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The Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is now called to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

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It looks like

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we have additional students in the audience tonight just want to welcome everybody residents and high.

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You can, yes, you're on camera there, so you can wave again, if you wish.

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Students, we always invite you up afterwards if you have questions or I don't know.

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Pose and pictures to prove to your teachers that you were here.

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That might have done the trick right there, if you just tell your teacher to watch the replay

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of the tonight's meeting.

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It's customary during this time for me to read an open podium invitation to our resonance.

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Open podium is an opportunity for Eden Perry residents to address the city council on issues related to Eden Perry city government prior to each council meeting council means typically occur the first and third to his day of each month.

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These open podiums occur from 630 to 655 right here in the Council Chamber.

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If you wish to speak it up in podium, please do contact the City Manager's office at

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952-949-8412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, your phone number, and subject

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matters so we can be better prepared for you.

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Open podium is not recorded or telebiased.

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If you have questions about open podium, please do contact the City Manager's office.

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Cities across the state of Minnesota have by legislative authorization, a housing and redevelopment

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authority group, HRA.

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Some cities have a separate group.

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We here in Eden Perri, like many many cities, embed the HRA meeting into the City Council.

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So the City Council here in Eden Perri is its own HRA.

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So we do have an HRA.

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meeting this evening, and I call the HRA meeting to order our first order of business within the embedded HRA

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meeting is to approve the HRA minutes from our last HRA meeting back on September 2nd 2025. Is there a

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motion to approve them? I'll move to approve the HRA minutes from September 2nd 2025. Sir, second.

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Second, discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. So Mr. Gatchell,

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turn it over to you, we have a resolution to approve the HRA

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Levy. Yes, thank you Mayor, council members, members of the HRA for the

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purposes of this meeting. You approve those minutes of the September

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meeting, because the last time you met in September, you approved a

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preliminary budget and levy for the HRA, similar to what you did with the

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city budget, which we're going to get to in a little bit. In terms of the

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What you have done for, I would say, decades is established in HR A budget, which was parallel to the staff costs to run our housing programs in the city.

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As you know, we have a lot of different programs and funds and other funding sources for many of our different housing programs.

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The funding source with the HRA levy and budget that we use for the $230,000 is the staff

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allocation. As you know, you have a much, much more levy authority if you wish for

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other programs, but we only levy a very small amount of our levy authority that we use for

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staff time. As I mentioned, we have many other dollars and other sources that we use for our

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housing program for our housing programs. So the action that we request is the resolution

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certifying the final tax levy and approving the 2026 HRA budget at $230,000.

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You covered that very well and I just wanted to underscore that sometimes people will look at

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other city's sister cities around as men atonka will make to any dynam in the apples

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at St. Paul and they'll look at their budgets and they'll see line items like like

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an HRA housing line item and it's all over the chart you know it's not apples apples

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there are people that utilize this account for millions of dollars of living and some cities

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have known we've chosen through the years to keep it pretty constant as you say to pay

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for the salary portion of...

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What we do in housing and then fund it through grants and community development, block grants coming out of the federal government, CVBG funding, etc.

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So, council, any questions on before I entertain a motion?

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Is there a motion to approve then this resolution?

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move to a adopt resolution, certifying the 2026 HRA property tax

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to be $230,000 and approving the 2026 HRA budget of $230,000 as reviewed by the council.

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Sir, second. Second. I think council member Freiburg

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got in there. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

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Hi.

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Oh, sorry.

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Is there a motion to adjourn the HRA meeting?

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A move to adjourn the HRA meeting.

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Sir, second.

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All those in favor say aye.

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Hi.

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Opposed.

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All right, passes.

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So to the student sitting in the audience, I hope you didn't get a little bit excited that the

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meeting was over.

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That was just the HRA embedded portion.

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Now we move back into our regular council meeting.

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We have no proclamations or presentations, so it's really moving on to the agenda.

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Council, any items to add to that primarily that would be a Council member report.

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If not, is there a motion to approve the agenda then as presented?

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Moved approve the agenda.

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Is there a second?

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Second.

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All those in favor say aye.

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Oh, is moving on to the minutes from our last meeting.

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We have both the workshop and the regular meeting.

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After you've looked through them, were there any corrections edits that you wish to make?

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If not, is there a motion to approve both of the minutes?

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go ahead and make that motion.

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Move to approve the following city council minutes.

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City council workshop held Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

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And city council meeting held Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

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So second, second, any further discussion?

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All those in favor say aye.

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Opposed.

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Consent calendar for the students in the audience to consent calendar

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are items that are really important.

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And they don't typically require additional discussion.

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So we clump them all together.

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However, council, you are permitted to request that we either discuss some individually

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or even pull an item to vote on separately.

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Anybody have any concerns or questions about any items A through N on the consent calendar?

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If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

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I'm going to approve the consent calendar.

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Hey, Glenn.

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You through in on the consent calendar.

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Your second.

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Second.

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You further discussion.

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All those in favor say aye?

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Aye.

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Opposed.

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All right.

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We do have a couple of public hearings this evening.

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I'm obviously incredibly important.

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I'll just maybe make it as an umbrella statement here that I've often said through the years that probably the number one most important thing that a council really can do.

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is to set the budget, because the budget is where we spend taxpayer money back on taxpayers,

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back on our residents.

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And if you want to know what the priorities of the InPherty City Council was back in

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pick a date, 1971, then you look at their budget.

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What did they prioritize, what did they spend on, what did they raise taxes on to go spend

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on?

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So the budget is the reflection, really, of the personality of the city, and it's the reflection

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of what the five of us see as the priorities for the people that elected us and they give

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us you all, give us that feedback by electing us by taking surveys, which we give every two

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years very thoroughly. By talking to us at the grocery store, you know, and we're very accessible

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as you know, calling emailing. So through that process, we uncover what we believe are the priorities

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is that the people being very want us to use their tax payer dollars to spend back on them.

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So incredibly important what we're going to be doing this evening, we take this very seriously.

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This is the culmination of, I know I'm sorry, I'm sealing your thunder briefly, please repeat it.

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It's the culmination of really a two-year budgeting process, but multiple meetings this year, workshops where we have,

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not painstakingly because we really let rely on staff for that piece of it, but painstakingly in terms of the vision and the goals and what we prioritize and what we give staff and then we work through they give us feedback throughout the year on the budget so ten nights that final combination means I don't know if it will go faster so but whether it seems fast, it's not fast, it's been a long process to get here.

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Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. With that introduction, in terms of the process, the finance manager

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Tammy Wilson and I would like to walk through a presentation, take you through the budget

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and the impact and talk about.

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You know, the 2026 budget and what brought us here covering some of those topics that you covered and a looking ahead to 2026 a little bit.

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We do do do do do to your budget. We're not going to spend a lot much time on 2027, but as you said, we do preparations for 2026 and 27.

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And so we are going to start with a presentation. Then we ask that you hold public hearing because every single taxpayer in the city of Eden Prairie was mailed and noticed for this meeting tonight.

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And then following that we ask that you take action on the proposed 2026 budget.

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All right.

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Thank you Mayor and members of the council.

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So the purpose of tonight's meeting is just together input on the city's proposed tax

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Loving in budget for the next year.

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It is requirement by the state and it must be held after property owners have received their proposed

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property tax statements, which were mailed out the week of November 10th.

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And then some of the other entities that will be holding public hearings are the county, which

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held there's tonight, I believe that's 6 p.m.

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And then the school district, which will be holding there's on December 8th.

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So I just wanted to give the audience a little bit of a background on our process, which

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Rick kind of touched on.

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So we do prepare a two year budget, so the 26 and 27 budget.

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Now at the beginning of this year, staff began working on those two years and then throughout the year we met with the departments, the directors and council just to gather input and get their feedback on that to your budget.

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But tonight again, I will be just bringing forward the 2026 budget.

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So this slide is just a summary of the budgeted expenses for the city.

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And so we have a budget of $66.8 million, which is a $4 million or $6.5% increase.

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And I will go into further detail on each of these line items on the following slides.

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But I also want to mention that for 2026, we do have a balanced budget, which means that our budgeted revenues do equal our budgeted expenditures.

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So for the general fund revenue budget, we are proposing a budget of 63.9 million dollars, which is an increase of 4.5 million or 7.6%.

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So, as you can see on this slide, the largest source of income to the city is taxes, and that accounts for 77% of the budget, which represents 48.9 million, which is an increase of 5.9% from the prior year.

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The second source of revenue for the city is charges for services, which account for 10% of the budget,

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and it represents 6.5 million, and it's an increase of 7.3% from the following year.

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And the largest light item of charges for services is the parking recreation program in fees that we collect.

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And that 7.3% increase is due to the improved performance at the community center as we continue to rebound from the impacts of COVID.

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For licenses and permits, that accounts for 7% of the budget, and it represents 4.3 million dollars, which is an increase of approximately 4.2%.

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And the largest line item of this category is building permits, which makes up $2.7 million.

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And this is one of the line items that we conservatively budget each year as a volume of

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permit activity can vary significantly from year to year.

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The next category is Intergovernmental

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revenue which counts for 4% of the revenue representing 2.6 million dollars. And this line

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item consists mainly of police and fire state aid which accounts for about 1.6 million dollars.

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And then also the school liaison program which accounts for 400,000. And the school liaison

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program is a program between the police department and the school district where we share four and a half officers

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evenly between the two entities. And then the final category is other revenue, which accounts for 2% of the budget.

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It represents $1.5 million, and this line item consists mainly of fines and forfits, investment

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income, some transfers from the enterprise fund, and just some smaller miscellaneous contributions

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and donations.

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So now if we switch over to the general fund expenditures budget, as you can see,

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it's a balanced budget, so our budget is $63.9 million, which is an increase of $3.9 million,

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6.6% from the prior year. This budget does maintain prior year services and it also includes

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some additional funding which I'll kind of walk through. So for administration the budget

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is 5.6 million which is an increase of 339,000 and that increase is due mainly to the additional

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costs of $176,000 for elections as 2026 is an election year.

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For community development, the budget is $2.8 million, which is a small increase of $10,000,

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and that is due to an open position we had in planning that we did not budget for in 2026.

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For the police, we are budgeting $22.8 million, which is the increase of $2.3 million.

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And this increases due mainly to the normal increase for wages and benefits.

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And there's also some additional facility costs due to the police expansion remodel.

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And then there's some additional costs due to a contract that we have with Hennepin County,

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where we received an additional social worker in 2025.

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For fire, we are budgeting $9 million, which is an increase of $900,000, and this line

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I don't two again, the normal increase for wages and benefits, but it also includes some

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additional funds for the hiring of some additional full-time firefighters.

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And I also want to mention that in October, we were notified that we had received the safer

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grant, which stands for staffing for adequate fire and emergency response.

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And so we received the grant.

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It's $2 million and it's for three years.

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And we were one of six cities within the state of Minnesota that received that grant.

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And so with this grant for the first two years,

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the federal government will cover 75% or 75% of the cost of wages and benefits

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for eight additional firefighters, and then in the third year, the federal government will cover

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35 percent of those wages and benefits. Those eight firefighters that we are hiring, it's not

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any more than what we had originally anticipated to hire, but what the safer grant helps us with

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is it allows us to hire those firefighters sooner than we would have been able to without that grant.

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For public works, the budget is increasing 6.7 million, which is a decrease of $260,000.

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And this is due to the reallocation of the equivalent of approximately two full-time employees

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to the enterprise funds.

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And then for parking recreation, the budget is $16.6 million, which is an increase of 598,000,

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which is just the normal increase for wages and benefits.

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Tammy, I'm sorry, did you mention under administration that it was elections?

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Correct. You did, I was sorry. I was paying attention and down the line.

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And that would every other year then do this, you know, go down next year and then up the

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yeah. Perfect.

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So this chart is just a breakdown of the

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genophonic expenditures by department. And as you can see public safety, which includes

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It's placed in fire, make up 50% of the budget, and then followed by park and recreation

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at 26% public works makes up 11% administration, 9% and then community development

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makes up the remaining 4% of the budget.

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So for that 63.9 million dollar budget, if we were to break it down by different categories,

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You can see that wages and benefits makes up approximately 69% of the budget.

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And as you know, the city is a service-oriented organization,

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and so the majority of our budget is going to wages and benefits.

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Next category is facilities that makes up 8% of the budget and these expenses pay for the upkeep of the over 30 buildings within the city.

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The next area is the information technology and fleet services and they each make up 4% of the budget.

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So the information technology budget of 2.5 million really pays for all the computers within the city and the software and the phone systems.

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And then for fleet services that $2.4 million pays for all of the vehicles for the purchases and the repair and maintenance on all city vehicles.

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And then we have other contracts services which represent about 3% of the budget at $1.8 million.

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And then the electricity for the streets traffic lights and parks makes up about 2% of the budget at 1.2 million.

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And then we have the other category, which makes up 10% of the budget at 6.3 million.

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And this category accounts for like the legal fees, dues, conferences, and training, instructors, services, etc.

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So if we were to look at the $3.9 million increase in the budget from the prior year,

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this just gives a breakdown of the different categories.

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Once again, as you can see, wages and benefits makes up about 55% of the increase in the budget.

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And the wages and benefits doesn't include a 3% base increase for employees.

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And it doesn't include some step performance increases as well.

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It also includes those additional firefighters that we want to bring on as full-time staff.

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And it also includes a 22% increase in our health insurance.

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And as you've probably heard on the news and have heard from other cities,

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health insurance is just on the rise just not in the state but nationwide.

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And then it also includes 128,000 for that new Minnesota paid leave that will go into effect on January 1.

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And then to kind of offset that increase, we did see a decrease in our workers compensation premium of about $680,000.

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So, prior to COVID, our premiums for workers' comp were going up on average between 3 and 5%.

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But once COVID hit, our premiums had skyrocketed to about 30 to 40% increases.

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And now finally, in the last two years, we have seen those come down.

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And so this year, in last year, we saw 20% decrease in those premiums.

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I'm so facilities is increasing $600,000 and that's primarily due to the police remodel

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expansion. And then other contracture services is increasing $500 and $9,000. And then IT

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is increasing $350, $357,000, which is due mainly to the new software and just the maintenance

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of all the software and then fleet is increasing 152,000 just due to the increased cost of vehicles

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and repair and maintenance supplies. And then for electricity for the streets traffic lights

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in parts we did see a slight decrease and this is due to the city just becoming more energy efficient.

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And then the other categories increasing 142,000 dollars.

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And so now if we switch over to the property

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tax lobby. So, based off of this budget that I just went through, the general fund

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levy, we are proposing it to be $49.9 million, which is an increase of $2.7 million or

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$5.9%. For the capital improvement fund, we will not be loving this year and we have a

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fund balance policy and each year at the end of the year we compare it against our fund balance

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and any access revenue that we have, we will transfer that over to the Capital Improvement Fund.

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And for the last couple of years, we've been able to transfer money into that plan.

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And so for this, for 2026, we are not going to levy for that fund.

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And then for the debt levy, the levy is $2.8 million, which is an increase of $493,000,

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and which I'll go into more detail on the next slide.

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But for the total property tax level for the city,

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we are proposing $50.1 million.

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Which is an increase of 2.6 million or 5.6%.

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And so for the debt levy, the city has two debt issuances that are backed by a levy, and those are

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for the 2021 tax abatement bonds, which are for the, was for the pool expansion, and then for the

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25 police remodel, which we just issued this year.

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So, just to give you a little bit of history on the police remodel, back in 2017, when we

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were updating our 10 year CIP, the police can forward with a project to remodel the police

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station.

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So, at that time, we looked, and we knew that in 2025, we were going to have some debt

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that was going to be retired.

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So we worked with the police department to push off that remodel until 2025 and so that when we issued that debt,

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we were that debt was able to absorb some of the cost that we were seeing reduction from the retirement of that old debt.

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And so now five CIP processes later the police department is finally seeing their police remodel.

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So now if we just move over to the market value, so for 2026 the estimated market value for the city is 14.7 billion dollars, which is an increase of 1.39% from the prior year.

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So if we look at the makeup of the 2026 value, residential property consists of about $10.7 billion or 10.7 billion of the total value, which is about a 3% increase from the prior year.

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Commercial and industrial make up about $2.5 billion and or $2.5 billion of the value and they have seen a decrease of approximately 6% from the prior year and then also multifamily is at approximately 1.4 billion of the value and they also saw a decrease of 4%.

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So the shift is shifted more towards the residential from the commercial and multi-family in 2026.

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So based off of the proposed property tax levy and the estimated market value,

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this chart just shows what the city's tax portion would be for a median value home.

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And so for 2026, the median value home is valued at $558,800.

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And this value may be, and there can be properties that are valued higher or lower, but

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this slide is just meant to represent the typical value home in Eden Prairie.

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And so for that median value home, the city tax impact would be $1,865, which is an increase

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of $142 or $8.24%.

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For an apartment with an average value of $18 million, the city's tax would be $73,206, which

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is an increase of $411 or 0.56%.

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And then for commercial with a value of $3.8 million that city tax would be $14,663,

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which is a decrease of $542 or $3.56%.

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So if we were to look at the overall property tax, which would include the county, the

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school, the state, and the city, and some other smaller entities.

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The overall tax for a residential property would be 7,112 dollars, which is an increase

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of $56 or 7.7%.

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For an apartment, it would be 270,411 dollars, which is a decrease of 202 dollars or 0.1%.

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And then for commercial, the tax would be 115,131 dollars, which is a decrease of

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1,474 dollars or 1.3%.

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So this slide just gives a...

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Take down of the overall tax for a median value home. And so as you can see, this gold district makes up 35% of the overall tax followed by the county at 32% and then the city at 26% and then other understictions at 7%.

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And then for a commercial property, you can see fiscal disparities makes up 34% of their overall tax, but the state tax at 18% on the school district at 16%

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And then the city at 13% and then others at 4%

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and so if we go back to just the city's portion of a median value home, their tax of 1,865 dollars, if you divided it out onto a monthly basis, their tax would be 155 dollars and 42 cents.

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with $148.69 of that going to the general fund and then $6.73 going to the debt service fund.

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And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Rick.

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Thanks, Tammy.

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So I think Tammy did a really good job of kind of walking us through the budget and the details of

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the city's budget. I want to take a step back. I want to talk a little bit about the process again

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and then get into a little bit of what this all means in kind of the impacts and kind of how

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we compare and what we're looking at. And then I'm sure after that all the commercial property

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and apartment property owners that are seeing a tax decrease want to come up and talk to the

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Obviously, we're sitting here right now, but if we want to take a step back and I think the mayor mentioned this a little earlier in the opening comments at April 15th, the quality of life survey, that's something that we do every two years, and it's one piece of the process, but it's something that the city takes very seriously, because it's a statistically valid survey of our residents, it gives us a really good sampling.

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of what people in the community feel about the services that they receive.

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We actually ask about each and every city service, the characteristics of our community,

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and also what's really interesting.

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The company that we use can benchmark us against about 50 other cities in Minnesota, many

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our peers surrounding us in four or five other four hundred or five other four hundred five hundred

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other similar size cities, suburbs that are similar to Eden Prairie in the region and in the country.

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And without me getting into a lot further detail about it, we actually were able to encapsulate a lot

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the survey results and how we did in the survey. Here's just one little slide in terms of how our

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rankings in benchmarking came in in a in a small video that we did that has been shared internally

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and at a few different presentations that we've done but we definitely wanted to share the results

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of our survey in a short video that we did about a five minute video and again this was back in April

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and this played a part into the preparation of the budget that we did.

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So I just want to briefly share the video.

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Case mayor of Eden Prairie.

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Every two years, the city conducts a survey

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together opinions from a random sample of residents

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about the quality of life here in Eden Prairie.

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The survey is critical to providing me

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and other city leaders with a snapshot of how you Eden Prairie residents

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feel about living here in our community.

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It helps us identify current and future needs so we can align the city's priorities accordingly.

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I'm proud that our latest quality of life survey, once again confirmed what so many of you

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already know. Eden Prairie is an exception.

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Optional place to live, work, and dream. Over the next few minutes, I'll share some highlights of the 2024 survey results and the many ways in which our city continues to lead the way.

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In 2024, Eden Prairie residents reaffirm what they've been saying for years, that Eden Prairie

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is one of the best places to live in America, and impressive 90% of residents rated their

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overall quality of life as excellent or good, putting Eden Prairie ahead of other communities

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in Minnesota and across the nation. From peaceful neighborhoods and excellent schools to vibrant

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community spaces and a strong sense of belonging.

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Eden Prairie is also a city that feels safe.

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93% of residents say they feel safe overall.

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In our pulley services were impressively ranked

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number three in the nation, and number one in Minnesota.

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Emergency services include fire and emergency management,

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also earned top ratings.

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City services continue to impress.

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From street repair to city planning,

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Eden Prairie outpaces other cities across the board and ranks number two among Minnesota communities in the

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overall quality of city services. Of the survey respondents who contacted the city over the last few

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years, nine in ten gave top marks for courtesy, responsiveness, knowledge and follow-up.

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Residents also rated Eden Prairie's economic health as strong. It's a great place to work,

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build a business and invest in the future.

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The city's economic ratings outshine communities both in Minnesota and across the nation.

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What truly sets Eden Prairie apart is its connection to nature.

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92% of residents rated the natural environment as excellent or good,

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making it the highest rated aspect of community life.

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With top-ranked parks, natural areas, recreational amenities, and over 200 miles of trails,

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Our community enjoys one of the best park systems around.

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Residents also gave even very top marks in Minnesota and the nation in these specific areas.

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In every category that matters, safety, services, quality of life,

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environment and community, even fairy doesn't just meet expectations.

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We set the standard.

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So a couple thoughts. One would be if you if you go to the city website, you can actually read the entire survey.

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It's the complete results. It's like 300 pages, but you can go through the whole thing. Also, I mentioned that meeting in April.

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You can watch the results that the third party consultant came in presented to the council, the results of that survey that evening.

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but what's important is that that survey and the results of that survey led to the creation

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of the budget and the direction from the council that the next slide here, that the goal

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for the budget process that they set was we want to maintain that level of service and we want

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to do it at what's a reasonable tax impact. So, you know, the direction to the staff to

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and preparing the budget was we want to continue to have that level of service at a reasonable price.

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And in terms of the finance position that we want to be at, and you've heard this as we need to have a balance

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budget, we need to have conservative estimates of revenues and expenditures and to annually review everything we do

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and have long-range capital planning and.

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In terms of, you know, there are several examples that that Tammy gave of that. One of the reasons that we do not need to have a capital improvement levy is because we were, we exceeded our revenues the last several years and we were below our expenditures.

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So we were able to transfer money to our capital improvement fund without having to have a capital improvement

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levying and without having to put excess dollars over there. So those those were important goals of the budget.

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Also you saw in some of those charts that Tammy had and you're going to hear this quite a bit is we are a service organization.

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We are a people organization over 70% of the city's budget.

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our people, our wages and benefits.

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So a big part of what we do is related to pay and benefits, hiring and maintaining a good

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employees, providing them with the training professional development, the skills and wellness

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opportunities for that in the succeed.

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So that's a huge part of what we are and want to be as an organization and those are the

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goals of our city budget that we want to maintain.

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A few examples, I think that you heard that I just want to share about this particular budget.

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Again, I think Tammy touched on those.

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There are a few examples of in different areas of the budget of when there were open positions.

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We did not automatically fill those.

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There are positions that we reallocated in certain areas to save money.

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We already alluded to areas of where we budgeted conservatively.

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I'm also going to mention what I'll call in the Council's talked about this, what's a zero-based budgeting concept.

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And what that means is we don't necessarily say in a certain area or a certain division to the city,

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well, let's just raise that 2% or 3%.

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We will look at almost every single line item.

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So if you remember back to when Tammy went through each department,

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But there are some departments that are actually decreasing their budget next year, some

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matter flat, and some that may be increasing for all types of different reasons.

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So we evaluate each area individually on its own merits.

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And again, under the employee wellness and safety area, there are these examples of decreasing

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our workers' compensation premium, so it does maintain most of its revenue through taxes.

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We would say that we are fiscally prudent budget conscious, but also pretty innovative

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and forward-thinking.

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And the other fact I would give, and I think you saw this in Tammy's charts, is this particular

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budget is public safety focused.

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So, if you took out the spending that is non-public safety,

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the entire general fund of the city's budget

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is only increasing 2%.

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Tammy provided a breakdown of the spending city wide.

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This is a breakdown by department.

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So, if you just think about people like to see this kind of cost,

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if I were to get a monthly bill for what I get from the city,

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There's kind of an impression of what that would be per month and she mentioned, you know, public safety is 50% of our budget and and obviously when you think about, you know, an operation police and fire, something that runs 24 or seven around the clock, an operation that could be to your house within minutes when you call obviously comes at a cost, but as you also saw, it's rated one of the best in the country.

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So something we're pretty proud of and something that I think we deliver at a reasonable price.

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Also, when you think about this city as a whole, it isn't just the general fund in the tax operation, the city as a whole,

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is actually when you add in all our enterprise funds, water, sewer, storm water, all of our operations, the total city budget is actually about $110 million.

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So that includes debt.

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This we talked about downstairs when we had another topic.

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We are assigned the highest possible bond rating that you could have,

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the highest rating that an agency could give you,

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Triple A, but also you,

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everyone pays utility bills.

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And you have, you know, water bills,

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so we're a bill that you get from the city.

415
00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:39,880
I know this chart is really hard to read,

416
00:44:40,020 --> 00:44:42,460
but when we had a workshop in November

417
00:44:42,460 --> 00:44:47,100
to talk about the utility bills that were presented by a public work director and finance manager.

418
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:56,180
It was shown that we have the 10th lowest average utility bill in the metro of those similar cities.

419
00:44:56,380 --> 00:44:59,980
So that is another cost to the resident.

420
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:09,140
So, it doesn't factor in to your property tax statement, but it's another cost to our resident that is part of the city budget.

421
00:45:10,020 --> 00:45:24,600
So, moving to the property tax impact piece, this shows a little bit of a history of, I'll call it, the three levers that play into what a property tax is.

422
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:28,300
that is tax capacity, your levy, and your rate.

423
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:34,020
The tax capacity is a function of the value of the property in the city.

424
00:45:35,140 --> 00:45:38,020
So Tammy talked about the value.

425
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:40,860
I would just say if we were to put the city up for sale,

426
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:43,660
someone wanted to buy Eden Prairie that

427
00:45:43,660 --> 00:45:45,440
have to pay about $15 billion.

428
00:45:46,340 --> 00:45:51,180
And if you factor it in what the taxable value of Eden Prairie is,

429
00:45:51,180 --> 00:45:58,440
about $154 million. And if you divide that by what we're asking to

430
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:03,920
levy for next year, $50 million, you get a rate that you're going to pay

431
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:11,040
your taxes, your home value on, or apartment, or commercial property, and that's 32%.

432
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:21,160
Just remember the 32%. That 32% tax rate, keep that in mind, because we're going to have

433
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:28,820
since 2022. It went down and it kind of went up. So this chart shows our tax capacity or

434
00:46:28,820 --> 00:46:36,220
values gone up. The levees gone up as well but are rate what you get taxed at has stayed the same.

435
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:43,900
As everybody should be aware that's what we've been talking about since the summer

436
00:46:43,900 --> 00:46:53,840
And the reason that average valued home has increased 8% even though the levy is only going

437
00:46:53,840 --> 00:47:02,200
up about 5 and a half percent in your home may have only gone up on average 3% is because

438
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:08,700
commercial property on average in Eden Prairie has gone down about 5 or 6% in the Metro

439
00:47:08,700 --> 00:47:17,880
closer to 10% is office commercial property has gone down and the burden has shifted to residential

440
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:25,560
property. This article that I took a picture of actually came out in June. So this is from

441
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:32,380
the summer. This I'm sorry is probably too difficult to see in this room. But this is from our city

442
00:47:32,380 --> 00:47:39,280
assessor and this is a value notice that was provided to me to give to the council that

443
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:46,000
basically talked about all the different value increases in property and Eden Prairie in

444
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:52,980
2025 that's for your 26 taxes. And it basically says that the value across Eden Prairie went up

445
00:47:52,980 --> 00:48:00,460
to $14.7 billion in that the average, you know, the single family detach homes when up about

446
00:48:00,460 --> 00:48:09,640
3% town homes up 2% commercial property down, about 6% industrial properties flat, multi-family

447
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:15,880
property down about 4%. So it kind of shows you those trends. Media and valued home up.

448
00:48:16,240 --> 00:48:25,040
So when Tammy showed the median valued home is 558, that's up from about 530. So when she showed

449
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:29,080
that what is that the median valued home tax is up

450
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:32,720
about $142 total the tax or whatever.

451
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:34,900
Well, the home value went up to,

452
00:48:35,260 --> 00:48:39,180
but this shows for the last 10 years or so,

453
00:48:39,500 --> 00:48:40,940
that median valued home,

454
00:48:41,020 --> 00:48:43,560
I don't think anybody has a median valued home,

455
00:48:43,580 --> 00:48:48,500
maybe close to it, has gone up almost $200,000.

456
00:48:49,820 --> 00:48:52,620
Does anybody remember $22?

457
00:48:52,620 --> 00:49:02,400
There were this room was pretty fall in 2022 because the average that year and this is Metrowide went up about 21% that year.

458
00:49:02,740 --> 00:49:08,320
That was following COVID, but that was, again, this is all based on sales of property.

459
00:49:08,560 --> 00:49:14,280
This isn't anything this, well, the city had to do this, but the city had to follow sales of property.

460
00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:24,860
So that brings us to back to this chart and what I want to illustrate in this chart is for now this year.

461
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:35,780
We are at a point in time where residential property is bearing the largest weight ever.

462
00:49:35,780 --> 00:49:40,470
I think ever I guess I didn't look back prior to 2019 but I think ever.

463
00:49:40,470 --> 00:49:51,390
But it's bearing the most percentage of capacity by class, 63.3% of the capacity and need in

464
00:49:51,390 --> 00:49:59,970
Prairie is in residential and the lowest of commercial capacity right now at 27.8 and if you

465
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:28,760
Look at the COVID, the COVID year. That was the year, 21, when the, I would say, the, what we know, the office market began its descent in that given year. So that kind of plays a part in the burden that the burden, article that I shared in the residential property burden and you saw, again, those examples of the average valued commercial properties,

466
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:36,340
seeing a pretty large decrease in their tax, and so these, these are things that the city

467
00:50:36,340 --> 00:50:41,940
in terms of setting their levier budget. We do not have control over this. These are just

468
00:50:41,940 --> 00:50:49,620
impacts. These are results that are being seen all across the state of Minnesota, but it's just

469
00:50:49,620 --> 00:50:55,880
it's a good explanation of what people may see. The control that city council has is setting

470
00:50:55,880 --> 00:51:00,360
their budget and levy, but it's a pretty good explanation of what people are seeing.

471
00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:10,300
Again, I think I covered this explaining how property tax bill is calculated, so if anyone's

472
00:51:10,300 --> 00:51:17,100
ever interested, if you just think about the value of your property, so just take any value.

473
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:23,640
I'm going to use that median value at home, so take 200,000, 700,000, 800,000, just if you're

474
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:28,380
curious, take that for residential property, I shall go back here.

475
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:36,720
But this list is there's about 50 different percentages for 50 different types of property

476
00:51:36,720 --> 00:51:41,720
in the state of Minnesota that the state of Minnesota sets different rates for different

477
00:51:41,720 --> 00:51:42,420
types of property.

478
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:51,260
So there is a different taxation rate that the state sets for cabins, airport property, rural

479
00:51:51,260 --> 00:51:59,400
vacant land, condo storage units, residential non homestead, manufactured home parks, marina's

480
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:04,480
just all those the list is all different types of property that are taxed at different rates.

481
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:11,420
Four homestead residential property, the first $500,000 of your home is taxed at 1%.

482
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:20,080
Everything over that is taxed at 1.25%. We've talked about this that the median valued

483
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,120
Momentine Prairie is over 500,000.

484
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,540
So the even the median valued home is skewed,

485
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:29,060
because that's over 500,000.

486
00:52:29,060 --> 00:52:33,780
So that shows a higher tax than what it used to show.

487
00:52:34,820 --> 00:52:36,800
So there you get your tax capacity.

488
00:52:37,260 --> 00:52:40,920
So when I talked earlier about taking that $15 billion

489
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:43,280
of property in Eden Prairie,

490
00:52:43,340 --> 00:52:45,340
multiply it by all those different rates

491
00:52:45,340 --> 00:52:47,100
and you get your tax capacity,

492
00:52:47,100 --> 00:52:53,420
multi-pliant by that city rate, there's the property tax, there's the median

493
00:52:53,420 --> 00:52:58,380
valued home property tax. I'll get back to that in a little bit, but before I do

494
00:52:58,380 --> 00:53:06,020
that, I want to share what we're seeing around us. When I say around us, this is

495
00:53:06,020 --> 00:53:11,780
something I was shared with the council in the spring comparisons to other

496
00:53:11,780 --> 00:53:16,980
levies around us. These are similar sized cities. I don't share manyapolis

497
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:22,800
St. Paul in smaller surrounding community levies, but it's my understanding

498
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:27,400
that I think I saw in a League of Minnesota City's publication that

499
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:32,900
the average levied increase for all cities in the entire state of Minnesota somewhere

500
00:53:32,900 --> 00:53:39,900
on 8%. So we're still below that. I do believe St. Paul has a lower

501
00:53:39,900 --> 00:53:43,260
proposed Levy than Eden Prairie Minneapolis does not,

502
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:47,280
but we're still below all of these cities as well.

503
00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:50,100
Also, a couple of these slides I wanna illustrate

504
00:53:50,100 --> 00:53:52,680
before I wrap up is something that the city council

505
00:53:53,240 --> 00:53:57,680
has talked about and that is some different scenarios

506
00:53:58,300 --> 00:54:02,560
with the Levy, under a median valued home scenario

507
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:07,760
and that was, so if we're looking at a 5.6% Levy increase

508
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:16,620
and the median valued home impact is the $142 increase annually over a year.

509
00:54:17,020 --> 00:54:18,700
Well, what if we did something else?

510
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:23,500
So the example that was shown to the council over these workshops, the summer,

511
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:29,180
is, well, what if you reduced the tax levy to 3.6%.

512
00:54:29,180 --> 00:54:32,060
These are just theoretical.

513
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:39,900
And that would mean that the, the, a, a, a million dollars would have to be cut from the levy.

514
00:54:40,740 --> 00:54:48,900
And then the reduction would be about 35 dollars in the levy increase, but it would still increase.

515
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:50,080
6%.

516
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:54,660
And what if you went down to a zero percent levy, just the levy went to zero?

517
00:54:55,240 --> 00:54:56,860
Well, there'd still be a tax increase.

518
00:54:57,640 --> 00:54:59,980
It would not zero out the meat.

519
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:24,480
The committee and the committee have been valued home. That being said, everybody's tax statement is different. You may not have an increase in the value of your home. Your taxes may be only going up 2%. You may have had a home improvement that you did. Your taxes may be going up 20% everybody's statement is different. This is just an example for illustrative purposes.

520
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:33,580
And in terms of, again, that scenario, the council asking me if we had a zero percent tax

521
00:55:33,580 --> 00:55:40,900
levy, and we eliminated two and a half million dollars from the budget, you know, what

522
00:55:40,900 --> 00:55:41,800
would that look like?

523
00:55:42,540 --> 00:55:48,660
And in the conversation we had was in the short term, and I would say short term if we were

524
00:55:48,660 --> 00:55:55,300
in a recession, or if we had a difficult period to get through, being a service oriented

525
00:55:55,300 --> 00:56:02,000
people-person organization, we would do what we did in 2010, 2011.

526
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:08,940
You would have wage freezes, you would adjust contracts, you would find ways in your budget

527
00:56:10,360 --> 00:56:16,360
to freeze things and temporarily use your fund balance to get through, but that is not

528
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:22,820
long-term strategy. If you needed to make a major cut in your budget for a long-term strategy,

529
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:29,300
you would be reducing staffing, you would be reducing services, and you would have to adjust

530
00:56:29,300 --> 00:56:35,060
your service level. Mr. Getswell, can I just add, go back to that slide just for a second,

531
00:56:35,380 --> 00:56:41,340
you and I were chatting about this before the meeting, that if we were to go down to a zero percent

532
00:56:41,340 --> 00:56:48,460
levy increase and cut two and a half million dollars from our city budget, which likely because

533
00:56:48,460 --> 00:56:54,700
we're 70% staff would either be freezing salaries or eliminating police and fire positions

534
00:56:54,700 --> 00:57:04,460
because they're two thirds of the staff. That $155 that the average $55558,000 home pays

535
00:57:04,460 --> 00:57:12,580
today a month for all those C services, 155 would drop seven dollars. That's all we could

536
00:57:12,580 --> 00:57:21,820
save you as we eliminate seven police officers and five. It's not where the money is,

537
00:57:21,820 --> 00:57:25,540
that's not where the viability is because of all the state formula and all the complexity

538
00:57:26,060 --> 00:57:32,680
of how taxes get said. I just wanted to add that. It may sound appealing and cut the budget.

539
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:40,080
Cut it two and a half million bucks and lower that levied to zero percent save you seven bucks a month average obviously right some people ten bucks

540
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:42,860
Some people five bucks, but just want to point that out

541
00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:47,120
Two more slides. I promise almost done

542
00:57:48,940 --> 00:57:55,000
This one of my favorites slides and I saw it in another city. So I'm like can you please send me a copy of this slide

543
00:57:56,560 --> 00:58:01,900
Again, comparable cities, cumulative levy increases over the last 10 years.

544
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:08,020
So, again, I think this is like what 12 comparable cities of similar size, men, a

545
00:58:08,020 --> 00:58:13,960
Tonka Maple Grove, Bloomington, Blymouth, E. Dynolakeville, add up all of the levy

546
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:21,160
increases in all of these cities over the last 10 years, and Eden Prairie has the second lowest

547
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:23,380
increase added up over 10 years.

548
00:58:23,380 --> 00:58:24,620
So that's a 10-year timeline.

549
00:58:25,180 --> 00:58:27,760
Again, back to that value proposition,

550
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:32,380
attempting the direction of the council to maintain

551
00:58:32,380 --> 00:58:35,900
a high service level at a reasonable cost.

552
00:58:37,300 --> 00:58:39,600
And then, finally, do you remember

553
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:42,820
back to what I said about the tax rate?

554
00:58:43,260 --> 00:58:44,460
What is your tax rate?

555
00:58:44,900 --> 00:58:47,760
What is the value of property in your city

556
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:54,940
divided by the levy that you put up on the residence equals a tax rate.

557
00:58:55,260 --> 00:59:01,260
And then when you get that tax rate, you take an individual's property, tax capacity,

558
00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:05,080
multiplied into that tax rate, you get their tax.

559
00:59:05,820 --> 00:59:12,100
Again, in a comparison of those cities, we have the third lowest tax rate of, I think this

560
00:59:12,100 --> 00:59:16,200
is of all cities over 10,000 people in Hennepin County.

561
00:59:16,200 --> 00:59:24,800
And then, again, if you remember that sample calculation I did, I just ran of these cities in this list.

562
00:59:24,860 --> 00:59:30,340
I just did four from kind of the middle and I did go to the bottom.

563
00:59:30,780 --> 00:59:36,900
So, again, to that 1865 for a median valued home, I took four cities.

564
00:59:37,120 --> 00:59:42,200
Four cities that I think you can five a $550,000 home in.

565
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:45,740
And those four cities, that is the city taxi would pay.

566
00:59:45,940 --> 00:59:54,320
So it's 1865 here, that is a taxi would pay in 2026 in those four cities under that scenario.

567
00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:59,980
So Maple Grove and Plimather the only two cities if they keep that, if they keep that.

568
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:25,040
Keep their levied the same that they propose or they're right. And those are just the four city examples I gave. And I could run them on every single one of those that are above us. And that's just the city tax. Obviously you have county and school and other tax. Finally, again, you could do a whole workshop on what the city state fiscal relationship is.

569
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:32,940
Local government aid state aid aid from other governments. There are many cities. I used to work in a city where

570
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:42,680
When you went the revenue a big portion of the revenue that you receive is local government aid from the state of Minnesota because there are there are small cities in the state of Minnesota

571
01:00:43,360 --> 01:00:52,020
That that cannot rely on property taxes the lonely do not have the valuation or the tax base to do that. They need local government aid

572
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:58,900
We get none of that. We get no local government aid. We get very little money from the state of Minnesota,

573
01:00:58,980 --> 01:01:06,200
Tammy mentioned that we get some public safety aid, but we get very little from the state of Minnesota.

574
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:14,120
We actually lose money when it comes to a tax base sharing program called fiscal disparities.

575
01:01:14,120 --> 01:01:38,560
We, without getting in a too much detail in the seven county metro area, all of the cities in the seven county metro area, pool, our commercial tax base, and we actually give up some of our commercial tax base to other cities, we're considered a loser because we do pretty well with our commercial tax base.

576
01:01:38,560 --> 01:01:44,700
So the point being, we run this analysis that if this tax-based sharing program didn't exist,

577
01:01:45,300 --> 01:01:53,120
that median valued home, taxes would be 6.8% less in Eden Prairie if that program did not

578
01:01:53,120 --> 01:01:53,520
exist.

579
01:01:53,580 --> 01:01:59,400
And we always like to say, when we talked to our legislators, this program that came about,

580
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:05,820
I think it was about 30 years ago that was going to be so groundbreaking and was going

581
01:02:05,820 --> 01:02:13,540
to stop cities from trying to compete for commercial businesses is the only one in the entire

582
01:02:13,540 --> 01:02:14,160
country.

583
01:02:14,540 --> 01:02:15,420
I believe that exists.

584
01:02:15,560 --> 01:02:22,500
So it hasn't really taken off in other countries and we have actually lobbied for changes

585
01:02:22,500 --> 01:02:25,520
to the program because it does affect our taxpayers.

586
01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:32,940
But the point being that we do not rely very much on state aid and we are sometimes hindered

587
01:02:32,940 --> 01:02:34,760
by other programs.

588
01:02:35,020 --> 01:02:35,960
And in some ways, it's good.

589
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:39,840
In some ways, it's okay to rely on yourself

590
01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:41,740
and not have to rely on other funding,

591
01:02:42,140 --> 01:02:46,400
but we do not lastly, there are other programs

592
01:02:46,400 --> 01:02:49,040
out there individually for people

593
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:53,620
that can apply for and receive a credit

594
01:02:53,620 --> 01:02:55,820
and aid for property taxes.

595
01:02:56,100 --> 01:02:58,320
And there are three, and you can find them

596
01:02:58,320 --> 01:03:01,300
at the Department of Revenue website,

597
01:03:01,300 --> 01:03:08,240
or you can contact anybody at the city and two of them are income-based, one is for seniors,

598
01:03:08,500 --> 01:03:15,760
so there is a property tax deferral program for seniors and that is for people 65 years or older

599
01:03:15,760 --> 01:03:23,300
who make $96,000 a year or less you can defer your property taxes or a portion of them and then there are

600
01:03:23,300 --> 01:03:28,860
two other programs and they're through you have to do them through your income taxes but one of them

601
01:03:28,860 --> 01:03:39,480
no relation to your income at all, and that's based on if your taxes increase from year to year to year,

602
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:46,380
more than 12% or at least $100. So that applies to anybody or there's another program

603
01:03:47,040 --> 01:03:56,020
for those that made less than $100, approximately $139,000. So we'll have that information on

604
01:03:56,020 --> 01:04:01,120
website, but we always want people to be aware of the state programs that are available for

605
01:04:01,120 --> 01:04:09,320
property tax credits or different roles or refunds. And I believe the mayor that is the last

606
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:14,640
slide we have, we're certainly available for questions, but they're still the public hearing.

607
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:20,600
Sounds good. Thank you, Tammy. And thank you, Rick, that was some really thorough.

608
01:04:22,060 --> 01:04:27,940
So, Council, at the end of the public hearing, we'll be voting if you have questions or comments.

609
01:04:28,100 --> 01:04:33,840
Do you want to save them to that point and we can jump right into the public hearing part?

610
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:41,160
Just want to one comment and I think you mentioned Tammy and Rick, it's really good analysis.

611
01:04:41,160 --> 01:04:50,540
I think that'll summarize the journey with the class a few months and then it's a good job of describing the process.

612
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:59,980
Thank you. So to residents in this room, this is a public hearing and so I'm going to invite you up.

613
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:18,980
And come up, please, and speak. And please, obviously, keep your comments to the fact that we're going to adopt the resolution tonight, certifying the 2026 property tax lobby, we're also going to approve the budget, 66 million, 847,000, and also approve the HRA tax, the levy of 230,000.

614
01:05:18,980 --> 01:05:22,300
I don't know how many people want to speak.

615
01:05:23,180 --> 01:05:25,180
I'm not going to time you this evening.

616
01:05:25,360 --> 01:05:27,620
We've done that in the past one meeting four years ago.

617
01:05:27,700 --> 01:05:30,320
We had seven to eight people sign up to speak.

618
01:05:31,620 --> 01:05:33,840
But tonight, if you can, keep it concise.

619
01:05:34,540 --> 01:05:36,800
And if you hear someone make identical same comments,

620
01:05:36,920 --> 01:05:40,000
you make maybe just piggyback on that and then let us know.

621
01:05:40,380 --> 01:05:42,860
Keep in mind, again, that we've been at this for two years.

622
01:05:43,180 --> 01:05:47,260
We really understand, but we want to hear from you this evening as well.

623
01:05:47,260 --> 01:05:53,460
will take notes. Again, we do have experts in staff out in the atrium area there to address

624
01:05:53,460 --> 01:05:58,740
additional questions. So, when you come forward, give your name, your address, and then

625
01:05:58,740 --> 01:06:03,020
if, again, if you can keep the concise to a couple of minutes, that would be great. Please

626
01:06:03,020 --> 01:06:03,720
come forward.

627
01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:12,500
My name is David Ringsmith. My address is 1, 3, 1, 6, 6, 6, B, I have court and

628
01:06:12,500 --> 01:06:20,480
in Prairie. Just want to first of all say amazing. I feel the marketing impact of the quality

629
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:25,720
of the presentation you've done and I think, you know, what you've done shows you've really

630
01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:31,140
done a good job. It still hurts as a citizen. There's one question I have if you can answer

631
01:06:31,140 --> 01:06:37,740
what the mayor addressed $7 a month difference. I couldn't find that on the page that you were

632
01:06:37,740 --> 01:06:48,560
I could I looked for it. Can you show me where that is just is it okay to get back to drive that tonight from data he had given me if it dropped 3.6 we saved three bucks

633
01:06:48,560 --> 01:07:00,560
I did some extrapolations. So you're not going to I was looking for that. Yeah, you're not going to find it, but I think it's pretty accurate, but again, we can you can email the next tomorrow or we can get last comment.

634
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:02,240
I'm trying to be brief.

635
01:07:02,940 --> 01:07:10,600
So, the last comment is, regardless of how excellent of a job you guys are doing, and I thank you for what you're doing.

636
01:07:11,180 --> 01:07:15,640
It still hurts with all the taxes that are going up in the state in the county.

637
01:07:15,860 --> 01:07:20,640
There's a lot of pain, and I think that's what you're seeing here tonight with the people.

638
01:07:21,220 --> 01:07:22,580
Thank you for the job you're doing.

639
01:07:23,460 --> 01:07:25,720
Great job, but it still hurts.

640
01:07:26,180 --> 01:07:27,820
Appreciate both of your comments. Thank you.

641
01:07:28,460 --> 01:07:28,880
Thank you.

642
01:07:28,980 --> 01:07:29,280
Next.

643
01:07:30,940 --> 01:07:33,940
Well, I'm the better half.

644
01:07:36,080 --> 01:07:37,680
And that way that I assume, not again.

645
01:07:38,560 --> 01:07:43,060
This is Maria, Rink's move from 1, 3, 1, 6, 6,

646
01:07:43,060 --> 01:07:44,080
Beehive Court.

647
01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:49,200
And I just want to again applaud the excellent presentation

648
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:51,140
by Rick and staff.

649
01:07:51,860 --> 01:07:54,880
But I want to key in on something Rick said,

650
01:07:54,880 --> 01:08:01,520
Well, what if we could do something else?

651
01:08:02,560 --> 01:08:06,900
Well, what if we could do something else?

652
01:08:09,780 --> 01:08:13,200
$5 gift box from a little thrift agency.

653
01:08:13,880 --> 01:08:15,500
And I love her.

654
01:08:15,900 --> 01:08:20,280
And every Democrat, Republican, and independent.

655
01:08:20,720 --> 01:08:21,540
I've met.

656
01:08:22,620 --> 01:08:24,000
They like it too.

657
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:38,700
And I'm just asking you to consider a new idea that is not in Rick's presentation and I'm sure you've never thought of this before, so here it is.

658
01:08:41,800 --> 01:08:56,460
In 1975, Representative Phyllis Khan did something, nothing, no one ever had done in America,

659
01:08:57,320 --> 01:09:06,280
and it came from Minnesota, Minnesota led the way, and she presented the Clean Air Act.

660
01:09:07,300 --> 01:09:18,240
And I come from a democratic family and I'm just asking you to consider, because when these notices come,

661
01:09:22,370 --> 01:09:23,390
they're very painful.

662
01:09:24,490 --> 01:09:30,590
Okay. Nobody likes getting you. Do you like getting you? Do you like getting you?

663
01:09:30,630 --> 01:09:39,110
Okay. Now we love our police officers. We love our firemen. Men and women.

664
01:09:39,110 --> 01:09:58,430
excuse me. I am still learning how to speak properly. But I'm just asking you to be like

665
01:10:00,920 --> 01:10:28,660
And our home was a perfect example, Rick, in your presentation. That's our home. And when we started here, our tax bill was 4,244,500, back in our son was injured. We came here because we would be close to hospitals in 2006. So my little home that you listed there.

666
01:10:29,520 --> 01:10:39,440
Because all I could hear tonight was all this will only cost me $7, $146, maybe $500 more a year.

667
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:41,080
But the pressure

668
01:10:43,100 --> 01:10:48,520
on the little taxpayer, the little family, okay?

669
01:10:49,420 --> 01:10:53,100
And it can be two of these or one of these, you know, the families.

670
01:10:55,080 --> 01:11:07,780
Our tax bill has doubled and the beautiful city we live in, the pressure is still on the taxpayer.

671
01:11:09,620 --> 01:11:15,380
So what I'm asking you to do is maybe just it's never been done before.

672
01:11:17,330 --> 01:11:19,590
Make the increase

673
01:11:21,210 --> 01:11:27,910
Optional per family per taxpayer just make it optional if you cannot afford

674
01:11:28,930 --> 01:11:33,770
This the cost if the $500 because ours would be

675
01:11:34,490 --> 01:11:45,810
And by the way you will consume the 2.8% increase I get from social security you will eat it all up. It will be completely taken

676
01:11:45,810 --> 01:11:49,410
by the Hennep and County City taxes.

677
01:11:50,130 --> 01:11:53,730
If you'll just do something, nobody else has done.

678
01:11:53,890 --> 01:11:56,270
Filis had to speak up and say it.

679
01:11:56,690 --> 01:11:57,730
I need clean air.

680
01:11:58,030 --> 01:12:02,530
She said, and there is pain in this room.

681
01:12:04,610 --> 01:12:06,170
It hurts for my taxes.

682
01:12:06,170 --> 01:12:08,770
I've been here 19 years and they have doubled.

683
01:12:09,490 --> 01:12:11,170
So all I'm asking you to do.

684
01:12:15,280 --> 01:12:17,480
Try, try it.

685
01:12:17,800 --> 01:12:20,480
See what would happen if you would allow

686
01:12:20,480 --> 01:12:29,160
the individual homeowner, to say, I, for whatever reason. Hasn't it been painful since COVID?

687
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:41,460
Hasn't it been painful? And then the tax burden just keeps, I keep getting to pay more for all

688
01:12:41,460 --> 01:12:47,860
these wonderful services, but it's painful. So I'm just asking, would you consider, if a family

689
01:12:47,860 --> 01:12:51,940
Cannot afford it. Would you trust

690
01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:58,960
that family? Just trust them.

691
01:13:00,840 --> 01:13:07,960
I can't afford it. I need that five hundred dollars for whatever the reason.

692
01:13:08,560 --> 01:13:13,100
And that's what I came to say. And I thank you so much for hearing it.

693
01:13:13,480 --> 01:13:15,660
I don't think this has ever been done before.

694
01:13:15,660 --> 01:13:31,660
But I know Minnesota has done some beautiful things, and I'm just asking you, allow them, allow the homeowner to opt out of this year's increase, and I really can't afford it.

695
01:13:32,400 --> 01:13:36,920
And just trust them. Don't make them go through hoops.

696
01:13:38,320 --> 01:13:41,240
Maria, thank you. I mean, we get it. Thank you.

697
01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:43,540
And it's, if you did well presenting that.

698
01:13:43,740 --> 01:13:44,100
So thank you.

699
01:13:44,100 --> 01:13:44,840
Appreciate you coming up.

700
01:13:44,840 --> 01:13:46,680
Oh, I take my $5 box.

701
01:13:47,360 --> 01:13:49,560
And I did your words, grip.

702
01:13:51,220 --> 01:13:53,160
Well, what if we did something else?

703
01:13:54,000 --> 01:13:56,000
Now, I just want to say one more thing.

704
01:13:56,600 --> 01:14:01,900
My pastor has reduced his department budgets, not the salaries.

705
01:14:03,280 --> 01:14:08,360
And our budget is not, is two thirds your budget.

706
01:14:08,840 --> 01:14:09,840
Think of that.

707
01:14:09,840 --> 01:14:19,340
a church, and he is not cutting salaries, but he is reducing the budget departments by 30

708
01:14:19,920 --> 01:14:26,380
percent, and he's been doing this for 45 years, and he's making hard cuts, and if my

709
01:14:26,380 --> 01:14:30,040
pastor can do it, we can do this.

710
01:14:30,440 --> 01:14:31,180
Thank you.

711
01:14:31,180 --> 01:14:31,600
Thank you.

712
01:14:32,060 --> 01:14:32,600
Thank you.

713
01:14:33,280 --> 01:14:33,580
Next.

714
01:14:38,510 --> 01:14:44,450
Good evening, Larry Ziske from 18803 Magenta Bay.

715
01:14:46,550 --> 01:14:50,110
I would say Eden Prairie, yes, is a very good place.

716
01:14:51,370 --> 01:14:55,970
Well, the best place is to live if you can afford it.

717
01:14:56,790 --> 01:14:59,190
And each person's world is their world.

718
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:29,180
And I don't have an average home. My assessment went up $110,600. My taxes for E.P. 15.5% increase and a bank county 15.5% increase. 13% increase for E.P. schools and they've already said that their school district is full and they expect to be over full by about 500 students next year.

719
01:15:30,000 --> 01:15:34,540
And so that would only mean more funds needed.

720
01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:40,000
So, and as she said, my increase in income

721
01:15:40,000 --> 01:15:43,900
is only 2.8% only on my social security.

722
01:15:44,880 --> 01:15:45,520
Otherwise.

723
01:15:46,120 --> 01:15:49,720
So I'm better off than most, but I'm in the situation

724
01:15:49,720 --> 01:15:52,260
where I'm being taxed out of my home.

725
01:15:52,600 --> 01:15:54,160
And this isn't just this year.

726
01:15:54,180 --> 01:15:55,760
This has been a gradual thing

727
01:15:55,760 --> 01:15:58,800
that's been going on for many years.

728
01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:08,020
And I've run out of fingers to count the number of friends and acquaintances who have moved out of state as such.

729
01:16:09,080 --> 01:16:18,500
So I would ask you to, yes, look at things and you talked about that you do your staff departments and things go line item by line item.

730
01:16:18,500 --> 01:16:31,640
Somehow when I was trying to print out the agenda for this evening, I got this printed out of all the fees, services, activities that are being looked at and done.

731
01:16:32,280 --> 01:16:43,840
And I could see things even with my limited knowledge that I think we could use to get more revenue from services, fees.

732
01:16:43,840 --> 01:17:13,440
and licenses and things like that, and indeed, it certainly was admitted, and we all know that the shift of burden of the revenue has gone to the private property residential taxes, and there was an article in the same Paul editorial about one or two Sundays ago about when will the property owners have enough?

733
01:17:13,840 --> 01:17:20,960
I don't know if anybody saw that enough, but it was in the Sunday editorial one or two Sundays ago.

734
01:17:22,580 --> 01:17:23,740
So that's what I would ask.

735
01:17:24,020 --> 01:17:31,920
And I think across the board, wage increases is not the norm in the private sector, hasn't been.

736
01:17:32,920 --> 01:17:38,640
And that we should look at controlling the budget as best possible,

737
01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:54,480
and not having wage increases go beyond the cola increase, and I think indeed, we don't need any more new fancy signs in Eden Prairie.

738
01:17:55,800 --> 01:18:05,140
And as far as we've of course built a nice new expansion on the city center and the police department and all of that.

739
01:18:05,140 --> 01:18:10,880
And maybe it is too late already to say, well, let's be a little more thrifty.

740
01:18:11,120 --> 01:18:17,740
We don't need the platinum version of a remodel or a new building or the furnishings

741
01:18:17,740 --> 01:18:23,820
and these sort of things. Bronze probably is good enough and very adequate.

742
01:18:25,080 --> 01:18:35,490
So that's what I would have to say and that I think the staff, the council is doing a good job,

743
01:18:35,490 --> 01:18:38,610
but it has to be pushed, it has to be improved,

744
01:18:38,630 --> 01:18:42,570
it has to be better, or of course,

745
01:18:44,860 --> 01:18:46,500
there will be you,

746
01:18:46,960 --> 01:18:48,260
do what you can do.

747
01:18:48,980 --> 01:18:50,040
Thank you.

748
01:18:50,200 --> 01:18:50,780
Thank you, Larry.

749
01:18:53,760 --> 01:18:53,980
Next.

750
01:19:09,920 --> 01:19:10,500
Good evening.

751
01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:11,800
My name is Julie Baker.

752
01:19:11,960 --> 01:19:14,340
I live on 8700 Bracks in Drive.

753
01:19:15,120 --> 01:19:15,840
Thank you.

754
01:19:16,120 --> 01:19:18,200
Repeat that to everyone.

755
01:19:18,280 --> 01:19:20,400
You put a lot of hard work into this.

756
01:19:20,480 --> 01:19:22,020
And we all see it.

757
01:19:23,220 --> 01:19:32,120
I am a single mom. I own my home. I work full-time in corporate America. I have a demanding job.

758
01:19:33,040 --> 01:19:37,640
I have gone three years without a merit increase because budgets are tight.

759
01:19:38,320 --> 01:19:40,860
I work really, really hard for my paycheck.

760
01:19:42,910 --> 01:19:46,470
The last three months I have started living paycheck to paycheck.

761
01:19:46,470 --> 01:19:52,970
I cut everywhere I can and there's not a lot more I can do to cut.

762
01:19:53,410 --> 01:19:55,130
I have a dishwasher that doesn't work.

763
01:19:55,470 --> 01:19:56,690
I wash my dishes by hand.

764
01:19:57,710 --> 01:19:59,650
So I am asking, what?

765
01:20:00,270 --> 01:20:07,210
Can we in even prairie do that is more creative? You're all so bright, and you have worked so hard.

766
01:20:08,130 --> 01:20:24,190
And it comes down to that $7 is a matter of principle. It would be nice to see the city I raised my children in that I have poured my heart earned money into.

767
01:20:24,190 --> 01:20:30,150
Show me some respect and understanding, inflation is high.

768
01:20:30,990 --> 01:20:34,230
We are paying taxes every time we turn around.

769
01:20:34,810 --> 01:20:36,090
We pay income taxes.

770
01:20:36,270 --> 01:20:38,010
We pay taxes on food.

771
01:20:38,550 --> 01:20:39,890
Our utilities are up.

772
01:20:40,050 --> 01:20:41,310
Our healthcare is outrageous.

773
01:20:42,270 --> 01:20:44,070
And so I'm asking you,

774
01:20:44,390 --> 01:20:45,730
as a matter of principle,

775
01:20:46,710 --> 01:20:48,350
please don't raise our taxes.

776
01:20:49,130 --> 01:20:50,450
We're living in a state

777
01:20:50,450 --> 01:20:53,790
that had an $18 billion surplus two years ago.

778
01:20:55,110 --> 01:21:03,850
And that's gone. The money is gone. We now have a $5 billion deficit. Where is my tax

779
01:21:03,850 --> 01:21:11,890
dollar going? I don't feel like our state, Hannap and County, and I want to throw

780
01:21:11,890 --> 01:21:17,790
Eden Prairie in there because I feel like we do a pretty good job. But they're not being

781
01:21:17,790 --> 01:21:20,210
good stewards of my tax dollars.

782
01:21:21,150 --> 01:21:23,730
And I think that's what everybody here is saying.

783
01:21:24,350 --> 01:21:26,730
Great, we love our police department.

784
01:21:27,250 --> 01:21:28,990
Does it need to be updated?

785
01:21:29,850 --> 01:21:30,970
I could use a dishwasher.

786
01:21:32,710 --> 01:21:35,210
It's great that we can get eight new firefighters.

787
01:21:35,930 --> 01:21:37,610
Can we do with six?

788
01:21:38,230 --> 01:21:43,950
It would be nice to see a budget adhered to.

789
01:21:44,590 --> 01:21:46,130
I can't just increase my budget

790
01:21:46,130 --> 01:21:53,290
because I want more. I have to adhere to my budget and I am asking you to give Eden Prairie

791
01:21:53,290 --> 01:22:00,810
Taxpayers a break even if it is $7 and Rick, while I very, very much appreciate Eden Prairie.

792
01:22:01,010 --> 01:22:09,230
I love this city. I don't compare my city to other cities when it comes to budgets. I compare it

793
01:22:09,230 --> 01:22:15,930
to what I have in my bank account. So, respectfully, I ask you to consider all the hardship that

794
01:22:15,930 --> 01:22:19,790
people are going through. I have neighbors that are without jobs, layoffs that are happening,

795
01:22:20,030 --> 01:22:24,990
left and right, small business owners that can afford to keep their businesses running

796
01:22:24,990 --> 01:22:30,210
because of the regulations that we have in Minnesota. My adult children cannot buy a house.

797
01:22:30,870 --> 01:22:39,110
I have a 3% mortgage rate. I can't afford to move. I can't afford to downsized because home values

798
01:22:39,110 --> 01:22:45,870
are so inflated and interest rates are higher. So asking you guys to dig a little deeper,

799
01:22:46,050 --> 01:22:53,250
see where else we can cut, let us keep our $7. If just for this year, until we start seeing a

800
01:22:53,250 --> 01:22:56,290
better economy, thank you.

801
01:22:57,030 --> 01:22:58,690
I'm sure anyone

802
01:23:05,480 --> 01:23:06,200
else,

803
01:23:11,500 --> 01:23:15,120
I don't want to cut you off, but once we close the public hearing,

804
01:23:15,120 --> 01:23:16,440
It'll be closed.

805
01:23:17,500 --> 01:23:19,700
So is there anyone else that wishes to speak?

806
01:23:23,410 --> 01:23:23,910
Okay.

807
01:23:25,250 --> 01:23:27,970
Council, could I have a motion to close the public hearing

808
01:23:27,970 --> 01:23:32,270
and then we'll just get some response from us,

809
01:23:32,270 --> 01:23:34,230
any of you, to each other,

810
01:23:34,830 --> 01:23:37,790
and then make a motion in the whole motion at some point.

811
01:23:38,150 --> 01:23:40,150
So could I have a motion to close the public hearing?

812
01:23:41,370 --> 01:23:43,250
I'll move to close the public hearing.

813
01:23:43,690 --> 01:23:44,430
It's for second.

814
01:23:45,890 --> 01:23:47,850
I wasn't a paper say aye.

815
01:23:47,950 --> 01:23:48,850
I opposed.

816
01:23:49,210 --> 01:23:49,630
All right.

817
01:23:52,120 --> 01:23:55,520
First place, those people that got up to speak.

818
01:23:55,860 --> 01:23:57,680
Thank you.

819
01:23:58,160 --> 01:24:00,260
We all know that can be a little bit difficult.

820
01:24:01,180 --> 01:24:04,660
Maybe even intimidating though you all did fantastically

821
01:24:04,660 --> 01:24:06,380
and did not show any intimidation.

822
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:08,960
I hope you would never be intimidated by us,

823
01:24:09,140 --> 01:24:11,840
but just the whole process, TV, that whole thing.

824
01:24:15,540 --> 01:24:19,600
We've struggled, I'll just speak for, is it okay if I speak for a little bit, and then you

825
01:24:19,600 --> 01:24:22,880
all can take notes and add anything in.

826
01:24:23,240 --> 01:24:30,320
We as individuals, we have opened meeting law, so we can't talk as a group, but I can talk

827
01:24:30,320 --> 01:24:37,600
to one other person, or I can talk to Rick who talks to others, and I know that I know the

828
01:24:37,600 --> 01:24:41,920
people up here, the quality of people up here on this council that you all elected.

829
01:24:43,560 --> 01:24:50,340
We've struggled with what we've been not only seen in the papers about the stress levels

830
01:24:50,340 --> 01:24:58,360
rising across the state of Minnesota, as this shift has occurred on to residential property

831
01:24:58,360 --> 01:24:58,800
taxes.

832
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:09,940
And we've struggled with what that means, you know, obviously, for us in Eden Prairie. We have very much tried to make our

833
01:25:09,940 --> 01:25:16,000
levy be as low as we could. And I think the proof is in the pudding that we're the lowest in the entire region.

834
01:25:16,020 --> 01:25:24,020
But I understand, if you're tax one of B-team percent of saying that, hey, our levy is 5.6, the lowest in the area, who cares, right?

835
01:25:24,020 --> 01:25:30,100
The complexity of why someone's tax went up to a team percent is incredible.

836
01:25:30,480 --> 01:25:35,000
I mean, I mean, I've been at this 29 years now in May or 7.

837
01:25:36,080 --> 01:25:44,100
And I still try to process through what's an easy way to say why our budget went up four

838
01:25:44,100 --> 01:25:47,980
and a half percent, but someone's tax went up 13 percent.

839
01:25:48,100 --> 01:25:52,160
How do I communicate that and explain that?

840
01:25:52,160 --> 01:25:57,340
And of course, again, I think Rick's presentation in Tammy's presentation was excellent that

841
01:25:57,340 --> 01:26:03,260
it's incredibly complex with state formulas and the shifting of responsibility from office

842
01:26:03,260 --> 01:26:10,640
commercial onto to home residential and the fact that we're only 25% of your tax bill.

843
01:26:11,000 --> 01:26:15,620
When you see this large property tax bill, not to pass the buck, right?

844
01:26:15,620 --> 01:26:16,920
That's just what we are.

845
01:26:16,920 --> 01:26:22,580
I will also say that four of us up here and won't give me just I have done that before

846
01:26:22,580 --> 01:26:24,320
I'll not do that tonight.

847
01:26:24,900 --> 01:26:27,820
Four of us are on fixed incomes on social security.

848
01:26:29,100 --> 01:26:36,260
So you can probably guess by looking at us, what's not, sorry, at least of the young one over there.

849
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:43,380
So yeah, somebody, I think was Larry, you mentioned that you have other sources of income too,

850
01:26:43,380 --> 01:26:58,900
But nonetheless, Social Security, which is probably a large piece of many of, it is a mine of many of our monthly revenue streams, when up, 2.8 was it this year, something it was bad.

851
01:26:59,660 --> 01:27:08,800
And if you checked your Medicare part B, it hit 80% of that. So we're not getting really a raise this year with Social Security.

852
01:27:10,260 --> 01:27:15,440
You know, not everybody was able to build their 401k in a certain way to buffer some of this.

853
01:27:16,080 --> 01:27:21,360
It's a red and article this week that said, you know, 40% of the baby boomers are not prepared.

854
01:27:22,440 --> 01:27:29,120
Going through the next 10, 15 years for an economy where inflation's rising at 3 to 4% a year.

855
01:27:29,960 --> 01:27:31,120
I don't know what that means, right?

856
01:27:31,240 --> 01:27:37,960
I mean, we're heading into some national and state crises here that are incredibly problematic.

857
01:27:37,960 --> 01:27:42,360
problematic. The question then as, you know, we as council appeared trying to make responsible

858
01:27:42,360 --> 01:27:52,220
decisions, do we want to hit 65,000 people with drop-in services which are the most impactful

859
01:27:52,220 --> 01:27:57,920
in our lives? Obviously if I understand completely from the people that spoke tonight, if there's financial

860
01:27:57,920 --> 01:28:03,880
issues that's hard to pay for, no, we don't. But I don't know what the percentage is, but probably

861
01:28:03,880 --> 01:28:07,240
90% of Eden Perry people are not on fixed end comes.

862
01:28:08,720 --> 01:28:11,780
And if you heard on NPR last week,

863
01:28:12,980 --> 01:28:15,060
corporate, even though I worked at United Health Group

864
01:28:15,060 --> 01:28:16,360
and I do understand that there are times

865
01:28:16,360 --> 01:28:18,440
you don't get raises, completely get that.

866
01:28:18,580 --> 01:28:19,860
Across the United States of America,

867
01:28:20,100 --> 01:28:24,140
the average private sector raise exceeded CPI.

868
01:28:24,560 --> 01:28:26,280
That doesn't help if you're on a fixed end come

869
01:28:26,280 --> 01:28:28,300
to hear that kind of statement, right?

870
01:28:28,740 --> 01:28:32,260
It just means that there's a variance

871
01:28:32,260 --> 01:28:38,180
across Eden Barrier of how people can cope and deal with a tax sink or all the tax

872
01:28:38,180 --> 01:28:39,840
increases that are hitting us.

873
01:28:41,380 --> 01:28:48,420
So I just want to say mainly that we, whether you believe or not, I mean we get it because

874
01:28:48,420 --> 01:28:54,200
we live it and we struggle with it and we do want to make sure that Eden Barrier remains

875
01:28:54,200 --> 01:28:58,900
the city that people want to move into because then your home prices go up.

876
01:28:58,900 --> 01:29:03,560
I mean, one of the most important parts of your tax bills to look at in the last whatever

877
01:29:03,560 --> 01:29:06,920
seven, eight years as your property tax doubled, what did your house do?

878
01:29:07,580 --> 01:29:12,640
I mean, I'm guessing if it's like my house, I think most of our house is probably doubled in the

879
01:29:12,640 --> 01:29:20,040
last 10 years in value if I'm wrong, talk to me later. But in other words, if my property tax went up this

880
01:29:20,040 --> 01:29:26,660
year or certain amount, but my value went up, I think I checked this out, 22 times. Now granted,

881
01:29:26,660 --> 01:29:29,700
there's a huge difference between assets and cash flow.

882
01:29:29,800 --> 01:29:30,760
I mean, we all get that.

883
01:29:31,200 --> 01:29:35,360
But nonetheless, some day, somebody, either we sell it

884
01:29:35,360 --> 01:29:39,900
or we make our kids wealthier, that comes back to us,

885
01:29:39,900 --> 01:29:41,820
but it's painful in the meantime.

886
01:29:43,340 --> 01:29:48,080
I don't think, knowing the 70% of our budget is public safety,

887
01:29:48,120 --> 01:29:50,780
I don't think the average resident out there,

888
01:29:50,780 --> 01:29:52,300
whatever that means, and in here,

889
01:29:52,620 --> 01:29:56,020
but out there in the city, wants to see please cut.

890
01:29:56,660 --> 01:29:59,340
want to see fire cut. I don't think that's true.

891
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,820
Yes, we could pay a lower raise, which would make us non-competitive. Right now, we are, maybe,

892
01:30:06,860 --> 01:30:12,180
know this, we have a police officer opening, we have 20 applicants. Many applicants has an opening.

893
01:30:13,600 --> 01:30:20,460
Well, they have 100 openings. They can't fill them. There's reasons that people want to work here.

894
01:30:21,260 --> 01:30:26,440
We do put openings and we have just dozens and dozens of applicants. We're the place to work.

895
01:30:26,440 --> 01:30:31,360
We have super-quality staff, and I think if you've had interactions with them, you know that.

896
01:30:31,720 --> 01:30:35,440
That is not because we pay them the lowest salary around.

897
01:30:36,240 --> 01:30:37,680
It doesn't work like that, and you know that.

898
01:30:37,900 --> 01:30:42,920
I don't think we pay the highest-sellers, I think, in some areas we might, but in mostly we're

899
01:30:42,920 --> 01:30:43,980
just trying to be competitive.

900
01:30:46,180 --> 01:30:49,920
All right, I'll stop for a little bit, I've got other notes, but do you want me to go down

901
01:30:49,920 --> 01:30:50,320
the line?

902
01:30:50,320 --> 01:30:52,240
Council Member Fryberg or should we just go?

903
01:30:52,240 --> 01:30:54,380
She started and that's what I'm going to do for this.

904
01:30:55,240 --> 01:30:58,740
Oh, I don't know, anybody wants to speak.

905
01:30:58,980 --> 01:31:00,060
I'll speak.

906
01:31:00,740 --> 01:31:01,940
Okay, Councilmember Tuming.

907
01:31:02,240 --> 01:31:07,420
I agree with the mayor, with Mayor Case and what he's been saying.

908
01:31:08,000 --> 01:31:13,900
And I'd also like to say that we are very aware.

909
01:31:14,320 --> 01:31:18,820
I mean, obviously, like he said, we're very aware and we've struggled a little bit.

910
01:31:18,820 --> 01:31:24,120
But when it comes to things like the police department and the fire department,

911
01:31:26,620 --> 01:31:27,940
they do need to.

912
01:31:27,940 --> 01:31:30,720
The police department needs to be.

913
01:31:31,720 --> 01:31:33,740
They need to have a new one.

914
01:31:34,700 --> 01:31:38,240
The one that they are currently in when they moved in.

915
01:31:38,320 --> 01:31:43,180
There were 35 officers, sworn officers, and currently there's 73.

916
01:31:43,180 --> 01:31:51,340
There's no room. We are probably one of the only police departments in the entire state that doesn't have indoor parking.

917
01:31:52,780 --> 01:31:58,360
So in the long run, we will save money on vehicles and things like that during the winter months,

918
01:32:00,080 --> 01:32:04,240
that will not need as much care, you know, maintenance.

919
01:32:05,280 --> 01:32:06,000
So,

920
01:32:08,200 --> 01:32:21,300
I think that we do, right, we're doing the best, we're providing the best services with, you know, reasonable taxes.

921
01:32:22,200 --> 01:32:22,720
That's all.

922
01:32:22,860 --> 01:32:30,100
Let me add one thing, just clarify, too, that the $26 million police department renovation is mostly bonded.

923
01:32:30,100 --> 01:32:37,240
And it has, I don't know if we could find the number out of our heads, but it has a small impact on the levee.

924
01:32:37,500 --> 01:32:41,040
It sounds like a big number if it were like assessed back onto homes in the levee.

925
01:32:41,240 --> 01:32:42,280
Do you want to add anything to that?

926
01:32:42,540 --> 01:32:42,920
Right.

927
01:32:43,060 --> 01:32:44,320
I think we covered that.

928
01:32:44,880 --> 01:32:48,080
One thing we talked about was we had planned this for the last decade.

929
01:32:48,460 --> 01:32:51,100
You know, when we, when we would fit this debt levee on.

930
01:32:52,520 --> 01:32:59,760
And we actually anticipated, I think it was last year the year before that we were probably going to have a levee this year.

931
01:32:59,760 --> 01:33:02,720
that was between six and seven percent because of this debt

932
01:33:02,720 --> 01:33:07,180
levy coming on and we were able we console work to get this

933
01:33:07,180 --> 01:33:11,080
to five point six because of that debt levy so you did

934
01:33:11,080 --> 01:33:15,380
some work to get to this number because of the debt levy again

935
01:33:15,380 --> 01:33:20,960
I didn't share the to twenty seven numbers but because next year's

936
01:33:20,960 --> 01:33:24,860
debt levy will be lower we're anticipating a lower levy next year

937
01:33:24,860 --> 01:33:27,500
because this is the first year of the debt levy and the other

938
01:33:27,500 --> 01:33:30,060
our interest rate was low because we have a triple-way

939
01:33:30,060 --> 01:33:34,720
bond rating because we've been so responsible through 50 years, but

940
01:33:34,720 --> 01:33:39,600
especially the last 20 years here in Eden Perry with our budgets and

941
01:33:39,600 --> 01:33:43,680
with our reserves and we just we budget conservatively and that

942
01:33:43,680 --> 01:33:48,800
pays off then in lower levees because of lower interest rates because of

943
01:33:48,800 --> 01:33:52,440
the triple-way bond rating. Someone else.

944
01:33:54,620 --> 01:33:59,020
You want to go down the line? No, we can do anybody. Go ahead, Kathy.

945
01:33:59,020 --> 01:34:00,900
Council member Nelson.

946
01:34:03,340 --> 01:34:09,100
Okay, I'm going to start off with the Triple A bond rating. That really does help cut your taxes.

947
01:34:09,880 --> 01:34:17,240
And it has for years. On the other hand, if you don't start paying your bills on time and stuff, you lose your Triple A bond rating.

948
01:34:17,600 --> 01:34:27,860
And so things actually go up. So there's certain things that make financial sense when you get down to the levels of our accountants and things.

949
01:34:28,540 --> 01:34:32,900
that you can always, if you do it, even though you don't believe it.

950
01:34:35,180 --> 01:34:39,700
Also, I've got to say that we have wonderful employees.

951
01:34:40,600 --> 01:34:43,780
And we've discovered over time that are some of our people

952
01:34:43,780 --> 01:34:49,440
who have been here a long time are so good that when they retire,

953
01:34:50,540 --> 01:34:52,780
you can't replace them with one person.

954
01:34:52,780 --> 01:34:59,880
It takes one and a half pre-ful often to do the same job because they don't know it back.

955
01:35:00,000 --> 01:35:07,660
Fourth, in and out. And the fact that we can do that does help keep our taxes down.

956
01:35:09,680 --> 01:35:10,820
And when

957
01:35:10,820 --> 01:35:15,260
you have some of the best people in their fields, there are other people who would really love

958
01:35:15,260 --> 01:35:22,500
to employ them. So we like the fact that they've stuck with us for so long and stuck with

959
01:35:22,500 --> 01:35:29,600
your homes for place and fire, and stuck with your water with public works, stuck with a cleaning

960
01:35:29,600 --> 01:35:36,300
this of your parks and the safety there for your children or just yourself if you're walking

961
01:35:36,300 --> 01:35:45,440
around or if you're in a pickle wall or whatever but the quality of our department

962
01:35:45,440 --> 01:35:52,180
people really does make a difference and it makes your taxes difference and can take make a

963
01:35:52,180 --> 01:35:56,920
financial difference that the first time I discovered how big that difference is an

964
01:35:56,920 --> 01:36:04,640
council member was. I was flabbergasted. I didn't really believe it was true. I went back and got

965
01:36:04,640 --> 01:36:12,540
all the information and it was. So thank you. Thank you to some of our best people. We have

966
01:36:12,540 --> 01:36:18,520
this table over there. These are one of them. But our public works people and other such people.

967
01:36:19,180 --> 01:36:24,700
They make a difference. Have you noticed back that there aren't any pot holes around? You can make

968
01:36:24,700 --> 01:36:31,740
streets go longer, and that really cuts the amount of money we have to spend on our streets.

969
01:36:32,020 --> 01:36:39,300
It's that kind of thing that we shouldn't necessarily tell you, but it's some of our people that did that.

970
01:36:39,600 --> 01:36:49,040
Rick did mention earlier that there are ways, especially if you're retired, that you can defer some of your taxes if you need to.

971
01:36:49,040 --> 01:36:57,420
And I expect that you should find out about it if that's something you need this year or next year and see how it

972
01:36:57,420 --> 01:37:05,520
In fact would impact your budgets, your values of your homes, what you expect to be able to do with them.

973
01:37:05,880 --> 01:37:15,940
If you're in the right category, not everyone is, but if you are, there's no reason to feel guilty about finding out more about it.

974
01:37:15,940 --> 01:37:27,960
Our people are very nice. They're not going to say, oh, or anything else. They're going to help you and take advantage of doing it because that's what it's there and that's what we want it to be.

975
01:37:31,040 --> 01:37:38,780
But our parks are important to families and so are our trails, and especially now when a lot

976
01:37:38,780 --> 01:37:43,200
of people are dealing with less money, because what they can do with their kids is not

977
01:37:43,200 --> 01:37:50,060
take them on vacation or go some other places, but they can go to a different park every

978
01:37:50,060 --> 01:37:55,780
every week and assuming the parents are home and not working so

979
01:37:55,780 --> 01:38:02,640
always they can't but they do allow people to live well without

980
01:38:02,640 --> 01:38:08,940
spending quite as much money and that's important I think I've been told by a

981
01:38:08,940 --> 01:38:15,200
lot of families that that is what they're doing right now and I commend them for

982
01:38:15,200 --> 01:38:22,480
finding ways to work around what they can have and will cost them less.

983
01:38:23,460 --> 01:38:29,100
Doesn't work for everyone and some people are working long hours and I think one of the people

984
01:38:29,100 --> 01:38:33,720
you would talk about the fact that it was long hours and it's not necessarily going to

985
01:38:33,720 --> 01:38:35,260
allow for such things.

986
01:38:38,220 --> 01:38:47,260
But, you know, we staff did work very hard to get us the lowest in the Twin Cities increase,

987
01:38:48,060 --> 01:38:54,520
and they work very hard on our AAA rating, and I'm very proud of a lot of our staff

988
01:38:54,520 --> 01:38:59,620
who keeps our actual cost up, and I think you should be too if you knew all the stuff

989
01:38:59,620 --> 01:39:04,740
they were doing. I can't guarantee I know all the stuff they're doing, but I do know

990
01:39:04,740 --> 01:39:12,040
made it different center costs. And we look for all of those, we ask them to look for all of those.

991
01:39:12,420 --> 01:39:15,440
And the fact that we're the lowest in the Twin Cities part, actually,

992
01:39:15,480 --> 01:39:19,320
looks as that doesn't necessarily help you when you see your tax bill come in.

993
01:39:20,240 --> 01:39:24,360
And quite frankly, mine went up to and I sort of looked at it and said, oh,

994
01:39:25,700 --> 01:39:29,820
but I knew I had something a little more to say. So, oh, I could say to myself,

995
01:39:29,820 --> 01:39:34,940
was, did you do what you could and the answer came back? Yes, the staff is done with the count.

996
01:39:37,880 --> 01:39:41,420
Councilmember Nero. Councilmember Freyberg, you okay, going last?

997
01:39:42,820 --> 01:39:45,300
Okay, Councilmember Ryan. Thank you, Mayor.

998
01:39:46,600 --> 01:39:55,260
You know, when you said it's painful, I understand when I got that bill, I felt

999
01:39:55,260 --> 01:39:59,820
The same thing I said, wow, you know, it's, it's been that,

1000
01:40:00,000 --> 01:40:10,260
So, it's a percentage-wise, then I talked to Rick, maybe two hours, more to understand more.

1001
01:40:13,270 --> 01:40:21,810
It's just give you a little background. Before this, I had a job at the State of Minnesota, I was managing 120 million dollar budget.

1002
01:40:21,810 --> 01:40:29,710
budgeting is not easy. It's extremely complicated in the city budget I realize it's more complicated

1003
01:40:29,710 --> 01:40:38,230
because we don't have full control. It's take dictate a lot of formulas and ratios and how much

1004
01:40:38,230 --> 01:40:45,530
from commercial goes to residential. It's all kind of fixed that formula, right? So, so we are

1005
01:40:45,530 --> 01:40:53,930
will be confirmed or over that. But the other side is our survey, the guiding principle we have,

1006
01:40:54,130 --> 01:41:02,230
it's our survey. Survey said we want a good police, we want good service, we want good parks,

1007
01:41:02,550 --> 01:41:10,970
we want people, you know, bring their children, play in the playground, they all want that.

1008
01:41:10,970 --> 01:41:16,110
So how do we balance the both and try to get that going?

1009
01:41:16,670 --> 01:41:19,230
It's very difficult, that's the reason we had,

1010
01:41:19,270 --> 01:41:22,310
I don't know how many hours of meetings we had

1011
01:41:22,310 --> 01:41:24,370
for the whole year on this subject.

1012
01:41:24,790 --> 01:41:26,030
So it's not new.

1013
01:41:28,510 --> 01:41:32,090
In our previous story, my wife,

1014
01:41:33,210 --> 01:41:34,850
in a party passed out.

1015
01:41:36,570 --> 01:41:39,910
And too much, it was too hard, she dehydrated,

1016
01:41:39,910 --> 01:41:48,490
and we call 911 and the fire and police were there within two minutes. Two minutes

1017
01:41:48,490 --> 01:41:55,680
to have been something and probably that saved her. And so, and I think about

1018
01:41:56,230 --> 01:42:05,090
increasing costs through the fire and police and an incident something happened and

1019
01:42:05,090 --> 01:42:11,090
said, you know, what happened if it is five minutes or ten minutes, she could have passed

1020
01:42:11,090 --> 01:42:20,870
away. So, it's having fire and safety and when that situation comes, that it's so important.

1021
01:42:21,310 --> 01:42:27,290
There you want to be there. I think we can now pretty much everywhere. You need to

1022
01:42:27,290 --> 01:42:32,430
pray that people, you know, fire and and and police get there in very short period of time.

1023
01:42:32,430 --> 01:42:37,030
I mean, you have a heart attack or we have a lot of, you know, over 60 people in the

1024
01:42:37,030 --> 01:42:38,170
end and pray,

1025
01:42:41,190 --> 01:42:46,030
it's, again, it's, it's hard. I don't, I don't have, I've really feel bad.

1026
01:42:46,230 --> 01:42:54,590
I feel really sad that, you know, your situation and I don't, I really don't know what to do,

1027
01:42:55,730 --> 01:43:02,310
you know, I, I just, because we thought through this all the possibilities and, and somebody

1028
01:43:02,310 --> 01:43:05,830
the lady was saying, think out of the box, boy, we thought to

1029
01:43:05,830 --> 01:43:09,330
I mean, I think we are police smart group here.

1030
01:43:09,610 --> 01:43:13,870
And on top of it, our city manager and their staff,

1031
01:43:14,270 --> 01:43:16,110
they are really smart as well, right?

1032
01:43:16,110 --> 01:43:21,070
So we tried to dissect these things to solve.

1033
01:43:21,490 --> 01:43:25,090
So we don't need one to hear a situation like,

1034
01:43:25,090 --> 01:43:27,070
you know, somebody could not afford something

1035
01:43:27,070 --> 01:43:28,250
because of tax window.

1036
01:43:28,250 --> 01:43:37,610
It is difficult. Very difficult is, you know, that that delicate balance of high quality

1037
01:43:37,610 --> 01:43:42,510
service, you know, and same times that how do we help everybody?

1038
01:43:46,720 --> 01:43:49,540
I also, I really recommend,

1039
01:43:49,680 --> 01:43:57,600
I mean, not recommend. I really think, like, and time needed a great job explaining, very

1040
01:43:57,600 --> 01:44:03,740
complicate a situation in few slides, and it's hard for somebody brand new to understand

1041
01:44:03,740 --> 01:44:14,160
all that, but I would say we do understand you, we do hear you, I talked to the residents

1042
01:44:14,640 --> 01:44:20,860
we hear, they could part of it and also the tax situation comes in a nobody want to pay

1043
01:44:20,860 --> 01:44:31,800
because it is going up, you know, but I just want to say really that we have tried, we tried different

1044
01:44:31,800 --> 01:44:40,940
without harming the city. How do we continuously, you know, raise our kids here and they will be turned out to be good.

1045
01:44:41,360 --> 01:44:45,760
They have a healthy life, like playing in the playground. We really tried.

1046
01:44:45,760 --> 01:44:55,000
So it's not like we all sat there and representing this that we tried, so I just want to share that thought with you all.

1047
01:44:55,240 --> 01:44:56,000
Thank you.

1048
01:44:56,060 --> 01:44:59,740
Well, can I just cut in one thing, Mark, for you to speak there, Julie.

1049
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:08,340
We've mentioned, rather than eight, firefighters, one, we go six. And I just wanted to underscore, it wasn't

1050
01:45:08,340 --> 01:45:13,200
arbitrary that we went eight. We had a study, actually, that we contracted with a firm to come and

1051
01:45:13,200 --> 01:45:18,220
look at all the city's needs over the next 30 years, and as we transition from volunteer to full

1052
01:45:18,220 --> 01:45:26,620
time, it's all about response times. It is all about response times. To P. G's point with his wife. It's about

1053
01:45:26,620 --> 01:45:32,400
getting someone to that person in emergency and every minute counts. By the way, a house fire

1054
01:45:32,400 --> 01:45:37,280
doubles every minute. And if you have a response time of eight and now it's nine and now it's

1055
01:45:37,280 --> 01:45:46,160
ten. So this eight was not in any way arbitrary. But talk to us later after it's absolutely. But so

1056
01:45:46,160 --> 01:45:52,940
I understand the symbolic idea, like just like to find these cuts and PG, what PG and Lee said,

1057
01:45:52,940 --> 01:45:59,480
we really and staff has really worked at this to find the cuts and brought back a lot. Do you want

1058
01:45:59,480 --> 01:46:04,100
to say something quick? Is that the firefighters are under the safer grant? So we got a grant?

1059
01:46:04,940 --> 01:46:09,780
Absolutely. That's absolutely true. But I'm just saying that was a symbolic thing.

1060
01:46:10,680 --> 01:46:17,640
And even like the $7.00 symbolic concept, just caught $7.00. That would require $2.5 million of

1061
01:46:17,640 --> 01:46:19,880
put out of the budget, you, that's severe.

1062
01:46:20,260 --> 01:46:23,280
Our residents would feel that for seven bucks.

1063
01:46:23,760 --> 01:46:26,540
And that's the point, again, we study this.

1064
01:46:27,420 --> 01:46:29,000
And we struggle with it.

1065
01:46:29,440 --> 01:46:32,080
And we try to do the very best for the people

1066
01:46:32,080 --> 01:46:35,200
of Eden Perry and keep taxes as reasonable as we can.

1067
01:46:35,300 --> 01:46:36,760
Council member, and a private.

1068
01:46:38,060 --> 01:46:38,260
Thank you.

1069
01:46:38,260 --> 01:46:39,200
Bring this home.

1070
01:46:40,780 --> 01:46:42,540
You know, you're all sitting out there

1071
01:46:42,540 --> 01:46:45,180
and you're wondering, is anyone listening?

1072
01:46:46,120 --> 01:46:51,320
I think many times when we look at that and at all levels of government, you ask that question.

1073
01:46:51,980 --> 01:46:52,320
I do.

1074
01:46:52,860 --> 01:46:59,280
I read the paper, I read the paper about misuse of, you know, a fiduciary responsibility.

1075
01:46:59,680 --> 01:47:00,320
It's rampant.

1076
01:47:00,440 --> 01:47:02,600
It's horrible to all levels.

1077
01:47:03,840 --> 01:47:04,260
We try.

1078
01:47:04,440 --> 01:47:06,360
We try really, really hard.

1079
01:47:08,670 --> 01:47:12,130
Is it right that you're being taxed out of your property, gentlemen?

1080
01:47:12,830 --> 01:47:13,010
No.

1081
01:47:13,010 --> 01:47:18,390
that happens a lot as far as people get into the edge. It's wrong. It's wrong.

1082
01:47:19,230 --> 01:47:24,490
Do we have an answer as we sit up here? No, we don't. It doesn't mean we don't feel it.

1083
01:47:26,130 --> 01:47:32,730
I've felt your pain as far as that's as true as the pain as I've heard. I mean on it. I understand that.

1084
01:47:32,870 --> 01:47:38,830
I've found myself in that situation before. I think different facets of life.

1085
01:47:40,910 --> 01:47:44,390
You look like you don't have any avenue to turn to itself.

1086
01:47:45,090 --> 01:47:47,590
Can we change the taxes right now?

1087
01:47:47,870 --> 01:47:49,650
I agree with everyone up here.

1088
01:47:50,050 --> 01:47:53,770
What they're saying is right, their hearts are all in the right place.

1089
01:47:54,230 --> 01:47:58,810
We do need those services because the people have told us that as a whole

1090
01:47:58,810 --> 01:48:02,110
from our first responders such.

1091
01:48:03,350 --> 01:48:05,430
But that doesn't mean going forward.

1092
01:48:05,430 --> 01:48:16,430
We should always say yes first rather than no let's think deeper deeper and deeper expect more of ourselves, you know, and look at

1093
01:48:17,390 --> 01:48:23,650
Through we really need this we're good at it where we we do go through a lot of

1094
01:48:24,390 --> 01:48:34,750
Discussion about what level whether it's a service facility whatever it is we ask ourselves a lot of questions. I want to assure you that that we all do

1095
01:48:35,430 --> 01:48:39,730
You know, because we take what we're doing very serious, we're all feeling it there.

1096
01:48:40,730 --> 01:48:44,490
And you have our commitment, you have my personal commitment and my colleagues.

1097
01:48:44,670 --> 01:48:49,530
I mean, I know their hearts as far as that that's what the way we'll approach it going

1098
01:48:49,530 --> 01:48:51,230
forward, the way we approach it now.

1099
01:48:51,710 --> 01:48:58,590
But put in an extra level of expectation on us for you to see if we can do a better job.

1100
01:48:58,590 --> 01:49:05,170
Well, the answers as far as taxation, there should be programs at higher levels.

1101
01:49:05,290 --> 01:49:07,330
I don't hear anything coming from the state.

1102
01:49:07,370 --> 01:49:13,490
I hear other states as far as freezing, you know, certain texts, you know, real estate

1103
01:49:13,490 --> 01:49:18,310
taxes, long time as far as in a property, you should never be taxed out of a property, you

1104
01:49:18,310 --> 01:49:26,350
know, and if you really look at it, it's really easy to do, I mean, what's happening

1105
01:49:26,350 --> 01:49:29,530
because everything is being escalated with inflation and stuff.

1106
01:49:31,830 --> 01:49:33,650
I believe this should be something like that.

1107
01:49:33,890 --> 01:49:35,230
I mean, I don't have the answer for it,

1108
01:49:35,450 --> 01:49:37,430
but I'd like to hear some discussion up in saying

1109
01:49:37,430 --> 01:49:40,230
Paul a little bit about that for people because it's real.

1110
01:49:40,990 --> 01:49:41,770
It's very real.

1111
01:49:43,770 --> 01:49:48,050
Something more as far as it was brought up as far as being able to opt out.

1112
01:49:50,110 --> 01:49:52,510
Thinking beyond, I'm going to interpret that a little bit different

1113
01:49:52,510 --> 01:49:59,570
thinking beyond the box. Another scenario that maybe at a higher level again it can be discussed.

1114
01:50:01,420 --> 01:50:10,180
So, there's a way for those who can't pay that difference off on it. Maybe there's a way of doing it.

1115
01:50:11,240 --> 01:50:15,360
Work hard towards that solution so that we can maybe get into a better world on it.

1116
01:50:15,560 --> 01:50:20,380
You look at our food shelves. It doesn't even matter how much is being donated to our food shelves.

1117
01:50:20,580 --> 01:50:26,160
It's a very generous community and stuff. It goes out as soon as it comes in. We all know that.

1118
01:50:26,160 --> 01:50:28,240
It's, it's, these are different times

1119
01:50:28,240 --> 01:50:32,480
and we're many things we do or based upon past histories

1120
01:50:32,480 --> 01:50:33,580
as such on it.

1121
01:50:33,660 --> 01:50:36,620
And I think the matrix, it's changing very, very quickly.

1122
01:50:37,200 --> 01:50:38,760
I see it on there.

1123
01:50:39,140 --> 01:50:41,940
So that's just a commitment that, you know,

1124
01:50:42,180 --> 01:50:44,780
to you, that are making for myself to expect more

1125
01:50:44,780 --> 01:50:45,440
out of myself.

1126
01:50:45,840 --> 01:50:47,580
And I know with the hearts of the people

1127
01:50:47,580 --> 01:50:50,740
that are sitting up here have that to work towards,

1128
01:50:51,300 --> 01:50:54,000
no one has to be able to, you know,

1129
01:50:54,000 --> 01:50:56,020
sitting there and ever be in those situations.

1130
01:50:56,500 --> 01:50:58,420
And I hope it comes true on it.

1131
01:50:58,720 --> 01:51:00,640
So I want to say thank you.

1132
01:51:00,640 --> 01:51:02,860
Well said, Mark, thank you.

1133
01:51:03,320 --> 01:51:08,220
Just a quick note about the idea of think outside the box.

1134
01:51:08,780 --> 01:51:12,080
There have been, well, there's been a hundred years

1135
01:51:12,080 --> 01:51:15,840
of taxation in America with property tax.

1136
01:51:16,240 --> 01:51:18,680
Probably goes back to the 1920s, maybe before.

1137
01:51:19,120 --> 01:51:21,620
But a lot of ideas have been tried, a lot.

1138
01:51:21,620 --> 01:51:29,340
I mean, it's not like we can't come up with some really novel ideas just by checking elsewhere.

1139
01:51:29,920 --> 01:51:41,600
And one of the best that I think is of utter failure, but it gets really close to mark what you were saying about come up with some new ideas state legislature or what Maria, you were saying about think outside the box,

1140
01:51:41,800 --> 01:51:48,800
Prop 13 in California, a horrible idea, freeze property taxes, the moment you buy your house, it's frozen.

1141
01:51:48,800 --> 01:51:53,840
30 years later, you've got this couple that are 85 years old living in the house.

1142
01:51:54,080 --> 01:51:56,500
Maybe they are multi-millionaires with 401ks.

1143
01:51:56,660 --> 01:52:02,280
They're paying 2,000 bucks a month for a year for property tax.

1144
01:52:02,680 --> 01:52:04,820
And then you've got this young couple, two little kids,

1145
01:52:04,980 --> 01:52:07,540
that are 30 years old, and they're paying 10,000.

1146
01:52:07,800 --> 01:52:10,000
That's exactly what's going on in California right now.

1147
01:52:10,380 --> 01:52:14,160
So if you slide money from someone and it's a zero-sum game,

1148
01:52:14,300 --> 01:52:15,820
you're pushing it onto your neighbors.

1149
01:52:15,820 --> 01:52:20,640
If somebody volunteers not to pay it, you just raise the tax for everyone else around you.

1150
01:52:20,800 --> 01:52:21,820
It's just complicated.

1151
01:52:21,980 --> 01:52:25,480
I guess that's the thing I want to maybe all of this can leave all of you tonight.

1152
01:52:25,800 --> 01:52:28,380
It's complex, very complicated.

1153
01:52:28,800 --> 01:52:33,860
In fact, that old adage or whatever that if you come up with a simplistic answer to a complicated

1154
01:52:33,860 --> 01:52:38,580
problem, it's always wrong, always because it's complicated.

1155
01:52:38,960 --> 01:52:41,840
And there are complicated solutions to complicated problems.

1156
01:52:42,220 --> 01:52:43,360
And we struggle with it.

1157
01:52:43,360 --> 01:52:47,600
I think you've picked up now from everything we've all said that we've been thinking about

1158
01:52:47,600 --> 01:52:51,460
this a long time and it's very difficult we get it.

1159
01:52:52,240 --> 01:52:57,820
But we believe we've arrived at the best solution for the good of 65,000 people to keep

1160
01:52:57,820 --> 01:53:02,500
quality of life high so people want to live here, want to move here, want to keep your

1161
01:53:02,500 --> 01:53:09,460
houses high valued because people will pay it and try to keep taxes as reasonable as possible

1162
01:53:09,460 --> 01:53:14,060
being one of the lowest in the entire area proves that we're at least working on that.

1163
01:53:14,320 --> 01:53:17,820
It doesn't help you if you've got the 18% tax increase, I get that.

1164
01:53:18,200 --> 01:53:22,760
But it does prove that if you pick up a need in Perry House, it's value of 558,

1165
01:53:22,960 --> 01:53:27,560
and you plop it in 20 cities around us. There's only two where you're going to pay lower tax.

1166
01:53:27,880 --> 01:53:34,540
That's not insignificant. So, and again, that's more than the years of us up here in this council,

1167
01:53:34,540 --> 01:53:40,540
building up to this point of just a really well-run city with amazing staff.

1168
01:53:41,280 --> 01:53:44,940
Okay, council, are we ready to vote?

1169
01:53:45,120 --> 01:53:50,660
We need a motion, we need to make the final three bullets of the motion, but are we ready

1170
01:53:50,660 --> 01:53:51,580
for that?

1171
01:53:52,360 --> 01:53:55,800
If someone could make the motion, then read all three bullets.

1172
01:53:55,800 --> 01:54:07,880
Dr. Resolution, certifying the 2026 property tax levied to be $52,844,814 and approve the

1173
01:54:07,880 --> 01:54:17,780
2026 budget of $66,847,061 as reviewed by the Council and approve the HRA tax

1174
01:54:17,780 --> 01:54:20,800
of the budget of $230,000.

1175
01:54:23,500 --> 01:54:27,080
Any other discussion or comments that any of you want to make?

1176
01:54:29,440 --> 01:54:31,060
All those in favor say aye.

1177
01:54:31,280 --> 01:54:31,860
Aye.

1178
01:54:32,360 --> 01:54:32,660
Opposed.

1179
01:54:33,420 --> 01:54:36,340
I want to underscore how much we really do.

1180
01:54:36,540 --> 01:54:37,040
I mean that.

1181
01:54:37,120 --> 01:54:38,540
I appreciate you coming out tonight.

1182
01:54:39,020 --> 01:54:39,780
You were respectful.

1183
01:54:40,600 --> 01:54:41,640
Thank you.

1184
01:54:41,960 --> 01:54:44,800
It's not always been the case here in the last couple years.

1185
01:54:45,080 --> 01:54:47,440
If you have paid attention last year's truth in taxation.

1186
01:54:47,740 --> 01:54:48,520
So thank you.

1187
01:54:48,520 --> 01:54:55,620
We appreciate you as our neighbors, talk to us when we're at Calvary, Kowalskis or wherever.

1188
01:54:56,280 --> 01:54:59,960
Come up and introduce yourselves again, but thank you again for coming. You can stay.

1189
01:55:00,000 --> 01:55:06,100
We still have other agenda items, but I just wanted to thank you for your participation in this public hearing this evening.

1190
01:55:07,280 --> 01:55:08,000
Mr. Gachow.

1191
01:55:09,760 --> 01:55:18,500
Yes, Mayor, the next item is the next two are related to fees. The fees in item B are fees by ordinance.

1192
01:55:19,980 --> 01:55:27,660
So we do this every year. And the ordinance fees are related to fees in city code.

1193
01:55:27,660 --> 01:55:38,120
So for us, and you see that in the packet and that was referred to by someone who testified mainly building permit fees and fees related to development.

1194
01:55:38,640 --> 01:55:47,040
So there aren't as many in this as there will be in the next public hearing, but you can see in the packet, we set these annually, we review these annually.

1195
01:55:47,040 --> 01:55:54,920
Just as needed, we analyze our cost recovery, we look at what our peers are charging.

1196
01:55:55,300 --> 01:56:00,600
We see if we're doing a fair cost and a justice necessary.

1197
01:56:01,780 --> 01:56:07,120
And we also, it's our tradition to hold the public hearing for all of our fees,

1198
01:56:07,120 --> 01:56:10,840
even if we don't, it's not necessary or required to hold the public hearing.

1199
01:56:11,720 --> 01:56:24,660
So, also, because this is an ordinance, we're asking that you, we would need actually unanimous approval if we are going to do a first and second reading and update the fees by ordinance.

1200
01:56:26,360 --> 01:56:32,780
So, again, we would actually hold a public hearing and need unanimous approval for first and second reading of the fees by ordinance.

1201
01:56:33,580 --> 01:56:38,380
So, Council, are you okay if I open up a public hearing and if we have questions or so?

1202
01:56:38,660 --> 01:56:46,760
I understand that you may not even know what this motion is about, but if you wanted to or had the chance already,

1203
01:56:47,020 --> 01:56:48,200
it's all listed online.

1204
01:56:48,720 --> 01:56:50,460
And you can look at every one of our fees.

1205
01:56:50,700 --> 01:56:57,200
It's pages long and our staff has painstakingly set them appropriate to competition in the whole area.

1206
01:56:57,200 --> 01:57:04,100
we want to be competitive at least with fees and structure of fees from other cities around us.

1207
01:57:04,880 --> 01:57:07,520
So let me open up the public hearing.

1208
01:57:07,660 --> 01:57:12,460
This is a public hearing, then anyone wishing to address the council on this ordinance

1209
01:57:12,460 --> 01:57:17,280
that updates the fee schedule for administration and official controls.

1210
01:57:20,780 --> 01:57:21,800
Okay, see, none.

1211
01:57:22,160 --> 01:57:26,680
Council could you close the public hearing and if it's okay, if you go, I think it's fairly

1212
01:57:26,680 --> 01:57:32,900
we've done this every year and the fees are just slightly adjusted based on what's happening

1213
01:57:32,900 --> 01:57:39,620
out in the market. So market meaning our competitors around us and community center fees,

1214
01:57:39,860 --> 01:57:45,180
et cetera. So is there something that would make the motion close to the close to public hearing

1215
01:57:45,180 --> 01:57:53,040
and up to the first and second building of an ordinance updating the fee schedule for administration

1216
01:57:53,800 --> 01:58:01,880
and official control and adopt a resolution approving the summary of publication.

1217
01:58:02,580 --> 01:58:03,220
Sir, second.

1218
01:58:03,240 --> 01:58:03,620
Second.

1219
01:58:04,200 --> 01:58:04,760
So council.

1220
01:58:05,080 --> 01:58:06,000
Any questions?

1221
01:58:06,080 --> 01:58:07,920
Anything you want to say?

1222
01:58:08,160 --> 01:58:08,820
Okay, voting.

1223
01:58:10,160 --> 01:58:11,820
All those in favor say aye.

1224
01:58:11,820 --> 01:58:12,200
Aye.

1225
01:58:12,940 --> 01:58:13,360
Opposed.

1226
01:58:14,140 --> 01:58:14,860
All right.

1227
01:58:15,460 --> 01:58:16,040
Mr. Getsho.

1228
01:58:17,080 --> 01:58:17,480
Thank you, Mayor.

1229
01:58:17,760 --> 01:58:19,260
So these are fees by resolution.

1230
01:58:19,900 --> 01:58:22,760
These do not require adoption of an ordinance.

1231
01:58:22,760 --> 01:58:29,380
So these would be examples of these are your community center membership fees, all of your

1232
01:58:29,380 --> 01:58:30,320
cards in the first.

1233
01:58:30,820 --> 01:58:31,200
That's an idea.

1234
01:58:31,280 --> 01:58:32,180
What's going to correct you?

1235
01:58:33,620 --> 01:58:38,880
These are all those park and a rec registration program fees.

1236
01:58:39,700 --> 01:58:46,920
A lot of our business license fees, a lot of our administration fees, rental fees, a lot

1237
01:58:46,920 --> 01:58:52,380
of copy fees, fees that's the council can adopt by resolution.

1238
01:58:52,380 --> 01:59:00,380
So again, several pages in the packet, every fee is listed, every fee is analyzed and updated annually.

1239
01:59:00,920 --> 01:59:09,200
So simply, again, you choose to have a public hearing each year, the action is to hold the public hearing and simply adopt a resolution.

1240
01:59:11,800 --> 01:59:13,460
Is there anyone wishing to address the...

1241
01:59:15,680 --> 01:59:16,220
Oh, sure.

1242
01:59:16,600 --> 01:59:17,040
I'm not up.

1243
01:59:17,160 --> 01:59:17,340
I'm not up.

1244
01:59:17,340 --> 01:59:17,660
I'm not up.

1245
01:59:17,660 --> 01:59:26,740
You can speak to the student, if you want anyone wishing to address the council on this fee resolution,

1246
01:59:26,900 --> 01:59:30,160
2,026 fee resolution issue.

1247
01:59:32,610 --> 01:59:38,730
Seeing no one council, could I have a motion then to close the public hearing and go ahead.

1248
01:59:39,770 --> 01:59:44,370
Move to close the public hearing and adopt the 2026 fee resolution.

1249
01:59:45,070 --> 01:59:45,850
Sir, second.

1250
01:59:45,850 --> 01:59:53,110
Second. Any further discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. All right.

1251
01:59:53,410 --> 01:59:58,870
Moving on to payment of claims, which if there are any students still here. Thank you, by the way, students.

1252
01:59:58,870 --> 01:59:59,970
You've gone, I don't know.

1253
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:05,720
If you picked a good or bad, I think it's a good meeting, but it's a longer one. I didn't rate the payment of

1254
02:00:05,720 --> 02:00:11,480
claims are all the metaphorically, all the checks that we cut between the last meeting and now.

1255
02:00:11,660 --> 02:00:17,880
So, all the expenses, and we look at them and we question or approve. So, council, any items

1256
02:00:18,460 --> 02:00:25,280
or expenditures that you wanted to question. If not, is there a motion to approve the payment of claims?

1257
02:00:26,380 --> 02:00:29,060
I moved to approve payment of claims as submitted.

1258
02:00:29,880 --> 02:00:30,380
Second, second.

1259
02:00:31,120 --> 02:00:35,480
And students, we do a roll call because it's that important that each individual one of us has to

1260
02:00:35,480 --> 02:00:38,980
certify in a sense publicly that we approve these expenses.

1261
02:00:39,740 --> 02:00:40,640
So roll call.

1262
02:00:40,940 --> 02:00:42,000
Council Member Freyberg.

1263
02:00:42,880 --> 02:00:43,860
Council Member Durion.

1264
02:00:44,100 --> 02:00:44,340
Aye.

1265
02:00:44,820 --> 02:00:45,580
Council Member Nelson.

1266
02:00:46,580 --> 02:00:47,420
Council Member Tumie.

1267
02:00:47,940 --> 02:00:48,060
Aye.

1268
02:00:48,580 --> 02:00:51,760
All right.

1269
02:00:52,400 --> 02:00:56,000
Do we have anything else to come for the meeting this evening?

1270
02:00:56,000 --> 02:00:56,900
I'm looking quick.

1271
02:00:57,040 --> 02:00:57,840
You're looking at it.

1272
02:00:58,160 --> 02:00:58,220
No, no.

1273
02:00:58,500 --> 02:00:58,900
There isn't.

1274
02:00:59,020 --> 02:01:05,160
I was just going to mention that, you know, because the budget was adopted tonight, there's

1275
02:01:05,160 --> 02:01:06,900
no need to hold another meeting in December.

1276
02:01:07,060 --> 02:01:08,480
This is the last scheduled meeting.

1277
02:01:09,000 --> 02:01:13,740
So, the next time you will meet, we'll be the first Tuesday in January of 2020.

1278
02:01:14,860 --> 02:01:15,520
All right.

1279
02:01:16,580 --> 02:01:17,720
So, Happy New Year.

1280
02:01:18,460 --> 02:01:19,000
Happy New Year.

1281
02:01:21,420 --> 02:01:22,540
Happy New Year.

1282
02:01:23,600 --> 02:01:25,980
Happy New Year.

1283
02:01:25,980 --> 02:01:31,560
did you like? Are you moving? Yeah. Okay. It's been moved and is there a second? Second.

1284
02:01:31,820 --> 02:01:40,220
Any further discussion? Okay. Hang on, just two seconds. Thank you council for all of your thoughts

1285
02:01:40,220 --> 02:01:45,460
and comments and dedication. I think that you showed tonight and I hope that people being very

1286
02:01:45,460 --> 02:01:50,980
realized what a high quality council they elected. So I just wanted to point that out each one

1287
02:01:50,980 --> 02:01:55,960
of you and proud of all of you. So thank you so much. So with that, all those in favor of a

1288
02:01:55,960 --> 02:02:01,320
journey in the meeting say, I, I oppose this meeting is adjourned

1289
02:02:03,490 --> 02:02:04,230
and in students