[0:32] I'll go ahead and call the meeting to
order. We'll start with the Pledge of
[0:34] Allegiance.
[0:38] » I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
[0:43] republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
[0:49] justice for all.
[1:03] » We have two sets of minutes, one from
the special meeting.
[1:09] And then one from the regular meeting.
Make sure we're approving
[1:13] ones that were handed out, not the ones
that are on email.
[1:50] Do I have a motion to approve the
minutes?
[1:54] With one change
on the special one.
[2:21] Do I hear a motion to approve the
minutes?
[2:26] » So moved.
>> Is there a second?
[2:32] » Second.
>> Moved by Paul, seconded by Jason. Any
[2:35] other discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
[2:39] » Aye.
>> All those opposed?
[2:42] Motion carries.
Everybody had a chance to look at the
[2:45] bills?
[3:00] If so, do I have a motion to approve?
[3:11] » So moved.
>> Paul makes the motion. Is there a
[3:14] second?
[3:17] » Second.
>> Seconded by Jason.
[3:20] Any other discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
[3:24] » Aye.
>> All those opposed? Motion carries.
[3:27] We have payroll.
I have a motion to accept payroll.
[3:33] » I'll make the motion to accept payroll.
>> John makes the motion to accept. Is
[3:37] there a second?
>> I'll second.
[3:41] » Seconded by Paul. Any other discussion?
[3:45] All those in favor say aye.
>> Aye.
[3:48] » All those opposed?
Motion carries.
[3:53] Is there anybody
in the public who would like to address
[3:56] the commission tonight for something
that's not on the agenda?
[4:03] Okay.
Uh
[4:05] if you guys are okay with it, we'll go
down to city officer reports first.
[4:09] And we can start with
uh E2S and I see Steve's here from the
[4:13] sheriff's office as well. So.
[4:19] Steve, do you have anything for us
tonight?
[4:21] » I do not.
>> Okay.
[4:23] » You got anything for me?
>> You guys have anything for Steve?
[4:29] Okay.
Thanks.
[4:33] We'll let the other Steve have it.
>> Well,
[4:38] um I thought I'd bring you a little bit
of a diverse show you a little bit of
[4:41] diversity of E2S. We not only have
engineers from UND, we also have NDSU
[4:47] engineers.
So, we've got to bring them up
[4:51] to experience the whole thing.
Um Kellen will share and talk about
[4:55] capital improvement planning. He's uh
been with E2S for
[4:58] 10 years and
doing a lot of projects like this. So,
[5:05] Sounds great.
>> Thanks, Steve.
[5:06] » Good evening, Mayor and the
Commissioners. Um how do I just let you
[5:10] know if I got to mess slides, okay? Um
as Steve mentioned, my name is Kellen
[5:14] Grubb. I'm out of our Fargo office and I
serve as our utility planning practice
[5:18] leader. Um
what that title means and what our
[5:21] practice is is really helping
communities and systems invest in their
[5:25] infrastructure systems. So, you can go
to the next slide. So, first thing I
[5:29] wanted to touch on quickly is just some
infrastructure management best
[5:33] practices.
We typically frame this as two core
[5:36] components. The first being asset
management, so that's the physical
[5:41] management of your physical hard assets.
So, understanding what you have,
[5:45] assessing the condition and risk, and
then prioritizing projects to optimize
[5:49] maintenance activities and really
enhance that
[5:53] asset useful life. The second side of
that equation is financial strategy. So,
[5:58] that's understanding the full cost of
asset ownership,
[6:02] full cost of providing service to your
residents, having that long-term plan,
[6:06] and ensuring affordability for your
customers. Or really, combined, it's
[6:11] doing the right projects at the right
time with a plan to pay for it.
[6:15] Go to the next one.
And then the other thing I Yeah, I
[6:17] talked to Lucas in the Public Works
office. I talked to Stephen Yarda.
[6:21] Hillsborough has really good GIS data.
Ask Lucas when it kind of started.
[6:25] 8-plus years of established GIS data
where all of your core infrastructure
[6:30] systems are mapped,
designed for continued evolvement, and
[6:35] continued field updates and data
collection.
[6:38] It's got all your your core
infrastructure systems, so water, sewer,
[6:41] streets, electrical subdivisions, and
parcels mapped, and already being used
[6:45] to
help support decisions. So, if you go to
[6:48] the next one.
Then, just one more recent case study
[6:53] where ATS helped the city through a
capital improvements planning is
[6:56] Crookston. So, Crookston had a lot of
infrastructure needs, but they didn't
[7:00] really know where to start. So, I just
want to walk you through kind of that
[7:03] process, and then show you what the
final deliverable looked like for
[7:06] Crookston.
We started with a pavement condition
[7:09] analysis, so scoring their streets, and
you know, from a 1-5 scale, one being in
[7:16] excellent or new condition, five being
very poor.
[7:19] So, this is the surface-level
understanding of streets. You can go to
[7:22] the next one.
Then, the the more challenging one is is
[7:27] is always water and sewer because it's
buried.
[7:30] So, we do we frequently do a risk
analysis.
[7:33] And what risk analysis is, when we're
talking about infrastructure, it's
[7:37] really evaluating how likely that asset
is to fail, and then what would happen
[7:42] if it did fail. So, you know, uh uh
for example, a
[7:46] 1950s
cast iron pipe with a a series of breaks
[7:50] on it is going to be more likely to fail
than a, you know, a 2010s PVC sewer
[7:55] pipe. And then consequence of failure is
all um looking at how many how many
[8:00] people does it serve, how how much flow
does it carry. So, really understanding
[8:05] those two components, we evaluate um on
basis of risk. Go to the next one.
[8:11] And then now we have an understanding of
all of the really core asset systems
[8:16] independently, so then we do a corridor
analysis and develop priority corridors
[8:20] because the actual,
you know, construction that's going to
[8:24] take place is generally in terms of a
corridor, but you wouldn't want to
[8:27] replace a street or improve a street if
the street's in good shape, and the
[8:31] water and sewer are bad, maybe you just
reline or rehab the water and sewer. Um
[8:36] if it's all bad, maybe it's a full
reconstruction of that corridor. Um so,
[8:40] really trying to figure out the best
improvement for the best corridor, and
[8:45] then we prioritize those.
Go to the next one.
[8:48] This is an example of what the
deliverable or or one of the
[8:52] deliverables looks like. We call these
cut sheets. So, we commonly develop
[8:56] these. These can look a variety of
different ways depending on,
[8:59] you know, a city's needs or how they
want it to look, but generally it shows
[9:03] a map of the project, outlines the scope
of the project, the costs, what year
[9:07] it's probably going to take place, how
the project's going to be funded. Um
[9:12] these can be as simple as you want them
or as complex as you want them. Again,
[9:15] we tailor them uh depending on the on
the city or the client.
[9:19] Go to the next one.
And then we also
[9:23] frequently utilize dashboards. So, this
is a dashboard, for example, that is
[9:27] built on the the Esri GIS uh platform in
which um your guys's GIS system lives.
[9:33] Um
this is a way to visualize and so forth
[9:36] to see the map, but the projects by
year, you can filter by year, you can
[9:41] filter by system type. It shows the cost
there. You can outlay the costs on, you
[9:46] know, on a graph or a chart.
Um so, it's just a really nice visual
[9:50] tool. You can filter by
projects over the next 10 years. You can
[9:54] look 1 year out. There's a lot of
flexibility here.
[9:57] So, just wanted to highlight this as an
example of deliverable. Um
[10:02] you know, if you're ever interested in a
visual CIP dashboard. You can go to the
[10:06] next one. And now, just to wrap up a
couple closing slides.
[10:11] Um
you can go to the next one here, too.
[10:13] So, at E2S, we also developed an
in-house tool so that that previous one
[10:18] I showed you for Crookston, that's
really built on the Esri platform, which
[10:21] is, uh you know, a very prominent
software in the GIS industry.
[10:26] This one is is is similar in the fact
that it's a visual dashboard, but what
[10:32] we developed with this is there's some
more robust financial tools built in to
[10:36] where the the GIS dashboard that I just
showed you on the last slide is more
[10:41] just a visual representation. Here are
your projects, here are the costs,
[10:44] here's where they're at. This one you
can run different scenarios and model
[10:48] different revenue sources or revenue
funds and actually use it somewhat of a
[10:53] budgeting tool. And we'd never say that
it would replace like your your
[10:57] financials within your city, but you can
run different scenarios and and really
[11:01] evaluate finances a number of different
ways and figure out what the impacts of
[11:05] certain projects are going to be.
Go to the next one.
[11:10] I've only got a few left, so um this
will be quick, but just want to touch on
[11:15] that uh project funding and
affordability are generally two
[11:19] different things. So, we always try and
help clients and, you know, we encourage
[11:23] clients to pursue funding. Funding is is
great and and critical, and we always
[11:27] say that funding creates the
opportunity, but affordability uh
[11:31] determines what is realistic. So, you
might get grants um
[11:35] you know, to to build a project, but
there's generally a local share. So,
[11:39] what does that mean for your residents?
Um so, our focus is to help
[11:44] our cities that we work with understand
the funding aspect, but also
[11:47] affordability and what the impacts to
your uh residents might be.
[11:53] And then the last one, um software isn't
the same as capital improvements
[11:57] planning. So, generally we say capital
improvements planning is a strategy and
[12:01] software are tools and we utilize the
tools to help us along the way. Um
[12:06] but ultimately at the end of the day, um
you as a city and as a commission uh
[12:10] make important decisions and have to use
judgment, and the software and the data
[12:15] can help inform those decisions, but
people still have to make it. So,
[12:19] software supports the process, but
doesn't replace it.
[12:23] I think I got one more left.
And this was one where I was going to
[12:27] hand it over to
to Yardo, um
[12:30] but he you know, I haven't worked
personally with Hillsboro, but he said
[12:33] that condition assessment and asset
evaluation has been completed. There's
[12:37] been some preliminary project
construction cost estimates provided.
[12:41] And as a future need or next steps and
public and stakeholder engagement is
[12:45] needed to talk about the size of project
and funding strategy.
[12:50] So, that's all I have. I want to thank
you for your time tonight and I'd be
[12:53] happy to answer any questions if you
have any.
[13:00] » Any questions?
[13:05] I don't have any just I guess our next
step is I guess
[13:09] » Yeah, we thought we thought we'd just
give you that kind of
[13:12] um
some ideas on what you can do for
[13:14] capital improvements planning, you know,
as projects come up here.
[13:17] Um
Yardo was going to come and just uh
[13:22] check in and see if there was any uh
updates or if you guys need any other
[13:26] information on the
payment utility improvements or if
[13:31] that's
made any farther yet.
[13:37] Planning or targeting for that?
[13:41] » I just I just been waiting to see a
plan. I thought you were working on
[13:43] that, so.
>> Well, we are.
[13:45] We brought up the
what needs to be done and stuff, but
[13:49] then the next step would be to uh
um if you guys want to move forward with
[13:53] it and we would
um
[13:56] start with uh you know, engaging um if
you guys want to engage the community
[14:00] and show some costs and stuff and
um you kind of talked about it'd be nice
[14:05] to get the paving done by 2030 before
the uh
[14:10] um city's big event.
So, that would be
[14:14] you know,
if we did design in '27,
[14:19] construction '28, '29, you know, it kind
of gets you there.
[14:22] But,
um
[14:24] if you want us to
proceed to the next step, you know,
[14:28] that's something we can do. We can talk
about what next steps are.
[14:32] » Cuz I kind of see our next step is
either we're going to
[14:35] do this as one large project or
do we do it as a capital improvement
[14:39] where we split it out a little bit over
time?
[14:43] So, that's kind of
our decision.
[14:47] Um
[14:50] Also, with the water and sewer
with the bit
[14:53] That's not quite done or ready yet, but
we're getting close on that, too. So,
[14:58] to see what we need to do cuz
we still haven't started potholing yet,
[15:02] correct? Is that
>> We're looking at for
[15:05] » Yeah.
>> Yeah.
[15:07] That's going to be a big push this next
year. Next fall is when
[15:10] we can get as possible. But, within next
year, that's what we're going to work
[15:14] and focus on that.
>> Once we get that, then that can lead
[15:18] into our what we need to replace as far
our water side.
[15:25] » But I think we need to have a plan.
If you didn't even design everything
[15:30] for 2017 next year or whatever.
>> So
[15:39] What do you need to have What do you
What do you need that you don't have
[15:42] to start a plan?
[15:46] » See the chart proposal. How much money
do you think it cost?
[15:51] » Yeah. I mean, we talked about uh
um what the costs are and
[15:57] try to come up with the uh
you know, what what the average You
[16:01] You were going to have a public hearing
or public meetings, right? Have some
[16:05] engaged community on it.
>> At some point, yeah.
[16:08] I think we need some more hard numbers
of like
[16:13] We have all this, but do we need to put
it all together and say this is where we
[16:16] need to do full depth repair. This is
where, you know, some of that
[16:20] stuff to figure out.
You know, can we do it within a year?
[16:25] Or is this a 2-year or 3-year project?
[16:31] » Yeah.
Um
[16:32] as you are I was going to talk about
when he got here, but he didn't quite
[16:35] make it yet.
Um but I just wanted to bring it up to
[16:39] you guys to think about it again and if
you want to dive into it more detail at
[16:43] the next meeting, you can
um
[16:46] make sure Yardo is here and you can
have him address some of that.
[16:50] What do you think we want to do?
>> How do you guys I mean, how do you want
[16:53] to proceed? Do you think you want to
proceed as one large project or do you
[16:56] want to do
more capital improvement where we look
[17:00] at it and say,
you know,
[17:03] we'll get
$4 million here we could work on
[17:08] first, second, third, fourth, and fifth
on the northwest part of town.
[17:16] » I guess I'd have to see the the
to do the whole complete thing.
[17:20] versus, you know, just pairing where we
where we need it the worst, obviously.
[17:27] » Yeah, some of the some of the problems
with doing just neighborhoods is you can
[17:31] really only special assess that
neighborhood and then
[17:34] um
then you get to the next neighborhood
[17:36] then you special assess them so then you
might as well
[17:38] go citywide and special special assess
everybody at the same time.
[17:44] But
um
[17:46] there was stuff all over town, utilities
all over town that need to be replaced
[17:49] and
some were worse than others and and some
[17:52] pavements worse than others.
You already had a plan where
[17:59] you were looking at the the where the
pavements need to be replaced or if
[18:02] utilities need to be replaced and that
automatically made that road
[18:06] a
full street repair and replacement
[18:09] project.
[18:13] » Well, then that's what we should do.
[18:17] » And do you want to plan for the storm
water in there as well?
[18:20] » Everything.
>> Everything?
[18:24] » Okay.
>> So, we'll need a task order for that, I
[18:28] would assume, and Jared come back with
us maybe at the next meeting.
[18:31] » Yep.
>> Okay.
[18:35] » I'll have Kevin come up with the scope
and bring that to the next meeting and
[18:38] then
talk to you guys about
[18:42] make sure that's what you're on on board
with.
[18:44] » Okay.
[18:46] I'll look forward to that.
[18:50] Any other questions for Steve?
[18:56] You're quick tonight.
[18:59] Yeah.
>> Okay, thanks.
[19:01] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[19:05] » Uh
Casey, do you have anything tonight?
[19:08] » Um the only thing extra that we're doing
is working on a grant through MRES for
[19:14] Christmas lights over at Riverwalk Park.
Um, the grant is a $1,000 grant and we
[19:20] are having a PA discuss what they'd like
to see over there as far as lights or
[19:24] Christmas displays. Um,
so yeah, that's what we're working on.
[19:29] » Okay.
JR, anything?
[19:32] » Uh, just that email I sent regarding the
Riverwalk items. I'm not sure if you
[19:35] want to discuss that tonight or what the
plan should be.
[19:38] » Everybody get a chance to read that
email?
[19:41] » I read it quickly.
[19:44] » Um, the gist of it was
that
[19:50] they potentially would pay for half of
the new trees and then
[19:54] um
[19:57] we would be responsible for
[20:18] » What is the skid steer work that is?
>> What's that?
[20:21] » The skid steer work.
>> The skid steer work, yeah, and then they
[20:24] wanted the
um
[20:28] on the back side along the river that
needs to be fixed. There were some
[20:33] tree work that has been damaged so we
might we should be able to look into
[20:37] that.
Um, we did get
[20:40] the majority of the weeds got pulled out
of most of the beds.
[20:44] Um, and I think Jay, you put some
um
[20:49] mulch down in the center one.
Yeah.
[20:56] And then they wanted they said they
would come and fix the irrigation
[21:00] » Mhm.
>> at no cost to us
[21:04] to get that back up and running.
>> I think we need to put a plan together
[21:08] and put it on the agenda for next
meeting and
[21:11] what all them questions were
and how you're going to address them.
[21:17] John?
>> Yeah.
[21:18] What kind of lighting system is going to
be?
[21:22] It didn't last very long last very long
either.
[21:25] » Not that you can talk to him about you
and Jake can get together and talk to
[21:29] Roy and let him know what's going on
here.
[21:33] It's obviously what was put there wasn't
very high quality.
[21:37] If we're going to be responsible for it,
we better do it right.
[21:41] But
get it on the agenda for next time and
[21:46] come with some information and some
numbers. That's my view. I don't know
[21:49] what the rest of you feel.
>> John?
[21:52] Thoughts?
>> Okay.
[21:54] » Thoughts on that?
>> Yeah.
[21:59] Jake,
you're This is through GreenWorks and
[22:02] Lowry, yes?
Yeah.
[22:08] » That doesn't necessarily mean they
agreed and said they're going to do it
[22:11] for free.
And there's no sign of that necessarily
[22:13] have to go with them.
Right?
[22:16] » I can't remember what I wrote.
[22:20] » You got to kind of know what you're
doing, what we're doing, what the plan
[22:23] is.
What we're responsible for, what they're
[22:25] going to be responsible for.
[22:30] Might be a little gray area in that.
>> Well, I thought
[22:34] but what was wrecked by the contractors
was actually fixed, but
[22:40] » There's nothing
>> I don't think anything was
[22:44] » water, nothing fell through anymore.
>> Yeah.
[22:48] No, but I think that was
he was referring to a different spot
[22:52] where
that we had gotten that fixed.
[22:55] So.
[22:58] Or tried to.
[23:01] Jason, any thoughts?
>> I agree with Paul.
[23:04] » Okay.
You work on that?
[23:07] » Yep. I I can reach out to him first to
say that and if he wants to be a fourth
[23:10] person on that one, I can reach out to
his attorney so they can reach out to
[23:15] Laurie to
>> Okay.
[23:17] » refine the quote. I'll say it that way.
>> Okay.
[23:19] » With the details, for sure.
>> Mr. Mayor, I want a clearer picture of
[23:23] what exactly is our responsibility going
forward.
[23:26] » That is something they want to know as
well. It's worth going over a checklist,
[23:29] if you will.
>> Mhm.
[23:31] » Cuz I think
>> first steps for Harvard.
[23:33] » Cuz we had I had asked them several
times in emails and conversation like
[23:36] there was no
nothing was said or a handover that said
[23:41] this is what they want or this was
expectations.
[23:46] And then
>> And what is considered out of normal
[23:49] maintenance? That's what we really got
to determine. What's considered normal
[23:52] maintenance and what isn't.
[23:57] » Uh um and then you had the road
agreement, correct, that everybody got?
[24:01] » I didn't send that one off, actually. I
had that one just after this one and
[24:05] » Okay. I couldn't remember. I thought you
had sent it off, but you sent it to me,
[24:09] not everybody.
>> I was quite busy today. Um I forgot to
[24:12] do a follow-up on that one, so
>> Okay.
[24:14] Um so see that that's the road agreement
with the township so that we know
[24:20] » I'll send that one out after this work,
probably tomorrow morning or tomorrow
[24:23] afternoon.
>> So we'll just look at that at the next
[24:25] meeting.
All right.
[24:28] JD, anything that's not on the agenda?
>> Um Casey, did you discuss anything on
[24:33] that
backhoe?
[24:37] I was just going to see if we could get
an approval. Um
[24:40] if we ordered the backhoe right now, we
wouldn't have to pay for anything or do
[24:44] anything with it.
But at least I can get it on order so it
[24:47] can show up by
December, January. If we wait until the
[24:51] end of the year to order it, we won't
have to pay until next June.
[24:56] So I was just thinking of ordering it
at the beginning of the year. That was
[24:58] our big purchase.
[25:02] » That was in the budget for this year.
For this coming
[25:06] for 2027.
>> Um for 27 we have it in the budget,
[25:10] yeah.
>> Yeah.
[25:11] Cuz we had it in 26 but we bought the
>> We bought the trucks.
[25:14] » the two trucks.
[25:18] So it's just the okay if you guys are
okay purchasing it ahead of time or
[25:22] giving the okay to buy it and we don't
have to buy it until
[25:25] next year.
[25:30] » I think if we can wait two weeks that we
go through the budget finally.
[25:33] » Okay.
>> And make sure everybody the numbers and
[25:35] everything cuz that's
what $1,000 $2,000?
[25:40] » for a backhoe?
>> Sure.
[25:43] We'll get three of them.
>> for the front end.
[25:45] » Add a couple zeros to what you just
said.
[25:47] » Yeah.
>> No.
[25:48] » That sound good to everybody?
>> Okay.
[25:50] » Okay.
>> I just I need to ask you but what's the
[25:53] backhoe for?
>> To replace it, right?
[26:01] » It's just I mean like just as a
bystander in the meeting, you guys I
[26:04] know this
You guys are here joking and laughing
[26:07] about it, I get it. But like
we're talking about real dollars in the
[26:10] sense that you have to pay for this
stuff.
[26:13] And so it's just it's hard to sit here
and
[26:16] participate and not say anything cuz I
know how much backhoe costs.
[26:20] And I know how much everything else
costs that I don't
[26:23] purchase in my company.
And I'm sitting here to try to defend
[26:28] but almost a 3x multiple on my
electrical bills and helping with the
[26:32] backhoe, so.
>> It's used daily. Used it for the garbage
[26:36] department to the electric department to
the water department.
[26:39] » Sure.
>> Dig in all the water mains.
[26:42] Dig in all the electric lines.
>> Sure, I just I understand. You don't
[26:46] have to defend your position. I'm just
saying sorry. Just sitting here and
[26:49] listening to the the common people with
common hearing on conversation. I
[26:52] understand
the purpose, but
[26:56] » I guess we have a sense of humor here.
>> That's totally fine, sir. Yep, I'm fine.
[27:02] » Anything else, Jay?
>> Um
[27:04] not as of right now.
>> Okay. Zach, did you have anything?
[27:07] » Um
No, I just
[27:09] really turned the flashlight into the
next couple weeks. Um and after that,
[27:13] we're going to go
full blown party and give as much time
[27:16] as possible to the town.
And then
[27:20] until freezing up in the spring again
next year. And we need to
[27:24] give as much notice as possible next
year with that group numbers. So
[27:29] that's um
>> Okay.
[27:37] Moving on to commissioner's reports,
I'll start with Jason tonight.
[27:40] » I have nothing.
>> John?
[27:43] » I have nothing.
>> Paul?
[27:46] » Just on the electrical side, we're still
waiting for the bid sheets to come. Uh
[27:51] boy, I don't know if you have seen them.
I've told Brian, but I haven't. And uh
[27:56] on economic development, of course,
we're still building the homes out there
[27:59] in in the Riverwalk.
Um I think they started their fourth
[28:04] fourth one they've started on
out there. So
[28:08] they're also I think there's another one
being built
[28:11] out there, too. Uh so some of the
incentives that the economic development
[28:15] has put out there to help build the
homes is
[28:18] is apparently enticing some people to to
build out there, so
[28:24] so that's that's always good.
Uh economic development, of course, I
[28:27] mentioned a while back about uh
potentially hiring somebody with uh
[28:32] to work for community organizer or type
of thing or or um
[28:37] not directly with economic development
cuz Jim does that, but somebody to help
[28:41] help with that, help with the needs of
economic economic development group has,
[28:45] needs or concerns that they want
addressed. And uh that they can have
[28:49] somebody that can
spend more time to that. So, right now
[28:52] we're we're still working we're still
working on the job description for that
[28:55] and a dollar amount.
And then that would be then once we got
[28:59] that, we would bring that
to
[29:02] the commission, so.
>> Okay.
[29:05] » Paul, would there be somebody that uh
a local business could reach out to to
[29:11] actually target to market somebody?
>> I don't know what the business would be,
[29:15] but
>> Uh
[29:18] come from me probably day one.
Uh
[29:21] we just have a we have a few uh
very specific employees that we're
[29:25] trying to hire right now.
>> Mhm.
[29:27] » And if that that position if it was
mechanically sound enough,
[29:33] » Mhm.
>> um we would definitely appreciate that.
[29:36] » Mhm.
Is it possible I can get a chance?
[29:42] There's nothing concrete yet. Like I
said, we're still we're still getting
[29:45] the job description and
once we have the job description, we'll
[29:48] find out of okay, what kind of range are
we working with here?
[29:52] So.
>> Well, anything would be better than a
[29:54] recruiter.
Which is 20% of the salary at least.
[29:59] They can decide.
[30:03] » They'll mainly deal with the things that
are economic development that are more
[30:07] time consuming at the board per se just
their individuals don't have time to
[30:10] address that they want addressed. So,
that would be that person's job, so.
[30:15] » But those individuals like Jim or like
the first we described have a black book
[30:19] of a bunch of contacts that have a wide
reach.
[30:23] » Mhm.
Yeah.
[30:24] » I'd rather spend the money here than
have somebody out of state.
[30:30] » Right.
[30:33] Thank you.
>> Anything else, Paul?
[30:36] » I don't think so.
[30:38] » Um
first
[30:41] I got a request from Our Savior's
Lutheran Church to close down
[30:46] the street
to the west of the church on this coming
[30:51] Sunday
and from
[30:55] about 7:00 till
3:00 for their block party
[31:00] that they normally have.
[31:04] Just need a motion to approve that.
>> I'll make the motion.
[31:07] » Jason makes the motion. Is there a
second?
[31:11] » I'll second.
>> Seconded by John. Any other discussion?
[31:17] Paul?
>> Yes.
[31:18] » John?
>> Yes.
[31:19] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[31:20] » Any else for me? Motion carries.
>> Did they request from American Legion?
[31:26] » He hasn't yet, but I'll see if I'm sure
he will once a couple probably four.
[31:34] Um there was a USDA loan that came out
[31:40] for electrical.
[31:47] It is the It's a rural development
affordable loan.
[31:53] It is due
[31:58] September 30th.
Um and this is through 2031.
[32:04] So, you apply now and then you're able
to use those funds through 2031.
[32:10] Um
minimum award is a million, the maximum
[32:14] award is 100 million.
Um
[32:18] there is potential for forgivable as
part of that as well. So,
[32:24] my question is is
um
[32:29] shall we apply for it?
And to
[32:32] um Abby Ritz is willing to help us put
the project together.
[32:39] If you guys still choose to want to do
that.
[32:42] I don't see it on phase one, but it
would be more phase two, three, and
[32:45] four.
[32:49] » I'd be curious.
Apparently, somebody's looked at it.
[32:52] I've looked at it and I don't really see
how it's going to fall into ours, but I
[32:55] don't know when you know it all, so I'd
be curious as to what section of that
[32:59] grant is our project is going to fall
under.
[33:02] » It's the transmission.
[33:09] It's not all of it, but it is part of
it, so
[33:14] But like I said, we can't
It's due at the end of the month, so if
[33:19] you want to apply, we need to get going
on it now.
[33:22] It just came out.
[33:30] » I think if there's stuff that would fall
under our scope, it'd be worth looking
[33:34] at.
[33:37] » I would say the same thing as Floyd. I
mean
[33:41] if we don't have something to fall
under, then certainly I'd apply for it.
[33:47] » Correct. It'd be the parts that
um it does fit into.
[33:54] I'm on that page again.
[33:58] Two types of project connection of
eligible hydro audio
[34:01] and
But there was a section in there for
[34:07] merchant power projects with non-utility
with generating power.
[34:15] That was one part of it, but there was
another There's a transmission part,
[34:18] too.
[34:26] So, you have to move forward on on it
[34:31] and see what can fit.
>> I have more than one grant I can move
[34:36] them up move forward with it.
And to make sure that we had
[34:40] and that uh there's brought there's
something in that project that'll
[34:43] qualify. That's just
[34:47] Not that I'm not going to turn away that
but I just don't know if it'll
[34:51] it'll fall in that
I don't know what the cost would be to
[34:55] have her write that grant.
[34:59] » She hadn't gotten back to me. Like I
said, we just got this on
[35:03] Thursday or Friday. So.
And then the loan term is for 35 35
[35:08] years. So.
[35:12] We'll keep working on it but like I said
>> From a
[35:15] private enterprise perspective
the grant writing process with both the
[35:20] state and federal has
it's been
[35:24] a little arduous. They've been a lot a
lot more flexible. But there's money to
[35:29] be had.
You've already paid your taxes. Go out
[35:32] and
chase them.
[35:34] I don't know what the cost for somebody
in your guys's pool to write a grant but
[35:39] might be a little bit more paperwork but
the money's there.
[35:42] » Mhm.
>> There's money to be found. Just take
[35:44] them. It's uh
a lot more hoops but uh
[35:50] they haven't been turned down a whole
lot either.
[35:53] » I was wrong. It's October 9th is the due
date. So.
[35:58] » First thing I'll say is no problem.
You've even done them before.
[36:05] » So we do have two meetings in before.
So.
[36:08] If we do it, it'll be a tight turnaround
for then the next meeting to get it by
[36:12] the 9th but I'll work with Abby on it.
Casey and I can work on it.
[36:19] Um and then
we were going to have as part of our
[36:23] tree grant, we're going to have the city
crew but we have blackman employees
[36:28] right now.
So, I'm just requesting to get help with
[36:31] those 100 trees to get them taken out.
There is money in the beautification
[36:35] budget to fulfill that so that we can
get the rest of the grant.
[36:40] The 25,000.
[36:45] I haven't looked into anything yet cuz I
didn't want to get the okay, but it is a
[36:49] requirement to get out 50 trees for the
100 that were planted. So,
[36:54] like I said, it was planned that we're
going to use
[36:57] public works to help get them out and
then do the stumps later.
[37:06] If you guys are okay with that.
[37:16] » What do we have in the beautification?
[37:20] » At the beginning of the year, we had
budgeted 25 grand for facade /
[37:25] beautification.
Um
[37:28] » And I think we've taken out one demo
grant.
[37:31] » Mhm.
And then you'll have a facade grant.
[37:36] I think that was on this last set of
bills.
[37:39] » Yep.
>> Let me I'll double-check, but
[37:42] my memory is saying that you've got
quite a bit left. Um probably 20 grand
[37:46] based on a demo grant and a facade
grant. So, let me look.
[37:49] » And I'm guessing we can probably get
them taken out for about 10 if we can
[37:53] get the right company based on what
we've done in the past. So,
[37:58] » They just removed a bunch of trees
around the courthouse. I don't know if
[38:01] people know who those are
or not, but
[38:04] might be something they're looking at.
>> Possibly.
[38:08] As long as they were elm trees. Ash
trees. Or ash trees, not elm trees. Ash
[38:12] trees. As long as they're ash trees.
>> They were ash trees.
[38:15] » Talk to Kyle. He'd be the one to know.
>> Okay.
[38:19] » Does it matter how they get them out?
[38:23] » It has to be on public property, so it
can't be in your backyard.
[38:27] » They appreciate the community
involvement.
[38:29] » But no.
>> If if if
[38:31] we need help, like we have a
We have a couple of people within our
[38:35] organization that are pretty handy with
a chainsaw and a
[38:38] want to Steve know if you have some
camera equipment.
[38:43] » Um it doesn't matter how they come down
um because it's not
[38:49] when we wrote the grant, it's not
Previously, we've had to use certain
[38:52] companies because it's part of the
grant. This one is not part of the
[38:55] grant. Our agreement was is that we for
every tree that we planted
[39:00] we would
for every two trees that we planted, we
[39:02] take out one.
>> So, we have some
[39:05] I obviously have some capable people
with chainsaws. So, we have some deep
[39:08] subsoilers that would take the roots out
20 ft out from the base.
[39:13] Um something we'd be willing to put We
just We can talk about that if you can
[39:17] do a little community exchange here.
>> Yeah.
[39:22] » As long as Steve knows.
>> Yes.
[39:25] But as long as you guys if we can't get
that, I just need the okay so we can get
[39:28] that done this fall cuz when is it?
November 1st when it has to be done?
[39:32] » Yeah.
And there is 20 grand left in there. So,
[39:36] you've spent
2,000 on a demo grant. You You just
[39:40] spent 2,000 for
the facade for the banner building.
[39:45] And then uh riverwalk bed cleaning. So,
you've spent 4,900 bucks. And we have a
[39:50] $25,000
budget on that line.
[39:59] » I just need a motion if you guys are
okay with that.
[40:09] Thoughts, Paul?
[40:17] » Don't remove them and then we don't get
that funding. we don't get the 25,000.
[40:25] » I guess I'd like to know what it costs
to get the tomato appearance and
[40:28] estimate on it.
[40:31] Do we know if it's
10 or if it's 15 or if it's 20?
[40:36] Just for sure, just to make sure.
[40:44] » John.
[40:53] » I don't know this for
Do we know if
[40:56] all trees have been removed yet?
>> Mhm.
[40:59] » They're talking 15.
After noon.
[41:02] » 50 have to be removed yet.
[41:09] And the only requirement is that they're
ash, and so
[41:12] » And on public boulevard
>> On boulevard property.
[41:15] » Boulevard property.
>> Public property.
[41:19] » Then is there a deadline when we have to
have it removed by?
[41:22] » No, November 1st.
[41:27] » If you got somebody who can give us a
cost by next meeting
[41:31] I'd be happy to know when that would be.
Will you move forward with
[41:35] And then
>> Okay.
[41:36] » Get something.
>> Jason.
[41:40] Does that sound okay?
>> Yep.
[41:42] » Okay, I will get
cost put together.
[41:47] All right. Would you guys like to go
down to old business first or go through
[41:50] new business?
[41:53] » Maybe go to
new.
[41:56] » Okay.
Um so
[42:00] as the motion states
from previous
[42:04] meetings, um we had held a stay until
this commission meeting
[42:09] that were implementation of the
um
[42:14] demand charge.
Cuz at the the original motion back in
[42:20] December
[42:23] » Back in
Sir, when you approved the rate sheet?
[42:26] » When we approved the rate sheet.
That would have been December. We
[42:30] approved the rate sheet in December,
which had those demand charges on it.
[42:35] And so we held it off for
until
[42:39] the Tyler Tech was able to come in.
Then we held it off for 2 months, and
[42:44] now and we held it off again for 2 weeks
and an additional week after last week.
[42:50] Or till this is commission meeting, so.
[42:55] Thoughts on that?
[42:59] Paul?
>> I think I think we move ahead with it.
[43:06] That would be my recommendation.
>> Just to clear to you this is just for
[43:11] 2026
[43:14] rates.
>> Correct. 2026 rates.
[43:18] My
uh position on it would be to keep the
[43:21] 2026 rates in for at least a year before
we go up at any point.
[43:27] And it all depends on what
how far we are along in the project as
[43:32] well.
So
[43:35] potentially you wouldn't see an increase
until next year. I would even say till
[43:39] the 20, you know,
this
[43:44] the 250 and 350. Is that what it is?
>> For the charges?
[43:49] » Demand charge.
>> Demand charges would have been done in
[43:52] August. Um the lower winter rates would
start.
[43:55] » So today or now?
>> Yeah.
[43:58] » Um so I would say go with those rates
until
[44:02] 2028 would be my thought.
[44:06] That's totally up the commission.
[44:11] » And then how would that play if we got
that
[44:14] grant?
>> If we get the grant, I mean then you
[44:18] could adjust and say we're not having to
spend as much.
[44:23] So you can say, well, we don't need to
implement the rates. The rate sheet is
[44:27] are the rates that
MRR SC has was just suggestions
[44:32] if we had to do the full amount
of how we would pay for it over time.
[44:38] We're also, you know,
[44:43] starting behind from what
what thought was I think we were
[44:46] standing
land already or already be in the ground
[44:49] already, so
we're not behind by any means.
[45:00] Does that make sense?
[45:09] So yeah, I would say that sorry, it was
310 and 260. You know, keep that all the
[45:13] way up to to the beginning of 2028 and
then look at the 2027 rates for 2028.
[45:20] At that point in time.
>> I think Kyle wanted to say something if
[45:24] that's okay.
>> Do you have time for that?
[45:26] » Yeah.
[45:29] » So I had sent
an email out to the commissioner's
[45:32] emails I had.
One of the questions I did have was a
[45:36] couple of questions that I wanted some
answers to is and one of them was uh
[45:41] what does what does Daggett and
Hillsborough cost to be a customer from
[45:45] the city?
And that that was actually a question
[45:49] that was posed to me from yourself Levi
from from the last meeting was what are
[45:54] you what are you what can you afford and
what are you willing to spend
[45:58] kind of deal from the last meeting. And
to really unpack that, I'd like to know
[46:03] what what it cost us or cost you
to provide power to Daggett Glen as a
[46:11] its own sole entity.
And really what I'd like to do from that
[46:14] is
from from your verbage is let's let's
[46:18] find a a happy medium and middle ground
from what we cost as a consumer. Totally
[46:23] want to pay our fair share.
I want to know what that fair share is
[46:27] and what it costs to be a be a customer
of yours.
[46:31] And then we want to spend X amount over
that cuz we like nice things too and we
[46:36] want to we want to be good stewards of
the power grid, be good stewards of the
[46:39] community.
Uh I just don't want to
[46:42] I don't want to be in a position where
there's a gun to my head and
[46:46] here's your bill kind of deal is where
it's the same story. I'm on repeat, I
[46:50] understand that. But it's uh if we can
understand what it cost the city to
[46:55] provide us what we need and then we want
to pay over over and above that cuz we
[47:02] like nice things too and we know
everything takes money to uh
[47:07] to uh make the world go round.
So I'd ask you again if if we could
[47:12] postpone, delay until we have some of
those questions answered.
[47:16] Uh we'd really like to be able to be
part of the community, be really good
[47:18] stewards here and we we want to pay more
than what it cost the city to provide us
[47:24] electrical.
Truly do
[47:26] and uh we know that costs money. We know
there's going to be a demand charge, we
[47:30] know there's going to be some sort of a
an influx here.
[47:34] And uh I I come to that conclusion based
off our last conversation at the last
[47:39] commissioner meeting of
the question to me when I was at the
[47:42] podium of what can Daggett Glen afford.
I probably wasn't prepared for that
[47:46] question. I was kind of on the spot and
uh
[47:50] I can acknowledge that and that's that's
kind of my downfall. We we budget 2 and
[47:54] 1/2 to 3 and 1/2% increase across the
board for all of our budgets based on
[47:59] the inflation. And when we start to see
6, 7, 11, 12, 26, whatever it is,
[48:05] escalating up there, that's where it
puts a little
[48:09] damper in what I've had budgeted for 5
years cuz every year I'm I've had I've
[48:14] been asked to
to put together a 5-year plan.
[48:18] So, again, I ain't going to sit here in
front of you guys to ask you
[48:22] let's let's postpone it one more time
and I'd like to ask some of our
[48:25] questions answered of what does it cost
for us to be a customer of yours?
[48:29] And let's let's gather around the round
table and
[48:33] and understand what what both sides have
to have to offer here. I know you guys
[48:39] are in the driver's seat and
[48:43] just cuz you can raise the rate doesn't
mean you should. Like, Everett and I are
[48:47] here because it was affordable to be
here. That's why we chose to be here.
[48:52] And uh
yeah, I guess I'll leave it at that and
[48:56] ask for
ask for everybody to postpone it till we
[48:59] get some
a few more answers or a few more answers
[49:02] to questions here and uh yeah.
Do you have any questions for me or
[49:08] » I can tell you that's what it costs us
to to provide power to you.
[49:13] That's why we did the rate study.
And the reason that we're doing the
[49:19] upgrade
[49:22] and I think the commission understands
it now.
[49:25] It It's in our
we are losing 40% of our electricity
[49:30] because of the system we have. So, we
have to.
[49:34] We will be more efficient
when this comes out.
[49:40] So, it's not
if we keep going the way we're going,
[49:45] like we keep staying it off and pushing
it off,
[49:49] it's end up costing more and more.
>> This doesn't tell me what it what it
[49:54] cost to provide electricity just to
Dagleman.
[49:58] That's for a large group of over 50 kW
users.
[50:03] And if I'm
3 to 11 kW over, I'm lumped into the
[50:09] same category as everybody else.
That's tough spot to be in and I think
[50:13] it's a different uh
it's a different scale.
[50:17] So, I'm I I guess I'd ask a two-part
question.
[50:20] Is there a way to separate that? Is
there a way to acknowledge what it truly
[50:25] cost?
I don't know what it When you say we're
[50:28] inefficient today, I don't know I don't
understand that, I guess. I don't have
[50:31] those answers.
>> It means for every megawatt that we buy,
[50:36] we're losing 40%. Correct, Paul?
>> I don't think it's that high, but I
[50:40] can't say for sure. I don't have it off
the top of my head. I don't think it's
[50:43] that high.
>> We're losing a lot.
[50:44] » We're losing a lot. We should be there.
>> And then there's a little bit of
[50:47] indecisiveness amongst the commissioners
on what it truly is. Again, I'd ask,
[50:51] let's let's know what those numbers are
when we make a decision.
[50:55] I mean we
We're we're talking We're talking
[50:58] $100,000 more for me or for more for
Dagleman, and average probably quadruple
[51:04] that, and he's a major consumer.
Uh
[51:08] I think we need to have a a consensus of
what the the dollars and cents are here
[51:12] because this is
This is a huge amount of money that
[51:16] we're we're talking about here.
>> So, right now, Kyle, we're losing money
[51:19] on here.
>> Could be, I don't know that. I I haven't
[51:22] had three commissioners say the same
answer twice.
[51:25] » Right now, we're losing money.
[51:28] Because we've held off the rate this
long.
[51:32] » Could be.
[51:35] » It's not a could be, it is.
We are spending more for our electricity
[51:39] than we're taking in right now.
>> Let's Let's sit down and look at some
[51:42] options. That's all I'm asking, and then
let's get a consensus of what we're
[51:46] actually costing.
We're sitting here on public floor right
[51:50] now and we don't we don't have the two
people
[51:53] two people talking right now that have
the same answer.
[51:56] » But it's not us
that are experts in this. That's what we
[52:00] hired Missouri River to
to do for us.
[52:04] » Yep.
>> And that's what they're telling us it's
[52:05] costing us.
>> That's what they're charging you, yes.
[52:10] » No, that's what they're telling us it's
costing us to
[52:15] make
the electrical
[52:19] system
with an upgrade
[52:22] work
for the next 30, 40, 50, 60 years.
[52:28] » I guess I guess I'll hop in here.
Um, do you want to take the podium?
[52:32] » Sure. Yep.
[52:38] » Um, thank you for your time today. Thank
you for voting at the polls today. It's
[52:41] beautiful.
Um, sorry about the dig on that though.
[52:44] Um,
to Kyle's point, like it it is quite a
[52:47] bit of
money, obviously. Um,
[52:51] if we got a concession through 2028 and
we reevaluated 2027 and Anker can help
[52:57] with the USDA loan progress and working
with Abby, too. Um,
[53:01] we're more than willing to help try to
get some additional funding or grants or
[53:04] forgivable loans or whatever we can do
to help as well. Um, to Kyle's point,
[53:09] we are very deeply rooted in Hillsboro.
We want to see this city do well. Um,
[53:16] you know, we're we're here we're here
together. Um, if I got a concession
[53:19] through 28 without a rate adjustment, I
would be okay with that because it's and
[53:25] I it's about 20,000 bucks. I know what I
need to pay and re-budget at this time
[53:30] of year and I'm doing my RFPs for next
coming 12 months. Like I'm okay with
[53:34] that. I can't I can't keep kicking this
down the road here. You're regretting it
[53:38] like I know the city needs the money
because I look around. We've got E2SH
[53:42] here saying
I don't know how many millions of
[53:44] dollars to go back through Hillsborough.
I guess a concession I would ask
[53:50] Yes, I will not I'll pay more for my
power today, but when we look at doing
[53:55] residential and
residential improvements in the coming
[53:58] 12, 24, 36 months, how does Anchor
Ingredients not pick up the special
[54:03] funds and fees and taxes
to redo the sewer pipes? We're not a big
[54:08] water user at all. We use less than any
residential household.
[54:12] Uh we're not a big garbage user, we
don't pay a whole pile of trash. Um we
[54:17] run some trucks through through town.
Our truck traffic will be going down
[54:21] inherently in the next 12 24 months. So
it's like yes, I'm I'm on board. Like if
[54:25] we want to do this
Levi, I would love to lock in a rate
[54:31] 12 months, 18 months review for the
certain 2020. That'd be awesome.
[54:35] Hopefully in the meantime anything can
help with the USDA grants. I'll
[54:39] I'll do whatever it takes to help in
this situation.
[54:42] My concession would be when the city has
to do a $5 million residential water and
[54:49] sewer
improvement pave the city streets, redo
[54:54] whatever it may be in the housing part
of town, I don't want that as an
[54:58] industrial user.
I don't want to
[55:01] be added specials, more taxes, more
property taxes. I'll pay more for power.
[55:06] I'm a huge user. I'll be the first to
admit it. I will pay my fair share of
[55:09] the air and help improve the
infrastructure. I don't think I should
[55:13] have to redo
city streets, sidewalks
[55:17] pipes, water, sewage. I don't think
that's applicable to me. For the power
[55:21] upgrade, 100% I'm on board. Lock in a
rate, that'd be great.
[55:26] When it comes to the next 5 years, the
next 5 million, 10 million to get the
[55:30] city where it needs to be, I don't want
to keep going through this process as
[55:33] the biggest person in Hillsborough.
Yes, I pay the most taxes, employ the
[55:38] most people, I use most energy. I don't
use the most water. Half of my spaces
[55:43] don't even have a bathroom. They got
porta-potties that we're we're
[55:46] utilizing. I don't want to be looked at
the same. So, if that would be my ask to
[55:50] put that on paper for future goals and
residential city improvements.
[55:57] That's all I have. So, that's my stance.
Like we got to be able to lock in a
[56:01] price and that'd be great. I mean, I
would just I need to know. I I
[56:05] I'm in budgeting. I'm in budgeting. I'm
in sales. We're locking into our next 12
[56:09] months of sales. Like,
this can't keep going forward cuz
[56:13] I have no idea where we're going to end
up 12 months from now. So,
[56:16] » Cuz your other option, if we don't do a
demand, we'd have to go to residential
[56:21] rates and you're at 10 and 1/2.
>> On residential?
[56:25] » To 9 and 1/2.
I think there's two different rates. I
[56:29] can't remember off top of my head.
>> Um let me find my rate slides.
[56:34] Um
hold on.
[56:38] So far, it's still large commercial per
this rate study was to keep the same
[56:43] energy charge. Um
uh 8 and 1/2 is what the energy charge
[56:48] is for a large commercial.
Um residential
[56:52] is
uh
[56:56] June through August, it's
>> That's dual heat.
[56:58] » Oh, sorry.
Here we
[57:00] » Oh, no, they're right there.
>> Yeah, yep. Dual heat's down below. Yep,
[57:03] it's just under 10 and 1/2 cents. Um
June through August, September through
[57:08] May, it's 9.99.
Um their rate increases started at the
[57:13] beginning of the year.
>> I mean, if you wanted to share with me
[57:16] the math, I could have with your
resident math tomorrow morning and get
[57:19] your feedback.
>> The math on that, it's in at the long
[57:22] run, it'll cost you more.
Is what what we've done.
[57:26] » Yeah, I just
I think Paul did the math when we were
[57:30] sitting in the other room in the
session.
[57:32] » At just the two dollar two three
dollars.
[57:36] » Yeah, I would I mean like I said I'm
okay with
[57:40] the 2026 demand charge if we can lock
that in until the start of 2028 and go
[57:47] and review that and like I said angle
whatever we can to help the city with
[57:51] the USDA grant and then if we work with
Abby we've got some great people that
[57:55] work at Anchor I've done a lot of stuff
myself too so we will help contribute to
[57:59] that.
I just I don't I just hope my son
[58:03] probably won't be here tonight and
I don't want to I'm not home a lot so I
[58:07] don't want to keep missing things to be
here so
[58:12] Either way I would like to say before
there's a bunch of residential
[58:15] improvements that need to be had. I
don't want to be the same special the
[58:19] same tax
property tax the same I don't want to be
[58:23] in that same group of people because I'm
not a water user I'm not a sewer user
[58:28] like I don't want
to have like everyone gets 10% I don't
[58:33] want 10% my 10%
20% bigger than a residential so
[58:38] that would be my ask.
>> If you've been wrong JR though I don't
[58:42] think we can do that can we?
We can't change the special
[58:46] percentage
on a
[58:49] see a lot by lot.
>> If an industrial zone versus residential
[58:53] versus
>> That's based on each project. That's
[58:56] different questions completely to this
cuz it's based off of it's it's meant
[59:03] how much you use
how much does it benefit your property.
[59:07] Completely different hurdles than the
electric rates.
[59:09] » Yep.
So if it was we just did the total east
[59:14] side of town
we couldn't
[59:17] We couldn't special We couldn't special
this side.
[59:19] » He would have to have some improvements
at his facility in order to get special
[59:23] credit.
>> Correct.
[59:27] » Either way I just I just that the thing
I'm great with. I totally support it. I
[59:30] know
I understand
[59:33] our system's outdated. I've lived with
it for
[59:36] 9 years. I I get it. I mean, probably
done this. Me and Jamie used to do it
[59:40] weekly. We'd take the whole west side
down.
[59:43] Um
I support it. I know it's a need. I know
[59:46] there's growth development that money's
going to go
[59:49] to a good place.
I don't want to be here every year,
[59:51] every 3 years, every 5 years when the
city has to keep doing more and more
[59:55] to maintain and house more people and
accommodate more people. Like I don't
[59:58] want to keep coming back here being
asked to pay more taxes, more
[1:00:02] water. Like I just
Yeah.
[1:00:05] That's all I got.
[1:00:08] » Well, I'd I'd be very appreciative if
you guys are able to help with any
[1:00:13] I'm trying to get money for that cuz the
more money we can get, the lower we can
[1:00:16] keep it.
>> I just need four or five days' scope and
[1:00:20] ability of the electrical pro- project
and a link to the USDA grant.
[1:00:25] » Abby has all that.
>> Yeah. Just so you have to put it in
[1:00:27] contact with Abby and then I can get
this get to work on it this week, you
[1:00:31] know.
[1:00:39] » Okay. Anything else?
>> All of us year till
[1:00:43] 20 till the
>> in the next year, so
[1:00:48] just taking this time to say we're going
to hold it till next year and we'll see.
[1:00:54] I don't know what that would be in your
rates. Updates this winter.
[1:00:58] » The only rates that I would see that we
would need to do is move the residential
[1:01:03] over in 2027.
>> And small commercial.
[1:01:06] » And small commercial.
>> Mhm.
[1:01:12] » Cuz we're seeing rate increases on WAPA
and Missouri River this year as well.
[1:01:20] So, you could make that motion that we
hold
[1:01:24] the 50 kW customers
at
[1:01:27] the 2026 rate starting today until
January 1 of 2028.
[1:01:34] » My question to you though, since you're
asking us to hold it,
[1:01:39] you're asking us to hold off on
the demand charges.
[1:01:45] » No, the demand charge
>> No, the demand charge is the demand.
[1:01:47] » It's the demand charge. It's the demand
charge.
[1:01:49] » The 2026 demand charges.
>> Yeah. All right. But you're asking us to
[1:01:53] hold off on You're asking us to hold off
on doing the demand charges right now
[1:01:59] that they're going to be starting this
next month.
[1:02:01] » Correct.
>> Correct.
[1:02:03] » Yep.
>> But if we're if we make this motion
[1:02:07] to hold that charge all the way through
the end of 2027,
[1:02:12] is that
>> And then are you going to come back and
[1:02:15] do this again?
>> I mean,
[1:02:18] from from our seat at the table,
>> we'd be happy with either decision.
[1:02:22] » I think a cohesive
uh train of thought from our seat at the
[1:02:27] table is to know what we are as
a customer and what it costs you.
[1:02:33] And as Levi asked the last meeting, what
are we willing to pay?
[1:02:40] I don't know if I'm willing to pay more
or less than what that charge is for
[1:02:44] 2028.
I'm okay with conceding that today and
[1:02:48] locking the current rate in through
2028.
[1:02:51] Um
like I said before when I was at the
[1:02:54] podium, uh
we we'd like to definitely pay what we
[1:02:58] cost the city as a consumer.
And we'd like to pay more than that cuz
[1:03:02] we like nice things.
And have a a and a
[1:03:07] defined 5-year schedule on what that
looks like.
[1:03:11] Just so I don't have to come back here
again and don't
[1:03:15] I don't want to
have to argue get into an emotional
[1:03:19] event here
a lot more often than I have to. So,
[1:03:22] that's that's where I'm looking for a
little bit more of a long-term play.
[1:03:25] This is a as ever described is a if it's
the 2028, I would concede to that. And
[1:03:31] yeah, I I don't know if we're leaving
money on the table or off the table
[1:03:34] depending on which seat we're sitting in
cuz we haven't been able to
[1:03:38] uh
off the table a little bit understand
[1:03:42] what they might cost you specifically.
[1:03:47] How much more are we willing to spend?
>> I appreciate that. And
[1:03:51] we did we did discuss that question.
>> I'm sorry.
[1:03:54] » I said in that meeting in that meeting
we did discuss that question of how much
[1:03:58] does it cost to supply you specifically.
Um
[1:04:03] and
per Roy's expertise and I would say MRS
[1:04:07] is going to say the same thing.
I don't know that that's the number that
[1:04:10] could be
um
[1:04:13] properly calculated accurately because
how much does it cost to supply this
[1:04:18] station?
>> When you when you go pay them to travel
[1:04:21] back home.
>> And I'm willing to pay for that. So, I
[1:04:25] have the peace of mind so I can sleep at
night knowing that I paid my fair my
[1:04:29] fair share plus put some back in the
kitty so we can have nice stuff.
[1:04:33] » So, we got my opinion is 14-month runway
if we lock in through 2028. We try to
[1:04:37] chase after the USDA dollars and we work
with Missouri River in the meantime. I'd
[1:04:41] be just try to try to figure out what
Missouri River they
[1:04:46] they give they funnel information to you
and then you funnel it to us and then we
[1:04:49] try to work it backwards. It'd be nice
just to meet meet them. They have to
[1:04:52] have some economic development planning
people as well to work with. So,
[1:04:57] in the meantime I it would be it would
give us 12 months to work through a lot
[1:05:00] of questions, I think.
And yeah, like I said like
[1:05:04] at one point like I'm a large energy
user. I have a lot of people that live
[1:05:07] in Hillsboro that live around Hillsboro.
I'm here to help Hillsboro. So, I I get
[1:05:13] it. Like I I get that the need. I don't
want to keep kicking this down road cuz
[1:05:17] the money is going to go towards a good
use next month, the extra $1,000 I paid.
[1:05:22] So, it's
that's a great compromise to to move
[1:05:25] move forward with talking about it. So.
>> And we're not like just spending that
[1:05:30] money. It's meant to save to pay off the
bonds and the loans that I mean that's
[1:05:35] ultimately what we're doing is preparing
for this. So, if we can get
[1:05:40] on this first phase
the around 5 million and we can pull in
[1:05:44] 4.2 million and
on the US energy grant, then
[1:05:50] we can stay back that even farther, but
until we can see those funds.
[1:05:56] We don't know.
>> Yes, the other
[1:06:00] Carl and I talked about this offline.
But the new water treatment plant that
[1:06:04] is coming online that this heavy
industrial electrical upgrade is going
[1:06:08] to help support phase one.
I mean, last I heard the dairy was on
[1:06:13] pause.
I'm assuming that their usage is
[1:06:19] booked into the calculations of paying
off.
[1:06:22] » Correct.
>> Okay.
[1:06:23] » That's already booked in and that was
calculated into this.
[1:06:27] » Right.
And the other thing like you know it's a
[1:06:30] it's a state funded federally funded
project.
[1:06:33] They came to
Hillsboro or the water treatment plant
[1:06:37] or Trail County water, whoever came to
Hillsboro and said, "Hey, we need more
[1:06:40] water. We need more power from you."
You guys said, "Hey, we don't have the
[1:06:45] power. We have to spend
5 million for phase one to get you the
[1:06:50] power."
Was there ever any talk like
[1:06:52] conversation or talk
to the dairy or to their state or
[1:06:56] federal funding like
maybe you guys should pony up an extra
[1:06:59] million dollars to go in on this
phase one that is
[1:07:05] 80% supporting the water treatment that
supports the new dairy farm
[1:07:09] versus just just raise it across the
board for everyone.
[1:07:12] » Have we asked for money? Yes.
Have we gotten money? Not yet.
[1:07:17] Okay.
I mean, we pushed for that and basically
[1:07:20] we went to the industrial commission and
said, "This is why we need money for
[1:07:24] phase one."
>> Yep.
[1:07:26] » Um
we've
[1:07:29] asked others, you know, we're
East Central came to us and wanted
[1:07:33] cheaper power. We said, "No, we can't
We're not going to give you cheaper
[1:07:37] power compared to everybody else is
going to pay.
[1:07:39] » Yep.
>> You're going to pay the same as
[1:07:40] everybody else.
We're not here to
[1:07:44] make it benefit any We're not a
for-profit business.
[1:07:47] » Yep.
Uh okay. No, I was just curious. I know
[1:07:51] that they're going to be a mega user
when the new industrial
[1:07:56] phase one comes online. So, I always
It's just been rolling around in my
[1:07:59] head.
>> No, we've
[1:08:02] We've been looking everywhere we can.
>> Okay.
[1:08:06] Either way, like I said, um
if I can get you in contact with that,
[1:08:08] yeah, it will help power that thing.
Um and thank you so much for your
[1:08:12] patience. This has been drug out much
longer than it needed to be. So, thank
[1:08:16] you.
[1:08:18] You got anything else for me?
>> Thank you, guys.
[1:08:21] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[1:08:24] Anybody else?
[1:08:27] » Zack Killian.
[1:08:32] I'll make the motion to go with the the
service rates until 2028.
[1:08:37] » Is there a second?
[1:08:44] » You want to clarify that?
Large commercial.
[1:08:47] » Large commercial.
[1:08:50] » And implement the 2026 demand charge
rate.
[1:08:53] » The 2026 demand charge.
>> Today or this month and then
[1:08:57] that would stay until January 1 of
or December 31st of 2027.
[1:09:03] » Correct.
[1:09:06] » Do I have a second?
>> I'll second it.
[1:09:10] » Seconded by John, moved by Jason. Any
other discussion?
[1:09:13] » I don't I don't I think we should just
go a year and come back cuz if we're
[1:09:17] going to go one year cuz we're going to
be doing budgeting
[1:09:20] and we don't know what we're going to
end up with
[1:09:23] to service this debt.
And you know, that would give us some
[1:09:29] time to know when we're doing our
budgeting, kind of where we're at.
[1:09:33] » I think it would, Paul, because we're
saying
[1:09:37] we're locking this in for the rest of
this year.
[1:09:40] I'm locking them in for next year.
And then when we come to budgeting next
[1:09:44] year, that's when we're going to start
discussing
[1:09:47] the 2028.
>> Yeah, but don't we do budget talks in
[1:09:50] September?
>> That doesn't mean that we can't do it,
[1:09:52] but generally we don't put our rate
increase in until the first of the year.
[1:09:59] » Typically, that's what you guys do.
[1:10:06] » So, we're just basically saying next
we're putting this in now
[1:10:10] and we'll keep it at this rate until
next year.
[1:10:13] » I'm concerned that we're going to be way
under budget next year, Paul.
[1:10:16] » Yep.
>> I mean, that's just that But you don't
[1:10:20] But obviously we have a lot of variables
too. We don't know what we're going to
[1:10:22] get for grants and things like that.
So, I'd rather
[1:10:25] » I don't think we'll be under budget cuz
we're not going to start
[1:10:31] When's the first payment?
>> First payment's in May.
[1:10:34] » In May. So, I mean, we're going to we'll
start saving for that first payment.
[1:10:37] » But you also realize we're not going to
get much off of this demand charge
[1:10:41] increase.
>> No.
[1:10:42] » It's not going to It's not going to
amount to much.
[1:10:44] » What we need to start doing is start
saving. We need to get back where we're
[1:10:48] in the black
every month and then start saving every
[1:10:52] month.
budgeting
[1:10:54] » And the variable that wasn't talked
about is obviously the demand.
[1:10:59] And that's what we have a problem with.
That's where our problem is, demand.
[1:11:04] And you pay a lot for demand. And that's
what's that's what's losing us money.
[1:11:09] And if you don't push this demand charge
hard,
[1:11:12] where's their where's their incentive
to have work on demand?
[1:11:18] Because we're the whole town is paying
and the city's losing money because of
[1:11:22] demand charges, correct?
>> In the past, demand charges from large
[1:11:27] consumers have been calculated into all
rates, residential and small commercial
[1:11:32] included.
>> yeah, I know that. But but there are big
[1:11:35] all our
our big users obviously are the ones
[1:11:38] that contribute most of the demand.
>> Majority, yeah. Yeah.
[1:11:42] » So.
>> When when I say we're losing money we're
[1:11:44] losing money in the wint- in the summer
months when
[1:11:47] the demand goes up and our demand charge
is higher.
[1:11:51] » And that's my big That's That's the
purpose That's the To me, that's the
[1:11:55] bigger purpose of demand charges
is to get demand under control.
[1:12:01] That's the purpose of demand charges.
Not so Yes, you you need it to obviously
[1:12:07] you know, help with this project, but
it's more so to me is is is demand is
[1:12:11] demand charges that we pay through
Missouri River
[1:12:14] are pretty high.
So.
[1:12:17] » And it's not saying, Paul, in 2028 we
could go to the 2028 rates if that's
[1:12:21] where we need to be.
>> Yeah, I understand that.
[1:12:23] » I think there's still
something there to hold them to wanting
[1:12:26] to get better.
>> Right.
[1:12:30] » Like it's I would look at it as
you know, they wanted to know in the
[1:12:34] next 5 years to
Okay, next year we can say to them
[1:12:39] here's what it's looking like, we lost
money this year
[1:12:43] because we went with what you suggested
and what you're asking us to do.
[1:12:48] You know, and
you know, I keep saying this because
[1:12:51] they should be involved in end, too, and
it sounds like they want to be.
[1:12:55] But, you know, they
on their end, they they need to come in
[1:13:00] when you're trying to lay out that
5-year plan for them. Again, this is
[1:13:05] I don't know that we want to go 5 years,
say in 2027, because
[1:13:10] we don't know what's going to happen in
3 years.
[1:13:13] » You know, what can happen in a year?
>> But, we can give them something like,
[1:13:17] this is our proposal.
But, these are not locked in concrete.
[1:13:22] » But, I also think they need to know and
be aware when they're budgeting, they
[1:13:26] need to be aware that they need to
budget for the 2028
[1:13:30] potential demand charges. They need to
budget for that.
[1:13:33] » I think what we need to do is when we
come around to this time next year,
[1:13:38] we need to send out letters saying,
this is what the new rates are going to
[1:13:42] be in 2028
for everybody.
[1:13:45] » I'd even say do that in June, kind of
similar to when we put that letter out.
[1:13:50] And they're probably going to get the
same.
[1:13:51] » Right.
>> Come on.
[1:13:53] » Whenever we know we're into the budget
season, we know what we need to do is
[1:13:58] is when we would need to put out, these
are the new rates.
[1:14:06] If this would have been in February, I
wouldn't have said give them
[1:14:10] till 2028. But, at this point, we
haven't spent any money on our
[1:14:15] I mean, besides design facings, we
haven't
[1:14:19] bought anything yet for the project.
[1:14:25] » But, that's why two things is that the
the the reason for the demand and that
[1:14:30] they
they should be they should be made aware
[1:14:33] that
when they're budgeting,
[1:14:36] that it may or may not go up. We don't
know. So, don't don't come out in here
[1:14:40] and say, well, I thought we were I
thought you were in charge of saying,
[1:14:42] well, no, we don't know that until we
know what we got for grants.
[1:14:46] So, as long as it's made clear to them
that
[1:14:49] a plan for the 2028
budget, you know, at the very minimum of
[1:14:55] 2027.
And then so they're aware of that, so
[1:14:59] they don't come in
and say we didn't you guys didn't even
[1:15:02] tell us that that was potential. And I
just I'm not going to say it's going to
[1:15:05] happen, but I want them to be aware that
it could happen
[1:15:09] if we come in
short.
[1:15:12] » I would go on record saying that I would
definitely be looking at that.
[1:15:16] 20 28 charges that they probably need to
look at.
[1:15:21] Like very likely.
>> And what were those again?
[1:15:24] Eight 78 over the 2020 charges?
>> 995 and 845.
[1:15:29] » Mhm.
>> And $41 on the
[1:15:34] » There you go.
[1:15:36] » So
[1:15:39] that's what we're going to notice that.
That's why they got to plan for that.
[1:15:42] So
and by saying that now, they they know
[1:15:45] that, hey, we got to potentially plan
for this
[1:15:49] coming up in 2028. Don't
I don't want them to come in and say,
[1:15:53] well,
we didn't even know that was on the
[1:15:55] table. We thought we were going to just
get put back in at the $2 or $3
[1:15:58] rate.
So
[1:16:02] you know, and I'm not like I said, I'm
not saying it's going to happen, but I
[1:16:04] want them
to be aware when they do their budgeting
[1:16:07] that that's a potential that may happen.
[1:16:14] » Any other discussion?
[1:16:17] John?
>> Yes.
[1:16:18] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[1:16:19] » Paul?
>> Yes.
[1:16:20] » And he asked for me. Motion carries.
[1:16:25] All right.
Uh we have a lodging tax request from
[1:16:30] On the Caboose for paint. Correct, JR?
>> Mhm.
[1:16:34] » Correct.
>> That's just an approval if you guys are
[1:16:37] okay with it.
[1:16:45] » What's the timeline on that? Do you know
what I mean? Has anybody got a timeline
[1:16:48] on that?
>> I thought he was supposed to have it
[1:16:50] painted already, but I guess not.
>> Well, he washed it, but what did he wash
[1:16:53] it for if he ain't going to paint it?
You're going to have to wash it again.
[1:16:58] » The original timeline was
>> I was just looking at that the other
[1:17:02] day.
I checked on the papers going through my
[1:17:05] stack here.
Meeting papers.
[1:17:11] » Uh,
let's see here.
[1:17:19] Oh, Saturday, September 12th, he's
planning on painting.
[1:17:25] » Saturday, September 12th, when they got
their street permits on?
[1:17:31] It told me to be scuffed.
>> Yeah.
[1:17:35] » It was chalky. If you put paint on that
right now, it's going to fall right off.
[1:17:40] » See.
>> Yeah, I don't think that they understand
[1:17:42] what they're getting into when it comes
to painting.
[1:17:44] » I wanted to be there for that.
[1:17:47] » He did say Thursday they're going to
start working on it.
[1:17:51] Wipe it down, degrease, tape, and then
scuff it.
[1:17:55] Friday, they're picking up their air
compressor to use it, and then they're
[1:17:58] going to prime it on Friday, and then
hopefully paint.
[1:18:01] » I'd even go so far as to have Ben come
over and take a look at it and say, "Is
[1:18:04] this ready to paint?"
>> So, I know he
[1:18:10] So, no.
>> Because
[1:18:14] » I do bodywork for a living.
[1:18:17] And if the prep ain't right
>> 99% of it
[1:18:21] » 99% of it, yeah. And I just, you know,
that's a
[1:18:25] that's a centerpiece. If they're going
to use that as a draw, I don't need We
[1:18:28] don't need people coming in and and in 3
years the paint's falling off and it
[1:18:32] looks like heck and we
just invested all this in because of
[1:18:36] » I would suggest that you reach out to
Eric on that one.
[1:18:39] » So.
Do I have a motion to approve?
[1:18:44] » I'll make a motion to approve.
>> John makes a motion to approve. Is there
[1:18:47] a second?
[1:18:54] Bueller?
[1:18:58] » These would be dollars out of the
lodging taxes funds and not the city
[1:19:02] funds.
>> If that helps.
[1:19:06] This is just approval.
>> Generally we approve whatever the
[1:19:09] recommendation comes from the lodging
tax committee.
[1:19:13] » I'll second.
>> Seconded by Paul. Any other discussion?
[1:19:17] Jason?
>> Yes.
[1:19:18] » John?
>> Yes.
[1:19:19] » Paul?
>> Yes.
[1:19:20] » Any else for me? Motion carries.
Um I'm going to do C first only cuz
[1:19:26] that'll help with
follow into
[1:19:31] B.
Uh there is a demo permit for the
[1:19:35] property in question for complaint B,
which is on here.
[1:19:40] Um but that doesn't include everything
on this, but
[1:19:44] uh the demo permit and grant they
applied for the grant, correct?
[1:19:49] » I don't think so.
>> Just the permit?
[1:19:52] » I don't think so.
Let me double check.
[1:19:56] Yeah, just the permit.
>> So technically the permit will go to
[1:20:00] planning and zoning, but just so you're
aware of that
[1:20:03] on the complaint for 314 Second Street
Southeast with uh three vehicles, two
[1:20:08] unlicensed on the property, a sailboat,
three trailers loaded with personal
[1:20:11] property,
all kinds of items making it look like a
[1:20:14] junkyard.
>> We don't need to do anything on the demo
[1:20:18] permit, then?
>> No, that will go to planning and zoning
[1:20:20] first.
I thought it was an application for
[1:20:25] » Yeah, no.
>> a grant, which then you guys could have
[1:20:27] approved and then you would have
approved.
[1:20:28] » They're doing it themselves, I think.
That's why they didn't That's right.
[1:20:32] » That's right, cuz they didn't
>> They couldn't put in cuz they're
[1:20:34] expensive.
>> That's right.
[1:20:38] That's for 45 days to rate.
>> Within the next 45 days.
[1:20:46] » Anything you guys would like to do on
the complaint?
[1:20:50] » What can we do?
>> Uh the process would start with JR
[1:20:55] starting the clock and then
[1:20:59] give them time to come in and talk about
it.
[1:21:03] And then if they don't do that, when we
publish, then we have another
[1:21:08] » It's the process. I'll summarize.
>> It's the process.
[1:21:11] » I move that we start the process on
that.
[1:21:14] » There a second?
>> I'll second it.
[1:21:18] » Seconded by Jason.
Any other discussion?
[1:21:27] Paul?
>> Yes.
[1:21:28] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[1:21:29] » John?
>> Yes.
[1:21:31] » And yes for me. Motion carries.
Um Public Power Week, would you guys
[1:21:37] like to do anything for that week?
[1:21:40] » Me and Roy visited with it a little bit
today. We'll We'll see where it goes.
[1:21:45] We're going to try to do something.
The way it sounds, so exactly what it'll
[1:21:49] be, we don't know.
Unless he's talked to you more about it.
[1:21:52] » No, did you see the email I sent you
guys back?
[1:21:55] » Okay.
>> So, we'll wait to hear something next
[1:21:57] meeting.
>> Yep.
[1:21:58] » Potentially.
>> If anything's happening.
[1:22:02] » Um and then the next
item is the wage and wage structure.
[1:22:07] Um
we kind of handed that out earlier.
[1:22:13] Said we had three applicants for public
works positions. We're in need of two
[1:22:17] positions
at the current time.
[1:22:21] Both of those that they would like to
offer to
[1:22:24] ask for more than
what our current starting is at. We
[1:22:30] usually start at 20
and go up from there. And Chris was nice
[1:22:35] enough 21?
>> 21 and then
[1:22:38] 22 after 6 months and then
>> Okay.
[1:22:44] Um and if I remember right, one was
closer to 30 or they're both
[1:22:50] » One one requested between 28 and 32.
>> Yeah.
[1:22:55] » In lieu That was also in lieu of
insurance though.
[1:22:58] Um
they would be willing to come back to
[1:23:02] the table if that's not an option. So
[1:23:10] » Um
[1:23:14] I asked Casey met with all the employees
a while ago last week.
[1:23:19] » Yeah, Wednesday last week.
>> Wednesday and talked with them a little
[1:23:21] bit about different things.
Um
[1:23:24] they definitely didn't want the
[1:23:28] no insurance and somebody just gets paid
for it.
[1:23:32] Like into the salary or into their
Um
[1:23:38] the one suggestion that
Zack had brought up was a stipend so we
[1:23:43] could look at that. I don't think I
said or looked at, you know, could we do
[1:23:49] if you don't just take a single policy
$7,500
[1:23:54] and if you didn't take the family plan
What is it?
[1:23:59] » 15,000 I think is the
>> 15,000
[1:24:03] And that would be a one like a stipend
over
[1:24:07] 12 months so it'd just be added.
Divide You take that amount divided by
[1:24:11] 12.
If you could be an option.
[1:24:19] Which both of those are about half of
what we pay now for
[1:24:23] both of them.
>> Yeah.
[1:24:26] » So, it would cover
taxes and all that along the lines.
[1:24:32] And they would see about
the honest 7,500 did it's about $5 an
[1:24:38] hour is what it works out to on a
40-hour work week.
[1:24:42] If it's a stipend.
It won't go on to that if I don't have
[1:24:46] overtime.
It won't go on to that. Just be
[1:24:49] » That's a
>> separate line item. So, it'd be
[1:24:53] you'd put in your regular 40 hours and
then it'd be 7,500
[1:24:57] divided by 12 and that's just a lump sum
payment.
[1:25:08] » Can you go through this?
[1:25:12] » Uh which one?
>> All the ones you got here.
[1:25:15] » Uh so, yeah, I came up with
>> I just step one What is step one, step
[1:25:18] two, step three? What is
>> Hold on.
[1:25:20] » Hold on. What is step
>> So, I tried to base um
[1:25:23] kind of off of
like military {slash} GSA type pay
[1:25:28] scale.
>> Second.
[1:25:30] » Which one are you
>> It's It's to basically like an automatic
[1:25:32] progression
longevity. Um so, as long as you're if
[1:25:37] within the company, you're going to
get an extra pay raise each year. That's
[1:25:41] not guaranteed.
There's two different ways to do it. You
[1:25:44] can just do straight guaranteed
right across the board so every
[1:25:49] every 2 years there'd be an automatic
pay raise plus whatever the cost of
[1:25:52] living rate is, which I figured right
around 2% was kind of a
[1:25:56] fairish deal.
For 2% it was anywhere between 2 and 3,
[1:26:00] but if I was going to do the step every
other year, then it came out fine.
[1:26:04] Um
so, that step
[1:26:07] you can do it one of two ways. You can
go every year or every other year and
[1:26:11] get that automatic 1% pay increase or 2%
pay increase
[1:26:15] along with the cola raise or you
uh depending on performance. So, if
[1:26:20] someone does not perform as well, um and
it's
[1:26:24] documented that they have not performed
very well, you don't you can hold that
[1:26:27] step back, and then you can make them
wait the next 2 years at that same rate.
[1:26:31] You can do it two different ways that
way. So, if someone's getting paid 24,
[1:26:35] and they get the Cola increase of 2%,
and then um
[1:26:39] their
reviews weren't very well, or they're
[1:26:42] not learning as well on the job, then
you can just hold that 2% step back, um
[1:26:47] or that 1% step back, and then they they
wait till the
[1:26:51] fourth or sixth year, whatever, uh down
the road. I did multiple, so one
[1:26:56] uh I did for the
I guess you're starting out, I did a
[1:27:00] step increase for the first 3 years on
some of them.
[1:27:03] Um so, that would be your
uh entry-level positions. So, they would
[1:27:07] get a 1%
um step increase each year plus the
[1:27:12] Cola, so that would be a 3% increase.
And then after that, it goes 2 years,
[1:27:16] and then at the 8-year mark, um they no
longer get the step increase. So, it's
[1:27:20] like a it's almost like a
performance-based. So, if you don't meet
[1:27:23] a certain cri- criteria at your uh
entry-level position,
[1:27:27] so move down to like a a skill a higher
skill uh level as an administrative
[1:27:32] position or deputy auditor, then you
move down to that next
[1:27:36] uh payroll, and then you can uh
continue with steps again
[1:27:41] uh along the way.
Um you would just cap out, and the only
[1:27:44] thing you would uh after that 8 years,
you would just receive Cola after that.
[1:27:48] Um you would just your cost of living
increase.
[1:27:52] » So, what moves you from the entry-level
position to the experienced position?
[1:27:56] » Job descriptions.
>> Yeah, we'd have to create specific job
[1:27:59] descriptions descriptions for each one,
um depending on what you're um
[1:28:04] like if you had you wanted them to go to
certain schooling, you could put that in
[1:28:08] there. Um not, but
certain schooling for each one,
[1:28:12] um
>> Certifications.
[1:28:14] » Certifications, things like that. So, it
wouldn't be you wouldn't get a
[1:28:17] certification for a pay raise for each
certification. You'd have to meet all
[1:28:21] certifications or all schoolings in
order to move down to that next
[1:28:25] position.
>> Would there have to be an opening?
[1:28:28] » No.
It wouldn't have to be an opening
[1:28:30] specific. You could If you only have the
room for one administrator
[1:28:35] administrative position, you just have
it and then if they meet that criteria
[1:28:38] on the way, you can you can move them
down. And when you do move them down, so
[1:28:42] if they're like a step six, you don't
move them down to the step six,
[1:28:48] you would move them down to
right around
[1:28:52] like GS pay. You would move two steps up
and then move basically down to whatever
[1:28:58] the closest pay was. So, if they were a
step six, which is the
[1:29:03] uh
maxed out, you'd find out what their
[1:29:05] current pay rate is and then give them
when you move down to that next uh
[1:29:10] administrative position, it'd be it
whatever's equivalent up to a 3% raise,
[1:29:16] basically.
Within that. So, you're not going to
[1:29:18] drop down from 36 or 25 bucks an hour to
31 of an hour. You're going to be close.
[1:29:24] » if you were at 30 at step six at $30
>> Yep.
[1:29:27] » you would go down if you went up you
would go I guess I I look at it as a
[1:29:32] increase. You would You'd go to like
step three then.
[1:29:35] » Yep. You'd go to that step three.
>> Okay.
[1:29:41] » And then the three options under that
one, there's it was just different um
[1:29:46] different
What was it?
[1:29:49] The step increase was different and then
I think the cola was different. They
[1:29:52] They were just like three different var-
variations of the same thing.
[1:29:56] So, you could just see kind of what the
cost was for each position.
[1:30:02] And then option four got really
uh
[1:30:06] They got really expensive the farther
down the road you went.
[1:30:12] Cuz they had
longer step increases and I they they
[1:30:15] stepped up a little different. So,
depending on how long someone does stay
[1:30:19] it can
get a little bit more costly that way.
[1:30:24] And then the last option was just a Cola
increase every year with the option for
[1:30:30] still doing um
uh
[1:30:34] » Step
>> Performance based raises.
[1:30:36] So, that that one didn't have any step
increases at all. That was just
[1:30:40] basically a Cola increase each year and
then
[1:30:43] based on
performance based raises that way your
[1:30:46] supervisors or however
that works.
[1:30:52] And that was a 2 and 1/2% Cola raise
each year for that one.
[1:31:03] The biggest The hardest thing was trying
to find out the
[1:31:06] starting starting wage.
Um based off of
[1:31:11] the North Dakota job description for
each position within the state.
[1:31:15] Um they varied from depending on your
position it was your your starting
[1:31:22] position was 22 to 27 dollars an hour
for admin.
[1:31:26] Um even if you look somewhere around
between here and Grand Forks, Fargo it
[1:31:30] was similar to the 20
23 to 27 an hour. So, I That's what up
[1:31:36] on the very far right I kind of put like
what the actual starting wage is. So,
[1:31:41] within each one it I
a common ground for each one I came up
[1:31:45] with 25 whether that's
um too much as a starting
[1:31:50] starting spot but that between all of
them that was kind of the common area
[1:31:54] where each one of them had hit
um through all the like entry-level
[1:31:58] positions. And then from there I just
had to kind of use
[1:32:02] um
like what would a
[1:32:06] proper increase for someone in that next
level, and it came out to right around a
[1:32:11] 11 to 12% raise between these positions.
To get to my next um pay bump
[1:32:17] for a starting role for like a
skilled administrative person or
[1:32:29] » Under this format, uh
how many people would go up then?
[1:32:34] Obviously our
our our
[1:32:37] laborers would go up, correct?
>> Yeah, your entry level
[1:32:41] » Entry level.
>> When I did look at where our most of our
[1:32:45] starting wages and kind of where
um
[1:32:49] supervisor are at they are at or close
to where they currently where
[1:32:53] they currently came out on some of these
>> Okay.
[1:32:56] » models, it was hard to find specifically
um but I did find starting
[1:33:02] starting positions um for a lot of them.
I I know there was a couple concerns
[1:33:07] about
um
[1:33:10] of some of the positions where it seemed
like it was a little less than what it
[1:33:14] should be, but looking in the state of
North Dakota, it's kind of hard to
[1:33:18] determine.
>> It's all over the board.
[1:33:20] » Yeah, where electrical
um
[1:33:23] we're within that area for what the
state of North Dakota has. If you're
[1:33:26] somewhere else, it might not be
be the same, so.
[1:33:33] And I did go look up GS scale for each
of these positions, too.
[1:33:37] Um we're
at 20 between that 23 and 27 for most of
[1:33:42] them. That's kind of about where the
starting is cuz
[1:33:45] the GS pay for North Dakota, um it's a
base pay and then they add 17% of it.
[1:33:50] They try and base it off of uh what the
national average is.
[1:33:54] So, it's 17% higher than or they
increase it 17% so they can keep it
[1:34:00] competitive for
the coming positions.
[1:34:14] » And we
both know this is a lot to take in. Um
[1:34:18] it was Chris spent about the entire week
last week doing research and putting
[1:34:24] aside a few things.
Um
[1:34:28] » Yeah.
>> Yeah.
[1:34:30] Um
>> Looking at it, it just um
[1:34:33] as an outsider coming in, they just
didn't like progression for like some of
[1:34:38] your entry-level people or if
I want to say it didn't it was
[1:34:42] inconsistent, but it seems inconsistent
on um
[1:34:45] kind of
harder to keep guys that just are the
[1:34:49] younger guys that start out. Um
there's always places to go. There's no
[1:34:53] There's not that next um
possible raise. I don't want to say it,
[1:34:58] but that um
there's no outlook for when the next
[1:35:02] raise becomes. So, it's just kind of hit
and miss and
[1:35:05] depending on how well
um
[1:35:08] your supervisor documents on your
evaluations,
[1:35:12] um that can also hurt you in that way,
too, for not getting a raise. So, I
[1:35:15] figured uh something structured would
probably help and it would give someone
[1:35:18] more outlook and
um probably maybe keep people a little
[1:35:23] bit longer than what we have recently.
That's some of them. So.
[1:35:27] » Yeah.
I mean, we've had four employees resign
[1:35:31] over the last 2 years in public works.
It'd be nice to have a little better
[1:35:36] retention than that, I think.
[1:35:43] » My My biggest concern is, and I think I
talked to you about this, is how do you
[1:35:47] is is we want we obviously want to keep
good employees, but I don't want to
[1:35:52] reward a bad employee if they're not,
you know, so I think it's important that
[1:35:56] we figure out how we're going to
evaluate these people and do a good job.
[1:36:00] Supervisors doing a good job of
documenting what these what they're
[1:36:04] doing because
you know, we can't we can't afford to
[1:36:08] spend 2 3 years to train somebody
and then they're gone and they're a good
[1:36:13] employee.
>> I think we have a good process.
[1:36:17] They're just not done.
>> Right.
[1:36:19] » Or it's done by Casey, which is not
day-to-day with everybody.
[1:36:23] » Right.
>> Yep. And we we had that discussion on
[1:36:26] Wednesday, too. So, supervisors know
that it's expected of them to fill out
[1:36:31] evaluations for their employees, which
is another reason why we're
[1:36:34] departmentalizing a little bit more.
Um
[1:36:37] Zach, Greg works under Zach majority of
the time. Zach would be expected to do
[1:36:42] Greg's eval. Same with Roy doing Brian.
Jay at full capacity would have to that
[1:36:48] he'd have to do. So, then I would do
evals on the supervisors and then on my
[1:36:55] own employees as well.
>> Is it enough to do them just once a year
[1:36:58] though?
>> You know, that's a good question. Is
[1:37:02] that something that you guys would like
to see more of?
[1:37:05] » curious cuz if you have issues, that'd
be a good time to correct any issues or
[1:37:08] concerns you may have at 6 months per
say.
[1:37:11] » Well,
>> you're supposed to have one at the
[1:37:13] 6-month evaluation, but then we also
expect
[1:37:16] if there's something that happens in the
meantime that
[1:37:21] Casey has a nice form that you would
fill out and that gets turned in, so
[1:37:24] that is part of the evaluation process
when it comes.
[1:37:27] » Yep. There it goes. They're supposed to
be completed. It's We We do have a
[1:37:31] process. It's um
It's It's like an assistance form. I
[1:37:35] can't remember the name of it right now,
but I'll pull it up. The form is
[1:37:39] intended to assist our employees in
areas that they may not be um
[1:37:45] excelling at. Um
you know, we we use it as a growing
[1:37:49] opportunity, not as a punishment
opportunity.
[1:37:52] Um, and it's
it's st- you know, step one of
[1:37:56] documenting what are these employees
doing? Are we Are we progressing where
[1:38:01] we need to with areas that they may be
having troubles in?
[1:38:05] Um, then we come back. There's a game
plan, come back within a 4-week period,
[1:38:11] whatever the supervisor feels is
appropriate.
[1:38:14] Um, and we reevaluate and see how
they're doing at that time. If it's
[1:38:19] improvement, then great. Then it's just
a just a light mark on their year-long
[1:38:25] record. If it's something that needs to
continue to be worked on though, then
[1:38:29] more documentation is had and then you
hope not to get to the point of
[1:38:33] termination, but if there's just no
improvement and these are vital things
[1:38:37] that need to be fixed, then termination
is a discussion at that time.
[1:38:42] » Do you guys have expectations?
Do you have Do you have
[1:38:46] Do you have written down expectations
that if I have a guy starting in public
[1:38:50] works today in your area, I expect you
in 6 months you should be able to do X,
[1:38:56] Y, Z.
>> We don't have it written down though.
[1:38:58] » I think you should. I think it all
should be expressed to them
[1:39:03] you know, when you when when you're
hired so that they know, hey, this is
[1:39:06] this is where our expectations are.
And uh
[1:39:10] otherwise, they don't really know that
that gives them the goal to know what
[1:39:14] they're what what what is expected of
me, you know?
[1:39:17] So,
just a thought.
[1:39:19] So,
I don't know how that would be
[1:39:21] implemented, but
>> We could change that counseling form
[1:39:25] completely around if you wanted to. It
doesn't have to be just negative. We can
[1:39:29] you can do one for the start of the
year.
[1:39:33] Here's where I think you should be and
we'll reevaluate in the next 6 months.
[1:39:37] It doesn't doesn't have to be negative.
We can we can create it as a
[1:39:41] kind of an an everything, so
>> Yeah.
[1:39:43] » you could say, "Here's where I think
you're at right now. Here's where I'd
[1:39:46] like to see you 6 months from now." And
then you could follow up in 6 months and
[1:39:51] go through and say,
"Here's the things you've met so far.
[1:39:56] Here's the next few things you can work
on." And then you do your yearly
[1:39:59] evaluation rather than trying to
remember what everyone what someone did
[1:40:03] for an entire year.
>> Speak up a little bit.
[1:40:05] » Well, this would give them with that
this would give them this would give
[1:40:09] them a scale of what if they meet these
expectations, this is what you'll be
[1:40:13] your pay will be increased, correct?
>> Ideally.
[1:40:16] » Right.
>> Ideally, one of those five options,
[1:40:18] yeah.
>> But you could use you wouldn't
[1:40:20] necessarily have to recreate this. You
could just use the evaluation form and
[1:40:23] say,
>> Here's the goals, yeah.
[1:40:25] » Because it's listed as goals.
Of this is what we
[1:40:29] This is
This is your strength, this is your
[1:40:32] weaknesses, this is what we
what goal we want you to work on.
[1:40:38] » And then uh you have to make sure that
you Yeah, okay, what what is expected in
[1:40:43] order for you to get that? You have to
have that have to be a clear whether
[1:40:47] it's
whatever that might be just as long as
[1:40:50] that's clear that you have to meet the
you're expected to meet these goals or
[1:40:53] these things in order to
qualify for the next one.
[1:41:02] » Don't expect that by the next meeting.
>> So next week?
[1:41:06] » Or next week.
It's going to take time to put together.
[1:41:10] » I was in the meeting.
Hopefully you were involved, but
[1:41:12] So what was the consensus of the
employees? Did they like
[1:41:17] the like step process or did they like a
performance-based
[1:41:21] process?
>> I think the consensus was a little bit
[1:41:24] of both. Um here's what they here's what
the consensus was that I recall, and you
[1:41:29] guys correct me if I'm wrong.
Um they'd like to see a structure. They
[1:41:33] want to see a plan.
Um Um, they actually, correct me if I'm
[1:41:38] wrong, didn't think that a uh
probationary increase wasn't a wasn't
[1:41:43] necessary if there's a plan in place.
Um, right now for new employees, if you
[1:41:50] get through your first 6 months with
positive reviews, you get a dollar
[1:41:54] increase.
Not necessary.
[1:41:57] Um,
yeah, just a game plan would be nice.
[1:42:01] Um, just to show future employees, "Hey,
here's the minimum where you'll start
[1:42:06] at.
Um, here's the game plan for your future
[1:42:10] endeavors if you do well with the city."
Um, but yeah, positive reviews were
[1:42:16] were seen as a beneficial thing.
[1:42:20] » I think the step plan
once the goals are down, we have
[1:42:24] something to shoot for.
I guess we go off of the performance.
[1:42:29] Less structure, you know, less steps on
where where that's out there.
[1:42:33] That's how I get more money. I would I
would go with that.
[1:42:37] That's
>> But I think you almost have to use the
[1:42:40] the
the evaluations to say if you're not
[1:42:44] meeting these goals,
you still can't make the the next step.
[1:42:48] Like if
cuz that we're rewarding the bad
[1:42:52] behaviors, which we don't want.
[1:42:57] » I think maybe we should add
if you guys thought so, but
[1:43:04] maybe add more
levels, if that makes sense. Like,
[1:43:09] rather than I might be looking at this
wrong, but
[1:43:13] » Which tab you looking at?
Yeah, I'll come back to it.
[1:43:17] » with the military one, the first one.
>> The first one? Okay.
[1:43:20] » But, just like with any of them that are
doing that structure though, is maybe
[1:43:24] have like a
a streets level 1 2 3, and if you get
[1:43:31] you know, if you do different things and
you go get other trainings that benefit
[1:43:35] your job, you know, like maybe that
would be made maybe don't even require
[1:43:39] like you go get your CDL, all that moves
you up to a level two automatically.
[1:43:44] And that can happen throughout the year
as well. It doesn't have to be it
[1:43:47] necessarily at your review time.
>> What's correct me if I'm wrong? If
[1:43:51] » that kind of build into?
>> That's So, if you started at an entry
[1:43:54] » Yep.
>> and then you go to level two and then
[1:43:55] you go to level three. So, this is more
of a tiered step program. So, if you
[1:43:57] meet certain requirements, you move
down. So, I had to set it up that way
[1:43:58] cuz there was there was too much on
there. So, all the entry levels I had to
[1:44:00] set it up that way cuz it was too much
on there. So, all the entry levels are
[1:44:05] grouped together and then all the like
the more experienced positions and then
[1:44:08] lead positions I have cuz another group.
So,
[1:44:12] like if you had
I was thinking I was more looking at
[1:44:15] more like big picture maybe down the
road if you have more employees, but
[1:44:19] you'd have like that lead street
supervisor, the lead water not
[1:44:23] supervisor, but lead water person
that they would kind of base off that
[1:44:29] way. So, there three steps for each
position and then three steps for
[1:44:33] supervisors. I wasn't sure if I needed
three steps, but I was already going
[1:44:36] with three.
So, I figured there could be different
[1:44:39] levels of supervisors depending on what
qualifications you have in there as
[1:44:42] well. So,
>> Yeah, sure. So, yeah, you sounds like
[1:44:45] you probably you're saying what you're
thinking just worded it differently.
[1:44:48] » If you look at coal of five, I think it
you'll see it better.
[1:44:51] If you look at this coal of P5, it's
more grouped together.
[1:44:56] » And I think the use of job descriptions
once they're created to
[1:45:02] you know, kind of fit a game plan of
what you guys are kind of leaning
[1:45:06] towards, that's going to help
distinguish
[1:45:08] where employees would fall into. Once
they hit, you know, a separate job
[1:45:13] description than what they're currently
at, then we look at
[1:45:17] a new rate.
>> So, like
[1:45:20] if Zach was a
in year four of waste water entry
[1:45:26] at 2760 and then he gets certifications
to go down, you go over two
[1:45:31] and so then he'd be at year
[1:45:36] probably year two
of of wastewater skilled.
[1:45:41] And then you'd start working your way
over and if he goes to the next he goes
[1:45:44] two years there and then he gets into
the next level of the lead, then you go
[1:45:50] down to
probably year two you go over two
[1:45:55] and then down, so
we're probably at three of wastewater
[1:45:59] lead.
>> See I
[1:46:01] I'm on this thing and I don't understand
it, so
[1:46:07] » I will tell you the school was much
easier. We just go down every year and
[1:46:10] you jump over a lane.
>> Yeah, and that's that's what so military
[1:46:14] you just jump straight down and then
that's where you're at.
[1:46:17] GS was like I kind of base them off of
both.
[1:46:22] » But in reality we don't need to
necessarily decide on this tonight. What
[1:46:25] we do need to decide on is what we're
going to start people at because
[1:46:32] that's where we're getting the hiccup
right now is getting quality people to
[1:46:36] come in.
>> And what's that number going to be would
[1:46:39] you determine?
>> Both employees
[1:46:43] did say they would start at 25, no less
if
[1:46:49] full insurance was offered.
They're willing to work with us there.
[1:46:55] Or actually I should both employees that
are favorable from the interviews.
[1:47:01] » I This is my personal opinion. I think
if we started at 25
[1:47:06] for new employees, got them in as the
base level, we plan that in and if you
[1:47:11] added in if they don't take insurance
and then we move our current employees
[1:47:16] that would be which would just be Greggy
that would be behind
[1:47:20] move him up to that point as well.
[1:47:26] And
I mean
[1:47:28] » I want you to move him to the one with
the scale I guess I want you to move him
[1:47:31] to that.
>> I would, but I'd also I think he's more
[1:47:34] of a waste water skilled labor
which would probably be at 28.
[1:47:38] » Okay.
[1:47:44] » And then I mean I think we could it's
budgeted so if we don't use the
[1:47:48] insurance we save it so we could offer
that as a statement
[1:47:53] if you they want it if we wanted to
which would
[1:47:57] also help bring those in other employees
in.
[1:48:04] » How could you figure it out on that
individual was on five bucks maybe
[1:48:08] actually at every level they'd be making
30 if they didn't take the insurance.
[1:48:12] » If they yep if they just well they'd be
making 30 if they took a single
[1:48:16] insurance not a family insurance.
>> Right.
[1:48:19] » And they'd be making
>> They wouldn't be paying that on
[1:48:23] overtime.
>> You wouldn't Yeah it
[1:48:25] » get the 25 it'd just be
cuz if you made it as a an actual
[1:48:32] um payroll increase
>> Right.
[1:48:34] » then if they decided they wanted
insurance you can't really go back and
[1:48:36] » Right.
That's where if it's a statement
[1:48:39] » Yeah it's got to be a statement no other
way of really doing it I don't think.
[1:48:43] Cuz you're right then you got things
really goofed up.
[1:48:52] » Um
>> Any issues doing that Jared?
[1:48:56] » I'm sorry?
>> Any issues with giving a statement
[1:48:59] something like that is there?
>> Yeah.
[1:49:02] » That's
>> That's how maybe the government would
[1:49:03] use a different word than statement you
know.
[1:49:07] » Call it whatever you want at the end of
the day it's still the same wages so
[1:49:13] » It's about $7.22.
>> And they have to deal with the tax side
[1:49:18] of it.
>> Right. We're not going to address any of
[1:49:20] that. That's going to get a
They're going to get a
[1:49:24] a 1099 for that.
>> No.
[1:49:26] » On the stipend, it'd be worked right
into their payroll.
[1:49:30] Yep.
>> Put it in their income.
[1:49:33] » Yep.
[1:49:35] » You could make So,
>> I think that should be on them because
[1:49:38] if you're going to work it into their
payroll, now you're paying more on the
[1:49:41] On our side, we're paying more on
on FICA.
[1:49:44] » So,
here's my thought behind it. Instead of
[1:49:48] if making it 7,500, that covers us to
pay the cola
[1:49:53] or pay all the other stuff.
Cuz it's actually costing us 12.
[1:49:58] » For a single policy?
980-some bucks a month.
[1:50:05] For a single.
[1:50:08] » So, it's costing us $11,000.
Almost 11,760
[1:50:14] for a single.
[1:50:19] » What do you call it with the 7,500
number then?
[1:50:23] » Cuz that stays underneath
[1:50:28] what
um
[1:50:30] Honestly, I went off what the school
does.
[1:50:33] » Yeah. I'll I'll look it up for you. I
have a
[1:50:35] » pays a stipend out. Now, their rule is
is that if you don't if you take it
[1:50:41] it needs to be
um
[1:50:45] If you take it out as cash, you have to
pay
[1:50:48] the taxes on it.
>> Mhm.
[1:50:50] » But that's the max they pay out on
insurance is 7 grand.
[1:50:54] » Okay.
>> Or And so, if you go over that
[1:50:59] if you take it out as an HSA or anything
else as something that's pre-tax, then
[1:51:03] you don't have to pay tax.
[1:51:07] This number I
It covers the 33%
[1:51:11] of what we would be
need to put in to cover. So,
[1:51:16] » That That's my big thing is that it's
not costing us more than it is the
[1:51:21] the new health insurance side of it.
>> And we don't need to change this. I
[1:51:24] mean, this would be a one-time It sets
at 7,500 and it stays no matter what our
[1:51:29] insurance costs go up unless we want to
reevaluate it.
[1:51:32] » Mhm.
[1:51:38] » I also just
This is
[1:51:41] Excuse me, a starting point.
[1:51:47] Let's do the hard part first. What would
you like
[1:51:49] to start new employees at?
[1:51:53] » If we think we can get them for 25, I
wouldn't
[1:51:56] As long as the auditor can
just can do the numbers.
[1:52:03] Uh
>> Is there a motion to start new employees
[1:52:05] at 25?
>> I'll move.
[1:52:07] » Is there a second?
>> the discussion.
[1:52:09] I'll second that.
>> Seconded by Jason. Any other discussion?
[1:52:12] » Okay, so we start So, if we're going to
start the new employees at that, then
[1:52:15] what do we do with the current ones?
>> That would be another separate motion.
[1:52:20] So, like
Chris said, everybody besides
[1:52:25] The only one we have to worry about is
Greg E.
[1:52:27] » Okay.
>> Everybody else fits into what this
[1:52:30] » I just didn't know if you wanted it in
that motion or the current
[1:52:32] » No, I'd like to do two separate motions
would be our best.
[1:52:43] Any other discussion?
John?
[1:52:47] » Yes.
>> Jason?
[1:52:48] » Yes.
>> Paul?
[1:52:49] » Yes.
>> Yes for me. Motion carries.
[1:52:53] I'd entertain a motion to move Greg E.
into the wastewater skilled
[1:52:59] starting position, which is 28.
Would that be okay with you?
[1:53:04] » Water wastewater, correct?
Water wastewater skilled.
[1:53:08] » water skilled, yeah.
>> Two.
[1:53:10] » I'll second that.
>> Moved by Jason, seconded by Paul. Any
[1:53:14] other discussion?
[1:53:17] Paul?
>> Yes.
[1:53:18] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[1:53:19] » John?
>> Yes.
[1:53:20] » Any abstentions?
>> Um would that be applicable to city hall
[1:53:26] staff, too, or no?
>> Yeah, for now.
[1:53:29] So, that would be
uh we'll go separate on that as well.
[1:53:34] So,
[1:53:37] it's Chris comparable
[1:53:42] in the deputy auditor position?
>> Mhm.
[1:53:45] » Okay. So, we'd have to worry about Abby.
>> Well,
[1:53:49] Chris
or um sorry, I misinterpreted the
[1:53:52] question. Um
right now,
[1:53:55] he'd be
You're making 25 and 1/2 an hour?
[1:54:00] Yep. And then Abby's at 23
something, 23 84, I think. There's
[1:54:06] something
Yep.
[1:54:13] » So, you're looking at the 25 and the 28
potentially?
[1:54:17] If I'm reading that right.
>> Correct. If you moved to Chris to a
[1:54:21] deputy auditor two and a
[1:54:24] You left Abby at the administrative
assistant.
[1:54:28] » That would be my request.
>> Do I have a motion to that request?
[1:54:35] » So, you want to move So, you need to
I'll I'll move to move Chris to the dep-
[1:54:39] deputy auditor
auditor two.
[1:54:43] » Two.
>> Two.
[1:54:44] » Okay.
>> And Abby to
[1:54:47] » would be assistant
>> admin
[1:54:49] » administrative assistant.
>> Mhm.
[1:54:51] » Not a specialist.
>> Okay.
[1:54:55] » That's my motion to move uh Chris to the
deputy auditor two
[1:54:59] and uh and Abby to administrative
assistant 25.
[1:55:04] » So second.
>> Second.
[1:55:08] » Seconded by
Jason, any other discussion?
[1:55:15] John?
>> Yes.
[1:55:17] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[1:55:18] » Paul?
>> Yes.
[1:55:19] » And he asked for me.
I'm clarifying this would go into effect
[1:55:22] this payroll or this
new payroll cycle.
[1:55:26] » If that's okay with the commission,
that'd be great.
[1:55:30] » Based on
cuz we're starting the new people coming
[1:55:33] in, I would assume we would move our
employees at
[1:55:37] that time, correct? I'm just clarifying.
Okay.
[1:55:42] Would you like to do anything with the
>> Are we good?
[1:55:46] Are you happy with that?
We can do both of those at that time if
[1:55:50] you want to do that.
>> Offer it to both of them.
[1:55:54] » That'd be costly.
Both of them, right?
[1:55:57] » Uh that's yeah, that's what was
discussed at the special meeting was to
[1:56:02] hire two.
So.
[1:56:06] No motion then, but just discussion.
>> We also talked about putting out
[1:56:10] with the higher
wage to see if
[1:56:13] » You got more, yeah?
>> More applicants.
[1:56:15] » Um
[1:56:20] Would you want to do that first?
[1:56:24] » Can I have to hire somebody in?
>> Huh?
[1:56:26] » Can I have to hire somebody in?
>> Well, I'd like to hire at least one.
[1:56:31] » It says yeah, it it is your call.
>> I know.
[1:56:33] » I know it's not.
>> Jay's going to be gone in a couple
[1:56:37] weeks. I would like to have
[1:56:41] Not as much as Reggie would like.
[1:56:44] Um
>> And Zach.
[1:56:46] » But
>> And Brian.
[1:56:47] » Like
do we want to do anything with the
[1:56:49] statement part of it for the health
insurance that might entice?
[1:56:55] » As long as it doesn't cost you guys any
more on the FICA side, I'm okay with
[1:56:58] this stipend.
[1:57:01] » I think we're we're bringing in people a
lot easier with this stipend.
[1:57:06] I think that would be
>> No, it's like you figured a
[1:57:09] guess-estimation is another $5 an hour.
>> Right.
[1:57:13] We're going to make great people.
There's not just people out there.
[1:57:16] » So, it's 8823.
>> Yeah.
[1:57:18] » And it's costing us 11,800.
>> This is a single plan.
[1:57:21] » Yeah.
>> So, we're we're covered.
[1:57:29] Well,
we're looking at this wrong. It's
[1:57:32] technically
the difference between
[1:57:36] the single and the
[1:57:40] family plan.
So, it'd be
[1:57:43] what's the family plan cost us?
>> Uh 2377
[1:57:47] a month, I believe. 2377.
>> 2377.
[1:57:52] Here's 12 is 28,524 minus 11,800.
[1:57:58] Which is 16,724.
[1:58:02] » What if I get married? Don't you think
what?
[1:58:05] » Yeah.
>> So, we're still good.
[1:58:06] » Only thing that
[1:58:09] » It's 16,
724 is the difference
[1:58:14] between a single plan and a family plan.
Does that make sense, Paul?
[1:58:18] » Mhm.
[1:58:21] » Did you say something?
[1:58:24] I know there's a difference.
[1:58:39] » Fingers.
Helps when I have my normal keyboard.
[1:58:47] » So, in comparison, a single plan, if
somebody just take a single plan,
[1:58:53] it saving
[1:58:57] 11 or 16,724,
and we're giving back 8823.
[1:59:02] If they don't take any insurance, we're
saving 28,000, we're giving them back
[1:59:06] 17.
So, they're not getting the full amount.
[1:59:15] on those two.
>> What's the second column? Is that family
[1:59:18] now?
>> Yep. Yep.
[1:59:19] » Yeah.
>> So, if you don't have no family
[1:59:21] insurance at all.
[1:59:24] If their spouse had it,
[1:59:32] » That's a good question.
>> Yeah.
[1:59:34] » Why would you offer the family option?
>> Why did we offer the family?
[1:59:38] » Yeah.
Cuz if you're hiring one person,
[1:59:42] a lot of places that I
worked in the past,
[1:59:47] they only pay it for the
employee and the family.
[1:59:51] So, I'm just curious, cuz
>> Cuz that we offer it currently. We
[1:59:55] started that
back when we started it, it only cost us
[1:59:59] $15,000 a year for family health
insurance, and that was
[2:00:03] » I mean,
>> And that was a big thing to bring people
[2:00:05] in at that time.
>> But I'm just wondering as far as this
[2:00:08] type of bills,
why
[2:00:11] » If that if the
um
[2:00:15] family option, if that person already
has a family, would you still offer them
[2:00:19] the family?
So, if their spouse has the family
[2:00:24] option, would you would you offer it?
>> If they want to take it.
[2:00:27] » Okay, I wasn't sure.
Or if you would have if you would just
[2:00:30] offer them the single.
[2:00:33] » No, we've always offered
>> Okay.
[2:00:35] » If you need a family plan, we give a
family plan. If you need a single plan,
[2:00:39] you take a single plan.
>> what he's saying though, so
[2:00:41] » I know.
But if we did that, we'd have to change
[2:00:44] everybody.
>> Yep.
[2:00:48] Which might happen if insurance keeps
going up.
[2:00:54] » Yeah.
[2:01:11] What do you pay it out for the both?
>> We plan for family, for any employee
[2:01:17] that we hire.
>> But I mean
[2:01:19] like say I'm the employee, if I need a
single, it's full, everything's paid,
[2:01:24] there's none that I pay for me employee
side?
[2:01:26] » Correct.
>> And same with family?
[2:01:28] » Correct.
[2:01:33] » And my family wasn't the 1.2 that you
what did the raise for like 2 years?
[2:01:40] » That was when we first put it into
place. That was not
[2:01:43] » That's still not in place, right?
>> No.
[2:01:45] » No.
>> Cuz that was there was
[2:01:48] it was to help mitigate
at that time a benefit that some were
[2:01:53] getting and some were not.
[2:02:06] » Do the current employees think that's
fair?
[2:02:12] » I want to see one head nodding.
[2:02:17] » They don't want insurance, though.
What I'm What I'm getting is the family
[2:02:20] plan is worth more than the three guys.
>> Mhm.
[2:02:24] » We're going to save the people who don't
take it, I think.
[2:02:28] » We are.
>> Mhm.
[2:02:29] » We would benefit if they don't take it.
>> According to those numbers.
[2:02:34] » Yeah.
If you break it down by hour
[2:02:37] you know, if a single plan
is what you guys wanted to offer, going
[2:02:42] to be an extra $3.60
per hour.
[2:02:45] You know, take it times your average
hours
[2:02:49] uh per month. And then, the family plan
would be an extra $7.21.
[2:02:56] Am I right? Or are you right?
>> When you get that number, can you share
[2:03:01] it with us?
>> Yeah.
[2:03:02] » Thank you.
[2:03:05] Just in case somebody asks.
[2:03:09] 10 4
>> would be
[2:03:12] » It's 7,500 divided by
>> 2,080.
[2:03:18] » I guess I did 52 weeks a year.
>> Oh, okay.
[2:03:21] » Divided by 40 hours.
I got you right. 60.
[2:03:26] I don't know why I was thinking five.
What is
[2:03:28] » That's okay.
[2:03:32] Yep. So, am I right in thinking
to offer is the motion to offer position
[2:03:40] » No motion. No motion needed.
>> Um but is the general consensus to offer
[2:03:45] two positions or one position?
What would you guys like to do? Do I
[2:03:49] need to set up more interviews or no?
>> I think I think I would.
[2:03:55] Unless you're really happy with the two
people you got.
[2:03:59] I mean, you got questions or not?
You never know. This is quite a boost
[2:04:03] from my first
offer, correct?
[2:04:06] » I'm just wondering what kind of response
we'll get with a higher wage.
[2:04:09] » Yeah.
>> What are the differences in medical
[2:04:13] qualifications or no?
>> They don't know.
[2:04:16] » That's why I'm saying, if you at least
do one, you'll know one for sure.
[2:04:21] » Do you have a request of which one you'd
like to hire first?
[2:04:24] » I would like to talk with Casey.
[2:04:35] » Do you want to hire this week or do you
want to wait until you're on vacation?
[2:04:39] That's the big question I'll throw back
to you. Cuz we're taking vacation at the
[2:04:44] same time and I'm not doing this before
my
[2:04:47] figure it out real quick.
>> I think if you want somebody hired by
[2:04:52] next week,
you better
[2:04:55] » Okay, so is there a motion? You're
requesting a motion to hire
[2:05:02] Dustin?
Is that the consensus?
[2:05:06] » Yeah, it was.
>> Okay.
[2:05:09] » Before we get to that, do you want to
put this in
[2:05:12] Do we want to do
the family insurance
[2:05:16] as an offer?
[2:05:19] » The stipend you mean or the family
insurance?
[2:05:21] » The stipend is for Yeah.
[2:05:25] » Yeah, I do we need a motion for that?
>> Yes.
[2:05:27] » Okay.
So we can make a motion for both the
[2:05:30] single and the family or do we do the
single or
[2:05:31] » Single or family? So you only take a
single, you get 7,500. If you take a
[2:05:36] fam- If you don't take any insurance,
you get 1,500. One time our stipend
[2:05:41] break off across 12 months.
>> They would have to be eligible for a
[2:05:45] family.
>> They would have to be eligible for a
[2:05:48] family, yeah.
[2:05:51] » So the single person has to request the
family.
[2:05:53] » Right.
Right.
[2:05:57] Which most would be. I mean, if they're
if they're taking insurance from
[2:06:01] somebody else,
they are
[2:06:04] they have a spouse that is paying for
it. Unless they're paying out of their
[2:06:07] pocket and I can't imagine anybody
paying out of pocket for insurance right
[2:06:10] now.
[2:06:13] Is that your motion, Paul?
>> Yes.
[2:06:15] » Is there a second?
>> So the stipend would be 750 for a single
[2:06:19] and 1,500 for a family, correct?
>> Correct.
[2:06:21] » That'd be my motion then.
>> I'll second.
[2:06:28] » 750 if you only take a single policy and
1,500 you don't take any policy, then
[2:06:33] you're eligible.
[2:06:37] Moved by Paul, second by
>> 7500 and 15.
[2:06:40] » Yeah, 7500.
Moved by John, or second by John.
[2:06:44] » Yeah.
>> 7500
[2:06:47] » No, 7500.
>> Are we talking monthly or yearly?
[2:06:52] » That's yearly.
>> I'm talking monthly.
[2:06:56] » Well, you're going to get more.
>> Here, you per month
[2:07:00] » 1250 1250
>> 7500
[2:07:03] » I can't see that far.
>> It'd be a stipend of 625 a month for a
[2:07:07] single, and then a stipend of 1250 for a
family.
[2:07:13] » Which is double.
[2:07:17] Okay.
>> Yep.
[2:07:18] » Any other discussion?
Jason?
[2:07:21] » Yes.
>> John?
[2:07:22] » Yes.
>> Paul?
[2:07:23] » Yes.
>> Any nays from me?
[2:07:25] Motion carries.
And the last motion for tonight,
[2:07:28] hopefully,
is to hire huh?
[2:07:32] » I'm motioned out.
>> To hire Dustin
[2:07:36] as public works employee with those
offers, and if he doesn't take the
[2:07:40] offer, we could offer it to
Colt.
[2:07:44] » Mhm.
>> Who's the second?
[2:07:46] Do I have a motion for that?
>> I move.
[2:07:50] » Second?
[2:07:53] » I'll second it.
>> Moved by Jason, second by John. Any
[2:07:57] other discussion?
Paul?
[2:07:59] » I better abstain from this one,
probably.
[2:08:01] » You probably should.
>> Okay.
[2:08:03] » Jason?
>> Yes.
[2:08:05] » Yes. Any nays from me? Motion carries.
>> If it's the Dustin I'm thinking of.
[2:08:09] » It is.
>> It is.
[2:08:12] » They don't talk to me, so I'm just
suspecting that.
[2:08:20] » Anything else?
[2:08:25] Um
Pay to remind her.
[2:08:28] » Pay to remind her, yes.
League of Cities conference is the 17th
[2:08:32] and 18th.
Actually, it starts on
[2:08:36] Wednesday.
If you want, uh,
[2:08:39] if those that are signed up, and
probably if you're not even signed up,
[2:08:42] if you want to go to
um,
[2:08:46] » A2S's?
>> A2S's party up in Grand Forks on
[2:08:49] Thursday night.
>> Yep.
[2:08:51] » Just email Steve and you can get into
the
[2:08:55] » Rhombus Guys.
>> We're on
[2:08:57] » second floor.
>> second floor. Yep.
[2:09:00] Any of you are interested.
Budgeting is or at our next meeting.
[2:09:06] We'll schedule that
>> Yes.
[2:09:07] » for
um,
[2:09:10] right away.
>> Yeah.
[2:09:11] » And will we see that ahead of time so we
can peruse it, do things?
[2:09:15] » Budget?
>> Yeah, has anything changed?
[2:09:18] » Well, now it will.
>> Yeah, can you send that to you
[2:09:21] for slow people like me trying to get
that a little bit?
[2:09:25] » You might be able to see it on Sunday
after my fundraiser in Galesburg's done.
[2:09:30] That fair?
>> Tuesday deadline.
[2:09:33] » Okay, got it.
[2:09:36] » Give you a week.
>> Okay, got it.
[2:09:38] » Before League of Cities.
>> Uh-huh.
[2:09:41] Yeah, we can do that.
>> Uh, Casey's on vacation the 22nd through
[2:09:47] the 1st.
HBA trick-or-treating is the end of
[2:09:50] October.
We're closed on Veterans Day the 11th,
[2:09:53] we're closed.
The other holidays which are way down
[2:09:57] the line, so.
Anything else for the good of the order?
[2:10:02] We don't have any call tonight, so
anybody like to pick up on that?
[2:10:05] » I'll do it on my name.
>> Yeah, you don't have to do this.
[2:10:08] I can't, so.
[2:10:13] » You're going to have to
nominate Casey to make a call or
[2:10:16] something.
>> She can't.
[2:10:17] » I'm not a city resident.
>> Thank you.
[2:10:22] Thanks for all the work you guys put in
on this on this payroll stuff. All of
[2:10:26] you.
And we had a good year. We did a lot
[2:10:29] from
[2:10:31] » You made it easy on us, though.
>> He probably wishes he never stopped in
[2:10:35] the shop.
[2:10:38] » I motion to adjourn.
>> So moved.
[2:10:41] » Second.
>> Second it.
[2:10:43] » All those in favor signify John. Any
other discussion? All those in favor?
[2:10:48] » Aye.
>> Meeting is adjourned.
[2:10:57] » Chris.
>> Chris.
[2:10:59] You got to miss the car guy.
>> Uh yesterday.
[2:11:04] » I knew
I knew that I knew that would be too
[2:11:06] easy. It just didn't