's always sort of a moving target in a way. So, you know, some of this stuff, you know, people I think people tend to look at it as, "oh, we needed to buy a new fire truck. We paid for it all in one year, and that's how much it affected me." Well, it doesn't even come close to working that way. You know, it's much different than that. So just throwing that out there to see what you guys think or staff or... [40:15] Matt Kline: I will say Orin, we've thought about posting other big topics on like Facebook and different things like that and I think we've shied away from that because um mostly because the expectation might be then that people can just go there and whatever we decide is worthy of having that. Um, I could see the argument on the other side, especially for the budget, right? I mean, this is a once a year thing. This is a known um cause that happens every single year. So, I don't know that I would have those same feelings of posting it there. So, I think I'd be open to that. [40:43] Mayor Michele Hanson: And you're suggesting posting the actual presentation like, you know, uh you could have this >> Matt Kline: Yep. Um, yeah. Slideshow and you could have literally—this is YouTube I think, right? Yes, we could easily cut all this part out. I'm just kidding. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah. No, I think it's not a bad idea really. Um... [41:17] Councilmember Orin Kipp: Matt, I can tell the city's worked hard to to minimize what we have to pay here. Um, is there anything notable that our department's requesting that we're deferring or... >> Matt Kline: Um, I don't I don't think so. We're probably still shorting ourselves a little on the savings side. Um, just an example with the fire equipment fund. Um, we're definitely not setting enough money aside so that in 20 years when the ladder truck needs to get replaced um out of our budget or even the savings fund that we're putting aside, we will not have $4 million or whatever it takes to replace that piece of equipment. So, um, sometimes those big purchases do require funding and so I think that would occur—some of those bigger fire department purchases. Um, you know, when a pumper tanker—not tanker probably, but pumper—becomes two or $3 million in the future in a ladder truck, right? Um, I haven't calculated out how a bond payment would be paid back, but that would be a lot easier to pay out than a huge bill at that point in time. [43:03] Matt Kline: um, other than that, um, I I don't think so. We still need to up a couple of the savings portions. Um, we're pretty thin at the police equipment um of replacing a squad every two years, but there's also other components in that squad, right? You have lights, you have a computer, stuff like that. So, um we made a small incremental increase to that this year um in the hope that a couple more incremental increases to that one um will definitely help um not to depress you, but the street reconstruction fund is also another one that um probably needs more significant increases and that was covered in the financial management plan. [43:44] Mayor Michele Hanson: yeah and we didn't really set anything aside for parks in this budget either. kind of assuming that we'll be getting some park dedication fees, which I mean we are assuming because we're going to be getting them for the new Bay Haven developments and um the school has given us some as well. So, we thought we could hold off on separate um monies for that for now. [44:21] Councilmember Orin Kipp: I read on the revenue looks relatively conservative, right? Like... >> Matt Kline: Yes. Yeah. Yeah for the—like because the development isn't counted in there and... >> Matt Kline: correct. Yes, we're not we're not considering any uh revenue increases from um like inspection fees for building inspections and different things like that. Uh roughly we get about 25% of anything that the building inspection or our third party contractor charges. So um I didn't put a significant increase um in there for that. >> Councilmember Orin Kipp: I've gotten to know them well this summer. [44:37] Councilmember Orin Kipp: Do we have any sense? Not to get super deep on that—Bay Haven. Do we have any—something sort of occurred to me during this presentation—any sense where how far it's going to be built out? How many years it'll take? You know, like at this time next year, do we expect 20 homes built? Do we expect maybe none? Do you know? >> Matt Kline: That's a good question. I don't know if I I really should even take a stab at it. Right. Their intent is to start grading here this year and try and get utilities in. [44:57] Matt Kline: So, um, if I had to guess, there's 35 homes. It probably really depends. I don't know how fast Pratt Homes builds a home, right? He has his own carpenters, so that's probably fairly quick. And it might also depend on the economy, too. Mhm. Um I know that he's indicated that he does have a couple people lined up already that that are very interested. [45:13] Councilmember Orin Kipp: So, and the multi-family will go in concurrently with his... >> Matt Kline: currently at the same time, but the multi-family is probably going to take about a year and a half to complete. So, that'll be a significant time frame. If I had to guess, um Pratt Homes probably wants to be in and out of there in under four years. >> Councilmember Orin Kipp: Seems reasonable. Okay. [45:38] Mayor Michele Hanson: And the other thing that we should mention is um we did this last year. I'm not sure that it's—that was the best practice, but we could reduce this levy before the final. Um and that would probably be reducing that contingency that we set aside for in case the salaries come back that we're not paying um equal or an equitable salary for some of our staff. Um, so I don't know. It was I think it was a little confusing last year. We had people come and say, "Well, you're raising our taxes this much." We're like, "No, actually we reduced that." So, we kind of wasted their time. So, they don't want to—a lot of people don't pay attention to the second they see the first one. [46:24] Matt Kline: And I believe the—mostly because I think the preliminary one is used for some of the tax statement stuff that come out initially and so then that's what they base that off of. Right. Yeah. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Right. So and we had negotiations last year, right? That's we we came out pretty heavy. >> Matt Kline: Correct. We also had some of that. Yes. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Oh, negotiations. >> Matt Kline: Yep. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: We still ended up with a decrease though. [46:59] Mayor Michele Hanson: All right. Any other comments or questions from council? Think we could go ahead and make these motions. We have three to do separately. [47:15] Councilmember Katie Hill: I move to adopt a resolution of the preliminary levy of 2026. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Thanks, Katie. >> Councilmember Orin Kipp: Second. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, Orin. Do we have the roll call? Yeah. >> Matt Kline: Yep. Uh, council member Bliss. >> Carl Bliss: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Gilmore. >> Ethan Gilmore: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council Member Kipp. >> Orin Kipp: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council Member Hill. >> Katie Hill: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Mayor Hansen. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Aye. [47:30] Councilmember Orin Kipp: I'll move to adopt a resolution of the preliminary budget for 2026. >> Councilmember Carl Bliss: Second. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: All right. Thanks, Orin and Carl. Roll call. >> Matt Kline: Council member Bliss. >> Carl Bliss: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Gilmore. >> Ethan Gilmore: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council Member Kipp. >> Orin Kipp: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Hill. >> Katie Hill: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Mayor Hansen. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Aye. [47:47] Councilmember Katie Hill: I move to adopt a resolution of the proposed capital improvement plan for 2026. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, Katie. >> Ethan Gilmore: I'll second. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, Ethan. >> Matt Kline: Council member Bliss, >> Carl Bliss: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Gilmore, >> Ethan Gilmore: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Kipp. >> Orin Kipp: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Council member Hill, >> Katie Hill: Aye. >> Matt Kline: Mayor Hansen, >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Aye. Uh so one note too that um public input on the 2026 budget and levy um can be heard at the Truth and Taxation session that will occur at the December 1st, 2025 city council meeting. [48:29] Mayor Michele Hanson: Great. All right. Does anyone want to... >> Councilmember Orin Kipp: I'll move to adjourn. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks Orin. >> Councilmember Katie Hill: I'll second. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you Katie. All in favor? >> Council: Aye. >> Mayor Michele Hanson: All right. We're adjourned. Thanks Matt. >> Matt Kline: Yes. Well done.