This transcript features a discussion regarding Lakeville’s Economic Development Strategic Plan and the Long-Term Financial Management Plan. [0:02] **Tina Goodroad:** They have a large infrastructure cost to expand utilities or roads or what have you um in a situation where then that ultimate development is going to be a large job created um we have not used that for warehouses spec buildings and the like although I'm asked every single week um so we don't have you know kind of a separate pool of money but tax increment financing soon should be used in those appropriate times um we do use grants and try to leverage grants as much as we can um and again I apologize for my PowerPoint I like lost a slide I'm gonna go back when we the tip doesn't that have to go to the county to be approved too it does it not tax waving does Tiff— [0:49] **Tina Goodroad:** —does not you you approve a resolution basically letting them know um how did this get so messed up okay so common um HRA uses um could be used for operations um building a fund balance where you might want to um build a fund balance to do a larger project um that's often the case with HRA if you want to get involved in um construction of affordable housing um you could utilize funds for strategic property acquisition um and also creating internal loan programs so often times cities will create a revolving loan fund um so it could provide Gap financing so you have a manufacturer who is in need of a piece [1:35] **Tina Goodroad:** of equipment it's $100,000 um they may have a gap um where they can't finance that full 100,000 a revolving Loan fund could come in and help pay for half of that or provide that Gap financing um a lot of communities create very very small programs um some have programs to pay the SAC fees for a new restaurant to do something more to attract restaurants there's a whole variety of things that we could use um that are not on this list um that we can you know provide um you with in terms of ideas which to use a levy fund um it could go towards infrastructure for development and again other special projects so it's really pretty endless um how you could utilize These funds so [2:22] **Tina Goodroad:** that is really the purpose and what the outcome would be for goal one um just to know this has been a a priority of mine um we've been wanting to create this plan and work with the EDC to you know get a recommendation from them if it's a priority of of theirs um to incorporate this and then work with all of you through next year to see if this is something that the council would want to support um I'm just going to stay on this page because my slides are all screwed up goal two again I just cut and pasted the goal um or this page that you again could see the goal the different strategies and the action items so again goal number two is expand existing [3:08] **Tina Goodroad:** businesses and promote entrepreneurship so that first um strategy is to uh establish a formal BRE plan and this isn't something that the city has done to my knowledge for probably at least seven or 10 years I think in the past there was some um form of it um Katie and I are going to roll out a much more enhanced BRE program um starting this winter and into next year um she's going to be leading the effort and basically what it means is we go out and we seek input from our businesses we're going to partner with some EDC members have them um visit with us and Katie and I will divide and conquer and we have an established list [3:55] **Tina Goodroad:** of questions that will go through all of the businesses so that we can really get a good handle on how those different businesses whether it's commercial medical industrial answer those and what kind of services and programs could we bring to them so it's a first step that we need to and want to take um to learn more about what our local businesses need what kind of other businesses could enhance their work and their efforts who should we be targeting to build off of our industrial park and our commercial areas so that's going to be our first first thing out of the gate um even though it's goal two with this plan and then you can see there's other um different strategies to build off of from that some are really dialing in our [4:42] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** In on our small businesses our home-based businesses what can we do to enhance um and help people get out of their home-based business is it just a incubator space or something smaller that they need to be able to lease to be able to build into our commercial tax base by working outside of their home so all of that is you know this effort is to address what our larger companies are going to need all the way down to our very small businesses um number three establish Lakeville Competitive Edge y incentivize them to get out of their home business you're telling them to pay taxes by being in a in a from from an— [5:27] **Tina Goodroad:** —expansion stand yeah and and it's not gonna it's not going to suit everybody certainly um there's a reason why you create the home business— **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yep. **Tina Goodroad:** —but if we dial in and find that there's those folks that are growing and possibly beyond you know knowing who they are and being able to make contact with those folks to be able to then um help find space for them not trying to run them out of their home business because there's many people that operate just fine um in a home situation. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yeah there's probably like a small manufacturer who CNC in the garage or something yeah in one point just a curiosity point for that would be there— [6:14] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —probably isn't data on this but if you if I own a a garage manufacturing thing in my home and all of a sudden I've just gotten to the point where I need and I look and I go well I'm going to go to Community C instead of Lakeville do you have any data like that if if without incentives are we right? **Tina Goodroad:** We I don't um and part of it is we— no I short answer I don't um so it's partly just building those relationships and you know even if they want to remain in their home are there Services things that we can help provide for them so it's building that kind of relationship and expanding that relationship beyond the brick and mortar businesses goal three is really lengthy um from the standpoint is there's a lot— [7:00] **Tina Goodroad:** —of different action items I don't expect you'll be able to read this is a huge PowerPoint violation um but the strategy um is enhance awareness of the image of Lakeville and its opportunities so this a lot of this we are already doing um in the last few years Katie and I have really intentionally pounded the pavement in different events and outreach to the brokerage community as well as specific companies um we do a lot with Greater MSP and with DEED you don't see all of that a lot of it's behind the scenes and often a lot of times Lakeville isn't the one chosen but it's those relationships and getting us out in front of the particularly the brokerage communities people are aware of Lakeville and still aware of the land— [7:47] **Tina Goodroad:** —and the opportunities that we provide so we're going to continue doing that um and that's going beyond just locally with our local chamber address incentives to support workforce retention and attraction a lot of this again is ongoing work that um we participate with the Lakeville Works program um we try to get the word out to our local businesses on specialized programs Dakota Tech could create for them anything that we can do to help businesses make that connection and we've been using the manufacturing appreciation event for a lot of this and um the last several panels over probably the last five years have been all around workforce development so we'll continue doing that and then invest in transportation efforts that can improve— [8:34] **Tina Goodroad:** —access this is a tricky one um again we want to continue to enhance the ridership um for that um bus rapid transit route um but we do hear sometimes from our industrial businesses of how do we get people from those transit stops internally in Lakeville and we don't have a lot of good options um there are some micro-transit routes that are being tested um one in particular is in Oakdale and Woodbury with their new BRT line I'm going to be following that I think that's kicking off in 2020 January 2025 I'll be following that to see if that is a model that could work in a kind of a condensed version here in Lakeville but that is something that we do hear from the— [9:19] **Tina Goodroad:** —business community EDC wanted to have that as a strategy and then goal number four strengthen Lakeville's local tax base again this is a lot of continuing what we're doing um we really try to go after those projects that are going to bring jobs um that are going to have a manufacturing component along with an office and warehouse component um we do have a new spec building that we are currently reviewing um for a new project out on County Road 70 it's 189,000 square feet um they're targeting companies that have all three small office component manufacturing component and warehouse component gone are the large Office Buildings we all know that— [10:04] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —but what we really want to see is um creation of new jobs so that's pardon are we missing out by not being actual members of Greater MSP or does it— **Tina Goodroad:** —it's a good question um you know we have great personal connections with them yeah and a lot of what comes through them still circulates down to communities through their RFPs their RFQs or RFIs um so we're still getting those um we don't we haven't participated in National trade shows that is something that could be offered if we were a member um so there's probably some things we're missing out but it's an expensive— [10:49] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —Endeavor. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah I'm just curious like I don't I don't know anything about like the site selector world but it's like yeah would would we benefit and I don't I think we'd benefit more one of the things Katie and I have toyed with is um based on how the BRE rollout goes and the types of feedback we get if we start getting um very specific companies that our Industries want to see in Lakeville it might help to hire a specific site selector not great something like Greater MSP but a company that does the site selector to help us make those connections with those companies on a nationalwide approach so that might be something that we build into our department budget to be able to do— [11:37] **Tina Goodroad:** —something um Farmington I think it's Farmington rolled this out this past year um Katie and I met with the company they're using there's quite a few others that's something that we might um intentionally try to Target in the coming year and then um goal five again is um enhance um Lakeville's distinct Industrial and Commercial districts again part of this is looking for infill opportunities um part of this is calling up and and trying to attract businesses to our remaining commercial areas we still do a lot of that um I do hear that things are happening at Heritage um our staff met with um someone who wants to come in with a plat um for a couple of fast— [12:23] **Tina Goodroad:** —casual restaurants I don't know who yet um but that we all know is a hot spot that we would like to fill um so we do make those intentional um efforts maybe price out um— **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —well not necessarily like a Panera— **Tina Goodroad:** —Panera yeah and I called Panera four or five times already so I'm not gonna give up but I think the challenge like I talked to a fast casual owner who has a location Lakeville he wanted a second location in Lakeville he just can't find the land cedar door where he wanted. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah well there's 179th and Cedar they're looking so and again part of it is knowing who's marketing those sites and— [13:09] **Tina Goodroad:** —having relationships with those sites last summer we helped Transwestern which is the broker for Heritage Commons and we helped them update all of their marketing materials because it was so out of date and just understanding the population center that you have around this area with the industrial park plus all the students um who can can you know maybe get out for lunch and so we you know we try to intentionally figure out who's marketing it how can we help them um so that's just a continuation of these kinds of efforts. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** One thing I think I brought up but I can't remember if you answered it or not if somebody did have we in the past like been willing to share like customer data that we have from Heritage Liquor and from K-O-K for instance to be like hey look this is— [13:55] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —profitable venue for us you know you know there's I'm just wondering about you know 35 and 70 in Heritage to be able to share that do we or do we not I mean do we not want to I'm just like if we're trying to make it more enticing for those the Transwesterns hey look the city has a site here retail this is how it performs and we don't— **Julie Stahl:** —collect the data of where our customers come from we did for a little bit there years but we you could do it through license plate but I guess we we were doing it through um zip code we just ask people use it— **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Oh yeah. **Julie Stahl:** —as they went to and we did that survey I I said six seven years ago we haven't done that lately— **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Interesting. **Julie Stahl:** —we can do it through um our memberships we can look at our— [14:42] **Julie Stahl:** —membership list and know what the addresses of them are and there and that would be one resource but I just had this assumption at K-O-K that we're getting people from 20 communities you know— **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah. **Julie Stahl:** —you know further south and that is is a big draw. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah they have a much bigger market area down there. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Can I just make sure I didn't mishear did you say students being released for lunch? **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah I don't know if that's a thing but if in some school you know in some districts some districts they do— **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Okay. **Tina Goodroad:** —but it could be attractive for yeah second yeah um and then the and um You probably— [15:30] **Tina Goodroad:** —noticed um after each school there are success measures and so that's really helpful for both Katie and I as we're doing this work as well as reporting to EDC at the end of the year with each goal are we meeting the mark um and so Ehlers tried to help us come with some tangible ways of tracking this um to determine you know if we're satisfying these strategies and what can we do to you know make further improvements or you know alter the course and again what we want to use this for is having that annual development work plan so that we can evaluate it again um in later this year into— [16:16] **Tina Goodroad:** —2025 um the BRE program will be the the first major effort from this plan to roll out and we're really excited to get that going so there's def definitely additional data and and then at the back um the appendix is some additional information about um the different kinds of financing things that we're currently doing and that could be created. Other questions comments? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I wanted to start out with a few data questions before going into comments and questions about the actual goals and strategies um the first one being from page— [17:02] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —11 um looking at the industry breakdown on table four did you and the EDC talk about particular targets or areas of concerns of Industry that you would like to target to attract to to Lakeville? **Tina Goodroad:** We didn't dial in that deep um you know we've been more intentional it trying to attract those industri you know more um higher paying higher Tech um job creation versus you know when it comes to you know if a broker is calling us about a specific site where you want to see here trying to shy away from expanding more warehouse and distribution but more— [17:49] **Tina Goodroad:** —focused on manufacturing those kinds of things but we didn't dial into any niches yet like med tech or things of that nature. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Because the other thing I was looking at from comparison of tables four and five that in comparison when you're comparing Lakeville to Minnesota some industries we are under-indexing in the number of businesses but those same sectors are also over-indexing in the number of employees that they're employing or vice versa and so if we ever getting down into using this data for you know targeting certain industries I think that's kind of an interesting— [18:35] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —relationship that some of these industries have where you know we may be lower in the number of businesses but they actually provide more employees or they have y you know less employees but more businesses so um so are you saying that that's something that you're planning to do as part of this work? **Tina Goodroad:** Yep. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Um then my other my last data question is about page 12 talks the narrative is suggesting that Lakeville residents canet that the we're not capturing commuters but the number of in-home businesses or you know remote businesses is not really reflected in the data and I know we've talked about this before but how do we account for the economic— [19:20] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —impact of people who live and work from their house and you know are able to go to lunch you you know on a lunch break or be able to shop immediately at 5:00 when their shift is over from their home you know what where is that impact um and is that capturable as as an attraction factor for Lakeville because I think that's a unique thing about our community um we're fast growing affluent and I think part of that affluency is due to the types of jobs people have in Tech that's not actually here right um so I don't know yeah I'm not sure but— [20:06] **Tina Goodroad:** —I've got it noted. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Questions? **Councilmember John Bermel:** I just it's kind of a follow-up and I was going to ask a question about the number of people that live here and work here looks like about one out of every five people that works in Lakeville lives here but I mean Joshua's question is is pertinent to that does that does that count the people that have a home business or is that just people that are commuting to and from? And to me this has been an interesting thing since I've been on the council and I mean is there any strategy to to help you know help people that want to work here to live here because a strong community is one where the people that— [20:53] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —do work they live there because the cash stays in um in Lakeville I mean if somebody's commuting out they're going to eat lunch in another community might have dinner in another community um vice versa if they're coming in here they're going to be doing the same thing here if they lived here all that money would be captured right here in our community. **Tina Goodroad:** I think the census if I correct does a home-based business number? **Justin Miller:** Yeah I think the number exists I feel like I've seen us— **Tina Goodroad:** I'll do some I'll do some digging see what I can find. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** That's that's probably sole proprietor versus employing right? **Tina Goodroad:** Right. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** There's no— [21:38] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —remote employee number. **Tina Goodroad:** No but it should be it would benefit us. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yeah that you know yeah the other the other talking point that I think we brought for to is that you can't you can't work and live here because the the salaries the average salaries don't match the home u values in a way that makes sense economically but I it's working for so many families that there has to be another factor out there that's— **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah and two person two person working right— [22:29] **Tina Goodroad:** —um there's other questions. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I did have um another question about um EDAs so does with an EDA are we saying that EDC becomes an EDA as the authority body? **Tina Goodroad:** Doesn't have to um there's lots of ways jump in Tammy when I inform on this um some cities have both um Burnsville for example has an EDA and an EDC so the EDC continues to do the work like our commission does develop programs and outreach and those kinds of things while I believe their EDA is— [23:16] **Tina Goodroad:** —their Council it's most common that the EDA is the council it doesn't have to be it can be you know the bylaws can be established either way um so that would be something that we would certainly have to make some decisions on. **Tammy Omdahl:** I yeah um it's not so much what you call it it's the powers that you give it of most cities in the Metro whether they call it in most call it an Economic Development Authority give their EDAs the powers of the housing Redevelopment Authority the HRA and the EDA those are different authorities under state law so we believe right now Lakeville has just given the HRA your Housing Redevelopment Authority the powers of the H— but I'm not certain of that we will— [24:04] **Tammy Omdahl:** —find that resolution it may be at some point in time even though they've called themselves the city council has called it the HRA your HRA may have the powers of the EDA just because of some of the authority that you've used for issuance of bonds but I do not know that that but that can be affirmed by looking at the enabling resolution for HRA. So councilmember to answer your question doesn't matter so much you call it you get to decide. Tina is correct a lot of cities choose to appoint theirselves the council as the members of the EDA and in my experience why many city councils choose that is if they're giving taxing authority and if I may Tina y under the levy when that was discussed the EDA Levy is actually levied by the city— [24:51] **Tammy Omdahl:** —council and appropriated to whether it's the EDA or HRA whatever you call it they note that because that shows up on the tax statement under the City line. If you levy under the Housing Redevelopment Authority Levy which is a separate statute separate authority and Tina gave you the dollar amount that shows up separately on the tax statement as a special taxing jurisdictions there's a lot of cities that levy both the EDA and HRA and some do one or the other that is the decision of the city council. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** And how is that are the pros and cons to doing it that way as opposed to including it in a general Levy that the city is already doing and put a special line item for these initiatives? **Tammy Omdahl:** That is a— [25:38] **Tammy Omdahl:** —great question if you're doing the EDA Levy it's really a policy decision the the effect of that Levy is the exact same whether you levy it as the general fund and then use the dollars for economic development purposes or you levy under the EDA authority. It comes into play more when Levy limits were in place it's been many years since the legislature has put Levy limits in place an EDA Levy and HRA Levy are special levies that traditionally have been exempt from Levy limits when those have been in place. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Has this information gone before the finance committee even though it's a— **Tina Goodroad:** Not yet it should. **Councilmember John Bermel:** No it was the idea was to introduce it here as part of this plan is kind of the first step as one of— [26:25] **Tina Goodroad:** —the goals and then as we continue through implementing this plan we certainly yeah finance committee would have to be involved. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Other question I have is it seemed like some of the initiatives that were listed um are things that either the chamber is doing partially doing or wants to do within the with retention and attraction of of businesses to Lakeville. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah I think um we partner really well with the chamber on a lot of that um you know the chamber does you know has their role um you know from you know that would be you know those activities would continue no matter what whether or not we were able— [27:11] **Tina Goodroad:** —to create some internal financing tools or not um those internal financing tools that could be created from a levy would be then specific to directly assist businesses whether that's attracting to new business because you have a pot of money to um assist with an infrastructure improvement or whether it's um a smaller pot of money that you could attract a restaurant by paying their SAC fees um those kinds of things so um it enhances the ability for business attraction um it's not necessarily the end all be all but it certainly um enhances that just like you know when we have entered into TIF deals um that has certainly gotten projects past the finish line so it's just creating that toolbox to get projects through the finish line. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I think like North St Paul didn't have a single sit down restaurant— [27:58] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —something like one are there models where some a levy through an EDA is also supporting the chamber or am I thinking about that relationship? **Tina Goodroad:** I think those are two separate relationships yeah yeah not seen it but it would be strictly supporting our programs. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** So are you telling me that you would not go to the finance committee until you have some direction from the city council and some of these ideas— [28:46] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —of possibly implementing let's say the EDA or whatever instead of getting I guess my thought processes as I want the information to go to them sooner to get their feedback on helping us make a decision. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah and I'm not trying to sidestep that at all we just wrapped up this plan um with these goals so um we presented this at our last EDC meeting the end of August and here we are you know Tina would you know present this in plan in its entirety to the council not just that one element but the whole plan and and I'm not trying to say you are sidestepping it it was just my— [29:33] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —interpretation of how I heard your answer when I asked the question. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah but no we could certainly meet with them. **Councilmember John Bermel:** If I my uh finance committee uh would like to be involved in these kinds of especially this one but others as well at a much earlier stage so that as the concepts are being discussed uh and decisions are made to prepare this kind of presentation that um that we have a discussion with EDC is working on the on the projects. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** But just so I'm clear I mean we're not talking about this stuff until the business retention plan is— [30:18] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —yeah this is like several steps away before we get into levying for instance. **Councilmember John Bermel:** I think we're getting ahead of ourselves right? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** It was I know but the okay maybe I misunderstood you but the point is you would have liked to have had document to have this information up there. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yes and in fact even before that as discussions were taking place um so that uh that we would be uh a partner in it uh early on uh and then uh obviously uh as a draft of this presentation was put put together that uh that we could have put in that as well. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So they probably need more joint— [31:04] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —meetings to the EDC and the finance committee? **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah I mean yeah this effort was honestly just it was an effort of the Economic Development Commission um they were charged with creating this plan um they developed through all of their input since April developed five goals that's one of them there's four other important goals that will work towards in all of these efforts so it was was the you know that was the intentionality of the Economic Development Commission in creating this plan this is an update to a plan that expires this year so um we extended this one out to cover the next four years. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** It makes sense to me that this would be an EDC function we haven't quite gotten to the point where what is the financial impact— [31:50] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —of right of this yes yet so I I do think that this is the point to for sure bring in the finance committee to figure out okay what are the financial options then and how does that impact long-term planning um so I'm not I'm not sure that this is out of order at all or actually we're in the right place um— **Councilmember John Bermel:** —well you know the thing is is you could also suggest to the finance committee is this out of order I mean you know let them determine whether or not they felt that they should have been involved more before this. So does— [32:37] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —that make sense? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I'm trying to say I think— **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Well I think I think the important thing to remember that the finance committee is a recommending body to the council I think it's a council's responsibility to take a look at long-term policies or proposed policies by staff and then determine okay what what subcommittees need to look at this before they make a final decision on it so I think it's really the responsibility of council to say hey finance committee we're at a certain point now that we think we need to involve you we're going to ship it down to you to take a look at it. So I just want to be careful that we're— **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Okay. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —I just want to be careful that we're not council's not granting permission to a subcommittee to start making decisions before Council really has made any— [33:23] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —decisions. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** No and so that so I'm not making myself clear enough on that point it's just that because these committees are in the advisory I just want to make sure that they have a chance to really get into information that's going to affect long-term the city in their advisory capacities and not be totally influenced by well what is the council thinking some of that some of the reason you have an advisory is because you're trying to get outside advice versus just our— [34:11] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —own advice are our own decisions does that make sense? So I'm not trying to say um I guess whatever point you just made because it's like mud in my head right now I don't have a clear head today I apologize um that's not the point that I'm trying to make it it I'm trying to make sure that as a council we're making very informed decisions as we move forward based on the information some of the information we would receive as advice from our committees. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah I I don't for me I mean I don't think we're anywhere down a line of having an EDA/HRA Levy conversation where we would want— [34:57] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —finance I'm thinking about long term it's just that once it got set in goals that's what made me nervous does that makes sense because somebody's determined that's you know as part of a goal Tina can you bring that particular one back up and just take a look at that maybe there's an opportunity just to I don't want to I want to edit by committee here oh seriously— **Tina Goodroad:** Maybe— **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —so is it go it's go 1A it says creating Economic Development Authority (EDA) and implement it's like possessed guys how about we just put investigate there— **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** There yeah there'd be more comfort— [35:43] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —level there. **Tina Goodroad:** Well it is explore resources. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Well it does say Implement. **Tina Goodroad:** Yeah just that way it's so you see the first one implement um Housing HRA Levy create Economic Development Authority and implement Levy we could say um explore the creation of an EDA and— [36:17] **Tina Goodroad:** —implementation and why is the implementation this is a four-year document how often will the document get updated? **Tina Goodroad:** Every year no not we would evaluate we would establish a work plan um and set success measures for the work plan um and can share that you know result of that accomplishments at the end of every year with the council but historically what the city has done is a three-year strategic plan and then update every three years we extended this one out four years so it wouldn't be updated for another four years. [37:04] **Councilmember John Bermel:** Tammy Tammy made a good point in that the time that a lot of these were set up was back when there were limits that were established by the by the state legislature and um uh so that's one of the things I think that uh that you would like to as a finance committee um be involved in in those kinds of thinking as to because this is this is another major change in the tax policy or the revenue policy of the of the city and um and our Charter uh for the finance— [37:51] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —committee involves uh policy as one of the considerations that is has listed um as far as an advisory activity um so I think that they rather than waiting uh to a point where we would then be asked to look at some specific uh aspect of something uh it it's much better if um uh if we are are involved earlier in the discussions and uh are um part of the team part of the partnerships that that are worked on as things like this uh develop rather than someone rather than a committee that we— [38:37] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —would just uh have a a go-to kind of a question later on uh as uh decisions are are being made. It's very clear to us always has been that the decisions about uh how the city uh uh is run are with the city council and we we've been very careful in our meetings and our thinking that we don't ever step over that line that's that's that's the most important line is that it's really up to you to make the decisions but on the other hand we think that there's with the amount of expertise that we do have on the finance committee uh that we could be um uh better involved uh uh— [39:22] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —from a professional standpoint and and work um uh with you but through Julie and Justin and work in partnership with Tammy um and the bond Council work that that they do as well um so um that would be um would be our our thought about um our involvement in things like this. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So to the rest of you guys I'm not saying that I have uh that I'm like totally against something I'm just trying to make sure where we jump in or— [40:09] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —even even have the train keep going down the track because at this point when you say Implement you put it on the track and it's going forward okay so I I just I want to feel more comfortable with this decision than I did the um finance here so or franchises if that makes sense. I think you're appropriate bringing it up here I think we are at that point I I I don't think the finance committee should you know be it's not their discretion to go you know peruse the work of the other commissions unless it's a charge from the council so I mean I I I I agree with Joshua's point I think we're at that point where to send it to the finance committee for us as well and any consequences or— [40:56] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —something considering but I would I would welcome change in the language on the action so more explore. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yeah I I think anything in here should be explored um until we've given that direction and the other thing and you talked about this Tina there's a lot of short terms in here almost anything that isn't currently ongoing the majority is short term um which to me communicates within the next year or two and I don't know even with capacity with everything that we have going on I go back to your slide about priorities and resources I'd like to hear more about how those short-term things are— [41:42] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —going to change as you decide this is really what we have the capacity to work on right now um and I you know I get I see the goals um I'd like to hear uh something about overall like if if by doing this I really want to achieve this and maybe achieve this in this um so I think I think there just needs to be some work even on the time and and trying to figure out our actual I mean I see goals I guess I'd like to see more on priorities um and the other piece is um I think anytime that we've started like like uh we've heard is— [42:27] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —this is a pretty clear thing to create an EDA and implement a levy and I do think we're at the point where a finance committee should be in on that and should be participating in um I do want to make sure we don't muddy the waters and have you know committees work together um but I would assume that each the EDA and finance committee might have you know a set of recommendations based on their expertise on how it works. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I think part of the conversation in the EDC also is you know we're we're still in growth mode next 10 years we're going to be starting to have more thoughtful conversations about redevelopment in particular because as we all know so I think we're way ahead of the game having— [43:13] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —the conversation now about setting ourselves up for in 2030 2034 we're not in a situation where we're scrambling to try to chase down the next business because we don't have tools to me that's a priority is to set us up for just what the mayor said you know less where are we going to be in 2027 and more where are we going to be in 2030 2032 I don't I don't know if you haven't here though but there are some comparable cities that have pretty healthy balances and we don't and now some of them Edina is is mostly focused all on housing and there's very robust yeah but that is you know if you had a request we we wouldn't be able to do— [44:00] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —it in some of the neighborhood series would I don't do you have that slide in here? **Tina Goodroad:** Edina has been fully built out for how long? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah yeah part of that's TIF pooling and other resources but so it's it's thinking about all the different tools that are going to be available so that yeah at that point we have them. **Tina Goodroad:** Yep. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So that's why I think it's good to there some are some of these initiatives uh can they create revenue to grow the pool of funds that are available? **Tina Goodroad:** Revolving loan funds can be set up that way so that they're lower interest rates but it does help provide more funding in the future there's probably others that can depending on how they're established. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** And then one other thing to consider is we decided as— [44:46] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —a council to partner with the county on HRA stuff we could decide to go back on that at some point and have pool for that type of resources. My my sense with this is that I mean in terms of the initiatives for how we should be growing the economy and and the initiatives there I appreciate the work that's been done here think the the ideas for how to fund those initiatives are I think now on paper but I'd like to see the finance committee now review this not necessarily because I I wouldn't want us at this point in time to try to tweak the language this— [45:31] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —is the EDC's strategic plan proposal I'd like to see that go through one other committee before making any sort of tweaks to the language and then have another conversation about and how I'd like to see that particularly with do we ever vote on this plan I don't know if you have in the past typically adopt? **Justin Miller:** Typically what we do with these longer range or strategic plans is the do uh the council just accepts a report at a council meeting it's just they don't adopt it they don't but they just accept the submittal of the— [46:18] **Justin Miller:** —report what we did with the Lakeville Mission there was no adoption of it it's just that the city recognizes it and accepts it of their of range planning doc. I just do want to caution or maybe control expectations a little bit there's a there's some work that Tina and her group need to do yet with this whole EDC/EDA concept um Tammy's you know looking into some information for us too so I just don't want everyone walking away tonight going oh this is going to go this is going to go to the finance committee now. I think we need to do some internal work yet on this a little bit really really kind of flesh things out a little bit and then maybe we'll come back to— [47:05] **Justin Miller:** —council one more time and say this is the what we're kind of finding out about this stuff just to inform you a little bit and then we can go to finance after that if that's the direction. I just want to this was just put in a document in my in my opinion right now and we just need to now flush it out a little bit to really see if this is the direction we want to go and then Finance can take a look better from there and in the meantime we can work on softening that language um making it you know more exploratory and then um to councilmember Bermel's suggestion dial in on what the timelines mean and top priorities and maybe try and schedule some of those out share that back with Justin and get his thoughts on getting it back in front of— [47:51] **Justin Miller:** —you. Any other comments before we move— **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Thank you Tina oh I was just going to say I'm more comfortable with that because these are all action items that our staff are going to be working on as goals and then tracking the measures and if if we're not as a council wanting to go with that goal we at some point or another we needed to have input before it's adopted that we're not that's not a goal that we accept so I mean I realize you're telling me all these processes but what I'm trying to figure out is when when is the right time to insert you know our authority before it— [48:38] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —gets into a hard document? So that's all that's all I'm trying to figure out I'm not trying to say anything's bad or whatever else I'm trying to get to the point where you know I'm comfortable that what's moving forward is what we wanted to move. **Justin Miller:** Yeah and I think that's what this was for a little bit even though Tina had final on this I don't I I don't foresee this in the final document I think we needed to have this discussion first Tina can go back and tweak it and then that can be kind of the final version. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So all right I think we're kind of on the same page. Thank you. **Tina Goodroad:** Thank you. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay thank you I'll flip it over to Julie. [49:28] **Julie Stahl:** Tammy also our long-term financial management Plan update so um I'll just give a little introduction here before we have Tammy um go through the slides um so 2020 August 2020 there's a whole 99-page report that was completed of this long long-term financial planning um basically is two very large spreadsheets so there's one that's just debt and then there's the other piece that's Capital Improvements and our funding sources and all that so it's the marrying up of these two I've never seen such large spreadsheets before in my life I'm not kidding like 300 tabs on these spreadsheets so they're very robust um a year ago when— [50:25] **Julie Stahl:** —finance um because every year we've been updating this model when Northland created it for us in 2020 they've been working with us finance staff have updated these two pieces together for finance staff the alone um a year ago we knew that we were going to be buried in our ERP implementation so we said hey Northland we know we knew we need your help more so on this year's report and updating these numbers because we would not have the resources to do it ourselves all by ourselves so um we set a budget amount to you know Northland what we could get them to do this for this been working with them over the spring and the summer and and we've got we gave them our CIP from— [51:10] **Julie Stahl:** —August 26th um when that was first given to council so that was put into the model through them um then we had some tweaks because we realized that the $2 million ladder truck that we would order in 2026 we wouldn't be paying until 2030 when we actually get it it takes four years to build it so still changes coming through even after that August 26 work section so this has very been very fast and furious um just trying to get through our staff review of what they put into the models making sure we we're matching up and everything we've used the model every year um when we come to council at that November work session to say okay here's how things are shaking up and any— [51:56] **Julie Stahl:** —changes in the levy and here's what our tax rate looks like going out based on those the CIP changes anything that everything that's been modified up to that point we use it then as a tool to say okay here's and that's page five and I'll just I'll pull it up here this is this is the report that you've gotten every November just this one page and that does come from this long-term model um it's a nice summary to give you an idea where things are at as far as far as our tax capacity rate and the change in our tax capacity rate um just a little bit better tricky but anyway so that That's the basis of how this all shaped up over— [52:42] **Julie Stahl:** —this these last few months um again it's a tool that we use to help us decide determine okay what's what's a comfortable um change in our in our rate our tax capacity rate um so but this time around we wanted to have Northland give you an idea of some other you know some of the factors I mean all of these factors are behind the scenes that the um factors the assumptions are behind the scenes we create them work in tandem with economic development hey this is in our history about how much um house new housing units come in every year so that's behind the scenes that we see the progressions like okay this is how many we feel comfortable— [53:29] **Julie Stahl:** —with we're going to give you a conservative but realistic expectation of those assumptions we build those into the model again same thing with salaries Personnel costs um we see the the projection of how it's gone the past few years we know what's coming up with fire personnel those kind of things are built into the model to help give us as realistic picture as we can at this point in time realizing things can change as we all know um a dime you know letting limits or recessions and but the I mean then that's the point where wanting to make sure you understand the budget and the CIP the CIP is a planning tool as well— [54:15] **Julie Stahl:** —but the budget when we're determining the budget that's that's the council's hard decision point right there you know um and we have flexibility with the budget thankfully you know even if say we adopt a budget right now and then we bam get hit with a recession and housing stops we have the ability to let staff go if that work I mean we saw it happen in 2009 so that that's why keeping in mind this is a tool that we use um and a lot of time does go into it and but it's not and it's teamwork. So with that Tammy... [55:02] **Tammy Omdahl:** Good evening. Tammy Omdahl from Northland Public Finance. It's nice to be before you this evening um thank you for those opening comments so there is no act as I get ready to present some of the information that was in the technical memo there is no action by city council tonight this is a snapshot in time looking at the results of the model based upon certain assumptions. Before I get into reviewing information I also want to comment Lakeville has a long history of long-term Finance planning in 2020 yes Northland came in and maybe helped make the tools more robust and I think we gave the city at the time and I presented on almost 100 page report but that wasn't that Lakeville had not done long-term Finance planning excuse me it was the models became a little bit more robust and we gave a comprehensive look. So the only thing different and why I'm here before you this evening is what— [55:49] **Tammy Omdahl:** —Julie said because of other pressures on City staff City staff and the city asked for some assistance from Northland this year in updating the model. That's another reason why you don't have a full report this isn't um that you're adopting a plan it's at a point in time given certain assumptions what the revenue would need to be and then we estimate city tax rates based upon assumptions that Tina's office helps provide to your Finance staff and was shared with Northland on development. This will not be what happens in 2026 this will not what happens in 27 but what I do want you to take away from the information I share with you is some feedback for Julie that— [56:34] **Tammy Omdahl:** —you these are based upon your other plans your capital improvement plan your staffing plans so as you see this and you look at this this is an opportunity not just this meeting but in weeks to come to say to staff as I look at the snapshot of this information that was shared with us that's not acceptable I don't agree with where that Levy is going or those rates and it's not a matter of saying well something was wrong in the planning it was maybe your capital improvement plan you want to tweak maybe the staffing plans maybe you think staff you're being too conservative in your assumptions for development. So if I could speak for Julie I think that's why this is on the agenda this evening is for some of that feedback and not that you're adopting a— [57:20] **Tammy Omdahl:** —plan. So um a few things Julie said this is not your budget so what is up here is assumptions for those future years you make your decisions when you adopt your budget. I do want to highlight on it's in your packet page 37 of 56 or page three of the Northland memo I want to quickly go through some of these assumptions because these are the key ones and tonight not to speak to disagree or agree but you can certainly give feedback because this is not a static point ton staff is constantly updating this and you might say I would wish that staff would be more conservative or less conservative. So let me just go through those and highlight so the general fund tax levy is assumed to increase that amounts needed to support planned spending— [58:06] **Tammy Omdahl:** —so your staffing plans and reserves that's an important point because reserves you have a fund balance policy for the general fund and so we didn't print you up a 100 page report but you should know that when you look at this and you look at that general fund Levy that was on the page that was just up you don't need to turn there that reflects not only Levy to pay for expenditures after accounting for non-tax revenue it also accounts for increase in Levy to ensure that the city maintains its fund balance policy in reality what happens is that in most years you don't actually end up levying for that some more mature cities do have to levy for that but what happens in Lakeville the staff is a little bit more conservative on building permits and— [58:54] **Tammy Omdahl:** —other revenues and you have growth in fund balance from actual financial performance but as Lakeville continues to mature that may not be the case every year and like other mature more mature communities you may find yourself having to levy property taxes to ensure that you maintain the fund balance at the appropriate level pursuant to your policy general fund non-tax revenue traditionally including when staff has done that those assumptions have been conservative so that's all other revenue in the government funds that is not tax levy so 1 to 2% non-personnel costs at 2 to 3% this is a long-term plan 10 years in the near term is two or three% sufficient for— [59:40] **Tammy Omdahl:** —that assumption? No but in the over a 10 year as Julie noted there could be a recession there could be other things that historically that you may not be facing down 5 7% increase that has been more um in recent years for personnel cost at 3 and a half% certainly there may be years that you're higher than that as you adjust to the market and there may be years that maybe you're not as high as that so that is a very long-term view at three and a half that isn't meant to be for negotiation at contracts or anything like that it's just simply saying here's an assumption that a personnel cost grew at three and a half percent on top of your staffing plans taxable market value of property in the city is conservatively projected— [1:00:26] **Tammy Omdahl:** —for planning purposes to increase by 2% annually this isn't new construction this is for base well we can all um look at our tax statements in more recent years those increases were higher than 2% you might say well that's not realistic but here we're trying to be conservative we're not trying to say that underlying value of property is going to go up by 7 or 11% a year so that is a conservative assumption tax capacity from new construction is estimated average approximately 2 and a half million annually increase between 2025 and 2033 that's not value that's tax capacity for purposes of calculating the tax rate that is informed by the assumptions from the Community Development Department and— [1:01:12] **Tammy Omdahl:** —again probably a little conservative as we look at them from historical but this is very long term some positive news on the tax increment financing districts you talked about that in your agenda item prior you have some districts that are coming off you had TIF 10 that came off um was it two years ago and you have some more so we factor that in that is success of those districts and resulting increase in general tax base for not only the city of Lakeville the school district and the county enjoy that increase as well. Fiscal disparities that is the um tax base sharing program throughout the Metro here um we are conservative on that assumption as well we don't know it's not just what happens in Lakeville it's what happens across the Metro— [1:01:57] **Tammy Omdahl:** —that participates. Getting to the last four bullet points on page three of the memo too and these should be numbers that you've seen total capital spending of approximately 390 million in the governmental funds this does not include the water sewer storm or lighting Enterprise funds this is just the governmental between 2025 and 2033 that's based upon the most recent CIP that I believe the city council has seen. Not all of that CIP can be funded from non-tax revenue or um without bonding the franchise fee revenue that was adopted by the city will be very helpful as that ramps up for some smaller pay-go but that franchise fee revenue planned to be used to pay debt— [1:02:44] **Tammy Omdahl:** —service on the public safety facility and the planned fire station improvements over the next several years that approximately 5 million 5.1 million we were conservative and kept that constant meaning you should see some growth in that estimate of franchise fee but we kept that constant but that revenue is projected to be sufficient to cover 100% of the debt service on those facilities total new bonds issuance of approximately 140 million between 2025 and 2033. Debt service on the existing outstanding bonds and new bonds is planned to be supported by a combination of tax levy franchise fee special assessment among other sources but with those being the— [1:03:30] **Tammy Omdahl:** —largest point um here and will be before you on the issuance of bonds related to those facilities and I believe this council is aware of this you cannot issue franchise fee bonds you will issue bonds that will have pledge a tax levy and the city will annually be able to cancel that tax levy using that franchise fee revenue and then the last bullet point I know you're very familiar with franchise fee revenue so I won't go into that now. I would just like to touch on a few of the um slides that are in here and again this is a snapshot of much more um detailed information that is available to city staff so if you could go to exhibit one... [1:04:15] **Tammy Omdahl:** So here on the tax levies here we've made some assumptions and why you see there will be a chart here in a moment that change in that tax levy from year to year especially if you look at year 27 to 28 and that relatively flat you might say you don't recall a year that it was that way that's because of the timing of when the city is planning staff on levying for pay-go for certain capital the equipment the trails there's some change in park improvement city staff has not recommended to city council that you bond for everything that where you can plan for some pay-go that's reflected in your CIP your CIP plant is reflected in that Levy and that's why in particular that year you see that change. This lot of numbers on the sheet of paper all this is trying to do is to summarize tax levy net tax— [1:05:01] **Tammy Omdahl:** —capacity so net tax capacity based upon what your current tax base is that assumption of that 2% growth and underlying values plus new construction that we're modeling for single family multi-family and commercial property which gets you to the tax capacity rate and the changes why the higher and here I'm going to have you just go to this um exhibit two. The increases and you've seen this in recent years in the city's tax rate in the near-term is being driven in large part due to the park referendum when those bonds were issued and I was before the city council we talked about prior to um the law changing in recent years in the past that would have shown up separately as a levy a market referendum— [1:05:48] **Tammy Omdahl:** —Levy that is not how it works um since 2008 I think it was instead it's part of your overall Levy that staff presents to you and certifies and gets spread over your tax base the same as the general fund Levy that is a little bit more challenging to communicate that to the public because they don't have a line on their tax statement that says City referendum and you can say that's the park referendum that's the park referendum impact included in there and I know staff has given you details on that as you look at actually adopting the budget. The other piece that I would note maybe just slow down here a little bit the orange line is the annual percent change in total tax levy the gray line is the annual percent change in tax rate and that's what impacts the— [1:06:35] **Tammy Omdahl:** —taxpayers from year to year as you're working on your budget you work with your staff to try to minimize that or move things around in order to adjust that that's possible to a degree but the park referendum impact just being what it was that is more challenging because those bonds are being issued and there's some structuring of them but it's really once those bonds are issued then you start to return to a more normal what I will describe as a more normal annual percent change in your city tax rate as a result of that. On the next exhibit three here's just graphically here's the change and what I would point out here this is an example in city council seeing this in 2027 a response should be— [1:07:23] **Tammy Omdahl:** —or could be you know staff we want to work on that we don't like this that we go up and that we go down what can we do to maybe we don't always issue debt with level and annual payments maybe we structure this which means you may incur some additional interest expense because you're pushing out principal but there are cities that choose to do that that they manage that tax rate and they say we're willing to incur a little bit more in interest expense for example in order to moderate our Levy increases in our tax rate. We have made no such assumption here it's simply level annual payment and this is given the assumptions what those tax rates would be you're not adopting this you will give direction to the city staff when you do your annual budgets. On the next— [1:08:08] **Tammy Omdahl:** —exhibit four here it's just graphing out the total city tax levy for all city funds and it's showing you in the yellow the general fund portion the green being capital funds meaning where you're actually levying current taxes to pay for projects and the blue being Debt Service. There's that jump from 26 to 27 in particular I would point to the debt service again some opportunity there to maybe structure the debt differently but that comes with the cost or you push out some of that principal but there are many cities that's what they choose to do because they try to avoid the peaks and valleys. Exhibit five and six these are just points in time and they are um— [1:08:55] **Tammy Omdahl:** —ranging from 250 very low for Lakeville to a half a million I think your current on the county for preliminary pay five is I have it somewhere here's like 448 you can double the the half a million to get to a million dollar residential because anything over 500,000 their tax capacity class rate is the same so you can double that um anything below that 386 is still gets the market value exclusion. Here's just a point in time speaking of the model staff can plug in whatever number you want on valuation on commercial... on the next p— what happened there? I'll just keep going so don't slow down there's a a chart in there that same thing graphs out this is city only taxes this is not the other— [1:09:40] **Tammy Omdahl:** —taxing jurisdictions just graphs it out and here you can size it up or down you can multiply the four million times two and that would be an $8 million property because commercial tax is at that 2% of value for purposes of calculating their tax capacity. So again you see that rise here not because you're adding a bunch of staff and other things there's some of that that's largely driven by the park referendum debt that is coming online it's not driven by the fire stations or by the public safety um facility because that debt will be paid by the franchise fee revenue and not property taxes. The next two charts exhibit seven and eight just give you some graphing of— [1:10:26] **Tammy Omdahl:** —ending cash here the only thing to point to you there is some planned use you're building up have built up especially in the trunk funds and the spend down of that on the improvements to the treatment facility. Capital project funds yes you do have that up and down why we even put this in here is frankly some cities especially where the direction is no bonding demonstrate sometimes that cash goes negative because they are saying no bonding but we want to have this Levy to demonstrate that's not true for Lakeville Lakeville these funds remain in sound financial condition you have built up cash to the collection of those charges for service those trunk funds for example and you plan to spend those all very healthy from a financial position. On exhibit— [1:11:14] **Tammy Omdahl:** —eight crazy slide here but again this just breaks down that Capital um cash in more detail and the big driver here of that change is the utility trunk funds you have that cash and I'm sure when your auditors present Julie she talks about those ending balances um and you're still adding to that but you have plans in your CIP to spend that down and you are in a healthy financial position in order to do that. There are no projected negative cash here with respect to the city's Capital Improvement plan. Exhibit nine this is just graphing out your CIP and I'm sure staff gives it to you in various forms but what I want to highlight here is the big drivers the facility improvements in green which includes public safety and the fire— [1:12:01] **Tammy Omdahl:** —station those while there will be bonding related to those because you don't have cash on hand they're of a size that you don't pay for it that's where your franchise fee revenue is coming into play in order to support that 100% is projected and currently because we're in talking with staff conservative but we believe conservatively projecting that franchise fee revenue it is very likely you will have additional franchise fee revenue that you will not need to use to cover debt service on those projects and you will be able to program that for whatever purpose the city council deems to be appropriate. You can go to for that um... **Julie Stahl:** And the intent and the way we built this is that we would actually any franchise fee revenue in addition to the principal— [1:12:47] **Julie Stahl:** —and interest payments on the bonds would actually be used to lower the par amount of the bonds that we issue for the like the future fire remodels you know um and that's the intent. **Tammy Omdahl:** Yes the timing of what you're going to collect that franchise fee revenue in advance of a few of the projects and then the plan is to then use that to reduce the amount of bonds that you're being issued that will be issued. Here's a snapshot of the source of funds um and this is just your capital improvement plan and I know you've seen this in other um formats but here there are is bonding planned and so this would be an example example and I'm not saying to say this but you could give staff feedback either now or later to say you know we saw this CIP we saw that I just don't feel comfortable that— [1:13:33] **Tammy Omdahl:** —we're bonding every year. What are some strategies now to do that? That becomes a challenge without moving around the CIP and frankly the council did address that to a large degree when you considered the adoption of the franchise fee revenue as a new source of revenue versus putting all of that on the tax levy. Exhibit 11 this is the plan new Bond issuance by fund and we have the MSA fund which there is no plan bonding the building fund the improvement construction fund and the equipment fund. I know you may not often think of it like this but your staff keeps all this in separate pockets and really what I want you to take away from this one is the majority of that bonding between 2025 and 2033 is the building fund the— [1:14:20] **Tammy Omdahl:** —facility improvements as you well know from your many meetings to reading the CIP. Getting to the end here we're on exhibit 12 now from talking about bonding to Debt Service so Debt Service simply means principal and interest payments for existing and planned new debt based upon the city's most recent CIP. So we know changing that which of course there will be changes it has the city debt service principal and interest payments peaking in year 2030 at just under $25 million. So that's not Levy but total principal and interest payments from all sources not including the Enterprise funds there's currently you don't have the same planned bonding for water operating— [1:15:07] **Tammy Omdahl:** —sewer operating funds as you do in the governmental funds. The majority of this would be general obligation G-O fund. Those categories may seem a little strange to you I would just want to speak to those are upon which the authority for the issuance of the bond so the majority of it being debt that is fully supported or wholly supported by tax levy this includes the um debt that would be issued in for the facilities where you must by law pledge tax levy but you'd be cancelling it so we don't call it go GO stands for general obligation bonds franchise fee because you don't have authority to issue franchise fee bonds you have authority to issue it under the GO. The source of revenue for Debt— [1:15:54] **Tammy Omdahl:** —service here you can see that breakdown on the pledge um it does not include the Enterprise funds of property tax intergovernmental special assessments investment income and other revenue and then the use of cash from the fund which you also have some plans for doing and that includes the franchise fee revenue where you'll be transferring that into the debt service funds and using that cash. Exhibit 14 this just graphically and this is just at a point in time from the long range plan that shows the existing debt in green so that debt is already issued and outstanding and you can see it going like this and that's just the amortization because you're paying down rapidly paying down that principle. The blue is the planned new debt— [1:16:41] **Tammy Omdahl:** —so that continues to increase until you get through your in the next um between now and 2029 issuance of bond and then your CIP doesn't have large facility improvements after it's front loaded then you start to see under the blue as well that amortization and the repayment of that new debt that will be issued on that slide— **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —yeah we don't have capital improvement plans we 43 this is the debt so this is the debt out— excuse me this is the debt outstanding on exhibit 14 total debt outstanding so you do have debt still outstanding projected by year 2043 but you are correct that your capital improvement plan goes out to 2034. I— [1:17:28] **Tammy Omdahl:** —believe in terms of projecting new debt beyond that this this chart could be a little misleading that our debts going to be dropping that far but there will be additional debt most likely. **Tammy Omdahl:** This is total outstanding yes total outstanding but he is correct and he's saying well Tammy as we issued debt in let's just say um in 2035 as we keep adding on it that the chart would look different. That is absolutely correct but we didn't make any assumption on what that new debt might be past year 2034 okay so just for me visually it probably chopped off the right to one-third of that that chart if I want to— [1:18:14] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —kind of have a more realistic sense of where we're going to be because everything after that just there's no plan for debt at this point. **Tammy Omdahl:** Or some and we're not trying to fill this in with new debt but you think of it if you reach that 200 million you know are how does that get filled in and um the next one is the same if you go to exhibit 15 this is the exact same information but I know a few years ago the finance um commission prefers to see it this way so this is just showing you the green line being projected debt and here the colors are flipped so stay with me that's total projected debt and the dollar amounts and the blue line being existing debt so here you just same chart you're just looking at it— [1:19:00] **Tammy Omdahl:** —with the line and I think some just visually see that a little bit differently tax levy for debt service and here councilmember this kind of let me explain the chart and then I'll come back to your comment there so the blue is tax levy for existing debt this is actual projected so this already accounts for the franchise fee revenue because that isn't even though when the bonds are issued you're going to have to pledge tax levy you won't actually levy it so this reflects that only taxes that we estimate you'd actually have to levy. So the blue is for existing debt the green is for Levy for planned new debt you issue new bonds so you peak in year 2028 at just— [1:19:46] **Tammy Omdahl:** —under 16 million. An example would be and some cities do that they say we're going to set a total tax levy for debt service and we're not going to exceed that so staff when you when we issue new bonds we want you to structure around that so under that scenario beginning in 29 and 2030 any new as you your CIP goes out you fill that in but you don't go above that 16 million. We're not asking the council to make that decision tonight I almost that is a comment sometimes that's what cities do. We are getting to the end here what I why um we included this chart is we want to show you that for now this plan reflects relatively level annual debt service and what does that— [1:20:31] **Tammy Omdahl:** —mean? That means that your rate at how quickly you're paying off principal on existing and new debt is fairly projected to be fairly stable in this plan so at about the 10-year amortization you've been and are projected to be at about 70% so at any given time you're about 70% of your debt is being advertised in the upcoming 10 years this is is very helpful to the city's AAA rating. So if you said to staff well we do need to issue debt we need to do these projects but we don't like this Levy we want you to extend out the term of these bonds rather than 10 years we want you to do 20 years hypothetically while that would help you with your Levy having a lower Levy it— [1:21:17] **Tammy Omdahl:** —would not help you with your bond rating because the amortization of your debt would take longer and that is not a credit positive. Not that you make policy decisions just related to your triple-A but that is a consideration should you ever decide to do that. The last chart is the debt per capita for existing and planned new debt does not include the Enterprise funds. The blue line is debt per capita this is just taking total debt spread over estimated population and I emphasize estimated because we're factoring growth based upon um staff and their projections for that. So again we are showing that your debt per capita will increase even with growth in the city that is largely due to the park— [1:22:02] **Tammy Omdahl:** —referendum in addition to the facility bonds that will be issued so your debt per capita will grow but then councilmember this comes into play again your comment we show that quickly going down it'll depend on decisions to be made over the next 10 15 20 years on what other projects but it also we don't know what will your population be I know I don't mean it like that of course you plan for it but what will it actually be in comparison to your debt to be determined. With that that is the last exhibit there's a lot more information in the plan that staff uses for purposes of informing your decisions on the CIP and the budget tonight was really meant to have me come and just give you a snapshot of the results of that planning— [1:22:49] **Tammy Omdahl:** —so with that I'm done with presenting to you and happy for happy to answer any questions or feedback that you want to offer to staff. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Questions feedback? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Where does the the news tonight fall into this that salary most likely um for I guess sorry back up um the news we heard tonight about the grant that SAFER Grant you know that's several million dollar of probably salary so that's impacting the uh um percentage increase assumptions for staff or are there other places that we might see those numbers impact these charts and— [1:23:35] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —projections or how would you how would you see those impact? **Julie Stahl:** Well it will have an impact I mean and here's the thing we've got so we're going to have this Revenue source come in and still then in order to meet the grant qualifications in addition to the 12 firefighters that we've already budgeted and we'll put into place the 2025 we have to have three more so staff is going to have to get on it to get three more firefighters to meet what we said our grant would cover or what it's for and making sure the fire stations then are suitable for the 15 full-time firefighters. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Can can you back up for a second if we got the grant we can back-pay the six that we— [1:24:21] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —already hired? **Justin Miller:** No. **Julie Stahl:** No okay cuz we get 18 total okay the the grant was for 15 it was for 18 the first time— **Justin Miller:** Right but we're planning 18 so— **Julie Stahl:** —that's only 12 the Grant application was for 15 so now we'd be planning for 21 no no no we just both to pay for three on our own once we get to that so we were phasing we're phasing six years minus the 18 is 12 so instead of hiring six in 2026 we would hire three so next year we're going to hire nine instead of six so because we were phasing at six six— [1:25:06] **Julie Stahl:** —and six now we would do six this year nine in 25 and then three in 26 instead of six and 26 but that's only 12 no that's why I'm asking plus the six we already have that's what I just asked. **Justin Miller:** Well we can't pay them back so they we can pay so that first year we're paying their salary but moving forward the six we already hired will be covered under the grant. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** So hypothetically we now have 18 firefighters and we apply for another Grant we can use it to pay for the 18 that we have that's what you're saying right until it runs out and there's you know— **Julie Stahl:** —and Justin and I have talked about this is okay so but you know we would want to have input is you know from Council maybe the finance committee however you want to structure this but so this is for three years that we have these payments come in from this grant do we want to structure it so that we're not realizing this huge drop if we don't get a renewal of the grant after the three years? We don't want a huge Spike then in the tax levy. Do we phase this in so our fund balance is kind of like building up a little bit just so we're not having this huge... **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** You want to avoid a cliff point that would be smart. **Julie Stahl:** Yeah so then that actually then wouldn't have as much financial models because maybe looking at kind of a gradual increase anyway so— [1:26:40] **Julie Stahl:** —that doesn't we don't have a drop off. **Tammy Omdahl:** Got it. And there's no assumption in the numbers you saw that you're going to receive like you did congratulations the SAFER grant sorry I didn't mean to go into— **Mayor Luke Hellier:** My one small thing but um a lot of a lot to digest here um but I in that I do feel like as I read through each chart it gives me a different snapshot or a different angle that helps me understand kind of where we're headed and I think overall it feels like a positive trajectory in terms of because you know in terms of capacity Levy capacity um and the potential percentages that we— [1:27:28] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —would be levying overall I'm not seeing those double-digit uh numbers that we've seen this year and last year um so if there were to be feedback we would be a try to stick to this trajectory because I to me this is where I think most of us want to be going forward. **Julie Stahl:** Yeah I mean we still have two more years of big increases in Levy versus but I think all these visuals you know just the different angles that it— [1:28:09] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —provides I don't want to interrupt no I I guess the only thing is is that um the vote is not in on franchise fees and from my understanding is is that councilmembers have been telling the public that there is no formal decision yet and yet this document makes it a formal decision it it does not make it a formal decision again this is a planning model to what does it look like but it has it all in there as a formal decision and if we don't I mean if the if the decision is not to do franchise fees then this model can be changed up and it's going to look a whole lot it'll look different right but yeah I— [1:28:56] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —mean again I mean this presenting different scenarios takes time not only our time their time you know and and if to present if you want how many scenarios you want it's going to take money and time to do that we we can do that I mean we can't with Northland but— **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I'm not trying to criticize you guys you did you walked away with the information you already had from the council and implemented— I'm talking to my fellow councilmembers about the message that's being given right now to the public in that this is not a final decision and yet— [1:29:41] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —if the public were to look at this document because it's a public document it would be as if it is. Does that make sense what I'm trying to say? So you know I'm already outvoted on it it's pro you know probably going to happen in November but I was just I guess that's not the message currently that's been given to the the public they're supposed to be giving our input their input on that fee in August September and October. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Yeah Michelle I noticed the same thing that you noticed that this is this is set up with franchise fees I that hasn't it hasn't been voted on— [1:30:28] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —yet um so how this looks if I doesn't make it I I don't want to put the cart before the horse because we had this conversation one or two work sessions ago this is a process and we're in the middle of determining if in my mind we're getting feedback from the public um I was very vocal about saying you know my take on it is going to depend on what the public's stomach for this is and either way uh there's going to be to be money spent on on these things whether that's through a franchise fee or through a levy um that money is going to be spent correct? **Julie Stahl:** Correct. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Um what this shows me is that well you know hey if there's a franchise fee then you— [1:31:15] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —know our debt levels are lower um but I'm hearing like the example with the firetruck it's like yeah we can say in 2026 we want to buy a firetruck but reality is is we won't be paying for that truck till 2030. **Tammy Omdahl:** Just to clarify though we're not bonding the franchise fee authority we're using it so the the debt will is looks the same no matter what it's how we're paying it's the Levy is what changes. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Yeah so the long term look at the debt is the same because we have to buy the building the source of revenue— so the major change in here is assumption is on the levy side not on the debt side and that's that's very clear from here is that this is what the levy looks like— [1:32:02] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —with a franchise fee. For somebody reading this I want them to understand that there's still $1 million out there and whether that's reflected in the levy thing or whether that's reflected in just a franchise fee that money is is still out there. **Tammy Omdahl:** May councilmember not weighing in on your policy discussion but to answer from a report standpoint yes it is and it's factored in there that $5 million available a year to pay debt service approximately so if the franchise fee is not adopted there's still authority to issue the debt but the tax levy that is shown in this report would be $5 million greater than what is shown currently yeah— [1:32:47] **Tammy Omdahl:** —once all so in the first couple years it would maybe technically same time but yes. And so a fantastic report so don't give me the other thing that I just wanted to ask about because it is fantastic it's very detailed I agree with my colleagues that this is very helpful and seeing what this looks like and in general we can expect some pretty tough years or lean years for the next few years but in general um you know we can't predict the economy or anything things will will look better uh after that and I mean I always want to put us in a position that's long— [1:33:32] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —term and you know we talked about this earlier with the economic development piece you know as growth slows and we look at redevelopment how do we financially have ourselves set up for that? And the economic reality now is everything's more expensive it's just as much more expensive for the city to buy it as it is for somebody to pay it for for their personal um but it just seems like we're going to have a few couple tough years and then things will will get better all— [1:34:11] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —things other questions or comments? Okay thank you. Very helpful um okay moving on any items for future— [1:34:31] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —discussion uh any committee or city administrator uh we had an ALAC AirLake Airport Advisory Commission meeting in September um covered some information in terms of you know we got our reports for our um uh complaints uh what's really interesting I just want to say it so people hear it like like we had we have hardly any complaints typically it's zero we had two last time well because of reporting uh problem not I I call it a problem it's just reporting procedure those flights originated in Lakeville but the the complaints actually occurred in different— [1:35:17] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —communities in a totally different part of the Metro but because that complaint was received there they figured out where the flight originated from it gets counted as a complaint here. So if you're a citizen and you look at that you go well look we got two complaints we had zero Lakeville related complaints um and then we talked about uh just the continuing uh development at the airport we have the new hangar that's uh that's progressing um and there's been uh the runway project uh extending the runway uh not a a significant distance I think it's like 140 feet total uh to make it a safer um but that is still in process— [1:36:05] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —and that's definitely a MAC um a MAC project and they're working on there so those are the things that we talked about there. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah I do know Commissioner Holberg is talking to the County engineer about that if it's actually feasible to do that you have to move yeah there's a lot of to it so well some of the airport claim that you can um bend Cedar it bend fast that's flexible right yeah that's right any other updates um so my update will be on the— [1:36:52] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —arenas but first thing I want to mention is that starting next month our meeting will actually be held on the Wednesday following this our our work session okay so any future updates that I would ever come back to you with would be over a month old does that make sense? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** But um the important things that came out of this one is that the um board approved the a temporary salary increase for three of the employees who will be working on um the new Pavilion instead of instead of outsourcing the work that— [1:37:40] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —the rest of the work that needs to be done these three employees will be doing it over the next year so they'll get a temporary um salary increase for that work over and above their regular so so they still have to do their regular job. So it's kind of like in the finance department where we gave that temporary increase because of the the project itself to implement um it's the same type of deal. And then the other thing is is that um Mr. Berquist is looking into leasing um some equipment versus just outright buying it and bringing down his um capital fund and those pieces were a snowfall— [1:38:31] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —and not Zamboni it's two big pieces of equipment that at this point we are contracting for those services and then instead they would be doing it uh at both Arenas um and I just wanted wanted to make sure because I the question I had to Justin and and he you know because I said oh well we have to this pay-as-you-go type thing from the council but I mean it's only um the I want to say it was a let's say around 150 160,000 I think for these two pieces of equipment and I don't know— [1:39:16] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —what the lease term is but um it's not huge huge like you know what we deal with so anyway at this point the board has given them the approval to go out and investigate um what that lease would be on those on that equipment um and then the other thing is is that and so I want to let you know that we are also um we are going to be paying Mr. Berquist and his son's LLC I'm going to call an LLC he didn't I don't remember what he gave us for a corporate name to actually rent their bobcat and so— [1:40:03] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —um he'll be receiving $50 an hour for that I just wanted to be upfront with you that what we directed him to do is not pay himself for his Bobcat but to go through his company I I just feel like you need to know that that was kind of a gray area to me and I felt that it was really important that you knew that as a um board that they made the decision to allow to to pay him or other you know it would be like if he he needs that Bobcat to do the work at the Pavilion so it's cheaper to pay for a a bobcat that that they currently own as— [1:40:50] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —an independent business versus renting it. But so I wanted to be upfront with you on that. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Your like I know it does send the red flag like it gives red flag nothing no I I would really revisit that. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** What is your concern? **Councilmember John Bermel:** My concern is is that you have somebody who's got a decision making influence that's making a profit off of work that is being done there that that does not rub me correctly at all. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** So even though we would pay a lot more if we had to rent one from another entity that we'd have to go get it bring it back and they're the ones that would be— [1:41:36] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —operating? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah I I think to me I would feel much more comfortable if there was some disassociation from the business uh between him you know maybe if this is an LLC and if he's going to enter into this kind of agreement um that that you would find a way to remove himself as a benefactor from the LLC and yes even if it does cost a little more they I think a lot I'm not comfortable I'm just not. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Anybody else? It seems like an expense reimbursement to me I guess it is like an expense reimbursement here using the car to go to— [1:42:24] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —that begin I mean it's now you said $50 an hour so it is kind of a rate and the city's in the C City's fee schedule our fee rate for about rental is $78 an hour and he would only bill for the actual hour usage. **Councilmember John Bermel:** So so the the other thing that more comfortable with some evidence that this isn't costing the city anymore in the heat there's no profit I just have a real problem with somebody in a decision making position making money out from a decision that they're making. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** So if there was a check and balance you'd be more comfortable with it? **Councilmember John Bermel:** I'd be more comfortable if if if Mr. Berquist wasn't— [1:43:09] **Councilmember John Bermel:** —making a direct profit. So in other words if if it means that he finds a way to disassociate himself as long as that agreement is in place or if it's if it's even if it's or if it's his son's company and he's not on the uh if he's not listed on the company and all that's that's one thing. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** You mentioned two companies right? You could go either way. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** So what John is saying he'd be more comfortable if it was the son's company that was receiving the rental. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah I mean it's a rental it's a rate um I just I mean I don't think it's appropriate. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Yeah but at the same time there is oversight from the board. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I think that the check and balance is that it was looked at by another body he's he— [1:43:57] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —doesn't have sole authority or maybe he does but brought it to the board that's why brought it to the board so I think that's what makes it I mean it is a gray zone but I think that's what put it over the edge it's okay if it's been approved by board with oversight there. **Councilmember John Bermel:** But I disagree I I just disagree with that I somebody has I I disagree honestly I disagreed in the beginning when I thought it was a direct reimbursement to him and that's why I asked the question do you have an LLC? Do you have anything that's separate you employee? And that's when he brought up— [1:44:43] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —he does and his son does and the son I believe the son owns the Bobcat I think is the way I understood it I can't remember if if it's a son's company that's a different thing. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Okay it's in my mind it's it's still gray but at least it's not somebody that is in the decision-making capacity um making making money off of that or receiving money from the city um so yeah that or yeah if it's a son's company or you know it's totally and and just remember that Justin Justin and Julie are on that committee so we did not— **Justin Miller:** No she doesn't vote. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** But— [1:45:30] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —um so that was discussed you know with all of us trying to come up with a solution versus a direct reimbursement yeah or you know or find find another vendor. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** The slippery slope here okay let's just confirm that there's some checks and balances and we'll record back from that. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Yeah so I mean would like because like a comparison okay and it could be I mean it's a cost savings we we know that because if you go the time that staff would have to go to get a bobcat and then come back and they would just this Bobcat would just be he was going to use the meter reading— [1:46:17] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —yeah and then it was going to document and I I assume maybe even with a camera you know document and only charge for the the actual hours on the meter. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Yeah and I don't doubt the honesty I don't doubt the faithfulness and Report it's inappropriate for somebody who's in a decision-making mode to be receiving money based on city money based on a decision. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** But is it his decision or is it the board's decision because he brought it to them to say we can rent it or I can offer the same thing at a much discounted? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Who decides how many hours it's used is it is it him direct? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Yes because we don't as a board are not going to get no because we wouldn't even know the hours that it was going to be— [1:47:03] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** —used does that mean even though it's a good rate that's see if we got some checks and balances and then we'll report back that's and I'm sure Justin's gonna love that he's not here brought this but I in all fairness I really think it's important to bring you information that's coming out of a community and and you know even though that decision's been made I'm sure we can come up with something if it um you know makes the council uncomfortable and I guess I would hope that any of our committees that we would bring forth anything that we think could be questionable that but that was decided. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah I I believe there's a conflict of interests there um but yeah I just want— [1:47:52] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —people to understand I say I don't think it's somebody that's trying to help out and help the city and do something that although it you know makes sense there's a conflict in interest okay and Julie do you remember anything I think that's about the biggest stuff right? **Julie Stahl:** Yeah um the the least leasing versus buying was on snow removable equipment um so yeah for the financing of the new snowmobile equipment oh we tabled that till the October— [1:48:36] **Julie Stahl:** —meeting think those were the big items. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Yeah salary was the big because the rest of the you know normally typically I think it won't be such a big deal that everything's a month behind and maybe I won't even report on something because it's a month behind but um uh but I just felt like because really the Arenas just run themselves but with this new construction going on there's some you know things like for instance we approved the um five-year extension on the warranty you know so there's been some things that have been happening but eventually that'll all take off it'll just be two Arenas running. [1:49:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thanks okay uh the only thing I had I we had a Dakota County mayor manager meeting on Friday presentation from Mendota Heights they got a um them in Mini got a special law change where they're allowed to issue administrative citations using speed cameras it's a pilot program and um the legislature did this because many years ago they challenge the constitutionality of of stoplight cameras for instance and so this is Administrative and so it doesn't hit your insurance and that's why they the legislature thinks it could pass muster um but what was fascinating is— [1:50:11] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —that the system um takes picture license plate and then the city can send uh a warning to say Hey you know don't speed in this neighborhood kind of thing and um well I was intrigued by so we couldn't issue an ordinance but we could buy one of these systems um and the reason I bring that up because there's a lot of times I get calls from people and say hey there's people speeding and then that means Brad is dedicating a person to that neighborhood at a cost where if we could have a camera set up and sending people notices like hey slow down um you know balance thing reaction so they they don't keep the— [1:50:56] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —data they don't keep the data for more than 30 days there's a whole bunch of privacy stuff in the state. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** You ever use them temporarily so if you're really just trying to use them as a way of slowing down a neighborhood? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah so what they have is a cart uh or a trailer it's a speed trailer so Minneapolis is permanently installed but state law is you'd only have one for 12,000 like population you only have one speed camera um I don't know how they get that number but yes so they right now it's been in one neighborhood that has a lot of construction um but yes you could move it around. So the idea would be okay this week the Hamburg neighborhood is calling so we're going to roll this thing out there for two weeks or something— [1:51:46] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** —to yeah I mean for warnings I yeah I mean be a great way especially when your kids drive in your car and Mom and Dad get the notice for warnings I have a problem when it starts turning into a fine in the citation yeah even administrative and we legally couldn't anyway um so it would be more of a like hey we're just trying to tell people. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** So are they gonna use the camera to investigate crime because something went rolling by? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** uh I don't know that'd be a good question to ask probably you're saying we can do it now for just the warnings but— [1:52:33] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —legislatively acting legislatively make it okay. The yeah I just so the trailer is $20,000 and so I pitched that the public safety foundation see if they're interested because again it's to me it's we could have a potential cost savings on having a cop sitting around in a neighborhood to slow people down if we're just gonna complaints lately on that what Mendota said sorry there's um what they said is many cases are it's like oh my kid was driving my car thanks for letting me know and now we're going to have some conversations about speed and responsible responsible— [1:53:18] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —driving. So anyway I it was a good presentation I didn't realized that was a thing I thought it was very funny that they were the only city to get it for whatever reason. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** You know the only thing I did think of maybe for future is um talking to the um Communications Department on one of our youth person's um concern about crosswalks because we are a community that most of us drive where there are other communities where a lot of people walk or bus so you're always looking for you know pedestrians but um because we're always driving on them all the time but pedestrians are not our thought. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So the city did a video on back to school on— [1:54:07] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —social media the last couple weeks um reminding for crosswalks and stuff I do know I can send it to you if you haven't seen it's pretty um but yeah I mean I think that fits into that new pedestrian plan we have. I was I saw in California they had a guy dressed up in a chicken costume very flamboyant to catch people not obeying crosswalk so like clearly you can see this guy and they were you know he was low they were blow to the crosswalk as he's issuing citations he the chicken. Speaking of communications are we close to the one-year point for the newsletters and looking at have we done three? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So yeah I guess yeah the fourth— [1:54:53] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —quarter one will be coming out next month. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Is there I think we had talked about having some sort of report back on effectiveness or you know readership if we can stats? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah and see if what she's collected I mean we're going to have the number of mailings that we mail out but I don't we're not going to have any stats on readership um we've gotten reports back that people like it we haven't got any reports back from anybody not liking it I don't remember we would told her what we were looking for though so maybe she remembers. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Well for some I thought we— [1:55:39] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** —were going to try to include some sort of engagement piece in a newsletter so that we could track like QR scans or you know just to see who opened it up and scanned a code um looked at a YouTube video that was online trying to get more engagement kind of across platforms. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah you could in theory do a QR code do um a bitly linkage tracks specific you can see how many people scan it so I don't know if if the fourth-quarter newsletter is in final because I would be curious to see how many people are engaging with the content. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Well the newspaper is down to 2,000— [1:56:25] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —subscribers that gives indication about well I think that's the other thing we wanted to talk about was the the plan you know how receptive was this newsletter what's our plan moving forward to not utilize the newspaper? oh I should sorry I have no so we had the Regional Council of Mayors meeting last month Steve Grove the new um publisher the started there we were talking about the future of newspapers and they're like well we want to be more local but not hyper local some of us in the room were kind of pushing to say at some point we need to have a real conversation about public notices and that financial model and he was open to I mean he doesn't want to— [1:57:11] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —get away from obviously because it's a revenue source but it's an antiquated law I think they're there could be they could still sell public notice ads on their digital platform and then we wouldn't have to you know so anyway that's a if we get to the point where the Sun This Week goes away we have to find a newspaper record again and I'd rather not pay a Star Tribune rate if they're the only one left. **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Yeah and they would go away before This Week I would imagine This Week because it was you know right newspaper right and local. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** So anyway that's just out there that'll be a conversation for cities in the newspaper industry to have um I don't— [1:57:58] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** —anything else with that I'll take a motion to adjourn we do have one more interview afterwards. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Motion to adjourn. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Opposed? Word adjourn. Thank you.