Kenyon City Council, September 8, 2026

Part 1

0:05 All right, we're going to start the September 8, 2026 council meeting at 700 p.m. Um, we're going to call to order. So, could we do roll call? Oh, sorry. We got to recite the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

0:30 One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Call the meeting to order. Can you do a roll call for me, please? Sure, Mr. Mayor. Um, Council Member Guard here. Council member Scholander here. Council member Helguson here.

0:52 Uh, Mayor Kerschman here and um, Mary Bailey is not able to be here this evening. Um, she did let me know. So, we do have an excuse absence there. And then um, you have the rest of the staff here with Mr. Riggs, city administrator, Derek the engineer, Heather has taken minutes and running the computer and we have Holly taking minutes in the back.

1:15 Roll call is taken, sir. Thank you, sir. Mhm. Do we have any citizen comments? got white to crawl which I'm very glad to see on Doug. got three questions.

1:48 This has to do with I'm asking you here. Why is the council allowing $40 an hour plus for public works for grass? Public works $40 an hour plus grass.

2:11 I addressed this when I was the mayor only to get a lot of static from public works director superintendent and the past city administrator said wait until next year close to year for pass again I brought this up at budget time again voted voted voice public works superintendent also city administrator didn't suggested don't open a can of worms let things be That's his here's my second question that I have for you.

2:46 Almost 50% of the yearly budget goes to the employee wages and benefit. It's about time for our city employees to help feel the pain that the rest of us are addressing. businesses here in town and people that own their homes here in town.

3:12 I'm asking this here for the council to consider a payroll freeze for one year or mighty small budget that is directly across to everybody. That's my second item. Third one was Boulevard.

3:37 I don't know what happened to it, but it's a disaster. City public works was the ones that were taking care of it and they found that they could do it a lot better than going with various different types of road. It looks like crap. As far as my concern, my suggestion is to get a committee together that would help or take it over completely and bring it back to the way it was years back.

4:06 You've seen some pictures of the past looks completely different than what it is now. Totally embarrassment. I also look at it this way. Fire department gambling took over at the MUN and where all their money goes that from their gambling I do not know. But I'm making a suggestion that they start by contributing along with volunteering from other individuals or companies or businesses, whomever it might be, and getting this back to where it was before.

4:41 That's all I have. Thank you for letting me Thank you, Doug. Any others? Hi and new to the lovely community of Kenyan and can't get over what a lovely town this year.

5:12 Recently gotten more involved because of hearing about the Kenya marketing and uh the need for more community support in that area. Um I'm I'm new to what's going on. So I just was wondering is there any or uh committee that looked in encouraging uh different marketing strategies for encouraging people to shop in town or we have a marketing strategy like uh support our store shop commit to shopping there once a week.

5:43 Um, and this could apply not only to market, but other source communities and um could potentially be a group um that could help if we needed to look at the route of food co-op if we needed to try to save our so I guess I don't have a comment.

6:06 Someone's just wondering what is going on out there and looking forward to people that might be interested. Hope you support. Thank you. Anybody else and Dan?

6:31 Either Pet or I can talk. I see on the agenda a little bit later on. Does that mean somebody else talk about later on? Can you mark? I had it under the administrator update for us to talk a little bit about some of the options and things that that you and I Pete have talked about days ago. I haven't really had a communication with anybody or or talk back and forth with anybody. So, I want to get a communication going.

6:52 We're trying to sell the story. Um, you know, we have some interest from a group, maybe a person, but everything's hippie right now. Uh, I've been through this process before when I started works and uh, sometimes I've helped other people do when they need to go. But I just need to know where the city stands on this since I never talked to any help anybody.

7:14 Um, when I follow I explain and we don't expect taxpayer money put in there, but there's some things you can do to help. I mean, we because anything I can do I can encourage and pass on to the next owner. So some of the possible things if we have a problem with our parking lot because everything drains to our parking lot to see for the future owner a way to direct that in another direction um doesn't make a mess of our parking lot.

7:42 So that's an area where help us as we try and pull in a new order we can say here this is what we did for you. Um another possible area would just be the power company a big account if we do close and pretty much got our store price and liquidation value. So we hope it stays open but never had a closed door account been involved in native. Um so so that's our agreement there what we can do for the next owner to get them going.

8:08 So almost always takes a group of everybody the city I feel need to get involved somewhere. We're virtually giving away the equipment to the people coming next week to keep the floor alive. Um, so that's another area where the city can go. And I don't know if the apartment company, you know, we got about a $40,000 year bill there. I mean, if there's anything they can do for a couple months break to get the new new guy going, it might be one more thing they raise the new guy in there.

8:33 Um, and then finally, I call Scott, I guess, your call, I guess, and I haven't heard anything from them, and I understand they maybe do different things what we do, but maybe they have some ideas. So, so my goal is just to hear back from somebody and get a conversation say we're out there something we can do to help you. I need somebody to tell me that doesn't help.

8:58 And so I'll kind of leave it at that. Just update on the grocery business. Just goofy. Nobody at our store has done anything wrong. Just really got so crooked with the corporate world. A lot of price fixing going on. local Coca-Cola company will go out and give the give the deals to Dollar General, but they won't give us any deals. Don't ask me why.

9:18 I think it's illegal, but I don't have time have time or money to take on their lawyers. Um, I would like the city to get involved in that one. That's one you sign me a person where the city would call folk and say, "Hey, we want to keep her. If we find an owner, are you guys going to do something pretty fairly?" So, that's another thought. So, those are three or four thoughts.

9:40 Other than that, I'd just like to hear a conversation and hear back from somebody that said, "Yes, we're interested in helping." Meanwhile, we'll do everything we can try and find an owner, do everything to help that owner, I help retire, Mr. W. Yes. And then when you and I talk and Pete and I talk and just because the way a crowd, I kind of want them to understand the end of this.

10:09 If I'm remember our conversation correctly, I as a private citizen can go to a store, right, buy a case of pop cheaper, right, than you can buy it for when you buy it in bulk. Is this still correct? Right. So, the way if I'm understanding this correctly, part of the corporate world with what you guys do is you get charged a certain amount and then there's supposed to be some sort of a rebate or something at some point, but it's still even when you were dealing with pop companies.

10:36 So when it comes to pop companies, there's a couple of them that are worse. We have to have one that works. You'll go in our store today, you'll see two $10. Yeah. They don't make any money. We don't care. No, they want to talk to I don't know what to do. Like I said, I think what they do is illegal. I'd like to approach them.

10:57 I've talked to attorney general's office like politician or anybody just to wake him up. I was so surprised to hear that. That was kind of shocking to me that I could go in and buy cheaper than than you can as an as we talk to the whole thing. I mean now it's every major corporation just bought we can't buy our company is 20 billion dollar reset the group we're part of and it's just just crazy what's happened to our world.

11:26 So have a thing they call standbacks. They sell it to you for a high price and then they go to an ad group and they have to sell it but they say and then all of a sudden ad the right price. So there's lots of complications that we can't control. That being said a lot of things we can do right. I mean we do have some hot air for a lot of stuff in obviously the produce strip department aren't affected as much but that's our problem.

11:49 So any help we can get just because a local company you're not going to get more obvious with the national ones. I'd love to have somebody else take our for my friend with negative conversation but it just material everything still believe we can keep the car going because it's there given selling cook so cheap our last remount was th000 we sell for

12:25 125 000 pract 350,000 not new I'm talking just used if I were buying the store used to buy because it's business buyers are used to guys like you say yeah okay now I talk to people in with the various posters that's our situation but I think the store I think we can keep it going but I'm going to need a little from the city somewhere going to be I got some people looking at it under the know so we got

13:00 a couple maybe out there but it's one of the deals it'll only be so long we'll either get it done or we don't feel sad been involved in sto they can't begin to do what we do can't So that's and that's the next part of the game.

13:27 So they come to town, they give them to work, give them all to do. So So then we get caught in that situation where we look like idiots. We're not doing the right thing, but uh any help we get from the city very important. We want to approach them every day, see what they do. Okay.

13:49 Question for me. So, let me just ask this and I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot here. I The answer is no. The answer is no. So, looking at like the parking lot, if we have a runoff issue, is this something that we could look at and at least try to figure out if there's something that could be done, whether it's on our dime or their dime to look at mitigating some of this runoff.

14:15 Is that something that that we could look at? Sure. Okay. Yeah, we can absolutely look at it pretty good. You guys have helped us once in a while fix a few things here and there because certain areas more than others in the constant attack that parking lot and so if somebody does help us he owns the building he may own in the future they want to rent the building they may want to buy it usually they want to rent but they're not buy so there's any money spent on there they won't pocket it'll turn around and give that break to the door we want to do eventually

14:51 parking lot. But for now, that's where we're at. That'd be very helpful. All right. Thanks, Dan. Are there any other citizen comments? Oh, you faked us out, Pete.

15:16 I thought you were coming to the I thought you were coming up here. Okay. See you later. All right. I'm a community member for a long time. I am with regards to the potential apartment building that's going to happen and I think where the sun's at home or that's being proposed for the sons at home.

15:47 Ma'am. Ma'am, could you state your name and where you live, please, for the record and then whatever you got. Go ahead, please. Okay. Okay. Thank Thank you. July.

16:14 I didn't actually read it till yesterday. Um, but this is where I've chosen to bring my kids to raise my kids. And I've always felt a sense of safety and security here in Kenyon. And I let my daughter go town without leaving with her. She's in 11.

Part 2

0:00 they're feeling where they're feeling this loss of business. I've noticed that even going into the pending market with reduced um products and um I don't know if this is a financial decision for the city because we're trying to increase revenue. I think that there could be other options in the community and especially if the community members um helped with those options.

0:27 I don't know if it's a financial choice or if it's just to boost I don't know if population but I don't necessarily think that the town needs to necessarily be expanded. I mean I've always felt like I could come back here to this town and that it would be my safe place and always waiting for me.

0:50 But I think that if we do get it expanded, you know, quite a bit significantly, it's not going to be the place that we all grew up in with all these local names that we all know that our families have been here maybe for generations. Um, and I guess that's that's all I got. Step four, I wanted to end with a message that my dad would like me to share.

1:16 And that's be loyal by local from all his bumper stickers he had when he was working with. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any more comments? All right, then let's move on for um made a motion to adopt our agenda.

1:45 I'll make that. I will second it. All in favor? I motion passes to adopt the agenda. Now we need a motion to adopt adopt the consent agenda items. I'll make that motion. I'll second it. All in favor? I I motion passes. All right.

2:09 Um presentations, public hearings, recognitions, or proclamations. We have a proclamation and recognition of domestic violence awareness month. Whereas domestic violence is a serious public health issue affecting every segment of a community and finding solutions requires input and action from everyone. And whereas an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States.

2:36 And one in four Minnesota women report experiencing domestic violence from a intimate partner in their lifetime. And one in two Minnesota women report experiencing sexual violence from an intimate part intimate partner in their lifetime. And whereas every human deserves to live their lives with dignity and respect free from violence.

2:57 And whereas domestic violence can take the form of physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, technological, and economic abuse. And whereas domestic violence awareness month provides a brilliant opportunity for citizens to learn more about preventing domestic violence and to and to show support for the organizations and individuals who will provide critical advocacy services and assistance to victims and survivors.

3:27 And whereas at least 24 Minnesota children lost parents to domestic violence in 2024. And four of those children witnessed their parent murdered or found the body. And this emotional and physical trauma can have lifelong impacts. And whereas advocates and [clears throat] advocacy organizations assisting those impacted by domestic violence are part of Minnesota's robust public safety network, which includes law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, and public health.

4:01 And now therefore, be it resolved that I, Don Kurtman, mayor of Kenyan, on behalf of the city council and all residents of Kenyan, do hereby proclaim and recognize the month of October 2026 as domestic violence awareness month and urge all residents to stand together against domestic violence, to offer support, compassion to survivors, and to get and to dedicate their time and talents to improving the quality of life for all of our neighbors.

4:33 All right. Um, department head updates. EDA. Is Todd here? Yes. [clears throat] Evening, city council. Good evening. Good evening. So, I didn't believe this in your packet.

4:54 Um, since you got it ahead of time in case you had any questions, had a chance to talk a bit. But I'll I'll go over real quickly. Um, first of all, the industrial park lot, the foundation, and the footings have been poured, and I know they're out there working every day, whether permitting, so things are on track. Um, also want to just kind of make people aware of the tier 2 housing funds.

5:18 Um, Kenyon will award $75,000 to go to uh a habitat humanity home. We have four years to the Minnesota Minnesota housing to use that 75,000. Some of the money can be used to acquire land. So, um, in the past where the current um um habitat homes are, I think the price was around 20,000 per minute.

5:50 [clears throat] excuse. So, something like that would kind of be in play uh if we can find other lots within the community uh down the road. And then the nice thing about it too is our Habitat humanity homes are also built in coordination with the Kenyon Bingo High School construction classes which is a great opportunity for the kids to be a part of that.

6:12 Um and and the current Habitat for Humanity home is still not human owner. Um we've had plenty of people interested. However, people have to qualify and that is um that's beencome become difficult. Um I did put in uh newspaper articles into seven local papers trying to get some interest going.

6:40 it did create interest just couldn't find any that were going to qualify. Um but it's supposedly right now they have a couple that are interested couple of prospects and they're working through the process to see um those can come to fruition. Um another one I kind of shared with you is a southern Minnesota initiative foundation based out of um there's a tailor family farms rural development grant.

7:08 So these go to eligible towns. You have to have a population less than 10 fellows. And one of the plans that we kind of had looking forward at the depot cart is how to how to improve the amenity for the future. One of the things that would really be nice is the pavers are not all level. Um it can be could possibly trip.

7:32 They're not too careful. Um, and so, um, I included there's a picture of it in your information. And so, basically, it's that orange that I show in the picture. That is um that is what you are going to be later on this evening. I believe uh there there'll be will be a motion to accept a bid for that.

7:59 Um, and that bid did come from Blackfold here in Kenya. And um and so we have as far as and when I say we the city of Kenyan we received some dollars from the ESMC merging small Minnesota communities we received a total of $13,000 that money can also be used to like this u currently we'll have around 9500 that could go towards this purpose and um but with the grant It could be possible that

8:34 then we could connect with um with sidewalks from the depot building to each of the picnic shelters and it could also improve the sidewalk from the parking lot to the depot building. That would be uh that was one of the things that when we did the um community survey that was number one from the residents of Denver was they wanted to see that it was updated so all people no matter age ability would be able to access the building access

9:10 the park. So that's where we're kind of at right now. That would be a spring of 2027 project. So it would not happen this fall. Okay. Um then I just share another little idea with you. U it was something I picked up somewhere and uh I've been kind of exploring with uh there's a when I say local artist out of Redmond who's known for murals who the murals are at the state fair.

9:41 Um I know she's doing one in in Northfield. Um all of she's very successful and anyway I approached her as in regards to the number of vacant storefronts that we have right now in Kenya. And one of the other things that has been brought up by the merchants is how can we get more boots on the ground?

10:02 How can we get more people in our streets and sidewalks? And this could be an opportunity where by applying for a CAMAC, which is the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council, if we can apply and be awarded a grant, that could be the dollars that could help us to decorate even the vacant stores or whatever, and it'll be at no cost to the building owners.

10:30 And it would at least be something that could the artwork that is there could stimulate interest. it could get people to stop and go, "Hey, let's go take a look." Um, could also be if they wanted to, the people owning the buildings, if they if they're interested in leasing or selling, they could advertise it. It could be a part of the artwork. However, it's it's pretty wide open.

10:52 So, that is something that we're kind of I'm just in the discussive stages right now. Um, I have two building owners I've talked to and but we're not at a point yet to say that they're interested or yet, but we're working on. Um, and my last thing was the facade improvement projects. Each year, the city has been gracious enough to to budget $20,000 for facade improvement projects.

11:22 And these are matching grants. And currently so far this year we have Finley Armstrong or a hotel building and Robert's Retail and Repair. They did matching grants of which we have already paid them for $4,000. Their bills were well over $8,000. So it wasn't, you know, it's still it's it's a little under 50%, but it's it's still uh still helps them to keep the uh keep their businesses living well.

11:52 Um we currently have Mary's rustic rose at 3840 and so he is waiting on the window. Um home plate if people haven't seen that yet. Brent Bell is working on the home plate. There's no longer the gap in the sidewalk into the step work on the door.

12:14 Um so we're hoping that we're going to have something looking better there uh in the future. And then we have Ace Hardware for 1475 and all and all these are matching grants. And then all seasons replacing the awning that they lost in 2025 in a storm. So um when all is said and done, we will have used $19,565 of the 20,000 that was budgeted to the EA for this purpose.

12:46 If there's any questions um with the pavers around the depot building. Yeah. Have they considered releveling or replacing the favor pavers because the historical aspect of them to the depot building or they just ruling around to say cement slab. It's just something that you're always going to have to deal because they're individually they don't have any rebar in them or anything else like that.

13:10 Oh yeah, but I mean still I mean it's probably been 30 years and yeah it needs to be done but if it held 15 20 years had to redo it again. It's just a historical part of it. Yeah. And did they consider that? I don't know. I haven't uh haven't talked to the person about that. See if that's something that we can bring up. It was brought up at one time um when the Mano students were here and they were talking about doing the trail around there to we kind of hash it over like maybe we could sell the bricks as kind of a fundraiser if somebody wants that part of history or using

13:46 them and creating planters for flowers and that to try to beautify the area down there more. Yeah. I just think it they're going to discard them, but No, it's not like the roses, but I mean the roses were having difficult times with that, you know, trying to get them replaced. But, I mean, it's part of the history canyon.

14:07 I mean, I don't know. One of the things that would be well, one of the things that would need to be done is to have a ramp going into the souththeast door. Um, so that would be difficult doing that on top of the first, but I do know um, oh, just to give you a little more information on that with the concrete bid.

14:32 I did get five bids. So, we had multiple bids and that is one of the questions that each of them asked was what are you going to do with favors? I didn't want to give them an answer, but they all did that. I got the feeling that they all had plans or them, but I don't know. I just I didn't make any middle anything.

14:53 I just said I think we're going to reuse them. Yeah, it's something we definitely need to talk talk more on before we All right. Anything else? Thank you, thank you. [clears throat] Um, do we have somebody from public works?

15:17 So, I have I have uh just a quick little update for public works. Uh, because of yesterday being the holiday, the fire department meeting moved to tonight. So, uh we were kind of double. Uh Wayne did give me uh couple things on the public works and a couple things uh on the fire. Uh they've been jetting sewer lines, doing preventive maintenance, getting ready for fall. Um mowing and street sweeping as needed.

15:40 started working on the screening the sand for the salt for the winter uh for to be able to put in the trucks. Uh and they're still continuing to work on uh labeling storm sewer structures and the GIS system. And then they are getting together for getting pulling together samples for the fall application for the bioolids. That's on the public works side. Fire department.

16:01 Uh the department is short five members. Um we do have some interviews that are scheduled. I believe they're next week. Um with potentially a couple a couple additions to that. Um no fires to report. Um had two car accidents last Friday. Second one was a fatality. Some of you may in here may have heard about it. Um and then they're just getting uh winter maintenance and everything done for the firetruck.

16:26 So everything's ready to go. The last one is in for maintenance tomorrow and then all fire trucks should be ready to go for winter. That would be the update for public works and the fire department. Mr. Mayor, thank you. All right, please Jeff here for report. Armani is going to take it for Jeff tonight.

16:46 Yep. Chief apologizes for not being here. The chief currently working on four day stretch including this last weekend. The chief is playing tonight. So come away from the family.

17:10 He wants [laughter] a new city for reference. The PD is approaching a year but short a fulltime officer. The chief and I are doing a best focus shift part time.

17:35 Other part-time officers have been skips since the end of April. It's been tougher than shifts. There are three applicants for the full-time commission and three officers interested in working part-time as well. even thought that those potential part-time officers the chief had been in communication today with the personnel committee regarding the full machine well a few intoxicated people caused problem Saturday night was still active spoke

18:12 to spoke at the teacher orientation day on December 1st giving updates on new will take what they can expect from assistance. The chief and I are working on helping cases some of the attorneys. We are still gathering information. The county assistant us a couple days of speed control with bike.

18:42 It's worked well around town officers when pedal bikes use it to watch certain individuals and potential hotspots. Other officers will be using it. Now we've had an increase on fraud calls lately. There is a scam.

19:03 We're using the Highway 60 motor sales just out on 60 as a state auto sales website. Our dealership is Highway 60 Motor Sales Incorporated. The scam removes off the incorporated part. We're now working with a state agency that possibly check in new people across the country with this as well as the local a um just want to add one thing on that.

19:36 the Highway Motor or the Highway 60 Motor Incorporated business. They do not have any websites, Facebook page or anything like that. I talked to the owner. He does not sell Ferraris or [laughter] anything else in this small town. It's all pickup trucks. So, if you see that, it's probably not good.

19:58 Uh, finally, I designed a uniform patch that is being sold to raise money for the one school district. We are not changing our official patch. The school patches will be sold in school and at sporting events or even in the PD or available online. The patches I'm wearing right now.

20:19 You can also see on our Facebook page have logo for patient protecting nights. The cost for this is the raise funds for athletics, academics and uh students with special needs. um kind of came across me when I was talking to a few students that told to even be on a team or they don't have the things that kind of distress them and they're stressed out fidgets digit toys or yeah like that to help them focus or kids that need a new textbook or something like that or a new Chromebook so they can do work.

20:56 Um, I I know just being a KW alumni, I didn't have much money growing up. I had to make the uh either work or uh have family friends that helped me get what I needed my education career. So, um that's the reason for that.

21:18 Any questions about stuff I talked about? Thank you, Armen. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. All right. On the CMU, I don't see Randy. No, he's he's not going to make it this evening with an update, but we do have uh uh the manager of the MUN sitting back there.

21:44 He I'm sorry I didn't have your name in there, Matt, but you are under other. So, come on up and and give us your other update. Matt's going to come and see us on a quarterly basis. I asked him to come in and talk to us tonight because there's been some questions about how off sales been going and all that.

22:05 Um so, uh when he has updates for us, he'll be slotted in here, but he won't be here on on a monthly basis unless you you all think you need him here. So, yeah. But that's sir, it's all yours. Hello everyone. Um, well, we got through another rose and we had the nicest weather I think we've had in many years. There was no rain and no terrible heat.

22:27 Um, I think that helped us all a lot around town. We, uh, we had like 672 people paid admission at the gate, uh, which isn't a record-breaking year, but isn't a terrible year. Um, I saved a little over 2,000 by not having a tent and we saved a few bucks on a on the band we hired this year.

22:49 So, that should all help the bottom line. Uh, that night we did have some underage kids that kept trying to come in the bar continuously were telling them to leave and they kept trying to come in. Later in the night, they were found in the back alley drinking beer out of someone's pickup. Jeff apprehended them, spoke with them, and I have asked Jeff since they're minors.

23:13 He did not give me their names, but I've asked him if we could trespass them for one year. That will keep them from coming back to Rosefest next year. And finally, thank um I think this should be an event for everyone. It's just things like this kind of ruin it where uh you know, making it a 21 plus or not.

23:34 I mean, I know it's not a lot of events going on in the town where it's great for, you know, these kids to be able to come with their parents or with their friends. Um, I'd like to continue to do that, but these kids, uh, I don't think we want them there next year doing the same type of things. So, I've asked Jeff if we could trespass them. Um, next year's band, we've already got booked.

23:57 It is foreplay. They're kind of a big thing right now. uh one of the members of the Rosefest committee has been working with a local business who is wanting to sponsor the majority of the cost for [clears throat] I think that's a great deal. Um as far as the off sale goes, I think everything's going well. Uh the way we've been working it is on Friday and Saturday and Sunday we have a dedicated person over there from open to close.

24:26 Monday through Thursday, the bartender opens both at 10 o'clock. We have the buzzer that goes up and someone comes in, they tend to both sides until 2 in the afternoon. And then at 2 in the afternoon, someone comes in and works until 10. Is that working out good? It's working out pretty good. Yep. It's, you know, saves a little bit not having someone over there the whole day.

24:48 Uh we've been getting positive feedback from the people coming in and shopping. I'm seeing faces that we didn't used to see before that are becoming familiar faces. A lot of them like coming in just shopping and not everyone having everyone at the bar looking. We've got the fall fest which I think Kim was kind of heading up coming up in October.

25:14 I've talked with one of my liquor reps about having some wine samples available that day. Uh, one of the beer guys can provide some fall beers and cers. We're just going to do like a tasting on in the middle of the day for about an hour and a half, two hours. Trying to maybe get a more few more people from town just passing through that haven't been in there yet and just kind of seeing our extended product line.

25:39 Uh, other than that, I don't have a lot. All right. Any questions? Thanks. Thank you, sir. Do we have any other updates other that you besides Milty? Nope. I think Matt was I think Matt was putting the wrap on it for the department head updates.

26:01 Yeah. Right. We're moving on to the administrator update. Sure. So, I can talk about a couple. We We already talked about the Kenyon market. There's a couple things that I've met with uh Pete or I shouldn't say we've t I've talked with Pete and Dan on different things. Um the last time we talked, we didn't talk about the parking lot. So that was interesting that the parking lot came back. But I think that's uh that's on the on the docket.

26:23 They did talk to us about um KMU possibly redu reduction in some electrical costs. Um that didn't get on the agenda for the last KMU meeting. So we'll have to get that on there and see if that's an option. One of the things that they didn't speak about that we kind of took a look at and um and Scott and I talked about it and so did Tammy from Northland is is um tax abatement.

26:50 So the tiff does not this isn't a tiff deal. So the only thing that would be available would be uh tax abatement if if the council wanted to go that way. But the only thing that that deals with then is is now we're talking about levy, right? that's going to hit that's going to hit taxpayers if if they came up with a dollar amount and they said we need to bridge the gap from this to that and are you willing to do something tax the city has the option to do it we can do it um but again it's um it it would hit the levy and that's why we haven't went down that route too heavily.

27:26 Um, if that's something you all want me to look into or consider, I can certainly uh have the team run some numbers and all that type of stuff. But, um, everything that Dan talked about when he came up here is is conversations that have been had. The parking lot, the electrical, like I said, I'm surprised he didn't bring up the tax abatement.

27:46 There was conversations about that. But yeah, um not a lot of levers um for the city to pull when it comes to something like that, but there are a couple and if there was some interest in it, we can certainly talk about it. But um the city wants to keep the grocery store as bad as everybody else, right? And we're just trying to figure out what are the options and and what are ideas that might work, right?

28:13 I know that that we've talked about co-ops. you know what if he had six people that wanted to get together and put some money in and do a co-op. Well, that takes a little bit of time to do that and put that team together or um I know there's been one potentially two uh people interested in in um in purchasing the the grocery store. Where that is right now, I'm not sure.

28:34 Um I have asked Dan to kind of provide me some numbers so if somebody comes to the city and says, "How much is it going to take for me to buy the grocery store?" I have an idea to be able to give them. Uh, right now at this point I haven't received those numbers or anything from them at this point yet, but so we can just continue to, you know, drive them to the right people to be able to get that. But, um, what it's what that number is right now, I'm not sure.

29:00 So, that's really what I know about the Kenyan market at this point. um and the conversations that I've been having with both Pete and Dan and um and potentially somebody might city's option of helping is possibly doing a levy that would fall into the tax if we did tax abatement that would affect the levy.

29:21 That is correct. And then you have the electrical piece from the KMU if they have interest. I don't know. or um the parking lot again that that was up initially we talked about the parking lot then it kind of went away and now I see it's made its way. So I I mean and to council member uh Shlander's point uh if you guys would like for me to take a look at what would that take and get with Derek and take a look at how that water's running and all that kind of stuff.

29:50 We can certainly do that if you want to be able to do that. Well, the levy's down to 10 whatever, right? 10 and a half now. 10.3 and we're having and we don't have to approve it until the end of September. I think that budget still needs to be looked at. So, I think we should have a meeting and talk about maybe further lowering that so we can do a levy for the store.

30:16 I think there's enough citizens in Kenyon that would totally jump on board to keep the grocery store if it means a tax increase, but it would have to come I think at the cost of I don't know what it would be. Nobody likes to pay taxes. No, I know. So, even if we move something around and get it lower and then we increase it back up, it's going to be money.

30:42 They're they're fighting in a no-win situation battle because nobody's going to be happy. But in the end run, it's a win because we have a grocery store. Yes, we have a grocery store. So, yes. If the if the new buyer if the new buyer would find that an agreeable proposal, if it would be enough.

31:03 I mean, I don't know. Wouldn't we have to work that out with them with Dan first? Well, Dan's kind of thinking that the city may work try to work something out with the potential buyer. Oh, he would direct he wants he would like for the city to make it enticing for somebody that wanted to come in and buy it and make the numbers work.

31:23 This isn't this isn't to do a tax abatement for Dan. I mean, they made it pretty clear that he and Pete are out wrapping it up. Right. Right. It would be potential for the new buyer coming in and how how can the city potentially make it appealing for somebody new coming in. What kind of dollar amounts would have to be bridged for it to for somebody to sign on the dotted line and say, "Yep, I'm buying the grocery store." That's that's more what he's talking about.

31:48 And the and the tax abatement, they're they're not looking to get a tax and tax abatement stays with the owners. So even if we tax debated it with Peter Dan, uh it stops when they're not the owners any longer. So, it would benefit us keeping the the city, keeping the grocery store in town to deal with somebody that might be purchasing it, not Okay.

32:09 previous owners. Okay. I think we should do that. Have a meeting and discuss the budget and then Yeah, we we can have a discussion. I agree. And we're going to be having some budget discussions later on tonight. So, yeah. Um, any questions for me on Kenyon Market Council?

32:34 It's about all I know. I gave you everything I know in all the conversations I've had. So, uh, police department staffing, I certainly don't need to do that. Armani was very articulate on how what he had there. So, outstanding. Uh, KMU staffing, just to let you know that we did make a job offer to, uh, Blake Waltman uh, lives in West Conquer, and he will be starting actually next Monday the 14th.

32:58 So, we uh will be at technically full staff, but we'll have Randy and three young men run running KMU. So, uh Blake does come with some experience. Um Parker, as you Armani, you want to check that out?

33:23 I don't even have my keys. I don't even have my keys on me. My apologies. That was annoying. I didn't even have them in my pocket, so I can't even blame sitting on it. So, that's weird.

33:45 All right. What'd you see out there? Anybody? No. Okay. All right. I better keep them with me just in case something's going on. uh KMU I think is where I ended up right staffing with that. So um so Blake will be coming in. We will be onboarding him on uh Monday the 14th and uh we'll kind of go from there.

34:10 Uh administrator uh administrative assistant update. We are interviewing on the 16th. Uh that is a replacement for Rachel uh that was here. So uh that will be happening on the 16th. We've had six candidates for that position and four of them will be interviewed uh and two of them are local here from Kenyon.

34:34 And then update on the loan from KMU. So at the last KMU meeting, we had a lengthy discussion about uh potentially um borrowing having an internal loan uh from KMU to the city to be able to purchase some land south here to be able Germany Christmas. um to uh to purchase some land south of town to be able to put some housing up in and and so on and so forth.

35:05 We've been looking at this for quite a while. Um we've been talking about it for quite a while. We were hoping that by per by selling the land in the industrial park that was going to give us some seed money to be able to put towards uh being able to purchase that. Well, there's been some changes along those lines. So, basically, KMU approved at the at the last meeting to borrow the city $350,000 at 2% interest over a 10-year term with no penalty for uh prepayment if that's what we wanted to do.

35:36 Um, but that's kind of an approval. So, Scott and I will have to work on putting together um some agreement and and get it back in front of KMU and then back in front of the city council. Um but preliminarily we have uh come to an agreement for that to happen. All right. Is that just for the purchase of the land? That's not for any infrastructure. That is just the land. That is just the land.

35:57 That is correct. No. Any other questions on that? Any other? I do have one more update if you'd uh so indulge me, Mr. Mayor. Um, since Todd's here, I'm going to um just provide you an update.

36:20 Right. So, Todd's been with us. Uh, I think he told me today it'll be almost three years by the time uh he wraps up, but Todd uh informed me at the end of last week that he will be um retiring uh at the end of January of 2027. Um so, I will be talking with uh Todd on different things that he's working on, kind of winding down.

36:42 Those of you that know Todd, he's here two days a week. He's here Tuesdays and Thursdays and um and he shared a lot of information from us uh earlier and he didn't hit on everything, but Todd is uh and I support him. He's he's he's ready to retire and spend some time in warmer climates and take his wife along with him.

37:06 Yeah. So, we want to thank Todd for his time here and I'll be working with his supervisor, which is Laura out of Canon Falls to kind of uh talk through, you know, where do we go from here or what do we do going for, you know, going forward. Um, but I wanted to take the opportunity with Todd being here and it's kind of new, hot off the press as of the end of last everything was yeah, end of last week um that Todd will be um moving on from working with the city here starting the end of January.

37:36 So, thank you Todd for your time here. Any questions for Todd? Congratulations, Todd. Don't forget to take me on some trips. [laughter] Uh, Mr. Mayor, that concludes administrator update. Oh, what about Oh, I'm sorry.

37:58 Did I put I did put that on here. Yes. Thank you. Just rubbed that. Oh, here it is. So, what we wanted to add to the meeting because there's been some discussion here uh just recently, like within the last couple hours that have been brought to my attention about uh a property up in um Troutheim about some wood and some fencing and maybe some um not tagged vehicles and stuff sitting up there.

38:27 Uh this is the same property if you're familiar with it on Rosefest weekend that Friday. They decided there was a good idea to be able to take a tree down um that the city has earmarked that it needed to come down. Uh contractors came up. They were dropping the tree on the road and uh lo and behold, they got into the electrical wiring up there and lost power and damaged some stuff and uh police department had to respond up there with lights and traffic control.

38:53 Uh KMU was up there. there was public works up there. Um, and I've been asked to what what we're trying to do is I'm I'm working with Randy to try to figure out what the cost of that was because that is not going to be something that the city picks the dime up for. That's going to be build to the residents that live up there and um and then we will go from there as far as the the funds, but then we're also going to address some of the issues that have been uncovered up there recently again.

39:22 So, those of you that um that have brought it to our attention and talked to some of the council members and all that kind of stuff about what you're seeing up there, thank you for that. Um and we will be addressing it. They will be receiving a letter from us uh with a bill and then we will be addressing it accordingly through our ordinances. So, my apologies is Trinium, not Tronheim.

39:44 I know this. I live up there. I was uh I was trying Yeah. Go ahead. So, uh, I was just asked to kind of put that on there just to let everybody know that, uh, we'll be working on it and that it is on our radar here at the city and that we will, uh, we will get things taken care of. Thank you, Scott. You're welcome. Now, I'm completed, sir. Thank you for the reminder.

40:05 All right, [clears throat] we'll get on to engineering. Right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, couple things before we get into uh the Kenyon crossings approvals. So, uh, first of which would be, uh, for the 2025 street utility project, we have, uh, partial pay application number nine. Uh, I will say that the there isn't much actual work that's been completed over this past month here.

40:31 Um, just because they're they basically just have uh, some minor punch list work that's going on here right now until they return uh, in October to finish up with the paving and the remainder of the uh, punch list. But um nonetheless, the payment that you see in front of you here is mostly comprised of partially released retainage.

40:52 So once a project is substantially complete, um what we need to do is we need to release a portion of the 5% that we normally retain throughout the the uh the course of the contract. Um so that is what is in front of you. Any questions on that? I'm sorry. Go ahead. What is this for exactly?

41:13 I'm sorry. So, this would be a a motion to uh approve pay application number nine for the street project. For which street project? For the 2025 street project. For all of them combined. Yeah. Yeah. All the streets that you've been seeing over the past couple of years. That's all one big contract. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the application number nine.

41:39 I'll second. All right. We have a motion and second. All in favor? I I motion passes. Okay. Uh next on the list here is a design scope and fee um for a lead service line replacement project. Um so this is something that we discussed during the uh KMU meeting uh at their last meeting.

42:04 Uh over the past several years, we've been going through this process of updating an inventory of lead or galvanized service lines due to due to some federal rule changes um for the ongoing use of those private service lines. Um right now there is federal money to replace those private service lines um if the city chooses to do so.

42:29 Um this is something that eventually the city will be required to do. I believe the year is 2033 when all those replacements need to be done. Uh the good news is right now there is grant and we expect for the project to be put for up to 100%. Right now I expect it to be paid 100%. Uh by grant um but there is a there's some concern that there's a limited amount of time associated with that.

42:53 Right now the funds are in place but there's a lot of big cities that are using large chunks of that money every single year. Um so what's in front of you? Uh that's a scope and fee for Bolton and Mang to put together uh uh a bid package so we could move forward uh with this project as soon as next year. We've gone over the past couple of years, we've gone through the funding uh application process.

43:17 Um and basically now we're we're ready for this next step. Um so the costs associated with this would basically be temporarily funded uh through KMU and then once we get the funding agreements in place through PFA that happens right after we collect bids um then all that cost would be reimbursed along with the ongoing construction costs that type of thing.

43:40 Um what questions do you have related to that? So, it says something in here about 36 services listed, but there are currently 45 known, but it would pay for the the whole amount, the whole 45. Is that what I'm reading? Yeah. Um, so the our our list of known galvanized or le services is changing all the time.

44:07 Oh, okay. Okay. Um, so, uh, right now what the PFA will fund, PFA and Department of Health will fund through these is replacement of services up to a million dollars total. Um, the actual cost per service is a little bit unknown realistically even until we get into construction because some of them will have to replace just the service line up in the yard.

44:33 Some of them we do all the way out to the street. Sometimes it's only within the street. Um, so we budget conservatively for that up to that million dollar mark. Uh, with the goal that we could um uh replace all of these problematic service lines um or or at least up to the million-dollar line.

44:54 This is something that we have to have done while we can get reimbured million dollars. Otherwise, we could lose it and have to pay it ourselves. Yeah, that's the fear here right now is, you know, right now the program pays for 100%. There's already discussions going on about uh reducing that that participation, right? So, it's it's kind of a unique uh opportunity where you have, you know, mandated improvements, but there's money available.

45:18 So, we're trying to jump on that while uh while we count. So, what happens in this instance where you've got this right of entry agreements and if a resident doesn't allow you in to replace it, are we going to have to pay for it? No. What what we'll do what we've been doing with these in other cities is we'll we'll just we'll set up this right of entry agreement.

45:42 We'll we'll have your city attorney involved with that one as well, but the contractor will be carrying those and they'll basically tell the resident, look, here, you know, you need to sign this, otherwise we can't do the replacement. Um, I guess we haven't come across anyone quite yet that's outright refused. Um uh and I'd have to look into that a little bit further, but right now the mandate is if there's a a private water service by a certain date, it can no longer be connected to the public water supply if it's those problematic materials.

46:12 So that what is what we could be looking at. Realistically, there are benefits to this private owner if they just let us in to do the work. They they you know, there's no other opportunity Yeah. where this happens for free and we have a lot of assessments over the past several years that prove that, right? Yeah. Um so it is a good thing and something that I'm hopeful that we won't run into significant issues.

46:38 So that's just something that uh you know we need to handle on the back end that agreement process. [clears throat] I'll make a motion if you guys have any more comments. I'll make a motion. I second it. All in favor? I motion motion passes for the lead service land placement project design.

47:03 Thank you. Um so uh next several items that are up on the agenda are all related to this penion crossings development. I'm just going to give a very rough overview of everything first and then we can kind of come back through uh the items one by one. And I'll also ask Mr. rigs here to weigh in on a couple of them. Uh like we discussed last month, um this is the, you know, proposed development of a 38 unit apartment building.

47:32 Um as part of that process, um and the, you know, the overall zoning review with this, we need a couple of things in order to happen. In order to build on this lot, they need to combine the parcels that are out there so they're not building across property lines. Um, and that's that's realistically what the trigger is for the uh plat that's proposed. So, uh, the preliminary plat process uh is an initial review of that plat that will eventually split up or or combine that land uh establish uh public easements needed to uh meet current code and and future requirements out

48:08 there. And realistically, it also it kind of sets the stage for the remainder of the development process. There's a number of conditions that you can find in the resolution um that are uh ultimately, you know, we're recommending uh um it would basically establish the process um so that we can continue with the development process in the future.

48:28 You you'll see things referenced in there like a development agreement um and a number of other things that they need to do, you know, final plan reviews, checking in with the Department of Transportation um so we can establish all those criteria before that step happens. Um there's three variances uh associated um with the development. Uh one of which is a parking variance.

48:51 Um the city code uh off the top of my head believes uh I I believe that requires 46 stalls. Um and uh you guys are proposing 38. Is that correct? Um so we need a variance for that. Um there's a residential density variance based on the number of uh living units that are going into this um uh into the apartment.

49:18 We need a variance that basically establishes the uh uh the size of the lot. Um so if you're just going up a straight definition of the uh uh zoning requirements for this area, this size of apartment would normally require a two basically a 2 and 1/2 acre lot. um uh they're requesting a variance to bring that down to the one acre that's proposed.

49:41 Uh and then lastly, um this this last variance for the front yard setback is actually caused by something that we uh uh requested that they do. Um you've noticed in any of the plan submittals that they submitted, they've got private parking, those 90 degree parking stalls that are directly adjacent to the roadway. Um there's public sidewalk that's adjacent to that and we want to bring all of those improvements.

50:06 We'd like for all those improvements to stay uh 100% within the rightway uh into the future just so we have more control and protections associated with those improvements. As a result of that, they need to move their their lot line a little bit further into the property and they need a variance for their building. It doesn't mean that the building is any closer to the actual roadway from what you see here today.

50:29 Um it's it's just a uh a zoning step that would be needed to uh um allow for the approval of this. Um and then lastly, even though it's first on the list here, we've got a number uh uh of uh development agreements um associated with the project. And is that something where I could hand this off to you, Scott, if you can give a portfol?

50:52 Yeah, you have three agreements and and uh as Derek points out um first items for adoption resolution 2026-33. Uh the first agreement in there is contract for private development. It deals with the tax increment financing you have previously approved and created in the tax increment district back in June. This would be the culmination of that and having a contract with the actual developer to move forward with that.

51:15 Part and parcel to that as well is there's a subgrant agreement that relates to the deed grant that also is providing dollars for uh the property and for the developer to renovate the property, remove the property, demolition, etc. Um so you have already executed that agreement as the city and accepted those dollars. This would be the agreement to pass those dollars on to the developer at this point in time.

51:39 We talked about this before as well. Um there's also a match for that that comes out of the tax increment as well. So that's why those two agreements are going in tandem. The third agreement that I put together with Derek is the development agreement that applies to the development itself, the hard plat as well as the infrastructure improvements that have to go in for the property. Um Derek was just referencing that.

52:01 There's also separate agreements within that dealing with parking on certain parts of rightway and encroachment agreement, things like that. Um, but it's fairly straightforward. It's consistent with other agreements you've approved. All three of them are uh in the past and uh it's about 73 pages in your your packet.

52:22 So, we apologize for that. Uh but it's the first resolution to approve and it basically puts the project in place and then you have the other four resolutions to approve as to the preliminary plat and then the variances that Derek already talked about. Last thing I'll mention with this this obviously went through planning commission uh last week and they had recommended approval um on these resolutions as you see them.

52:47 We did not review any of the development agreement items but the preliminary plat and the three variances were recommended for approval and all the development agreements have been vetted with the developer. um all of our uh development staff, financial advisor, uh city engineer, city attorney. Still, there's a few little tweaks that have to go to make them all work together, but those have all been changed on my end at this point in time.

53:13 So, there's a couple changes that are in your in your packet right now, but it doesn't change the uh the overall concept of what's going on, what you're approving tonight. question. So, I apologize, but my iPad has been acting up.

53:35 So, we're looking at the 38 parking spots for 38 units roughly. Uh, we should have 1.8 stalls on average per apartment unit. The code requires two stalls uh per per unit. So, that brings us to believe 56 or 57. So more than that we're parking.

54:00 Yep. And uh you know we're really close to the we're really close to the ordinance. So um not not too far off. So So one thing I will add that was probably the most discussed item at the uh at the planning commission meeting is concerns over that. um you know what are we trying to do here uh to make sure that we don't cause some type of problematic scenario because obviously the residents that are in that area are concerned about losing the parking in front of their um uh in front of their homes.

54:34 Uh you know when we're looking at these we certainly have the you know the city code requirement 2.0 stalls in a lot of cases it's more complicated than that. Uh we also look at this from the number of stalls per bedroom um to kind of see how that compares and you know just looking at it from a very basic perspective this two stalls per apartment unit when we're comparing that to a lot of other cities in the area it it is quite high um the the 1.8 8 that they're proposing is, you know, still a little bit on the high end, but they are

55:10 meeting that. Um, you know, in terms of reasons to move forward, that's that's kind of the the primary issue that we were trying to address and we didn't see any concerns, you know, at our level just based on that information and some of the other information that they've provided from other similar types of development. But by all means, there, you know, there there was that that was the most actively discussed item.

55:35 the plan was located. That's they recommended approval, but we passed it. It was a long discussion because I felt that the variance for the density goes hand in hand with the variance for the park if you're going to put a unit like that in half the amount of space that's ordinanced that you need to collect to provide adequate parking.

55:58 So, it was a long discussion. How many stalls are we actually short? Eight. And that's considering full capacity all the time, right? The chances of having that building completely full all the time. Two people per apartment cons. Well, there's 62 beds.

56:20 So, because they're the configurations are two bedroom, one bedroom efficiency. There's probably some single people moving by, right? Yeah. There's So one and um representative your associate Derek was here and said that like Derek said tonight 1.8 is high comparative to other cities their ordinances for this size of an apartment is 1.8 is high.

56:47 So that made me feel a little better. I still feel a little reluctant putting those people on one acre, all those people on one acre with no green space or little to no green space. Yeah. And but yeah, so that's the other thing, you know, that this residential density requirement um the R3 zoning that's out there right now requires uh I believe it's 2700 square foot of lot area per unit.

57:16 So that's how that you know this two and a half acre lots where where does that come from? Um from an intent perspective what's what's the code trying to do with that? Um it's you know more more outside space uh in these cases outside space is most of the time used for parking and just general green space open space for you know use by anyone.

57:43 Uh in this particular case, you know, it's a little bit unique. They have they are proposing 20 new stalls around the uh north and west sides uh of the building, which is good. Um we've also got a large portion of the parking that's in the public right away. Um so that's kind of an atypical scenario that isn't really accounted for in those codes.

58:07 They don't really jive together. Uh and then thirdly, they've got uh some support parking on the adjacent lot that's across from uh State Street from the building here. So just from a parking perspective, it it seems as though the you know the the residential density intent is met. Um what's somewhat lacking uh from this is the green space that's associated with this.

58:30 So you'll notice as a condition in the resolution there um what we're recommending to address that is to basically adopt an increased level of park dedication fee. Um so normally they would pay the market value uh 10% of the developable area um and that could be used by park for you know these types of improvements that would you know could ultimately benefit the the residents of the area.

58:58 uh instead of basing that calculation on the one acre that they're proposing, the way it's written right now is to base that on the area that would otherwise be required, 2 and a half acres. Uh and that effectively would double your park dedication fee from around, you know, we were in some preliminary numbers. I believe it's between the normal uh fee just using the 1 acre lot would be between 14 and 15,000 and it essentially doubles that value.

59:26 So you find land on this side. I mean, I don't know if that's feasible, but on this side of six for those people. Well, yeah. And the park dedication fee, uh, yeah, you could use it to purchase land if you wanted to do that. But, you know, the idea of it is that you could use it for a number of types of improvements. Maybe it's it's, you know, improvement of an existing space, right? That type of thing.

59:47 And that's, you know, what exactly you do with that is not part of tonight's decision. It's just it's, you know, this seemed like it would be one way to address that deficiency. Without something more substantial like this, I I'd worry that it could not be justified. Um, but you know, that level of participation seems seems uh, you know, like it would.

1:00:08 One thing I'd like to see, and this is going to come up after my time on the council, and I tried this when I worked as a city employee, is I'm envisioning if this goes through, certain things done, some families living there. I would love to see some sort of kind or lighted access across 60. So if you have a young family, they want to go to the people park, go to the pool, I would love to see something that's controlled.

1:00:31 Yeah. So that young families crossing on 60 could do that. I tried when I was here and because it's a highway, a lot of [clears throat] things, but I would like to see something like that. I I'm I'm glad you brought that up. We did actually talk about Highway 60 as part of this. um you know as part of this individual project I I think it's appropriate to keep them separate but remember we do have that highway 60 improvement project with mindot that's coming up and we've got years of engagement with them um part of that is going to be their decision m mindot's decision

1:01:07 and that's a bit complicated [laughter] sometimes um but uh you know that uh you know a good crossing and maybe some sidewalk extensions to some other areas is um down on that end of the community in particular uh is something that in place now might help our hand a little bit by saying we now have this more residents more people crossing I really think it's something ultimately they look at warrants the number of people that are crossing versus vehicles that are going so yeah more more uh traffic is going to get us closer to that warrant city cross

1:01:44 the highway would make a lot of sense all the residents So, I just wanted to bring that up. It would be nice to see. Thank you. Do we need a motion for each of these individually? Can we put It'd be best if they were.

1:02:04 Yes. Okay. All right. You guys have any more comments or questions? No. All right. Can we get a motion for resolution 202633 that's approving a contract private development sub grant agreement develop agreement real estate LLC for ser I will make that motion no go ahead I'll second All right in favor I I motion

1:02:40 pass for resolution 202633 Want me to read all that stuff again? I don't know. No. Fine. Yeah. All right. And was the contract for private private development? All those are in there. You're you're on to item D, mayor. Yep. All right. Um, do we have a motion for resolution 202625 approving prelim preliminary plat of Kenyan crossings?

1:03:10 I'll make that motion. I'll I'll second it. All in favor? I um motion passes for resolution 202625. Moving on to resolution 202626. Looking varants of lot one block 1 Kenyan Crawford subdivision.

1:03:34 We'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-26. I'll second that. All in favor? I. Motion passes for resolution 2026-26. Motion for resolution 2026-27 approving a residential density variance of lot one block one crossing subdivision.

1:03:57 I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-27. Second it. All in favor? I. Motion passes for resolution 2026 27. Resolution 2026-28 approving a front yard setback variance of lot one block one Kenny crossing subdivision.

1:04:21 Do we have motion? I will make that motion. I'll second favor. I motion passes for resolution 2026-28. All right, done with all that. Thank you, Derek. Moving on to legal. Mr. Rick, you already did everything.

1:04:44 We combined it. So, you're all good. Thank you. Old business 2027 budget update resolution 202631 adopting 2027 budget 11. So, this will be a continuation of the last uh month's uh budget discussion that we had. We do have um some representatives from Abdo.

1:05:06 I think Jesse's going to be going some of the budget, but we do have a couple others. We have Macy and then we have uh Jean also on the call. So, I'll let them decide how they're going to tag team that. But Jesse, if you're Is Jesse steering or are you steering, Heather? Jesse's on. Yeah. All right, Jesse, it's you're up. All right. Can everybody hear me? Okay. A little faint.

1:05:28 Is there any way? Let's see. Oh, wait a second. Is that better? See you guys. One second. Yeah, Alex. Okay. Right now, Jesse, can you hear me now?

1:05:50 Yes. Yes, that's better. Thanks, D. Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you, Mayor Council. Tonight, we're going to adopt a preliminary levy. Um, the levy needs to be certified to the county by September 28th. And as a reminder, once we set the preliminary budget tonight, the levy cannot increase. It can only decrease until December.

1:06:14 All right. So, tonight we're going to go over some key items for considerations. We're going to go over the tax levy and then go over some general fund revenues and expenditures. Um, some key items to keep in mind is the 2027 tax levy is proposed to increase $141,7574 or 9.26% from 2026.

1:06:42 I want to point out that a balanced general fund budget is presented. your LGA will increase about $2,238 for a total of 6 $668,954. And also the debt service and capital improvements are budgeted in their respective funds. So Jesse, one second.

1:07:04 So council members, you recall you sent Jesse and I kind of to to go try to take some more off that 10point that I heard kind of kicked around a little bit at the beginning of the meeting. Um, we got it to the 9.26 that you saw there. And we still are waiting to watch what may happen with a full-time employee position at the PD.

1:07:25 Depending upon how that shakes out, there might be a little more a little bit of wiggle room still. Um, but right now, we're confident at the 9.26, which is was uh is better than where uh we were asked to even and bring that in. So, yep. Um, also all employees are projected to receive a 3% increase in wages and also a step increase if eligible.

1:07:49 We have estimated a 5% increase to workers comp and also general liability insurance and a 5% increase in health insurance premiums. And I don't believe we have received those numbers yet. So as soon as we received those, we should be able to get those updated. All right. So, this is the tax levies tab.

1:08:11 Um, if you note at the top, the general fund levy is going to increase $159,784, which is a total of 23.12%. Jesse, can you a little bit? We can It kind of cuts off a little bit. Is there a way you can move that just tad so they can see the whole thing? Or not? No, I don't think so.

1:08:33 Okay. I don't think so. It is in your packet though. I'm following right along with the memo. Yes. There just some people in the crowd that that don't uh don't have all the packets. So, okay. Okay. Um the capital fund levy then is going to decrease $35,200 and that's 30.21%. The fire levy is going to decrease $1,349 and that's 1.35%.

1:09:01 The fire or the library levy then is going to increase $7,354 and that's a $4.75% increase and that's mainly due to an increase in wages and benefits. The EDA levy then is going to increase 13,78 and that's 15.90%.

1:09:24 And that is mainly due to an increase in or the de or an increase to um we removed that inner fund loan transfer as revenue because it was paid off in 2026. So that is due to or that's the increase of that. Um, a little farther down, the debt service levy is going to decrease $2,93 and that's.55%.

1:09:53 And that is mainly due to the removal. Let's see, that is due to the budgeted um inner or the budgeted uh debt levy payments. And then all the way at the bottom here, the total debt levy is going to increase again $141,574, which is that 9.26% that Scott was talking about.

1:10:18 The tax capacity then is going up $42,57 and that's a 2.33% increase, which in turns reflects the tax levy or the tax rate, which is going up 5.68% 68% to 89.53%. All right, so this slide shows the different levies laid out in graph form.

1:10:42 At the bottom there is the orange. That is the general fund tax levy. As you see throughout the years, it increases slightly and then in 2026 it dropped and then in 2027 it increases again slightly. The debt service is the yellow piece in the middle that has remained steady throughout the five years. The fire levy is the black piece at the top and that's remained steady as well.

1:11:09 The library levy is the dark green which has remained about the same. The EDA levy has remained about the same as well. And then that capital levy is at the top is that tan portion at the top there. So on this slide you can see the impact of taxes on the different market values of the residential properties.

1:11:31 I want to point out that this is a no change in market value has been assumed. So this is totally estimated and no market value has been factored into this. So a $100,000 house is approximately going to go up $35. A $200,000 house is going to go up about $97. A $300,000 house is going to go up about $159.

1:11:56 A $400,000 house is going to go up about $221. And then that commercial property at 500,000 is going to go up about $525. All right. So in this slide, we can see the general fund levies broken down by the type of revenue that it is. I want to point out just some of the major changes.

1:12:20 Um that property tax line at the top there is going up about $159,784. So that line item every time I offset an expense or revenue that line item is changed. And then it flipped on me. Um so that line item changes every time a revenue goes up or down or an expense goes up and down.

1:12:44 So that is the main driver of the tax levy right there. And the rest of them um the interest earnings I increased about $10,000 and that's due to favorable market conditions and the rest of them were minimal differences. All right, these are the expenditures. So these are broken up by departments to the general fund.

1:13:07 So a few of the larger changes there is in city administration it's going up about $78,854. So that is um an increase in wages and benefits due to colas and steps. And then there's an increase in outside services due to the coding of ABDO invoices. As you see there a little farther down the line the general government is going down about $57,000.

1:13:33 Um the coding for the ABDO invoices is actually going to the city administration. So I increased the general admin or the city administration budget and decrease the general government insurance to cover that. So that those two offset each other minus a few other changes. Um law enforcement towards the middle there is going up $103,70 and that is wages and benefits due to colon step increases.

1:14:01 And then that's that increase in health insurance due to the vacant position and the change in health insurance plans. And towards the bottom there, streets is going up about $26,220. And that's an increase in wages due to coal and step. And then we had a $5,000 increase to uh fuel fuel prices.

1:14:26 And last but not least, we have the chart. What percentage of the general fund? So each department here is that's made up of the general fund. The three top areas we have is law enforcement at 34% that is the orange portion. City administration is the black portion and that's 21.3%. And then the streets is at 16.7 which is the yellow portion there.

1:14:53 And with that I will stand for any questions you may have. Let me stop sharing. Question the law enforcement side.

1:15:25 Can you explain the increase in health insurance if we have a position that's not filled? Um, so there's a vacant um police officer position. So I budget the highest amount of um insurance for that position because we do not know what that uh vacant or that staff person is going to take once they come in.

1:15:47 So we budget the highest portion or the highest amount we for health insurance. And Jesse, we also had increased um medical coverage. Um we had Yes. an individual that was not taking the family portion was taking is now taking. So that made an adjustment. Yeah. Yep. New person might not even need the insurance of their spouse.

1:16:09 So this could be a lot less. Correct. And that's what I referred earlier in the conversation where there might be some wiggle room. That's what we're waiting to see how that plays out. Yep. How about the swimming pool budget with the condition of the swimmoon pool?

1:16:44 Was that something that So, initially there was money put into the pool budget for repairs and all that, but when we um started taking um a look at the levy as you guys asked us to do, that was one of the things that was taken out of the budget for that. So, there's there's there's some funds that are in there normally, but we were looking to add $75,000 in there for cracks and fill and painting and all that kind of stuff, and that is no longer Correct me if I'm wrong, J, but I believe that is no longer It's not in there.

1:17:17 One of the first we took. Yeah. I should say. So, we're going to keep our fingers crossed and hope we can keep putting that pool back together. Sure. Yeah. So, city administration. So, the the contract that we have with ABDO, the base contract, then if we have hourly above that, where does where is that?

1:17:42 How is that reflected? Do you want to address that or Jane? Yep. So, right now it is for 2026 it's budgeted in the um general govern or general government department, but it's been coded to the city administration budget.

1:18:04 So, I flopped those two for 2027. So, as you see, there's a decrease in the one and an increase of the other. Okay. So it's basically how the coding was posted. So the 406864 for budgeted for 2027, does that include um all of the aspects of ADO like HR, payroll, and so um city business.

1:18:31 Yeah. So if you will allow me to when we get into new business and we talk about ABDO versus we're going to get into all those specifics. So, if you want to hold that or we can try to get into it now, Jesse, if you want to move ahead. Um, we certainly it is um ABDO is budgeted in for 2027. So, all of the services from ABDO are included in this budget.

1:18:54 Was that your overall question? Basically, yeah. And then there's hourly am hourly payments that are made above and beyond the contract. So, so typically we try to keep it in the contract and then when we do the contract there is what they call some flex dollars in there which means if there's something that's outside we are budgeting for because it's easier to budget for the lump sum than it would be for the dollar amount.

1:19:16 So very seldom is there an overage if you will if you're going to be charged an hourly wage. So, we when we get into the next part, we're going to see exactly what the HR portion does, what exactly what the payroll portion does, and exactly what uh Jesse's uh portion is right there. And those are flat rates that we can budget against or budget for. And that's in the next um part of the that's going to be in the ABDO finance director more so.

1:19:43 All right. Yeah. In the city council budget, that's what the city council gets paid for the year. That's how we budget for it. Those line items for what year? Because I know I mentioned before that we would do this for free. I don't know. I can't speak for the other council. Yeah, I didn't think it was a paid position when I ran when I doing it for the community, not I don't We can discuss that at the budget meeting.

1:20:10 I would scratch it. Yeah, we can talk about save us all. So, I have a question because I'm thick and you've probably told me a hundred times, but I don't remember. City administration includes what salaries for the city?

1:20:32 Does that include the water people, the streets people, the I'm sorry you've told me, but tell me again. Go ahead, Jesse. Yep. I'm pulling up the bud right at the moment. Pulling it up. I knew she she probably had it up already. I maybe answered my question. Streets street department streets the street department the street department guys are 100% or they're divided out between let me get this park and all that but it's not parks pool all of that.

1:21:04 Yep. Um, the city administration is included, the part-time, there's the part-time staff, all the office staff basically, and they're divided up between different departments as well. All right. Okay. It's not just your administrator. Well, [laughter] I I that's where I was going.

1:21:31 Yes. Yes. Yes. [laughter] It's a good question. Any other questions? I believe there's a resolution in your packet too that needs to be approved to certify the preliminary levy 31.

1:22:02 Yes. All right. Um, we get a motion for Are you guys any more comments? First, what is that fireh hall amount? H at the beginning of the meeting, we tal we looked at that dollar amount that's coming out of something and going to the fire hall.

1:22:25 The $90,000. So, you're talking about back in the consent agenda, the consent. So basically Jesse and I worked with with Wayne and what we were trying to do is consolidate the capital stuff instead of having it. So they had a truck fund and then they had the their capital fund. It's a 203 versus a 202 versus the 203 203.

1:22:48 What we did is we we're going to stop the 202 and we're going to put everything for the fire into the 203 so we have line of sight. We can see what's going on. It isn't making it. It's just adjusting money, putting it in there into the 203 fund so we have line of sight to it. All right. Shifting things. It wasn't adding more money to anything. Okay. Yeah. Y and it's all around capital.

1:23:11 Okay. Yeah. Anything else? Can we get a motion to adopt resolution 202631 adopting the 2027 preliminary budget? That be that will be looked at tomorrow. I will make that motion. I'll second.

1:23:33 All in favor? I motion passes for resolution 2026-31. All right. Moving on to set the truth and taxation meeting December 1st at 6:30 p.m. So we need a motion to set that date.

1:23:54 Yep. Yeah. Who attends that? Okay. I'll make a motion to set the meeting date for December 1st at 6:30 p.m. I'll second that. All in favor? Hi. Hi. All right. Meeting set of taxation meeting for December 1st at 6:30 p.m.

1:24:20 Moving on to new business, the Deep Pole Park Concrete Project. Did you want to speak more to that or if they had any questions? If you have any questions, it's just uh that was the one of the five. Dan Lex came in much slower than everybody else. So yeah, we're glad to see that keep the work folks.

1:24:44 Yep. All right, we good with approving it. Yeah, we need a motion to approve that. Do we have a motion to approve the depot park cont concrete project? Do we want a pending favor discussion we had earlier or pending discussion on the favors? what we can do with those to offset some of the money or the only thing I'm wondering about is if we're doing ADA pavers might not be I don't know pavers are under be able to build an ADA compliance then

1:25:19 we won't be able to what you would do with those if you wanted to reinccorporate them is do it off on some side space where it's more decorative whatever something that's not in your primary access route and then you'll then you'll be in the clear all But you you should check on some of this stuff because like give you an example. When we do a road project, we'll specify whether or not we want to keep the ground up asphalt because that's worth money to a contractor and that may influence their price.

1:25:49 So you you might just want to it's good to have a contingency in there if you guys truly want. They may be looking to sell the papers on the side. Correct. Yeah. That's why they're probably all asking about it. Yeah. So if you put that contingency, I think that puts you in good shape. If you made it clear what your goals are and if he's got to adjust something then he definitely back. All right.

1:26:11 Maybe we could make a swimming pool out of pavers. I like the way you think. [laughter] All right. So I believe we had a motion for the concrete project pending the papers. So leave that in there and sharing see what we can do with that.

1:26:32 Yeah. I'll make that motion to to approve the quote with the contingency on determining what's happening with the pavers. I'll second that. All in favor? I I motion passes for Depot Park concrete project. All right. Abdul versus internal finance director.

1:26:54 So, I I can tee that up and I think everybody on the screen is going to have a little bit of conversation or or some input potentially in there. But basically, if you look at what's in your packet there, uh it goes to Deanna's um or Council Member Guard's question on what does each one of those, you've heard me talk about it before. It's like a three-legged stool is actually what we have with ABDO.

1:27:16 So, you have the financial solutions piece at $109,000. You have an HR service piece at 30,000. And then you have payroll services at 25 for a total of 164800. If you take a look at what we were paying a finance director and we're talking about one person, right, as a finance director that was wearing kind of these three hats, u we've had multiple discussions about um how we can do better and how we're driving efficiencies and how we can uh move forward.

1:27:45 When you take a look at these three different legs of the stool, if you will, we're talking easily with all the supporting people and all that type of stuff, um, probably 25 to 30 people. I deal with a dozen people on a regular basis in those three different areas. You have Jean who's here tonight who's a partner who's owner of the company that's here uh and and and I have access to her if I have questions anytime or putting and and putting this kind of stuff together.

1:28:15 If you just take a look at what we would have been paying a finance director if we would have continued at $4045 an hour uh including benefits uh this does not include overtime when that individual left there was overtime that was uh on the books and typically sometimes overtime is part of that but for this discussion we kept it out of there. If you take a look at what ABDO can do in the with the three different areas all added together, it's still cheaper than what we would do if we had one finance director internally that's trying to wear all three of those hats and um and kind

1:28:51 of move forward. So, when I take a look at what we've been able to accomplish since we've ABDO there, the efficiencies we've been able to drive, there's still more that we're doing. We're still finding things um not as frequently as at the beginning, but we are still finding things that need to be adjusted that need to be um moved around that still we are still going to be paying for a bond that was missed for um uh for another year yet on top of the the the next coming year.

1:29:18 So, there are things that we are trying to do to be able to dig out and to be able to get things level set again. um when you're when you're trying to drive efficiencies, one of the things that I found in dealing with them is they're on top of all the laws. When I deal with Abby on the HR piece or or they're they they know about the laws, they know about the Minnesota Leave Act that started in January of 2026.

1:29:41 They knew all the ins and outs, what needed to be done, the resolutions that needed to come to the council, that type of stuff. This is what they do all day, every day for all kinds of different cities, right? So, they specialize in that. I have never, and you've heard me say this before and I'm going to say it again, I have never heard payroll be as quiet as it is right now. Payroll is a very passionate piece.

1:30:03 And and I used to have regular stream of people after payday coming in and saying this isn't right or this isn't right or something doesn't uh jive. I don't have that now. Val does an excellent job with that. Uh and her group and and payroll is about as smooth as smoother than I would have even expected.

1:30:26 And so when you have and the nice thing about Val and and and Abdo and her doing the payroll is she specializes in ADP. I don't know. I wasn't here when ADP was put in, but I I've heard the horror stories that not nobody was really an expert on it. We decided we were going to use um that and and and Val that that's her wheelhouse.

1:30:47 That's what she does, right? Same thing with Jesse and Macy. when you talk about Banyan that this is what they they deal with is in Banyan. They know the ins and outs of Banyan and all that type of stuff. So, um I could go on and on um about different things. I mean, we just recently had to deal with an individual that left and we needed to get them the cola information. Um we have somebody that's going to be using uh paid leave coming up here and everything is just like clockwork.

1:31:14 We just get a hold of what we need to. We get it. In the case of the cola, it was mailed out to the individual's house. I asked him to give me the let me know when he got it and without a hitch. I mean, it just it it just it's smooth. So, my my recommendation without going into a whole lot and I'll turn it over to anybody on the screen that wants to talk about it is is my recommendation is to continue to use ABDO.

1:31:36 I think we're getting better and better all the time. It's the most cost-effective moving forward from what we were paying a finance director and we have multiple people that are able to step up or answer a phone call for me. Typically, I'm the point person that's getting a hold of these people and working on things that my recommendation is that we stay with ABDO and we move forward and sign a contract with What would the salary be of a finance director with benefits and everything?

1:32:03 Yeah. 67,100 right now if we stayed at the same rate we were paying at $4045 an hour. So then with this the fee for Abdul is 109,000 for the first year. Uh that's for a piece of it. The total is 164 164,800 versus 16710. We're still saving $3,000 plus and that's not including overtime.

1:32:27 And you got the whole team and HR aspect for that as well. HR, payroll, and budgeting, everything that we're talking about here tonight. Yeah. And that's not including overtime. And I'll just throw this out there. I don't want to put the overtime in there, but when our finance director left the last time mid year, there was $10,000 worth of overtime in there.

1:32:49 That's not even equated into this. I wanted to go straight. This is what charged straight dollar amounts. So the payroll portion of it, the contractual part looked pretty straightforward, but the the um overall part of it, okay, I got to get my thoughts straight. Um what is the threshold for adding more to that 109,000 amount?

1:33:16 Is there uh let me look at my notes because I took down some notes because I as a council member I appreciate the city's take on what ABDO can do and obviously they're a big company. They're efficient whatever. That's not my gig. But our gig is just to look at best way to use the city's money.

1:33:40 Mhm. So I wrote down a bunch of notes about um money basically. So the HR part of it um it's a 60 the 2500 a month is for 60 hours is what we're paying for. But if we go above that then it's an hourly fee. So the the f and Jean you may have to help me with this one but the flex dollar.

1:34:04 So, when you're looking at the 60 hours of flex, you have the designated contract amount and then you have if something I'll give you an example. If I wanted to have Abdo and Abby and her group come and sit in on the interviews for whatever position it is, right? That typically isn't captured in the overall contract isn't is not.

1:34:25 Yeah. That would be what the flex dollar the flex dollars are. So, with the 60 you're talking about, that's in addition to the contract. That's 60 flex hours that can be used for something that's not necessarily in the contract, right? Yes. So, um, but this is each each portion of the contract has its own parameters I the way I looked at it and I don't know but the HR part is one part of the pie, right?

1:34:56 The payroll is another part of you're looking at the whole offering services. Each service has its own like contract guidelines or guidelines. So I just wonder. Yeah. They each have their own contract if Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if we go above and beyond that contracted base price, how often do we do that city?

1:35:19 Not very often. We don't. So where is that reflected in the budget? If we do go over that budget or the 60 the 60 flex hours in HR are already in the 30,000. We don't pay for that. The flex hours are flex hours are part of the gross package. Right. Yep. And Jesse, I don't think we've ever done anything flex in in your your portion.

1:35:43 That's all contracted work, right? Doesn't take much. Yeah. I don't know if you heard that, Danny. No, I'm sorry. Well, there's no I don't have flex hours with like Jesse's group. We just It's all contracted work, right? And the same thing with Val. Val, this is how much it costs to be able to do payroll and cost about W2s and all the things that need to go along with it. The only group that I ever um manage the flex dollars is in the HR piece of it.

1:36:08 So, do and are we using HR as wisely as we could? I believe so. Flex dollars like do they do they do we pay them mileage to come here and do all our HR stuff? if if we do that, but they don't come here very often. So, I manage the flex dollars and we have a a bi-weekly meeting I do with with Abby and her group and we take a look at that.

1:36:29 So, we manage those flex dollar. Okay, what's contracted work? What can we get done with the contracted work? And a lot of the stuff is all underneath the contract. The flex dollars are there if we want to do something above and beyond. And and when I found out that the flex dollars get used for like uh interviews, well, we just don't have them come and do the interviews. And we're okay with that.

1:36:50 We don't do the interviews. Okay. Does the interviews with me or or you know, we try to take care of that internally, right? That's good to know. Yeah. I'm not chasing people, you know, on the road paying mileage and having them here um very often at all. None of them are. I mean, Jesse was here with Macy during auditing.

1:37:11 They haven't been back since auditing. Okay. And that's part of the contracted service, too. Contract. Part of what we pay Jesse and her group is part of audit prep. Yes. Okay. But they are readily available to come here if we need them. Absolutely. They're always Yeah. But me being your city administrator, I'm kind of frugal like that. I'm trying to wa I'm trying to watch we get spended and we can do something internally.

1:37:35 I mean, that's part of the idea why we were talking about two part-time employees being able to do certain things is to be able to take some of that and doing it internally and not necessarily having to have ABDO folks come and do that. I think the amount of resources that we have with ABDO is far beneficial having one person do all of this. That's my thoughts. I mean, I don't know what your guys are as long as you have thoughts.

1:38:00 Go ahead. I like your thoughts. This is nothing against Apple. They're an amazing company. This is nothing against them. I know it on the record that if I mention something or have an opinion, it doesn't mean I'm or against something. I'm just thinking neutral as I try to do. Now, we had someone in that position, finance director for a number of years.

1:38:20 They did a very, very solid good job. Now, I'm like the old man here when I go back in my day. I've only been retired from the city for five years. I'd like to think that in the five years I've been retired, and correct me if I'm wrong, our city has not exploded in growth. We haven't added a whole bunch of new staff as far as for numbers of people.

1:38:42 We added a couple, right? And I like, and again, I'm going to sound like father time. I liked having a person in that office when I was a city employee. Here's what I liked about it. I could walk in with my budget and go, "Can you explain what this is?" And they go, "Sure, simpleton, this is what this is." And I believe that it was quick and easy and efficient.

1:39:05 When they came on with Abdo, their role at that time, correct me if I'm wrong, was to help clean up some things that were missed and weren't handled appropriately. Am I right or am I wrong? We had some influx with with uh with people in these positions and things were were not getting put where they needed to be put. The came in and did an amazing job.

1:39:27 They're great. I want a person such as me in that office. And here's why. I like having face-to-face contact with this person, especially as a council member, which again my term is up here soon. As a city employee, I like having that. I like having the ability to get a phone call and going, "Hey, can you come over here quick? We got to look at how to move this over here, figure this out or fix this." I liked that.

1:39:51 It was quick and it was efficient. I liked it. I liked having the opportunity. And again, maybe I'm a realist optimist. I think if we pay this much money to a living, breathing person who's in here, this is someone who could invest in our community as well. Again, this is nothing against if we pay this kind of money to somebody.

1:40:12 Okay, we have the opportunity to have someone maybe live in our town or very close to our city who would be spending money here, maybe their kids would go to school here, maybe they'll shop at the local stores and things like this. Okay, I'm trying to be broad about it. Um, the HR component. And again, maybe things have changed a lot in five years. When I was here, there wasn't a ton of HR stuff and a lot of that came from department heads.

1:40:39 If I had an issue, let's say Kim was one of my employees, I would go, Kim, here's the issue. But what I would normally do is go talk to the city administrator first andor the city attorney and go, I'm having this issue. Here's where I think I want to handle it. And they would say yay or nay. Or a lot of times it was just a simple conversation between the department head and the employee.

1:41:01 I think and maybe I'm wrong. We've gotten away from some of this communication and it's getting farmed out. Again, I could be wrong. This is just what I'm thinking of it. So, I would rather see that kind of money spent on somebody in this office. That was my opinion. Those are my thoughts.

1:41:25 I just think we'll get more bang for our buck with them instead of one person. That's my thoughts. I like the idea of having a person here keeping money down and everything. But for if I was running a business, you know, wanted to succeed and basically the city is a business.

1:41:46 We're trying to make succeed, I would go for more bank, my money. That's what I would do. It that's great because I worked for a company, same thing. alignment, big organization. They had everything in place. Once you got used to the maze, it worked really well.

1:42:08 But the hard part is someone has to like if you have an internal person, they're being managed by the people that they are with all day. Whereas having something like ABDO, the council, we have to be really very aware of what the city's patron director also be had these not as not as much because they're in but but they're still gonna they're still going to have the meeting for the budget everybody's going to be there and they're going to explain everything to us you know it's going to be that way it's I

1:42:44 mean you're still going to have to explain because when the budgets come through we look at them we see all these fancy charts that so I like I get [laughter] it. But I came to virtually I think in all my time as a city employee, I missed maybe three council meeting. I was here for every single council meeting.

1:43:05 What normally happened is you got your budget in the packet. You look at it, get questions, could ask the person, but they did not attend every meeting. They don't hear every single meeting. We got it. if you had questions and again a lot of this in my opinion comes from department heads and from the city administrator calling the department heads can you come over here so and so found this and this this is the same thing with I'm sure they give him the same thing and he's like this is this and this then you sit down you discuss it we correct it so then it's not a thing but I like having it in house I just thought it gives me perfection and

1:43:41 it got me facetime with a person and I think it comes down to communication if this person is sitting next to Scott, next to Heather or somebody else. I think it's quicker communication. And again, it's nothing against that building. Great. I just like the version of a live breathing person benefiting from the city and our co-workers right in the building.

1:44:04 It can be a benefit. So, Mr. Mayor, I think we just have to be really careful of um that all the like with an employee, you pay an hourly wage. Yes, there's overtime can be exponential depending on what project they're working on. But with this, what you have to be careful of is yes, you're signing a contract, but all the there are lot of line items that aren't in that contract that get put on the budget.

1:44:31 And like I've been asking a lot, well, what is this? Where are these expenditures showing on the budget as a line item? The excess paper. And it just takes a lot of um awareness to be on top of it with the other one company doing because they're doing it.

1:44:54 I mean it's lucrative for them. Yeah. They're in business to do this. So and they do it well. They do it very well and it quality of work. No. And it's you know now in this day and age it's a liability. All these things can be a liability. So you have a company like Abdel doing this for you. They're your cush liability.

1:45:17 I get the video but I'm going to just say this expensive. If you own it, you can control it, right? We don't own Apple. So we can't control it, right? If we have something, we own the contract. We have bad Yes, we do experience too. So it doesn't matter if we own it or not.

1:45:38 We just have to know our contract. Have a bad experience. Otherwise, we would never have hired that vote in the first place. I know. So, Mr. Mayor. Yes. So, just a couple things on that and I appreciate the the conversation. I I really do. Um but when we take a look at kind of where we were when Abdo came in. um that that's startling to me that we had a finance director and that some of the things that were I mean I get what council member Scholer saying about uh it's nice to be able to come in and do that, right?

1:46:14 But that's that I'm I'm the I'm the connection to that right now. And then there are many times that we've been able to get somebody on the phone or get Jesse on the phone and sit down. I've done it uh budget time. We sat down with every department head and went through it. What I don't want to go back to is the days where we are doing budgets and we're doing finances on spreadsheets. Um we we we we had a finance director that came in and then we had somebody that came in that was helping us in the interim for quite a few months.

1:46:43 And one of the first things that we needed to do is we needed to get rid of all the other spreadsheets and opening up another spreadsheet so we could start working on spreadsheets. I don't want to go back to spreadsheets. I want to run everything through Banyan through the software system that it's designed to do to be able to do budgets. Um, I can get a hold of any of these people anytime. If Mr. Scholander wanted to come in back in the day when he was the police chief and he wanted to talk about something, he'd be able to come in our office and nine times out of 10 I can get somebody on the call or we can set schedule something very quickly.

1:47:13 Um, I don't want to go back to the way things used to be and where things were being missed and so on and so forth. Um, payroll, like I said, is so smooth. It was not like that before when I first got here. You have uh all these different areas that specialize in it.

1:47:34 They're keeping you up the on the all the laws, right? They carry the insurance. We don't have to have anything additional. Very seldom do we ever go over the contract. This is a pretty solid. The reason that they spend all this time, Gan and the different groups went together and I sat down with all of the three different groups and went through it is they try to think of everything that's in there so we can budget for it.

1:47:56 So it isn't a guessing game, right? It's like this is what it's going to take take to be able to do this section. This is what it's going to take to do that section. And and if I had a finance director that called in sick one day, that's it's shut down. That doesn't happen today. That doesn't happen today at all. If Jesse's sick, Macy steps up. If Macy and Jesse are sick, Jean steps up.

1:48:19 And she doesn't have to do that. But she does that because we have a working relationship that is I don't think can be duplicated by having one person, an internal finance director. That said, and I agree with all that. I just want to make sure we're not paying for the convenience of what they have to offer us. Convenience.

1:48:41 I don't think it's well. Yeah, I guess I use the wrong Yeah. But what you just said about having someone be able to step in, that's just bonus. And I just want to make sure for us, it's wonderful. And I just want to make sure we're not paying for all those extras. Like, are we paying for them to be here right now at extra for this meeting or is that contractual?

1:49:07 That would be under the contract. Okay. See, that's questions like that. I just want [clears throat] to make sure we're using our money wisely. That's all. And I and I appreciate that and that's why we kind of wanted to come here tonight and we had everybody on there to be able just kind of talk about what does it look like, right? And when we started crunching the numbers and I can see that I can get all three of legs of the stool under contract to help with the budget for less than I can do a finance director.

1:49:34 To me, it's it's an easy decision from your city administrator standpoint. Yeah. But what am I missing team up there? Am I missing anything? This um good evening. This is I'm Gene McDan. You know, I really appreciate everything that Scott has said this evening and I also uh respect and appreciate all the questions you've been asking.

1:50:00 They're great questions. Uh, I guess the only other thing that I would say too is that um, one of the advantages that I always see is that if Macy or Jesse or anyone on our team that's working with the city of Kenyon, any work that they're doing is always reviewed by someone else prior to coming back to the city, which um, anytime that you, you know, if you hire an internal finance director, you know, their work is always good, but they don't have the opportunity to have it reviewed by another person before

1:50:35 they're submitting it back to you. And so, um, there's less, uh, room for error with some of the systems and processes that we have in place. Um, the other thing I will say too is if you look at a finest director role, there have been so many new pronouncements put out by the governmental accounting standards board over even say the last five years that have been um they really take a lot of time to navigate and to prepare for audit or to modify

1:51:11 the way that you have to do things and things of that nature. And that's something that we are consistently training our teams on to make certain that they are up to date with everything and they are prepared to address how things need to be handled. Uh we really enjoy working with you and I hope that you'll give us an opportunity and you know Jesse Macy and I are all very happy to address any questions that you might have uh directly from us.

1:51:41 I really like the second and third steps, but we have they're really good pieces of chances. So, yeah. Can I add something to Lee's point, Lee? I will say the year it's changed in five years. The world's changed. And I and I think there is an advantage to having the ability of a group like this rather than one single person.

1:52:02 I say the same thing about attorneys. I couldn't do the work I do if I was sitting here as a solo practitioner. I've got 35 other lawyers that can come in and fix things or have an experience that gives you an efficiency here that I don't think one person can do. I couldn't do it as a lawyer. I don't think a finance director can do it. But I'll tell you in the larger communities that I deal with that still have finance directors, they still are using outside resources just like engineers are.

1:52:29 I know Derek works with in-house engineers at cities as well that they come in. That's the world now. I don't think one person can do that anymore. I don't I get some of it. Yeah. Just giving away the whole pie. I understand that. I I get where you're coming from and and I I can say this is what's happening out there. This is the world that's out there and it is an efficiency.

1:52:51 It is the expertise of the changing world and the extensive number of requirements now for accounting that are cities are facing. It's the same thing in the legal world with, you know, if legislature isn't taking away laws, they're adding every year to it. Same thing's happening on that regard. I mean, that's just my comment on, you know, I my experience and what I'm seeing.

1:53:14 It has changed quite a bit in five years. I get it. But I'm also wondering then when does it stop? I don't think it will. The taxpayers money. Yeah. When does it stop? Yeah. I I get it. Get an assistant public works director. I mean, when does it stop? Yeah. No, I agree with you. I I think that's what Scott was saying. He's trying to come up with an efficiency, which yeah, is a little bit left against how we're spending it.

1:53:39 Like, I'm just trying to shore up some of this and figure out in my own mind when the public stops me and says, "Yeah, why are you doing this? I don't want to be." The one thing that Deanna raised and that the last comment I have is the liability issue because that's changed too. And it's also I I don't want to say you're outsourcing that liability, but you are contractually in this case.

1:53:59 You've got professionals that are triple-checking it, looking at it, reviewing it, where with one individual, you don't have that as well. Um, so there is a liability function here that is coming into play for you that you don't have one employee that's responsible for everything without any other resource to deal with it. And I I just frankly I just don't know that anybody can do that anymore because even at the larger communities they're not they've got outside resources as well.

1:54:32 Another thing to think about too is if all these changes are coming if we did have an HR person or finance director we're going to have to send them to seminars and stuff to learn more stuff. I mean that's it's not a big expense but it adds on too training some they're in the budget and I thought and that's included and they they plan for all that that's included in the bid that they give us the estimate they give us for the contract is all this additional training that the employees of ABDO go to to stay up to speed with everything.

1:55:07 They were invaluable when we just incorporated this this Minnesota Leave Act January 1. They were so helpful to be able to get through that and I felt so comfortable knowing that we were crossing the tees and dotting the eyes and that we were going to be okay when we had a unfunded or unfunded mandate was what I called it that came down and uh we we did the best we could with it and it was it was great.

1:55:31 They did a great job. I see there's two options here also. There's a threeear option and one year option. Yeah. My my recommendation and and the prices is is is that we would just my humble opinion is that we would put them in place.

1:55:56 Let them know that we're going to be partners here for the next three years and we can continue to build off of that and it shows you what the prices are first year, second year and third year. There's no questions. There's it's we can budget for it and we can and move forward with that. It's hard when we do a year and you know you're coming to the end and I wonder what we're going to do, wonder what we're not going to do.

1:56:18 It'd be nice to be able to to have a little longevity here and say, "Okay, we got a three-year plan and we're going to continue to work and get these things lock in the price." No, I would do a three-year option as well. I would because it's only a 5,000 increase pretty much each year. 56,000. So, do we need a vote on three year or one year or I

1:56:55 don't know. Are we looking for a vote to Yeah, we have on this we're going to do AB goal or Okay. finance director and then we'd have to decide we go through when you're choose that goal versus the finance. Yeah. Because what you guys decide then will be which contracts I have to work with them on and all that type of stuff.

1:57:17 Yeah. And one the last thing I'll say with that is there um I know there's been council members that have come in here after Abdo's come in and they said, "I've never understood the budget or understood the numbers as well as I understand it now." Um and that's no shot at anybody that's been here in the past or anything like that, but I think they just have a way of laying it out that it makes sense.

1:57:39 They make themselves available, answer questions, but I've had more than one council member come to me and say, "You know what? after that budget or or last year when we went through the budget. Um it makes total sense to me now and I didn't always feel that way, right? And I didn't want to ask questions because I didn't want to feel silly, so I didn't ask questions, but I really left the council meeting and probably didn't understand as fully as I should have.

1:58:03 And uh I get the opposite of those comments now when we're dealing with Fabo. I'm going to shut up now. I'm sorry. All right, guys. We need to vote on Abdor. Well, after hearing everything, um I do understand the importance of the education that ABDO has and what they can provide.

1:58:38 So I I make a motion that we hire or go into contractual agreement with ABDO. Um do I have to include the one make a recommendation for one year three year at this vote too or do it all in one? You could do it at one. Yes. Okay. I don't know about that. You don't have to do it at one. I mean you could you could just decide on that and then decide what you want to do on on years and things like that because if we break the contract then what happens?

1:59:06 We do the three-year and we decide I mean not that that's gonna happen but if we break the contract then what don't they normally have a policy contract doesn't the contract have like 30 days or 60 days or something in there if things need to be adjusted there there is there is an out within the contract itself and give me just one second and I will provide the actual verbiage on that the contract it's in there too but I think Jean's gonna find it yes I know there's a lot of pages I get it I get it 313 yeah No, there was a lot.

1:59:36 I know. Jean will grab it here. She's got it. So, Jean, if there's client can terminate with a 30-day notice period. That's what [clears throat] I thought it was. Yeah. So, either side could terminate in 30 days. Correct. Uh, that is correct. All right. Without a penalty fee or anything. So, just that is correct.

2:00:03 So they let you out on 30 days if you wanted to get out in 30 days. So they're not trying to lock you under contract. They're just do that so they can price it accordingly. if you're here for three years, here's the red here's the reduced price we can give you because you're going to be a long-term customer instead of a short-term customer because um the first year for them coming in first year, you paid well for that because they were cleaning up all that kind of stuff.

2:00:27 Right now we're in more of a maintenance mode where we can continue on and the price reflected that. Yeah. Our HR part went down in cost because we got the first year out of the way. Yeah. Okay. [clears throat] Well, I make a motion that we go into contractual agreement with Abdul for a period of three years.

2:00:54 Is that enough for a motion? I will second it. All in favor? I I I I'll be in on that. Right. Okay. All right. Motion passes with Three eyes and one nay. We'll go with Abdo for three years.

2:01:18 Receive. Thank you. And thank you three for being here answering questions and fielding questions and all that kind of stuff. Also, I really appreciate your insight on that. I understand. Okay. And it passed and I will support those.

2:01:43 All right. My chair colleation. Hey, I'm so sorry. You've been here all night sitting at your battery probably dead on your computer and everything. I just so just so Annie's here because if you remember um we talked to creative solute there were some council members that had some questions about some certain certain things that showed up and I see Milty just ran out of steam.

2:02:12 He left but his is his has part of it. So I asked Andy if he would be here tonight to be able to answer the questions and make sure that we're crystal clear that all council members understand this whole parah insurance and all that kind of stuff. So, they were kind enough to say, "We will be there and we will explain it to them." So, with that, I'm not going to keep you any longer. And Annie, why don't you let it rip?

2:02:37 I did presentation. I'm so sorry. I was trying to figure out what was going on here in the room. Um, what would you like, Andy? Oh, to share it. Yeah. Okay. I think it was in the packet, wasn't it? So, could you pull it up on the packet, Heather, and just put his section in there, please?

2:03:04 Or would you like me to send it to you? I don't know if it's in that one, but it's Yeah, I know. I know it's in the packet. I saw it in the back. And Annie made it a point to send it to me to make sure it got in the packet. Would you like me to send it to the info or what?

2:03:30 We are logging the granus share screen. I should be able to send you the packet to share the screen without going to the granus. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Didn't think I thought we could just share you guys all over.

2:03:58 I can share with you. Pardon me. Oh, do you got it? You can't share it with him or he said he has to do it in Grant. I just have mine. Yeah. Yeah. You can. It's just us. Oh, he probably wants to see it. Or do you have I had too scoop my chair over. We're about to if you want to know how Scott Scott, I can share my screen if you want.

2:04:22 I have the packet up. Yeah, if you could just pull up the part with uh for Andy if that might be simpler. And as soon as you do that, Derek will say, "I just found it." So, can you see it? There it is. I can. There you go. All right. Okay. Thank you, Jess. Andy, just tell me what Andy just tell me when to I didn't pay extra for that, did I? No. Okay, good.

2:04:44 All right. Yeah. I'm charging extra though for bet. I knew I was going to pay some. Okay. There we go. All right. Just wanted to highlight um again to provide some clarity around pen the city's financial was mentioned earlier there's a fair amount of governmental accounting standards.

2:05:11 This goes back about 10 years. Um, that's when I think it was 2015 when the city first reported a pension liability bill financial statements 68. I think we're up to Gazsby 104 right now. So, a fair number of standards, you know, accounting standards are continuing to make our jobs a bit challenging. But what that Gatsby 68, what that standard did for pension reporting was required that you know local governments or entities that are part of statewide pension plans that they report certain pension information in their financial statements.

2:05:44 And that had to do with certain governmental or statewide pension plans that were in bad financial health funded at maybe a 50% level going bankrupt, failing, and uh that generated uh kind of um you know an effort to make make that reporting more transparent. And here in Minnesota, um there's a couple different statewide pension plans and one administered through public employee retirement association or there's the general employees plan as well as the police and fire plan and under gazby 68 there is a requirement to report the city's proportionate shared to

2:06:20 those overall statewide pension. Uh one thing I wanted to highlight that's part of that is just to also highlight the accounting associated with that. So the accounting for um that net pension li liability that ultimately gets reported on the city's financial statements uh does not have any cash impact to the financial statements at all. So it recognizes a liability and and I was trying to think of a good um way to kind of compare it you know in terms of you know what that obligation really represents.

2:06:49 It's almost as if you have an unsealed well on your property. You may never plan to sell your property. You don't ever plan to leave. But you know if you do end up leaving, you might have to seal that well and pay for that liability. And that's kind of what this like what this net pension liability is is almost like it's something that you'll never have to really write a check for unless someone comes at your door knocking and saying, "Hey, we got to we got to settle this debt." Uh and currently the statewide pension plan uh for the general employees fund is funded at roughly 90%.

2:07:17 So that means that let's just use hypothetical numbers. If the liability that's sitting out there is $und00 million, uh that means that the state has um $90 million sitting in this bank account that'll fund that liability. There's about 10 million, you know, that's unfunded that has to show up on everybody's interest. Part of that going on to the next one.

2:07:39 It looks like you have it there already, Jesse. Uh so the components that you'll see in the spending statements are the net pension liability. uh and that will be reported as a liability on the statement of acquisition which governmentwide financial statement but it'll also be presented in any full acrruel fund. So that includes all of the city's enterprise funds that participate perhaps that part of the pension and the other elements that are adjusted when um adjusting that liability each year is pension expense as well as outflows of resources and deferred inflows of resources.

2:08:14 So going on one on to one more slide. Uh this slide just highlights the statement and acquisition for the city of Kenyan and highlighting kind of where you'll see those numbers in the city's financial statements. And then each year going uh for one more slide as that net pension liability goes up or that net pension liability goes down the offset to that will always be presented as an expense of the statement of activity.

2:08:38 So if the net pension liability goes up, you're going to show the expense to adjust that liability up. If that net pension liability were to go down, you'd actually present a negative expense to kind of show that that liability had had decreased overall. Now for 2025 going up to the next slide there was a shift in the allocation of that um pension expense and liability and it had to do with aligning the allocation of that liability more closely to the employees that participated in those plans.

2:09:10 uh and previously that that um methodology was not used and um the standard states that um governments have to use a systematic and rational approach to um allocate that liability. In the past, it was allocated consistently with how the pens had been allocated in the past. However, things had changed over the course of probably that 10-year period where that didn't necessarily align with where those employees were working.

2:09:36 What this schedule shows is the actual contributions with some offsetting um uh adjustments there. You see one being negative, but uh ultimately this presents the contributions by function to the ERRA pension plans here for 2025. And uh the allocation percentages are presented in the table down below and it shows how some of those allocations did increase um compared to 2024.

2:10:02 So those uh estimate adjustments are handled respectively and so there was some funds that didn't receive a greater allocation period. So in 2025 the government gave less. So the uh governmental activities reported less than the liab. Okay. So that's why the curb number went up.

2:10:23 Yep. And so that [laughter] did go up but it didn't actually pay any dollars for it. No no money no money left the building. It was just a an acknowledgement of the expense of the increase in their proportionate share and it's no it's not a check that they'll ever have to have to run and essentially the way it does is it helps to give some insight to local governments in terms of what could happen.

2:10:44 So in the general employees plan uh they are required to contribute seven and a half% you know of their payroll each period you know to that plan and that's actually been the same for the last 10 years. But if that, you know, funding ratio was at 90%, it kept dropping to 60, you know, down to 80%, down to 70%. It would give you some insight. Okay, maybe we might have to increase our contributions each year, but we'll never but we'll never have to write a check for that complete liability.

2:11:15 Andy, I don't know if this is a good time or not, but can you explain to the council, and it would have been great if Matt was still here, but can you explain um when you and I talked about the MUN and two out of three years running in a negative? I think that's really important. If you could explain that to to the group here. I will get that. It's actually my very last. I'm sorry, you're coming to it.

2:11:35 Okay, my bad. I want to make sure we didn't miss it. Okay. other points and I know we're getting late so I'll try to make it quick but going on one more slide Jesse um this just just kind of shows you know how you can kind of tie those percentages to the allocation and how you would get to the exact numbers that you would see on the city's financial statement. Then going forward one more slide this shows the exact entry that was prepared to relate to that and we do assist the city with the financial financial statement preparation process.

2:12:07 So this is actually interest part of that to propose the adjustment to kind of align that allocation what what we believe kind of the industry standard is in terms of kind of that rational systematic approach to that allocation. It really should be based on where those contributions are being paid and where where those going down one more um this is probably where some confusion started and that is that for 2000 for the year ended December 31st 2025 uh there was an operating loss in several funds one

2:12:43 being the liquor fund for $109,000 which probably an unexpected adjustment and it really didn't reflect actual performance of that fund for the list of year. But is the true excuse me is the true operating expense under generally accepted common princes for principal because you do have to account for those pension adjustments uh and the relative expense perspective. Uh and so you did see an operating loss for example in the liquor bund $180,000 that pension expense adjustments are all happen from that salaries and benefits.

2:13:15 Now if you go one more slide um there is another chart here that helps to kind of provide a different number and this is in your cash flow statement in the statement uh um in the enterprise fund statements and this shows your net cash flows from operating activities and you can see that this is much different than that operating loss that you had saw there previously fund actually provided a $30,000 surplus in cash resources coming into the fund based on their operating activities for the year.

2:13:43 And then if you forward one more slide, this will show you how how you can reconcile between the two. You see the $30,000 net cash flows and operating activities. You see it's all positive across the board for the enterprise funds. But then you can see how did we get from a $30,000 net positive cash flow up to our $108,000 loss.

2:14:05 And it shows you all the components of that. You can see the largest component being pension related activity there at about $40,000. It helps to kind of help them understand some of the total elements, the long-term elements of the financial statements as compared to the true cash flow resources that are being expended to fund.

2:14:27 Now, this will be a one-time adjustment to kind of get it aligned to those new allocation models. We would not anticipate both largest things in the future, but again did not have any effect on cash uh balances at all. And then also just kind of thinking about financial health going forward one slide. Um there's two ways to really look at financial health and looking at the state position for proprietary funds.

2:14:52 One could you know would be just look at your checkbook. You know look at your checkbook balance your bank account how much is in the bank. But that doesn't account for amounts you know that folks owe you. doesn't account for lots of you other folks. Uh and so it's not the greatest measure in terms of financial health and so a lot of times so we'll get the net position uh and and the number but you always have to take that with a grain of salt because it doesn't include that liability and you never actually have to write.

2:15:21 So when it comes to budgeting and operations really want to be sure you factor that up and state statutes also recognize that. So there is a state statute out there that talks about you know if you do have that loss for consecutive years but there is a process city has to related to that but it specifically excludes any losses associated with that you know rel any activity related to pension obligations.

2:15:46 So that's always factored out when you're evaluating. So when it comes to budgeting, when it comes to cash flow, when it comes to compliance, the pension activity, I I don't want to say it's meaningless because it does give you insight to the inclusion of the health of the overall statewide plan, but it doesn't have any local uh decision making impact to um the financial results.

2:16:07 So just wanted to help provide some clarification related to that and also be available for any questions. Is that helpful? Very helpful for you coming to do this short time. That was a lot. But but he can explain it way better than I would have been able to explain it. So, thank you very much for your willingness to come and do that.

2:16:30 Happy to join or answer any questions. Thank you very much. Right. Moving on to other business. Schedule of upcoming meetings.

2:16:53 KMU meeting is Tuesday, September 15th at 3 p.m. EGA meeting is Tuesday, September 22nd at 8:00 a.m. And city council meeting Tuesday, October 13th at 700 p.m. Are there any council and staff general comments? So, some of the comments that were brought up tonight from the citizens, when will they, because I have questions about it, too.

2:17:28 When do we talk about that? Um, I'm something I will probably bring up like on the budget, but uh I didn't like to comment about why we paying lawnmowers. What is that? I don't even know what that is. He knows better to say that our public works are lawnmarks. What?

2:17:49 They're they're saying that our public utilities are at a lawnmower. They all they do is mow lawns for 40 bucks now. And he knows better. We used to have part-time younger kids that would do it for the summer hours and that. So I think citizens are seeing that are fulltime, but they're not just mowing lawns. They're doing a lot more to mow.

2:18:11 And this is on city property, you mean? Yeah. Like a boulevard mowing lawn. It's part of their job. It's like falling snow or anything more severe that happens. They do a lot more.

2:18:35 Yeah. I think he meant that. I think it was but it was why don't we have a part-time person taking care of that portion because it's so much that that is it. But in all fairness, when he was sitting in this seat, that was the same topic that was happening right there. And and so I think there's a there's a select group of people out there that are thinking every time they see somebody sitting on the lawnmower, I could have a college kid doing that for 20 bucks instead of paying so- and so $40.

2:19:07 But what they're not seeing is you if you take that mowing away from some of these folks, then you have to find other work to keep them busy, right? And all that type of stuff. So it just because they might be cheaper isn't necessarily meaning it's the best plan, right? That that's all I'm saying. And and in all fairness, Doug knows that. I've had that conversation with him. I think it was a little disingenuine.

2:19:30 Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then he talked about freezing the budget. Where's what where does that come from? Not the budget. Freezing that would be the colon. They would still get their step increases, but you talked about either or either one. Yeah. Cost living same tax money. Yeah. So there's my work's done that before too to where me too wages for budget cons.

2:19:59 So we would talk about that at that. That's something you know how our budget is down the ninth and whatever it is. But if that was an option to increase wages, that would bring the it down even more. Yes. So there's something that would be discussed. So we could discuss it at the So just in all fairness to give you the other side of that.

2:20:24 Okay. Your city administrator tried to put something like that in place last year and employees went to Yeah. And and the council said, "You know what? It's not worth the fight. Scott, can you go with Jesse and can you guys find the because it was already not budgeted. We were at 3%. And and then it was decided we were going to add it.

2:20:45 So, we went back to the 6% and we had to find funds to be able to do that. Um, but it's certainly within the purview of of the council. If they say we want to do three or two or nothing or whatever, I mean, you certainly could do that. It was sent into a wrong though where they were confused also. They thought they were. There was some conf there wasn't well it was con it was conveyed to them that there was going to be a 3% increase across and they were thinking it was a 3% in cola and they were still going to get their step increase.

2:21:15 The conversation always was it was going to be a 3% across the board for the same reason we were just talking about. It might be a way to level set a few things and get but um it was chose not to do it that way. So, um, and every concern doesn't need to be entertained. No, no, but pe I'm just wondering how many people that present their question or their comment their question form, how many of them actually expect a reply or do we re how do it's just like the boulevard thing.

2:21:51 We're actively working on that trying to find solutions. This is something that we're just push away and we're playing bushes on purpose, right? We are trying to find a solution to get trees that will survive the winter, right? And I mean, we're not blind to it. We're working on it. But so is there something on how can I give up during meetings what we can discuss so public be aware that so really that's our responsibility is just to make it part of our public yeah we our administrator we

2:22:26 don't owe um the public any more of an explanation in a different form to get the word on what it is if somebody confronts you and they're Sounds like you ever will. But but just so we're clear on this, when they get up at the podium and they're able to talk in front of the council meeting, the the expectation is we hear what they say. We take it the note.

2:22:48 It's not open discussion. We don't ask we don't answer their questions. We don't get into all that, right? It's their opportunity to express their concerns. And if you as a council say, I'll just use the roses since we're talking about it. You guys as a council say, "Scott, we want you to do X, Y, and Z with the roses. and can you come back to the next meeting and give us an update on what you did on X, Y, and Z?

2:23:08 You could do that, right? And it may get triggered by what somebody says, but because somebody says, I think you should, I'll use the other example, freeze people's wages, you guys could take that under advisement and move right on and not do nothing with it, or you can schedule a meeting and have a discussion about it. But just because somebody comes to the podium doesn't mean as a council you got to get into an back and forth and answer all their questions.

2:23:32 It's not that's not how it's designed. Fire chief is also a public works director. They print the night and I'm not talking for not engagement. The topic comes up about lawnmowing or roses or whatever. Yes. He could say because I did that when I was here. Someone had a question about something that's going on. He could say, "Hey, we've looked at this in the budget for next year.

2:23:55 We're talking to so and so such and such." So, it could be addressed kind of on the spot. But a lot of times, like our administrator said, it's like, "Okay, thank you." And then maybe Scott will say tomorrow, "Hey, this came up. Could you look at this or look at that?" And it's handled, right? But some things are just, "I just need to tell you, I saw this and I'd like to switch." Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Right.

2:24:17 Okay. Sounds like that Tiffany Rico would be awesome on some committees and stuff. I know. She's very involved, new to the city and wants to be involved. That's awesome. Very, very nice lady. super sweet, very kind, very real. It's awesome. Well, I know one of my comments I wanted to thank public coming in.

2:24:39 It was actually nice to see a crowd. It was, wasn't it? You got to see how many people were here for a rebound though because once that was over, it was Yeah. Sometimes you just wonder what are you what are people here for, right? And and you kind of see that as it plays out. But yeah. Yeah. Romani is still here though just as he likes tough [laughter] waiting for Scott's alarm to go off again.

2:25:06 No doubt I don't know what the heck was going hasn't done the rest of the night. The keys laying right there. I don't I don't know. All right. I have comments because I always do. I don't know. First of all, I want to thank everyone that took part in Rosefest. It was an amazing weekend. um had the privilege of helping with the car show. I believe a total count of 329 cars this year.

2:25:28 That was awesome. Absolutely amazing. Price turned out, wonderful compliments. Um we talked a lot about shopping locally and giving up a vendor and thanking people for coming and we had a lot of great comments about how nice the town is, how grateful people were. So that was very very nice to have a very small part in that. And I know it takes a ton of work by a ton of different people between office staff, public work, utilities, uni staff, everyone, the library staff, everyone's got a hand in this.

2:25:58 You know, world's best committee does so much work behind the scenes that they don't get the deserve. So, thank you all for being a part of that. My final comment is I wanted to talk about climate change. And I'm not talking about global stuff. I'm talking about inner city, small town, climate change. It's an election year and I have no social media.

2:26:21 One of the best things I did when I retired is I got off of all social media. But for whatever reason, people still feel the need to tell you about some stuff that gets thrown back and for people be kind to one another. I would the climates, the negativity, the offended comments and so forth I don't think are helpful.

2:26:45 Um, you know, I work in a different setting now with young people and it's, you know, ironic that we as adults are trying to teach them to do things right and yet we'll turn around and do something completely different than that. So this season is in every season. I would love to see people take some time and if you have some time to volunteer for a committee or get involved in some local activity or have something that you can do that's a positive thing, I highly recommend that you do that.

2:27:16 There we go. That was my rant. Well said. Very nice. That's very good. Thank you. All right. Anything else? I just want to thank everybody for coming out and enjoying Rosefest. Like Milty had said earlier, the weather was perfect. It was great. Great seeing all the people. I think the reunion, Viking reunion, I think uh played part of that.

2:27:39 Had a lot of lot of people come back to town for that. Um next up is Fall Fest October 10th. Mark calendars. We're working hard getting that going. So all I got. Anything else? All right. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn.

2:28:01 I'll second. All in favor? I I meeting adjourned at 9:46.