Thorin come on can I help you find bags are they crappy are they the same as yes I wouldn't call them quality thank you very much it was the day I stepped through before I told her thanks to knowledge you got my taxes I'm shooting right yeah I didn't see it I was oh okay we started yeah yeah I wouldn't expect you to do anything I was just trying to keep you I appreciate that because we didn't know Cassie was here either so we were like okay all right ready no nobody did whenever you put in front of me what is it yeah okay we're yes Yes mine wasn't intentional planned you know all right your name tag has been moving I moved come on I don't bite all right it's 6 33 call the council meeting order and let's do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America excuse the Republic of which it stands one nation under God roll call council member Cole here councilmember schwier is absent councilmember Wong here council member nordby mayor Maggie here emotional adapt agenda please some Adriana oh no council member Wong write it down mark it on the sheet start over start with the pledge again all right all the paper say hi hi presentations presentations we have an update on the student built housing welcome yes doing well good how was the ground for getting the foundation that was awesome getting that in uh just because it's such a narrow lot and just to kind of not create more havoc on that street to get that foundation in get the dirt removed get you know get it all back filled ready to go so our plan is to be out there Thursday with the students so we've gone through our first week and a half of safety they're ready to go wow so we are set so well it's so nice having that foundation in prior to the students showing up they missed out a little bit on that but um we'll be able to see enough of the foundation where it's relevant to the construction process so we're good good to hear laughs jerks off I hides my double chin Zone thank you thank you uh hi everybody um my name is Eric Lee I'm the proud assistant principal at the 916 career and tech center and my name is Tom Spain I'm the construction occupation instructor at the 916 Career Technical Center and I thought we'd just start with a brief overview of 9 16 some of you may have have heard of 916 before we do have four different divisions where that's the special ed division the area Learning Centers the care and treatment as well as the career and tech center and we are from the career and tech tech center we are an intermediate school district we do serve 14 different school districts of which ISD 622 is a member of so it goes all the way down to South Washington County that's Park and Woodbury and East Ridge and all the way up through Forest Lane all the way over to Saint Francis so we do have a large geographical area of which we draw students from we've asked us we're the career and tech center we have 17 programs we have around 1100 students we serve roughly three time blocks at 370 students they are with us for an hour and 45 minutes and then go back to their home high schools and take their four core classes and we have been around since 1972 not we but and clear and tech ed back in the day we used to call it VOC Ed now it's Korean tech tech ed uh we want to get students ready for high skill High wage and high demand careers um I have the ISD 622 enrollment um we draw from North 622 online 622 next step and tartan so total you can see ISD 622 sends 174 students to us every day we do have two construction occupation programs this year we have Tom's program which is the construction occupation student-built home he sees 56 students in three time blocks of an hour and 45 minutes and then based on on the high demand and what Tom sawy and his students that there's enough students to open another class called construction occupations and license trades and so they spend a quarter in solar quarter and electricity or electrician plumbing and HVAC and that serves 57 students isd's 622 sends 14 students into our our two construction occupation programs and that's really kind of kind of how we we operate we've got like seven from Tartan seven from North seven from monomedi and Southern from Stillwater and also you've got a whole class so we try to complement the programming at our home high schools not competement and we want them to take Woods one Woods two Woods three and then the next step would be the Capstone which which would be our construction occupation classes 62's mission is the students to get College and Career ready um Tom and our other 17 programs take that to the next step you can see there's a rear tree here the entry level careers in the lower right our program are those are careers that students would be ready for after a year in Tom's program due to the experience and the industry certifications and credentials um the ones on the left are the technical careers those are careers that would be unlocked only with more schooling or more experience and there are students who choose to go to the professional careers again those aren't necessarily better careers but only unlocked by more schooling and more experience uh typical for our site is we have about 10 percent go into entry-level careers right after high school graduation and then it's an even split between the two-year schools and for four-year schools and the number one schools that everybody in our Consortium goes to the Century College well that's a little bit different is Irondale because they have a two and two with a Nokia 10 a Hennepin Tech on that monomied I Still Water North Tartan the number one school that all other graduates go to is Century College so with that these are some of the houses and structures that we've built in the city of North St Paul uh see that the addresses and the appears that we built on so this year will be the 14th um house kind of like yeah Fifth and structure 2012 and 2013 is the Tower Park the house Park and the North St Paul the ball fields as well as the covet year and yeah I don't know where to leave it blank um so some of the donations and discounts that will be received from area businesses those are just some I kind of ran ran out of room but there are no more than that um and 2170 this year same last year just reversed and same as the year before which was 24 87 19 right that's the first year we did that particular floor plan here uh is this a kind of right thank you Eric uh so just to kind of um add a little bit to what Eric said about our connection with Century College so this year because of our course burger that we have with the construction occupations program I'm actually offering a concurrent enrollment now so students can take my class and earn six college credits on a college transcript uh and so that's something new we're starting this year and in years past we've been short enrollment during the 2008-2009 2010 housing crisis but with the help of your support we're able to bring those numbers up so now we're full-time and for the last couple years I've had uh the unfortunate opportunity to tell 60 students a year they can't get into my program because we didn't have enough room because we cap at about 60 for my program due to safety issues so now we started a new program called license trade so now we're up to about 120 kids in the program so it's growing exponentially which is a good problem to have in education so we like that getting to the house plan itself very similar to the one we did on 19th and similar to the one we did last year it's just reversed well probably and again we want to make these fit into the neighborhood so you know the lower roof slopes are big with us to complement the neighborhood and to make it look like it fits in is always the key uh we start doing these projects with the city of North St Paul we unfortunately had CSA architect again donate to plans which was awesome for us and she's kind of like the rest industry just looking to whatever they can do to entice young kids to get into the Building Trades you want to get to the next slide thank you so the only as I look at this floor plan and I've looked at this Ron Randy a little bit you know we always want to improve you know it's never about we're good with this plan how we can make this one a little bit better and I want to make some slight adjustments to this plan as I looked at last year's house I noticed we kind of needed some more countertop space so in last year's model we actually took out the pantry and put in what they call a coffee bar to kind of get more countertop space now so I think this year we want to take that maybe one step farther expand that kitchen just like six more inches to balance it out on the stove side and then probably remove that appliance garage I could just be a tight Corner in there you know we're always trying to keep the housing down in cost I don't really know if there's such a thing called affordable housing today I mean housing it just goes up and up in price and really today I was thinking about I'd like to label this quality affordable housing I mean we could probably cut some corners on this house and make it more affordable but I don't let that sacrifice quality on these products and so the nine foot ceilings enhance what we're doing here two bedrooms up two bedrooms down we want to invite a family to move into this community and live in this house and so that's kind of why we we like to style the floor plan you want to jump to the main floor oh you already did thank you okay and so going back to the main floor plan um you know again we want to have attached garages which is good we like the open floor plan Concepts so you come into the living room you can see through the kitchen into the dining room areas and probably the most important thing that a lot of these house plants have that are less than 1400 square feet as a main floor laundry I think going all the way downstairs to do the laundry and so from the feedback we got last year from the or the last year's house from the open house that we presented uh to the community was you know they pretty much like to plan some of the things I think may have been over the top a little bit as far as uh light fixtures and the mirrors and things like that but um on the 29th of September I have my advisory meeting and I'll be bringing those things up to the members of my advisory committee who are in the building world is this worth it does it make the house sell better um at the end of the day we getting our money back out of it what we put into it and that's really what it boils down to and so as far as the exterior finishes go in this house we'll probably keep it the same four inch double lap vinyl siding industry standard it meets the neighborhood but we'll probably have to do something a little different on the Gable lands just so it doesn't look exactly like the house next to it might be going with more bored bat look on there to kind of complement the neighborhood but um still make it not look identical to the house we did last year so we want to kind of differentiate a little bit and so at this time I'm open up for any questions that the council might have well thank you for the presentation oh not a problem and just to give everybody an update on the house uh it was great work with Ron and Randy again through the summer we ended up getting the foundation put in uh there was a lot of dirt Earth had to be moved out of there the foundation put in uh dirt was some left on the site but we prior to truck cement as well to get it all backfilled uh waterproof insulated the styrofoam um thanks for weld roofing for that one and I believe the driveway temp driveway is in not yet okay so it'll be coming soon so temp Drive will be coming in here pretty quick we'll do SUB cut I'll get rid of some of those soils put in a recycled asphalt and kind of let Mother Nature do its own work or through a freestyle cycle compacting that driveway down but the big thing is foundations in the ground water sewer connector in we're ready to go so we'll be out there this Thursday with the students for the first time Lumber's being delivered tomorrow I just wanted thank you for your open house as well I think it seemed very well attended and there was a lot of good energy in the room and it was just really wonderful to see the students kind of brighten up but also their parents I'm extremely proud of their children and and their youth and so it was a really nice event and we really appreciate all the Partnerships that you have to make this happen to obviously you have lots of folks that help with materials and whatnot so again thank you for for all your work and your Partnerships oh and and you know this is incredible and I tell people the story that we have a city a high school and two colleges involved and we've been pulling this off for 14 years and and so it's a a reflection of the community of North St Paul being willing to to kind of fund this but also support it as well so that's huge on our part and so again St Paul College is part of our partnership they make custom cabinets for that house finish them and stall them they design them they work closely with their interdesign program at Century College that again do all the things I I always say I don't want to do them but more than likely it's because I can't do them pick out wall colors carpeting flooring and make it all look good at the end of the day it's up to me walls be white medium oak stain tan carpet we'd be done but that's it but I guess we have to sell this house and it's got to look good so that's where the entry design students come in to play for that A Step Above contractor beige yes yeah well now what was gray now today it's just like kind of goes back and forth a little bit but uh yeah so we try to add some color to that house to make it appealing I just again want to thank you for your partnership and and the way that you know the city's working with you you're working with the city the opportunity that it provides to to build on council member Wong's comment parents had bigger Smiles than kids yeah and it's always encouraging I mean just the other day I received an email from a student who worked on last year's house who um he's at UW Stout for construction management and during the summer we had a job fair at our school and the young man got a summer job and he worked for a contractor and it was just for the summer and he's back at school and he said I want to come back and talk to your class and so we'll set that up on the 29th of September so he's now part of my advisory committee he doesn't know that quite yet but no one stole them I said she opened the 29th I said we're not having a meeting but he'll be there so it's kind of good to get the feedback you know from the community and the students coming back and wanting to give back what they received so it's pretty cool to see that with our with our students to Brian and we talked about having this this get together we really appreciate it and part of it is to you know to see where the program right now we have our last piece of land as far as we spot it was a double lot so we have North St Paul's you know pretty locked in so we have a couple spots we're trying to figure out how how this this is going forward is this going to continue this you know as far as the partnership just understand because we need to do our due diligence you know if we can because we do have limited spots you don't buy nowadays you can't buy a house or a piece of land or a house that needs to be torn down for under probably 200 000 at least so that's what we're looking at so that's where I wanted to you know make sure that you know as far as the future of the program is it looked the same as what we've been doing and yes I just want to make sure because you know we do have some development we're trying to figure out the best way to use it in North St Paul and how to uh and how to um you know keep things going and understand where it is and you set a great point you know when it says it was a scale you know it's a custom you know star you know the house is the next level because it's a game of Django right now there's you look at online there's no houses for sale so somebody is going to go from a maybe a starter home to this home but then that starter homecoming the neighborhood so people move up and down you know that type of thing they get older they go from their big two-story house in North St Paul but want to stay in North St Paul they go to a one level house so even though it may not be the you know the the starter price it does unlock I think other things so people can move and stay in the neighborhood and do what they want to do but it brings such quality I mean I moved here and excuse me 1996 and this is the quality of the neighborhood has gone up so much and during that time for the older houses and there was a remodel you did and they're you know in the corner of Helen and uh 13th or 14th that beautiful Hollow spin so it is it does when you see that in the neighborhood it does make everybody else step up their game just because it's you see the value going in so that's why I asked to understand because we have to make some decisions when it comes to some of the land we have here and we want to make sure this is a is a everybody's happy and we're going forward you know as far as you know you might be getting close to retirement age hopefully there's some kind of a successor thing or whatever is happening well he's great we just want to make sure that you know that we're doing our side and you guys are too that we can keep this ball rolling but there's a commitment on both sides and you know if this you know like you said you're turning away students and it's going well then we have to look at this and say okay now how can we you know help and be able to get things so we can continue so that's something on our side if North Saint Paul that's something we can figure out so this is why it was so great and appreciate everything you do you're you're a great leader and you know the students love you and when we're there just seeing the smiles like like council member Colton Wong said just seeing the the smiles on the parents faces I mean there's nothing more proud than seeing your kids do stuff like that because they were running around mom I built this closet the kid in the mom were you know it was just really exciting so this is important to us and we have to do our due diligence to to figure out to make sure we're good so we just wanted to make sure that we're going forward good well that's perfect that's what we wanted to make sure we're all on the same page yeah any other questions anybody yeah I'm just kind of off of that like as we look at different um lands and different uh buildings are there um uh mostly single-family homes I saw that there were some parks that have been done in the past um single family are there multi-families or tiny houses I don't know just throwing out some alternative uh right well our biggest thing is to have that project fit in that neighborhood and so looking back and we've we've done two stories in North St Paul we've also taken uh taking a duplex and converted that into a single family I believe that was the only home we did not tear down um it was distressed property I think it was tax four for cured I'm not exactly sure the background of that property but uh I walked inside and it's like this Foundation is good there's minimal bulk water intrusion and so it wasn't a bad structured building so why we tearing this thing down so that when we actually converted it was two small duplexes we converted that into a single family property and Ron and Randy might know exactly what address that was remember that one by Webster Sixth Street okay yeah and that was kind of a fun project for the kids to do because we could look at something like the bathroom had some mold issues so it's like well what caused that let's tear the sheetrock off no someone forgot to insulate it imagine that and so it's kind of fun to see that part of the construction it was great starting with the roof over my head get all the snow right away so that was pretty good so you know we're as long as I can take what my my syllabi say and fit it into a project I'm okay with that even when we did the two Park shelters and the Press Box and all that other stuff that worked for us and so we're you know one thing about this program and the success of it is you have to be an entrepreneur and you have to be able to look and think outside the box and I think that's why the program's been around since I started it in 1999 is we're always looking as an entrepreneurship opportunity and so I'm not going to say no we only build that floor plan in that City if we can't build it we're done uh we'll go outside of that realm so I feel comfortable doing that thank you yeah appreciate it well thank you guys do I get a raise I'm sorry thank you both for your time thank you guys thank you please consent agenda we have the August 24th special Workshop budget meeting minutes August 21st special Workshop budget meeting minutes September 5th Workshop minutes September 5th regular meeting minutes September 5th HRA meeting minutes General claims of 2 million 747 659.41 HRA claims of 26 923.74 Cents Eda claims of 750 dollars resolution accepting donations for August of 2023 resolution adopting change to Workshop meeting time building permit report August 2023 Public Works Declaration of surplus vehicle request to purchase pad Mount Transformers and we would like to move the item in to the city business should be business letter um so moved your honor second council member Cole I'm looking that way all those in favor say aye aye thank you all right we have three minutes so we have people speak Terry yeah welcome name and address please Terry Luger that wanted some property in our St Paul I live in Oak Hills okay North St Paul keep it in the family 2407 East 19th Avenue okay and these gentlemen that were just speaking might be interested in this I'm here to ask for the council's help uh I've become the co-owner co-owner of 2407 East 19th Avenue it's been my family home since 1949 when it was built okay my mother just recently passed away and we have to sell it okay her house is in real real good shape the house is surrounding it are shall I say dumps uh one in particular is 23.99 19th Avenue it would be a real good match for the school district um North St Paul has ordinances and codes as far as weeds and cleanliness and uh varmints Vermin they have codes for all this but evidently you don't enforce them because a blind code enforcement officer could drive down that street and say what in the hell is going on there and I would like you guys to take and look drive by it go in the park behind it uh my mom's house looks good from the street looks good from the park uh this other house that I referenced looks terrible from the street looks even worse from the park it's been a joke on Facebook where they've taken aerial photos of it the backyard has a jungle thicker than what was in Vietnam so I mean it's a it's a neighborhood blight uh they also have two dogs that use the backyard as a bathroom and hasn't been cleaned up in years so this summer which was the last summer my mom was alive and could use her yard but she couldn't because it stunk so bad from the smell queefing over from next door so there's four foot weeds in the side yard like say the backyard you got to see it to believe it you've got one to four foot weeds in the front yard the front steps look like they're going to fall off of the house and I don't understand how this can go on I drive through North St Paul I don't see stuff like this I live in Oakdale I don't see stuff like this we have similar coats and uh so my realtor oh no first of all our second Ernie jute lives on the other side of the slot he's 88 years old and he said he's gone to the city and complained numerous times over the years and the city keeps telling them there's nothing they can do well I know that that's not true and so my mom being 93 she had to live her final years with this crap going on next door and there's no reason why Ernie juice should have to have this stuff going on next door there's a stretch of houses right there on 19th Avenue there's one vacant with a duplex uh that's would be ideal for the school district you know uh it's got a mold problem uh the 23.99 it's got mold grown on the outside of the house it's got a branch from one of the storms last year still laying on the roof of the garage it's got to be cleaned up all right okay my realtor tells me that it's going to cost me thousands of dollars and buyers because people are going to come out and they're going to go I'm not buying this house look what's next door and so the city has a lot of power and we're going to put it up we're going to put it on the market about our October 20th and that gives the city plenty of time to use their 30-day ticketing and either get it cleaned up or get something going on with it all right so get on it so that's that's all I wanted to say all right appreciate it thank you okay Mary Joel hi welcome in North St Paul um I'm just really here I'm starting my timer because I'm bad with with time to tell you that um but I'm here just actually just to personally invite all of you your family uh your neighbors the community to the church of Saint Peter this weekend for our fall festival um we appreciate the approvals that we've been able to get from the city but our fall festival has been going on for many many years we we've taken a couple breaks with covid but it has really been a great opportunity for us as a community as a parish but we've really worked the last few years to really kind of open it up and invite our neighborhood um we'd love to have as many people there as possible to enjoy the many festivities that we have don't worry about doing any cooking that weekend because you can eat around the world basically as well as our famous pancake breakfast put on by the Knights of Columbus and this year blueberry pancakes to go along um but we've also got some great um Community involvement we have about 50 local Crafters that will be in a Riley Hall selling their fabulous things that they make and many of them are from the city of North St Paul and the surrounding areas so we're really excited by that a lot of our sponsors as well are from the city of North St Paul we're going to have great music we've got big toe in the jam um first time I heard them was last year they are nine piece but here's the here's the kicker North High band director Aaron is the bass player and he this is a fabulous they play all kinds of music had the kids up dancing on the stage having a great time I mean it's a really great family event in addition we will have fast-paced Bingo on Sunday afternoon if I have anybody who is interested in a cornhole tournament I think there's still some slots available for that as well as we'll have a lot of games for the kids we have inflatables for kids uh hula hoop Challenge and then of course we're gonna have a silent auction with a lot of really great items and if you are a Vikings fan I'm waiting to hear we are going to have a 15-foot TV with the Vikings going on in the afternoon so um you can pull up a chair have a cold beer or your beverage of choice um and come and enjoy our Festival so thanks for the opportunity to speak it really is it's a great time to get a chance to meet new people and that's what we that's what we're hoping that we can do and invite the invite the community to come out and see a little bit about who we are and and get to meet some new people great thank you thank you nice you're my favorite speaker Mr small how are you got competition you have to throw me out uh just to prove to you that I'm not bringing something up that uh public record okay uh first of all just a short note I uh I was here last week uh uh John Schmall 2750 Chisholm Avenue in North Saint Paul uh I was here last week and brought up uh this thing about uh skimming off of the uh electric fund and I forgot to mention uh another great contributor to the electric fund is the school district they probably have the biggest uh electric bill of anyone so they get to contribute to that 1.1 million dollars that is going into the road uh uh fixing and they shouldn't be contributing because they are uh what is it uh uh the an organization that is not taxable the tax-free organization which is a school and churches so anyway to add to that what I'm bringing up is this resolution that you have tonight a resolution to change the time of the workshop a resolution that's covering something that's already happened it was changed to the 15th or to 5 15 and the resolution that's was just before you just to change it to 515. uh back in uh January you changed it from five o'clock to 5 30 and you did it right because uh council member Wong was in charge that evening you were missing an action so if the resolution came up before it happened uh I would think that that's the way it's supposed to be but this is an extraordinary City so God knows what the policies are in effect anyway it says that uh the resolution is changing the resolution of 2022-113 which was one that was passed in December of 2022 setting the times up for five o'clock and 6 30. then we had a resolution 2023-113 which changed the time for the workshop to 5 30. so uh but the resolution that you have before you tonight is uh referring back to a resolution uh in 2022 but your resolution get this now your resolution in uh February or in January of this year say that you were revoking 2022-113 so the resolution tonight is referring to a resolution that doesn't exist this is an extraordinary city thank you yeah all right big city business City business uh preliminary 2024 City general fund HRA and Eda budgets and property tax levies um Mr Winnick good evening mayor City Council Members um if I can get this PowerPoint pulled up here there we go a lot of this information that is going to be presented tonight uh was presented two weeks ago on September 5th um and so I'll try to go through this as quickly as possible tonight um basically we are going to be certifying our maximum levies for the preliminary budget um for our Levy funds which include the city which includes both the general operation um the debt and then the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and The Economic Development Authority um and um just kind of a reminder our our budget process began um in April of this year submitting forms out to all of the department heads for them to put together their budgets during the week of June 5th to 19th city manager and the finance met with all of the department heads and then on June 20th we had the official kickoff of city council we've had a number of meetings since that time all of the department heads have presented their budgets to city council and at our September 5th we've kind of locked in on a maximum Levy of 8.5 percent and that is what is going to be uh being shown tonight and requesting that the resolutions be approved um we need to sort of certify them by Statute to the county by the end of this month and so we are right on track for that now this doesn't mean that the budget process is done we will be your finance will be here every meeting for the remainder of the year we still have to cover our financial plans we need to cover our Capital Improvement plan we have our funds for internal service funds are utility funds we have special funds still to go over and then we'll have which is being recommended tonight too is that we'll have a truth and Taxation Hearing in the first meeting in December and then in the the second meeting in December we'll do the final approval of the budgets for all of the budgets in in the levy um so again tonight we're certifying our maximum levies and also I'm setting Our Truth and Taxation public hearing which will be on December 5th at 6 30. um the city Levy as I said is up 8.5 percent um it is uh 557 000 over the 2023 um and on a medium value home that represents uh an increase of 9.16 um it's a 132 dollar increase from the priority here um what that City Levy is doing is um it's covering all of our cost of living adjustments um it is in addition to that it's uh um adding a full-time police investigator there'll be a reduction of a part-time Community Service Officer um it's combining of two part-time Code Compliance officers into one fire code compliance officer that's an increase of on-call fire pay um by 1.50 to meet the market rates and then it's also putting some funds that are dedicated towards Street improvements as you remember that we the city had chosen chose to um not do special assessments so even at that point in time when that decision was made it was also identified that there would be Levy dollars that were would be needed in the future they've never been raised and so we've developed a plan based upon recommendations of our engineer and again that was presented to city council and if you remember the PCI was still going down even with this two percent but we have started that two percent Levy dedicated to Street improvements also some other areas that are going to need funding based upon the capital Improvement plan um were parks and Facilities a reminder from a snapshot in time and that's exactly what a financial statement is we are we're healthy our city is in very good position the stewardship of the city council has been very good our fund balances are in good position where the rub starts to hit is when you infuse that Capital Improvement plan of planning for the future of the needs of the city those aren't reflected in a snapshot of one day at a time and so that's what the finance department has been trying the last couple of years of educating the city council in the development last year and again we'll present them this year of the financial plans to be able to make sure that everybody is aware of what's coming out into the future city council always has the decision to reduce some of the the wants and the needs and that's through talking to department heads of what the city actually needs in that Capital Improvement plan if that's done as we go through our Capital Improvement plan it's finances responsibility and then roll that into the financial plans and the budgets and show you what that type of an impact would end up being um so the Housing and Redevelopment Authority if you remember last year we reduced a levy to zero there's a recommendation to start moving that up a little bit so we're just moving it up by um from zero to eleven thousand dollars um that's uh 2.35 increase on a medium value home Economic Development development the levy is going to stay the same from 2023 it's actually the same Levy as it has been since 2022 um and just to kind of show you the city portion the HRA the Eda and again there's two components to the general fund there's the general fund and the debt that make up that 7.1 million dollars of the general fund um here's the composition of what's included in our debt Levy and again if you remember through our budget process that we talked about the dead Levy and for a city our size we actually have a very high debt Levy and so again that was part of the plans that have been developed for both um the street and the parks and the facilities is to start to build up a little cash and pay it in cash kind of the rule of thumb that uh that I like to use is that if I were to to issue a debt at five percent interest for 20 years for one million dollars is going to cost me eighty thousand dollars a year multiply that by 20 that's 1.6 million dollars so in other words one million dollars of taxpayer money eventually I'm gonna have to pay off 1.6 so if I can develop some cash I can get more work done for the city and for the residents of the city and that's what we're trying to do in some of these these plans that we've developed in a comparison you can see the city is not the highest in in the tax levy increases in in the cities of Ramsey County there's already been some changes I know Mountain View um on this shows 6.5 I know that they've approved there's a 7.5 Oakdale I think was not in Ramsey County they're in Washington County last week they passed theirs and they're at about a 13.5 percent Levy increase and again that's the the second year that they've been in double digits a reflection of the needs that are in the city with the inflationary impact that's been happening you know Across the Nation um showing you the market values again the market values are are increasing um the the tough part for the city of North St Paul is that most of our market value base is in residential we don't have a big commercial component so when those values increase which has an impact um you know on the residence tax impact it's passed upon the residents um in the in the residential community um again you can see the increases that were caught across the board for the various property types of residential Apartments commercial and internal this is uh the the what the preliminary general fund at this 8.5 Levy is um and you can see that the majority and there's a graph that'll show it a little to depicted a little bit better but you know we you know we have a heavy Reliance on property taxes as a revenue Source on our expenditure side Personnel is really the big driving factor for that here's a picture of the of the revenue by category again the ad valorem taxes property tax that's 50 percent of our revenue for the general fund is generated through that we get 18 approximately 18.6 percent from intergovernmental Revenue the biggest contributor to that is a local governmental local government Aid expenditures by category again you can see the Personnel cost or or approximately 62.5 percent of our costs in the general fund um if we look at it by departments again the two departments that are really driving again and we talked about this as Public Safety um police said 42 percent uh fire and code enforcement at 14 uh the next one after the uh after that is Street Maintenance at about 14.2 percent so if you combine those right there um doing the quick math you're at about 70 percent of your budget is is by Street Maintenance uh police and firing code and those are really your main responsibilities as as a city the estimated property tax impact if there had been no property value change with this um the overall total Levy is actually 8.41 when you put in both the Eda in the HRA it would end up having a total impact of what these levees um I'm being proposed tonight are it would be a total increase of 13.51 or 1.2 percent increase uh when you put in that increase in that median value home that the values increase that 9.2 percent you put in that Levy of 8.4 it's now um you know the resident is going to see an increase of 135 dollars or a 11.8 percent increase um with that um I'll take um any questions that we have um and then there are some there are resolutions three uh individual resolutions one for the general fund um one for uh The Economic Development Authority and one for the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and again the resolution for the the cities uh the general fund for the city part two it also has a resolved to make December 5th at 6 30 the truth and Taxation hearing time so with that any questions foreign I just want to conclude this this part I mean we're going to have to get some motions um to pass on that but um once again it's been a pleasure um working with the the city manager the department heads and absolutely with the city council as we've gone through this um we've had some very difficult discussions um this again is a reminder is setting the maximum Levy it certainly can come down and I think that was the feel from City councils that we are going to be working at doing that in the months to come so I thank you all very very much it's a number like you said before you can't go up there we can't go out we can go down absolutely good question in regards to the HRA um it seems like the 11 000 was um determined as a um a potential um how did you land on that number you know I really didn't have a scientific way on that one of how I arrived at that if you remember the reason part of the reason last year why we reduced it to zero is because right now uh the primary focus of what the HRA is doing is the student build house which you saw the presentation earlier today which is basically paying um you know with the sale of the home it's covering the costs and so there really hadn't been a need to have a levy but eventually I'm hoping that there's other programs that are developed underneath the HRA and so would like to ratchet up that that Levy without having a huge impact on the residents all at once both the Eda and the HRA levies there's a maximum Bi-State statute um which were obviously at 11 000 were not even close to it it would be more in the range of about 230 000. I would hate to just all of a sudden jump up and have a huge impact that's something that we've you know that's part of my principles that I always try to avoid that's why you're seeing the street planning that's why you're seeing the financial planning so we can ratchet things up over time instead of having big huge increases so really there wasn't a scientific I just tried to come up with something that I thought to start it up okay thank you very much for that explanation okay okay I asked before I I know you did I just um just so I'm clear um on the property type definitions that you have um when the city um increases the levy those are still allocated by property value correct even though a different type um absolutely so in uh property taxes are calculated are that every every property has a market value and every property then has what is called a taxable market value um State legislation sets what is called tax class rates which then takes the market value and converts it over to a net tax capacity it's the combination of all of those net tax capacities that becomes your local value that then is is the denominator you take your Levy divided by the total net tax capacity and then that becomes your tax rate and then that's applied to everybody's um total net tax capacity on everybody's property um but we have no input on tax class rate correct absolutely well I mean you you could have you know um have somebody go to legislation and have them try to change that I mean at a local government we have no we have no control no no and and really the the way it always has been set up is that residential gets a lower commercial is a little bit higher but that's where when legislation changes though net cash capacity rates that's where you'll hear it becomes shifts shifts and where the burden of the property tax ends up going um and so that can be significant um it it just kind of a a real good example is is the city of Saint Paul if you remember last year they had a levy increase of 15.5 percent this year they're at a 3.5 percent um the majority of Saint Paul residents will will see decreases in their property taxes the question you ask is why well it's because commercial did very well same the city of Saint Paul would have talked about a number of times about fiscal disparities the city of Saint Paul is the number one winner in fiscal disparities in other words they get the most money they increased I think over three million dollars in in their what they're going to get for that in addition through this last legislative process I think they ended up getting an additional three or four million dollars in local government Aid so when you look at that 3.5 percent that they got they were able to buy down their their need because of the infusion of local government Aid um the city our size we we did get an increase in our local government able it was only to the 284 thousand dollars which which you know is is over a percent uh on our Levy um but that's kind of gives that illustration of it's not it's it's not as simple as it just looks you know there's so many different contributing factors that have impact on on the final bill that uh a resident or commercial property would end up paying is that help answer that's wonderful I really appreciate taking time to explain it just just so we can make sure that we're not leaving no stone unturned when we're doing these budget hearings so thank you no okay thank you good yep thank you appreciate the question all right my first resolution is a resolution adopting the preliminary preliminary 2024 general fund budget and setting the preliminary 2024 general fund tax levy and Debt Service Levy whereas the city of North St Paul Minnesota is required by Minnesota State Statute 275.065 to adopt a preliminary general fund budget and to certify to Ramsey County a proposed tax levy honor before September 30th of each year and whereas the city council has reviewed and established a proposed general fund budget it's and subsequent property tax levy of 8.5 percent for fiscal year 2024 beginning January 1st 2024 and ending December 31st 24 and whereas the council is proposing the following sums of money be budgeted for expenditures in 2024 for General operations of the city total 2024 general fund budget nine million 903 566 dollars whereas the city council is proposing a general property tax levy of 5 million 656 758 collectible in 2024 upon taxable property in the city and whereas the city whereas the council is proposing a Debt Service Levy of one million 453 324 one million 453 324 collectible in 2024 upon taxable property in the city and whereas the council issued a tax abatement bond in 2016 to finance the Casey Lake park facility and park Improvement project and whereas the council makes an irrevocable appropriation to add Debt Service fund of money actually on hand to meet the annual debt obligation for 2016 a bond therefore reducing the total debt Levy issued and collected from property taxes of twenty three thousand fifty two dollars and whereas the council issued a refunding bond in 2021 to refund the special assessment Bond of 2014 a therefore removing the debt Levy for the special assessment bonds of 2014 a now therefore be it resolved by the city council the city of North Saint Paul the following preliminary 2024 general fund budget and general purpose and Debt Service levies are hereby adopted the total 2024 general fund budget 9 million 903 566 dollars the total 2024 tax levy of seven million one hundred and 10 and 82 dollars which is compromised of general purpose tax levy of five million six hundred fifty six seven fifty eight dollars in debt service Levy of one million 453 324 dollars be it further resolved the council makes an irrevocable appropriation to Debt Service fund of money actually on hand to meet the annual debt allegations for the 2016 a bond therefore reducing the total debt Levy issued and collected from property taxes of twenty three thousand fifty two dollars be it for the result that the truth and Taxation meeting will be held on December 5th 2023 at 6 30 PM be it further resolved the city manager and finance director are hereby directed to submit this resolution and other required documentation to Ramsey County for certification get a motion so moved your honor okay the next resolution is resolution adopting the preliminary 2024 tax levy for the North St Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority whereas the city of North Saint Paul Minnesota is required by Minnesota statute 275.065 to adopt and certify a preliminary tax levy for housing related purposes as determined and Allowed by the North St Paul Housing and Redevelopment authority to Ramsey County on or before September 30th of each year and whereas the city council acting as HRA has determined the tax levy necessary to meet HRA objectives in 2024 to be in the amount of eleven thousand dollars and whereas the 2024 HRA budget in the amount of 402 231 is established to provide programs and services aimed at maintaining and reinvesting the community's housing stock and Community promotion and marketing efforts necessary for such activities now therefore it be resolved by the city of North Saint called excuse me now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of North St Paul Minnesota on behalf of the North St Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority the preliminary 2024 tax levy for House housing related purposes is hereby approved as submitted in the amount of eleven thousand dollars and a budget of 402 231 dollars hi hi thank you and lastly resolution adopting the preliminary 2024 tax levy for the North St Paul Economic Development Authority whereas the city of North St Paul is required by is required by Minnesota statute 275.065 to adopt and certify a preliminary tax levy for economic development purposes to Ramsey County on or before September 30th of each year and whereas the city council acting on behalf of the Economic Development Authority has determined the tax levy necessary to meet Eda objectives in 24 2024 to be in the amount of 200 907 dollars in a budget of 202 907 and whereas the purpose of said funds shall be used by the Eda to assist with business retention and expansion activities and Community promotion and marketing efforts necessary for such activities now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of North St Paul on behalf of North St Paul Economic Development Authority the preliminary 2024 tax levy for economic development related purposes is hereby approved as submitted in the amount of two hundred thousand nine hundred and seven dollars in a budget of 202 907 dollars thank you I moved your honor second second council member Cole I was in favor say aye aye 10 minutes off of that if I want to run thank you and Next Step would be Item B moving from the consent agenda it's consent agenda to set public hearing date for special assessments for unpaid bills on October 17 2023. and we'll pass that on to Mr Winnick um yes we wanted to have this um pulled because this morning we received an email from the city of Oakdale the city of Oakdale provides some water and wastewater services to a few properties on Division Street and they would like to include an amount on this unpaid utilities the amount that they're adding is one thousand two hundred nine dollars and 87 cents so the public hearing notice will be adjusted and it'll go up for publication and then also be mailed out to all of the residents that are impacted of this the amount will now be read instead of thirty one thousand fourteen dollars and Thirteen Cents will be 32 224 dollars so that's the only change that is identified there in addition um from some of the prior year comments on when we've had this annual part put into kind of some statistical information that kind of will help um from uh showing from 2020 um to the current date from the date of original publication uh then what actually ends up getting assessed because obviously residents can pay their their delinquent utilities and it kind of shows you you know the number that are of rental properties that are impacted the number of owners you know owner occupied homes that are impacted by this number that were final bills number of active accounts trying to give some statistical information to kind of show you some different pieces I know those have been questions that have come from City Council in the past so I wanted to make sure that we gave gave you enough information but if there's any questions before we pass the resolution um uh you know please let me know now thank you for adding um additional statistics that's that's very helpful you know there's that they're uh read what you want us to oh um yeah the I I can certainly read um the attached resolution I will not read it as well as Jenny just did I mean that was pretty impressive I I think it's better than the mayor so go ahead uh the uh it's a resolution scheduling of public hearing for October 17 2023 to consider special assessments related to unpaid bills due to the city whereas the city of North Saint Paul annually schedules a public hearing to consider and assess unpaid utility bills for water sanitary sewer service water recycling street lights fiber optic and solid waste during the year and whereas the city also assesses all outstanding charges due to the city for property abatements which includes sidewalk snow and ice removal property cleanup rubbish removal weed elimination building board up billing demolition graffiti removal and deceased tree removal and whereas those assessments are certified by the city council and submitted to Ramsey County for collection with property taxes and whereas property owners and persons with unpaid utilities and the payments are notified of the unpaid charges and have the opportunity to discuss those charges with the city council prior to the charges being assessed to property taxes now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of North Saint Paul Minnesota the hearing date for the assessment of unpaid utility bills for water sanitary sewer surface butter recycling street lights fiber optic and solid waste and outstanding balances related to property abatements do the city shall take place on October 17 2023 and 6 30 pm be it further resolved notices to persons with that aforementioned unpaid and others receiving city services and who have unpaid utility bills and or other outstanding balances due to the city shall be notified so moved your honor second second council member one all those in favor say aye aye thank you your parts please manage your departments on behalf of city manager and departments a couple Department updates the electric is working on bids for Eco kits with which help our electric customers reduce power consumption lower electric bills and save money we are required by law to spend two percent of our gross revenue on conservation Improvement programs the police is working on Final employee final employee trainings prior to year and and are being scheduled in-house and with Ramsey County body worn cameras have a new platform and in the process of working out the bugs fire department rfps are being sought to provide professional architectural Design Services for the East Metro Public Safety Expansion Project the training facility is currently operated by a jpa agreement between Maplewood Lake Elmo Oakdale and North Saint Paul the expansion will be a great benefit for fire and police offering indoor gun ranges simulation rooms incident command simulation areas and a live fire training to name a few they are also expecting the Zodiac boat replacement next week and Booyah sales are in full force with the event to be held in North St Paul October 8th Public Works downtown irrigation should be done this week with sod placement next week and are looking to finish Street patching within the next week and a half and finally the pow Mia March is this Thursday September 21st at 6 pm at Veterans Park thank you very much I had the wonderful opportunity to participate via Zoom for the Planning Commission Mr Smalls was there and provide some wonderful feedback as well I believe they're making great strides a big part is due to one of our city staff of Randy Howe about condensing and making some of our codes and zoning and overall enforcement is a lot easier and simpler for all of our residents to understand and navigate so I just want to give a huge shout out to our city staff for making this possible and happen uh the Planning Commission does not have a meeting coming up in October due to um some training going on with our city staff but we do have one coming up on November November 2nd thank you um the Arsenal culture commission has been quite busy as Kerry would know and they had the Autumn Arts Festival which I've gotten a wonderful feedback from community members and um just a really wonderful event and that people found vendors that they could go to and they had dancers and I think we got some good local media publicity as well so I think that's a really positive for North St Paul and a big thank you to to staff um obviously Carrie and Sarah Lang and Public Works um until in the Parks and Rec so I think it was a really wonderful collaboration and you know hopefully uh we continue on um with these wonderful events uh the next meeting is scheduled for um October 4th here in the chambers at 6 30. I have all right thank you councilmember Cole Eda had their last meeting for really two primary topics of conversation uh one is to begin the Eda bylaw review and the second was to discuss the memorandum of understanding between Dobbs and Mulcahy garage condo proposal which we had additional conversation of during Workshop today um next Eda meeting is October the 10th here in council chambers at three o'clock um in the absence of council member schwer um and Kerry help me out on this tomorrow night is star watch are there still positions open for those we are sold out all right thank you uh next park and rec meeting is the 27th at 6 30 here in council chambers still on my calendar all right thank you very much General business councilmember Orby any um I also had the opportunity to be at Casey Lake for the arms Art Festival and I just want to give a huge shout out to all the city staff and also the volunteers that made what I consider that to be just a wonderful event um and also encourage everyone as we have the presentation earlier to this weekend um visit the church of Saint Peter for the Fall Festival I had an opportunity to be there for last year and it was a wonderful event and I expect the same for this year so thank you very much yeah another big shout out to Kerry urbenbach I think the fall Roundup parade was also a success and it was really nice to be able to um you know be there together as a council so I really appreciated that um and it was nice to show off our New Roads too so um it was a good event and thank you council member Cole for letting us ride in the fire truck or you know running a side alongside it really it's ran and literally running yeah yeah we were running it's a fast-paced move so thank you um yeah I do have one more thing that I did want to um uh discuss with this Council on um the city manager's review um I think it is time for that to come up again and so I just wanted to put on the calendar um that review um for for us to discuss either this next date for this next meeting for a council or the following the lawyer put his glasses on no you're doing something dates I was looking for dates it's it's best if we actually set the date um so that your options would be October 3rd which is your first meeting in October or October 17th my vote would be October 3rd same accordingly to know that we have to do it yeah please please stack the agenda late yes thank you yeah I was just gonna say the um right and so we can I can work with Jenny to make sure the proper notice gets put in the agenda and then obviously alert Brian to it and then um yeah it'll be a closed session to go through that um so I don't think it takes a vote I think you've given your direction and the staff can prepare the agenda accordingly thank you all right all right um had the opportunity to participate in the fall Roundup parade um first time I Believe full Council and mayor have been present at least in my short ten year of being here so uh it's good to see everybody out there with their tennies on and and hands full of candy and moving down the street so that was uh that was exciting to see Unity uh amongst us so thank you all um again councilmember Wong addressed it but huge shout out to Carrie with without her hard work and diligence on this it wouldn't have uh it wouldn't have been together um but let's not forget the North St Paul Business Association along the way they did a lot of heavy lifting do um to make sure that this this got pulled off so uh hats off to them as well I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting on Saturday morning at Poland nutrition uh definitely got my days fill of protein in um there were several of us that were able to attend they had a parking lot full of um art things going on as well as a bouncy house North Saint Paul fire department showed up at 10 o'clock so again it was another another exciting thing to offer and and welcome a new business into North St Paul yeah thank you I would like to Echo the parade when you told me the winter Cardinals about 44 units did you say something like that or well like 85 is that with the winter carnival is oh I don't know so I heard that we're bigger than the parades like that so that's uh that's great um and we have a great participation the weather was perfect ribbon cunning for the the protein shake that lasted me all weeks all Saturday nights and so I think I better start doing those a little more because that worked out good um anything else oh I was gonna bring up that uh was brought up about the um the workshops when I ran and I was asked to run I mentioned that you know this is a full-time working Council we all have full-time jobs and we are pushing dates around or excuse me times around because of jobs that we trying to get here by a certain time so I apologize that I know it's been hard on the staff we went from you know the five which we just can't you know a few of us just can't get there at five o'clock so we push it to 5 30 but then we ran into some times so uh we did uh push it to uh 5 15. so my apologies to the staff and uh for that because I know it's it's been a hassle but you know it's it's the issue we have in in anything when it comes to people volunteering people work trying to get people with commissions and everything else and it's it's a it's a commitment and it's a commitment that we don't take lightly but we're still trying to figure it out and this is a very young Council and we're just trying to iron it out like I said it's the first time in a long time that there hasn't been um retirees on the console so we appreciate the patience and we are trying and so 5 15 is where we're where we've landed and we're seeing how that goes not saying it may never change again but we're trying it's just uh we just don't know where where it's going to be so we appreciate the um patience on that and uh we'll do the best we can with that and uh thank you all for for patients so uh anything else nothing else we'll move to adjourn so moved your honor move councilmember one second second council member Cole they're the right order all those in favor say aye aye thank you all since