e e e I do that with my team all all right thank you it's 5:15 Let's uh call the council me order and do Pledge of Allegiance please alance to the flag of the the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice thank you roll call please council member Cole here council member schwe here council member Wong here council member nordby is absent mayor mongi here we're going to flip a and b so I'm going to I ask for motion to accept the way it is now and then put it should we adop do we do we adopting agenda quick let's adopt agenda we can but we're going to pull I like to pull a and b because they're going to flip yep can we do that right after the consent agenda if that right so can I get a motion to adopt the agenda so moved so council member Cole second second council member schwe all in favor say I I I thank you very much consent agenda thank you mayor we got two items on the consent agenda item a is General claims of 1,550 6437 Item B is H claims of $3,896 3 looking for a motion can I have a motion please so moved so moved council member swe second second council member Cole all those in favor say i i i a ready okay thank you all right uh City business action items and recommendations we're going to flip a and b uh we're going to start off with the award contract for the 2024 track ceiling project we have city engineer Morgan Dolly here to discuss thank you Mr Mayor members of the council so this next item is uh matter of housekeeping uh for Contracting road maintenance uh improvements that uh were included in the 2024 2033 Capital Improvement plan and the 2024 budget um namely crack sealing activities this is something that we do approximately every three years on roads that have been uh either maintained or are in a situation from a um rating standpoint where applying some regular maintenance dollars into them will hopefully lengthen the life and uh prolong the time for uh before like something more significant or major like a Mill and overlay Improvement is needed um so simply crack ceiling last time we did this was 2022 I believe uh generally something that we do approximately every three years give or take um we did uh solicit quotes and um the two quotes were received the low quote is Aztec corporation which coincidentally is the same contractor doing our pavement management project right now in different areas of the city uh grand total quote of $ 71,3 a16 that was below estimate and within budget um staff is recommending uh Award of contract uh by resolution which is included in your packet here there's certainly more information in the packet with respect to the quotes received happy to stand for any questions uh but uh simply asking for council's uh Award of contract so that we can issue a notice of award and get the contractors started we anticipate that the streets would be completed at some point before mid October is the completion date within the contract um and yeah I'll stand for any questions Council might have thank you any questions council members no questions here I got nothing okay then yeah quick question quick question I'm just wondering if um there's any op like if you see any um potential need for change of like cost if say the cost um changes what is the voucher something what is that called do you know what I mean with the pay voucher so it's like when we when we um have a project and then um the quote comes in differently a change order ah I don't yeah sure it'll come yeah the question would be do I do we anticipate any CH change orders with this particular project I don't um we tried to be conservative with our estimate of the number of pounds of sealing material that is used um and uh there is some ability to monitor that as the project goes on if they are pacing ahead for example we think that they might uh exceed budgetary constraints we probably just tell them to stop as opposed to coming to council with a change order to finish some small amount um we did as you can see from the map included in the packet we do identify for the contractor kind of our first priority and then our second priority streets if we did have to stop and leave a couple street segments out and those carry forward to two to three years from now that has been discussed with public works as kind of a contingent uh occurrence that could happen uh but we'd like to try to uh see if we can get them all done and I think there's a good likelihood that we can do that so um from a project management standpoint between Public Works and myself we'll try to stay on top of that um but bottom line to answer your question I don't anticipate any change orders here great thank you um I would like to add to that it it is our practice that if there are changes that the change order does come back to the city council for approval and and Morgan has done an excellent job of that thank you appreciate that nothing else can get motion to adopt the this ceiling project so move so move council member Wong second second council member Cole all those in favor say I I against thank you thank you next item up is um Community Center RFP discussion um I would like to put out maybe a suggestion so the last time that we met there was a request for a little more time to go over the contract to make sure that all the things were included that we would want in that RF um if there's anything you want to review tonight we certainly do that or we can just a lot maybe a couple weeks or some time to review and then we could get any feedback from Council we could put it in the RFP and then bring the RFP back to you as a final product at the next council meeting for you guys to vote upon if you so choose um I am ready to I I made a list of some tws SL revisions to to go through on my end I don't know if rest of the council has done the same um I don't want to continue to delay the process there's been a lot of we we've finally got to a point now I want to keep the momentum going so um I mean I didn't know it was on the agenda tonight so I didn't know if we were actually it says discussion so so we're not going to vote on anything right we're just going to go through correct I just want to make sure you guys have enough time to go through it point out anything you might want addressed I do I figured we're going to do it in a in a work sh but we didn't have a workshop tonight so do we want to just go through it now I haven't had I would like to go through it myself and then provide those just submit them after you've gone through it then okay do you have a preference Lisa um I think I have most of my edits now if if people want them um otherwise yeah um you know what's would you be okay with sub mitting them and then we make those changes and bring them back to you um we'll give them to you ahead of time so you have time to review and then you can vote to move it forward to um put out the RFB for me open discussion is better so that that we can be in alignment with what our tweaks and changes are sure um I may have something that differs from council member W indeed okay so to to me open dialogue is better than submitting you know you she figure it out yeah so um that's my that's just my opinion please if you'd like to discuss it go ahead and move forward I'm fine with it I'll let you lead there sirad do you want to lead us off um sure I didn't have a ton um and I recognized that a lot of this is boil plate especially when you get to the back half of the deck half the deck um so I spent the majority of the time reading some of the upfront stuff and I had questions and I don't know where they came from or what the intent was so it's more for me clarification than than anything else so I'm looking at the at the owner's statement um first thing that pops out to me is paragraph 4 where it references all these efforts including offering a variety of memberships and one-time use options uh may be done with little or no charge to General situation the community center uh Services of the community center are considered non-essential and are not required Services the city must provide uh question where that statement came from um and it would be my recommendation that entire paragraph be stricken any you want com anybody wantan to okay and we have no problem with that I'm perfectly comfortable with any changes that are made to it yeah so I mean no that's fine I I to be honest with you it's been such a long time I can't even remember where I got this stuff from and I and I know there were reasons stuff were put in here I just don't know what they were so if it's something else tied to it I'm perfectly fine with with the way it sits can you read that paragraph again if you don't mind please um do you not have document y um all these efforts it's so it's paragraph four so it comes in a communication line all these efforts including offering a variety of memberships and one-time use options have done little to change the general situation of the community center use uh services at the community center are considered it non-essential and not required services that the city must provide so again I'm looking for clarification as to who what why it's there I don't know if moving forward we're looking I I I mean it's history no I'm I'm aware of that that's that's why that's why I'm asking the questions so any modification any modification on this that you see fit we have no problem making any's hold up the I pulled up the document so if you want to tell me what so I'll strike it right now it would be page two of the document or page 232 out of uh last meetings I guess it would have actually been in our um Committee in the uh Workshop uh no it was in the workshop I think it was in the in the regular meeting okay it begins with all of these efforts incling strike that um next paragraph down um the community center will also provide extra recreational and Gathering space I don't know what extra recreational means and again I understand where it came from and I'm so I just I would strike extra well I mean it could be a yoga room it could be you know right right so um next page is Page Three required um uh request for proposal um submitting proposal a lot of a lot of my changes here are just based on dates just because we're not 100% sure when I mean I'm hoping that we can have this thing voted and approved on at the at the only August meeting that we have um so I I I did Circle a bunch of the dates on here the only thing I wanted to call out um knowing that when this goes out we won't probably see it by August 16th because it might not not be out by then um because we won't we don't have it until the 20th right yeah so that's why that's why I'm saying we've got some dates in here um the area that I focused on most was the proposed timetable um submission proposals by August 16th we know that's not going to happen if we don't vote tonight um uh uh approval for from city council September 6th I would like to move that up to uh the end of August August 20th uh and final projection project completion date December 17th uh I would like to see that either moved to our last meeting in November which is the 19th or the first meeting in December which is December 3rd they can come back and say no but I just wanted to to put some dates on there I would like to um bring this to a conclusion um before the end of the calendar year um next one projection overview starts on the bottom of that page and uh the carries forward it just um I don't know who team is I'm assuming that's whoever the contractor is right keep saying team I don't know who that is I don't know um and it talks about the multiple disciplinary team um with uh Recreation facility design and construction plan experience um is that too limited I mean I just suggest the word Community Center it's more vague true um again just my my recommendations um then as I read through the next set of um bullet points um the first bullet point under flexible Multicultural space I I just threw down what else is there other you know it talks about um you know offering Farmers or craft markets education programs seasonal cultural events celebration and social Gathering I just wondering if we wanted to expand that I guess Lisa I Look to You More for guidance on that piece of it than than what I'm would have um the next paragraph talks about um Foster positive socialization and offer recreational space um again I don't I would caution recre ational because it's more than a recreational facility um so if we can tweak that to meeting or Community or something along those lines you taking that as only meaning recreational space yeah okay a safe place for youth to Foster positive social and offer recreational space for sports and um youth targeted activities okay so or just space for sports and youth and just stri strike that through um I also had as a comment in through these sections um and I can't remember where it came from a safe Community Place demonstration Hub to showcase the city's commitment to Green um I wrote in the margin here youth programs um thirdparty involvement in managing um and I didn't know what else to call it but there may be space for you know whether it be the theater group or whatever somebody might want to rent space um so I wanted that to be part of the scope but I didn't know where to put it we'll find a place for it you're quite the guy we we're GNA oh but look there's more um partnership development I am on Dan page five um under partnership development um why do I have please explain what this means um the team must have experience in development of partnership relationships uh and can be associated with community centers and types of partnership program I don't know what it meant I looks okay I just didn't know exactly what it meant um moving down under overall scope of service uh par uh sub. one subsection c c review existing facility and assessments and master plan de and master plan do we have a master plan is that um just existing facilities and develop yeah it's pretty wide open as Multicultural Center yeah um um subo number two under demographics and market analysis um point B complete a comprehensive market analysis including rates attendee numbers and services offered I'm just concerned is that limiting the scope to making it back to being a workout facility I didn't I again looking for clarification is to the to the bullet point um the market I I I've got no idea completed comprehensive market analysis including rates of tendy numbers services offered I'm pretty wide open services offered isn't it yeah so do we need do you want to put some examples in there or what are you thinking or take out some of the other words um are we looking to charge usage fees for residents to I mean I don't know I don't I again it's vague I don't know with some of the discussions that were different entities were looking at uh just Court time for different volleyball things I guess it would kind of fall on that if that was what we did with it okay I again just looking for clarification as what me uh under programming number four section c develop operating structure and parameters and then I also somewhere in here I wanted to include a third party because we have had conversation in past with um third parties who' have been willing to take over management of the facilities um and I would like them to look for those as well so somewhere in here I don't know where I just put it in here for I'll get a copy of that from you you can have it um site analysis and concept solution um under that's number five subnote b um must consider Moder modifications I just stricken the word must consider mod modifications to existing facilities um oh and a identify all possible sites analyze each um and recommend a site preference we only have one site so I'm thinking a should probably be pulled completely in in and perfectly good with that but here's the other flip side to it um there's been comments by city council that maybe it isn't the best location in in site because of parking and so forth so what this would do would would be to open it up and at the end of the day you would end up having to get legislation to change um um you know instead of being specific to that site it could be a different site location so this would open up that opportunity and give you more informed information um and making your final decision but if you want to be at site specific and that's all we certainly can have it that way well I guess I would open this up to um the group it's of my understanding from conversation with deed that this funding is for this specific location and cannot be utilized any place else correct without legislation approving it so you could take it back and have them and I I would find the odds being pretty high that they would turn around and approve whatever you decided that you wanted to do with it as long as it was still in line with that Multicultural programming component to it but all right so then the other piece is B I just would recommend pulling the must out of I mean just consider an adjective to describe mhm um um I am on Page Six uh sub on the same number uh number six for operational analysis um sets um subnote C develop reports addressing each attendees uh estimates fees SL rate structure Source income um just again rates rates rates and feast structure we don't really know what it's going to be and my mind just goes back to what it was um I'm I'm fine with leaving it in but that's you know where my head goes um project Capital cost estimate uh D and F I don't know what equipment costs are soft costs I don't know what an ffe cost is um total project cost estimate I get that but I don't know what d and e meant I don't know if that means buying equipment to put in a gym I I it's vague which we hadn't intended on doing correct that was why I was I would and I don't know what an ffe cost is FF is is Furniture fixtures and equipment you're good I'm not good at three lit acronyms I know a lot about facilities I appreciate that sir um I I I mean I would I would recommend striking it from both but if we want to keep it in there I guess that's it's up to the general consensus um is there any intention whatsoever to at some point in time to add you know Furniture fixtures and equipment and would it be beneficial just to kind of get that idea of you know what they would be looking at I think it would be beneficial to keep it in there from my opinion you know okay I mean again at the end of the day you don't have to do it at least it's information that you would end up receiving back and then like if there architectural drawings that can help with some of that Vision as well um under under again page six number nine final report um section c uh presentation to be reported to staff with a one and city council with a one is that the head count that would only be presented to two people no it just means one presentation to staff one presentation to city council thank you um and it says may be done virtual I guess I would strike that out I would at least from a council standpoint I good yeah oh look sorry guys there's more uh uh page seven brief description of each section as follows I am on Section Five schedule goes back to the earlier comments that I had stated about um wanting to have this presented either the last meeting of last council meeting in November or the first council meeting in December um insurance certificate number eight there's a whole bunch of stuff about percents this and presents that determining a score is that how we do things is that normal I'd never read it I'd never had a contract this close so i' never um the proper way to do an RFP is that you're upfront okay and you tell how the criteria how you're going to evaluate it your point score um and it you know some will argue it should be both the the written rating and then also if you short list and you do interview how did you score those and combine everything together um to me how we got it here is that I look at it as a two-stage approach you evaluate it on scoring on the written you short list you do an interview and they'll there not everybody will have the same score there's a different score and how how did you come up and part of it is is it's transparency and in case any one of the other uh proposers um challenge it you've got documentation to do it and actually it's by Statute too that's always a killer right I just I I'm sure it's been in other contracts I may just have never seen it we always just kind of focus on cost so thank you with that I'm done all right thanks sir appreciate your time on that are you ready for me I'm GNA be honest I'm gonna have to watch this thing over because I missed like half of it but yes give it give it a shot um so I'm on page two in the owner statement the second to last paragraph um in which it refers to um the funding we received um if we could also add in um the federal component to just so they know the parameters around what funding is available to um the copy I have because there was a comment on that where has the city is a recipient of 4.5 million in state funding and 850,000 in federal funding for facility Improvement for his Community Center building at 2300 North St Paul drive this must be an old that must have been the very first one not the second one that was brought to city council must be well glad it's in there now yeah um okay and so um let's see [Music] I'm yeah I I want some clarification on the intention is it intended to be multi purpose which I think is part of the goal um or is it um are we naming it Multicultural because that's within our um within the Le like the parameters of our grant does that make sense I just followed the name that was in the Grant from the state of Minnesota yeah it was multi-purpose or Multicultural um was it multi-purpose as well in I I think I've got it it's quoted exactly the way it was in the the document but I I'll do a double check I apologize cuz I think I have an older version too if that's already in there um and I would just clarify in um page three um to propose an Implement implementation plan that's consistent with like their findings as well that top paragraph I'm I'm sorry can you one more time please um I think part of uh some of that um information would be beneficial if we um included to propose an implementation plan that's consistent with their findings so you would like the consultant to develop an implementation plan based upon their findings um that that be a component that that it's practical like we can see that it's practical based off their feasibility and what that would look like for I can also email that one to you if that's helpful sure oh yeah anything would be helpful yes and then um on page four where it says um it's about halfway down the page where it starts the feasibility study shell um etc etc um I think it would be helpful for us to add in the um like the um operational component of it because that is uh very much one of our biggest barriers to feasibility so just really honing in on um the operations component and on page five at the very top with the partnership development um I'd be um I'd prefer a team that also knows how to do community engagement as well um so I would put Community engagement and partnership development um as for the scope of services in that first item project overview um I would also put in um where it says project review identify constraints and parameters um It also says you know identify issues concerns and objectives for the project um I would also add in like the strengths opportunities and what assets it brings would that really be included in item number one because item number one is really the overview and existing information and so we really don't know that information that's kind of an outcome of the feasibility study of what opportunities are are there so I mean I can see it being further down someplace but this is really the reviewing of what you have today is kind of their starting point oh yeah I was um yeah I think there's been some Community engagement done beforehand so I was kind of like including maybe some of that data um in that um item and and I guess in certain ways doesn't that fall underneath D and review existing data from user groups sorry doesn't that fall underneath the category of 1 D where it says review existing data from user groups yeah that that could fit in there because I mean we would give them whatever information that we you know have to date yeah I think um I'm not sure all of them are are users or have been users but um we have some of that um Community engagement that was done prior so it's a little bit more broad I think than just the users themselves okay what else um as for number perhaps number two I would also include um kind of collect and compile existing impact reports to include in the analysis could you restate that one more time to collect and um compile existing impact reports to include in the analysis okay and then as for Community engagement um I think to ensure Community engagement um reflects like the community itself so that trying to meet parody when they're out in community so including youth um different people from different backgrounds cuz um if it's going to be a CommunityWide just making sure that um different voices are at the table so definitely including like Youth and Elders in that um both BNC my suggestion would be to add something in there that that it talks about that is a representation of the community um yeah if yeah just to make sure that it's reflective of the community um I would probably also suggest that they reissue some sort of RFI to gather additional information from interested partners and to follow up on those that um inquired but haven't filled one out and then um in programming I would just probably remove the word banquet um letter C great thank you um as for the operational analysis um if we could also include um different models and strategies and best practices to achieve operations so just taking a look at the landscape of other community centers and um analyzing how their operations are successful for them um for item seven um I would like to see even a draft of a what a capital Improvement plan would look like but that might be embedded somewhere else and then for um funding analysis um be interested to see maybe what the impact is um what the economic impact is for our business environment or um also what um the like tradeoffs are for what what it is for humans to people if that makes sense so where are you at here on this one I'm on um funding analysis and in the funding analysis you would like to have what so item D I see identify the potential economic impact of the project on the community um so I think just kind of clarifying um that that includes like the impact on residents um as well okay and that's all I have at this moment thank you I would have one ask um sorry I was late um in the final report do you think do you all think it would be fair to ask for the concepts presented to us what variances from the city those concept would need if they do need a [Music] variance you know if one of the concept is and I'm just picking stuff off the wall a 300 seat Auditorium well that that would create a variant from the city for a parking and I'd like to know that in the the plan so I if there submitted Concepts to us would require a variance from the city when we're now analyzing it I think that would be fair for us to know um on page seven where it says propose project team and experience um it says on Item B describe relevant experience and provide information on at least three reference projects completed in the six years um I would probably just remove six years um if it already isn't on your version Lisa I apologize I thought you were done oh sorry I I I didn't mean to interrupt you no I something just popped okay my my apologies no I just wanted to make sure I to interrupt you that was not my intent I'm sorry I interrupted no no no I I just had the one thing did you get that one down M okay do we also for the RFP go into what the spec with the Grant and things like that the length of it and different things like that is that something that is covered in the RFP as far as how long of a commitment we have for anything like that if they're looking at partnering with us we can we can get some wording in there take a look at it I'm sorry what did you say if they're looking at partnering with us as far that's we're looking at people to partner with us to show how long of a what the what the entails of our grants and what specifications they are so they understand that you know we're looking for a long term M like a an in partner correct because we're you know what we're on the hook for we're looking for in a partner as far as that is that all we got for inut thumbs up on this side thumbs UPS over there so all right well thank you thank you good conversation um next item up is the 2025 budget discussion uh for Levy budgets and I'll turn that over to Dan to start us off you're going to have to wait I'm still typing you see me type it's probably better than me concerned but I don't see Pizza I thought that was traditional I didn't e for all right um first of all thank you very much uh mayor council members um tonight we're going to uh discuss the 2025 budget we're going to be focusing on the levy budgets and we'll be focusing on the levy budgets um through September um because um in September we need to certify our maximum Levy um and so it's very important that we we get through the levy portion to it um just to kind of give you kind of an overview on Enterprise funds um the only Enterprise fund uh that we're intending or looking at um seeking a rate increase would be the surface water and that's just because it's a very small fund and with all of the street projects that there's going to be a need to increase um that rate we're looking at about a 4.5% all other Enterprise funds would not have a rate change whatsoever um um so we'll uh focusing on our Levy budget um tonight we'll uh we'll just do a quick look at uh to kind of in remind the city council of what budgets that they approve uh look at the city council uh priorities that were set um and then look at the proposed Levy proposed general fund budget um proposed HRA and Eda levies and then kind of look at the budget calendar which is going to show that we're going to need um two additional um uh special meetings um to get through all of our department heads um which we will begin tonight um with department heads we have um our fire chief uh Jason malinger who will do the fire um and if time permits I will cover just four quick smaller um general fund departments um so city council approves the general fund budget HRA budget Eda and then the proprietary funds which are your Enterprise funds um and your internal service funds and then other permanent funds that um that exist um your Enterprise funds consist of six water Wastewater electric surface water solid waste and fiber optic internal service funds are the information technology um Insurance equipment City mechanic and Building Maintenance and then the other budgets are the community center fund Community event fund Fire Relief Fund Park fund and Street Maintenance fund uh the highest priorities that were established for 2024 you can see there was 11 of them um one of them I I'll just point on there is number six to keep taxes affordable because that truly does relate to setting a levy for the residents of the city of North St Paul here's the good news or bad news um uh all of the department heads have submitted their uh budget requests they have met with um city manager Brian frandel and myself um we have gone through and um challenged them tweaked them um and this is where we're at and I'll kind of explain um varying components um within the proposed Levy um there's also opportunities for uh city council to make reductions and I'll show you some of the suggested reductions that could be made um but right now we're looking at um a overall what I call City Levy of a 9.62 HRA um is a is a big increase overall HRA Eda City would be a 9.88% levy increase but don't get too far yet well we got to go through the different components to it um the the changes for the city for 2025 um the bigger drivers were total Personnel costs um have increased um 326,000 or 4.6% um what you'll see in like the police department is you'll see a higher cost a personal cost but you also have to remember that on the revenue side there's $167,000 Revenue in other grants um and that's related to the officer that we have U underneath agreement with the BCA um so the true impact of uh the levy increase on our total Personnel cost is 4.6% um this does include a cost of living I am not um able to share what the cost of living is um that I have in the budget um because we are in the um you know all of our Union contracts are up and they're in negotiations so I can't tell that that would have to be something that would have to be done in an executive session um if you look at our supplies contractual services and capital um it's a modest 1% Levy increase um for all of our our departments in the general fund it's only increasing $71,000 um we have a uh reduction um in um our transfers um that come um that we transfer out of the general fund of uh $69,000 and I have another slide here that'll show you the transfers in and kind of give you a big reason to why there is a reduction in that um and it's mainly due to if you remember last year that we parked $124,000 for health insurance and then we transferred it to the insurance fund well we won't be doing that this year um and then there's a reduction in uh Revenue that will be transferred into the general fund of approximately $65,000 and that's related and I have another spreadsheet that I'll go in a little bit more detail um but that's part of how we fix or how we planned our Street Maintenance our Street Maintenance impacts um three um Enterprise funds and they should be getting a reduction too so it'll show that calculation of how we're doing that uh reduction piece to it um all other Revenue there was a reduction of about $68,000 a lot of it has to relate to billing permits um because we get a percentage of that if they go higher than what we have estimated then we'll get higher on the revenue side to it but um we're taking it based upon what we're seeing this current year and what we've seen in the past year um all of those items um you know show uh you know a levy increase of 6.5% which isn't a bad uh you know when you're looking at that 9.9 figure 6.5 isn't bad for for for and and mainly it's driven by the cost of cost of living increase that's that's in this budget um the other components to it that that you know that increase it are are related to infrastructure um and you'll see that streets um what we have in the budget right now last year this year what we approved last year for this year we had a 2% Levy increase based upon the information that was provided by Morgan at our last um city council meeting and he showed if we were to move that um rating index upwards um I took his numbers put it into our plan which I'll show you in a second it would require us to increase it from 2% to 3.5% so this budget has that 3.5% in there but again city council has you know the ultimate decision you can reduce that from you know and leave it and move it back down to that 2% um again there's a lot more discussion that'll need to take place for city council to make that informed decision um and we'll be having Morgan come with more information pictures and so forth um if you remember we have a 1% increase split 045 for buildings which is included up in the upper part in the trans transfers um and then Parks so for streets and parks um because they are not internal service funds we can have the levy go directly into their budgets for the building because it is an internal service fund it has to go into the general fund and then be transferred into um the building maintenance um account if you add up all of those items it'll show you the 99.6% increase um for the the city and then again it's the increase in the HRA that brings it up to that 9.88% want to kind of show you what the transfers to the general fund in this current year we transfer $820,000 um with this change underneath our plan um the transfers um would be $65,000 less and you can see the three funds that are impacted um um through uh Street Maintenance projects um transfers uh from the general fund that go out to other funds you can see the building maintenance fund um gets transferred out that's that uh 45% of a levy uh the Insurance Fund was a you know one time we parked it in 2024 we're not transferring anything out in 2025 right now the where Community Center budget is set where we're at with operational costs right now where we're at with the fund balance we will end up needing to transfer $20,000 next year um into the community center fund um so the fund balance doesn't go negative um that could be higher um we'll get into that when we we go into the community center fund um pieces and then traditionally um we have the transfer uh for the Fire Relief uh fund basically it is the large component of that which makes up over 90% of it is what we get for um State Fire Aid and it's transferred over to the Fire Relief Association or Fire Relief Fund uh gets paid to the Fire Relief Association and then the city makes a small contribution um it goes up in 2025 to $94,500 that was there was a resolution U that increased um the Fire Relief um um I guess pension part to it and this is the commitment that uh the city council had agreed to um Fund in 2025 and then there's also agreement I think for 2026 also so that shows you where the transfers to and from um in the general fund to give you a little bit more information um debt debt Levy um in uh in 2025 we're we're going to see a significant uh decrease in our debt Levy um because we have the refund uh we have the bonds that were issued for this City Public Works facility that um will be um paid off um at the end of the um this year actually in February of 2025 but levied um in 2024 part again and I'll be showing it here in the next Slide part of our street maintenance plan to be able to fund everything at that 2% and then being proposed at a 3.5% was to keep our Levy our debt Levy um at that 4 $1.4 million any excess of it would then be moved into the levy and then moved into Street Maintenance and I'll show you that coming up right here um but these are um the the debt payments that are General obligation that come from the general fund um obviously the city has other debt but those are paid through revenue bonds and they're coming from our Enterprise funds but this is only we're focusing on the general uh general fund uh and this is the street infrastructure plan as you can see it has the expenses um and the plan was to keep you know um when it was originally set up as you can see the funding part to it to keep that debt the same at that 1.4 obviously debt is going to go up and down the differences of that um are captured Within that maintenance it either goes you either increase it for the Street Maintenance or you decrease it once it goes above that $1.4 million um there's on the expense side so you'll see the actual debt based upon the plan that Morgan had um shared with us last city council there's a reduction in utility transfers um and again um it it's based it's calculated based upon 20% of the cost um for the those um three utilities um that are impacted on A Street Maintenance project then it has the Street Maintenance um component to it which is you know one of the items is what what Morgan brought up today uh you know seal coating striping and so forth those are just maintenance and then there's the pavement Rehabilitation that began um that was introduced last year that is going to be starting um this upcoming year um this this year right now and so that this is what Morgan had shared with you the exact numbers um and then the funding of all of this and you can see that um to be able to fund this over the 10 years right now at the end of in our financial statement at the end of 2023 we had $1.9 million in the Street Maintenance fund this plan at the end of fiscal year 2034 brings our balance down to just a little over a million dollar um and so it's showing that these are all your funding sources this is what you would need you would need that 3.5% Levy increase to be able to fund um what Morgan had said without ever getting a year that would go negative and you couldn't afford to be able to do the plan um so and in the budget the 3.5 is Incorporated in there again city council has a decision not to do that and we can go back you know to the pavement Rehabilitation plan that again that we had last year which was the option just above the very last one that Morgan had had shown um and so you know we don't need you wouldn't need to make the decision to increase that Levy that additional 1 and a half% um so now to give you a picture um and it hasn't changed a great deal um from year to year um and you can see that on our Revenue by category we we have a huge Reliance on property taxes 58% and 20% on intergovernmental so 78% of our Revenue comes from those two sources um uh kind of a scary heavy Reliance um and and that's kind of a a dilemma that the city is in um expenditures by category again um if we look at it by category component to IT personnel again is the huge driving component to it it's 65% um of our budget um and then contractual Services is 27% that's our real um big driving Factor again it's pretty much the same year after year um and then if we just were to look at those in a graph form by Department um we're seeing that police is 44% um fire is approximately 15 so you combine those two and we're looking at about 59 60% of our budget is in public safety um that isn't out of the norm of what you see in other um you know governments um but um those are those are your big drivers um that are in your budget the um these are all the numbers that back up the graphs um and and again in attached to your um packet today is all of the line items in the general fund and and when department heads speak we'll take a look at each and every one of those those budgets um you can ask any question on any line item or or anything that uh you so desire on those components to it for the uh HRA and the Eda um you know right now it's built with a a a proposal to um Levy $50,000 to the HRA currently for this year it's 11,000 the year before we dropped it down to zero um to be able to um offset um the increase um on the city Side to bring on four FTE um to get our compliment back up um the suggestion here is that we start moving back up in the other direction again um that's totally up to city council if you don't have the desire to do that uh we still have fund balance um and and right now the program for for the HRA is is really more focused on that student um built house um but it it's not making as much as it was at one point in time there is a change if you remember um in the past legislation where uh there was an increase of a quarter perc um in the sales tax that went to affordable housing um we have been the recipient um of our first half of um housing or U money for affordable housing in the $242,000 so on an annual basis it'll be $84,000 there are a lot of restrictions to that and there's a certain what it can be used for and what it can't be used for and we'll we'll end up having to have a specific Workshop just on that and start to develop a program to be utilizing that in addition being in 2025 we'll end up having to do specific reporting on our usage of of that fund um so depending on how the H plays out there may not be that huge need at this point in time to increase this that $39,000 and so there could be a very viable savings um in the overall Levy uh for the Eda um um they're totally content in in keeping it and and leaving it remaining the same um Levy that they that they were at it's we Levy uh $200,000 um and so there's no increase it would be the same as it was in 2024 and it's been the same for it has been for for a few years now um so they were very comfortable there is a change that we made with the Eda um um budget part to it and and I totally agree with uh their request and so uh city manager frandle and myself um met with the Ed we talked to them um and they were looking at the community development director's position was um um underneath a prior city manager to get that position approved um they had funded um 50% of the position out of uh The Economic Development Authority um that's way too high um so I I believe we've cut it um this year into 25 down to 25% which then means there's a part that impacts the general fund um but I think it's much more reasonable um and um being at that than where it was at before uh kind of give you a high level of the of the budget calendar and then I'm going to go into a little bit more of a detail on to it and um you know by our you know our our last meeting that we have in September um city council needs to certify our maximum Levy um what that means is that we can't go up any higher than that but we certainly through deliberation you know in the months to come we can go down um we can reduce that Levy you know through a final um and then um there's a required a public hearing for truth and Taxation that we will have in our first meeting in December and in our second meeting in December um city um Council will approve um all the budgets uh the capital Improvement plan um and so forth so um because everything needs to be submitted to Ramsey County by the end of the year um got a lot of detail you don't have this in your PowerPoint I've added thanks in the in the PowerPoint I can't stop thanking so we've broken down um to each one of the Departments who's going to present when we're going to present and at the end of the day to get through through September um we're suggesting and and I think um Jenny's already sent uh sent out an email to look for some dates for um a special here um in later part of August and then um I think that based on the calendar should be good enough to get us through um uh the September we'll have seen every one of the Departments we'll even give um an opportunity on the September 3rd meeting um to finish up any budgets in the general fund or Levy fund components to it um and give the city council an opportunity to give us their final Direction um on that maximum Levy which then will make those changes and bring it back for the final vote on September 17th um and then we would need another special uh sometime in November because we'll miss the um fifth due to the election so we'll need um somewhere else in in November probably that following week would be ideal um and then again we'll give an opportunity for city council um to give discussion and Direction on all of the other budgets and the levies um as we get prepared for truth and Taxation and then wrap up the final um in the last meeting in December December 17th for the final approval kind of want to just plant some food for thought um and that is we're sitting at a 9.88% levy um last year we saw we we came up with that 0.55% Levy increase for the parks um there's a number of studies that that um were supposed to be on this way but we've had some changing in in staff that probably won't occur till next year or at least the final um uh reports um but I think it's clearly going to be an indication that we don't have enough funds um to be able to to take care of those things for the park so this is just an item again I'm just throwing I ideas out there um and again final decision is yours but if we were to do a a 1% Levy increase for the parks and a 1% Levy increase for the buildings again until we get those fin reports I'm not comfortable in putting anything into a financial plan and sharing that with you um and again we're getting closer at least for the facility assessment component um to that but this would just be kind of a placeholder now we're going in the wrong direction I know I I heard all say that no you just went up to 11.88 well let's reduce it a little bit um and so I I have an idea of reducing it or Levy 3.4% and that would be um that we would take 50 we would transfer 50% of the investment income and 100% of the penalty charges from the electric fund to the general fund um penalties as you recall were uh sunsetted During the covid period they were brought back at the beginning of last year um I think we in the 2023 the calculations based off of 2023 I think in 2023 um we had I think about $340,000 worth of Revenue and our penalties um we're on track to do the same this year um and then our investment income um we're on track again to to do pretty much the same as we did um last year so it's a pretty safe bet to transfer the 249 um um those items um are not um incorporated into um our rate um calculations um even going back as far as when ERS and Associates did a a rate study um and so um in certain ways um they are attributed to the electric fund but in certain ways it it's an opportunity uh for the city to to utilize that to transfer part of the reason why I'm suggesting this methodology is because if you remember earlier there's about this almost the same amount that was a reduction overall in our debt um and so this will not have an overall impact and so the next year all of a sudden we got to raise it 3.4% to cover this um um and so they kind of offset one another um but it gives us an opportunity to reduce where we're at with the levy for [Music] 2025 and then um and I know that you have not reviewed the CIP but there's two items in the CIP that get funded from the general fund one has been something that's been historic and that is the um uh Emerald ashore program um part of the forestry U urban forestry um budget um we're not going to discontinue that um we're going to continue to to do that I think it's funded at about $889,000 there is another item and the other item is um that there's an update of the down Town design man manual it's estimated at $660,000 um to me um that's a legitimate um it's legitimate to to be paid out of the Economic Development Authority of course we need to talk to that um that uh uh Council um to make sure that they're comfortable with that but that is really a part of what the Economic Development Authority um deals with um in looking at um you know a downtown design man ual um part to it um and then um what have already mentioned a couple of times before is that we can reduce that HRA Levy um that 39,000 which would drop it down so if if city council were to entertain and accept those four changes it would drop that 9.88 to 7.12 um% Levy increase and then I was done um um and so um I will certainly take any questions on the budget um and then um we're going to have uh our fire chief Jason minger take us through uh his budget for the fire and code enforcement and if time permits I'll take uh the city council Administration elections and the finance department's budget any questions first of all can you explain how the penalties work for residents so if if a resident is laid on their bill there 's many there's water there's electric there's so does only a portion go to the electric penalty does the entire penalty go to the electric how is that penalty assessed um it's assessed to all of the Enterprise so it it yes it's hitting Water waste water Solid Waste everything I just chose the electric for this a good question we definitely could take a look at the other ones the reason why I didn't do that is because with our street projects it hits three of our ENT price funds that I can tell you are are are going to be hurting um and and if you remember earlier in the year we've got high rates um so to me it's like I don't want to increase any of our utility rates um I can't avoid it in the the surface water because the surface water we have such a it's it's a small small Revenue source so so if you pay a $40 penalty it's amortised by the other bill so distri 5% of that penalty electric yeah it's distributed based upon what's delinquent you know part thank you question if if we didn't that $249,000 if we didn't do that what would happen with that money if we didn't bring it into the general fund would it go towards any kind of relief for electric or would it what would it be if it wasn't brought this way if it if if we didn't transf corre that transfer part what would that look like on the electric side is that go to towards rates does that how does that work again even going back to ERT and Associates study on the rate it never included um you know investment income it never included penalties um part of the reason is because you may not get any um and that's part of the reason why I did the calculation based upon 2023 actuals and then looking at where where we are today um city council can make the decision and say yeah let's leave it in that fund um the fund has a very high fund balance yep um you certainly could look at um reducing rates if you would you know so desire um but you would need to if you're going to reduce a rate you need to make sure you're going to reduce a rate that can be stable even in the times where energy costs are going up so we're not going to be caught into all a sudden doing a double increase somewhere else down the road um and um you know I I I know there was resistance last year um when City Council made the decision to transfer the $1.1 million to help start the street maintenance program on the preventative maintenance component to it um but um you can look around at other cities our size um even smaller um you know they'll have a a liquor store um that liquor store is transferring money into their general fund like you can't believe y um and that's part of how they hold their their um you know their tax rates um lower and and try to ease that impact on the on their residents um it's just that we don't have that other component that we're doing and that's where um council member nby has brought up on a number of occasions and and I believe the referent uh the moratorium ends in 2025 for sales tax that's an option that we can look at I think it brought up one time before um you know maybe it's maybe we need to push pressure on on uh our current our legislators that are around here and ask them is there a way that they can change the state statute for operation of a liquor store um right now the statute reads that you have to have a population of 10,000 or less if you got in and open up a liquor store even if you're 50,000 you still get to run one um but it's an option if we were to raise that based upon the 2022 populations if we were to raise that from 10,000 to 15,000 it would impact 28 cities um maybe that's an that's an option um I think I think we've we would have an excellent case for that in light of that um legislation pass the Cannabis um where it opened up that uh any municipality regardless of their size could run a a you know a cannabis store U and then there that's an option too at the end of the day we do need to come up with some other Revenue sources outside of yeah property taxes and intergovernmental and um just thanks for saying both I just wanted to be clear because it does make sense but you know where it's coming from and it wouldn't go directly back to the because of the how it es and flows yes I just wanted to be clear on that thank you so any other questions yes I see one sorry in terms of um you know Revenue sources do you H do you yourself have any ideas of what would be helpful for us to consider at this time honestly I don't have the connections but to me I would push it for a liquor store um I honestly would um and um you know I I and then I would second would be I would look at sales tax um and and I think a sales tax I think um I had can't remember what year the um um um uh total sales were cu the Department of Revenue publishes the thing I think it had half a percent I think it amounted to remember I shared that with you I think it was can't remember if it was like 410,000 maybe 500 400,000 or something like that just under 500,000 500,000 yeah another questions if none then we'll move on to our R fire chief no questions here okay thank you welcome Jason thank you for coming hi mayor let me this he's got a better looking PowerPoint than I do I'm kind of jealous hi mayor hi Council um let me get this there we go perfect we'll get started so um I promise to keep it under three hours it's a joke sorry all right um I just wanted to get started and do a a quick review of the fire department and uh I know over the past few years we've spent uh some time uh getting us back to where we needed to be and adding uh and for this year beginning of this year our uh full-time firefighter Cod compliance officer so just a quick review of our full-time staff where we at this is um our our daytime Monday through Friday team um our captain fire inspectors dealing with rental licensing fire certificate of compliance for our commercial fire inspect inspections uh this year they started doing uh fire sprinkler and fire alarm uh system plan review so they are um taking that uh submitt and approving them and then doing the inspections so for instance the article 7 um building the sprinkler system and alarm system um we're obviously working very closely with uh our building official on that project as they do on many projects they are uh usually uh a couple times a week uh communicating with each other on various projects but doing the inspections out there and then obviously the revenue from those uh Plan reviews are coming directly to us as as well and obviously fire and EMS response uh with the addition of the firefighter code compliance officer uh conducting cold compli Cod compliance um and fire and EMS response and I just want to say again I know over the past couple years um we've been able to grow and get to this and this year um has been really exciting I've seen a lot of work done uh by this small team um we definitely always have work to do there's never really a breathing room for us still but uh they have their pulse on uh projects property owners and um if there's ever a problem that comes up whether it's from a residence or internally um our team and people are able to get a hold of the property owners and deal with those issues immediately so I'm really proud of what they're doing so I'm going to move on from that um I wanted to focus tonight more on our parttime our paidon call staff and uh what that is about I don't think we I've spent enough time in the past uh reviewing that uh currently we have 32 members uh we can have up to 40 members on the department uh we're doing our our our hiring push right now on social media and other ways and uh next Tuesday night we'll be working and Night Out in our open house as well but these are our our our pay R pay rates for our uh paid on call staff members and uh they start out uh as a probationary and as they move and get through their training and other um requirements they can move up uh into an officer uh or an assistant chief type position I'm going to go through how I estimate our part-time paid on call salary component and it's it's really an estimate that I'm truly trying to put together because as paidon call staff we're we're trying to determine how many people are going to respond when the pagro goes off and that's uh can be a difficult thing um so taking out away the full-time coverage that we have Monday through Friday 8: to 4:30 pm um the evening coverage here that I have is for our fire and EMS standby so I have two responders on duty on the we on the evenings and and weekends so this is showing um those hours and what it looks like yearly uh one of those POs positions is a duty officer and another position is uh an a first responder usually a a firefighter and that duty officer um is dual as in responding as a first responder but then also making decisions uh at that officer level so it could be a lieutenant it could be a l uh Captain it could be uh an assistant chief or sometimes it's even myself again just going through the weekend coverage so I know we have um what we have here is uh one day that's a 24-hour coverage and then another day that's 16 hours and I'll I'll I'll show you why in in a minute here but uh our our EMS Duty shift rate from home again I I should have backed up and said when our two people go on duty uh they come in they run through a checklist of a response vehicle one of the squads and basically check it out make sure their equipment's good and ready to go for that shift and then basically they go home and wait for the call to come in um and while they're there that's what they're getting paid that's $762 an hour so the other portion that I talked about the8 hours on the weekend that was missing um one time on the weekend we do what's called an initial Duty coverage or initial Duty shift at the station and maximum of three personnel on this crew and typically what they are doing uh they're doing many different things I assign them training to conduct um throughout uh their their daytime to get completed uh they're responding to calls obviously they're assisting with any community events that may be happening on the on that weekend if there are any um and that's why I have the flexibility of of changing it to Saturday or Sunday uh but again uh maximum of three personnel and what they can do um and we're seeing this more and more within the fire service so while they're on duty shift as well if if let's say it's an EMS call they're obviously responding directly to that call and handling it but also if there were a motor vehicle accident instead of uh toning out the entire department at that time these three personnel can handle the call so I'm not toning out additional staff unless needed now if a structure fire comes in our tones are set up differently that potentially these three um and we've had this happen before uh where we have qualified um I'm sorry where we have a qualified Personnel on the truck where it's an engineer it's an officer and a firefighter even on a confirmed structure fire they're rolling out of the station immediately and we're back filling with our paidon call additional paidon call staff that are arriving to the station and and uh getting on the next truck and going out uh another component that I just talked about and this is Again part of the difficult thing is our fire call what we call our station all calls so when we get toned out for those structure fires or um there's larger type of calls where um it's not a EMS call it's not something that the initial dut shift uh can handle It's a larger incident that requires more bodies uh so at this point I'm averaging I'm saying we're averaging about 325 of those uh annually and we're seeing about 12 firefighters on an average response and at again the average rate of 1850 to give us that number as well on our Ms calls even though um our calls are about uh, 1425 a year I reduce the calls covered by full-time staff Monday through Friday those are the majority uh of our calls as I've reviewed our statistics are the daytime basically from 8:00 a to 5: p.m the majority of the calls that do come in for us uh so removing that from the part-time salary estimate uh thus reducing it uh basically down to 625 calls and then again two firefighters that are responding at an average rate of 18850 to give us that number uh training component training is a huge thing of what we do we are constantly working in training uh to keep our skills up and to become better obviously um we do a lot of of training uh EMS with regions um who provides our medical Direction and Lake View ambulance uh to basically hone in our teamwork and our skills together um average hours uh per year of 105 um average even though it's at 25 um minimum I should say the minimum requirement that a firefighter needs to meet a year is 72 hours uh but we provide additional training just because um all of our people are part-time staff they're not always going to be able to make every training that we had so if we only kept it at 72 hours we're going to be missing things so uh we don't have the luxury of having our people here full-time where they're doing training on shift um but it works out so these are the all the items uh together which gives me my uh total estimate of $260,000 uh dollar um this is where I then go to Dan and say hey Dan uh this is where we're at and this is my guess and you can see within our uh 2025 proposed part-time employee budget for is at $270,000 um and again it's an estimate we've been doing pretty good in the past where we haven't uh shorted ourself on things but as you'll see uh calls are increasing but I do like to note that um we're operating obviously as a part-time paidon call department and uh doing things very cost effectively with our response model uh we are one of three departments in the metro area that are uh part-time paid on call uh most other surrounding departments have either gone to uh part-time Staffing that's 247 or full-time Staffing that's 247 I'm not suggesting we need to do that I'm just merely uh pointing out our response model and that uh we are doing good we really are and uh we have a great group of uh people that are are committed and are are are doing a lot of good work call volume so over the last 5 years you can see um in 2019 1355 2020 1478 and just creeping up each year um whereas 2023 was our highest call volume again at 1694 calls total as of yesterday uh we were at 1,7 calls as compared to 950 from a year ago um so we're already 57 over um noting that we hit a th000 calls this past weekend which is the earliest that we've um ever done that so um I've often wondered myself when things are going to Plateau but they are not uh they are ever um holding steady and slowly increasing as well uh average response time so I'm going to get into what our team is doing and what you're seeing for uh what you're paying them so in 2023 our EMS call uh response for our duty officer and our EMS First Responders so our average response time uh again this is from the time of dispatch to arrival on scene uh 4 minutes and 24 seconds for our duty officer or EMS first responder uh as it relates to building fires or structure type fires our chief officers um five minutes and 12 seconds um I put it asterisk in there because that does include Auto Aid where we have responded to either surrounding communities around us when they have requested it for us so um not that's not just uh North St Paul I wasn't um able to pull that out without spending a little bit more time but I still think that's a a great number and then the first engine out uh to arrival 7 minutes and and 50 seconds and uh I think when I was talking to Brian and Dan in our meeting noting that uh the National Standard um is 8 minutes for fulltime departments and 10 minutes for part-time payon call departments so our team is doing a great job uh Lake View we respond uh you know first respond for them as our medic uh provider um and these are um some of their numbers that um they have shared with me as well again this is dispatched to arriv on scene and uh it should be noted too that obviously we have different response locations for Lake View because they're not just here in the station even though we have a base for them um besides the the truck that is based in North call it is also going out um of our station and responding to different communities as well it's going in the Maplewood it's going in the Shor View and Madness Heights and Lake Elmo and then they backfill a truck so typically they have five trucks in rotation two of them are in Hudson two of them are in Stillwater one of them's in North St Paul and depending on where the calls are is how they move them around to have their better response time so you can see from the North St Paul base um 4 minutes and 10 seconds uh Highway 36 in Lake Elmo there's a church parking lot there where they hang out um and the response time there is 7 minutes and 15 seconds Stillwater base which is basically the old Denny Hecker building that's where they're based out of now um 9 minutes and 20 seconds uh another location for them Highway 36 and Highway 95 um and then other and those could just be in between bases um or returning from a hospital uh wherever they could be on the road um and that average of 10 minutes and 28 seconds so uh their total responses and their uh times there we've also uh because lake views been unable to respond because they've been out of trucks um which isn't a whole lot of times um we've had um Maplewood fire uh respond as well and you can see that average of 7 Minutes uh and 5 Seconds to respond um even though some of these numbers from further away are you know 10 minutes out that's a long time we what the EMS uh world is in the metro area and outstate kind of dealing with right now these are excellent numbers there are departments and areas even in the metro area that are seeing 20 minute change uh or 20 minutes response times from an ambulance service um some departments have taken it on themselves to have paramedics on staff just to deal with some of these issues that they're having so even though uh some of the longer times uh are there uh we still have a great um product with with Lake View what do you get with our duty officer and EMS first responder um again just highlighting some of the things that they do um both respond to every call during their shift fire and EMS the duty officer always goes to the scene and is in charge and makes decisions that first responder may be coming to the station to get on the truck um as it relates to lift assists with no injuries uh it's predominantly done across the board throughout the fire all fire departments that there's no uh EMS response if you will no medic response because if we send that or if they send that ambulance it's basically taking them out of service for an actual emergency so what happens our our staff respond um and they determine if it is just somebody that needs a lift up off the floor and if it's real minor and if they or if they need uh Lake View to respond and they'll evaluate the patient if something further is needed they'll ask uh Lake View to respond uh obviously they're conducting patient care obtaining Chief complaints vitals medications medical history allergies uh we work directly with Lake to help set up IV blood glucose monitoring Etc um 12 lead EKG uh carrying patients out um that's a big thing a lot of times um with just having a couple extra on hands hands on scene means we don't have to tone out the rest of the department uh to handle those types of calls uh we assist with BLS in the ambulance on severe calls and route to the hospital that means uh they could be in the in the back as assisting the Medics and they can be uh driving the ambulance as well to the hospital I guess uh we handle the calls with lak View and we try to limit the need for station all calls and and handle it with the First Responders uh they determine when multiple EMS calls or fire calls come in because it is quite common for us to get one call and two call and three call within an hour period of time and we're sending excuse me we're sending people um one responder at a time and then a backup ambulance coming from a different location so again they're handling multiple calls within a short period of time additionally making sure most importantly we have somebody first responding that's getting on scene but then also limiting the fact of toning out the entire department to um respond at a later time uh to the incident um we start BLS Care on cardiac arrest and respiratory arrests prior to the arrival of the rescue 540 crew that would be arriving on scene and uh the duty officer uh becomes incident command on station alol uh the duty officer was something that we implemented a few years ago and when we first started it our uh lieutenants and captains um even though they have gone through the incident command training um you need that field training if you will to hone in your skills and it's really been a good thing for me to see how our staff have grown over the last year because of this and what they're doing so um I'm really happy for that um so those types of alcohols are structure fires motor vehicle accidents uh hazmats fire alarms the MCI the shooting type incidents and other violent incidents and Etc uh last is just our our type uh our our incident types if you will and this is coming out of the uh State Fire Marshalls um program that we use for free that uh categorizes our types of calls so uh category one are our fire type calls um as you can see building fires 22 even though that's going to include Auto a to our um neighboring communities and it could be something um a fire that's minor to something that's a fire that's a a major structure fire as well uh explosions it's a category we only had one in 2023 uh again EMS the majority of what we do as you can see EMS calls excluding accident with injury but then also adding in their motor vehicle accident with injuries at 27 um motor vehicle accidents with no injuries at 8 uh totaling up that uh EMS category uh hazardous conditions typically a lot of these hazardous conditions are going to be chemical leaks or spills or hazards that um may not or have not caused any type of of fire but nonetheless are a hazardous condition our power line Downs arcing and shorting um could be uh the building structure collapsed or weakened um and a general cleanup of vehicle accidents uh service type calls key box smoke orer removal the majority of those are public service assist so whether it's uh someone's called 911 and um for instance today uh we had a public service assist at a local uh apartment building where a resident dropped her phone down the Elevator Shaft and the apartment complex called us out there because it was going to cost them $550 just to get a contractor out to open up the the shaft and go in there so um we're trained uh to do that our staff was able to work with uh the management team over there open it up um shut things down get in there get her phone out from the bottom of the location of where things were at uh so everybody was happy um uh especially the the property owner and the resident that that got her phone back I don't know how she dropped it down that little opening but nonetheless it happened but that could be an example of a public service assist uh good intent type call so a lot of times people um call and then we either get dispatched and cancelled in route um some some of those uh would be related to EMS calls as well um could be a smoke scare or an odor of smoke and not really once once we get there not finding anything as far as a fire uh false alarm false calls uh obviously having uh buildings and homes that have detectors uh to let us know of issues um a lot of times we can get uh false alarms and uh we respond to deal with those issues as well um uh flood assessment one natural disaster and one more special incident t a citizen complaint that's our part-time payon call our response um I have any questions where would um delivering a baby be in there yeah it unfortunately it falls right in the EMS portion and and uh you probably heard of of that happening a few months ago that was a amazing uh event for our our firefighters that got there and uh delivered a baby very proud moment um again we train for this stuff all the time um but sometimes those things don't happen I think they were really surprised when they walked in the room and it was happening it's go time J Jason thank you so much for all you do I I can't can't thank you enough um so appreciate you and your staff everything you do um my question is a little bit technical so bear with me and maybe this is a Dan and Brian um I got concerned on like page two and three with the 762 rate because that fell below minimum wage um can you explain that in our our is that legal yeah so I'll I'll give you my answer and then the I'll let Dan talk about it as well because I'm sure he has a wealth a a lot more knowledge than I do so this is a standby rate at home so what happens is um this is what we get them to commit to standing by at home and not a lot of actually we're one of very few departments that have this response model and it's a lot of departments um you know go to the next step of of Staffing in station but to be honest when I have talked about this with our staff they like the opportunity of being able to be at home and then respond in the vehicle but what this is it's it's more or less a standby rate there are nights where we have multiple calls and if there is a call they're getting paid their hourly rate on top of the standby rate so if they're a firefighter they're getting that firefighter rate of 17 I'm sorry whatever that was on top of the uh standby rate as well if there are no calls they're just getting the standby rate for that entire shift he's very good isn't he technically they're not working working um which allows you to to be below the the minimum wage so it's an it's it's it's an on call rate like a pum than a wage yes okay I just wanted to make sure I mean I appreciate it just wanted yeah it struck me as noteworthy I'll go um question around uh fire assists on EMT calls is that standard practice amongst community commities is that something that we're we hang our hat on and we're proud of in North St Paul I uh most departments again um our EMS calls range from 70 to 80% as most fire departments as well um we're seeing more and more um departments around us that do first respond to Medical primarily uh because of the issue of lack of enough EMS or ambulance out there to be able to respond or just in the scenario um like I had mentioned earlier a lot of times two people um are not enough to carry a patient out of the house sometimes they just need two more hands so what we're seeing um with surrounding communities around us that have a let's say an engine company that's also staffed they're sending an engine company along with an ambulance to First respond and additionally when um their ambulances are all busy uh transporting and Lake View or other ambulances are going into the community to help them they're sending that engine company as well to First respond um we definitely I for me you're right I hang my hat on our response times of our First Responders um that they're able to get there quickly and when they when we arrive on scene to have um that person kind of look at you and and tell the person on the phone um hey they're here and you can see the relief in their eyes just knowing that somebody is there and we're about to take over but response times for me are number one that's the biggest item uh that I want to see uh from our staff along with obviously skilled uh and trained workers and again part of the only reason I ask is it's that time of year we look to rub every nickel together and um I did see in the PowerPoint there was a number of up there of part part-time of what $31,000 I think of Staffing these EMS calls that happened during non- business hours uh and then was it 800 calls I think that was up in that presentation of um what was called on during business hours so again I look at how much of that is necessary versus nice to have yeah and yeah you're going to throw any life that saved is you know and and I recognize that so I'm not I'm not discounting that at all um and same with during the I call business hours um what does that do to the workload of the four full-time employees when they go out on calls does that put a strain on getting their day-to-day stuff done yeah so during the daytime um with the four of us in here uh typically I have one staff that's assigned to respond responding to EMS calls and the thing about us during the daytime is we can monitor um I don't know if you'd be able to see it but see if I can nope I can't anyway our Cad and I'm able to monitor the calls that are coming in so we know right away the type of call it is so they're based alpha bravo as a minor call or charlie delta as a more um serious type call or an echo if it's extremely serious so a lot of times what we'll do um especially if when we're all in the office working if an EMS call comes in um I'm usually the first one that's like hey we got an EMS call coming in it's this and uh only one of you you know need to go so we definitely focus on making sure that we're not having two or three respond to a medical when it's not needed or necessary but always having uh one that goes um if there is a need then then we do that we'll send us the second person and obviously um when they're more serious whether um whatever they are then we're all going along with the rest but that's how we monitor it dur the daytime to make sure it's fair and then also um if one of our uh staff members has something going on we make sure that somebody is is going that may have an opportunity to break away from what they're doing a lot of times as well when they're out in the field whether it's doing the Code Compliance and out in the neighborhood a lot of times these calls will pop up as well so they're out out in the area um I believe that was one of the questions MH yeah yeah uh and and thank you again because as you talked about I think calls year to date are up about five or 6% for the 57 against last year's number yeah um and and just kind of taking taking a look at that I'm assuming a lot of those are the EMS calls um so as we look at continued increase I see the in you know I see an an increasing Demand on fire department going to EMS calls yes so that was why I was yeah curious is to the cost and the the business hour job time and Etc yeah good question yes you also when you said tone out so it sounds like you just do a certain percent so is that something that you've been doing over the years or was it mostly an all call before and you're kind of tweaking that to make sure we get the right number of people for the right situation yes so again this goes back to 2007 prior to that time what we would do for our medical calls that were uh more serious we would tone out the entire department and then when the highway project was split we started to do a a first responder program on the North side and south side of town to cover calls and we saw good results with it and that's kind of why we've stuck with it since then um along with that so obviously when we have people um that have a vehicle that can go directly to the scene they're not having to drive their vehicle to the station get here wait for additional staff to get here get their equipment on and staff a truck and then roll out to the scene uh which takes a little bit longer so that was the um Inception of the first responder program at the time how it began and and again the reason why we continue it is twofold response times but then also trying to be able to handle those calls and not tone out the entire department and having whether it's a dozen people or 15 people or 20 people come here and pay them all instead of utilizing two people to handle that call makes sense and I'm assuming when you dispatch like you you take off and the other ones and it's you evaluate and say oh don't call everybody we got this or you know send everybody that type of thing so you're like the bird dog to get out there and do that decision to get there as quick as possible yeah so the our dispatchers from ramsy County obviously dispatch us and a lot of times we can be given information on what that call is but it can change once you're on scene it can be different um it could be because the information wasn't accurate or a distraught person calling 911 But ultimately again having the duty officer on um to again look and see where our ambulances coming from and and who it is to make that determination and make those decisions on scene if any additional help is needed or not thank you anything else thank you and if you ever have uh C uh questions later on you know how to reach me thank you I appreciate your time and it's I appreciate the the questions here because you know that's something with us too and it's going to be every every Department we have just to get a better understanding just like with Tim just asking those questions we walk us through that so it's we have to learn on our side we want to make sure budget wise that we're gathering information sometimes we challenge yeah and that's good for all of us I I agree not at all there's no bad questions and I'm I'm here to answer them so appreciate it thank you very much thank Chief you're welcome all right all right we we let him off the hook so I'm going to take uh four budgets uh City Council um Administration elections and uh Finance uh these four departments make up 11% of the general fund four make up 11% pretty good uh city council um can I have let's just take five for a minute with you before we jump into this can we do a five minute break oh for sure going two hours y for sure we got two more hours to go have I'll have you I'll have you done in 15 take a couple then yep five minutes please thank you thanks all right my din e e e e e e e e do it the thumbs up 15 minutes go 15 minutes I appreciate the 5 minute break thank you 15 minutes uh city council city council budgets pretty much the the same as it has in the past Personnel costs didn't change much um Personnel costs um have to for them to change they don't go off of a cost of living there actually has to be an ordinance and has to be passed and then it goes into the subsequent year um which has not been done uh supplies stay the same uh contractual Services actually decre increased approximately $5,800 or 7% so overall the City Council budget um saw a reduction of uh $6,000 or a 5% reduction from 2024 all right um the administration budget little bit different story in the administration budget um Personnel costs um went up about 16% the part of it is there's the cost of living but the big bigger part to it is is that we we changed um from a part-time employee to a full-time employee um this year in the communications um person so that attributed to um a bigger increase um in this department um if you look at supplies supplies virtually stayed the same um and then there was a 3% increase in contractual Services um of $7,500 so um this this budget seeing approximately a $50,000 increase or a 9% and again the bigger driving factor of that 80% of it is salaries um that's increasing what is an electronic documentation Tech um um that is uh we have an employee who does a lot of scanning um for documents putting putting them into laser fees yeah so we have a part-time employee who does that yeah you does an excellent job and then elections elections you know basically we we're just paying for uh Ramsey County Services um and actually um last year we built a budget based um Jenny and I built a budget based upon um what information that we got from Ramsey County uh we never came we're not coming close to that so we were reducing it uh $5,000 um you know it should be more in line um to where they're at that's the only thing that's in there so we're changing it from 45,000 in 2024 to 40,000 in uh 2025 there's three of them done I think I got this 15 minutes down pth today nice uh and then the the the last of the four that we're going to go um over tonight um is the finance department and the finance department is the the leader in um this whole organization by a 19% reduction or uh $86,000 reduction that's right Finance leads the way uh the the biggest uh uh change here um is that uh reducing uh the accountants position and I know some of you are probably saying do we really want to do that and that and um so um this will take me the next hour and a half oh no um uh definitely uh went with in with the intention of hiring the accountant as my replacement you've heard me say it on numerous OA occasions um uh for one reason or the other um uh the individual left went back to where they had come from um which is is perfectly good they uh obviously amazing talent of an individual um but uh her uh and I had a number of conversations kind of on her exit um and there were some comments that she had said that I actually um agree with um and that is for this size of a city I don't think you need two power horses um U myself and her um and to me um my conversation with Brian was uh bottom line is that um uh the day that I decide to uh leave um you know I'm more than happy to what I call doing two in a box for a couple of months with somebody else and train them in um the salary that that uh you have for the Finance director you're going to be able to find somebody with equal to if not better Talent than myself so I don't think I'm putting the city in a hurt um but part of the comments that we had talked about um between the accountant and myself was that and I did I I you know and maybe part of it is me by Nature um I think we have council member Norby who will probably attest this uh council member Norby had sent me a a a text on uh an email on Saturday morning with a number of questions which that's why I revised kind of the PowerPoint to give a little bit more information um I responded within an hour and and he thanked me for the quick response but said you know there's a work life balance well I do have a good work life balance I just happen to be built a little bit differently that I'm just wired part of it is is that I get excited uh about the stuff and that there was interest with some questions so of course I'm going to respond as quickly as possible because that I I was very interested and that's why I modified the documentation so the the bottom line to it is is I certainly believe that we can can uh function very well as a finance department without an accountant at this point in time um and and um you know things can change in in the future um but I think definitely for 2025 I don't think we have any concerns and then part of it is um you know why I'm built this way I have no idea but I take ultimate responsibility for everything that the finance department does in the direction ultimately even though it's your final decision of of where the city's going with the levy and so this is part of my contribution because I know the reality of it I started off um this budget season showing you that you're the second highest tax rate in the in Ramsey County and you've got very high utility rates um we've got infrastructural needs I I I personally feel like I have to do some sort of contribution and I like to work um and I love this place I love this organization and I love all the people here so I don't really think it's going to be an issue um and it's kind of um that's kind of my story um with that um and so it does help our our Levy um somewhat and um um I and I think I've shared with a couple of council members um some of the things that I I cannot have myself do that I need to have that you know that uh separation of Duties um um had a conversation with Brian I I had felt that I had an individual who had some some very interesting talents um and that we're being under utilized but um and Brian AG greed and we we increased the person the step and they've taken on some additional responsibilities like the bank reconciliation um some of the journal entry approvals after I I I make them and so forth and they've done an excellent job uh so one of the line items that you see here um is training um and it's increasing by $5,000 and that's because um that individual is going to uh has an undergraduate and is um planning on going back is um she would like to be an accountant somewhere down the road and so my final Swang song if everything works out all right is that I would like to to um it's my give back to to government to how they've done things for me and I would like to see her under before I leave actually become an accountant um so it's kind of exciting that's it I got nothing and I beat the 15 minutes questions Dan thanks for because yeah that was one of my questions is do we really want to having not been on Council watching do a reduction force and being on Council where we start to add the bodies back it's sometimes easier just to carry that through so thank you for your explanation because that was one of my questions was once once you give it up it's really hard to get back yeah and and I and I think just uh you know myself and have two other employees that are that are reaching a an age that uh gets closer and closer to retirement um and I think that we've got some very good staff underneath that are developing that are going to take over and I think at that point in time that you can restructure some things too and still take care of uh you know the internal controls and everything else so yeah I think we're in a good position well I appreciate your thoughtful thinking on that you put a lot of effort for you know trying to figure that out so that's you know plus you're able to do some mentoring and and help somebody else so that's always always nice feeling M so and again thank you very much for answering all my questions um it wasn't necessary on a Saturday morning but but I I do appreciate you taking the time to um answer my questions so I really appreciate it thank you yeah thank you and and so being thoughtful about personnel and um where you can contribute so thank you for that thanks bet I have nothing else that was the last all right thank you again and uh so moved okay we're going to be Journey so move by council member Cole second by me second second by me council member W all those in favor say I I thank you all very much thanks Dan thank you