To the flag of the United States of America to the standice for all Uh, no, Mr. Mayor. >> Motion to approve. I will second. >> All in favor? I >> um truth and taxation, >> right? Um we are required under state statute to provide anformational meeting um on an annual basis to provide an opportunity for our residents to ask questions and get information related to property taxes for 2026. Um the presentation that we prepare every year has the ability to be expanded or contracted depending on who is in attendance and the level um and this particular topics of the audience. But we are required to provide it regardless of whether or not there's anybody here. Um, and so I would just uh ask real quick um based on who is both here virtually and who is here directly. Um, how extensive of a presentation would you like tonight? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, you're in the audience. >> You you are our audience member. >> Okay. >> Um, so I will do the abbreviated version if the council so directs. Go ahead. >> Okay. So, just real quickly, truth and taxation as theformational meetings allow city staff to highlight the priorities and plans set forward in budget. Allow citizens to become informed about the impact of city council decisions on their property taxes and the services that will be provided by those taxes. And taxpayers at this meeting are not allowed to appeal their market values or classifications at this time. One that is handled by the county and two that process is at the beginning of the year. Uh the time frame to appeal is typically in the spring prior to proposed property tax notes notices being received and they should call the county assessor's office. I am going to uh accelerate through the understanding property taxes section because I think we took care of that in the hallway. >> Yes sir. Um, I do always like to point out how the property tax formula actually works. Um, there are three parts to determining property tax. One is the assessed value of your home. We're all familiar with that. The county assessor comes out and says your home has a value of X. The other part is the classification rate. So, under state statute, for instance, residential homestead, it has a classification. Commercial, industrial, they all have tax classification rates. And that rate is applied against your assessed value. So for example, if your home is valued at $100 and the class rate for residential homestead is 1%, your value that the local tax rate is applied against is $1. Um, and then you have the local tax rate. That is actually the last thing that gets put into this formula. Uh the property tax is what the city council has decided is the necessary amount of money that we need to collect through property taxes to run the city. You take that end number, the assessed value which is fixed by the county, the classification rate which is fixed by statute and you work backwards into the local tax rate that is necessary to collect the property taxes that we need. Does everybody follow that? So um little bit historical tax rates. Uh you will note that the most recent data we have for a lot of these is items is up through 2023 because that's the most recent data that's available for the county assessor's office especially if it's comparable. Sometimes we'll have it up through 2025. In this case the historical tax rates for the city um shows that generally speaking our historical tax rate has been flat. I always like explaining to people that the tax rate is a good tool if you want to take a snapshot comparison between one jurisdiction and another jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions like to say, "Hey, our tax rate went down." That doesn't necessarily mean that your taxes went down. Remember, it's a number you back into. and things like t changes in tax base both in um the amount of tax base you have the size of it and also the composition of it can change your tax rate even if the amount you're levying doesn't change at all. So, little quiz for everybody. When you're looking at pre207, the premerged cities, and you see that generally the tax rates falling over that period, for those of you that owned homes during that time, what was happening? Homes were appreciating in value double digits every year in that particular housing market. So, the rate did not have to be as high to collect the same amount of taxes during that window of time. post 2026 27 what was happening in the housing market then homes were depreciating by about the same rate and as a result you the tax rate needed to be higher at that time to collect the same amount of money so I don't like are I think that tax rate is a useful tool but it's a limited tool and as a community we generally talk about tax impact what has been the change of taxes you pay over year over year or over a period of time. And the chart that we have here basically takes the typical home and the changes in taxes paid by that typical home over time. And you'll see a couple of things that pop out. One, um there was relatively limited change in property taxes paid by those homes for about a decade. And then you'll note in the mid- teens that that amount started to go up. And you'll see a constant theme here that was being driven by a couple of things. Um, our levies were going up because we had debt service uh that we were paying for projects and things. Um, generally uh I'll get into the house analogy in a little bit, but basically our infrastructure was aging and we were seeing an increased demand for services and so we needed to add resources to be able to to provide those services and so we saw that increase uh basically over the last 10 years as those changes were happening. Now, one of the ways in which we can measure it though is per capita spending. This is a way that we can not only look at ourselves historical data from the office of the state auditor, but it also, and we'll have this later in the presentation, allows us to compare it to other cities. One of the things you'll know is that while our levy was going up, if you look at how much we were spending per person in the community over that time, there hasn't been a substantial change over the 15 years that we've ident since the merger. Um there has been a bit of an increase in recent years but some of that spending has gone up because we have a larger population in part than we did previously. When we look at our total expenditures um that is also uh seen a general upward trend in recent years and I'll be honest I expect that to continue um as we move forward in time as we increase services. We just talked about adding police officers over time and other staff to be able to maintain the infrastructure that we have which is starting to age. When we look at the percentage of change, not the nominal value, but the percentage of change from 2000 through today, you'll notice that between 2000 and 2006, there was a pretty steep climb in the total expenditures that we were expending as a city. During that time, we were moving from what would have been a very low base for service levels. We were actually provided less services than a lot of townships do. Um and you'll notice in and we were growing during that time period. But there's another thing that we had we had duplication. We had the overhead of operating two separate cities. And you'll notice that co coincident with the merger of the two cities in um 2007. You'll see a marketked change in the rate of increase in our expenditures over time. in part from the efficiencies um of the merger and the economies of scale the organization we had as we were moving forward. Now if you look at the change or that was change in population excuse me growth period. So if we look at the change in current expenditures you'll notice that it we had that same increase that it started as we came moved into the merger it flattened out but as we move forward in time it's starting to increase again um to be relative to the growth in population in the community. levies. Levies have increased over time. Um that does not necessarily translate into tax impact because we've also had growth in our tax base over that same time period. Uh primary drivers for change. Um as we look at our community, the number one driver in the change in our levy over time is debt service. and debt services associated with um projects. Replacement, repair of infrastructure and repair and replacement and purchase of major purchases like major pieces of equipment, plow trucks, um large uh loaders, those types of things. I always use the analogy if you have a house and you buy it and it's brand new, you have 20 years before you start having to replace the windows, the HVAC, the roof, the driveway, all of those things. You don't have to put in a lot of money. Most of our community was built in the early 2000s in a relatively short window. And now that stuff is 20 years old and now we have streets that need to be replaced, um, reconstructed. Uh, we have pieces of equipment which are older which now need to be replaced. So, we're just living in a little bit older house, so to speak, and now we're starting to have those normal maintenance costs. And for us as a community, um, we're starting to see expenses we hadn't had before where if you're an older community that has seen growth over a long period of time, you already have some of that built into your budget and your finances as a city. We're on the front end of it and just getting up to that point. At some point, it'll become cyclical and start to level out a little bit more. The other part is personnel. Um, we have had a significant increase. I've, every council person has heard me tell this story. When I started with the city almost 22 years ago, the level of service expectations in the community were I want my street plowed. I want the street lights to come on. I want stuff to come out of the faucet and I want it to go down the drain. Beyond that, I don't I'm not expecting a lot. Over the years, that has grown to how come I don't have a police officer driving by my house every 20 minutes? Halcom public works isn't here 10 minutes after I make a phone call and I would like the park and recreation programs that I had growing up in name contiguous suburb to the north. Um and as we grow and as we provide services even if we're just adjusting for just the growth in the community not even including the increased expectations for the level of service that requires additional people over time. And then we have normal operational increases. The cumulative effect of effect effect of just several inflationary adjustments over time. Um on the debt side, I do want to commend the councils over the years. We have a tool that other cities don't. It's our capital projects fund. We use it to shave off peaks and fill in valleys with regards to our debt service over time. Our use of that tool has done two things. one has allowed us to keep our actual levy for debt service lower um than the actual debt service change and has allowed us to shave off those peaks and valleys over time. So the impact yeartoear on our budget is much more limited. So the actual levy, how much do we actually tax people um within our community? When we look at the per capita levy, how much do we levy in property taxes per person in the community? You'll note that is relatively level for about a decade. and you saw that increase and it ties back to those things. Debt service, increased level of services, um I always recommend that you have to be careful when you compare yourself to others. If you put it in again that household um analogy again, um you might look at the Johnson's next door um and do comparisons about their finances, but their circumstances are different than yours. So while you can take a look at it at a high level, everybody's circumstances are different, but it is human nature to do comparisons and so we do do annually a comparison of where we are. So 2023 is the most recent comparative data that we can get from the office of the state auditor. And when we look at that and we look at current expenditures and for purposes of this, this is basically public safety, public works, parks, city hall, um everything that's not um debt service or capital outlay. We're pretty similar in what we spend per person relative to a lot of our neighbors. We are definitely not out of line. When we look at capital outlay, um, we're also right in line, but I should say that capital outlay, if you think about it, is paying cash for stuff and debt services, putting it on the credit card. And in both of those areas, we're pretty much middle of the pack for folks that are in the neighboring areas. Now, I do have to point out that when we look in each of these areas, give me one second, that when we compare ourselves across the state, even though we're comparable to our neighbors, we're in the bottom fourth compared to other cities across Minnesota with regards to what we spend per resident. We are not big spenders as a community. When we look at how much we spend at capital outlay, we're the middle of the pack at a at the 41st percentile. And when we look at debt service, we're still in the middle of the pack, but on more on the upper end of the 58th percentile. And that's not uncommon when you have growing communities because you're paying for infrastructure. And again, we're at that point where we're having to replace some older infrastructure. When we roll it all up though and we put it all together, um, again, we're right in there with a lot of our neighbors with regards to what we spend per per person. However, when we compare ourselves to the rest of the state, we're in the bottom third. So, again, we're as a community, we're not big spenders. When we look at how much we levy for property taxes, and again, um how much you levy, if I'm up on the range, I get all kinds of state aids related to what I spend. Um if I'm Lakeville, for example, I don't get local government aid or fiscal disparities. And so there are outside revenues that can influence this or other factors, but when it comes to what we actually levy, we're right in the pack with regards to uh rest of our neighbors in the immediate area. And compared to the rest of the state, we're about the middle. We're at the 43rd percentile. Now, when it comes down to how much we levy for property taxes and we take a look at our neighbors and you take the average valued home, which is around $398,000, you'll see that we compare we're a little bit better than the exurban communities in our part of the region. And you'll see that we're pretty comparable to some of the suburban communities in our part of the region. Now, the one thing I do have to have people keep in mind is when you're looking at a house in Lakeville, that's $398,000. That is not the same house that you get in Elanoo Market for $398,000. And if you were to make adjustments for the home you get um and how much taxes are paid, you would see places like Bell Plane and Jordan might come down a little bit closer um to what we're um levying per that typical home and you would see Shaki Lakeville and Prior Lake probably move up. So again, I think at the end of the day, we're right in the pack with a lot of our neighbors from a comparative standpoint. should talk about our general fund reserves. If you go back in time pre204, pre207, um the community premerged communities of Elco and New Market were not doing so great. Um we only have back to 2005, but I can tell you as you go back to the early 2000s, Elco was negative at points and so was the city of New Market. In 2007, the cities merged and we went from smaller communities which are struggling with their general fund balances to within a matter of years moving up to what was considered a healthy fund balance and in fact we went from cities whose credit rating went from being unrated to a double A+ level which for a community of our size at the time we achieved that rating there was only one other city under 5,000 that was able to achieve that and that was Minnitanka Beach and there's a really good reason why they could get that credit rating. So we have definitely over time also improved as we've done these other things the financial health of the city. Quick conclusions. Uh we strategically allocate and make very efficient use of the resources available to us as a city. We do a good job of providing value. So we control costs relative to increased services. And then the last part here is to talk about the budget. I know that the council had just went through the draft budget and the work session prior to that. But for anybody that might be watching this on video, I'll just go through it if the council's okay with that and then a very abbreviated fashion. So the budget basically is identifies the revenues and expenditures we expect as a city. It's the basis for the levy that we levy property taxes, the rates and fees that we charge. It's a tool for implementing council policy vision and goals, and it's a way of allocating finite resources. um the needs and wants of the community always exceed the resources are available and the budget is one of the ways in which the council prioritize those resources to try and meet them. It also serves as a directive of staff. Once the council's approved the budget, staff is enabled to then use that resource and put it to work to deliver those services. The levy itself is the total amount of property taxes that we collect as a city for our general operations, our capital expenditures, and the paid debt. There are a number of things that impact the budget that we have to keep in mind. Um, one, there is increasing development interest in the community which translates into plat activity. It means that there's taxbased growth. Um, we have, as we just talked about, strong general fund reserves. Our surveys indicate that we have strong approval of the rating for the level of services we provide. So, we're meeting the expectations of our citizens. And our surveys also show that there's satisfaction with the value of city services, meaning that people feel that they're paying a fair amount for the services they receive. Couple of other items though, we have limited commercial lot inventory. There isn't a lot of commercial property within the town that's ready to go. So that places some limitations on uh your ability to grow your commercial tax base. We have limited utility fund reserves. Uh that is changing over time um especially with large industrial users that have come into town. that's helping us improve the financial health of those funds. We have increasing demand for level of service expectations. I talked about that earlier in this presentation. But we continue to see increasing expectations from our residents related to the services they provide or we provide as a city. Um we have increasing maintenance requirements. I use the house analogy. As our we have aging infrastructure within the community, there's a greater need to be able to maintain that. So that puts a greater burden on us from a financial standpoint to provide those resources whether it's projects to renew, replace or renovate items or whether maintenance staff to be able to maintain those items as well. Um also major capital projects infrastructure equipment facilities and then also there's finite capa finite capacity in the capital projects fund. I'd shown in an earlier slide how we've been able to use that and leverage it to limit the impact of debt service costs on our residents and their property taxes. However, we are reaching the capacity of that and so we'll have a bigger impact from debt service as we move forward in the future. Um, I'll just speed through the process. Our budgeting process starts in May and wraps up in December. So, lo and behold, we will have from a staff standpoint a whole three months here for Kelly to do her year-end work and then we'll be starting the budget process again and it'll start coming to you guys in May and June. Our process starts with visioning and goal setting where we identify those goals that the vision we have for the community going into the future. And we also identify specific goals. And when I say goals, as we talked about, we have finite resources in an in an endless list of needs and wants. The five-year goals help us focus when we can, all things being equal, where we're going to put the emphasis on what we're trying to do and achieve as community. within the 2006 within the 2026 budget specifically, there are a number of notable items, things that the council has um worked to try and move the ball on. One is a police detective position. Um this is new within the department. Uh this allows us to respond to uh the increasing demand related to investigations. That doesn't mean that crime is running rampant but the nature of crime is changing where the time and re the time and the specialized um skills, knowledge and resources required to respond to it has changed as we move into a more for example as we move into a more digital age that requires a different skill set than the officer on patrol uh to be able to respond to and it takes a lot of dedicated time. Reduce public safety aid. So, we had received money from the state a few years ago. We used it to buy down the cost of additional officer positions and the council used that to feather in the cost over a three-year period and we're at the point in the process where those dollars have run out. So, there's a cost to that from a levy standpoint. Uh we are looking at adding an additional police officer patrol position the first of the year. Um and we are also looking at adding an additional officer midyear as well. We also have a need to update our officer body and squad camera system. Uh we have been very cost effective over the years in implementing that system, but it is at end of life. It's no longer supported and the hardware itself is reaching the point where it's starting to fail and has to be replaced. While we have sought a federal grant for that, of which we are hopeful we will receive to cover a significant portion, if not the whole cost of the upgrade, we don't have a guarantee that we're going to receive those grant dollars at this time. And so we're currently budgeting for the replacement if we have to move forward without those grant dollars. Uh the other item is the first center training facility membership. Um we currently participate in the scale regional training facility over in Jordan. that facility um is at a point where it's in need of significant reinvestment and it's also not close from a um proximity standpoint. And as that facility goes through its um next evolution and we found that it's going to be more cost-effective for us to um provide the same training at the first center training facility over in Lakeville, but there's an upfront cost for initial membership in that facility and then over the long term it'll be more cost effective. The public works maintenance position. So just as a community, we talked about as we have aging infrastructure, as we have growth within the community, there is a need over time to just add staff. And so we are looking at adding a public works maintenance position uh this year. Uh reallocation of public works salary expense. This gets a little bit into the weeds from a finance standpoint, but you want to properly allocate your costs where they belong. And what we've seen over time is where our public works department is spending their time has changed as we spend less time relatively speaking in the utility department and more time on general fund areas such as parks, facilities, streets, etc. And so there's been a multi-year adjustment to try and get those expenses aligned with where the time has actually been spent. We do have a cost associated with the disease tree removal expenses. The public works um director had previously reported during our work session that we have a thousand trees that we need to take down. So that is a cost that um we will be bearing this year and in some subsequent years. And then we have additional debt service associated with the two homes that we acquired in the downtown for ultimate redevelopment. And then we have no choice. We're coming up on the 2050 comp plan process. We are required by law to go through that process and as a result of that, we're going to have some expenses incurred starting in 2026. If we look at our general fund property or our general fund revenues, um this has not changed over time. Our property taxes come primarily from um our revenues come primarily from property taxes. And as you look at a comparison between 26 and 2025, you'll look at it's largely unchanged where our revenues come from. And even if you look back 15 years, you're going to see the same thing that our prop property taxes support between 70 and 75% of our revenues um and our operations as a city. Expenditures. Um right now, public safety takes up roughly half of the general fund expenditures. in public safety would include police, fire and um like siren uh uh storm sirens etc. and building inspections. Um this has grown slightly um over time and in recent years that is being driven mostly by the hire of police officers um and by increased expenditures for consulting building official although on the revenue side we have an offset for that. Um, and I don't mean to pick on the police department, but the reality is police officers are supported entirely by property taxes and they have a bigger impact from a property tax standpoint than any other staff position just because of that. Um, levy overview. Um, the 2026 levy is a substantial increase um, from the 2025 levy, 15.3% in the preliminary budget, but the final draft of the budget, which the council reviewed earlier tonight, is 13%. and that is substantial. However, that is offset because we did have substantial growth um and diversification within our tax base primarily due to new industrial tax base that came online uh just this year. and the council chose to take advantage of that and accelerate all the things we talked about earlier in this presentation normally would have taken years to implement with a similar tax impact and we're able to get it done in one year and improve the level of services that we're providing to our residents. So the estimated tax impact um this is a tool um we use when we're developing the budget. It's based on the community average um home value. It is provide a tool provided by Scott County otter's office. We do have to note that it's a generalized tool. It's taking the average valued home and applying different appreciation or depreciation values to that home to give an estimate of relative tax impact or change year-over-year. It is not at the granular level where we can look at each individual property as we're going through this process. When we look at tax impact, um a 1% change in the taxes equates to $16 to $17 per year for the typical home. A 1% levy increase is equivalent to about $3,000 change in how much we're levying. And just for reference, a CPI um first half 2024 to 2025 is 2.5%. Now CPI does not equate necessarily to inflationary adjustments and how we run as a city. We don't buy groceries, you know, for example, but it does give an indication of what the impact is for inflation to our residents. When we look at tax impact, um you'll note on this chart that 67% of the homes in the community saw appreciation between 5 and 10%. And so we're using this to describe our typical home. So, home of $393,000 that saw that typical appreciated depreciation would be looking at about a 6.2% increase based on the preliminary budget. And that's the information that would have come out on the proposed tax notice that residents received. And for that typical home, that would have been about $111 increase. Now, since then, obviously, uh the preliminary budget is the high point. We've worked down from there. And we as we have worked our way down to the final draft um the increased tax impact is now from 62 down to 4.4 for the typical home or $78. Approximately 3% of homes experienced an increase more than the typical home. These are generally going to be people who did substantial improvements to their home or it's a new home where last year's taxes were based only partial value like lot value or partial construction. typical homes uh twothirds of our homes in the community um saw an increase in their valuation between five and 10%. But there are people that saw something less. They saw less than 5 10% or actual depreciation in their value and that represents over a quarter of the community and a um and then you have 3% which actually saw a decrease in their assessed value. So a third of the community is below the norm um within the community and so the tax impact of those homes is going to be less and like likewise homes that are above the norm are going to see a greater increase. The weighted average tax impact when you take that all together would be an increase of 2.8%. um for residents when they look at their property tax value. Obviously, as we talked early on when we talked about the property tax formula, it's based on your valuation. That does change over time. So, when you're looking at your tax statement, look at 2024 versus 2025. That change in valuation um will have uh an impact if you had appreciation greater or less than the norm. And one of the things to keep in mind is sometimes people look at the bottom line and say, "It's my property taxes." and they come talk to us at the city because we're the most easily accessible. We're the shortest commute to come to a meeting if you have any concerns about it. But the reality is that we only make up 41% of the property tax bill and this fluctuates over time between roughly 30 and 40% depending on a particular tax year. Um other people that make up the property tax bill are the county um school districts and then other special taxing districts. And this would be things like um the metropolitan mosquito control uh metropolitan um uh transit taxes. Those types of things are may possibly be allocated in here. Are there any questions? Jay, >> right? Thank you everybody for your time. >> Moving on. I will make a motion to approve the >> second. >> Is there any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> one one note on that. >> One note on that. We'll be doing the official swearing in ceremony after the full command staff has been appointed by the council. So that will be um early next year. >> Was that my time to object? normally do during the business meeting. >> All right. Reports. >> Um, I have nothing under administration unless you have any questions for me. >> I do not. >> What number are you at in the ATV permitting? >> Yesterday we were at three. >> When is is it after the first of the year or is it December? December 1st. Um, all of our next year renewals, licenses, permits, etc., we typically open up December 1st, >> like April, you get a mad rush. >> That's what I said. >> Yeah, >> most people have them stored away and they're not really thinking about them. >> Um, no, we had a line December 1st, we had a line going out into the parking lot for people, mostly people reserving the park shelter. So every >> I believe every Friday and Saturday through the summer is already reserved now. >> No way. >> Yeah. I can't remember who someone came here for something different. >> Let's get the old station remodeled so we can rent that one out, >> too. And he's like >> there's like 10 cars in the parking lot. >> At 8:00 in the morning, >> it's grad parties, wedding receptions, family reunions, >> people from >> Well, that's good. How much does that cost? >> It's only like $150 for a resident. It's It's very very cost effective given the cost of venues. >> Um, and we did have to set a hard date because Steph used to get people calling like, I am going to have my my kid graduates in four years. Can I reserve the date? So, >> all right. C. >> Uh, my official report will be in the next council packet. um snowed a couple times in the past week. Uh it was good to get out there and not cause a ton of damage because there's a little bit of light snow, but the uh long day of snowfall wasn't great for cleanup because it got packed down. Um besides that, we are cutting trees and trees and trees. >> Oh, I see it. And I hear you. >> Yeah. >> We we have over a thousand trees to cut down. >> Wow. So, we're at 62 in a week and a half. So, we have a lot to do, but uh we'll we're trying to tackle the worst ones right now, the ones that are hanging over people's fences and stuff like that. But, uh it'll be a long process and they probably won't want to cut any more trees. >> Hopefully, it warms up for them. >> Yeah, hopefully. >> It can't be funny. >> Well, I mean, 10 below better than 90 degrees. >> It's true. But >> and then you don't have all leaves and um So, it's actually not bad with uh not a lot of snow out there and it's perfect time to do it. So, we rented a lift for a month and uh try to get all the bad ones and go from there. >> But that's all I got. >> All right, Chief. >> Uh obviously the big push for us right now is getting hired up. Uh we have someone in background. Fingers crossed. Uh first round interviews next week. Uh hopefully we can we can get some people and get them on board and trained up. Uh it's also our busy time. We have multiple events coming up here. Shop the cop, shop the hero, the parade, the tree lighting. So our officers are pretty busy um at various events. So just trying to going to get get through December, I guess, at this point. But um thank you for the financial commitment to to hiring another officer. um means a lot to the guys. Um you guys know the reason why we're asking and I know that's hard because it's not like the call volume is saying, "Oh my god, we got to have more officers because we're running from call to call." But that commitment to kind of that 20 trying to get to 247 trying to have officers to have partners on more than what they currently do. That that means a lot to them. So thank you for that. That's it. >> Nobody from fire unless you have something that >> Go get them over there. Yeah, go grab a couple of them. Hey, what do you guys got? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. Well, we'll give him a minute then and >> we'll delay. >> Luke. >> Yeah. Nothing formal uh for engineering. Construction obviously is uh all been halted at this point pretty well. Um >> yeah, I can I can hit you with a joke if you want one. >> We're waiting. >> All right. >> It's almost like an expectation. >> We should say that. meeting earlier this week to talk about the transition. >> Yeah. So, I guess yeah, more to come on this, but yeah, we had a meeting uh just to talk through transition as you guys might be knowing that that Rich is working towards retirement here. So, starting the first of the year, I'll you'll see a little bit more a lot more of me. Uh I'll be 100% attendance here at the council meetings for the most part. Rich will still be around and working on some stuff, but just at a little bit lesser rate and uh hopefully getting me a little more involved. So, hoping to be with you guys for some time here. So, uh but yeah, more of that transition be kind of look at the first of the year to kind of make that more formal. And with that, I'll hit you with the joke here. Uh, what do you call a snowman with a six-pack? An an abdominal snowman. >> Anything else anybody has for me? I happy to answer any questions, too. >> Yeah. 100%. >> Uh Renee didn't have anything specific that she needed me to report to you guys on. >> Tree lighting is on Saturday 6 o'clock. There'll be cider and cocoa and cookies. It's not a very long event. So, hope to see you there. I'll be scooting around. with the tree lighting um the tree that the lights are on now >> is cut down >> one that is supposed to be going down well we're going to hold off as long as we can um but that tree is not the I mean it was a great idea and it's worked good for a few years um long term we're going to have to do something different um because just putting the lights up there the first time was like a week and a half long project and then you know lights go bad and then you get different lights that are supposed to be the same color that are different colors and it's just it's a we'll be looking to do something different in the not too distant future and um the lights should light up um I think we test them literally we test them every day and one day after it rained they're like it kept blowing the GFI. I'm like, and that was last Tuesday and I'm like, do we need to go buy like a 100 more boxes of lights or what? But I think after it dried up, it was good. So, um, so far so good. So, it should turn on. >> Good to know. I'll bring it back to the the committee in next meeting so we can >> talk about public works stealing our tree, >> the Grinch. Cory's already started working on ideas um with regards to how do we replace that or do something alternative. So I think those discussions when they're they're held um should involve public works. >> Sure. >> Um and then uh as we've talked about it just briefly at this point it might be something we do this for a few years then maybe this for a few years. It might have to move on. I will say like we did discuss I probably should have said this earlier but so like the Lions are doing their Lions fire department police department I think is participating in the sirens slaves and sirens. I don't know which way it goes. >> That's on Sunday. But we talked about potentially like merging these events because the Lions are not doing breakfast with Santa here anymore. So, this is their new event. Um, but yeah, so that might completely change the tree lighting event and maybe you'll be perfectly >> Yeah, we we've talked about, you know, moving another tree up here. Um, we did we did put a nice pine tree at Wagner Park. Um, hoping that that would maybe work and we had we had a pine tree anyways, a nice one that we had to move rather than cutting it down. So, we put at Wagner Park, but I think people want it warm, so that might not be a great option. But, um, we do have pine trees around and we could move one up there. Obviously, it's not going to be permanent, but I don't know. We're just keep me in the loop so we don't get thrown under the bus on something. >> It's not your fault the tree. >> I mean, it's not all right. I'll be quiet now. >> Yes. >> No, executive committee. Um, let's see. We have service delivery, I believe, on Monday and our topic is going to be the insurance consortium. We're getting an update from the assistant county administrator who's kind of the lead on this. So, I'll have more to report to you guys by the time we get to the meeting on the 18th. Kelly and I have a work group workg group meeting on the 8th, Monday. Monday. So, >> anything on the I35? Nothing. >> All right. Do you have anything for us lately? >> Thanks, guys. for us. I will make a motion to adjurnn. >> I will second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I I journ.