This transcript reflects the City of Hastings City Council meeting. Speaker identifications have been added based on the provided context of city officials and staff. [0:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** so many rules and who's here from Northland somebody here from [0:16] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Northland recording inog oh the Gody okay got it okay where are we starting on just a minute lens what's it where are we starting on proc [0:58] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** uh [1:28] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** e e [2:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay all right ready lens time being 7:05 I call the hasing city council meeting in order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li and justice for all welcome and let the role reflect that we have a quorum for our Council and with the absentee of council member Fox tonight we have a new employee [2:48] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** introduction and this evening we will welcome several new employees to the city staff and Kelly merar our assistant administrator will start us out welcome Kelly [3:12] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** thank you mayor I'd like to invite Libby to join me this evening I'd like to welcome Libby hmel who is serving as our communication intern this summer Libby attends the University of Wisconsin lacrosse majoring in communication studies and minoring in digital media and design she's been working to enhance our soal social media channels and ADA compliance with our website content she attended last week's Makers Market and music in the park two events that she's been helping to promote she enjoys going to the movies traveling with friends and reading a good book welcome welcome [Applause] B is John gonna go next [4:00] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** sure okay then I'm GNA I'm going to jump ahead okay uh the other person I'd like to introduce is not here this evening I don't think I saw him come in he wasn't able to join us uh the newest member of our facilities team uh our Building Services worker Tim skoo Tim was born in Redwing and grew up in Ellsworth graduated from zro high school and attended St Cloud State he majored in advertising so that's a perfect fit for the job uh Tim has been married married for 35 years to his wife Carla and they have two daughters when Tim isn't working or with family you can find him as a pro musician on weekends dejing at local area establishments private parties and weddings Tim also finds time to run his own graphic design and [4:45] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** Publishing business that he loves to do he's also a huge Packer fan and you can find him cheering loudly I know there's other Packer fans in the room uh but you can find him cheer cheering loudly and eating his championship chili uh he's look for looked forward to meeting the folks that he's met so far and can't wait to meet everyone else so welcome Tim is John able to go on okay folks can you hear me okay [5:22] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** canm studying at University of Wisconsin River Falls environmental planning so she'll be doing a lot of in the planning and Community Development Department this summer she's been involved in the neor market with all the permits and we're going to be having various commission meetings to present information there as well Lindy play of the softball team as a pitcher at w riverfalls and she's been a great asset to the city so we're glad to have her here for the summer thanks John she is not here okay [6:06] **Cody Mathisen (City Engineer):** good evening mayor and Council I'd like to welcome up uh Josh speak uh so Josh joined us here in the engineering department here in May uh back in 2022 he was actually a seasonal employee of the public works department but we convinced him to put down the power tools and traded out for a calculator to join the uh brain or nerdy side of Public Works on who you ask Josh is currently in his second year at BYU studying civil engineering over in Utah uh his family still lives nearby in Denmark Township and he's a former graduate of Hing High School class of 2018 outside of work Josh enjoys playing Star Wars board games competitively and even Sports his classic Star Wars lunchbox through the office and it was [6:52] **Cody Mathisen (City Engineer):** when we saw that that we knew he picked the right side of Public Works um so in our time with Josh thus far we've really enjoyed his positive attitude and willingness to take on whatever we need for the day as you guys know Public Works in engineering right now changes with the wind um and he's really adopted that can do attitude so welcome Josh we appreciate having you than welcome [Applause] Josh [7:25] **John Townsend (Fire Chief):** Chief good evening mayor and Council uh tonight we've are introducing two new of our full-time staff here at the fire department uh the first one we have is Kurt sen um he's a new firefighter paramedic for us he comes to the department starting on May 6th he worked at henpen County Medical Center as a paramedic for 13 years before he was here um and then uh then he also was a paid on call firefighter in Wisconsin many years ago um and he is currently completed his initial set of fto training with the department so we're happy to have Kurt here then our other one is David sheets also fire full-time firefighter paramedic um he started the same time as Kurt on May 6 um he comes with five years of experience working at M Health ambulance [8:13] **John Townsend (Fire Chief):** and also a paid on call firefighter for the city of Apple Valley so he has also completed his initial set of fto training so we're excited to have both of them and all of the experiences that they bring to our community from their their previous employment so thank you guys for joining our community welcome [Applause] [8:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Mr [8:46] **Chris Jenkins (Parks Director):** Chris uh good evening mayor and Council we have an employee as well started on May 6th uh Jessica urbach she is a part-time office assistant for us in the Parks and Recreation Department working 20 hour hours a week for us uh doing a variety of tasks uh Jessica is born and raised in Hastings her and her family also operate the lucky youu Stables just north of town here with a wide variety of animals and most recently a a baby raccoon that they're taken care of as well uh Jessica is not new to the city she uh previously worked for the police department for about 5 years uh in a receptionist role there and so far she has been doing fantastic uh we love having her she's learned fast and uh frees up some of PA's time as well so [9:33] **Chris Jenkins (Parks Director):** she can continue on the programming side of things but uh Jessica has been a great addition to our team and wish she was here tonight but you will you will get to know her so thank you thanks Chris welcome Jessica also if we want to step forward for uh picture with oh sorry okay and oh yeah sorry we also have two new partner introductions as well so um we have Joanie padic from 360 communities and chief is here to introduce [9:55] **Kyle Linscheid (Police Chief):** thanks Mar and City Council Members I am going to make you stand up [10:19] **Kyle Linscheid (Police Chief):** I said I wasn't going to so first we have Joanie patuk uh often referred to as Joanie P for obvious reason no I'm just kidding Joanie uh is our 360 Community Advocate has office space in our building uh Joanie was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated from Inver Hills Community College in 2014 with an associates degree in human services uh Jon received an internship with the Lewis house and has been with 360 communities ever since uh Joy uh Jon has always been someone that others can come to for Comfort or assistance uh and this is what Drew her to the profession and she recently started powerlifting and reached her personal best of 165lb deadlift just last week has it gone up since then so we're happy to have Joanie with [11:05] **Kyle Linscheid (Police Chief):** us in in the building um and we're better equipped to serve the Hastings community so welcome Joanie thank and also we have Jean Evans will Jean Evans Williams uh Jean is our Dakota County embedded social worker uh splits her her time between the Hastings police department and Rosemont Police Department throughout the week uh she's there not to not only trouble shoot uh crisis issues that officers may have questions about but she can also respond out in the field uh to someone that's in crisis G has been practicing social work for several years in across many areas including medical child and adult protection and mental health Jean grew up in North Dakota we're not going to hold that against you uh on a wheat and cattle farm and started in social work because she realized she was a great [11:52] **Kyle Linscheid (Police Chief):** listener and people often confided with her uh currently Jee lives in still water with a few cats that have been left by her adult children so congratulations on that uh she enjoys she enjoys Power Yoga uh spending time near the St Croy River and gardening so we're happy to have Jean in the building uh assisting HPD with the growing number of Crisis calls that we receive on a weekly basis so welcome great thank you now Council if we'd have um new employees and partners for a photo [12:57] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** people over here [13:12] [Music] that get a picture okay here we go two one two that was [13:32] [Music] I'm [13:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** sorry thank you all right tonight we have a proclamation for make music day and we will start with council member kble [14:02] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** whereas the city of Hastings has declared Friday June 21st as make music day and whereas this is the eighth year the city of hings Parks and Recreation Department have celebrated make music day make music day is a free celebration of Music around the world on June 21st beginning in 1982 in France and now held on the same day each year in more than 1,000 cities in 120 countries and whereas the purpose [14:34] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** of make music day is to encourage and invite Hastings residents and visitors to celebrate by enjoying pre free performances cultivating civic pride and a sense of community and whereas make music day 2024 will be held 10:00 a.m. to 9:40 p.m. at roadside Park Oliver's Grove and Levy Park and the full schedule can be found on the city of Hastings web page and social media platforms and whereas in case of inclement weather make music day will be canceled and updates will be shared on our City website and City Facebook page and whereas local and metro area bands and soloists will donate their performances and volunteers will donate their time to help provide sound support and MC of each location the city of [15:21] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Hastings is appreciative of these civic-minded performers and volunteers to help make this event possible and now therefore be it resolved that I mayor Mary fast bender and the Hasting city council hereby declares June 21 2024 as make music day in Hastings Minnesota thanks for all the works and efforts for make music day council member house would you please start in the proclamation for juneth day [15:58] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** yes your honor whereas the president and Congress of the United States have declared a national holiday to commemorate the day June 19th 1865 when Union general Gordon Granger and a contingent of Union Soldiers brought [16:07] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** news of emancipation to galliston Texas and whereas the juneth national Independence Day Act of June 17th 2021 amends the federal code to establish a paid holiday for all federal workers on juneth Independence Day and whereas the state of Minnesota also declares June 19th as a state holiday and the City of Hastings Minnesota wishes to join the National and state governments in setting aside a day for commemoration of Liberty and equality for all citizens and whereas the mayor and city council support the Hastings community's participation in the National conversation focusing on dismantling the systematic obstacles that impede our progress towards racial equity and social justice and whereas by embracing [16:57] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** juneth as a holiday we encourage Community reflection about what Unity to us and can be promoted could promote racial understanding and healing and whereas organizations like building remembrance for reconciliation and the Dakota County Historical Society Society are actively engaged in promoting reconciliation through activities including efforts to build a memorial commemorative Hastings early African Methodist Episcopal Church Browns chapel and its con congregation to establish a black Heritage Trail through Hastings [17:44] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** and now therefore be it resolved that I Mary fast fasbender and the Hastings City Council hereby declare June 19th as juneth day every year in the city of Hastings and encourage city employees and all citizens to actively participate in dialogue and community events as to promote the culture of be belongings excuse me that was General gr's aspiration 159 years ago and thank you all for the work and efforts for juneth and with that we have a oh sure okay thank [18:35] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** you and along with that we have a presentation tonight by James Curry for with he is with the BR4 R which is building re re reconciliation thank you welcome James [18:58] **James Curry (BR4R):** oh thank you yeah um uh in fact thank thank you and thank everybody in the community for this uh Proclamation um I didn't expect uh Mr Jenkins to be here but uh I I think he's slipped out but um we've kept him updated on um our first uh I guess installment um that uh We've partnered with uh formula that's for RM plus [19:23] **James Curry (BR4R):** UL um and uh a representative from formula is here uh this is Nathan and um so we're we're at such a nent stage that I really don't have much of a presentation for you but I I am open to any further questions or or um who formula what are they doing what does that have to do with you yeah maybe maybe Nathan maybe Nathan could uh speak for uh the organization and the Partnership if you wouldn't mind joining me [20:01] **Nathan Johnson (Formula):** hello my name is Nathan Johnson I'm a architect um I work in um our office is based in downtown St Paul so about 25 minutes from here um and James contacted us I think it was four to six months ago about something he's trying to do in regards to the black and African-American Heritage here in Hastings and we've done a lot of projects which kind of commemorate kind of those types of spaces specifically within um the Twin Cities metro area so we're looking forward to the opportunity starting the conversation with James and and be for our um here in the near future thank you thank you thank you for being here Council we would love to have a photo with I have a question oh I have a question oh sure council member I have a [20:49] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** question so you'd mention that you all have been working with Chris Jenkins with our parks department what are you working on tell tell us a little bit about what what are you thinking I know you kind of seems like it might be a little early in the process but like if you had a wishing well what are we what are we hoping for what's what's your plan [20:55] **James Curry (BR4R):** yeah um we've had a first round of CIF funding uh that came came about in 2022 and we pursued an artist shet idea uh which is getting artists together and just sort of um spitballing or visioning concepting um and then the second proposal that was that was uh fruitful but uh didn't take us to the next stage um the [21:36] **James Curry (BR4R):** next stage being um I felt a proposal for CIF funds to perhaps get an architectural uh cohort together whether they be students or or graduates um or a firm itself to pick up where uh the artist sherette left off with um probably more technical based um and uh foundational uh skills that that it that are more appropriate for this concepting of a of a memorial and that's in quotes because it's all starting to blend together with a Hastings uh Hastings black Heritage Trail and then this stop [22:21] **James Curry (BR4R):** along that way um so um yeah that's it's the meeting of of two kind of uh Concepts um and finding out where that that overlap is and um um coming to something concrete instead of um the spitballing that we engaged in which was which was fruitful but again didn't take us to where we wanted to so it would sound like a form of an art installation in one of the community Parks here in the city of Hastings that would celebrate our yeah and it be how celebratory it would be because it's it's a church burning if you were aware of it so this is all regarding the Browns so the what you're looking at [23:06] **James Curry (BR4R):** here for an art installation is specific to the Browns Chapel piece not not so much the entire community of African-Americans Who were settled here but more specific to that event I'm open to all those things and I didn't want to steer it steer it um uh necessarily into the memorial um connotation nor did I want to make it um I don't know if it'll become celebratory but it'll be a piece yeah yeah yeah that's it's a reflection of how early we are in in in these stages do you have any anticipation of when this would be ready for construction or what kind kind of time frame are you looking at here um I'm thinking we could come out [23:52] **James Curry (BR4R):** of this with um specs that could be um moved forward into probably what would be a third phase um I know that permits and zoning and um uh Place uh will still be a factor and are just sort of um looming there um but uh yeah um I would project if I was to do so at 2026 you know just on a final note [24:38] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** um I was born and raised in Hastings and I wasn't aware of Brown's Chapel it wasn't something I was taught we didn't talk about it in school I was again it's um it was a sad horrible time um but to hear more about um the people who settled here early on it was really exciting for me um I grew up in a obviously all-white community and didn't really understand why so this is I'm very excited to see what you bring forward and of course that that commemorative piece of those who were lost but just the education piece for our community to understand this was part of our heritage and this you know at yes see yeah that is see and that is something we all need to be taught so I'm excited for this piece whatever comes out of it I'm just very anxious to see how are you going to how that's going to be used to educate our [25:23] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** community as we go forward as a more diverse and Equitable community so thank you thank you for taking the time I I know you this probably isn't your Forte you've done an excellent job and we you know speaking on behalf I'm sure for the we're excited to see what you bring forward to us thank you so much thank [Applause] you council member house thank you honor I do thank all of you for being here today it is one of our favorite days we were just mentioning to each other it's one of our favorite times is when it's filled it's filled and there's a community of love and we just appreciate everyone coming today um other thing I just wanted to mention as well is um if you haven't connected yet with our arts and culture commission through the um City please I already figured you were but I'm excited to hear from both both [26:10] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** both you um everyone on that together so excited to see both Council if we could take a picture with um your group that'd be great [26:39] [Music] [26:52] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** I got you three two one [27:04] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** awesome I'm [27:14] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** good don't [27:47] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** all right Council any uh corrections to the june3rd meeting okay comments from the audience anyone wishing to speak to the council at this time please step to the podium state your name and your address and we will hear your comments [28:11] **Steve Zion (Hastings Resident):** hello Council my name is Steve Zion 1772 delidge Court Hastings um in reference to the consent agenda the first reading item number 16 just want to know if anybody can go in depth on what that is on what they're changing or what they're looking at changing uh chapter 94 for parks and recre thank you thank you Steve that it's up to you motion to pull from the consent agenda okay we will pull number 16 from the consent agenda in a second and how about without number 16 Council would you accept the motion to accept the consent agenda [29:05] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** first by lield second by council member Lawrence all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay tonight awarding of contracts we have a presentation and approval for 2023 comprehensive financial report and for this item we have our finan manager Chris idam Miller with us and Ryan englestead from KV welcome thank you thank you Kelly Kelly [Laughter] [29:46] **Chris Eitemiller (Finance Manager):** how okay down there okay nope there you go that's about and then you can just scroll all right all right like that and now put on the screen okay all right okay good evening uh mayor and council members uh it's at time of year again uh recapping this year's annual audit uh in the past we've had Nancy schenberg of Bergen kdv here on this evening but this year Ryan has uh moved into that role as Nancy's moved on to different things within the company so I guess at this point I can just turn it over to Ryan [30:32] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** all right thank you Chris good evening uh mayor and members of the council uh great to be with you to present the information that we put together uh and and I've distributed final bound reports uh to you all there as well uh that uh go through go into all the details but uh for efficiency purposes uh we condense the highlights of the information that's within all those documents into a into a much briefer slide deck uh so I will go through that uh with you here here so with that uh maybe quickly I'll see if I can do a full screen make changes a little bit view sorry about that um there we go all right so uh first off uh we we issue [31:20] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** three different reports as part of the audit process and uh and then in addition to that a a Communications letter uh the re the the report that we issue that gets the most attention um by various uh users the state auditor's office um the bond rating agencies uh you name it uh is the the auditor report that's at the front of the annual financial report so the the thickest of the documents that you have in front of you uh towards the front of that uh there's about three or so pages that make up this report uh at the very beginning is the opinion section and uh that is uh again within that report [32:08] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** that section gets the most uh Focus uh the type of opinion uh that we are providing uh with regards to the financial statements is an unmodified also referred to commonly as a clean opinion uh the report does also go into details about responsibilities of both management of the city as well as us as the Auditors uh high level uh the the responsibilities of the city is to provide a fair presentation of the financial information maintenance of internal controls uh and the like our duty is to design and Implement an audit approach that uh would put us in a position to provide reasonable assurance that there would there would not be any material misstatements that would go undetected uh as part of the process and [32:55] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** that reasonable Assurance is considered to be a high level of confidence uh 90 95% uh that's just driven based on how we do our our materiality calculation sampling and so forth uh to get the appropriate coverage okay so then moving to the next report uh this is within a separate document that you have uh this and the the next one I'll I'll refer to but uh government auditing standards so basically audits for all government entities with some exceptions uh there's a requirement for us to uh do some added work as it pertains to internal controls uh it's not a deep dive where we're able to provide an actual opinion on the effectiveness of internal controls but the work we do is enough that if there [33:40] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** were significant deficiencies or material weaknesses there's a likelihood that those would surface as part of our engagement uh but pleased to report uh there was nothing that surfaced that Rose to that level uh so great job uh by the folks at the city uh that are involved in in the financial activities and oversee the finances uh uh to make sure that uh all the appropriate checks and balances uh are are working as they should uh also if there was non-compliance related to laws regulations contracts things like that we'd call that out uh nothing along those lines uh that surface there either so then the third report we have uh is the uh Minnesota legal compliance uh report uh this is uh a requirement by the state auditor's [34:26] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** office they publish a a very detailed audit guide that we have to go through as part of the audit of the financial statements and it hits on all these different areas that are noted here some of the key focuses are uh things like Contracting and bidding making sure that the uh statutes are being followed as it pertains to you know those types of functions uh as well as well as many different areas there's a a long long list of uh items that we check on and and uh through all that uh there were no findings as it pertained to compliance with relevant State statutes as well okay so then we'll move on to the uh required Communications letter uh another separate document that you have in front of [35:11] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** you uh just uh high level the first part of it gets into uh again those those uh Communications that are required under the standard so uh it has sections labeled as uh along the lines of you know if there are any difficulties that we encountered as part of the audit disagreements with management uh misstatements identified things like that but the the verbiage that's included in the letter is all very clean um we did not have any any of those types of issues as we worked through the process uh Chris and Ashley and and all the others involved here at the city uh certainly very Cooperative uh and um prompt with addressing our questions and and requests for info so we appreciate that all right um and then I will get into [35:59] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** the financial analysis on the following slides the the emerging issues tab here uh just refers to uh at the very back of that that letter uh there's some information about new standards and such that are coming uh into play here in 2024 and Beyond uh just provide some of that technical guidance to the city and we work closely with them uh as part of the implementation process and provide any templates and tools uh that we can uh to assist in that regard all right so here's where we kind of get into uh the details of the uh Financial results uh and position of of the city kind of looking at some of the core operations and and so forth uh of course the primary focus uh being on the on the general fund uh year-over-year [36:47] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** uh so we got five years of information here but my commentary will mainly uh pertain to uh comparing 2023 to 2022 um you'll see there is overall a slight drop in the total fund balance for the general fund it's about 3% um and that's really due to a few different factors that we'll uh get into in some following slides here uh both on the revenue and the expenditure side down in the uh within total fund balance there's uh different categories of reporting uh so we've got some for nonspendable and restricted so those are dollars that aren't free for the uh City to spend for uh General operating cost uh but U the unassigned portion is is what represents that that piece that is [37:34] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** available uh so you can see there a dip of about $500,000 um however um it's worth noting that the total uh unassigned fund balance of about 9.7 million at the end of 2023 represents about 59% of the annual general fund expenditures for the year uh and that's a very healthy position uh for the city to be in uh the fund balance policy that the city has has has a guidance for a range of 35 to 45 so you're uh certainly very well positioned as it pertains to kind of that minimum level that the city is looking to maintain okay uh we have a pie chart on the next slide uh that just shows uh the [38:22] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** allocation of the revenues for the general fund uh and as would be expected this stays rather consistent year-over-year about 2third of the do the revenues uh related to taxes and assessments and then depending on what happens with some Grant activity and so forth some of those other categories can jump around by a percentage or or two uh from one year to the next but uh right in line with what we'd expect there from a consistency perspective okay all right uh so now the uh breakdown in in dollars of those various Revenue categories uh you can see um you know as far as the taxes and assessments the increase there ties in with what the percentage increase for the levy was uh [39:07] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** for 2023 uh the the most notable items to call out here and this uh this will be a theme when we look at the Enterprise funds as well for the utilities but 2022 was u a record-breaking year for development wise uh so as far as building permits and uh inspection uh charges and things like that uh there was a big jump uh that occurred in 2022 here you can see for licenses and permits as well as over here in charges for services so the result for 2023 if you were to um you know kind of compare it back to 2022 certainly a nice increase over that still over that two-year period so 2023 still a good year uh just 2022 was U you know a [39:55] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** banner year uh for sure so okay and then one other item to to point out here is over in the miscellaneous column you can see that for 20123 that really jumped up uh to about almost $600,000 and we're seeing this across the board uh just based on investments that uh governmental entities are kind of um limited to in terms of investing in fixed income securities government bonds uh U and so forth the market fluctuations on those uh bonds uh is it's required by the reporting standards to pick up the unrealized gains or losses on those investments from one year to the next so 2022 actually had a [40:42] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** fairly significant unrealized loss and much of that was recovered um if not all of it was recovered in 2023 so that's why you see this number jumping up the unrealized or the investment returns which does include interest in divid Revenue as well uh was about 563,000 of this 593 so again very hard to predict as to where that's going to shake out uh from one year to the next okay uh on the expenditure side for the general funds uh again here percentages stayed uh very consistent um the the most significant category being Public Safety and that's that's certainly common for for cities and the percentage [41:28] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** coming in at 49% I would say in nine out of 10 cases I see it Landing in that 45 to 50 uh% range so right in line okay all right so then again here looking at the uh breakout in dollars for the general fund I'll just call out a few things here Public Safety again similar to other municipalities we see this to continue to increase just based on uh changes in the steps and Lanes um for the uh uh for the personnel and then also uh there was a u a new contract with the county related to dispatch services that had an increase in cost so that drove some of that uh increase from 6.5 million up to almost 7.2 million uh [42:14] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** year-over-year Public Works uh you'll see 2022 jumped up a bit and then it came back down in 2023 there was some added storage cost uh that that came into play in 2022 while some building construction was happening so that's what drove that and then Capital outlay typically does jump around as well just based on the timing of projects so 2021 had the Highway 316 project uh then it um it was a uh not quite as uh uh significant in terms of uh the the number extent or size of projects in 2022 but then 2023 of course uh with the city hall project com commencing uh cost coming into play there [42:59] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** okay all right so then looking at the budget to actual results for the general fund I'll just call out a few uh line items here so the intergovernmental revenues you'll see uh has the largest variance uh of any of the categories in the in the revenue section the the budget included uh some planned use of the uh arpa the the uh relief funding from the federal government uh but uh again as we as we've seen the timing of those projects or uh spend on those is is somewhat uncertain um and uh indeed for the city uh there was not much spend on those arpa funds during 2023 uh but there there will be a significant amount in in 2024 uh so [43:44] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** that's when that Revenue will will come into play okay uh then in the expenditure section uh I I will say you know overall revenues you know there were some categories that had some positive variances so shook out uh pretty close to break even there a 1.4% variance okay and then on the expenditure side uh the the largest uh variant again coming in in the capital alll section so timing a projects uh there was a dump truck dump trunk dump truck acquisition uh that occurred during the year uh and then again the city hall project uh otherwise the operating categories for the general fund you can see here uh again about as close to being on target [44:30] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** as as you could be very minimal percentage differences which demonstrates the uh very sound uh fiscal management that's in place uh at the city so okay overall uh about a $300,000 decrease in the fund balance uh for the general fund okay and we'll move on to a couple special Revenue funds here so the fire and ambulance uh area uh with this one there's some unique things that are coming into play in 2023 that's affecting uh these numbers uh first on the on the revenue side uh there was a a rather substantial increase in the levy allocation uh to this fund was about $750,000 so that drove uh a little over [45:18] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** half of this increase year-over-year the the other piece um relates to some non-recurring state aid uh that came in uh during 2023 uh of almost $900,000 so some offsetting decreases there of course based on the overall uh change and then uh on the expenditure side um this here uh the big jump going from 4.6 to 6.8 Capital outlay expenditures do get pulled in there just based on how they get presented on the financial statements within that to overall expenditures category so a couple big items uh that uh that came into play this this year or 2023 uh in [46:03] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** regards to Capital uh purchase of a ladder truck as well as uh uh a uh tanker truck uh uh in in that area so big spends there uh that drove that expenditure increase and then um this requires some explaining so you've got uh expenditures exceeding revenues by 1.4 million but yet fund balance increased ined uh by 400 plus th000 the reason for that is there's a couple other financing sources that are coming in again this is a different category outside of revenues within the financial statement so if there's a s a sale of capital assets so there is a sale of an ambulance and a fir truck uh during 2023 those proceeds get in this other sources [46:50] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** column that they don't go into Revenue uh so that was about 750,000 and then there was a a transfer from the general fund of just over a million dollars well two separate transfers one was to assist with the um uh cost on that ladder truck so so bunch of different things going on there that uh drove those numbers uh in that fund oops parks and wreck uh there was a significant Park dedication fees in 2022 that uh uh was the driver of that that significant Revenue increase so kind of coming back down to normal levels or levels that were seen in 2020 and 2021 for 2023 and then in 2023 there was a large [47:36] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** number of projects and Equipment purchases taking place so that's what drove the expenditure increase there and the overall fund balance decrease okay then we'll get into the uh four Enterprise funds that the city has so uh in all those funds um uh very high level and the key Point here is they all had positive operating results good financial position uh so what that shows is that the set the city is setting rates at an appropriate level to make sure that um enough dollars are being generated to cover the costs as well as as we'll see in the graphs uh covering depreciation uh expense as well not all cities are able to cover cover the full amount of [48:23] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** depreciation expense but those that are setting yourself up well for the future for replacement uh costs of of infrastructure and and so forth so all right so in the water fund 2022 uh had a had a jump and that was because of connection charges with all the development that was happening and then there was some offset decrease in 2022 because of the the uh Water band that was in place so some usage decline there the that usage increased in 2023 but just not as much uh in connection charges in that year excuse me all right sewer [49:10] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** fund all right so here similar theme connection charges driving the 2022 uh bump there uh and then uh here I did want to point out you can see that the operating income did dip down to about 57 ,000 uh again this is after covering depreciation expense uh so still still a good result uh but some of that change particularly going from 200,000 350,000 down to the 56 uh again less connection charges but then also some increased fees uh from the Met Council in 2023 okay storm water fund this is one that most cities struggle with in terms of being able to Pro uh produce a positive [49:57] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** Financial result but uh Hastings is in a fortunate position where it is it is doing so um the expenses did jump up a bit this year and that's really driven by some non-cash items uh there's a technical uh accounting requirement related to pensions and with participation in the Statewide pension plan so the numbers that get produced from that have to get allocated out that drove most of this expense increase for the storm water fund also some increases with the depreciation expense on the capital assets all right then the last one the hydro fund uh again numers stayed fairly consistent a the drop in Revenue tied to a change in how the solar garden credits uh are being allocated uh with those now [50:44] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** going to the general fund okay and the last piece we'll look at here is uh with regards to TA tax capacity um so with this and this is a good result to have a declining uh tax capacity rate and you can see here from 2022 to 2023 a rather substantial drop and again we are seeing this for the most part uh uh with other municipalities as there was a a rather significant bump in the market valuations uh that that uh Drive the tax the net taxable tax capacity here so so with that uh if you take the increase uh on the levy of just 6.7% compare that [51:30] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** to the increase on the uh tax capacity side of almost 20% that's what drove that significant decrease on uh uh with regards to the graph that we just looked at here on the uh tax rate so so with that um I have covered everything uh that I wanted to in terms of uh commentary um in uh as as the financial highlights the audit results and so forth I'm glad to field any questions uh that anyone might have for me so again thank you to everyone involved at the city uh we certainly appreciate uh the opportunity to be of service and and look forward to continuing that sure thank you Ryan y [52:16] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** thank you honor Ryan if you are I don't know if you're able to go back to that last slide y the tax levy and capacity slide yep so in layman's terms the tall blue line and the short Green Line yep does that mean our residents are paying less taxes what does that mean to us as a homeowner [52:43] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** yeah so the and and Chris you can probably get into the details more on this and and explain it in a way that how it's discussed internally but uh yeah I mean it's that's the gist of it in a nutshell [52:54] **Chris Eitemiller (Finance Manager):** that's the gist of it in a nutshell uh council members uh basically when we have our capacity increase like it did for every dollar that we gain in taxes uh just the growth alone is going to you know we're going to have new developments are going to take on some of that tax increase uh homes will be paying more but uh I guess it's just uh more attributable to the valuation as well as new developments so it's not a straight dollar Ford dooll increase to every home uh so if the tax went up 6.7% that doesn't mean everyone's taxes went up 6.7% uh I'm getting into the weeds here I don't know if that helps [53:40] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** I just see two highly I mean they're the first time they're quite a bit further apart than they have been in our last four years five years so I was just kind of in a layman's terms not in a I'll try basically I suppose the properties [53:52] **Chris Eitemiller (Finance Manager):** whose valuation went up would have seen a higher increase than those that were more moderate in their increase um so I guess just that reasonable way to put it right [54:02] **Ryan Engelstad (Bergen KDV / Auditor):** yeah I would agree okay thank you but again it is something we're seeing across other municipalities as well that very significant jump in the valuation market value market values of the properties so uh that that capacity is is somewhat skyrocketing in 2023 So yeah thank you council member life any other questions Council I would look for a motion to approve the report [54:38] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** council member pemble and council member Lawrence for a second new discussion Council all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails thank you again Ryan thank you thanks Chris y under Community Development we will we'll have uh community development director John Hinman joining us via zoom and the first thing we s go ahead John thank you thank you for having me here tonight first item we have before us tonight is a resolution for the approvement of Pleasant Drive Edition I'm going to [55:25] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** share my screen here and show uh maybe I won't I don't have the ability to do so but uh we're looking at a 10 acre development which is located at the northwest corner of Pleasant Drive in County Road 46 Dakota County CDA is preparing to subdivide this property into a couple of different outlots what an outlot is is a lot that is created but cannot be developed the purpose behind this is to serve Dakota County's long-term goals one of which is a rout the Vermillion River Greenway Trail one for additional rideway for Pleasant Drive and County Road 46 for future improvements there and then remaining land would be used by the Dakota County CDA for housing at some point in the [56:10] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** future now at this point there would need to be a subdivision a resubdivision of the property in order for development of the CDA property to occur plus the availability of City Utilities is about 1 half mile away so there would be a few items necessary prior to doing that we did have our Planning Commission review this item at the June 10th meeting they recommended approval on unanimous vote we did not have anyone there who spoke during the public hearing nor have we had any public comments prior to that I think car Gill may be present tonight if you have any questions for her from Dakota CDA or I can stand for any questions on this one at all again for this item it is a simple majority of council for approval thank you great thank you John Council discussion [56:56] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** okay council member lield thank you honor so just to confirm John right now what we're voting on is just it has nothing to do with development of the property we are not voting [57:07] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** development could not Ur council member without these Outlaws being subdivided in the future okay into another subdivision so no it does not confer any ability to develop okay and then at that time it would go before Planning Commission again and then back to council okay thank you John I appreciate it your honor i' like to council member leld made a motion to approve with a second by council member house additional discussion Council all those in favor of the Motion [57:41] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** state by saying I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails we also have a resolution for a site plan for the stadium seating and lacer room for United Heroes League 11 15211 Rena Trail and John you may continue [58:15] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** council member and mayor have a map up here for the property we're looking at today this is a site plan approval at United Heroes League for stadium seating and for a locker seating would seat about 1175 individuals and about a 3500t locker room so the red property here constitutes what defending the Blue Line United Loop has for sight this is Con 54 con 91 you can see over here the outline of the hocky Arena which is in place right now just to the south of it would be the bleachers and then the locker room facilities would be underneath it so if you take a look at a little bit more of the development this is what it would look like to the South you can see that the bleacher facilities do come close to the property line to the south of the development one of the ises that we have is that uh the development property line is reconfigured to provide further space to meet minimum requirements on that one and it appears that that is something that uh both owners will be able to work out this is a depiction here of the under area of the locker rooms what it [59:14] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** looks like here from the side and front views and in the overall view itself so we did have the Planning Commission review this as well at their last meeting did recommend approval on un vote and we did not have anyone speak at the meeting for this item so I can stand for any questions that you may have at this time uh the approval of this requires a simple majority of bounel thank you thank you John Council any discussion [59:51] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** okay council member leel you I'll make a motion to approve the stadium seat and locker room as presented by staff based on the conditions be met thank you council member lelt council member verich seconds any discussion [1:00:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council okay all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I I oppose that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails we also have a second reading for adoption and an ordinance Amendment city code chapter 34 for building department fees John you may continue [1:00:20] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** okay thank you mayor city council members tonight we do have the second reading and final adoption of an amendment to city code chapter 343 which is our fees schedule this is to modify certain building department fees within the building department as you may recall the council did have first reading of this ordinance at the last meeting on June 3rd and the simple majority of council is necessary for action on this so our building official Lonnie Johnson went through a pretty comprehensive review of our building fees there's a couple of of Main purposes that we're looking at in the fees schedule that's before you tonight one is to reduce duplicative permits for single Properties by combining separate permits into allinclusive permits and this would be for ease of tracking and monitoring so for a construction project that may require a plumbing permit an electrical permit a mechanical permit it now requires a permit which is inclusive all these things it uh makes it easier for us to track uh Ure that these adequately cover the cost of Staff review most fees that are listed here have not been increased since 2015 so it's been about 10 years since we've had an increase in fees so I have some [1:01:36] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** summaries within the report that go over some of the changes that we're looking for I'll highlight a couple of things in particular our minimum building permit fee for just general work was going to increase from $50 to $100 in general anytime that we make a trip out to a site to reviewing permit and we have the R of that perit in the office we're going to we're going to exceed $100 easily uh and certainly over the $50 that we have today so uh we are still looking at that as something that's not completely covering the fees but we think it more fairly covers the fees that we do have for basement finishing or models we've created an all-inclusive permit combined separate building permit mechanical permits the permit is based on valuation of work on [1:02:22] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** this one so there is going to be an increase some of the fees from that uh from what we have presently dexs are going on a square foot calculation with a minimum $100 fee we also have a new schedule for General construction fees and build valuations bani did take a look at the neighboring communties taking a look at what fees were charged and had our permits cover what we need and also to be in line with what other cities were charging for these permits so that is generally what we're looking at for changes within the building code itself for fees so I can stand for any questions that you may have at this time great thank you John Council any discussion [1:03:08] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** council member veroff thank you your honor um I just want to uh commend John and commend Lonnie and commend any of the city staff that worked on this I think that the role of government is to do the best most effective way that we can serve our citizens so I just I think this is wonderful very glad to see it again I would make a motion to approve this great thank you council member ver with a second with council member house any new discussion [1:03:40] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** council member LEL um would like to add to that we want to make it easier to work with the city within you know in regards to new construction remodel we've had comments over the years it looks to me like this is sure there is going to be a monetary piece to it as well which you know is to be expected but it also seems to me that this is John and the um City staff's way of really making it a little bit easier to work with everyone so um to um council member vero's um comments I would commend you guys for taking that step and hopefully our residents and our new business owners as they come to town will see that this may help their process so thank you for bringing that before us John thank you council member liel okay there's first and second no other discussion all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails under administ thanks John under Administration we have a [1:04:42] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** resolution to approve a liquor license renewal for spiral Brewery and with that we will have an introduction by assistant City administrator Kelly Mera oh Dan I thought you wereing up there to do a just putting the logo on the screens sorry [1:04:55] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** [Laughter] [1:05:05] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** this item was pulled from consent originally uh so that uh council member Fox would not have to abstain uh however she is abstaining from afar perhaps uh so this is this is a a typical liquor uh license that would normally have been included with the ones that were on the consent agenda I can certainly stand for any questions that you might have thank you Kelly ccil member leel you're to make a motion to approve the liquor license renewal for [1:05:29] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** for spiral Brewery okay and second council member pemble seconds any discussion Council all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails uh at with addition to number 16 from the consent agenda City administrator Dan Matia will give us an update on the item the first reading for chapter 94 for parks and Rick [1:06:14] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** sure I can introduce this and if there's technical questions uh attorney land can answer those um this really is a matter of housekeeping uh back in uh I think the first meeting in May uh so little over a month ago three meetings ago uh Council uh did a fairly sizable update uh to our park and rec uh uh chapter of the city code um one of the pieces of that update regarded um uh overnight Mooring or parking of boats at the uh City owned dock uh and uh not just on at the dock but also uh in the Upstream portion of it uh those uh under our permit conditions from the Corp of Engineers have not been allowed for 15 years or so that the doc's been there uh but has not [1:07:00] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** been an enforcable ordinance uh just a a sign saying don't do it um in updating the ordinance they said I uh or uh Parks and Rec commission I think also the parks and rec Committee of council staff recommended um putting some teeth to that to make sure that uh there actually was an enforceable ordinance to prevent uh overnight moing uh as soon soon as that got uh adopted a month and a half ago uh there was question uh about well what do you mean by overnight so really what this ordinance does is adds a couple of definitions and some clarification that um uh essentially says that uh no uh moing or no moing [1:07:47] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** overnight or I guess the reverse of that is moing is only allowed during daylight hours which is essentially from a half hour before Sun sunet or Sunrise to a half hour after Sunset so uh it really is a housekeeping clarification in order to uh address that uh overnight parking of boats at the dock or Upstream of the dock thank you Dan that I could stand for any questions or hand it off to attorney land thank you [1:08:18] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** council member LEL thank you honor Dan thank you that addresses the question specifically by the resident who was curious so there's no further concern okay thank you thank you council member LEL with that we will need a motion Council counc motion to approve second reading for amending the city ordinance 94 and council member pemble as a second okay and no other discussion Council all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails council members do you have any announc ments okay I have a few city offices will be closed Wednesday June 19th in observance of juneth Summer wreck programs at Levy Park Thursday June 20th music in the park with Holly reca Ras Ras tribute to the 50s supported by Ruth and George doing charitable fund Tuesday [1:09:21] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** June 25th comedy in the park with Kenny Ahern physical comedian sponsored by smeed Manufacturing Company Wednesday June 26th story time in the park with the theme emotions a partnership with Pleasant Hill Library Thursday June 27th music in the park with Papa Bear Norton originally Excuse Me original comedic country supported by Ruth and George doing charitable fund Friday June 21st is make music day with 21 performers over 12 hours at three locations bring a blanket or a chair to enjoy the music from talented musicians [1:10:06] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** in Hastings Parks harmonicas and drumsticks and gift cards will be given away and there are also food trucks available reckon art and police is Wednesday June 26 that Sunny Acres Park with popsicles stick bird feeders hula hooper demos and games recommended for elementary and middle schoolers supported by SC toys Country Financial Hastings Lions Club Hastings family service Community Ed and Hastings Prescott Arts Council the arts and culture commission hosts 12th night a theatrical performance in the park at Vermilion Falls Park on June Sunday June [1:10:53] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** 30th meetings coming forward Tuesday June 18th 7 p.m. Heritage preservation commission Wednesday June 19th has been cancelled Thursday June 20th 6:30 p.m. Public Safety advisory commission Monday June 24th 7 p.m. operations committee and 7 P.M Planning Commission Monday July 1st 700 p.m. city council meeting with that I would accept a motion to adjourn council member house council member pimble all those in favor of the Motion state by saying I I oppose to that Motion state by saying nay we are [1:11:43] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** adjourned okay