the meeting order let's do Pledge of Allegiance please stand up pledge allegiance to the to the Republicans thank you Jenny can you please call to order council member cool here council member schweer here council member Wong here council member nordby your mayor mongi here thank you for calling the roll can I get a motion to adopt the agenda please so I moved so move council member Cole second council member schweers all those in favor say aye aye thank you presentations and me I'll be right there if we could bring Barb up first that'd be great foreign so this is for the government finance office Association of the United States and Canada presenting this award Finance reporting achievement to Barb heelsman utility bill coordinator city of North St Paul Minnesota the award of financial reporting achievement is presented to the government financial officer Association to the department for individual designated as instrumentation in the government unit achieving a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting a certificate of achievement is presented to those government units whose annual Financial reports are judged to adhere to program standards and represents the highest award in government financial reporting with this congratulations thank you thank you and Jackie could you come up please afterwards we'll get some pictures if you'd like way to go again this is a government finance office Association of the United States and Canada presenting this award of Finance reporting and achievement to Jackie lutmer Finance coordinator city of North St Paul Minnesota the word of financial reporting achievement is presented to the government Finance Officers Association to the department or individuals designated as instrumental in the government unit achieving a certificate of achievement for excellence and financial reporting a certificate of achievement is presented to those government units whose annual Financial reports are judged to adhere to program standards and represents the highest award in governing financial reporting I'll let you give it to her this time thank you so much for all you do appreciate it thank you Jackie [Applause] one more Dan can you join us please you know I give speech [Laughter] [Music] all right Dan this is for government Finance Officers Association certificate of achievement of excellence in financial reporting presented to city of North St Paul Minnesota for its annual comprehensive Finance report for the fiscal year ended December 31st 2021 it's a pleasure to have you here at the city and the way you have taken control of that department and you have just great employees that back you up so you guys is well deserved There You Go sir thank you I'm accepting this on the behalf of the city he doesn't need a microphone he's working the room she started in July 12th of 2021 the significance of that year to me is huge for this organization and the reason why is because the city had adopted a zero percent tax levy um positions um the chief of police had retired unfortunately the city manager had left we had a great interim city manager Brian Randall to those who may know about I like the then people for things individuals who hired me although I never got to work with that individual was Scott and then we didn't have a permanent Public Works around here and the finance director had left and I'm thinking when I got here I don't know why I took this job but it was kind of interesting that quickly even actually at the first day when I got home that I'm gonna watch my wife asked me so what do you think about the decision that you made and I said wow I made the right decision why because everybody in this organization is amazing um Barb and Jackie are just two of the amazing people they just happened to be my amazing um and everybody's so welcome and everybody here is dedicated professional but what really was a key to it all was was the leadership of this organization it's now this group here that's the city council at that point in time it was the mayor Furlong who really did an amazing job and deserved so much credit and there were four other individuals Andy Peterson Scott Thorson Lisa Wong and Mr Tim Paul who were our council members and who for some odd reason trusted me and we made it through the 2021 market and financial statement but I guess what really hit me at the end was at the end of November what is considered a finance director's right-hand person your accountant left now I've only been here for four months and I'm going to go through year and close on a system I've never done before and I had to prepare for this well guess what I found out I found out I didn't have just a right hand I had a left-hand person the Barb and Jackie are my right and left hand number one and it's almost even two years I wouldn't trade a moment of that time and you were two of the most impressive people and you two deserve the honor and the recognition and my understanding is you haven't gotten a lot of recognition in the past or at this point in time than you will in the future and I know this from an organizational standpoint this is when hyper great organization we have a great leader now in our mayor we have a great leader in our city manager and we have a fabulous city council so future looks bright so at that one moment when I thought why did they take this job who would have thought of it turned out to be nice thank you [Applause] we knew Barb and Jack you were doing all the heavy lifting for years call it out [Laughter] are we going to consent agenda please thank you thank you mayor first up on extension to item a April 18th 2023 Workshop minutes Item B April 18th 23 2023 regular meeting minutes item C General claims 770 000 815 770 815.83 HRA claims of 1941.94 cents Eda claims of 444 thousand dollars Newman Fest 2023 special event permit uh resolution changing the location of the polling place for elections approval on sale and Sunday liquor license for Beckel Bogle DBA Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant that is it well any isn't can I pull item G that's what I'm asking does anybody want to pull anything um let me see G you said yes okay hold d g I'm sorry G isn't done talk G Onna all right what do we do after Ebola [Music] let me just stable it we can towards you in there for discussion go right to the meeting then they'll open uh open to the public next please sorry oh I apologize I'm a little screwed up on that one motion move forward yes council members Weir I can't council member Wong all is in favor say aye aye and Mr Mayor for clarification the item that's been pulled are we moving that to City business action items as item d okay okay all right [Music] good thank you meeting opened the public at do you have due time 6 40. anybody else up here you must have snuck this up when I wasn't around thank you all right [Music] looks like we have uh Pat Ely if you can teach your full name and address I appreciate it please yeah three minutes all right yeah because I've had that parking spot right next to my garage for since 1987. excuse me Pat can we have your first name last name and address the white walk the change it now and there's tons of all of our nursing follower same thing same as mine thank you you even got a parking lots right here in nursing home right you can see from this building right next to Sidewinders that's not black copper gravel either so if somebody does complaining everybody has to put spent down or blacked out is that ordinance right now it is put in was put into Cody but it got to be grabbed we couldn't hurricane grab that's the way it was done thank you um just a little bit of input that I can remember about that is so I think there were several houses that were the front yards were filling up with parking places and they were trying to avoid that and a way to address that was saying that it was designated parking that they wanted hard surface on um I forget how many years ago that was now probably eight ten years ago I'm guessing um but yeah there were people that had issues with it at the time but they did pass that [Music] so this alongside your garage would you say I usually have my van Parker in my car most of the fact that my sister moved out about a couple about six months ago so she's been parked in her van there all sudden now I got to complain about it is your driveway blacktopped it's just the skirt around the outside okay it's just the skirt around the side of the garage that's right that's last five or something I was gonna do it again he said then I still got to pay for it to do it besides yeah I mean they're gonna make if you do it to a fight around everybody I see in North Saint Paul they complain they everybody knows they pause to do the same thing then everybody's got a black cop or graveled or kind of gravel driveway or dirt driveway has to put black dot down even the alleys because I was when I was told in sports because water runoff or some so I don't know what the deal is they tried to talk to the person that wrote me up for that and both taxi that are training if I talked to another person in the same Department that's what he told me more or less okay well we'll uh why didn't that grandfather did it's been there 36 37 years yep we'll look into it and talk to the code enforcement I know that a lot of the driveways anytime at least something's done they have to redo and you know bring them up to code for that too but I didn't know we'll look into more about that and get back to you sure I know a lot of it too was you know there's no difference okay all right we'll look into it all right thank you thank you for coming up Mr Smalls mayor council it's John Schmall it's not plural I'll take the I'll take the ass off sorry I'm not having a great one today anyway my last meeting was a little better uh 2750 Chisholm Avenue a quick note that I had spoken with uh or said something uh one of the times that was here that uh I had an experience of going to the open book with the assessor and I think you said something about and how did that turn out well as of today I have confirmation that after 47 years I no longer have a front porch on my tax uh description so one more year next year I will actually see a change in the valuation of my home because they now realize I don't have a front porch so I recommend if anyone is listening to this uh Stu group that go to the website take a look at what's on there because it's strange anyway thank you last year's construction Ariel and 11th seeing what was done there I said there's a problem and the problem is that North Saint Paul has signs yellow saying Pet act ped Crossing no cross hatch on the roadway Maplewood has no signs but a cross hatch on the roadway that's confusing if you're coming up to that and saying there's a sign there must not be oh gee they're the street so I called Maplewood because they had the contract or to do this North St Paul just said we'll come along with you you run the show so that's what uh Maplewood said to me is that we let North Saint Paul take care of all things in North St Paul so if North St Paul isn't cross hatched it's their problem so they're not interested in it so I let that go called back again I said there's a problem with the signs that say Crossing but no cross hatch but you have a cross hatch and no signs and like they got back to me left the message I still have it if you want to hear it they thanked me for bringing it up unbelievable a city that will thank you for bringing up a problem wonderful last item is the website the the last meeting and this meeting the notifications by email John Schmall disappeared he didn't receive any notifications so I called friends who have a like attitude as I do and said to get a notification sure I said could you forward it to me please and they forward it to me and on your notification you guys don't get these things you don't have to deal with this only the public has to deal with this there is a an item on the bottom that says agenda and it's highlighted so you know that you can click on that and get the agenda the ones that were given to me or were forward to me didn't work the link didn't work didn't open wonderful wonderful movement second item so I decided should I bring it up nope I know but I know that if you complain the first time they're going to say it's in progress work so I let it go I waited for this meeting notification that comes out on Friday nothing John Schmall not notified but the link did work I asked the friends could you forward it to me please and the link did work this time the only thing is is that the first page that came up I just did the workshop it gave the date but not the time and it's very important because it the time for Workshop got changed and then I complained about the last one that came up and said five o'clock but it was supposed to be you know uh four or five thirty but you said you gotta gotta look at that all the time we can change it on you so uh at uh this point I decided to go in and see if I'm still in the system and I went to go to I went to the website and tried to sign on and I forgot my password because I never used it [Music] anyway I did the link to restore the password and it came up and it says hello John Schmall so I'm in there but somebody has decided not to send me notifications thank you okay thank you anybody online okay thank you the best action items so we're going to be adding D on so yep first item up is item a Blue Nile encroachment agreement and we'll have Randy Hower community development director address that thank you Brandi good evening mayor and Council good evening I really wish I could get this thing to work properly on the first chance very calming it truly is okay encroachment agreement for the Blue Nile staff received a building permit back in February for a new build out of a restaurant at 2649 7th Avenue East which is the site that used to be brothers Bistro and before that it was Subway and the applicant at that time was proposing to expand the interior footprint of the restaurant within the building and that triggered a zoning review and upon that zoning review We identified that based on the floor area of the proposed new restaurant they would need 14 parking stalls and unfortunately the site was not a large enough to accommodate that amount of parking so in reviewing their their proposal and the site plan staff came up with the following options for them they could approach a neighboring business and try to enter into a shared parking agreement they started down that path and they had some initial negotiations with the Old National Bank and they didn't actually get to a closure on that but that was potentially a possibility they could have applied for a parking variants and the third option was to apply for an encroachment agreement with the city where they would use a portion of sepula Boulevard so the Apple can then subsequently submitted that request and they submitted the parking plan which is depicted on the screen and six of the proposed parking stalls are proposed to be placed well they're actually already there that parking lot has been paved for many many years um but six of them are within the right of way of sepula Boulevard so staff has reviewed our um the request and we had legal prepare and encroachment agreement and that is enclosed in your packet the agreement includes um Provisions that the owner maintains all the improvements within the amusement area they shall have no negative impact on drainage the city May terminate the agreement at any time and its sole discretion and the agreement runs with the land and shall be recorded against the property if approved so with that staff recommends approval of the enclosed agreement between the city and the property owner North Saint Paul Properties LLC for property located at 2649 7th Avenue East take any questions hearing none I'll sit down thank you thank you foreign the parking spaces does that account for the existing business that's in the other side of the building as well the hair salon yeah um it does not but I believe they are open at different times of the day and this actually kind of brings to light maybe a future Planning Commission issue with Downtown parking for new businesses that are going to be coming um you know on Main Street 7th Avenue if there's going to be businesses that are changing within some of the footprints that occupy the entire site where they don't have any parking change of occupancy could trigger a requirement for for parking and that could be an issue for for future businesses so something that we're going to be looking at in the Planning Commission in the future months just an FYI in the looks of it too there is quite a bit of off street parking right in front of it too as far as the restaurant there is on both sides of the street too it's not like one side or and Don Henry as well all right is there no vote on that yeah anybody wanna so moved your owner if that's what you're asking I'm asking for a role please thank you so move council member one second please a second second councilmember all those in favor say aye hi hi thank you all right next item is resolution to approve ball field rental policy put that back to Brandi please thank you uh Gilbert called our last Workshop there was a fairly lengthy discussion about the ball fields and whether and how we should modify the fee schedule for that and the ultimate decision was to continue to um charge the existing rental fees with the exception of certain non-profit organizations that serve North St Paul youth they would have practice for for no charge and so in developing the um instead of just doing a change in the fee schedule that would signify that I thought it would make a lot more sense and provide a lot better guidance to staff as they have questions on ball field rentals so we developed the enclosed policy which includes the facility rates and just some additional detail on the existing facilities that we have and as I mentioned those rates are never supposed to change with the exception there is a line item in here for lighting if anybody wanted to switch out the lights that would be 25 dollars per hour in a charge in addition to the field rental fees reservations would be continued to be um taken via the online platform scheduling priority has been given to North Saint Paul High School in the American Legion in the past and so that's being uh memorialized during this agreement insurance is also a requirement that's another thing that's going to be formalized denial and revocation um can be at the sole discretion of the city manager should there be some issues with behavior or um misuse of the facility we've outlined the printer responsibilities and the refund and cancellation policy and we've also outlined what to expect in terms of weather cancellations and that there are there's going to be no snow removal of of the feet from the fields so with that I can take any questions related to the ball field policy does anybody one yep just because I don't remember and I apologize on the previous tournament fee of three hundred dollars I believe that was the same as it was before did that include the lights I did not we did not charge for the lights so that is something that was not discussed at the meeting exclusively but uh staff has suggested that be added as an additional fee okay thank you you're welcome what happens yeah I'm just a little curious on what the context is around the snow piece oh that's we've had uh we've had some questions about will will public work staff be removing snow from the fields and that's happened on a number of occasions so they don't have the capacity for that and I think the expectation might be a little bit um above and beyond what their duties are so we just wanted to make it clear in the policy I'm glad you did that because Ron did mention that people asked if they could clear it so it melts and dries out faster so that's good to bring that up thanks it's not because they want to play ball in the snow yeah no they're not adding the snow onto the field they're taking it off and does that also and that also applies to the groups and individuals trying to remove this correct all right thank you any other questions anybody um it gives priority to the legion but it also maintained the agreement we I believe talked about before about them being able to use it at what we talked about for cost the legion as yes under that resolution that was approved many many years ago they do have it free of charge we are staff is in contact and has been in conversation with the Legion on developing a more formal agreement and so that's being negotiated right now and I would imagine it'll be coming back to you in the next month or so okay so that wasn't the part you were talking about memorializing just their priority of rental correct I want to thank the staff everybody for this because I think there was a lot of confusion at the end and uh I think it really got it ironed out very well as far as getting a better understanding for the whole broad picture of what we're using for our fields and everything else so thank you you're welcome I do have a question regarding the legion and was it was it North St Paul school the high school yeah that's partnering yes is there a date that they have to give dates to you by that way other people can reserve the fields oh that sounds open-ended right now and they have first priorities so how are you supposed to know that's a great question there is okay the deadline for priority scheduling is February 1st fantastic I moved to adopt this [Music] Ruby I'll second careers all those in favor say aye aye thank you so much all right next item up is the ordinance to amend the 2023 fee schedule which addresses this so did you want to go over that Randy yep so with the approval of the policy the fee schedule Amendment basically just refers the user to the policy so as we look at the fee schedule in the future we'll also look at the ball field rental policy if we need to make any changes questions on that all right until I motion and so I moved it I'll council member oh second number Norby all those in favor say aye aye thank you thank you next up is report of city manager and departments I'm going to first have uh oh I'm sorry that's right it brought it might indeed down pardon me uh item D resolution would you say D or g d g is becoming D yeah Okay resolution changing the location of polling place for elections excuse me [Applause] [Music] did we have discussions any discussions on there you brought it up um I was one that asked uh uh poet um I know legally minimum uh were required to send out the nose 25 days before but uh I would ask that we go above and beyond what the legal requirement for notice to our residence is and try and get this notice out to everyone and possible well before the 25 day legal notice that's required of us absolutely yes with that anybody else okay okay motion to approve council member second second council member Wong all those in favor say aye aye thank you all right next up reports the city manager and departments I will turn this first over to finance director Dan Winnick to go over the finance department please thank you city manager frandel uh mayor and council members I I know that a couple of council members I ran into just before these meetings and um that I had kind of joked but it was actually serious when I said that I heard that the last council member a council meeting went to quarter to ten I think we can beat that tonight yeah just kidding uh so this is I'm gonna give kind of a finance department update and I've kind of have a little format that I'll take different sections and different pieces because I believe we'll be doing this on a regular basis but first of all I want to thank you all for your leadership um you know uh you know with the award for the financial statement um kind of piece to it I talked about leadership and leadership's very important to me and and um and it's also recognition of staff and that's why I wanted to have staff here to be recognized for their contributions that they do for the city and and particularly with the finance department but I've enjoyed being a part of this organization and um the leadership that city council gives I haven't had a lot of opportunity yet to get to know this city council except for two two members and and the mayor has stopped in on a number of occasions and had some very nice discussions so looking forward to as we go through the budget process to get to know each and every one of you and I value each and every one of your opinions and thoughts that's how I learn and get different ideas and then I wanted to thank our city manager when I did come here almost two years ago he was the interim um he welcomed me um spent numerous extra hours beyond the regular days to get to know me and really made me feel comfortable in this organization um I want to let you know who our finance staff is um Barb halsman who who you met today she's our utility building coordinator we have Taylor Lilly she's our senior accountant technician and Melissa Alicia is our Utility Billing clerk those three are really the primary ones who were doing all of the utility billing collections customer service they do an absolutely fabulous job I have now been in government for over 34 years prior to coming here I was over 32 and I have never seen customer service done the way they do it they are very calming they do an absolutely fantastic job with residents if you can imagine in the utility billing especially if you've had your utility disconnected that you'd be quite upset they handle them amazingly so there's some conversations that they end up with some of the residents that are quite abusive but they handle them very well they do not raise their voices the way they handle customers at the counter is just Second To None Barb has done a tremendous job Barb has I think will be approaching 37 years with the city of North St Paul um she has seen a lot of changes and she has done an absolutely fabulous job of training her two staff members and particularly Taylor Lilly who's been here a little bit longer Melissa has been here for just about a year and then we have uh Jackie lootmer who is our finance coordinator who you got to to see tonight Angie mulner who is our County technician and those two have really been very very instrumental for the finance department they're really the ones who are responsible for the accounts payable accounts receivable payroll just about everything else answering questions helping out with the overall Financial you know systems journal entries everything else you know that's part of the responsibilities of the finance department and our newest addition to the finance department thanks to the city council approving an accountant for the 2023 budget Mary Kay Heenan she is a perfect hit for for our department and for this organization and so I am going past 10 o'clock tonight because I got stories but uh when the fine when the accountant had left um at the end of 2021 I came up with this really obscure goofy idea that uh because it was year-end um a lot of close out uh financial statements and so forth um that I probably would need a little bit of help and I needed to get some help from somebody that I had trust in and it was the person has had fantastic credentials was a state auditor many years in government there was only one problem that that individual was my wife yet the city council allowed that to to occur and she worked part-time for the city for a little while usually just on Friday every other Friday but she was instrumental in helping the reason why I bring her up is one again the leadership of this organization and helping to do things sometimes that are outside the box and making sure this organization moves forward and the other point to it is is that I had never worked with my wife but I got a great appreciation for her skill sets and her abilities and part of the background that she has was that state auditing experience by George guess what we got we got an individual now and Mary Kay who had 10 years at the state auditor's office she was three years at the City of Minneapolis three years at the city of Bloomington was her last job she's coming to a smaller City because she wants to see everything when you're in a bigger organization you get you only do a bank reconciliation or you only do this component to it she wants to see everything and you know part of my responsibility as the finance director is that someday I probably will retire and I want to make sure that the city is well taken care of and Mary Kay will hopefully be the one that will end up being my successor a great addition to the team and then myself what do we do we do accounts payable accounts receivable we do budgeting Capital assets cash management debt Administration financial analysis financial reporting Investments payroll procurement special assessments and property taxes tax increment financing utility billing and customer service I've got utility billing and customer service highlighted because that's what we're going to focus on tonight what are we working on in our department this year we're working on making Capital Improvement plan enhancements if you recall our Capital Improvement plan has been on a Excel spreadsheet very hard to read there's no description justification in many of the projects that are proposed that's all going to change we're going to have descriptions on each and every one of the projects with justifications we'll have better summaries that is already beginning and so you will see the revised updated much better professional it will be a book of our Capital Improvement plan um and then we are in the process so we've just started um on a payroll conversion the city council had passed moving our payroll um and HR to ADP so we are just beginning the process of that payroll conversion a timeline again timeline can kind of change but they're looking that we probably will be up on there sometime maybe in July so there'll be a lot of work with that part public engagement been having some discussions with our city manager I know that passed City Council this past city council group through the budget process really was looking at you know how do we how do we do a little bit more public engagement especially when it comes to the budget processing so I've got a couple of ideas that I've I'm in discussion with our city manager really would like to to somehow get a little bit more involvement by the residents in our inner process of budgeting purchase order implementation as you're aware that at the end at the end of every year the books are closed the funds are closed and then we move into another budget year um yet State Statute allows um funds to be carried over for legal obligations and for Capital funds for three years we currently don't have a mechanism to actually carry over their those funds so right now what we end up having to do is to do a budget amendment justifying what you know why it was wasn't spent from the prior year and then have the current budget increased in Appropriations so they can continue on with those purchases it's become even more problematic more recently as one of the offshoots of of what you know kind of an implication of what covet created with the supply chain issues that some of our vehicle replace it's been taking 12 18 months or longer to even get the vehicles so what we're going to do is to start utilizing purchase orders that way those can be their encumbrances they can be held over from one year to the next I will draft up a policy for staff to follow it really will follow along our purchasing guidelines so really every so Department directors will have the choice to put many things underneath purchase orders if they desire but it will be mandatory that anything over twenty thousand dollars will be put into a purchase order why twenty thousand dollars because that protects the city manager and that protects our mayor and so we need to make sure that that that's in place he doesn't even he our mayor didn't even know that this was coming so but that's that's a part that you know that's as a finance director need to make sure that that we are making sure that we have those bases covered I'm starting to check for twenty thousand two dollars and fifty four cents so I went over by the 2.54 so I decided this week so it worked so we uh um yes so we'll be putting those into purchase that order and then um we started last year um starting developing more staff redundancies um I'm a big believer and having primary and secondary responsibilities on every function something that really wasn't in place before as you can tell I by the individuals that were here today three of us are approximately about the same age which means that three of us probably will be leaving somewhere in the same neighborhood of time and need to make sure that this city from a financial standpoint continues to to function as well as it does today and hopefully even better and so we've been working on and we'll continue to work on building redundancies and again we've done just an absolutely fantastic job with that and it really I can't speak highly enough about the team that I have we actually have fun I know it's hard to leave accountants having fun but it actually does occur and then succession planning want to make sure that um you know at the at the point of time as myself or or any of the members of my team um you know make a decision that they're going to leave this organization that we have plans that we have backups for them or that we have people that can step in and and filled his responsibilities never want to put the city and the residents um you know in a bad position so those are kind of our initiatives that we're working on on this year so now we're going to jump into the utility billing and customer service that'll be our Focus for tonight and then when we have other updates I'll take other areas and kind of discuss those so there's a lot of information here and you know I think it's important for you really to understand um and feel free to ask questions as we go through to really get an understanding of the utility building and the customer service component of the finance department because again you know they're generating 19 million dollars of Revenue they're touching each and every one of the the residents you know in the city and has a great impact so they handle consumption questions and high Bill complaints and explanations of all the services provided and build the customers they assist customers with payment options um you know if if an individual is delinquent on their payment they can make payment arrangements um you know we don't you know we're not so cold to say you owe 300 you have to pay 300 nope your power's off until you pay the 300 we will try to work with with the customers and try to make a payment arrangement for them to be able to start paying down their balance and eventually getting it to you know to having no balance out there um and we try to assist them as much as we possibly can um they serve as the help desk for online payment issues um the explanation of services provided in pricing of garbage related fees we have a tremendous amount of calls that that just come in for for garbage we have two lines of utility line and a garbage line but many of our calls on the on the utility liner related to garbage um and uh so that eats up a lot of our our staff time they resolve garbage collection issues missed garbage pickup delayed garbage pickup garbage delivery issues you can't believe I mean if of all of the uh issues that has have raised to to me through staff they've all been related for almost all of them with the exception of maybe one or two have been garbage related and issues that they've had with the driver or so forth not a lot but it's kind of ironic that that's what what to really becomes problematic for some of our residents you're talking a lot of trash that is very well very well done [Music] second thought I'm going to cut this short tonight customer service phone calls we get about 30 a little over 1300 calls per month on the utility line about 200 on the garbage line and again there's there's many phone calls that are on that utility line that are actually garbage related some Utility Billing stats there's approximately 7 400 bills that are produced each month um and the uh monthly revenue is 1.6 million and and almost 20 million in annual revenue the utility billing duties they ensure the accuracy of all bills meter readings calculation or breaks and accounts are set up correctly they transfer bills to outside vendors for printing again proofing for accuracy during the transfer they set rates in accordance with the fee schedule that's been set by the city council uh they calculate the power adjustment rate in accordance with the monthly mmpa bill they set yearly interest rate on utility deposits refund accumulated interest yearly the invoice building related items and submit to accounts payable for processing and there's a number of Specialties that we end up having to to pay other entities that we actually collect money for and again you saw this part of the the credit card customer service the utility payment stats for 2020 and how they're kind of broken out versus the different types of ways that methods in which they can pay their utility bills collection of unpaid bills so kind of like everybody you know everybody kind of gets an understanding and again I'll get some more information on delinquencies and that but um beginning it was on pause through covet and just started in January 1st of this year that we're now we're processing penalties again for any unpaid balances um there I usually will end up averaging about 1200 accounts per month that are delinquent um we process Print and Mail an average of 392 disconnection notices per month there are two rounds of reminder phone calls um that are that are sent out using the notifiers process in this in our software there's an average of 180 customers that receive reminder calls and then we assist customers navigating the different Energy Assistance programs that are available um the assist energy assistance providers to help qualify customers for a system so it's really a team Cooperative trying to to make sure that we can try to help some of our residents out you know and make sure or try to help them qualify to receive the assistance to help with their utilities we assist an average of 164 customers and making payment arrangements um we assist customers who have electric disconnect due for non-payment this usually averages about 40 customers per month that actually get on the disconnect they will actually call each and every one of them and they get disconnected and you'll see that that that's a day that's always marked on our calendar because they get a lot of phone calls and a lot of people rushing trying to get their power back on and so that's usually a very busy day and if you can imagine that's usually a day that the residents are are not as pleasant as they can be on some other day so I'll just leave it at that they assist on payment options they assist customers in contacting available energy assistance providers and they communicate with electrical personnel and after hours staffed regarding disconnected accounts so they'll actually send communication out on the disconnect of who actually is still disconnected and so they they really do a very thorough job you know and job number one is that we want to try to get everybody to pay their bills and that they're having their services all connected um move in out account transfers that usually averages about 177 accounts per month so there's there's quite a bit of turnover that's happening in the city um and you know and that includes Homes apartments businesses um so they'll ensure that the mobile a customer account is accuracy accurate date of move out the forward addresses of customer moving out the process refunds they usually average about 27 per month they'll assist customers who are moving into homes and apartments and how to set up their account getting all of their information and making sure everything is accurate on their for their billing rebates average about 150 per year and they try to educate customers on conservation Ruby programs that are offered by the electric department they ensure products qualify for the conservation rebates the process rebates using software for an account credit they process rebates by submitting an invoice to our accounts payable side they report monthly to the mmpa for electrical rebates it's about 100 per year and then they report quarterly to the Metropolitan Council for water rebates which are about 50 per year um clean energy there's 365 participants with about 3.7 million kilowatt hours of electric demand for 2022. they educate customers on the clean energy program assist customers on sign up for a clean energy program and Report monthly to MBA with a number of participants and their consumption solar power we currently have nine customers participating in the Solar generation after usage after their usage participants add 21 000 Kwa just to our electrical supply so in other words they're producing enough for their own use and in addition to that they're giving back to the grid assist and educate customers with procedures for solar power participation assist and educate solar providers with procedures for solar power participation ensure accuracy of billing for solar participants they set up an account to credit participants for solar generation they track usage and production of electric um and then their process rebates due to customers upon joining the solar program uh other things that are Utility Billing customer service sections assist the finance uh the overall finance department with is delinquent utilities and I think many of you have seen that that we'll we'll we run a process that somebody comes before the city council in September um and then ends up because you know having a public hearing and then eventually gets certified those are those are delinquent assessments not electric but the other garbage and water and sewer that um that will end up being a special assessment and put against the property if they go unpaid by a certain date in that process we run usually starts first notification that comes to city councils in September and um we certify the list in November to Ramsey County the County Auditor and then they they do all of the the city cash collections and they distribute conservation kits for the electric usage so that wasn't too bad was it and I know Tim you're thanking me today but uh uh any questions or discussion on any of the material or if you have any questions regarding the finance department as a whole yes first of all thank you very much um for your presentations just today overall and um for for receiving such wonderful Awards um you and your staff I think being here the last two and a half years was a whirlwind for me I can't I'm at and and the attention around our finances and so to receive this award I think is really a testament to the work that you and your department have been doing um so thank you for that um some questions that I have um I'm just kind of curious on are there some rebates that people are much more interested in or you see that have a lot more people receiving versus others uh there's there's interest that ends up coming through like for some of the water rebates that come out there for uh conservation on that for replacement of toilets or washing machines um because there's actually some funding through uh met Council for that that uh seems to spur on interest um there get a lot we get a lot of inquiry as far as the electric side um and there's a lot of great opportunities for that even even opportunities that the city can take advantage of and I know in the past um with our our fine past electric director the city did take a lot of opportunities with that you know at the community center and then just with their own Street lighting and so forth so there still are some more opportunities that the city can can do in in the residence of of the city should take advantage of some of those electrical rebates I do have a question regarding the uh like the allowance sign-offs you know as you indicated there's a twenty thousand dollar sign off over that do you have departmental specific amounts that each partner Department can spend and what they qualify for so if it will say Ron for example he can sign off on five thousand dollars is something needs to be purchased for 5000 I think more than it needs to be brought to Brian's tension or what policy and procedures do you have for that um so department heads have the authority to go up to twenty thousand dollars there may be some other purchasing guidelines that they need to to do I mean we highly encourage them to try to get multiple quotes and bids but it's not recommended um you know by State Statute they should all be looking at the state contracts first at least give a consideration don't have to use them but they should be giving them consideration anything over twenty thousand dollars because we're a Class B City that's where the the city managers Authority ends at that point in time most of what we have today is we have everything pretty much rotted through our city manager to make sure that they're reviewing and that they're signing especially if it's a contract if it's just a ordinary purchase a regular purchase the department head will purchase if it's a contract we have our city manager review and sign as well as all reviewed and signed to make sure that there's funding in the budget and so forth and then anything above that there was a a change in [Music] Authority at the end of last year a part of the approval of the capital Improvement plan that was adopted that basically authorizes or delegates the authority of the city council to the city manager and to the mayor for any item that it still has to follow all of our purchasing guidelines but for anything that is on the capital Improvement plan that they have the ability to sign as long as it's within the purchasing guidelines so our review they'll fill out a form uh the the form has to be signed by the department head with all of the Depo documentation that's brought to me I'll review it to make sure that they're meeting her the city's purchasing policies I'll review it to make sure that it's within the dollar amount that was set in the CIP and then I put my little marks onto it and sign it and then it goes over to the city manager for their review and their signature and then finally to our mayor and that's really those are the ones that I want to make sure that are being entered into as purchase orders because they've just created a legal binding agreement from a legal standpoint and I'm not and I'm not trying to over speak for or attorney over there I apologize I diverted from the utility and customer service you guys are doing a phenomenal job too by the way oh thank you thank you um long-term goals of going paperless billing is there a cost savings there Ah that's something that we're just beginning to start to look at to see what kind of options that there are part of part of what we've seen is that we would still have to have options for the printing of it because not everybody necessarily would have the ability to do that but we would like to see what we could do and how we could offset from the current because we send everything out to be printed and mailed today so if we could cut that volume down obviously there would be um you know savings so we're looking at that and as soon as we get some concrete numbers onto that will bring you back to the city council to to have them a little discussion and then hopefully approval and moving in that direction but thank you do you have data in regards to how many people um average enroll average and role they do an average bill enroll for the year um I don't know that at the top I we've got data just about on everything so I certainly will find that for for average pay I will get that for you thanks another question regards to um the statement so on the um one side it it states you know some of the prior years consumption is it possible for the um form for that to be formatted in more of a visual manner does that make sense I'm just thinking like when I can see my consumption over time I'm much more likely to adjust rather than if it's just written in in words let's see so if we're thinking about you know um saving electricity things like that I find that sometimes visual presentation can help so you're saying on the bill they have some sort of graph hotter the same time period last year this is how much I use on a graph type of thing um I mean we do have some limitations with our you know our financial software which utility resides on but definitely something that we'll look at to see if there's some sort of way or if there's another you know software that can be integrated to be able to pull and maybe make the billing a little bit different including graphs I I do agree with you um yeah I I kind of like that too I'm more visual than I am yeah I really don't like numbers nice just it's really interesting my my parents out in California they even have comparisons of their neighbors so you can see how neighbors are using compared to your own too which is I think a really interesting approach you know it really is because then it also Spurs some sort of hey I'm I'm on a little high side here I gotta drop my utility usage down yeah I can see that that would be interesting [Laughter] that's what the Joneses right nice or something I don't any other questions or questions no compliments yes um they're hard for me to give some days um councilmember Wong and I have been here since your beginning of your tenure um I mean the the awards tonight just you know again just underscore what you've done since you've been here you make Finance I mean I understand some of it most of it now not all but a good chunks I appreciate it um when we get around to budgetary times um you actually bring some fun to talking numbers so people with short attention spans greatly appreciate that so I want to thank you for that and you've just you've got a great team your team works well together Dan um I just want to thank you yeah well thank you yes I do have a fantastic team I am very very lucky um and uh and again and I really do mean this uh this gentleman over here is you know I owe him a lot because he made me feel welcome coming into this organization and the city council has been very approachable um and um yeah it just it and all the people here this is is around ending my career so uh yeah so as long as you'll have me I'll be here for a while longer but uh yeah this has been a a really a um for many many years I always I'm not a risk taker I probably can figure that out from Most accountants are usually not um but you know and I had the security of the last place that I was for many many years um something pushed me to try this it's called my youngest daughter to try to apply it was always a dream to be a finance director and I'm glad that she pushed me and I'm glad that I I got this opportunity and this completes my career the day that I finally retire so I couldn't be happier so yeah yes thank you from all of us we appreciate it thank you thank you very good all right yeah a couple quick updates for you for from our departments um Public Works is working with their new scada system that they got up and going now they've got the street sweeping done they've gone through the entire city now for the first winter cleanup leaves left on the streets they will call that good until the tree's butt out and then they'll go back and clean the streets one more time for that uh we got the patching down for about three quarters of the town now but they're still pumping that out it's a tough winter on the roads um fires dealing with uh Code Compliance um they also we have the the old tap and Grill site is being cleaned up now so it's looking a lot better so it's nice to see that Electric's been working on some undergrounding there for the Lily project that's a feeder line going through there that they're getting underground so there's a lot of work to that still waiting on material to come in uh doing some pole chains outs as well Community Development had a little over 200 permits issued this April about double from last month um looks like we're getting all tiered up for our garage sale we got 35 or 37 garage sales registered this week for the May 4th through 6th City Garage Sale city-wide garage sale interactive map and full listings on the website 25 increase in participation from last year which is great then the weekend after that is the city cleanup so we'll have that from 8 to 11 A.M at the public works facility there so that's always a popular event we can refer to the website and city news for accepted items and map to the public works to help navigate the 7th Avenue Construction and that's all I have commissions and committees the Planning Commission meeting is this coming Thursday you're all welcome to come it's open to public and we'll be discussing some zoning changes okay get in compliance with the comprehensive plan thank you councilmember Wong um yeah the arts and culture commission will meet here tomorrow in the chambers at 6 30. um also we have some winners for our utility boxes so that's been a really exciting I think activity just because it's engaged over 200 residents so I think that's a really nice opportunity for people to you know share what they are thinking and have a part in the Arts as well um and that's all I have thank you very much Council membership Parks and Recreation met last Wednesday here in Chambers they had an excellent presentation I'm sad that Dan left because he um did an amazing budget presentation for the parks fund Park dedication fund um went through all the actual dollars and there were a lot of questions asked for that so it was pretty um it was about their advantage to have that so it was very nice of Dan to do that there was a pretty neat lady that came in and asked about a community proposal of a little library in a park her mother had passed and they were doing they would like to do this in remembrance of her so that is a pretty that was a pretty cool idea and um I have been driving past some parks recently and there's actually a little little the little libraries in those Parks too so not specific to her but um it is seen in the neighborhoods so it was pretty exciting the next meeting will be the last Wednesday of May thank you so much next DDA meeting is going to be a week from today May 9th at 3 o'clock here in council chambers General Business Council or an army council member Wong I have nothing thank you thank you council member Spears I don't think councilmember Cole uh I have a couple um one of which we all had the opportunity to participate um at the uh History Museum it was uh not like the movie but it was fun and exciting and none nonetheless for us to be there um it was it was it was a lot of fun um there's not very many opportunities that Council and mayor get get the chance to get away from behind where we are and um just kind of let your personality roll out and let people understand who you are and for me it was a phenomenal opportunity and and I I thank the history museum sincerely for for offering all of us the opportunity to come be present so um one other announcement I made it at the witching hours of the last meeting that we attended um Saint Mark's Church is looking for donations the North St Paul police department used a fellowship hall for an opportunity to take breaks in between when when they're out there uh and their snack supplies starting to run a little bit low so if anybody is interested in making a donation suggestions include any type of you know individually packaged Goods sodas all varieties Etc drop it off at the office the office is open from 8 00 am and no 9-1 I believe and just put North St Paul police on the donation or just drop it off in Fellowship Hall and they'll make sure that that everybody receives it reminder and look forward to seeing everybody on May the 13th from 9 to 8 to noon for Citywide cleanup and hopefully it doesn't rain this year like it did last Carrie looked like a wet rat oh I'm done thank you very much I want to take a couple minutes as the council here we we as we get together a little disturbing news today as far as we had an issue with um uh a person uh sending uh sending voicemails and one of them was threatening where I had to uh actually uh bring the police in and be able to uh for public for my personal safety and they had to um give a go out to that person and uh and take care of that issue so um I just wanted to bring that up to the council I take this very seriously for all of us we all are here is this as a as a servant to the to the government as far as the city and being able to do that we have a lot of great residents but I think we've have some people that just forgot manners over the last couple years and understanding that they can't be doing threatening phone calls or anything like that so I just want to know everybody that we this is very serious and if any council members have anything like that we will take care of it with the with the full extent of the law because this is something none of us should have to deal with it's uh it was very disheartening today I apologize I'm a little off my game because it was something that came up real quick this morning and we had the council meeting tonight we've had our police officer in the back walking around so everything seems to be fine but it's a concern for uh for us we we do this out of the love of our city and uh there's not there's thank yous but there's also lots of different things that come and I talk into our city workers as far as the people that run the front counter and it seems to be a lot of that happening where people are hot-headed and we we shouldn't have to deal with that like I told my kids when they were young you speak to people like you would when you're standing in front of church or anything else you have to use that if I get a voicemail that starts off with you know a lot of cursing a lot of that I'm done with it I I don't respond to that and I hope none of us have to do that because that's not not the way it works we we talk to each other as far as the way we all should speak to each other with open mind and kindness and so I just wanted to let the council know that this is very serious as far as that and if anything happens we just want to make sure that everybody's safety is is is up front and we take care of things like that we encourage everybody I get God a great voicemails as far as you know different things and people that disagree and that's fine disagreement is great we're you know there's always going to be disagreement it's just how we handle it and that's where that's where it's welcome as far as that that kind of thing but anything where it's escalated up to personal safety or just very coarse language it's something that won't be tolerated by myself or hopefully anybody else in the city or the on the council here so I just wanted to bring that up in front of everybody so we understand what's going on with with that so that was tonight's today's uh thing so I apologize a little off today for the for the meeting uh didn't do the three minutes I'll keep an eye on that again so but I want to thank everybody and uh appreciate uh what we do and the group we have here everybody does a great job and we can all get things done it doesn't have to get ugly and it doesn't have to get personal so I thank everybody for that for being able to support us as they do and just keep it nice and we'll all work together all right thank you mayor thanks Brian excuse me I like to add one thing um speaking of appreciation um I would like to recognize my predecessor uh through the electric Department Jim Bowers uh he passed away a week ago um he'd worked here at the city for about 35 years he came in at a pretty critical time for the city they were updating an old electrical system that we had here where they upgraded the system to a higher voltage which is what it needed it was in pretty rough shape uh him and his boss at the time was electrical engineer and and with the help of all the electric climbing they really turn this city around and upgraded the system to what it is today so just hats off to him and it's appreciated him thank him for his 35-year service so we appreciate that and we appreciate the lecture Department because it'd be a wonderful work all right well last up is our closed session this meeting will be closed as permitted by a Minnesota state statute for a confidential attorney-client privilege settlement discussion related to litigation in the matters of amendments to various water appropriation permits office Administrative Hearings file number 8-2002-37733 close the meeting then nope Mr Mayor if there's a motion and a second and then vote on that and closing yep all right thank you hope council member Cole second second council member schwer also in favor say aye aye thank you everyone appreciate it are we changing rooms or ads where are we changing rooms are we here