[0:03] The Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is now called to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

[0:15] It looks like

[0:34] we have additional students in the audience tonight just want to welcome everybody residents and high.

[0:39] You can, yes, you're on camera there, so you can wave again, if you wish.

[0:45] Students, we always invite you up afterwards if you have questions or I don't know.

[0:50] Pose and pictures to prove to your teachers that you were here.

[0:53] That might have done the trick right there, if you just tell your teacher to watch the replay

[0:58] of the tonight's meeting.

[1:01] It's customary during this time for me to read an open podium invitation to our resonance.

[1:06] 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.

[1:22] These open podiums occur from 630 to 655 right here in the Council Chamber.

[1:29] If you wish to speak it up in podium, please do contact the City Manager's office at

[1:34] 952-949-8412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, your phone number, and subject

[1:41] matters so we can be better prepared for you.

[1:45] Open podium is not recorded or telebiased.

[1:47] If you have questions about open podium, please do contact the City Manager's office.

[1:54] Cities across the state of Minnesota have by legislative authorization, a housing and redevelopment

[2:00] authority group, HRA.

[2:04] Some cities have a separate group.

[2:06] We here in Eden Perri, like many many cities, embed the HRA meeting into the City Council.

[2:12] So the City Council here in Eden Perri is its own HRA.

[2:16] So we do have an HRA.

[2:17] meeting this evening, and I call the HRA meeting to order our first order of business within the embedded HRA

[2:25] meeting is to approve the HRA minutes from our last HRA meeting back on September 2nd 2025. Is there a

[2:33] motion to approve them? I'll move to approve the HRA minutes from September 2nd 2025. Sir, second.

[2:39] Second, discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. So Mr. Gatchell,

[2:46] turn it over to you, we have a resolution to approve the HRA

[2:50] Levy. Yes, thank you Mayor, council members, members of the HRA for the

[2:55] purposes of this meeting. You approve those minutes of the September

[2:59] meeting, because the last time you met in September, you approved a

[3:03] preliminary budget and levy for the HRA, similar to what you did with the

[3:08] city budget, which we're going to get to in a little bit. In terms of the

[3:12] 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.

[3:27] As you know, we have a lot of different programs and funds and other funding sources for many of our different housing programs.

[3:35] The funding source with the HRA levy and budget that we use for the $230,000 is the staff

[3:45] allocation. As you know, you have a much, much more levy authority if you wish for

[3:55] other programs, but we only levy a very small amount of our levy authority that we use for

[4:02] staff time. As I mentioned, we have many other dollars and other sources that we use for our

[4:09] housing program for our housing programs. So the action that we request is the resolution

[4:15] certifying the final tax levy and approving the 2026 HRA budget at $230,000.

[4:24] You covered that very well and I just wanted to underscore that sometimes people will look at

[4:30] other city's sister cities around as men atonka will make to any dynam in the apples

[4:34] at St. Paul and they'll look at their budgets and they'll see line items like like

[4:40] an HRA housing line item and it's all over the chart you know it's not apples apples

[4:47] there are people that utilize this account for millions of dollars of living and some cities

[4:53] have known we've chosen through the years to keep it pretty constant as you say to pay

[4:57] for the salary portion of...

[5:00] 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.

[5:09] So, council, any questions on before I entertain a motion?

[5:14] Is there a motion to approve then this resolution?

[5:17] move to a adopt resolution, certifying the 2026 HRA property tax

[5:23] to be $230,000 and approving the 2026 HRA budget of $230,000 as reviewed by the council.

[5:34] Sir, second. Second. I think council member Freiburg

[5:38] got in there. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

[5:44] Hi.

[5:45] Oh, sorry.

[5:45] Is there a motion to adjourn the HRA meeting?

[5:49] A move to adjourn the HRA meeting.

[5:51] Sir, second.

[5:52] All those in favor say aye.

[5:54] Hi.

[5:54] Opposed.

[5:55] All right, passes.

[5:56] So to the student sitting in the audience, I hope you didn't get a little bit excited that the

[6:01] meeting was over.

[6:01] That was just the HRA embedded portion.

[6:04] Now we move back into our regular council meeting.

[6:07] We have no proclamations or presentations, so it's really moving on to the agenda.

[6:12] Council, any items to add to that primarily that would be a Council member report.

[6:18] If not, is there a motion to approve the agenda then as presented?

[6:22] Moved approve the agenda.

[6:23] Is there a second?

[6:24] Second.

[6:24] All those in favor say aye.

[6:26] Oh, is moving on to the minutes from our last meeting.

[6:29] We have both the workshop and the regular meeting.

[6:33] After you've looked through them, were there any corrections edits that you wish to make?

[6:38] If not, is there a motion to approve both of the minutes?

[6:41] go ahead and make that motion.

[6:44] Move to approve the following city council minutes.

[6:47] City council workshop held Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

[6:52] And city council meeting held Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

[6:57] So second, second, any further discussion?

[7:00] All those in favor say aye.

[7:02] Opposed.

[7:03] Consent calendar for the students in the audience to consent calendar

[7:07] are items that are really important.

[7:08] And they don't typically require additional discussion.

[7:12] So we clump them all together.

[7:14] However, council, you are permitted to request that we either discuss some individually

[7:19] or even pull an item to vote on separately.

[7:22] Anybody have any concerns or questions about any items A through N on the consent calendar?

[7:30] If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

[7:33] I'm going to approve the consent calendar.

[7:37] Hey, Glenn.

[7:38] You through in on the consent calendar.

[7:39] Your second.

[7:40] Second.

[7:40] You further discussion.

[7:42] All those in favor say aye?

[7:43] Aye.

[7:44] Opposed.

[7:45] All right.

[7:46] We do have a couple of public hearings this evening.

[7:49] I'm obviously incredibly important.

[7:51] 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.

[8:03] is to set the budget, because the budget is where we spend taxpayer money back on taxpayers,

[8:10] back on our residents.

[8:11] And if you want to know what the priorities of the InPherty City Council was back in

[8:16] pick a date, 1971, then you look at their budget.

[8:20] What did they prioritize, what did they spend on, what did they raise taxes on to go spend

[8:25] on?

[8:25] So the budget is the reflection, really, of the personality of the city, and it's the reflection

[8:31] of what the five of us see as the priorities for the people that elected us and they give

[8:36] us you all, give us that feedback by electing us by taking surveys, which we give every two

[8:43] years very thoroughly. By talking to us at the grocery store, you know, and we're very accessible

[8:48] as you know, calling emailing. So through that process, we uncover what we believe are the priorities

[8:55] is that the people being very want us to use their tax payer dollars to spend back on them.

[9:03] So incredibly important what we're going to be doing this evening, we take this very seriously.

[9:06] This is the culmination of, I know I'm sorry, I'm sealing your thunder briefly, please repeat it.

[9:12] It's the culmination of really a two-year budgeting process, but multiple meetings this year, workshops where we have,

[9:20] 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.

[9:43] Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. With that introduction, in terms of the process, the finance manager

[9:50] Tammy Wilson and I would like to walk through a presentation, take you through the budget

[9:56] and the impact and talk about.

[10:00] 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.

[10:08] 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.

[10:18] 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.

[10:29] And then following that we ask that you take action on the proposed 2026 budget.

[10:38] All right.

[10:39] Thank you Mayor and members of the council.

[10:43] So the purpose of tonight's meeting is just together input on the city's proposed tax

[10:48] Loving in budget for the next year.

[10:51] It is requirement by the state and it must be held after property owners have received their proposed

[10:57] property tax statements, which were mailed out the week of November 10th.

[11:02] And then some of the other entities that will be holding public hearings are the county, which

[11:07] held there's tonight, I believe that's 6 p.m.

[11:11] And then the school district, which will be holding there's on December 8th.

[11:17] So I just wanted to give the audience a little bit of a background on our process, which

[11:23] Rick kind of touched on.

[11:25] So we do prepare a two year budget, so the 26 and 27 budget.

[11:29] 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.

[11:45] But tonight again, I will be just bringing forward the 2026 budget.

[11:53] So this slide is just a summary of the budgeted expenses for the city.

[11:58] And so we have a budget of $66.8 million, which is a $4 million or $6.5% increase.

[12:08] And I will go into further detail on each of these line items on the following slides.

[12:14] 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.

[12:30] 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%.

[12:45] 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.

[13:04] The second source of revenue for the city is charges for services, which account for 10% of the budget,

[13:12] and it represents 6.5 million, and it's an increase of 7.3% from the following year.

[13:21] And the largest light item of charges for services is the parking recreation program in fees that we collect.

[13:28] 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.

[13:41] 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%.

[13:53] And the largest line item of this category is building permits, which makes up $2.7 million.

[14:02] And this is one of the line items that we conservatively budget each year as a volume of

[14:08] permit activity can vary significantly from year to year.

[14:14] The next category is Intergovernmental

[14:17] revenue which counts for 4% of the revenue representing 2.6 million dollars. And this line

[14:25] item consists mainly of police and fire state aid which accounts for about 1.6 million dollars.

[14:34] And then also the school liaison program which accounts for 400,000. And the school liaison

[14:40] program is a program between the police department and the school district where we share four and a half officers

[14:49] evenly between the two entities. And then the final category is other revenue, which accounts for 2% of the budget.

[15:00] It represents $1.5 million, and this line item consists mainly of fines and forfits, investment

[15:08] income, some transfers from the enterprise fund, and just some smaller miscellaneous contributions

[15:14] and donations.

[15:19] So now if we switch over to the general fund expenditures budget, as you can see,

[15:24] it's a balanced budget, so our budget is $63.9 million, which is an increase of $3.9 million,

[15:31] 6.6% from the prior year. This budget does maintain prior year services and it also includes

[15:41] some additional funding which I'll kind of walk through. So for administration the budget

[15:46] is 5.6 million which is an increase of 339,000 and that increase is due mainly to the additional

[15:55] costs of $176,000 for elections as 2026 is an election year.

[16:03] For community development, the budget is $2.8 million, which is a small increase of $10,000,

[16:09] and that is due to an open position we had in planning that we did not budget for in 2026.

[16:17] For the police, we are budgeting $22.8 million, which is the increase of $2.3 million.

[16:24] And this increases due mainly to the normal increase for wages and benefits.

[16:32] And there's also some additional facility costs due to the police expansion remodel.

[16:37] And then there's some additional costs due to a contract that we have with Hennepin County,

[16:44] where we received an additional social worker in 2025.

[16:50] For fire, we are budgeting $9 million, which is an increase of $900,000, and this line

[16:57] I don't two again, the normal increase for wages and benefits, but it also includes some

[17:02] additional funds for the hiring of some additional full-time firefighters.

[17:10] And I also want to mention that in October, we were notified that we had received the safer

[17:18] grant, which stands for staffing for adequate fire and emergency response.

[17:24] And so we received the grant.

[17:26] It's $2 million and it's for three years.

[17:29] And we were one of six cities within the state of Minnesota that received that grant.

[17:35] And so with this grant for the first two years,

[17:39] the federal government will cover 75% or 75% of the cost of wages and benefits

[17:47] for eight additional firefighters, and then in the third year, the federal government will cover

[17:53] 35 percent of those wages and benefits. Those eight firefighters that we are hiring, it's not

[18:02] any more than what we had originally anticipated to hire, but what the safer grant helps us with

[18:08] is it allows us to hire those firefighters sooner than we would have been able to without that grant.

[18:17] For public works, the budget is increasing 6.7 million, which is a decrease of $260,000.

[18:26] And this is due to the reallocation of the equivalent of approximately two full-time employees

[18:34] to the enterprise funds.

[18:37] And then for parking recreation, the budget is $16.6 million, which is an increase of 598,000,

[18:43] which is just the normal increase for wages and benefits.

[18:48] Tammy, I'm sorry, did you mention under administration that it was elections?

[18:52] Correct. You did, I was sorry. I was paying attention and down the line.

[18:57] And that would every other year then do this, you know, go down next year and then up the

[19:01] yeah. Perfect.

[19:06] So this chart is just a breakdown of the

[19:08] genophonic expenditures by department. And as you can see public safety, which includes

[19:13] It's placed in fire, make up 50% of the budget, and then followed by park and recreation

[19:20] at 26% public works makes up 11% administration, 9% and then community development

[19:29] makes up the remaining 4% of the budget.

[19:35] So for that 63.9 million dollar budget, if we were to break it down by different categories,

[19:43] You can see that wages and benefits makes up approximately 69% of the budget.

[19:50] And as you know, the city is a service-oriented organization,

[19:55] and so the majority of our budget is going to wages and benefits.

[20:00] 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.

[20:12] The next area is the information technology and fleet services and they each make up 4% of the budget.

[20:23] 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.

[20:32] 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.

[20:45] And then we have other contracts services which represent about 3% of the budget at $1.8 million.

[20:51] And then the electricity for the streets traffic lights and parks makes up about 2% of the budget at 1.2 million.

[21:01] And then we have the other category, which makes up 10% of the budget at 6.3 million.

[21:07] And this category accounts for like the legal fees, dues, conferences, and training, instructors, services, etc.

[21:20] So if we were to look at the $3.9 million increase in the budget from the prior year,

[21:27] this just gives a breakdown of the different categories.

[21:31] Once again, as you can see, wages and benefits makes up about 55% of the increase in the budget.

[21:38] And the wages and benefits doesn't include a 3% base increase for employees.

[21:43] And it doesn't include some step performance increases as well.

[21:48] It also includes those additional firefighters that we want to bring on as full-time staff.

[21:56] And it also includes a 22% increase in our health insurance.

[22:01] And as you've probably heard on the news and have heard from other cities,

[22:05] health insurance is just on the rise just not in the state but nationwide.

[22:11] And then it also includes 128,000 for that new Minnesota paid leave that will go into effect on January 1.

[22:22] And then to kind of offset that increase, we did see a decrease in our workers compensation premium of about $680,000.

[22:31] So, prior to COVID, our premiums for workers' comp were going up on average between 3 and 5%.

[22:39] But once COVID hit, our premiums had skyrocketed to about 30 to 40% increases.

[22:45] And now finally, in the last two years, we have seen those come down.

[22:49] And so this year, in last year, we saw 20% decrease in those premiums.

[22:53] I'm so facilities is increasing $600,000 and that's primarily due to the police remodel

[23:02] expansion. And then other contracture services is increasing $500 and $9,000. And then IT

[23:11] is increasing $350, $357,000, which is due mainly to the new software and just the maintenance

[23:21] of all the software and then fleet is increasing 152,000 just due to the increased cost of vehicles

[23:30] and repair and maintenance supplies. And then for electricity for the streets traffic lights

[23:36] in parts we did see a slight decrease and this is due to the city just becoming more energy efficient.

[23:43] And then the other categories increasing 142,000 dollars.

[23:53] And so now if we switch over to the property

[23:55] tax lobby. So, based off of this budget that I just went through, the general fund

[24:00] levy, we are proposing it to be $49.9 million, which is an increase of $2.7 million or

[24:08] $5.9%. For the capital improvement fund, we will not be loving this year and we have a

[24:17] fund balance policy and each year at the end of the year we compare it against our fund balance

[24:22] and any access revenue that we have, we will transfer that over to the Capital Improvement Fund.

[24:29] And for the last couple of years, we've been able to transfer money into that plan.

[24:33] And so for this, for 2026, we are not going to levy for that fund.

[24:41] And then for the debt levy, the levy is $2.8 million, which is an increase of $493,000,

[24:49] and which I'll go into more detail on the next slide.

[24:53] But for the total property tax level for the city,

[24:56] we are proposing $50.1 million.

[25:00] Which is an increase of 2.6 million or 5.6%.

[25:10] And so for the debt levy, the city has two debt issuances that are backed by a levy, and those are

[25:18] for the 2021 tax abatement bonds, which are for the, was for the pool expansion, and then for the

[25:26] 25 police remodel, which we just issued this year.

[25:32] So, just to give you a little bit of history on the police remodel, back in 2017, when we

[25:38] were updating our 10 year CIP, the police can forward with a project to remodel the police

[25:46] station.

[25:47] So, at that time, we looked, and we knew that in 2025, we were going to have some debt

[25:52] that was going to be retired.

[25:54] So we worked with the police department to push off that remodel until 2025 and so that when we issued that debt,

[26:04] we were that debt was able to absorb some of the cost that we were seeing reduction from the retirement of that old debt.

[26:15] And so now five CIP processes later the police department is finally seeing their police remodel.

[26:25] 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.

[26:40] 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.

[27:01] 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%.

[27:28] So the shift is shifted more towards the residential from the commercial and multi-family in 2026.

[27:42] So based off of the proposed property tax levy and the estimated market value,

[27:48] this chart just shows what the city's tax portion would be for a median value home.

[27:56] And so for 2026, the median value home is valued at $558,800.

[28:05] And this value may be, and there can be properties that are valued higher or lower, but

[28:13] this slide is just meant to represent the typical value home in Eden Prairie.

[28:19] And so for that median value home, the city tax impact would be $1,865, which is an increase

[28:28] of $142 or $8.24%.

[28:33] For an apartment with an average value of $18 million, the city's tax would be $73,206, which

[28:43] is an increase of $411 or 0.56%.

[28:48] And then for commercial with a value of $3.8 million that city tax would be $14,663,

[28:58] which is a decrease of $542 or $3.56%.

[29:06] So if we were to look at the overall property tax, which would include the county, the

[29:12] school, the state, and the city, and some other smaller entities.

[29:18] The overall tax for a residential property would be 7,112 dollars, which is an increase

[29:26] of $56 or 7.7%.

[29:30] For an apartment, it would be 270,411 dollars, which is a decrease of 202 dollars or 0.1%.

[29:41] And then for commercial, the tax would be 115,131 dollars, which is a decrease of

[29:50] 1,474 dollars or 1.3%.

[29:58] So this slide just gives a...

[30:00] 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%.

[30:23] 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%

[30:40] And then the city at 13% and then others at 4%

[30:50] 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.

[31:08] with $148.69 of that going to the general fund and then $6.73 going to the debt service fund.

[31:19] And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Rick.

[31:34] Thanks, Tammy.

[31:37] So I think Tammy did a really good job of kind of walking us through the budget and the details of

[31:43] the city's budget. I want to take a step back. I want to talk a little bit about the process again

[31:51] and then get into a little bit of what this all means in kind of the impacts and kind of how

[31:59] we compare and what we're looking at. And then I'm sure after that all the commercial property

[32:06] and apartment property owners that are seeing a tax decrease want to come up and talk to the

[32:21] 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.

[32:51] of what people in the community feel about the services that they receive.

[32:57] We actually ask about each and every city service, the characteristics of our community,

[33:03] and also what's really interesting.

[33:05] The company that we use can benchmark us against about 50 other cities in Minnesota, many

[33:13] our peers surrounding us in four or five other four hundred or five other four hundred five hundred

[33:21] other similar size cities, suburbs that are similar to Eden Prairie in the region and in the country.

[33:30] And without me getting into a lot further detail about it, we actually were able to encapsulate a lot

[33:38] the survey results and how we did in the survey. Here's just one little slide in terms of how our

[33:44] rankings in benchmarking came in in a in a small video that we did that has been shared internally

[33:51] and at a few different presentations that we've done but we definitely wanted to share the results

[33:58] of our survey in a short video that we did about a five minute video and again this was back in April

[34:05] and this played a part into the preparation of the budget that we did.

[34:10] So I just want to briefly share the video.

[34:22] Case mayor of Eden Prairie.

[34:24] Every two years, the city conducts a survey

[34:26] together opinions from a random sample of residents

[34:30] about the quality of life here in Eden Prairie.

[34:33] The survey is critical to providing me

[34:35] and other city leaders with a snapshot of how you Eden Prairie residents

[34:40] feel about living here in our community.

[34:44] It helps us identify current and future needs so we can align the city's priorities accordingly.

[34:50] I'm proud that our latest quality of life survey, once again confirmed what so many of you

[34:56] already know. Eden Prairie is an exception.

[35:00] 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.

[35:15] In 2024, Eden Prairie residents reaffirm what they've been saying for years, that Eden Prairie

[35:22] is one of the best places to live in America, and impressive 90% of residents rated their

[35:28] overall quality of life as excellent or good, putting Eden Prairie ahead of other communities

[35:34] in Minnesota and across the nation. From peaceful neighborhoods and excellent schools to vibrant

[35:40] community spaces and a strong sense of belonging.

[35:44] Eden Prairie is also a city that feels safe.

[35:47] 93% of residents say they feel safe overall.

[35:50] In our pulley services were impressively ranked

[35:53] number three in the nation, and number one in Minnesota.

[35:57] Emergency services include fire and emergency management,

[36:01] also earned top ratings.

[36:04] City services continue to impress.

[36:06] From street repair to city planning,

[36:09] Eden Prairie outpaces other cities across the board and ranks number two among Minnesota communities in the

[36:16] overall quality of city services. Of the survey respondents who contacted the city over the last few

[36:23] years, nine in ten gave top marks for courtesy, responsiveness, knowledge and follow-up.

[36:31] Residents also rated Eden Prairie's economic health as strong. It's a great place to work,

[36:37] build a business and invest in the future.

[36:40] The city's economic ratings outshine communities both in Minnesota and across the nation.

[36:46] What truly sets Eden Prairie apart is its connection to nature.

[36:50] 92% of residents rated the natural environment as excellent or good,

[36:55] making it the highest rated aspect of community life.

[36:58] With top-ranked parks, natural areas, recreational amenities, and over 200 miles of trails,

[37:05] Our community enjoys one of the best park systems around.

[37:09] Residents also gave even very top marks in Minnesota and the nation in these specific areas.

[38:25] In every category that matters, safety, services, quality of life,

[38:31] environment and community, even fairy doesn't just meet expectations.

[38:35] We set the standard.

[38:50] So a couple thoughts. One would be if you if you go to the city website, you can actually read the entire survey.

[38:56] 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.

[39:03] You can watch the results that the third party consultant came in presented to the council, the results of that survey that evening.

[39:13] but what's important is that that survey and the results of that survey led to the creation

[39:19] of the budget and the direction from the council that the next slide here, that the goal

[39:23] for the budget process that they set was we want to maintain that level of service and we want

[39:29] to do it at what's a reasonable tax impact. So, you know, the direction to the staff to

[39:37] and preparing the budget was we want to continue to have that level of service at a reasonable price.

[39:44] 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

[39:50] budget, we need to have conservative estimates of revenues and expenditures and to annually review everything we do

[39:57] and have long-range capital planning and.

[40:00] 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.

[40:18] So we were able to transfer money to our capital improvement fund without having to have a capital improvement

[40:25] levying and without having to put excess dollars over there. So those those were important goals of the budget.

[40:32] 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.

[40:39] We are a people organization over 70% of the city's budget.

[40:44] our people, our wages and benefits.

[40:48] So a big part of what we do is related to pay and benefits, hiring and maintaining a good

[40:55] employees, providing them with the training professional development, the skills and wellness

[41:02] opportunities for that in the succeed.

[41:04] So that's a huge part of what we are and want to be as an organization and those are the

[41:09] goals of our city budget that we want to maintain.

[41:11] A few examples, I think that you heard that I just want to share about this particular budget.

[41:17] Again, I think Tammy touched on those.

[41:20] There are a few examples of in different areas of the budget of when there were open positions.

[41:26] We did not automatically fill those.

[41:28] There are positions that we reallocated in certain areas to save money.

[41:33] We already alluded to areas of where we budgeted conservatively.

[41:37] I'm also going to mention what I'll call in the Council's talked about this, what's a zero-based budgeting concept.

[41:44] And what that means is we don't necessarily say in a certain area or a certain division to the city,

[41:52] well, let's just raise that 2% or 3%.

[41:55] We will look at almost every single line item.

[41:58] So if you remember back to when Tammy went through each department,

[42:02] But there are some departments that are actually decreasing their budget next year, some

[42:08] matter flat, and some that may be increasing for all types of different reasons.

[42:12] So we evaluate each area individually on its own merits.

[42:19] And again, under the employee wellness and safety area, there are these examples of decreasing

[42:26] our workers' compensation premium, so it does maintain most of its revenue through taxes.

[42:34] We would say that we are fiscally prudent budget conscious, but also pretty innovative

[42:38] and forward-thinking.

[42:40] And the other fact I would give, and I think you saw this in Tammy's charts, is this particular

[42:46] budget is public safety focused.

[42:48] So, if you took out the spending that is non-public safety,

[42:54] the entire general fund of the city's budget

[42:57] is only increasing 2%.

[43:00] Tammy provided a breakdown of the spending city wide.

[43:06] This is a breakdown by department.

[43:08] So, if you just think about people like to see this kind of cost,

[43:11] if I were to get a monthly bill for what I get from the city,

[43:16] 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.

[43:46] So something we're pretty proud of and something that I think we deliver at a reasonable price.

[43:53] 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,

[44:02] 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.

[44:13] So that includes debt.

[44:16] This we talked about downstairs when we had another topic.

[44:20] We are assigned the highest possible bond rating that you could have,

[44:25] the highest rating that an agency could give you,

[44:28] Triple A, but also you,

[44:31] everyone pays utility bills.

[44:33] And you have, you know, water bills,

[44:36] so we're a bill that you get from the city.

[44:38] I know this chart is really hard to read,

[44:40] but when we had a workshop in November

[44:42] to talk about the utility bills that were presented by a public work director and finance manager.

[44:48] It was shown that we have the 10th lowest average utility bill in the metro of those similar cities.

[44:56] So that is another cost to the resident.

[45:00] 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.

[45:10] 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.

[45:24] that is tax capacity, your levy, and your rate.

[45:28] The tax capacity is a function of the value of the property in the city.

[45:35] So Tammy talked about the value.

[45:38] I would just say if we were to put the city up for sale,

[45:41] someone wanted to buy Eden Prairie that

[45:43] have to pay about $15 billion.

[45:46] And if you factor it in what the taxable value of Eden Prairie is,

[45:51] about $154 million. And if you divide that by what we're asking to

[45:58] levy for next year, $50 million, you get a rate that you're going to pay

[46:03] your taxes, your home value on, or apartment, or commercial property, and that's 32%.

[46:11] Just remember the 32%. That 32% tax rate, keep that in mind, because we're going to have

[46:21] since 2022. It went down and it kind of went up. So this chart shows our tax capacity or

[46:28] values gone up. The levees gone up as well but are rate what you get taxed at has stayed the same.

[46:37] As everybody should be aware that's what we've been talking about since the summer

[46:43] And the reason that average valued home has increased 8% even though the levy is only going

[46:53] up about 5 and a half percent in your home may have only gone up on average 3% is because

[47:02] commercial property on average in Eden Prairie has gone down about 5 or 6% in the Metro

[47:08] closer to 10% is office commercial property has gone down and the burden has shifted to residential

[47:17] property. This article that I took a picture of actually came out in June. So this is from

[47:25] the summer. This I'm sorry is probably too difficult to see in this room. But this is from our city

[47:32] assessor and this is a value notice that was provided to me to give to the council that

[47:39] basically talked about all the different value increases in property and Eden Prairie in

[47:46] 2025 that's for your 26 taxes. And it basically says that the value across Eden Prairie went up

[47:52] to $14.7 billion in that the average, you know, the single family detach homes when up about

[48:00] 3% town homes up 2% commercial property down, about 6% industrial properties flat, multi-family

[48:09] property down about 4%. So it kind of shows you those trends. Media and valued home up.

[48:16] So when Tammy showed the median valued home is 558, that's up from about 530. So when she showed

[48:25] that what is that the median valued home tax is up

[48:29] about $142 total the tax or whatever.

[48:32] Well, the home value went up to,

[48:35] but this shows for the last 10 years or so,

[48:39] that median valued home,

[48:41] I don't think anybody has a median valued home,

[48:43] maybe close to it, has gone up almost $200,000.

[48:49] Does anybody remember $22?

[48:52] There were this room was pretty fall in 2022 because the average that year and this is Metrowide went up about 21% that year.

[49:02] That was following COVID, but that was, again, this is all based on sales of property.

[49:08] This isn't anything this, well, the city had to do this, but the city had to follow sales of property.

[49:14] So that brings us to back to this chart and what I want to illustrate in this chart is for now this year.

[49:25] We are at a point in time where residential property is bearing the largest weight ever.

[49:35] I think ever I guess I didn't look back prior to 2019 but I think ever.

[49:40] But it's bearing the most percentage of capacity by class, 63.3% of the capacity and need in

[49:51] Prairie is in residential and the lowest of commercial capacity right now at 27.8 and if you

[50:00] 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,

[50:28] seeing a pretty large decrease in their tax, and so these, these are things that the city

[50:36] in terms of setting their levier budget. We do not have control over this. These are just

[50:41] impacts. These are results that are being seen all across the state of Minnesota, but it's just

[50:49] it's a good explanation of what people may see. The control that city council has is setting

[50:55] their budget and levy, but it's a pretty good explanation of what people are seeing.

[51:01] Again, I think I covered this explaining how property tax bill is calculated, so if anyone's

[51:10] ever interested, if you just think about the value of your property, so just take any value.

[51:17] I'm going to use that median value at home, so take 200,000, 700,000, 800,000, just if you're

[51:23] curious, take that for residential property, I shall go back here.

[51:28] But this list is there's about 50 different percentages for 50 different types of property

[51:36] in the state of Minnesota that the state of Minnesota sets different rates for different

[51:41] types of property.

[51:42] So there is a different taxation rate that the state sets for cabins, airport property, rural

[51:51] vacant land, condo storage units, residential non homestead, manufactured home parks, marina's

[51:59] just all those the list is all different types of property that are taxed at different rates.

[52:05] Four homestead residential property, the first $500,000 of your home is taxed at 1%.

[52:12] Everything over that is taxed at 1.25%. We've talked about this that the median valued

[52:20] Momentine Prairie is over 500,000.

[52:23] So the even the median valued home is skewed,

[52:27] because that's over 500,000.

[52:29] So that shows a higher tax than what it used to show.

[52:34] So there you get your tax capacity.

[52:37] So when I talked earlier about taking that $15 billion

[52:40] of property in Eden Prairie,

[52:43] multiply it by all those different rates

[52:45] and you get your tax capacity,

[52:47] multi-pliant by that city rate, there's the property tax, there's the median

[52:53] valued home property tax. I'll get back to that in a little bit, but before I do

[52:58] that, I want to share what we're seeing around us. When I say around us, this is

[53:06] something I was shared with the council in the spring comparisons to other

[53:11] levies around us. These are similar sized cities. I don't share manyapolis

[53:17] St. Paul in smaller surrounding community levies, but it's my understanding

[53:22] that I think I saw in a League of Minnesota City's publication that

[53:27] the average levied increase for all cities in the entire state of Minnesota somewhere

[53:32] on 8%. So we're still below that. I do believe St. Paul has a lower

[53:39] proposed Levy than Eden Prairie Minneapolis does not,

[53:43] but we're still below all of these cities as well.

[53:47] Also, a couple of these slides I wanna illustrate

[53:50] before I wrap up is something that the city council

[53:53] has talked about and that is some different scenarios

[53:58] with the Levy, under a median valued home scenario

[54:02] and that was, so if we're looking at a 5.6% Levy increase

[54:07] and the median valued home impact is the $142 increase annually over a year.

[54:17] Well, what if we did something else?

[54:19] So the example that was shown to the council over these workshops, the summer,

[54:23] is, well, what if you reduced the tax levy to 3.6%.

[54:29] These are just theoretical.

[54:33] And that would mean that the, the, a, a, a million dollars would have to be cut from the levy.

[54:40] And then the reduction would be about 35 dollars in the levy increase, but it would still increase.

[54:49] 6%.

[54:50] And what if you went down to a zero percent levy, just the levy went to zero?

[54:55] Well, there'd still be a tax increase.

[54:57] It would not zero out the meat.

[55:00] 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.

[55:24] And in terms of, again, that scenario, the council asking me if we had a zero percent tax

[55:33] levy, and we eliminated two and a half million dollars from the budget, you know, what

[55:40] would that look like?

[55:42] And in the conversation we had was in the short term, and I would say short term if we were

[55:48] in a recession, or if we had a difficult period to get through, being a service oriented

[55:55] people-person organization, we would do what we did in 2010, 2011.

[56:03] You would have wage freezes, you would adjust contracts, you would find ways in your budget

[56:10] to freeze things and temporarily use your fund balance to get through, but that is not

[56:16] long-term strategy. If you needed to make a major cut in your budget for a long-term strategy,

[56:23] you would be reducing staffing, you would be reducing services, and you would have to adjust

[56:29] your service level. Mr. Getswell, can I just add, go back to that slide just for a second,

[56:35] you and I were chatting about this before the meeting, that if we were to go down to a zero percent

[56:41] levy increase and cut two and a half million dollars from our city budget, which likely because

[56:48] we're 70% staff would either be freezing salaries or eliminating police and fire positions

[56:54] because they're two thirds of the staff. That $155 that the average $55558,000 home pays

[57:04] today a month for all those C services, 155 would drop seven dollars. That's all we could

[57:12] save you as we eliminate seven police officers and five. It's not where the money is,

[57:21] that's not where the viability is because of all the state formula and all the complexity

[57:26] of how taxes get said. I just wanted to add that. It may sound appealing and cut the budget.

[57:32] 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

[57:40] Some people five bucks, but just want to point that out

[57:44] Two more slides. I promise almost done

[57:48] 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

[57:56] Again, comparable cities, cumulative levy increases over the last 10 years.

[58:03] So, again, I think this is like what 12 comparable cities of similar size, men, a

[58:08] Tonka Maple Grove, Bloomington, Blymouth, E. Dynolakeville, add up all of the levy

[58:13] increases in all of these cities over the last 10 years, and Eden Prairie has the second lowest

[58:21] increase added up over 10 years.

[58:23] So that's a 10-year timeline.

[58:25] Again, back to that value proposition,

[58:29] attempting the direction of the council to maintain

[58:32] a high service level at a reasonable cost.

[58:37] And then, finally, do you remember

[58:39] back to what I said about the tax rate?

[58:43] What is your tax rate?

[58:44] What is the value of property in your city

[58:47] divided by the levy that you put up on the residence equals a tax rate.

[58:55] And then when you get that tax rate, you take an individual's property, tax capacity,

[59:02] multiplied into that tax rate, you get their tax.

[59:05] Again, in a comparison of those cities, we have the third lowest tax rate of, I think this

[59:12] is of all cities over 10,000 people in Hennepin County.

[59:16] And then, again, if you remember that sample calculation I did, I just ran of these cities in this list.

[59:24] I just did four from kind of the middle and I did go to the bottom.

[59:30] So, again, to that 1865 for a median valued home, I took four cities.

[59:37] Four cities that I think you can five a $550,000 home in.

[59:42] And those four cities, that is the city taxi would pay.

[59:45] So it's 1865 here, that is a taxi would pay in 2026 in those four cities under that scenario.

[59:54] So Maple Grove and Plimather the only two cities if they keep that, if they keep that.

[1:00:00] 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.

[1:00:25] Local government aid state aid aid from other governments. There are many cities. I used to work in a city where

[1:00:33] 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

[1:00:43] 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

[1:00:52] We get none of that. We get no local government aid. We get very little money from the state of Minnesota,

[1:00:58] Tammy mentioned that we get some public safety aid, but we get very little from the state of Minnesota.

[1:01:07] We actually lose money when it comes to a tax base sharing program called fiscal disparities.

[1:01:14] 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.

[1:01:38] So the point being, we run this analysis that if this tax-based sharing program didn't exist,

[1:01:45] that median valued home, taxes would be 6.8% less in Eden Prairie if that program did not

[1:01:53] exist.

[1:01:53] And we always like to say, when we talked to our legislators, this program that came about,

[1:01:59] I think it was about 30 years ago that was going to be so groundbreaking and was going

[1:02:05] to stop cities from trying to compete for commercial businesses is the only one in the entire

[1:02:13] country.

[1:02:14] I believe that exists.

[1:02:15] So it hasn't really taken off in other countries and we have actually lobbied for changes

[1:02:22] to the program because it does affect our taxpayers.

[1:02:25] But the point being that we do not rely very much on state aid and we are sometimes hindered

[1:02:32] by other programs.

[1:02:35] And in some ways, it's good.

[1:02:36] In some ways, it's okay to rely on yourself

[1:02:39] and not have to rely on other funding,

[1:02:42] but we do not lastly, there are other programs

[1:02:46] out there individually for people

[1:02:49] that can apply for and receive a credit

[1:02:53] and aid for property taxes.

[1:02:56] And there are three, and you can find them

[1:02:58] at the Department of Revenue website,

[1:03:01] or you can contact anybody at the city and two of them are income-based, one is for seniors,

[1:03:08] so there is a property tax deferral program for seniors and that is for people 65 years or older

[1:03:15] who make $96,000 a year or less you can defer your property taxes or a portion of them and then there are

[1:03:23] two other programs and they're through you have to do them through your income taxes but one of them

[1:03:28] no relation to your income at all, and that's based on if your taxes increase from year to year to year,

[1:03:40] more than 12% or at least $100. So that applies to anybody or there's another program

[1:03:47] for those that made less than $100, approximately $139,000. So we'll have that information on

[1:03:56] website, but we always want people to be aware of the state programs that are available for

[1:04:01] property tax credits or different roles or refunds. And I believe the mayor that is the last

[1:04:09] slide we have, we're certainly available for questions, but they're still the public hearing.

[1:04:15] Sounds good. Thank you, Tammy. And thank you, Rick, that was some really thorough.

[1:04:22] So, Council, at the end of the public hearing, we'll be voting if you have questions or comments.

[1:04:28] Do you want to save them to that point and we can jump right into the public hearing part?

[1:04:34] Just want to one comment and I think you mentioned Tammy and Rick, it's really good analysis.

[1:04:41] I think that'll summarize the journey with the class a few months and then it's a good job of describing the process.

[1:04:50] Thank you. So to residents in this room, this is a public hearing and so I'm going to invite you up.

[1:05:00] 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.

[1:05:18] I don't know how many people want to speak.

[1:05:23] I'm not going to time you this evening.

[1:05:25] We've done that in the past one meeting four years ago.

[1:05:27] We had seven to eight people sign up to speak.

[1:05:31] But tonight, if you can, keep it concise.

[1:05:34] And if you hear someone make identical same comments,

[1:05:36] you make maybe just piggyback on that and then let us know.

[1:05:40] Keep in mind, again, that we've been at this for two years.

[1:05:43] We really understand, but we want to hear from you this evening as well.

[1:05:47] will take notes. Again, we do have experts in staff out in the atrium area there to address

[1:05:53] additional questions. So, when you come forward, give your name, your address, and then

[1:05:58] if, again, if you can keep the concise to a couple of minutes, that would be great. Please

[1:06:03] come forward.

[1:06:06] My name is David Ringsmith. My address is 1, 3, 1, 6, 6, 6, B, I have court and

[1:06:12] in Prairie. Just want to first of all say amazing. I feel the marketing impact of the quality

[1:06:20] of the presentation you've done and I think, you know, what you've done shows you've really

[1:06:25] done a good job. It still hurts as a citizen. There's one question I have if you can answer

[1:06:31] what the mayor addressed $7 a month difference. I couldn't find that on the page that you were

[1:06:37] 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

[1:06:48] 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.

[1:07:00] I'm trying to be brief.

[1:07:02] 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.

[1:07:11] It still hurts with all the taxes that are going up in the state in the county.

[1:07:15] There's a lot of pain, and I think that's what you're seeing here tonight with the people.

[1:07:21] Thank you for the job you're doing.

[1:07:23] Great job, but it still hurts.

[1:07:26] Appreciate both of your comments. Thank you.

[1:07:28] Thank you.

[1:07:28] Next.

[1:07:30] Well, I'm the better half.

[1:07:36] And that way that I assume, not again.

[1:07:38] This is Maria, Rink's move from 1, 3, 1, 6, 6,

[1:07:43] Beehive Court.

[1:07:44] And I just want to again applaud the excellent presentation

[1:07:49] by Rick and staff.

[1:07:51] But I want to key in on something Rick said,

[1:07:54] Well, what if we could do something else?

[1:08:02] Well, what if we could do something else?

[1:08:09] $5 gift box from a little thrift agency.

[1:08:13] And I love her.

[1:08:15] And every Democrat, Republican, and independent.

[1:08:20] I've met.

[1:08:22] They like it too.

[1:08:24] 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.

[1:08:41] In 1975, Representative Phyllis Khan did something, nothing, no one ever had done in America,

[1:08:57] and it came from Minnesota, Minnesota led the way, and she presented the Clean Air Act.

[1:09:07] And I come from a democratic family and I'm just asking you to consider, because when these notices come,

[1:09:22] they're very painful.

[1:09:24] Okay. Nobody likes getting you. Do you like getting you? Do you like getting you?

[1:09:30] Okay. Now we love our police officers. We love our firemen. Men and women.

[1:09:39] excuse me. I am still learning how to speak properly. But I'm just asking you to be like

[1:10:00] 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.

[1:10:29] Because all I could hear tonight was all this will only cost me $7, $146, maybe $500 more a year.

[1:10:40] But the pressure

[1:10:43] on the little taxpayer, the little family, okay?

[1:10:49] And it can be two of these or one of these, you know, the families.

[1:10:55] Our tax bill has doubled and the beautiful city we live in, the pressure is still on the taxpayer.

[1:11:09] So what I'm asking you to do is maybe just it's never been done before.

[1:11:17] Make the increase

[1:11:21] Optional per family per taxpayer just make it optional if you cannot afford

[1:11:28] This the cost if the $500 because ours would be

[1:11:34] 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

[1:11:45] by the Hennep and County City taxes.

[1:11:50] If you'll just do something, nobody else has done.

[1:11:53] Filis had to speak up and say it.

[1:11:56] I need clean air.

[1:11:58] She said, and there is pain in this room.

[1:12:04] It hurts for my taxes.

[1:12:06] I've been here 19 years and they have doubled.

[1:12:09] So all I'm asking you to do.

[1:12:15] Try, try it.

[1:12:17] See what would happen if you would allow

[1:12:20] the individual homeowner, to say, I, for whatever reason. Hasn't it been painful since COVID?

[1:12:30] Hasn't it been painful? And then the tax burden just keeps, I keep getting to pay more for all

[1:12:41] these wonderful services, but it's painful. So I'm just asking, would you consider, if a family

[1:12:47] Cannot afford it. Would you trust

[1:12:54] that family? Just trust them.

[1:13:00] I can't afford it. I need that five hundred dollars for whatever the reason.

[1:13:08] And that's what I came to say. And I thank you so much for hearing it.

[1:13:13] I don't think this has ever been done before.

[1:13:15] 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.

[1:13:32] And just trust them. Don't make them go through hoops.

[1:13:38] Maria, thank you. I mean, we get it. Thank you.

[1:13:41] And it's, if you did well presenting that.

[1:13:43] So thank you.

[1:13:44] Appreciate you coming up.

[1:13:44] Oh, I take my $5 box.

[1:13:47] And I did your words, grip.

[1:13:51] Well, what if we did something else?

[1:13:54] Now, I just want to say one more thing.

[1:13:56] My pastor has reduced his department budgets, not the salaries.

[1:14:03] And our budget is not, is two thirds your budget.

[1:14:08] Think of that.

[1:14:09] a church, and he is not cutting salaries, but he is reducing the budget departments by 30

[1:14:19] percent, and he's been doing this for 45 years, and he's making hard cuts, and if my

[1:14:26] pastor can do it, we can do this.

[1:14:30] Thank you.

[1:14:31] Thank you.

[1:14:32] Thank you.

[1:14:33] Next.

[1:14:38] Good evening, Larry Ziske from 18803 Magenta Bay.

[1:14:46] I would say Eden Prairie, yes, is a very good place.

[1:14:51] Well, the best place is to live if you can afford it.

[1:14:56] And each person's world is their world.

[1:15:00] 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.

[1:15:30] And so that would only mean more funds needed.

[1:15:36] So, and as she said, my increase in income

[1:15:40] is only 2.8% only on my social security.

[1:15:44] Otherwise.

[1:15:46] So I'm better off than most, but I'm in the situation

[1:15:49] where I'm being taxed out of my home.

[1:15:52] And this isn't just this year.

[1:15:54] This has been a gradual thing

[1:15:55] that's been going on for many years.

[1:16:00] And I've run out of fingers to count the number of friends and acquaintances who have moved out of state as such.

[1:16:09] 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.

[1:16:18] 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.

[1:16:32] And I could see things even with my limited knowledge that I think we could use to get more revenue from services, fees.

[1:16:43] 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?

[1:17:13] I don't know if anybody saw that enough, but it was in the Sunday editorial one or two Sundays ago.

[1:17:22] So that's what I would ask.

[1:17:24] And I think across the board, wage increases is not the norm in the private sector, hasn't been.

[1:17:32] And that we should look at controlling the budget as best possible,

[1:17:38] 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.

[1:17:55] 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.

[1:18:05] And maybe it is too late already to say, well, let's be a little more thrifty.

[1:18:11] We don't need the platinum version of a remodel or a new building or the furnishings

[1:18:17] and these sort of things. Bronze probably is good enough and very adequate.

[1:18:25] So that's what I would have to say and that I think the staff, the council is doing a good job,

[1:18:35] but it has to be pushed, it has to be improved,

[1:18:38] it has to be better, or of course,

[1:18:44] there will be you,

[1:18:46] do what you can do.

[1:18:48] Thank you.

[1:18:50] Thank you, Larry.

[1:18:53] Next.

[1:19:09] Good evening.

[1:19:10] My name is Julie Baker.

[1:19:11] I live on 8700 Bracks in Drive.

[1:19:15] Thank you.

[1:19:16] Repeat that to everyone.

[1:19:18] You put a lot of hard work into this.

[1:19:20] And we all see it.

[1:19:23] I am a single mom. I own my home. I work full-time in corporate America. I have a demanding job.

[1:19:33] I have gone three years without a merit increase because budgets are tight.

[1:19:38] I work really, really hard for my paycheck.

[1:19:42] The last three months I have started living paycheck to paycheck.

[1:19:46] I cut everywhere I can and there's not a lot more I can do to cut.

[1:19:53] I have a dishwasher that doesn't work.

[1:19:55] I wash my dishes by hand.

[1:19:57] So I am asking, what?

[1:20:00] Can we in even prairie do that is more creative? You're all so bright, and you have worked so hard.

[1:20:08] 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.

[1:20:24] Show me some respect and understanding, inflation is high.

[1:20:30] We are paying taxes every time we turn around.

[1:20:34] We pay income taxes.

[1:20:36] We pay taxes on food.

[1:20:38] Our utilities are up.

[1:20:40] Our healthcare is outrageous.

[1:20:42] And so I'm asking you,

[1:20:44] as a matter of principle,

[1:20:46] please don't raise our taxes.

[1:20:49] We're living in a state

[1:20:50] that had an $18 billion surplus two years ago.

[1:20:55] And that's gone. The money is gone. We now have a $5 billion deficit. Where is my tax

[1:21:03] dollar going? I don't feel like our state, Hannap and County, and I want to throw

[1:21:11] Eden Prairie in there because I feel like we do a pretty good job. But they're not being

[1:21:17] good stewards of my tax dollars.

[1:21:21] And I think that's what everybody here is saying.

[1:21:24] Great, we love our police department.

[1:21:27] Does it need to be updated?

[1:21:29] I could use a dishwasher.

[1:21:32] It's great that we can get eight new firefighters.

[1:21:35] Can we do with six?

[1:21:38] It would be nice to see a budget adhered to.

[1:21:44] I can't just increase my budget

[1:21:46] because I want more. I have to adhere to my budget and I am asking you to give Eden Prairie

[1:21:53] Taxpayers a break even if it is $7 and Rick, while I very, very much appreciate Eden Prairie.

[1:22:01] I love this city. I don't compare my city to other cities when it comes to budgets. I compare it

[1:22:09] to what I have in my bank account. So, respectfully, I ask you to consider all the hardship that

[1:22:15] people are going through. I have neighbors that are without jobs, layoffs that are happening,

[1:22:20] left and right, small business owners that can afford to keep their businesses running

[1:22:24] because of the regulations that we have in Minnesota. My adult children cannot buy a house.

[1:22:30] I have a 3% mortgage rate. I can't afford to move. I can't afford to downsized because home values

[1:22:39] are so inflated and interest rates are higher. So asking you guys to dig a little deeper,

[1:22:46] see where else we can cut, let us keep our $7. If just for this year, until we start seeing a

[1:22:53] better economy, thank you.

[1:22:57] I'm sure anyone

[1:23:05] else,

[1:23:11] I don't want to cut you off, but once we close the public hearing,

[1:23:15] It'll be closed.

[1:23:17] So is there anyone else that wishes to speak?

[1:23:23] Okay.

[1:23:25] Council, could I have a motion to close the public hearing

[1:23:27] and then we'll just get some response from us,

[1:23:32] any of you, to each other,

[1:23:34] and then make a motion in the whole motion at some point.

[1:23:38] So could I have a motion to close the public hearing?

[1:23:41] I'll move to close the public hearing.

[1:23:43] It's for second.

[1:23:45] I wasn't a paper say aye.

[1:23:47] I opposed.

[1:23:49] All right.

[1:23:52] First place, those people that got up to speak.

[1:23:55] Thank you.

[1:23:58] We all know that can be a little bit difficult.

[1:24:01] Maybe even intimidating though you all did fantastically

[1:24:04] and did not show any intimidation.

[1:24:06] I hope you would never be intimidated by us,

[1:24:09] but just the whole process, TV, that whole thing.

[1:24:15] We've struggled, I'll just speak for, is it okay if I speak for a little bit, and then you

[1:24:19] all can take notes and add anything in.

[1:24:23] We as individuals, we have opened meeting law, so we can't talk as a group, but I can talk

[1:24:30] to one other person, or I can talk to Rick who talks to others, and I know that I know the

[1:24:37] people up here, the quality of people up here on this council that you all elected.

[1:24:43] We've struggled with what we've been not only seen in the papers about the stress levels

[1:24:50] rising across the state of Minnesota, as this shift has occurred on to residential property

[1:24:58] taxes.

[1:25:00] And we've struggled with what that means, you know, obviously, for us in Eden Prairie. We have very much tried to make our

[1:25:09] 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.

[1:25:16] 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?

[1:25:24] The complexity of why someone's tax went up to a team percent is incredible.

[1:25:30] I mean, I mean, I've been at this 29 years now in May or 7.

[1:25:36] And I still try to process through what's an easy way to say why our budget went up four

[1:25:44] and a half percent, but someone's tax went up 13 percent.

[1:25:48] How do I communicate that and explain that?

[1:25:52] And of course, again, I think Rick's presentation in Tammy's presentation was excellent that

[1:25:57] it's incredibly complex with state formulas and the shifting of responsibility from office

[1:26:03] commercial onto to home residential and the fact that we're only 25% of your tax bill.

[1:26:11] When you see this large property tax bill, not to pass the buck, right?

[1:26:15] That's just what we are.

[1:26:16] I will also say that four of us up here and won't give me just I have done that before

[1:26:22] I'll not do that tonight.

[1:26:24] Four of us are on fixed incomes on social security.

[1:26:29] So you can probably guess by looking at us, what's not, sorry, at least of the young one over there.

[1:26:37] So yeah, somebody, I think was Larry, you mentioned that you have other sources of income too,

[1:26:43] 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.

[1:26:59] 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.

[1:27:10] You know, not everybody was able to build their 401k in a certain way to buffer some of this.

[1:27:16] It's a red and article this week that said, you know, 40% of the baby boomers are not prepared.

[1:27:22] Going through the next 10, 15 years for an economy where inflation's rising at 3 to 4% a year.

[1:27:29] I don't know what that means, right?

[1:27:31] I mean, we're heading into some national and state crises here that are incredibly problematic.

[1:27:37] problematic. The question then as, you know, we as council appeared trying to make responsible

[1:27:42] decisions, do we want to hit 65,000 people with drop-in services which are the most impactful

[1:27:52] in our lives? Obviously if I understand completely from the people that spoke tonight, if there's financial

[1:27:57] issues that's hard to pay for, no, we don't. But I don't know what the percentage is, but probably

[1:28:03] 90% of Eden Perry people are not on fixed end comes.

[1:28:08] And if you heard on NPR last week,

[1:28:12] corporate, even though I worked at United Health Group

[1:28:15] and I do understand that there are times

[1:28:16] you don't get raises, completely get that.

[1:28:18] Across the United States of America,

[1:28:20] the average private sector raise exceeded CPI.

[1:28:24] That doesn't help if you're on a fixed end come

[1:28:26] to hear that kind of statement, right?

[1:28:28] It just means that there's a variance

[1:28:32] across Eden Barrier of how people can cope and deal with a tax sink or all the tax

[1:28:38] increases that are hitting us.

[1:28:41] So I just want to say mainly that we, whether you believe or not, I mean we get it because

[1:28:48] we live it and we struggle with it and we do want to make sure that Eden Barrier remains

[1:28:54] the city that people want to move into because then your home prices go up.

[1:28:58] I mean, one of the most important parts of your tax bills to look at in the last whatever

[1:29:03] seven, eight years as your property tax doubled, what did your house do?

[1:29:07] I mean, I'm guessing if it's like my house, I think most of our house is probably doubled in the

[1:29:12] last 10 years in value if I'm wrong, talk to me later. But in other words, if my property tax went up this

[1:29:20] year or certain amount, but my value went up, I think I checked this out, 22 times. Now granted,

[1:29:26] there's a huge difference between assets and cash flow.

[1:29:29] I mean, we all get that.

[1:29:31] But nonetheless, some day, somebody, either we sell it

[1:29:35] or we make our kids wealthier, that comes back to us,

[1:29:39] but it's painful in the meantime.

[1:29:43] I don't think, knowing the 70% of our budget is public safety,

[1:29:48] I don't think the average resident out there,

[1:29:50] whatever that means, and in here,

[1:29:52] but out there in the city, wants to see please cut.

[1:29:56] want to see fire cut. I don't think that's true.

[1:30:00] Yes, we could pay a lower raise, which would make us non-competitive. Right now, we are, maybe,

[1:30:06] know this, we have a police officer opening, we have 20 applicants. Many applicants has an opening.

[1:30:13] Well, they have 100 openings. They can't fill them. There's reasons that people want to work here.

[1:30:21] We do put openings and we have just dozens and dozens of applicants. We're the place to work.

[1:30:26] We have super-quality staff, and I think if you've had interactions with them, you know that.

[1:30:31] That is not because we pay them the lowest salary around.

[1:30:36] It doesn't work like that, and you know that.

[1:30:37] I don't think we pay the highest-sellers, I think, in some areas we might, but in mostly we're

[1:30:42] just trying to be competitive.

[1:30:46] All right, I'll stop for a little bit, I've got other notes, but do you want me to go down

[1:30:49] the line?

[1:30:50] Council Member Fryberg or should we just go?

[1:30:52] She started and that's what I'm going to do for this.

[1:30:55] Oh, I don't know, anybody wants to speak.

[1:30:58] I'll speak.

[1:31:00] Okay, Councilmember Tuming.

[1:31:02] I agree with the mayor, with Mayor Case and what he's been saying.

[1:31:08] And I'd also like to say that we are very aware.

[1:31:14] I mean, obviously, like he said, we're very aware and we've struggled a little bit.

[1:31:18] But when it comes to things like the police department and the fire department,

[1:31:26] they do need to.

[1:31:27] The police department needs to be.

[1:31:31] They need to have a new one.

[1:31:34] The one that they are currently in when they moved in.

[1:31:38] There were 35 officers, sworn officers, and currently there's 73.

[1:31:43] There's no room. We are probably one of the only police departments in the entire state that doesn't have indoor parking.

[1:31:52] So in the long run, we will save money on vehicles and things like that during the winter months,

[1:32:00] that will not need as much care, you know, maintenance.

[1:32:05] So,

[1:32:08] I think that we do, right, we're doing the best, we're providing the best services with, you know, reasonable taxes.

[1:32:22] That's all.

[1:32:22] Let me add one thing, just clarify, too, that the $26 million police department renovation is mostly bonded.

[1:32:30] 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.

[1:32:37] It sounds like a big number if it were like assessed back onto homes in the levee.

[1:32:41] Do you want to add anything to that?

[1:32:42] Right.

[1:32:43] I think we covered that.

[1:32:44] One thing we talked about was we had planned this for the last decade.

[1:32:48] You know, when we, when we would fit this debt levee on.

[1:32:52] And we actually anticipated, I think it was last year the year before that we were probably going to have a levee this year.

[1:32:59] that was between six and seven percent because of this debt

[1:33:02] levy coming on and we were able we console work to get this

[1:33:07] to five point six because of that debt levy so you did

[1:33:11] some work to get to this number because of the debt levy again

[1:33:15] I didn't share the to twenty seven numbers but because next year's

[1:33:20] debt levy will be lower we're anticipating a lower levy next year

[1:33:24] because this is the first year of the debt levy and the other

[1:33:27] our interest rate was low because we have a triple-way

[1:33:30] bond rating because we've been so responsible through 50 years, but

[1:33:34] especially the last 20 years here in Eden Perry with our budgets and

[1:33:39] with our reserves and we just we budget conservatively and that

[1:33:43] pays off then in lower levees because of lower interest rates because of

[1:33:48] the triple-way bond rating. Someone else.

[1:33:54] You want to go down the line? No, we can do anybody. Go ahead, Kathy.

[1:33:59] Council member Nelson.

[1:34:03] Okay, I'm going to start off with the Triple A bond rating. That really does help cut your taxes.

[1:34:09] 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.

[1:34:17] 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.

[1:34:28] that you can always, if you do it, even though you don't believe it.

[1:34:35] Also, I've got to say that we have wonderful employees.

[1:34:40] And we've discovered over time that are some of our people

[1:34:43] who have been here a long time are so good that when they retire,

[1:34:50] you can't replace them with one person.

[1:34:52] It takes one and a half pre-ful often to do the same job because they don't know it back.

[1:35:00] Fourth, in and out. And the fact that we can do that does help keep our taxes down.

[1:35:09] And when

[1:35:10] you have some of the best people in their fields, there are other people who would really love

[1:35:15] to employ them. So we like the fact that they've stuck with us for so long and stuck with

[1:35:22] your homes for place and fire, and stuck with your water with public works, stuck with a cleaning

[1:35:29] this of your parks and the safety there for your children or just yourself if you're walking

[1:35:36] around or if you're in a pickle wall or whatever but the quality of our department

[1:35:45] people really does make a difference and it makes your taxes difference and can take make a

[1:35:52] financial difference that the first time I discovered how big that difference is an

[1:35:56] council member was. I was flabbergasted. I didn't really believe it was true. I went back and got

[1:36:04] all the information and it was. So thank you. Thank you to some of our best people. We have

[1:36:12] this table over there. These are one of them. But our public works people and other such people.

[1:36:19] They make a difference. Have you noticed back that there aren't any pot holes around? You can make

[1:36:24] streets go longer, and that really cuts the amount of money we have to spend on our streets.

[1:36:32] It's that kind of thing that we shouldn't necessarily tell you, but it's some of our people that did that.

[1:36:39] 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.

[1:36:49] 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

[1:36:57] In fact would impact your budgets, your values of your homes, what you expect to be able to do with them.

[1:37:05] 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.

[1:37:15] 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.

[1:37:31] But our parks are important to families and so are our trails, and especially now when a lot

[1:37:38] of people are dealing with less money, because what they can do with their kids is not

[1:37:43] take them on vacation or go some other places, but they can go to a different park every

[1:37:50] every week and assuming the parents are home and not working so

[1:37:55] always they can't but they do allow people to live well without

[1:38:02] spending quite as much money and that's important I think I've been told by a

[1:38:08] lot of families that that is what they're doing right now and I commend them for

[1:38:15] finding ways to work around what they can have and will cost them less.

[1:38:23] Doesn't work for everyone and some people are working long hours and I think one of the people

[1:38:29] you would talk about the fact that it was long hours and it's not necessarily going to

[1:38:33] allow for such things.

[1:38:38] But, you know, we staff did work very hard to get us the lowest in the Twin Cities increase,

[1:38:48] and they work very hard on our AAA rating, and I'm very proud of a lot of our staff

[1:38:54] who keeps our actual cost up, and I think you should be too if you knew all the stuff

[1:38:59] they were doing. I can't guarantee I know all the stuff they're doing, but I do know

[1:39:04] made it different center costs. And we look for all of those, we ask them to look for all of those.

[1:39:12] And the fact that we're the lowest in the Twin Cities part, actually,

[1:39:15] looks as that doesn't necessarily help you when you see your tax bill come in.

[1:39:20] And quite frankly, mine went up to and I sort of looked at it and said, oh,

[1:39:25] but I knew I had something a little more to say. So, oh, I could say to myself,

[1:39:29] was, did you do what you could and the answer came back? Yes, the staff is done with the count.

[1:39:37] Councilmember Nero. Councilmember Freyberg, you okay, going last?

[1:39:42] Okay, Councilmember Ryan. Thank you, Mayor.

[1:39:46] You know, when you said it's painful, I understand when I got that bill, I felt

[1:39:55] The same thing I said, wow, you know, it's, it's been that,

[1:40:00] So, it's a percentage-wise, then I talked to Rick, maybe two hours, more to understand more.

[1:40:13] 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.

[1:40:21] budgeting is not easy. It's extremely complicated in the city budget I realize it's more complicated

[1:40:29] because we don't have full control. It's take dictate a lot of formulas and ratios and how much

[1:40:38] from commercial goes to residential. It's all kind of fixed that formula, right? So, so we are

[1:40:45] will be confirmed or over that. But the other side is our survey, the guiding principle we have,

[1:40:54] it's our survey. Survey said we want a good police, we want good service, we want good parks,

[1:41:02] we want people, you know, bring their children, play in the playground, they all want that.

[1:41:10] So how do we balance the both and try to get that going?

[1:41:16] It's very difficult, that's the reason we had,

[1:41:19] I don't know how many hours of meetings we had

[1:41:22] for the whole year on this subject.

[1:41:24] So it's not new.

[1:41:28] In our previous story, my wife,

[1:41:33] in a party passed out.

[1:41:36] And too much, it was too hard, she dehydrated,

[1:41:39] and we call 911 and the fire and police were there within two minutes. Two minutes

[1:41:48] to have been something and probably that saved her. And so, and I think about

[1:41:56] increasing costs through the fire and police and an incident something happened and

[1:42:05] said, you know, what happened if it is five minutes or ten minutes, she could have passed

[1:42:11] away. So, it's having fire and safety and when that situation comes, that it's so important.

[1:42:21] There you want to be there. I think we can now pretty much everywhere. You need to

[1:42:27] pray that people, you know, fire and and and police get there in very short period of time.

[1:42:32] I mean, you have a heart attack or we have a lot of, you know, over 60 people in the

[1:42:37] end and pray,

[1:42:41] it's, again, it's, it's hard. I don't, I don't have, I've really feel bad.

[1:42:46] I feel really sad that, you know, your situation and I don't, I really don't know what to do,

[1:42:55] you know, I, I just, because we thought through this all the possibilities and, and somebody

[1:43:02] the lady was saying, think out of the box, boy, we thought to

[1:43:05] I mean, I think we are police smart group here.

[1:43:09] And on top of it, our city manager and their staff,

[1:43:14] they are really smart as well, right?

[1:43:16] So we tried to dissect these things to solve.

[1:43:21] So we don't need one to hear a situation like,

[1:43:25] you know, somebody could not afford something

[1:43:27] because of tax window.

[1:43:28] It is difficult. Very difficult is, you know, that that delicate balance of high quality

[1:43:37] service, you know, and same times that how do we help everybody?

[1:43:46] I also, I really recommend,

[1:43:49] I mean, not recommend. I really think, like, and time needed a great job explaining, very

[1:43:57] complicate a situation in few slides, and it's hard for somebody brand new to understand

[1:44:03] all that, but I would say we do understand you, we do hear you, I talked to the residents

[1:44:14] we hear, they could part of it and also the tax situation comes in a nobody want to pay

[1:44:20] because it is going up, you know, but I just want to say really that we have tried, we tried different

[1:44:31] without harming the city. How do we continuously, you know, raise our kids here and they will be turned out to be good.

[1:44:41] They have a healthy life, like playing in the playground. We really tried.

[1:44:45] 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.

[1:44:55] Thank you.

[1:44:56] Well, can I just cut in one thing, Mark, for you to speak there, Julie.

[1:45:00] We've mentioned, rather than eight, firefighters, one, we go six. And I just wanted to underscore, it wasn't

[1:45:08] arbitrary that we went eight. We had a study, actually, that we contracted with a firm to come and

[1:45:13] look at all the city's needs over the next 30 years, and as we transition from volunteer to full

[1:45:18] time, it's all about response times. It is all about response times. To P. G's point with his wife. It's about

[1:45:26] getting someone to that person in emergency and every minute counts. By the way, a house fire

[1:45:32] doubles every minute. And if you have a response time of eight and now it's nine and now it's

[1:45:37] ten. So this eight was not in any way arbitrary. But talk to us later after it's absolutely. But so

[1:45:46] I understand the symbolic idea, like just like to find these cuts and PG, what PG and Lee said,

[1:45:52] we really and staff has really worked at this to find the cuts and brought back a lot. Do you want

[1:45:59] to say something quick? Is that the firefighters are under the safer grant? So we got a grant?

[1:46:04] Absolutely. That's absolutely true. But I'm just saying that was a symbolic thing.

[1:46:10] And even like the $7.00 symbolic concept, just caught $7.00. That would require $2.5 million of

[1:46:17] put out of the budget, you, that's severe.

[1:46:20] Our residents would feel that for seven bucks.

[1:46:23] And that's the point, again, we study this.

[1:46:27] And we struggle with it.

[1:46:29] And we try to do the very best for the people

[1:46:32] of Eden Perry and keep taxes as reasonable as we can.

[1:46:35] Council member, and a private.

[1:46:38] Thank you.

[1:46:38] Bring this home.

[1:46:40] You know, you're all sitting out there

[1:46:42] and you're wondering, is anyone listening?

[1:46:46] I think many times when we look at that and at all levels of government, you ask that question.

[1:46:51] I do.

[1:46:52] I read the paper, I read the paper about misuse of, you know, a fiduciary responsibility.

[1:46:59] It's rampant.

[1:47:00] It's horrible to all levels.

[1:47:03] We try.

[1:47:04] We try really, really hard.

[1:47:08] Is it right that you're being taxed out of your property, gentlemen?

[1:47:12] No.

[1:47:13] that happens a lot as far as people get into the edge. It's wrong. It's wrong.

[1:47:19] Do we have an answer as we sit up here? No, we don't. It doesn't mean we don't feel it.

[1:47:26] 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.

[1:47:32] I've found myself in that situation before. I think different facets of life.

[1:47:40] You look like you don't have any avenue to turn to itself.

[1:47:45] Can we change the taxes right now?

[1:47:47] I agree with everyone up here.

[1:47:50] What they're saying is right, their hearts are all in the right place.

[1:47:54] We do need those services because the people have told us that as a whole

[1:47:58] from our first responders such.

[1:48:03] But that doesn't mean going forward.

[1:48:05] 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

[1:48:17] Through we really need this we're good at it where we we do go through a lot of

[1:48:24] 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

[1:48:35] You know, because we take what we're doing very serious, we're all feeling it there.

[1:48:40] And you have our commitment, you have my personal commitment and my colleagues.

[1:48:44] I mean, I know their hearts as far as that that's what the way we'll approach it going

[1:48:49] forward, the way we approach it now.

[1:48:51] But put in an extra level of expectation on us for you to see if we can do a better job.

[1:48:58] Well, the answers as far as taxation, there should be programs at higher levels.

[1:49:05] I don't hear anything coming from the state.

[1:49:07] I hear other states as far as freezing, you know, certain texts, you know, real estate

[1:49:13] taxes, long time as far as in a property, you should never be taxed out of a property, you

[1:49:18] know, and if you really look at it, it's really easy to do, I mean, what's happening

[1:49:26] because everything is being escalated with inflation and stuff.

[1:49:31] I believe this should be something like that.

[1:49:33] I mean, I don't have the answer for it,

[1:49:35] but I'd like to hear some discussion up in saying

[1:49:37] Paul a little bit about that for people because it's real.

[1:49:40] It's very real.

[1:49:43] Something more as far as it was brought up as far as being able to opt out.

[1:49:50] Thinking beyond, I'm going to interpret that a little bit different

[1:49:52] thinking beyond the box. Another scenario that maybe at a higher level again it can be discussed.

[1:50:01] So, there's a way for those who can't pay that difference off on it. Maybe there's a way of doing it.

[1:50:11] Work hard towards that solution so that we can maybe get into a better world on it.

[1:50:15] You look at our food shelves. It doesn't even matter how much is being donated to our food shelves.

[1:50:20] It's a very generous community and stuff. It goes out as soon as it comes in. We all know that.

[1:50:26] It's, it's, these are different times

[1:50:28] and we're many things we do or based upon past histories

[1:50:32] as such on it.

[1:50:33] And I think the matrix, it's changing very, very quickly.

[1:50:37] I see it on there.

[1:50:39] So that's just a commitment that, you know,

[1:50:42] to you, that are making for myself to expect more

[1:50:44] out of myself.

[1:50:45] And I know with the hearts of the people

[1:50:47] that are sitting up here have that to work towards,

[1:50:51] no one has to be able to, you know,

[1:50:54] sitting there and ever be in those situations.

[1:50:56] And I hope it comes true on it.

[1:50:58] So I want to say thank you.

[1:51:00] Well said, Mark, thank you.

[1:51:03] Just a quick note about the idea of think outside the box.

[1:51:08] There have been, well, there's been a hundred years

[1:51:12] of taxation in America with property tax.

[1:51:16] Probably goes back to the 1920s, maybe before.

[1:51:19] But a lot of ideas have been tried, a lot.

[1:51:21] I mean, it's not like we can't come up with some really novel ideas just by checking elsewhere.

[1:51:29] 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,

[1:51:41] Prop 13 in California, a horrible idea, freeze property taxes, the moment you buy your house, it's frozen.

[1:51:48] 30 years later, you've got this couple that are 85 years old living in the house.

[1:51:54] Maybe they are multi-millionaires with 401ks.

[1:51:56] They're paying 2,000 bucks a month for a year for property tax.

[1:52:02] And then you've got this young couple, two little kids,

[1:52:04] that are 30 years old, and they're paying 10,000.

[1:52:07] That's exactly what's going on in California right now.

[1:52:10] So if you slide money from someone and it's a zero-sum game,

[1:52:14] you're pushing it onto your neighbors.

[1:52:15] If somebody volunteers not to pay it, you just raise the tax for everyone else around you.

[1:52:20] It's just complicated.

[1:52:21] I guess that's the thing I want to maybe all of this can leave all of you tonight.

[1:52:25] It's complex, very complicated.

[1:52:28] In fact, that old adage or whatever that if you come up with a simplistic answer to a complicated

[1:52:33] problem, it's always wrong, always because it's complicated.

[1:52:38] And there are complicated solutions to complicated problems.

[1:52:42] And we struggle with it.

[1:52:43] I think you've picked up now from everything we've all said that we've been thinking about

[1:52:47] this a long time and it's very difficult we get it.

[1:52:52] But we believe we've arrived at the best solution for the good of 65,000 people to keep

[1:52:57] quality of life high so people want to live here, want to move here, want to keep your

[1:53:02] houses high valued because people will pay it and try to keep taxes as reasonable as possible

[1:53:09] being one of the lowest in the entire area proves that we're at least working on that.

[1:53:14] It doesn't help you if you've got the 18% tax increase, I get that.

[1:53:18] But it does prove that if you pick up a need in Perry House, it's value of 558,

[1:53:22] and you plop it in 20 cities around us. There's only two where you're going to pay lower tax.

[1:53:27] That's not insignificant. So, and again, that's more than the years of us up here in this council,

[1:53:34] building up to this point of just a really well-run city with amazing staff.

[1:53:41] Okay, council, are we ready to vote?

[1:53:45] We need a motion, we need to make the final three bullets of the motion, but are we ready

[1:53:50] for that?

[1:53:52] If someone could make the motion, then read all three bullets.

[1:53:55] Dr. Resolution, certifying the 2026 property tax levied to be $52,844,814 and approve the

[1:54:07] 2026 budget of $66,847,061 as reviewed by the Council and approve the HRA tax

[1:54:17] of the budget of $230,000.

[1:54:23] Any other discussion or comments that any of you want to make?

[1:54:29] All those in favor say aye.

[1:54:31] Aye.

[1:54:32] Opposed.

[1:54:33] I want to underscore how much we really do.

[1:54:36] I mean that.

[1:54:37] I appreciate you coming out tonight.

[1:54:39] You were respectful.

[1:54:40] Thank you.

[1:54:41] It's not always been the case here in the last couple years.

[1:54:45] If you have paid attention last year's truth in taxation.

[1:54:47] So thank you.

[1:54:48] We appreciate you as our neighbors, talk to us when we're at Calvary, Kowalskis or wherever.

[1:54:56] Come up and introduce yourselves again, but thank you again for coming. You can stay.

[1:55:00] We still have other agenda items, but I just wanted to thank you for your participation in this public hearing this evening.

[1:55:07] Mr. Gachow.

[1:55:09] Yes, Mayor, the next item is the next two are related to fees. The fees in item B are fees by ordinance.

[1:55:19] So we do this every year. And the ordinance fees are related to fees in city code.

[1:55:27] 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.

[1:55:38] 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.

[1:55:47] Just as needed, we analyze our cost recovery, we look at what our peers are charging.

[1:55:55] We see if we're doing a fair cost and a justice necessary.

[1:56:01] And we also, it's our tradition to hold the public hearing for all of our fees,

[1:56:07] even if we don't, it's not necessary or required to hold the public hearing.

[1:56:11] 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.

[1:56:26] So, again, we would actually hold a public hearing and need unanimous approval for first and second reading of the fees by ordinance.

[1:56:33] So, Council, are you okay if I open up a public hearing and if we have questions or so?

[1:56:38] I understand that you may not even know what this motion is about, but if you wanted to or had the chance already,

[1:56:47] it's all listed online.

[1:56:48] And you can look at every one of our fees.

[1:56:50] It's pages long and our staff has painstakingly set them appropriate to competition in the whole area.

[1:56:57] we want to be competitive at least with fees and structure of fees from other cities around us.

[1:57:04] So let me open up the public hearing.

[1:57:07] This is a public hearing, then anyone wishing to address the council on this ordinance

[1:57:12] that updates the fee schedule for administration and official controls.

[1:57:20] Okay, see, none.

[1:57:22] Council could you close the public hearing and if it's okay, if you go, I think it's fairly

[1:57:26] we've done this every year and the fees are just slightly adjusted based on what's happening

[1:57:32] out in the market. So market meaning our competitors around us and community center fees,

[1:57:39] et cetera. So is there something that would make the motion close to the close to public hearing

[1:57:45] and up to the first and second building of an ordinance updating the fee schedule for administration

[1:57:53] and official control and adopt a resolution approving the summary of publication.

[1:58:02] Sir, second.

[1:58:03] Second.

[1:58:04] So council.

[1:58:05] Any questions?

[1:58:06] Anything you want to say?

[1:58:08] Okay, voting.

[1:58:10] All those in favor say aye.

[1:58:11] Aye.

[1:58:12] Opposed.

[1:58:14] All right.

[1:58:15] Mr. Getsho.

[1:58:17] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:58:17] So these are fees by resolution.

[1:58:19] These do not require adoption of an ordinance.

[1:58:22] So these would be examples of these are your community center membership fees, all of your

[1:58:29] cards in the first.

[1:58:30] That's an idea.

[1:58:31] What's going to correct you?

[1:58:33] These are all those park and a rec registration program fees.

[1:58:39] A lot of our business license fees, a lot of our administration fees, rental fees, a lot

[1:58:46] of copy fees, fees that's the council can adopt by resolution.

[1:58:52] So again, several pages in the packet, every fee is listed, every fee is analyzed and updated annually.

[1:59:00] 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.

[1:59:11] Is there anyone wishing to address the...

[1:59:15] Oh, sure.

[1:59:16] I'm not up.

[1:59:17] I'm not up.

[1:59:17] You can speak to the student, if you want anyone wishing to address the council on this fee resolution,

[1:59:26] 2,026 fee resolution issue.

[1:59:32] Seeing no one council, could I have a motion then to close the public hearing and go ahead.

[1:59:39] Move to close the public hearing and adopt the 2026 fee resolution.

[1:59:45] Sir, second.

[1:59:45] Second. Any further discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. All right.

[1:59:53] Moving on to payment of claims, which if there are any students still here. Thank you, by the way, students.

[1:59:58] You've gone, I don't know.

[2:00:00] 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

[2:00:05] claims are all the metaphorically, all the checks that we cut between the last meeting and now.

[2:00:11] So, all the expenses, and we look at them and we question or approve. So, council, any items

[2:00:18] or expenditures that you wanted to question. If not, is there a motion to approve the payment of claims?

[2:00:26] I moved to approve payment of claims as submitted.

[2:00:29] Second, second.

[2:00:31] And students, we do a roll call because it's that important that each individual one of us has to

[2:00:35] certify in a sense publicly that we approve these expenses.

[2:00:39] So roll call.

[2:00:40] Council Member Freyberg.

[2:00:42] Council Member Durion.

[2:00:44] Aye.

[2:00:44] Council Member Nelson.

[2:00:46] Council Member Tumie.

[2:00:47] Aye.

[2:00:48] All right.

[2:00:52] Do we have anything else to come for the meeting this evening?

[2:00:56] I'm looking quick.

[2:00:57] You're looking at it.

[2:00:58] No, no.

[2:00:58] There isn't.

[2:00:59] I was just going to mention that, you know, because the budget was adopted tonight, there's

[2:01:05] no need to hold another meeting in December.

[2:01:07] This is the last scheduled meeting.

[2:01:09] So, the next time you will meet, we'll be the first Tuesday in January of 2020.

[2:01:14] All right.

[2:01:16] So, Happy New Year.

[2:01:18] Happy New Year.

[2:01:21] Happy New Year.

[2:01:23] Happy New Year.

[2:01:25] did you like? Are you moving? Yeah. Okay. It's been moved and is there a second? Second.

[2:01:31] Any further discussion? Okay. Hang on, just two seconds. Thank you council for all of your thoughts

[2:01:40] and comments and dedication. I think that you showed tonight and I hope that people being very

[2:01:45] realized what a high quality council they elected. So I just wanted to point that out each one

[2:01:50] of you and proud of all of you. So thank you so much. So with that, all those in favor of a

[2:01:55] journey in the meeting say, I, I oppose this meeting is adjourned

[2:02:03] and in students

City Council Meeting - Dec. 2, 2025

Agenda

Transcript