City Council Budget Public Hearing - March 25, 2024

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[0:06] Adrian N. Brightfield, City Clerk, you are hereby directed to call a special session of the City Council that we held on Monday, March 25, 2024. At 630 PM, in the historic federal building for the purpose of conducting a public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax fate.
[0:21] Thank you. Good evening and welcome to a special session of the Dubuque City Council for March 25, 2024. As a reminder to our participants, you can provide in-person input, or virtual audio and written input during tonight's public hearing. Input options during the live meeting include, in-person attendance.
[0:36] and these may approach the podium when the mayor
[0:38] asked if there's any public input on the public hearing.
[0:42] Remote attendees can log in to go to meetings
[0:44] in the login links, phone numbers, and access code
[0:46] that appear on the broadcast and live stream
[0:49] and post it on the front page of the meeting agenda.
[0:51] This option includes audio input and written chat input.
[0:55] If you are participating via computer,
[0:58] indicate that you would like to speak in the chat function
[1:00] or note that you would like to speak during the appropriate time.
[1:04] If you're participating via phone,
[1:05] indicate that you would like to speak during the appropriate time.
[1:09] All comments, whether in-person or virtual, must be accompanied by a name in address.
[1:13] Additionally, written public input is accepted by contacting the city council directly from the
[1:18] cities web page at www.cityofdubube.org slash council contacts and through the
[1:24] city clerk's office email at ctyclurcatcityofdubube.org.
[1:30] Attendance for the session is as follows.
[1:32] Mayor Cavendon, council members Farber here, Jones,
[1:36] Resnick, Russel, here, thank you,
[1:40] Sprank, Wethel, City Manager Van Nilligan,
[1:44] here, and City Attorney Brumwell.
[1:45] Here, thank you, our public hearing tonight
[1:48] is public hearing for proposed fiscal year,
[1:50] 2025 tax rate and dollars and taxpayer statements.
[1:54] Adrian, before I actually take motion on that,
[1:57] I realize sitting here that we, I think,
[2:00] made a mistake in the previous special session we had.
[2:03] We actually had an action item that we needed to vote on.
[2:06] And I think we failed to vote on the action item.
[2:09] Because we heard a presentation from our city manager.
[2:16] And I adjourn to the meeting without actually voting
[2:18] on the action item that was there.
[2:21] So I'm wondering how we can proceed with that.
[2:24] And I apologize for the mistake because I did not catch it.
[2:29] I'm thinking.
[2:57] Mr. American, I ask you, was it the receive and file of the presentation?
[3:01] Yeah.
[3:02] I don't think that's substantive enough that we need to worry about it.
[3:06] It doesn't require a vote.
[3:10] Is there consensus, I think, at this point?
[3:12] So for the, I just want to make sure, since it is a requirement of the state of
[3:15] I though we have this budget presentation, the budget presentation was had.
[3:19] We heard it.
[3:20] We have a meeting that we put in the session and then we adjourned that meeting.
[3:24] But we did present it as an action item and I'm, it's not required.
[3:27] No, I don't think that piece is required.
[3:29] I think that the piece we're doing now is the required piece.
[3:32] Oh, I see. Okay, so the piece we just did wasn't necessarily a requirement
[3:35] that was something that we wanted to make sure we presented as a city.
[3:38] And so we did it for transparency sake, not as a matter of law.
[3:43] And the legal requirement is that the hearing that we are about to do now
[3:46] be separate from anything else, which is why we had the two.
[3:50] So this meeting that Adrian is about to call.
[3:52] is the important and separate piece that we need to do.
[3:56] Okay. So I think we're okay. I don't think it damages anything related
[4:00] to the state-required process.
[4:02] Right. So we had a separate meeting just previous to this to be able to hear
[4:06] the budget presentation from the City Manager that basically lays out the whole budget for us
[4:10] and allows us to hear that and present it.
[4:13] And then we're going to go through it piece by piece and department by department, essentially
[4:16] dollar by dollar for the next what is it seven or eight meetings? I don't know.
[4:20] We're going to have a bunch of meetings about the budget and its entirety.
[4:25] So with that said, even though we called in a national item on that agenda, we are going
[4:29] to move forward without necessarily having a vote on that because all we were doing there
[4:32] was receiving and filing and hearing the presentation.
[4:35] Correct.
[4:36] Fair enough.
[4:37] Everybody clear on that?
[4:38] Because I caught it as we were as Adrian was calling the role here.
[4:41] Wonderful.
[4:42] So with that then, as Adrian just said, we have a public hearing for proposed fiscal year,
[4:47] 25 tax rate and the dollar's taxpayer statements and I will entertain a motion on this please.
[4:54] Mr. Mayor. Yes, Mr. Farber. I'm moved that we receive and file and approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate.
[5:03] We've got a motion by Ms. Farber and a second by Mr. Jones. We will remember to vote on this later after we hear a nice
[5:11] And for that, I will turn it over to Mike.
[5:16] Thank you.
[5:16] City manager Mike Van Milligan.
[5:20] So what I'm going to do is present information on what is in the budget recommendation
[5:26] and your course going to vote on the levy is the state of Iowa requires before you actually
[5:32] do all your deliberations on what's in the budget.
[5:35] State of Iowa requires you to adopt the levy.
[5:38] The budget development guidance is based on these five things.
[5:43] The City Council goals and priorities, major capital improvement projects,
[5:49] leveraging federal and state grants, public safety and streets.
[5:57] And at this public hearing, the only option available to the City Council
[6:01] are to approve the amount of the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate, which you established when you set this public hearing, as is, or to decrease it.
[6:15] At this public hearing, you cannot increase the levy from what you established when you set the public hearing.
[6:23] The tax rate, which was set for public hearing, is this one, which is about a quarter of 1% change from the current year's property tax rate.
[6:38] If in April 11th, when you have your final budget public hearing, you also have another opportunity to consider the property tax rate.
[6:47] Again, at that hearing, you can only decrease it or adopt it as it is, you can't increase it.
[6:54] If you were to accept the recommendation and on April 11, adopt the current rate that's being proposed, this would be the impact.
[7:04] There would be the quarter of 1% rate increase that would bring in an additional 6% of property tax revenues.
[7:11] The average residential property would see about a $40.75 per cent, I'm sorry, $40.75
[7:20] increase or about 5 per cent. The average commercial would see about a $850 increase or just over 25 per cent.
[7:29] The average industrial would see about a 3.9 per cent increase or about a $187.
[7:40] Since 1989, the average homeowner is average in annual increase in cost in the city portion of their property taxes of 1.36%
[7:50] about $8.41 a year.
[7:53] If the state had been fully funding the homes that tax credit, which they have been recently, but there were years that they didn't,
[8:01] the increase would have averaged approximately $5.67 a year.
[8:07] When you compare our property tax rate with the other 10 cities in Iowa, there's a total of 11 cities in Iowa, the population greater than 50,000, some of them have established their fiscal year 25 rate, like you're being asked to do tonight for Dubuque.
[8:25] Some of them have not, so, for instance, west of the Moine and Ankeny still, and this comparison shows their FY24 rates, the Moine also does.
[8:38] But, if you look at how we will compare a water lose rate, which they have already adopted, is 126% higher than the muces rate, and the average of the other 10 cities is 58% higher than the muces proposed.
[8:55] great.
[8:58] The state of Iowa did what they terms property tax reform last year and part of that
[9:04] was that a form need to be filled out that the form being supplied by the state submitted
[9:11] to the county. This is in every county across the state and the county auditor then mailed that
[9:19] every home in business in town.
[9:23] The city of Dubuque does it a little bit different
[9:25] than the forum demonstrates.
[9:27] And I'll point that out to you how that works differently
[9:30] when I show you the forum.
[9:33] But the city of Dubuque, what we do is we create
[9:36] an average value for properties.
[9:39] And that average goes up every year.
[9:42] Thank goodness, which means people's properties values
[9:44] are increasing and so our average goes up each year.
[9:47] The state of Iowa does it differently, they do a fixed $100,000 value.
[9:54] So I'll show you how that worked out on the form that was mailed to every home and business
[9:58] in the in the beauty county or in our case for the city in the city of Dubuque.
[10:05] So since the state of Iowa says a fixed $100,000 value for residential property in the current
[10:13] year and then a fixed value of $100,000 next year, it shows that this year that fictitious
[10:22] property would have paid $541 in taxes next year that fictitious property would have
[10:28] paid $460 in taxes, so they would see a 1514.97, so 15% property tax reduction from the city
[10:43] What's going to happen since property values do go up each year.
[10:48] And we do an average of all property values, which Jennifer, I think you said it was about
[10:53] 186,000, 196,000 dollars is the average residential property value in Dubuque.
[11:02] They're actually going to see a 5% property tax increase if you adopt this levy, not a 15% decrease,
[11:10] But they just got to notice in the mail because of the state form requirements that said they were going to get a 15% decrease.
[11:17] Unfortunately, the same thing happens with commercial property.
[11:21] A fixed $100,000 value.
[11:24] Both this year and next year, once again, telling commercial properties, you're going to see a 15% decrease in your property taxes.
[11:31] That's not the case.
[11:33] I will tell you that the nuance in commercial property is the first $150,000 of a commercial property gets the same rollback as residential property.
[11:49] What does that mean?
[11:49] So the state of Iowa only allows this year taxation of about 45% of the value of residential property.
[11:59] That's called the rollback.
[12:00] They roll back the value of the real value of the property.
[12:05] And so for commercial, the first $150,000 of value, they roll back that value down to 45% of the amount.
[12:16] And that's all that's subject to the property tax levy.
[12:19] So, in the view count, I'm sorry, in the city of Dubuque, there are 653 properties that fit that commercial properties, that fit that category out of, excuse me, I've got the other number in the email, out of a total of 1,669 properties.
[12:38] So 653 of the 1,669 commercial properties in the city to view will get the residential
[12:49] roll back and so they will not get the same rate of increase as general commercial properties
[12:56] across the city.
[13:00] So I guess you could say that's a support of small business.
[13:06] So, as I say in this first bullet, the State of Iowa calculation really shows the impact
[13:11] on small business and smaller residential properties.
[13:18] This is just more demonstration of the form that goes to residents, but I just really
[13:25] explained that and this also once again explains that 541 versus 460.
[13:34] The mayor and city council are required by state law to have this budget adopted by April 15.
[13:41] Now, you might say, well, wait a minute.
[13:42] I thought the law said we have until April 30 to adopt the budget.
[13:47] And that was a change last year that the state of Iowa made,
[13:50] said instead of your deadline now being March 31st,
[13:53] the deadline is April 30th.
[13:55] In less, you have a debt levy.
[14:00] I can tell you all the 11 largest cities in the state of Iowa have a debt levy and my guess
[14:05] is most of the other cities, but I really don't know because I've never looked at it.
[14:10] And if you have a debt levy, you have to adopt your budget by April 15.
[14:14] So they actually ended up giving us two weeks instead of a month extension.
[14:22] The state had, they did property tax reform, oh, now about 10 years ago, and I'm going
[14:30] to put quotes around the term of reform.
[14:33] And they lowered the amount of commercial and industrial property, the value of commercial
[14:39] and industrial property that was subject to property taxes.
[14:43] And when they did that, they said, okay, now city counties and school districts, you're
[14:48] not going to lose anything here.
[14:49] We're going to backfill and send you payments for your loss of revenue every year out of their general fund the state general fund well that lasted
[15:00] For a while. And then they told us, well, we're going to stop doing that. And over time, over eight years, we're going to incrementally reduce your payment every year until we stop paying you at all. And so that payment this year will be $577,000.
[15:17] You can see this is a chart that shows the backfill payments, back in 2016, 2017, we were
[15:27] getting payments of $1.8 million for our lost property tax revenue, and as you can see
[15:34] in this, now we're going to get $577,000.
[15:38] So, about $1.2 million of revenue money that we'll never see, and each year that's going to
[15:46] go down until the last payment of 2020, in 2020, 29.
[15:52] In addition, when the state back then did what I, they called property tax reform, they
[15:59] said that they wanted to change the way multi-family residential was taxed, and at that
[16:06] time, and that's a three-flatter of rental unit,
[16:11] multi-residential was taxed as commercial property.
[16:15] So basically, and then it was a hundred percent of their value, the rate was applied against that.
[16:21] And the state said, what we're going to do is every year, we're going to reduce the amount of the assessed value of multi-residential that's taxed.
[16:30] Until it reaches the same rollback as residential, which remember residential in 2025 will be only taxed on 45 percent of their value.
[16:39] Well, that happened this year. It reached that level. So now there is no multi-residential classification.
[16:47] They're just classified as residential, like anybody, any other single family home.
[16:53] And they're only going to be taxed on about 45% of their value.
[16:58] So the city will have lost over that period from FY 17, FY 24, 5.6 million dollars in property tax revenue.
[17:08] And the annual loss is now permanent.
[17:11] We will never get any more of that property tax money paid to us.
[17:17] And it never was backfilled like the commercial and industrial changes were for a while.
[17:24] That was never backfilled at all.
[17:29] And then in House File 718 last year created new exemptions and those new exemptions
[17:38] about 3,400 homeowners filed for those and that reduced the value in FY26 of about 3,250 dollars
[17:50] of taxable values not subject to the tax FY26 that will be $6,500.
[17:56] The loss of revenue to the city in FY25 is about $113,000.
[18:04] The state also increased the military credit
[18:08] and increased it from $1852.
[18:11] The $4,000, the $1937 homeowners are going to be eligible for the military exemption
[18:19] and that's going to be a loss of revenue to the city of $77,000.
[18:25] The city assessor by state law did a reassessment of property values and the average
[18:35] residential property value increased 23.2%, the average commercial property value increased
[18:42] 25%.
[18:43] How does the city assessor do that?
[18:45] The city assessor looks at actual sales and so that means people's property values actually
[18:53] increased at that rate. So I would suggest that's really good news for our
[18:59] property owners because things are functioning in a way that is making it a
[19:07] good investment for people to buy homes and businesses at a higher price than
[19:12] they were buying them before because those are actual sales.
[19:19] And as I said, the
[19:20] residential rollback, it changed from the current year of 54.6% of the amount of the value
[19:27] of the home is taxed down to now it's 46.3%.
[19:36] Now the good news is our lease revenues for the riverfront industrial properties is going
[19:42] up.
[19:43] Our local option sales tax revenues are going up and remember how our local option sales tax
[19:51] revenues are used, 50% goes the property tax relief, 20% goes the maintenance of city buildings,
[19:59] and 30% goes the street maintenance.
[20:04] Our hotel melt-tell tax is going up.
[20:09] And last year, Moody's recognized the good fiscal management of the Marin City Council
[20:20] by upgrading our bond rating. So, Moody's upgraded the city's outstanding general obligation
[20:26] bonds from WA3 to WA2, as well as the outstanding sales tax increment revenue bonds
[20:34] from A2 to A1. And there's the quote from Moody's. Notable credit factors include strong financial
[20:41] operations and ample revenue raising flexibility, which is resulted in steadily improved
[20:47] available fund balance and cash.
[20:50] The city serves as a regional economic center and a regional economic growth rate as outpaced
[20:55] the nation over the past five years, close quotes.
[21:00] And the significance of this is this is how when investors decide how much are they going
[21:08] to be willing to charge as an interest rate to loan the city money, they look at the
[21:15] moody's bond rating.
[21:16] So, every investor doesn't come in and examine our books and say, gee, how much should we charge you for an interest rate, how much of a risk are you?
[21:25] They count on mooties to do that form.
[21:28] So, the higher your bond rating, the lower the interest rate you pay on debt, because the lower risks to the investor.
[21:39] There's a statutory debt limit, so the city is only allowed to issue so much debt by state law and that is
[21:49] can not exceed 5% of the assessed value of the community.
[21:54] So back in FY 15, the city was at 90% of our statutory debt limit, which means we only had a
[22:02] the ability to have 10% capacity to issue more debt. And today, in FY 24, we're at 41% of the statutory
[22:12] debt limit. And in FY 25, if you adopt this budget, we would be at 34% as this chart accurate.
[22:19] Jennifer, the 41 and the 34 percent.
[22:32] Okay, but the FY24 FY25R that chart is accurate.
[22:43] Okay, so this chart probably is outdated.
[22:50] Okay, all right, if you don't mind looking at your chart to just see what these numbers are what these numbers should be.
[22:58] All you think it's in the next one, okay,
[23:04] all right, I think this, this is the one,
[23:17] this one here, okay, so it's 40% and FY24 and 35% and FY25 and I apologize for that.
[23:26] But in two power points together for tonight, we might have had some old data that came in.
[23:35] So, as we try and do, like we do with our property tax levy, we try and compare it to the other 10 cities in the state of Iowa with a population greater than 50,000.
[23:45] As I mentioned to you in the property tax levy, we have the lowest property tax rate by far of the other cities.
[23:53] In this case, we look at the utilization of statutory debt limit and for FY-25 and we don't
[24:04] have the FY-25 numbers yet for all these other cities correct, so these are probably
[24:09] there FY-24 numbers.
[24:12] We're at 34.9% of our statutory debt limit if you adopt the budget is recommended and that
[24:20] put us at the fifth lowest use of our statutory debt limit, and the average would be 21% higher
[24:29] than our use of the statutory debt limit.
[24:35] Then on the area of reserves, when you look at
[24:38] general fund, a cruel reserve in FY24, the current year, we're at 42% and FY25, 34% FY26 and beyond estimated
[24:51] at 25 and a half percent.
[24:56] Moody's requires us to also now, this is a new rule, adopt in the
[25:01] last couple years, then not just look at our general fund reserves, they also want to look at
[25:05] our enterprise fund reserves, combine with our general fund reserves, and remember the enterprise
[25:10] funds for the water fund, sanitary sewer fund, storm water fund, refuse collection fund,
[25:16] and you can see in FY24 we're at 40% of reserves, 25 will be at 35% and we're projected
[25:26] at 26 and beyond to be just over 30%.
[25:31] Some significant issues impacting the budget is the Marin City Council just recently approved
[25:38] a new contract with the Debute Police Protective Association and the cost of that contract
[25:44] and FY25 was 5% of base wage, and there is our existing collective bargaining agreements in place
[25:53] that still have one more year on them with our two teamsters units, that's at 3%, we're
[25:59] currently in negotiations with the Dubuque Professional Firefighters Association and the International
[26:05] Union of Operating Engineers.
[26:09] The budget shows non-bargling union employees would also get a 5% pay raise and the cost
[26:15] to the general fund of this is almost $2 million.
[26:21] As far as improvement packages, and I'll say a little bit more about that later, but
[26:25] some of the public safety improvements are recommending an additional fire captain to serve
[26:32] as a field training officer, and I'm also recommending an additional bureau chief in the
[26:39] MS division.
[26:44] They'll be an increase in ambulance revenues projected at $234,000.
[26:53] And when we get to improvement packages is the way that works is in August when the mayor
[27:00] and city council does their goal setting. You establish the vision statement, the mission statement,
[27:06] five year goals, and then you also establish one year priorities. I give all that information
[27:13] back in August to the department managers and boards and commissions, and I say now I need you to
[27:18] tell me what resources do you need to accomplish these things. They do that mostly in the form
[27:24] of improvement packages. Some of them are in the form of capital improvement project requests.
[27:29] And there were 3.2 million dollars of general fund improvement package requests. And unfortunately,
[27:36] I'm only able to recommend 899,000 of those be funded.
[27:42] Most of that is in non-recurring improvement packages because what we did there was we used
[27:48] DRA distribution dollars to help fund that one-time expense with non-recurring packages.
[27:56] Most of the recurring improvement packages are not recommended.
[28:01] I just told you about two in the fire department that are recommended.
[28:06] We're doing some major capital improvement programs in this budget of $47 million dollars for the
[28:12] Catfish Creek sewer shed, intercept or sanitary sewer improvements,
[28:19] $6.2 million dollars for
[28:22] a high-strength waste project at the Water and Resource Recovery Center that will mostly be
[28:26] paid by the companies who bring us the high-strength waste, $3 million in improvements to our
[28:36] $1.1 million for capacity upgrades for BOD in the water and resource recovery center.
[28:47] And this is just a map that shows you what I told you about the Catfish Creek Sewers
[28:51] Shed changes.
[28:53] So the purple there on the right is some new sewer, some replacement sewer, and a new
[28:59] expanded lift station. The green line is replacement of sewer that is about almost 50 years old.
[29:09] It was installed with great foresight in the early 80s to serve these new growing areas of the
[29:17] community. In other words, areas they hoped would grow someday. The problem is they undersized the
[29:23] and the sewers are 50 years old and so they need replacement.
[29:28] The line on the left is actually a new sewer that would come off of those sewers
[29:35] that would serve the southwest arterial corridor.
[29:38] So now that the southwest arterial is complete, we can start having development on the southwest arterial.
[29:44] There's $2.6 million in sanitary sewer improvements on Chaplain Schmidt Island
[29:49] to support the over eighty million dollar project being implemented there by the
[29:54] to be a grace and association and the fifteen million dollar project that you hear about
[29:58] minute.
[30:00] By the city. There's $1.7 million in southwest arterial water main extension.
[30:09] And this shows that on the right, it shows the purple lines. That's the $1.7 million project.
[30:16] Stand the water line from basically creek would lane up to the southwest arterial. The projects on the left side of this illustration are not part of this budget recommendation.
[30:26] The Marin City Council has approved a program to help some of our low-income residents replace
[30:34] their private lead water service line to $5.7 million program.
[30:41] We can get a no interest loan from the Iowa Finance Authority.
[30:44] They're using federal dollars to do that, and not only is it no interest, but 49% of the
[30:50] loan is forgivable, so we don't have to pay it back.
[30:53] We also last year had some tests on our water system that showed in our shallow wells that we were had some PFAS that exceeded levels that exceeded the EPA levels.
[31:10] But in our deep wells they did not.
[31:13] And so we don't get our water from the river, we get it from deep wells from an aquifer and shallow wells from a different aquifer.
[31:20] And so this almost $10 million project will dig another deep well, so that the only times we
[31:28] have to use the shallow wells is in the summer when we have extremely high usage and then
[31:34] we think we can blend it at a rate that will still keep our PFAS levels under the EPA standards
[31:40] and we're also looking into doing some other plant improvements related to PFAS.
[31:47] We'll be in the water department, third pressure zone, which is, we're going to connect
[31:54] Tanzanite Drive and Olympic Heights with a $2 million project that includes our redundancy.
[32:01] And the Chaplain Schmidt, Island Sanitary and Suur improvements, I wanted to point out to you
[32:08] that $2,218,000 that $2.9 million project is going to be from federal dollars.
[32:15] The Corporal Boulevard Sanitary sewer lift station replacement project, which we're doing to serve the new over 200 unit apartment complexes being built on the old Boeing and beyond site, it replaces a Sanitary sewer lift station that is beyond its useful life and needs to be replaced and also does not have enough capacity to handle the additional development and those are $1.5 million in federal dollars.
[32:46] This is a map that illustrates those two projects I just mentioned, the map there on the right, the purple with the red circle, is the new lift station and then on the left that's those red lines or the sewer lines and the new lift station that we built on Chaplain Schmidt Island.
[33:02] The V branch gate and pump replacement project for 28.2 million dollars is in this budget.
[33:10] We've already received a $7.8 million USEDA grant and we're very optimistic that by August
[33:18] we will have received an $8 million grant from Homeland Security.
[33:25] Now in this budget of this $28 million, it shows that we're getting the $7.8 million
[33:32] and USCDA money, it does not yet show we're getting $8 million from Homeland Security because
[33:39] that's not a certainty yet, but we think it very soon will become a certainty.
[33:45] Should that happen, you can revisit the rate recommendations that I'm going to be recommended to you
[33:50] for stormwater or look at adding projects to the Capital Improvement Program, because there were many
[33:56] projects that we're not included in the program that staff believes are needed, but we're
[34:03] not affordable.
[34:05] In the budget is a construction of the 14-street overpass that is determined on receiving
[34:12] a $25 million federal raise grant to help fund that.
[34:18] This is a partnership because it will also, and it not only will give the low-income census
[34:24] tracks in this area, access to the jobs on
[34:28] corporate Boulevard, including the industrial park
[34:31] and the industrial riverfront, but also the jobs on
[34:34] Schmid Island.
[34:35] And so, and supported that to the
[34:36] Bucharest Racing Association helped us
[34:40] fund our match for the federal planning grant
[34:43] that we got last year for two and a half million
[34:45] dollars for the over four million dollars
[34:48] in planning that we had to do.
[34:50] And so, the total project is 43 million dollars
[34:53] and we're optimistic that we'll receive the $25 million construction grant, and that will not only build the overpass, but it will also, as you can see from this map,
[35:05] the overpass is the green line and the yellow line there in the lower left hand corner.
[35:12] It will also create a complete street on Elm Street, that's the north south line there on the left side of the page, from five points to the intermodal facility.
[35:23] It'll create a complete street on 16th street from Elm to Admiral Sheehy Drive, the entrance
[35:30] to Smith Island, where they'll be around about constructed, and they'll be around about
[35:35] constructed at 16th and Sikomore Street as you can see in this illustration.
[35:42] This is an artist rendering of the bridge project over the railroad.
[35:47] This is an artist rendering of the Elm Street complete street project, you can see the bike lanes integrated into the street plan.
[35:57] We're also received a $3 million grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority to build a $15.8 million
[36:06] ampeth eater on Chapel and Schmidt Island, the Deview Grace and Association is also supporting the debt payments on that project, and that is in the five year CIP.
[36:19] Now, this is not a city project, but I think it's important enough capital improvement project that it should be mentioned in this presentation.
[36:26] So this would be a complete reconstruction of the Northwest Arturial in US20 intersection by the Iowa Department of Transportation.
[36:35] It's a $17.5 million project.
[36:38] The city would be contributing $5.5 million to the project, mostly through Demats funds, federal Demats funds,
[36:46] and the Iowa DOT would be providing $12 million, and they would actually be managing and doing the project.
[36:54] This is the project, it should be approved by the I.D. Commission, it will close the southern
[37:03] lane of this four-way intersection, so the access to Walmart, that will become a front
[37:07] of DROAD. It will also close the access to the car dealers on the northwest corner of
[37:12] the intersection, the L.A. access their dealers through a front of DROAD, the old highway
[37:17] road, and it will also create for westbound traffic on highway 20 that wants to turn north
[37:23] on the northwest arterial, they no longer would approach the intersection, they would have an acceleration
[37:30] lane that they would access long before they got to the intersection and allow them to
[37:35] accelerate onto the northwest arterial northbound.
[37:40] $24 million for five flags is in this budget, and then there's also $3 million to replace the
[37:47] software system for the police department, fire department, 911 emergency communications,
[37:53] and the Dubuque County Sheriff's Department, and all the volunteer fire departments across
[37:58] the county.
[37:59] So, in recognition of that expanded purpose, the Dubuque County would be paying $1.5 million
[38:05] of the $3 million in cost.
[38:08] In the capital budget is $8.8 million for the fire department.
[38:13] It would replace two existing fire engines for one and a half million dollars,
[38:22] for $340,000, there'd be $467,000 in provenance to the burn tower that we're in in partnership
[38:33] with the volunteer departments across the county.
[38:37] It would provide $4.8 million for fire station expansion, in other words, either additional
[38:44] or replacement fire station that did bump back one year from last year's budget, and it
[38:51] spend $1.4 million to remodel all the bunk rooms in the existing fire stations.
[38:59] From the street program would be five miles of asphalt overlays, performed by our public
[39:03] works department, as I mentioned the 14th street overpass and the roundabouts, the North
[39:10] West Art, Terial and U.S. 20, Dodge Street Intersection Improvements, and then Central Avenue
[39:16] court or streetscape improvements.
[39:21] This recommended budget will support continued investment in people,
[39:25] businesses and organizations that are making a difference in our community and continued investment
[39:30] in the infrastructure that must exist for debut continued to thrive. As the council has adopted
[39:36] and instructed, our goal is to create an equitable community and organization of choice, a high
[39:43] performance organization and community with engaged employees and residents that is
[39:48] data-driven and outcome-focused, built on the five pillars of resiliency, sustainability,
[39:54] equity, transparency, and compassion, and we do that through planning, partnerships, and
[40:01] people.
[40:02] There's going to be plenty of opportunities for the public to have input on this budget.
[40:07] One of them is tonight, this is a public hearing where the public can weigh in on their opinion
[40:14] on the recommended property tax levy, which the mayor and council needs to adopt the
[40:19] levy before the end of the night, and then there will be a series of public meetings
[40:25] the mayor and city council are going to hold, and individual departments will make presentations
[40:30] to you, and then at each one of these public meetings, Mayor Cavanagh asked if there was any
[40:36] public input about that department's budget.
[40:39] Those are going to occur on March 26, March 27, March 28, April 2, April 4, April 8th, and April 9th.
[40:49] So that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 public meetings after tonight's public hearing.
[40:56] And then there'll be another public hearing on April 11th on the total budget.
[41:01] And that night you have to adopt a budget and a tax levy because by state law you have to do that by April 15th.
[41:12] There's plenty of opportunity in person or people can go on the city website and provide you input about the budget recommendation.
[41:22] And that's the end of my presentation and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
[41:27] All right, well thank you very much, Mike.
[41:28] Well, as Mike mentioned, we are in a public hearing to consider the City Council approval of the proposed fiscal year 2025 tax rate,
[41:39] which the City Manager is recommending a tax rate and dollars, I should say, which the City Manager is recommending approval.
[41:45] So at this time, we'd welcome any public input if we have any here.
[41:50] And as you come up, I'll just a couple of reminders, name and address, please.
[41:56] Also, we'll do five minutes for any public input and just ask that we keep our comments.
[42:03] Tonight, at least for this public hearing, as focused as we can and as civil as we can.
[42:07] So thank you very much.
[42:08] Go ahead.
[42:09] Thank you.
[42:09] My name is Clark Sloes.
[42:14] I just like to start out by thanking the city for letting me speak here and I appreciate the process that you go through because I worked in County Government for 26 years and had to go through the budget process and I kind of liked the way the city does it that one massive public hearing because I'm sure we'd be here for 24 hours straight maybe longer.
[42:40] You know, where you break it up, break those public hearings up to this specific categories
[42:46] because my area of interest is infrastructure, public works, now be attending those public
[42:51] hearings.
[42:54] The thing that out of the budget that kind of concerns me is that when you see 5% increase
[43:01] in over non-union employees, the consumer price index from December 22 to December 23
[43:09] was 3.4%. So if you're getting a raise more than cost of living, what's the reason for
[43:17] that? You know, you can accept, was there an increase in productivity? If that answer is no,
[43:22] are you having trouble keeping people because, you know, salaries aren't good enough? What's
[43:28] the reason for salaries more than the consumer price index?
[43:35] The other thing that, you know,
[43:38] The letters I went out for, you know, selling what the property tax only rate was, and
[43:44] comparing it to $100,000 home, the thing that I sent an email to the city asking, what's
[43:51] the, let me rate going to be?
[43:53] And I was just expecting to know a simple whatever it is, $9.
[43:58] I basically got the entire presentation from the work session and the public hearing.
[44:04] I like to play with numbers, it's what I did for a living, and I appreciate the information
[44:10] that was way more than what I expected, and I appreciate that.
[44:15] But the other thing that concerned me too is the, I don't know if this would be the proper
[44:20] place to bring this up, is when I saw, you know, the sewer water rate increases the percentages
[44:26] of those three to four times more than the consumer price index.
[44:31] This is just a fluke, a one-time, one-year thing, or is this going to be the city's
[44:36] trend during the next few years?
[44:39] Because a lot of the girl garden in the summertime, it's going to be now when you start
[44:43] looking at, am I going to be able to afford to water my garden when it's August, and we're
[44:49] in a moderate to severe drought.
[44:51] The answer is going to be no.
[44:54] So I don't know if this is the time or place during that up, or when we have the public
[44:59] Thank you.
[45:00] The hearing for public works to bring that up then. The other thing too is to remind people, you know, when you get your tax bill, you know, look at, look at that tax bill. Because when I bought my house and when it came and looked at it, said the house I had had a full basement. The whole, you've got to make sure and check that, you know, we had maybe half the house had a full, you know, basement under it, rest of it was crawl space.
[45:29] I'm going so you're basing, you know, your valuation on something that isn't true, so you need
[45:36] to check that. Also, too, you know, pay attention. There's a difference between your
[45:40] assessed value and your taxable value. I don't know if people realize that or not. I know
[45:47] when the telegraph Harold had an article on the letters that went out in the editorial board
[45:53] made comments and all people want to know how much their taxes are going to go up or down.
[45:59] Well, with that letter, it was impossible because that levy rate hasn't been adopted yet.
[46:03] So, how can you tell them what their taxes are going to be until you vote on it?
[46:10] So, what the paper was asking for was impossible to do.
[46:14] You can maybe make an educated guess and maybe get relatively close.
[46:20] But, you know, I think maybe two, the paper needs to instead of, you know, criticize, you know, the state requiring these letters.
[46:27] It's good that you have one letter that tells you where all these publications, who went, where, how, why?
[46:34] The basics of journalism on that.
[46:37] So I appreciate it as that letter.
[46:39] So I knew, you know, I'm going to attend the school board public hearing for the first time ever.
[46:44] going to attend the county public hearing for the mute county been at Jackson County's where
[46:49] I worked there for years and attended those, but you know it's good that the information
[46:55] is providing those letters whether or not comparing $100,000 home for $24,25, you need to
[47:04] look at what your own taxable value is and you know maybe it's just me but anybody was past high
[47:11] will allow you once you know those levy rates but roll back you should be able to calculate
[47:16] which and you know what your tax credits are. You should be able to calculate what your property
[47:22] tax is. So easier than doing your income tax. How does I'm concerned on that? So I just want to
[47:30] you know know that hopefully especially on the water rates that this isn't a trend that's going
[47:36] continue, or these are going to go up three to four times the rate of inflation.
[47:41] You just can't afford that, because let's put it this way.
[47:46] I'm on Medicare, also annual rates for part being premiums, increased over the last 20
[47:52] years of the rate of over 6%, there are other insurances, you know, like you get your
[48:02] part D plans that go up by 3 to 4 or 5, 6% depending on which planning you have.
[48:09] I'm sure a lion energy and black hills energy are going to be asked if we're rating
[48:12] increases that are above the consumer price index.
[48:16] So that can only go on for so long before you reach a plant where, how am I going to be able
[48:23] to afford something?
[48:24] When I looked at something like that, when it goes up, I equated to okay, you know, that's
[48:30] I mean, you know, a property tax, that's so many gallons of gasoline, that's going to cost me.
[48:37] And since I mentioned that since January, when I keep track of, it's the world doing it.
[48:44] The price of gas went up 14% from the first time I filled up in January to the last Saturday when I filled up the price per gallon.
[48:52] So, you know, the double digits are, you know, more than 5% increases, just isn't sustainable.
[49:01] That's all I got.
[49:03] Thank you very much, Clark, for your comments.
[49:06] Any other public input this evening here in Chambers?
[49:15] It's a council staff.
[49:16] My name is Robert Kenker on Elstreet.
[49:18] Thank you today for holding this public hearing.
[49:21] I know a lot of people wanted to come the night, but the game's on.
[49:24] So, a lot of folks were watching that.
[49:25] Yeah, well, maybe oxen, I've listened to them pretty soon, certainly, too.
[49:30] Like I said, thank you again for doing all that.
[49:31] This is not convenient.
[49:32] It's a decision.
[49:33] I've known for the last year or two of the State of Iowa and the Legislatures have
[49:38] basically given, not given back the money that's supposed to do every city and county and
[49:43] town in State of Iowa.
[49:44] They're really named on their promise as what they did.
[49:47] And I can force you the future year.
[49:51] Next year, the year after, when they do this flat sales tax, I mean, less money coming
[49:55] the coffers, less money going back to the season towns, so higher property taxes, higher sales
[50:02] taxes, might be happening today of Iowa. So I encourage, you know, anybody who really wants
[50:08] to tackle this problem and cut it off at the past, we need more people in the legislature
[50:14] have a voice of opinion. So get out in the snowbember, hold your nose if you have to,
[50:19] vote for somebody else and get more people involved in the state legislature to say,
[50:23] No, we want a fair and balanced Iowa.
[50:26] We don't want one side of here and one side of here.
[50:30] There's gotta be a compromise to help out
[50:31] because a lot of cities and cities are gonna go wonder,
[50:34] or cities and towns are gonna go wonder,
[50:36] or have the highest property tax rate you've ever seen
[50:38] like Illinois does.
[50:40] So I want to thank you for keeping a low-visual year,
[50:42] but I foresee the next few years
[50:45] if things go away, I think they're gonna go
[50:46] and people looking out and voice their opinions
[50:48] to the governor and the staff.
[50:50] We have a lot of higher property taxes and sales tax.
[50:52] So thank you all for doing a good job. I appreciate it. Thank you, Robin, for your comments
[50:58] All right, I don't see anybody else here. Do we have any virtual comments this evening?
[51:02] We do not all right. Thank you anything for sitting there. No no written in, but all right
[51:06] Well, you appreciate the public input hoping to hear a lot more as we go through this process here
[51:11] But for tonight we'll just bring it back to table four questions and discussion
[51:20] Who's with?
[51:22] I had a question related to our first hearing actually. I just wanted to go back and ask
[51:29] For the $47 million Catfish Creek Suicide Interceptor Sanitary Suir Improvements that are
[51:39] slated, can you share a potential timeline for what the community can expect on how long
[51:47] that will take.
[51:48] I assume it is a pretty big project, so.
[51:53] Yes, it is.
[51:54] I'm sorry.
[51:56] I'm sorry.
[51:56] Can I intervene for a minute?
[51:59] Per the state code, I think we're supposed to limit this to just the public input tonight.
[52:05] This is supposed to be the separate meeting specifically on the action before the council.
[52:11] And I think the discussion is better left to the individual department and project.
[52:16] Oh, thank you so.
[52:18] Because this is supposed to be a separate meeting just for the public input and the public
[52:24] and put pieces related to moving the process forward.
[52:28] And we keep on learning about new processes, don't we?
[52:31] Well, so real quick, then, Craneth, as far as discussion then goes
[52:35] from us as a council, you have suggestions for us on how what we could discuss tonight.
[52:43] I mean, can we discuss public input?
[52:44] We received, can we discuss the rate itself?
[52:49] I mean, we did have discussion during the setting of this public hearing.
[52:53] So, just curious what your thoughts are.
[52:55] So, I want to look something up quick.
[52:57] Sure. And in the meantime, then I apologize, as well.
[53:01] I cut you off in the last meeting, and I apologize for not letting you have any feedback there.
[53:05] And I think Mr. Resenic, you may have been ready to say some things to so I apologize for that.
[53:12] So, the House File 718, which was the law that changed all of the process and added this separate bit.
[53:20] So this hearing had to be separate from any other meeting of the city or county, including any meeting or public hearing related to budget or other business.
[53:35] So information not related to the proposed property tax amounts and information in the budget statements may not be conducted at the meeting at which the public hearing is held.
[53:50] So based on that, I think the cautious action would be not to have any discussion, but to
[54:02] follow the suggested disposition and then have the discussion of all of the pieces related
[54:09] to the budget on the night that the specific departments present the information.
[54:15] I think that's consistent with the 718 language.
[54:19] Okay.
[54:21] Well then, I'm going to let my face do the talking on this one and say that just a reminder
[54:30] or we have, you know, on the screens here in Chambers, we have a lot of dates coming up.
[54:35] So I'm going to repeat them.
[54:36] March 26, which is tomorrow, March 27, which is Wednesday, March 28, which is Thursday
[54:42] And the next week April 2nd, April 4th and the following week April 8th and April 9th,
[54:47] we will be talking about every single one of the departments in every, like I mentioned,
[54:51] every dollar that will be spent in the city of Dubuque's budget, and we will have discussion
[54:56] on those nights. Welcome, more public input, welcome, more questions from Council, welcome, more
[55:04] discussion at this table, and then also with staff. And then please do provide input as public members,
[55:12] There's a budget comment form and also you can contact the city council anytime through email or phone and any way you like.
[55:20] And Mr. Shard, since you're the only one sitting here, I'll apologize to you that we were not able to directly answer any of your questions this evening.
[55:25] Look forward to getting the opportunity to answer those later.
[55:29] So with that said then, we'll just go ahead and have a nice short night and call it a night.
[55:34] And I ask Adrian to call the roll here please and then we'll have a vote for the information please Mr. Mayor.
[55:40] I guess I need it further explained to me that we're supposed to approve something without
[55:47] actually asking about it so that we can be clear and so the motion is to receive file and
[55:56] approve.
[55:57] Now this is not the first time we've gotten the information, but we've considered things
[56:04] and I suppose I could vote without asking these clarifying questions.
[56:11] But the process, the legal process, includes approving guidelines without scrutiny?
[56:25] And I would comment Mr. Reznik that the discussion that we were able to have at the public
[56:31] hearing, or the setting of this public hearing was the discussion around where to set
[56:34] rate at its maximum level, which is where we have it currently.
[56:39] So we cannot by law raise the rate, the property tax rate, any further than it is tonight.
[56:46] We can, however, by law, decrease it before on April 11th.
[56:53] We can't do that.
[56:54] Is that accurate?
[56:55] Correct.
[56:57] So what we will be voting on right now will be the maximum rate, knowing that we have an opportunity
[57:04] to lower it, but we don't have any legal ability even tonight to raise it.
[57:13] And feel free to, if there's, if there's more clarification.
[57:15] Well, just incredulity.
[57:18] That's all I have.
[57:18] So your face is also speaking.
[57:21] Yes.
[57:21] Fair enough.
[57:22] One of those.
[57:23] So, and that's entirely accurate.
[57:25] And we are to vote without any clarification.
[57:32] So, I think the best way I can describe it is that we're all muddling through this new
[57:37] process, and continue to hope that there's some additional guidance or clarity provided because as you know, it became just joined it a few years ago and it kind of continues to be just joined it in the code requirements and the process that has been laid out for us.
[58:00] Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
[58:01] So I would encourage all of us to make sure we have anything tonight that we need to ask
[58:06] write it down and we'll be back tomorrow night to begin the process at least.
[58:11] Okay.
[58:12] Any further clarification before I call for the vote?
[58:15] All right.
[58:15] Motion before I see it is to receive and file, approve the proposed tax rate and dollars for fiscal
[58:22] year 25.
[58:23] So, Adrian, what's the call the roll please?
[58:24] Through cell.
[58:26] Hi.
[58:27] Farber.
[58:28] Hi.
[58:28] Cavadon.
[58:29] Hi.
[58:29] Jones.
[58:33] That motion passes 7-0.
[58:37] With that we have no further items on this agenda this evening, so we'll see everyone here tomorrow night and we are adjourned.