[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[1:06] We're going to get started with our study session for August 24th, 2026. We have three agenda items. First is discussion on our 2027 recommended supplemental operating budget.
[1:21] We've got an hour and a half slated for that. Then we will hear a Rochester public transportation transit financial outlook update.
[1:33] and then we will have an update on economic mobility program.
[1:39] So with that, Administrator's Alps, budget.
[1:42] Thank you, Council President. Council members.
[1:44] I just want to start off the, well, this isn't moving.
[1:51] Do you need to turn it on?
[1:54] Press this button.
[1:56] Oh,
[2:00] got it.
[2:02] A little help from the crowd.
[2:04] So I just want to start off the 2027 recommended supplemental operating budget by thinking
[2:09] large group of people who takes to pull this together, even though we're in the supplemental
[2:13] budget, which isn't as much change as when we're in the two-year budget process. There is still
[2:18] a lot of work that has to happen in order to bring you the budget book, et cetera. So big, thank you
[2:24] to Rachel Hodick, Josh Doer, Estyn Joe said, Brian Anderson, Erin Parrish, the entire communications
[2:31] team who has to move back and forth and pull this together. You'll see that the presentation is
[2:36] a client, which was a feat in another self and then also to all the teammates who work hard
[2:42] to make sure that their base budgets are reviewed and that we are able to be able to support what
[2:48] we anticipate within the recommended budget that we started creating about a year and a half ago
[2:53] in the two year budget process. So with that, I'm going to go fairly quickly through the beginning
[2:58] as you have seen that before, but I think it's important for anyone that might be watching online
[3:03] and that hasn't been at the prior meetings.
[3:06] First, we do try to look at this through the lens of your priorities and principles, so the strategic priorities,
[3:12] which is how we focus our resources and initiatives and then the foundational principles,
[3:17] which is how we try to approach every action and decision and how we deliver on those things on a daily basis,
[3:22] whether that's operational or whether that's coming forward with projects that sometimes take five and ten years from their idea to finishing them.
[3:30] see some of that outside of City Hall today. We have been through this process, as mentioned,
[3:36] we had factors influencing the budget in April, follow up with the audit, which is what happened
[3:41] in 2025 and then again in July, the budget update with additional information. We have this study
[3:48] session on the 24th, another forthcoming on September 14th, depending on if there's more deep
[3:53] dive that we need based on the feedback we get today, and there are some other holds on the study
[3:58] session agenda depending on if there's details we need to continue to work through.
[4:03] You do have the preliminary levy adoption on September 24th, excuse me, September 21st.
[4:09] That's planned at that time you would be approving a levy that could go down or stay the
[4:13] same, but could not go up.
[4:15] So if there's something that you see here that you want to add, that's very important right
[4:20] now.
[4:20] And then the adoption of the budget is planned for December 7th at that public hearing.
[4:26] The supplemental process, as I mentioned, is not as rigorous as the two-year process.
[4:30] We don't have a new decision-package process for new ideas or expanding programming.
[4:37] The RPU budget is included in this, but as we have been mentioning over the last year
[4:41] and a half, there's a lot of refinement that's been happening with changes there.
[4:46] General Manager of McCullough will present that part of the slides, but we do have a lot more
[4:50] in this 2027 recommended, and then we've had in the past because we've wrapped up all of the work that many other people do in order to bring this to you.
[4:59] So...
[5:00] We're really looking forward, and it's important we've talked about this before, is getting any feedback on changes, adjustments, either reductions, increases, reductions to make other introductions of new ideas, and whether that 5.59% increase, which is not the tax levy rate.
[5:18] We'll talk a little bit more about that later, that's the percent increase year over year that would be required to fund the things that are in the recommended budget that are levy funded.
[5:26] Again, we've talked about the LGA before we heard from you back at the last study session that that needs to be a significant discussion in the 2028-2029 budget process about pavement preservation, both roads and trails.
[5:41] So that will probably consume much of your time in 2027 early on and again, we haven't been keeping up with the local government aid and the whole term was fell off in this 2027 budget year.
[5:54] So, to get down to the details of the budget, what we have here for all funds combined, and, of course, we would expect some of this to change with Rochester Public Utilities is a 799.3 million dollar budget.
[6:08] The vast majority of that is not funded by the tax levy, although we talk about the tax levy significantly, it's important to people who own property here.
[6:17] The total increase is that that makes up is about $6.6 million in tax-level adjustment.
[6:25] The rate increases for sewer and wastewater or excuse me for sewer are still trending
[6:31] at 1%.
[6:32] Based on the rate study, there will be updating their rate study for the 2028-2029 budget year.
[6:39] For electric, the original recommendation was 6%, but the recommendation that came through
[6:44] our pubort is at 4% which will affect the average customer by about $5 a month.
[6:50] And water has not changed since the original recommended to your budget.
[6:55] That is about 9% and a change on average of $1.78 a month.
[7:00] Again, cost of service studies are going to be forthcoming for Rochester Public Utilities for both water and electric
[7:06] and then also for sewer as I mentioned.
[7:08] So those are things that are very similar to what you saw in the two-year budget process.
[7:14] You can see how that rolls up on the right-hand side of the screening capital improvement program is a significant part of that almost $800 million budget.
[7:22] Operations though is also not insignificant.
[7:25] Just reminder that some of the operational budget for Rochester Public Utilities is related to some of that power purchase.
[7:31] So there's some, it's a little bit more unique
[7:34] that it has been in the past.
[7:36] And then debt service, again,
[7:37] increasing in 2027, primarily related
[7:40] to the sales tax debt, as well as some RPU.
[7:46] So the recommended supplemental tax level
[7:48] is sitting at $124,900,000 on approximately.
[7:53] And that is far less than what we had anticipated
[7:55] in the two-year adopted budget.
[7:57] The trend line there was at 7.4%.
[8:00] but again, we go back and comb through the budget
[8:02] and make adjustments as possible.
[8:05] The two things that are not included here
[8:06] and let me describe these accurately.
[8:08] In case we could use people,
[8:10] we did not make any increases in the tax
[8:12] literally to absorb the credit card fees
[8:14] that we're continuing to see forthcoming.
[8:16] What we had heard is that we should be looking at
[8:19] credit card fees, which we call either a surge charge
[8:22] or convenience fee.
[8:23] Those haven't been finalized,
[8:25] but we're very close to being able to bring you that.
[8:27] And then the loss of street reconstruction funding based on the local government age change,
[8:33] which I mentioned, we would look at in depth for the 2829 process.
[8:38] You can see that the property valuation growth, that there's 1.26% in new construction.
[8:44] So, naturalism, can you go back to just so I understand with the credit card fee considerations,
[8:50] the current budget that you're presenting has no change in it or does not include anything on.
[8:59] It doesn't include any increase in revenue for surcharge fees. If, for example, depending on how
[9:05] those get adopted, it's possible. You might see a slight reduction in the tax-loving that's currently
[9:10] necessary to absorb those, but if they weren't approved, then those would have to be absorbed
[9:15] within whatever budgets are approved that our tax will be added.
[9:18] Thank you.
[9:19] Thank you.
[9:20] Mayor Norton.
[9:32] Correct.
[9:32] The remainder of that is offsetting the cost for your general fund.
[9:36] So all of the LGA that remains is going to offset your general fund, which has is a significant
[9:42] leaf.
[9:43] A significant operational cost for the tax level.
[9:53] So you can see when I mentioned that 5.59% is not 3.
[9:57] You can see that over the last approximately 10 years.
[10:00] Here's the actual property tax rate has covered between about 46% and 52% and what this current budget is showing is that the net tax capacity rate would be about 48.9% at this amount.
[10:14] So, going down slightly from what was in the 20, what influenced tax bills in 2026, again that new construction number that I mentioned is going to sort of the first any dollar in first.
[10:27] And then the remainder would be absorbed by how people's tax levy changes based on their assessed valuation and of the rest of their property class.
[10:36] Again, the vast majority of the budget is actually that funded by TaxLevy.
[10:40] You can see the TaxLevy makes about 15% of total revenue for that approximately $800 million
[10:46] budget.
[10:48] We have other taxes, special assessments, licenses and permits, fines and forfeatures,
[10:54] the penalty section there.
[10:55] Intergovernmental revenue is still a very important part of our revenue structure.
[10:58] If you think about the airport and transit, that's a significant amount of that
[11:05] services as a big one. So when you're pay your water bill, your sewer bill, your electric
[11:09] bill, and there's a significant amount of fees, et cetera, with our recreational services,
[11:15] depending on what those are as well. And then prior year revenue is revenue that's been collected
[11:20] anticipating that we will have capital improvements that we don't necessarily want to
[11:24] love before or that you don't want to increase your rates for, but have been built in with some
[11:29] of those rates studies. So it's revenue that we've collected that we knew that we would need to
[11:35] capital project. Another way of looking at that is decision packages which are in addition to the existing
[11:42] base budget, about 1.15% of that levy adjustment is coming from those. Again, you have some,
[11:49] this is after you net out from prior year where you maybe had some one-time expenses and that's
[11:55] carried in the levy so you don't need to absorb new levy for that. We had some reductions and then
[12:01] in revenue that we needed to absorb, and then we have the capital improvement plan that's necessary,
[12:07] the equipment revolving stabilization to be able to continue to buy vehicles, occur rates,
[12:13] and we now have in, we're in the first year where we do not have any COVID-era funds coming in
[12:19] for the holistic budget stability that the council created at that time to influence the levy.
[12:24] And then our ongoing base budget for levy supported employee services,
[12:28] cost increases about 3.27% obviously across the board that's slightly different and we'll get
[12:34] to that in future slides. Public safety, significant part of the general fund, the general fund
[12:41] is very reliant on tax-lovey as is the library and parks and recreation, but you can see general
[12:47] government, public works, and we have some other things there, like the outside agency, spending,
[12:53] etc. So the significant amount of the tax level is going to be able to support the public safety
[12:59] function. If you look at the property tax distribution, 70% of that property tax is going to the
[13:05] general fund. Again, that's where your police fire public works are generally located.
[13:10] Municipal Recreation, it's about a little less than 10% of that. The CIP at a library at 7.5%. We have
[13:17] some debt service and internal service costs. That's also your equipment revolving and the airport
[13:22] at a very small percentage of 0.6% part of the operation of the airport, the vast majority
[13:27] of that is coming from operations revenue that comes from the airport, but we do pay
[13:33] utilities less the natural gas and pay for the cost of customs.
[13:39] And then the total expenditures, you can see many of these services are very alert on the
[13:44] property tax because you're not charging folks if you they call 911, you're first
[13:48] based on the fact that that's an expectation,
[13:51] I think from a city, like Rochester.
[13:54] And another way of looking at this is how much reliance is there.
[13:58] So if the library's got about 87% reliance on the tax level,
[14:03] adjusting, you know, the tax level and expecting that to come from library
[14:06] would be fairly significant impact on the level of service there,
[14:10] and vice versa on some of those other implications.
[14:14] The decision packages, so that 1.15% that I mentioned on the other slide, you can see in the left-hand side, these are the specific, I guess, improvements, if you will, that would be coming from those costs.
[14:29] And we did talk a bit about the adjustment for community services, police officer and one community outreach specialist, so you can see those still reflected here on the left-hand side.
[14:38] and then there are a few decision packages
[14:39] that are non-tax lovey in some enterprise funds.
[14:45] The expenditure categories adjust and fluctuate annually
[14:49] in slightly, but you can see that miscellaneous
[14:52] is an increase this year and have been decreased before.
[14:56] Some of those things are dependent on projects
[14:57] or things that we're getting done in that year.
[15:00] But again, we try to adjust the budget as necessary. We don't just leave money in the budget if we don't need the project for that type of activity to continue on into the future year.
[15:12] An employee service costs, so I mentioned the overall tax-loving related employee services costs on a prior slide.
[15:19] And surprisingly, if you have 24 hour services, like police and public works and fire, those are going to change.
[15:26] when you have more employees that are working to provide services there, they have larger changes year over year.
[15:34] So the total personnel expense, inclusive of RPU, is a $9 million increase for all funds.
[15:39] The general fund, which I mentioned, is 70% reliant on tech's levy, is 5.7 million.
[15:46] About half of that is the police and fire departments, then you have a bit from the library,
[15:51] a bit from municipal recreation, and then you have public works and other services and about
[15:58] 2.5 million of that is not just your public utilities, so water and electric employees.
[16:03] The salary and benefits, the net increase is about 5.3%. So we have the general wage adjustment,
[16:10] we have 19 bargaining units and we still have, I believe now it's actually one labor contract
[16:15] left, you did vote on one last week, and health and dental are trending at about 4% and
[16:21] 1.5% for 2027, so when we make adjustments and we have less folks that are taking family care
[16:27] that actually reduces the overall impact of employee services across the board.
[16:32] In lieu parking wastewater and storm water helps to offset the cost necessary for the
[16:37] tax level based on right of what it used, et cetera, and basically that if you have a parking
[16:42] ramp you cannot have tax producing property there, but it is important for some of those
[16:47] other services, so what's reflected in the budget is your conversation from the prior study
[16:51] session. And again, the same thing for the in-loop for Rochester Public Utilities,
[16:57] Electric and Water. Community Reinvestment Funding was an
[17:03] economic development recommendations have not changed from the
[17:07] 2026, 2027 budget process. So you can see those outlined here on slide 33.
[17:13] A few questions came forward earlier today. SBDC is the Small Business Development
[17:17] Center, the funds provided there also helped to offset our pull down federal dollars that are
[17:24] matching dollars for that and the history center. You can see there was an increase in a prior year
[17:30] that was primarily related to the cost of busing for school programs that they were initiating,
[17:35] just as a reminder, as I believe that that happened kind of early on in your careers here for some
[17:40] of you. And then the long range plan, I just, you can see this is all over the board. So the tax
[17:48] level percentage again is so much different than the actual net tax capacity slide that you
[17:53] saw that was hovering around flat line for the last 10 years. This is the year over year increase.
[17:59] And so as when we have new construction, more of that is absorbed by new construction, but also when
[18:03] you have new construction, you have additional pressure on your services and your service level.
[18:09] When you look at the long range financial management plan, you can see that we have projected
[18:14] out in the future that we might have higher tax-level adjustments.
[18:18] But again, we've seen in the past that we've been able to mitigate those were possible.
[18:22] We carry in the trends some capacity that you could use to reduce the levy or for new
[18:27] opportunities for investment.
[18:29] Within the levy, we also assume some personnel costs are going to change about on average
[18:34] 5.5 percent, that could be less, but we're always sort of always negotiating.
[18:41] It seems like, well, I'm not Mr. Parish's and his team, and then did just want to
[18:46] point out in 2030 that we carried an assumption that that might be a year where you would
[18:51] be bonding to be able to build station six, which is the fire station in northwest.
[18:56] So that may or may not happen in that year, but we wanted to project out that there will be
[19:00] a point where we need to be actually building that facility and staffing it.
[19:04] so that is the construction and cost of that. Again, last year, we anticipated 7.4 percent
[19:10] for 2027 and what the recommended budget is, is a 5.59 percent, you're over your increase.
[19:16] Also, remember, Wall? You explained a relatively small bump in 2030. What's the larger bump
[19:23] in 2022? Oh, someone told me that, and that's already slipped my mind.
[19:33] I think it was the way that we had some one time expenses that we're falling off, so it's sort
[19:44] of the way that that shows up is because we're carrying less one time expense falling off.
[19:53] I should have taken drop in notes.
[19:58] In the meantime, I have a question.
[20:00] I imagine that the anticipated long range budget for 27 was 7.
[20:09] What was it for 2026?
[20:16] In the long range plan before that, it was much higher than the 5.95 percent.
[20:21] I want to say it was in the E to 9 percent range.
[20:26] But we were hearing that there was concerns about that, so we were trying, that was a year where we made a lot, we were very tight on the baseline budget.
[20:35] So, my point is we've anticipated higher and now for previous year and for the supplemental budget we're coming in under.
[20:48] Correct. And there are also a lot of different priorities that the city council has adopted that depending on how you implement them may have implications for the capacity that's carried here whether that is reducing the amount increasing the amount or maybe a combination of both depending on what you're looking for so that conversation about pavement maintenance that there may be is some costs that's already carried there that you want to allocate towards that versus other decision packages. So that will be an important part of our discussion early on.
[21:17] in the next budget process.
[21:21] I think that Miss Hoda has the answer.
[21:24] Thank you.
[21:25] Thank you all.
[21:26] If you noticed on that slide,
[21:28] where Allison had mentioned that the decision packs
[21:30] were at 1.15%, but yet we had two million
[21:33] in decision packs that we were funding.
[21:36] That is the same thing.
[21:37] We don't have the one-time reversals
[21:39] to reverse out of 29 yet.
[21:41] So it is the full amount of DPs
[21:43] that are included in there at that time.
[21:46] So once we get 28 and how many or one time,
[21:48] We can back that out, but that's an unknown at this point.
[21:51] So for example, if you added a police office,
[21:54] so we carry a number there, but you could use less of it
[21:58] or you could use more of it or you could use more of it.
[22:00] And so let's say there's $1.5 million for the police
[22:03] officers in there, and that comes with five cars.
[22:06] You're going to have a much higher one time cost
[22:08] for the vehicles and then after the fact
[22:10] you're going to be carrying whatever the annualized cost
[22:13] is within the equipment revolving time.
[22:17] So that's going to reduce the, you don't keep adding that to your levy.
[22:22] Council Member Miller.
[22:23] This is a related question since
[22:29] we increased in tax levy first.
[22:31] We had a presentation earlier this year from Urban 3 that contemplated some potential strategic
[22:38] investments or strategic directions to improve the efficiency of our tax base.
[22:43] How might we continue to think about engaging with that process as we look forward into
[22:48] the projections of city needs.
[22:50] Sure, a couple of ways.
[22:52] Some of that is being very thoughtful about growth and expansion areas, which you have a growth
[22:56] management plan that tries to consider that.
[22:59] You had a presentation also from Rochester Public Utilities about the water component of that
[23:03] and trying to be strategic about that.
[23:06] Also, there was some discussion on the same day.
[23:08] Not exactly urban three about whether you might be able to carry some of, basically create a
[23:15] wide project for housing, utilizing the tax increment financing district that is the DMC district.
[23:23] So that may have some implications, what are bad, depending on the way that the investment might happen.
[23:29] But of course, if you have tax increment financing, then that's not absorbing.
[23:33] But you do have a few tax increment financing districts that are decertifying at the end of this year
[23:38] that will also absorb some of that increase.
[23:44] So again, this is just a numerical look at the
[23:48] So we carry these across the various different tax funded funds and you can see how the changes in this occur across
[23:58] whether that's the general fund, the library fund, municipal recreation. Again, it's a trend line.
[24:03] This is trying to be a little bit predictive for you so that you can early on in the process say, no, I'm not comfortable with this or we don't want to do anything new this year.
[24:12] We should be focusing on police or fire or those types of different things.
[24:16] And so we also have the construction improvement fund, that's where you would see some changes potentially related to the local government aid.
[24:24] And then also the debt service there, you can see that jump up in 2030.
[24:29] So just another way of looking at the projection forward again, not a guarantee.
[24:34] But something that we try to do to understand both internally for teammates to be able to say, you know, this is going to have to be a later year.
[24:41] this is when we're, I don't think we can be able to feel comfortable carrying a new facility
[24:47] and a bunch of new decision packages at the same time. Our major revenues, again, the tax
[24:55] and tax abatements is recommended at 100 a little less than 120.
[25:00] Five million, 124.9 million, local government aid, you can see going down in the major revenues.
[25:08] And then again, down farther in the part that was allocated to the CIP. So to the mayor's question,
[25:14] what we had done with the one-time hold harmless funds was to isolate those into the capital improvement plan,
[25:21] which was focused on pavement maintenance, so that you would have a longer runway to be able to make decisions when the
[25:27] to hold harm as fell off and then looking at the hotel motel tax you can see that continuing to
[25:33] trend out by would say that's probably actually a low number but we don't want to get comfortable
[25:37] with construction related hotel activity and then be surprised by that later we continue to analyze
[25:43] that there's more information later in the presentation and then down through the information here
[25:48] you can see significant adjustments in Rochester Public Utilities. We have some major construction projects
[25:53] coming forward, so they will describe that a little bit more in the detailed section for our
[25:58] PU.
[25:59] Again, that service summary here.
[26:01] This is our existing debt service, and you can see that in 2030 we would expect that to
[26:07] go up a bit if you are, if that's the year that a new fire station funding for that would
[26:13] happen, and then some adjustments there across the board for non-debt supported funding.
[26:19] We tried every year we have debt that falls off and some of that is small and some of that is larger.
[26:26] But again, that's just our general debt profile doesn't really change that much each year.
[26:32] To have a pretty low debt profile for a city of 125,000 people and with the growth that you're a poor seeing.
[26:40] So some operating indicators, we've grown a lot since 1980, both in the maybe two council member Miller's
[26:47] as the city has grown both in geography and also in population and number of properties.
[26:53] We have seen significant growth there, but we've done what we can to mitigate the impact on on how much
[26:58] personal we're hiring to do that and taking advantage of technological advances, contracting, et cetera.
[27:06] And with that, you will not have to hear my voice anymore for a while.
[27:11] All right, I'm going to transition to most of the other funds here and then walk through some of the policy conversations.
[27:16] I'm not going to go through the general fund in detail, I'll send it a great job sort of summarizing all that, so, just kind of know that that's, you know, something that's been well taken care of here.
[27:27] We're just a note, you know, we are with the budget you have here, as well as just our historical practice.
[27:34] We are forecasted right now in 20 or have actual revenues over expenditures, a 46% for our general fund fund balance.
[27:42] member of our targets 42. We always want to be a little bit above that because it's
[27:46] that when expenditures grow, then number to get to 42 grows. So we tend to be a
[27:51] little bit higher than that. And so that's been good to have positive revenue
[27:56] over expenditures. Just talking about the special revenue funds. Parks generally, most
[28:03] of the increase here is comes in two. So there's about $3.4 million of additional
[28:07] Park investment, a lot of that is really loaded in to the sportsplex.
[28:12] Again, revenues and expenditures, you've seen sort of the operational profile there.
[28:17] There is an additional arborist in this calculation as well.
[28:22] And so just note that in the rest is staffing contributions.
[28:26] Library-wise, a very diminimous adjustment here.
[28:29] Just a couple hundred thousand dollars of additional spending.
[28:32] So this is very much focused on base operations.
[28:36] primarily attributed to employee services.
[28:39] Moving on to the airport,
[28:40] flight increase in the airport just over $40,000.
[28:44] Again, really focused on supporting baseline and capacity needs.
[28:48] There will be some fee scattered adjustments that are discussed,
[28:51] particularly in the parking space,
[28:53] but we're constantly looking at our leases
[28:54] and how those can be sort of pro-social and beneficial
[28:57] to the airport and enhance the funding available there.
[29:02] You've received some additional information today around employment.
[29:05] So, employment, surpass and directivity has been up, certainly not to pre-pandemic levels.
[29:12] All that enthusiasm around the United Flights still is there,
[29:16] but there's a delay in getting that into the system with just some broader federal airport capacity issues that we're continuing to struggle through.
[29:23] And again, a lot of our costs there are fixed, so irrespective of the number of employment or passengers we have going in and out of the airport.
[29:30] We still do the runway, snow removal, we still do all the things you have to do to successfully run an airport.
[29:38] But I also note that passengers is one marker of the airport, but I imagine you all get delivery from time to time,
[29:45] and the other kinds of things that are important for people.
[29:48] And that's certainly a growth area, but just not a metric that we track.
[29:51] We really kind of focus on the employment.
[29:55] Transit. This is a big difference. Of course you have BRT amortizing in here. We have the operation.
[30:00] Regions associated with via coming on board, which I believe that's like this week, right, like so. You'll be talking to me. You'll be talking to me in a minute. Super excited about that.
[30:10] But there was some expense there. Like this, this was a, you know, there are some costs associated with that contract.
[30:17] And then we had the BRT operations. And we have some temporary funding there to support the local share. Obviously, mail has got a very strong portion of the local share, but that is something you'll hear about in our legislative platform.
[30:29] later in the year on your study session in terms of the work we need to do to get dedicated
[30:34] to BRT funding under the enterprise.
[30:36] Can you hold a minute?
[30:37] I'll come to my moment.
[30:39] Sorry.
[30:39] Just before we move on to enterprise funds, could you go back to the municipal wreck and I just wanted
[30:44] to ask a question about the first bullet point to start one of the assumptions and concepts
[30:50] of how the performance moves forward with that is that it's largely tax-level not relying
[30:57] on the tax levied, does that continue to be the case and how is that 2.7 million increase
[31:04] for the regional sports complex fit in with that philosophy that had been part of the
[31:08] discussions of? Yeah, generally speaking, there's revenues and expenses, so the
[31:14] performance that you saw earlier, I mean, you know, those revenues obviously are offsetting
[31:18] some of the expenses, so the net to the budget, you know, as much less. But someone seeing this,
[31:24] who said this weren't supposed to cost the tax level anymore. Is that still generally the, yeah,
[31:29] what we're, what we're striving for. We obviously have some non revenue-generating activity
[31:34] happening now as they ramp in and all that, but, but yes, it's revenues and expenses and the
[31:41] the lion share of the $2.7 million dollars is offset by revenue that's coming in.
[31:47] So. Then a question about the increased monitoring and maintenance of picnic shelters and
[31:52] and facilities with RPD, just curious about why other areas of the park aren't part of that focus of the parks, maybe those are recreational facilities, parking lots,
[32:04] being how does that factor in and this is a question for RPD.
[32:07] I mean, this is new, and I believe you all received an email around this from Chief Franklin, not terribly long ago, maybe a couple weeks ago.
[32:15] I think the emphasis there is just highlighting like the core purpose behind bringing on some
[32:21] of the park, rangers or park-focused CSOs was really to make sure we had the ability to
[32:27] do bathrooms well and maintain some of the outdoor assets that we have. We're predominantly
[32:33] scheduled in the summer for that work and so indoor year-round recreational facilities would
[32:39] be sort of a gap coverage there. But I think we're learning through it and so that probably
[32:43] as we think about the 28 budget process, we could certainly say,
[32:47] like, is this going well, are there enhancements?
[32:50] But this was really sort of this pilot year
[32:52] where this is the first implementation.
[32:55] And overall, I think we've seen good outcomes.
[32:56] I've heard a lot less about bathrooms of this year,
[32:58] which has been great.
[32:59] I have as well, but I've actually heard more about parking lots
[33:01] in some dangerous activity, particularly at Soldiers Field Park,
[33:06] cars driving through the track, driving through other places.
[33:09] And I just bring that up because there's been a lot more
[33:11] activity in the tennis courts, basketball courts in other areas which is great, but there have
[33:17] been additional complaints or issues that I've heard arising from some of that activity.
[33:22] And I just want to make sure that when we talk about what we're focusing on that we're not
[33:26] missing an opportunity to be just present in the parks generally, and not necessarily just focused
[33:31] on shelters and bathrooms.
[33:33] Yeah, I think it may be all that Chief Franklin's here, I see he's noting, I don't know if he
[33:37] as an economist to make to that effect, otherwise we certainly can, you know, consider that
[33:42] a little further.
[33:43] We need to my point behind here.
[33:49] I'm Council Member, I think I can answer that.
[33:52] The Park CSO has been a force multiplier and think of them as an augmentation of our current
[33:57] patrol services.
[33:59] I can tell you that we have not reduced our footprint so that it has not replaced sworn
[34:04] police officers in the park area.
[34:07] But it's been a force multiplier in fact again that report that I provided to you guys a couple of weeks ago
[34:13] Showcase that hand-in-hand relationship in the fact that they have called us kind of that first
[34:18] Eyes-on the scene called us and helped us be that force multiplier. It's the best way I can answer that question
[34:24] And I can run a report on calls for service that we've had a part
[34:27] But I don't have those numbers right up the top. I can say that we haven't had a few like you said a few
[34:33] You know, maybe higher profile incidents at soldiers field, but I can't sit here and say that there's been this huge uptick in this
[34:41] I wouldn't suspect that there is either it's more around the erratic driving and sort of car culture perhaps of some use of some of the parking lots in the evening hours
[34:51] That continues to be an issue that we're doing our best with. Yes, thank you
[34:56] And just quickly to go back to your original question. We do have the sports plucks in its own
[35:00] Fund, so that we can measure the over under relative to the conversation about any subsidy.
[35:06] Council Member Key.
[35:07] I just wanted to clarify while we're on the special revenue municipal wreck. I see we make a reference to the new
[35:13] arbor's position that was in the decision pack. But again, I want to make sure that's not funded through this special revenue fund.
[35:20] That's that's that's levy funded position.
[35:23] Yes, so the Municipal Recreation Funds, all of those collectively, are significantly funded
[35:29] by tax-loving, but it's held as a special revenue based on how the charter works.
[35:34] So once the funds go to whether that's Parks and Rec or whether that is library, it stays
[35:39] within those funds and then they hold their own fund balance.
[35:43] Okay, so from my perspective, the decision pattern was approved, so the levy goes up and
[35:49] amount, but that money is put into this municipal wreck and then the salaries paid out of
[35:54] there. And if it's over, under the balance stays there. Correct. Okay. And you can see
[35:58] this, the Long Range Financial Forecast, you can see the amounts of levee that is allocated
[36:04] to each of the special revenue funds library and parks included. So, you can see in 12,
[36:09] of that 12 point, you know, million dollars in parks, some portion of that is the new
[36:19] of wreck things are with forestry, with...
[36:23] That's a roll-up, there's four different divisions of the wreck fund, but that's a roll-up of all four in the way we tend to, in the way the special revenue funds presented.
[36:31] Okay, thank you.
[36:37] So moving on to Enterprise Fund, so again, parking, most of the adjustments here are well-known from the rate studies that you've all talked about as well as some of the ongoing capital and operational analyses that are happening.
[36:48] So nothing particularly notable to share here,
[36:53] other than I believe we're super excited about the Center Street
[36:56] ramp opening up again here, so it's good news.
[36:59] So your utility has also mentioned 1% rate increase,
[37:02] generally many, many projects happening here on the capital side.
[37:06] Again, these are predominantly intended to be reflections
[37:09] of the operations of the department, most of the $800 or so $1000
[37:13] of increase here is really attributed to staffing
[37:15] and some operating supply types of items.
[37:18] CIP tends to happen a little bit differently. Stormwater, fairly basier, as your percent increase
[37:26] in the proposed rates here. So, no material changes on the enterprise funds, that way
[37:33] they continue to work through sort of the evaluations that you've all heard updates on
[37:37] as well. So, with that, any other quick updates on enterprise funds before we transfer to water
[37:43] and electric.
[37:47] Welcome Mr. McCullough to the meeting.
[37:49] Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, happy to be here to help support the budget conversation.
[37:56] Start, just spend five to seven minutes to explain the water and electric budgets.
[38:03] No change to our strategy. We maintain cost-based rates.
[38:06] We work closely to not have intrafund or interfund rate class subsidies back and forth,
[38:12] and maintain key financial ratios for bond ratings, stability, and long-term financial stability.
[38:21] Total budget shows 245 million across both the water and the electric enterprises,
[38:27] but there's a very different story between the two funds, and I'd like to dive in to that very briefly.
[38:34] Related to the original recommendation was a 9% general rate adjustment in 2026 and then again in 2027.
[38:43] We are recommending to hold to the 9% general rate adjustment that was already approved in the 2027 budget,
[38:51] but that's not without some additional pressures that are being managed with some short-term debt issuance,
[38:57] which I believe we've talked about earlier at the study session,
[39:00] as well as the other capital pressures that we may be facing in the water fund as well.
[39:06] That is a net impact of $1.78 per month per water customer, the average water bill,
[39:12] or at least the water portion of the bill in Rochester is about $20 a month for an average consumer as well.
[39:19] Here you'll also notice there's $6.5 million less grant revenue in 2027 as originally anticipated.
[39:28] That's due to the throttling, I would say, of the lead service line dollars coming from the state.
[39:35] We were notified that the remaining balance in the lead service line pool for the state is over subscribed.
[39:43] And we expect the current balance likely to be exhausted by the end of 27.
[39:48] So we're still continuing to make good progress there.
[39:50] but we've adjusted our outlook in 27 to about a million and a half dollars of what we anticipate
[39:58] may still be available for led sir.
[40:00] Service line funds in 2027. So that's the downside of the six and a half million there as well.
[40:07] Council member Miller.
[40:09] Related to that, let's have a sign program. Do you plan to come back to us with a modified plan to address those?
[40:15] Let's have a sign set within not be eligible because the funding is less than we anticipated.
[40:21] That's a great question. I think our pathway there would be continued state and federal advocacy for
[40:27] service line funds, these are largely all private infrastructure since the lead service lines are
[40:35] owned all the way to the water main. So this is an expense that's grant funded and it wouldn't
[40:40] be appropriate to use public funds or utility funds for that. So we would be working, I think it'll
[40:46] be present in our legislative priority list that we'll be discussing later on as well.
[40:53] stepping into water capital. This is the really significant part of the story here. The growth
[41:00] in Rochester and housing and land development, I think, is a good new story as far as trying
[41:05] to meet our housing demands, but it's creating pressure on the water utility fund. The fee structure
[41:10] that we've had in place for water development fees largely contributes only to tower storage
[41:16] and some level of chunk oversizing for water transmission.
[41:21] Other water supply, well pumps, booster pumps,
[41:24] are funded through base rates.
[41:27] Therefore, with the expanded growth
[41:29] that puts rate pressure there, our strategy there
[41:31] is, it's already been recommended by the board.
[41:34] It'll come to the council in September
[41:36] to issue short-term debt to manage those capital pressures
[41:39] where future customers would then pay
[41:41] for that capital expansion.
[41:43] And that is a combination of advanced metering capital,
[41:50] the what we're calling the Kalmar Booster Station,
[41:52] which will be meeting the new Northwest High High Pressure Zone
[41:55] around the Pebble Creek.
[41:57] I believe a subdivision area where there's a new pressure zone
[42:01] and a metal lakes and del web water main extension.
[42:04] So those three projects are anticipated to be
[42:07] meet dead issuance in 2026,
[42:09] and also show up in 2027 there as well.
[42:13] Even with that financing, we're anticipating ending 27 with 10 million in cash reserves,
[42:20] which is still above minimum recommended cash reserves.
[42:24] The eagle eye on the slide would notice a missing parentheses on the bottom right cell.
[42:28] That should be a minus 2.29 million.
[42:34] The first and second columns are cracked.
[42:36] It just was missing the parentheses there to show a downturn in cash reserves.
[42:43] Electric is the more favorable change in this supplemental budget.
[42:47] I sat here a year ago and would have told you and did tell you that we needed about 6%
[42:53] general rate increases not only in 27, but through the end of 2030, so 4 years over and over.
[43:00] That was largely due to capital pressures of our firm capacity, our reliable capacity investments,
[43:05] the Mt. Simon station, the gas turbine fire, we were anticipating needing approximately $241 million of debt
[43:13] issuance to fund those capital items. We've had favorable variances and both of those projects
[43:19] were anticipating a debt issuance in the realm of $141 million. A hundred million dollars less is a
[43:25] significant change in debt service obligations. So our recommendation is to reduce the general rate
[43:32] adjustment, recommendation in 27, down to an effective 4% and not only in 27, but the
[43:39] five-year pro-forma shows it at 4% through the end of the decade.
[43:43] So we had some very favorable results there and I'm happy to report that.
[43:47] Council Member Pomer.
[43:48] I got a couple questions here.
[43:50] You've got 1.3% customer growth and then you've got 3% reduction in use.
[43:57] How do you figure that out and then on your customers, what percentage basically is commercial
[44:01] So which is it residential?
[44:04] I'll attempt all three parts of that question.
[44:08] So we use a 20 or 30-year history
[44:10] to project forward what load growth is.
[44:13] It's a combination, both of new housing starts, industrial loads.
[44:18] And so our overall customer growth
[44:20] is anticipating about 1.3%.
[44:22] This is mostly residential housing starts,
[44:24] a combination of multi-family and single-family houses.
[44:27] But every new customer comes at less consumption.
[44:30] And the new growth on a per capita basis is lower energy use.
[44:38] And so this reverts back to our 30 year forecast.
[44:41] And we budget conservatively on revenues and usage.
[44:46] So those two numbers are slightly decoupled.
[44:49] More customers, but each customer is using less on average.
[44:52] And the forward forecast always is based off of not last year's results.
[44:57] But a 20 year average.
[44:58] So you're seeing a combination of those.
[45:00] Factors there. Would you remind me the third part of your question?
[45:05] You did remind me.
[45:07] Oh, make sure of residential and commercial.
[45:12] Our top 10 industrial and large customers account for about 30% of our load.
[45:19] And then I would say about two thirds of our remaining energy and customer accounts are small business and residential.
[45:27] So, it's about equal thirds industrial large customers, small business, and then residential, on a load basis, a third of third of third of third of third.
[45:39] Thank you, roughly.
[45:44] We are recommending accomplishing the rate adjustment the 4% and that effective by making an adjustment to the power costs baseline.
[45:52] So the rate schedule would have no change from last year and we would adjust the power cost adjustment to bring an effective 4% rate adjustment in lieu of the 6% recommended.
[46:04] Moving on to electric expenses capital and debt probably most important slide here on the electric side.
[46:11] Baseline expenses show a 7.7 million increase of additional interest expense.
[46:17] That's the new debt issuance primarily anticipated in early 27.
[46:22] We plan to have that conversation with the board council October November time frame this year.
[46:28] Two major developments I think I touched on these recovering the gas cascade creek gas turbine one
[46:35] for a modest capital investment that may not be insurance-related, but largely, we believe that
[46:41] can be recovered with no additional new capital outlay, and then the Mount Simon Station
[46:47] is coming in much less.
[46:50] The 4% recommendation doesn't mean we're investing less than reliability or efficiency.
[46:55] These are really just reflections of the capital program on the electric side.
[47:01] Talk about some key outcomes.
[47:02] I just have a question on the incremental FTE's graphic design and digital communications.
[47:10] Is there any synergy that RPU does with city communications that is there work together
[47:20] or long range planning to be a joint communications under one umbrella?
[47:29] I would say yes and no, there's a strong communication that happens on a day-to-day basis related
[47:36] to the work of specifically the RPU utilities in the broader city, coordinated press releases,
[47:42] coordinated programs, but largely there is still a dedicated communication specialist already embedded
[47:48] within RPU that handles our plugged in publication, direct customer communication, extensive communication
[47:56] on the advanced metering, we're touching a hundred thousand end points and direct customer
[48:01] communication.
[48:01] So there's resources dedicated to the work of utilities there that are not embedded in
[48:06] a centralized division there.
[48:08] This recommendation has actually in the, was in the two-year budget as a placeholder.
[48:13] So it's already in the approved budget as far as a head count there.
[48:17] The purpose of that one is to offload some of the outside contracting that we're doing
[48:22] for the plugged in publication and some of the accessibility work that still is yet to be done
[48:28] on the visual side. So it's combination of yes and no. This is an area where I believe it supports
[48:32] core business on supporting utility customers directly and the funding should come from the utility
[48:38] revenues there for those services. Thank you.
[48:44] Key outcomes coming to the end here very quickly. On the power supply resource plan,
[48:50] A largest bonded program, you'll see a decline here from 76.3 million to 55.
[48:57] That's just a matter of timing, the five-year multi-year capital plan.
[49:03] It just changes the timing of those expenditures.
[49:06] Similarly, on the grid north partners, you'll see an increase.
[49:09] What has an apparent increase from 1.7 to 19.6.
[49:12] Again, that's a timing issue of sooner than anticipated, but the five-year multi-year
[49:17] capital shows a slight increase to 32.5 million there.
[49:22] As I stated earlier, we're maintaining our investments in tree management day-to-day
[49:27] reliability and some other technology and contingency work.
[49:34] On the water projects, the Kalmar Booster Station is one of the larger investments that
[49:39] will start this year.
[49:40] We anticipate bid award coming in late September.
[49:44] We're anticipating a budget amendment for 26 necessary in concert with the debt issuance and the budget amendment to get started on that work.
[49:52] It wasn't anticipated of needing the new pressure zone and starting in 26 that also has implications to 27 expenditures.
[50:00] I'm sorry. I'm one slide behind. Yep. Thank you. And then the medal lakes and del web water, main transmission, expansion. We'll be another capital, council member, key.
[50:13] Just on these specific things General Manager McCollot, I'm trying to understand, like on the calmer and also on the medal lakes, these are driven by new developments.
[50:23] But it sounds like they're being worked into the rates thing, which almost sounds like their expenses are being spread across the customer base and not carried by the new developments.
[50:33] Is that a policy or that's just sometimes happens with the way the work happens?
[50:40] I would answer that, that the developments are paying for portions of that infrastructure.
[50:46] specifically with the Kalmar booster station, there's a developer contribution in kind land and a cash contribution there,
[50:53] but that booster station will serve the entire full extent of the growth area, and that land has not yet developed.
[51:01] And so we need to build the infrastructure ahead of the other land development.
[51:05] And yes, if we would not issue debt, it would have to be borne by current ratepayers, the plan of issuing short-term debt,
[51:13] is so that the future growth can be the future customers can pay for that as the debt service is paid off
[51:19] and we do intend in concert with the water system master plan to come back with a recommendation on
[51:27] water development fees. Because as it is now, some of that is not born by future development.
[51:32] It's born by the rate base. Right. And I didn't want to get into the complexity of
[51:36] teasing those apart. But I do appreciate the goal of trying to drive the expense to where
[51:42] be in driven from and to have them paying it as opposed to just absorbing into the system.
[51:48] Yeah. Similar story on the Dell Web, the metal lakes expansion, there's some
[51:53] direct contribution from those, but the trunk oversizing is a
[51:56] expense typically born by the RPU, what other water rate pairs. And so there's a portion of that
[52:02] that could be collected by future water main connection fees for other developments that would be
[52:07] served by that. That's another mechanism that we have there. But the reality is is that historically
[52:12] in currently we have rate based some of that water system expansion on the water supply side.
[52:19] Thank you.
[52:22] In my glasses back on to see my notes. I believe I am at the end here.
[52:28] So in summary, the water remains at the 9% recommended electric comes down to 4% for 20,
[52:35] 27 net impact of a dollar 78 and 517 a month total for residential customers.
[52:45] All right, any questions for Mr. McCullough?
[52:49] Thank you.
[52:51] All right, we're doing amazing part of time.
[52:57] So we have a focus conversation.
[53:00] These are things we've sort of picked up by Mike.
[53:04] These are things that we've sort of heard from the council that you've
[53:07] wanted to talk about.
[53:09] We've tried to frame them and give you some information just to have
[53:11] conversation around each of these.
[53:13] I'll go through a few of these areas.
[53:15] I mean, some of the sides work together.
[53:17] Pause briefly for some feedback that you all have.
[53:20] and then continue to move on to the next area.
[53:24] So, previous council meetings,
[53:25] we've talked about better public meetings implementation.
[53:28] This really tries to give you some framing around
[53:30] the email platform.
[53:32] Of course, we have a gov delivery platform now
[53:34] and Jenna is available for any questions in this space as well.
[53:39] We're evaluating our relationship with Granicus right now
[53:42] from a web service provision, et cetera.
[53:44] And we have many products that we're considering
[53:47] whether they're about the best fit.
[53:49] They haven't been as forward-facing and advancing in the
[53:53] excessive digital accessibility space.
[53:56] So I just wanted to kind of note that.
[53:59] But here's just a range of different products that I think you all
[54:02] have had some level of conversation on in terms of customer
[54:04] relationship management.
[54:06] Are there better ways to do outreach at a broad level just to know.
[54:10] Each time we do a new technology product,
[54:12] we have a fairly robust technology review process just for
[54:19] risk, you know, they run through a variety of different testing, etc., and we also look at that
[54:26] to say, are we doing this elsewhere? Do we have a system over here that does something similar,
[54:31] so we don't proliferate technology that we have to support. So there's the platform, there's
[54:36] various costs with that. We also have, can you hold a, I mean, Mr. Prayer's council member, Miller?
[54:43] I guess I have a question on the slide on the third bullet point, which has an opt-in approach
[54:49] is generally preferred for building an engage as the sustainable subscriber list.
[54:53] Is that a best practice among governments or is that just in general with communication
[54:57] marketing tools. Maybe it.
[55:00] Ask them as bomb and figure out that. Thank you, council member. As far as I can't say that this is all of the research
[55:09] would back this, it is in the research that I have done so far. You know, you imagine if you've opted in for something, the
[55:17] chance that you will open it or engage with it, in the research that I've done just indicated that it's not meant to be in
[55:26] position of the opposite or of an alternative, but just noting that that was a point to consider.
[55:34] Okay, I'll just say from my perspective, and I know this has been said before, but I think that
[55:39] I would feel that way in general, if I were making a purchase at a local real-tit retailer,
[55:44] and they started emailing me, I might feel one way, but when I want to hear from the city,
[55:48] and I've heard the same from residents that proactive city communication that is actionable
[55:54] relevant to the space and contextual geographically, I think, is a service that many residents
[56:01] would appreciate that I wouldn't expect to fit into that assessment. I think that's true
[56:07] if I've given money once a non-profit or something I don't want to keep hearing from them
[56:11] unless I've opted in, but I think when people want to hear from the city information that's
[56:15] relevant timely and contextual is it falls out of that assessment for me.
[56:21] Understood, I think the thing I would say as well, just to consider is likely if that was the path we were going down
[56:29] Awareness building on the fact that folks would have been
[56:33] Subscribed and to be checking their spam that was the one thing that was noted is given the various filters that occur through email platforms
[56:41] Be it a Gmail or something else of just wanting to ensure someone wouldn't inadvertently be unaware that they were getting those
[56:49] by being subscribed, so it just to note that that's a piece that we'd want to ensure is clear that folks are
[56:57] knowing what they're looking for as a part of that rollout.
[57:01] The other piece I just wanted to note there, I know there was a question in regards to the opportunity for an elected official to decide if they would like to
[57:11] And so just to note in that annual cost of the 21808, that that is approximately $2,000 per
[57:21] user.
[57:22] So, if not all elected officials wanted to participate in it, that is just the cost per
[57:28] user is $2,000.
[57:30] I think that's a fair point.
[57:32] Are all of these tools able to geographically understand where people fall in the city, understanding
[57:37] that some communication is relevant to an area versus citywide communication does opt
[57:41] or a topical opt-in?
[57:43] The geo, the geo,
[57:46] any sort of geo piece to it,
[57:48] that would largely be the end of
[57:49] because otherwise you are doing
[57:51] more of the opt-in.
[57:54] There are opportunities even in
[57:55] our existing platform for
[57:57] folks to identify what types of
[57:59] content or information they
[58:01] are interested in.
[58:02] I will say we are doing less of that
[58:05] today than even our current
[58:07] platform would allow us to.
[58:09] Okay, thank you.
[58:10] I can I just level set here. So we're in a supplemental budget discussion and I see in front of me like one to four five options and I'm not clear on the granite kiss and kind of we're evaluating. I don't know when we're sun setting that I guess what I'm looking for is
[58:39] a recommendation from staff that says, this is a community engagement tool that we believe
[58:54] is fits with what the council members are talking about the next step for our community
[59:04] engagement. And so I guess my question is are we going to get a recommendation and will there be a
[59:12] recommendation that will then impact our budget for 2027? Council members, what we have talked about
[59:21] consistently is that what my recommendation is is it's very important for you to have the best practices
[59:26] for elected official communication and citywide communication. Depending on the tools you use,
[59:31] It's really more about any individual use of those falling within some sort of communication strategy that does not actually dilute the city communication strategy.
[59:40] So that's what we had talked about before. I think based on all of the costs that are recommended here, you would have capacity within your budget or between the communications budget administration and that you, if you weren't using granite case anymore, would have whatever's budgeted for that $15,000 in capacity, you might have some one-time costs.
[1:00:00] I know we've talked about this recently. It could absorb within your contingency, but in the grand scheme of what the general fund budget is, it wouldn't be drastically different, but I think it is really important that you have some of that policy conversation about typically we do not have individual elected officials have separate capacity to for city tax love.
[1:00:20] funded support do different things from each other. There could be something here where if
[1:00:26] after all of the valuation came down, Indigov was the choice and you weren't opting.
[1:00:31] I mean that's a policy question. Do you want to as a local government opt people into all
[1:00:36] of your communication when they haven't chosen to get communication from you? And the way that the
[1:00:41] contracts for Indigov have worked in other communities is you start paying based on email subscribers.
[1:00:47] So like at some point you're getting charged based on how many of these you send out.
[1:00:50] So it could go up over time.
[1:00:53] I mean, I think that's a real policy question.
[1:00:55] Do people want us to reach out with, like,
[1:00:57] find out where they are, how they are,
[1:00:59] and assume that they want certain information
[1:01:01] from a local government?
[1:01:02] That's a question for the council as a whole.
[1:01:06] And at least recently, what we've talked about is
[1:01:08] moving forward in some sort of pathway that talks
[1:01:11] about what is your communication strategy as a group?
[1:01:15] What are the, you know, starts and stops
[1:01:18] from being an individual elected official
[1:01:21] and city-wide communication
[1:01:22] and what is your policy consideration for that?
[1:01:27] So I would like to say we would come back
[1:01:30] with a recommendation as fast as possible,
[1:01:32] but we're also trying to do active communications
[1:01:35] through a significant amount of construction
[1:01:37] and things of that nature.
[1:01:38] And I do think having some of that policy framework
[1:01:42] is important for whatever tool, whatever tool
[1:01:44] may come forward.
[1:01:46] Mayor Norton.
[1:01:49] Yes, this has been an issue that we've talked about and I will give just two quick examples that have happened in the last week.
[1:01:59] I've had people say, gee, I wish I'd known about your town hall and transportation.
[1:02:04] I would have loved to have been there, but I didn't know about it until after the fact.
[1:02:09] So that's one example and that's one of the reasons why being able to reach out to constituents in a personal way via email as opposed to
[1:02:17] hoping they see it on social media would be helpful.
[1:02:21] The other is literally today, I responded to hundreds
[1:02:24] and hundreds of emails,
[1:02:28] hundreds and hundreds of emails.
[1:02:31] And the first one I got back was how little you
[1:02:35] care for your constituents because it was so impersonal.
[1:02:40] Because we don't have a way to personalize our emails.
[1:02:45] I spent, I can't tell you how many hours putting together a very thoughtful note that I thought would explain something to constituents.
[1:02:54] It was viewed as too impersonal because it was dear friend,
[1:02:59] because I was sending the same letter to hundreds and hundreds and ultimately through thankfullychange.org.
[1:03:07] 3,000 people, they did it for me in their way.
[1:03:11] I don't have a way to do that.
[1:03:12] So, we need to improve our methods of communication, not necessarily what the city is doing,
[1:03:19] but how we, as individual elected officials, have access to and communicate with our constituents.
[1:03:27] And I think whether it's through a pilot or additional research, I would love to see you all as council members have,
[1:03:36] the next mayor have ways to communicate effectively with their constituents and it is harder and
[1:03:45] harder with all the new technologies and different methods of communication that are being used
[1:03:50] and frankly, the lack of one source media that we used to have in this community that we don't
[1:03:55] anymore.
[1:03:57] Councilmember Miller?
[1:03:58] I just had, I mean, to the question of opting in, I mean, we send mailings as citywide,
[1:04:03] summer fund, we opt people into receiving that, we send postcards or neighborhood information
[1:04:09] meetings, we opt people into receiving those, and we hear from people who have reduced
[1:04:14] postal service or other access or change of address forms, as reasons they don't see
[1:04:20] that physical mailing, and I don't suspect that this is a catch all either, but as we
[1:04:25] see communication tools modernized, it does feel like an area of opportunity even, it's
[1:04:30] the staff level to be able to work on more modern electronic communication tools.
[1:04:35] And when I talk with people, they expect that I already have a way to communicate with
[1:04:38] them, know where they live and other things, and except for running for election and getting
[1:04:42] the Secretary of State voter data, I think it's an misunderstanding from people generally
[1:04:46] that we don't have an up-to-date list of where they live and who isn't that residents because
[1:04:52] we don't opt into these data sources.
[1:04:53] I'll just add, when we started.
[1:05:00] This discussion on increasing community engagement by all decision makers, including all eight of us that are at this table, we and that was a part of the better public meetings discussion back in February, and we said we want to increase the visibility of all of us as council members, because our constituents want to know who those decision makers are.
[1:05:27] And we've started that process with the passports that are great, that increases our visibility,
[1:05:36] we're not engaging really substantially with the constituents, but it's increasing.
[1:05:44] And there is increasing numbers of constituents that do want to reach out in here from us.
[1:05:51] So I'm looking for a product whether it's Indigov or another one that helps us to be able
[1:06:00] to maintain that communications to personalize it in some ways and also to reach out
[1:06:09] to those that geographically or demographically want to connect with us through email communication
[1:06:20] or through town halls or through coffee engagements and talk about issues. So I'm looking for
[1:06:29] a recommendation, a few recommendations so that then we can have a more robust policy discussion
[1:06:37] on which one fits our needs best. I'm in a place where I want the communications division
[1:06:50] to be able to have some guidelines around that and that we as elected officials have some
[1:06:59] guidelines around our ethics around it as well. And so looking for the framework on that.
[1:07:06] Yeah, I think that's a nice place, a nice transition point.
[1:07:09] You know, if you're going to do it and really any of that is the only tool on this list that
[1:07:14] isn't like an opt-in situation, right? So that is the one that is actually
[1:07:19] actively trying to bring in data for you to use, and I think that the next step really
[1:07:26] is to say, like, what's the policy around this? I mean, we can do the technology evaluation,
[1:07:31] we can do that, but I think you all have to develop some form of consensus. This is, of
[1:07:36] course, the budget meeting. As Allison said, City Manager has said, we'll figure that part
[1:07:43] of it out. I mean, there's certainly ways to do that. But maybe your next step on this
[1:07:48] is really to think about what is a policy look around it. Clearly we're in an election season,
[1:07:52] like this doesn't seem like it wants to be an election focus tool. But then that's like,
[1:07:57] what is your self governance when someone goes outside the policy?
[1:08:02] Yeah, exactly. What's your self governance in order to do that and probably rules a procedure,
[1:08:09] councilor, kind of conversation as well as something you'd want to probably walk into that type of
[1:08:18] The tool sounds like it could be a fit, but just we all know there's something we'll come
[1:08:23] up here that's problematic and we just want to be ahead of that before we get.
[1:08:27] Council Member Keen.
[1:08:28] Again, I appreciate trying to shut this down in this supplemental budget discussion, but
[1:08:31] I'll add one thing.
[1:08:32] I hear the discussion between the tool side of it versus the policy.
[1:08:36] I also think there is a style side of this.
[1:08:39] What is an elected officials job and someone to do it one way and some do it a different
[1:08:43] way?
[1:08:43] Some view it is their responsibility to communicate everywhere.
[1:08:49] To me, I'm always trying to direct them towards the communication screw.
[1:08:52] And the communications I do is one to one.
[1:08:56] I don't try to do it last.
[1:08:58] So I think there's a style part of this too that I have nerd from all my peers.
[1:09:02] I don't plan to throw myself into this.
[1:09:04] Although clearly there's other of my peers that do approach their job.
[1:09:09] And I think it is a elected official style discussion, maybe it floats toward the age differences, too.
[1:09:17] But in the newer people, the social media stuff is big.
[1:09:20] This is not social media. This is direct marketing tools.
[1:09:24] And I think that's different than social media.
[1:09:27] I also remember I think you and I are on the same age groups.
[1:09:30] I don't know that it's age.
[1:09:34] Any more on this?
[1:09:37] So a good discussion to start, let's we'll see more on it.
[1:09:42] And we don't need to spend a lot of time here on Polco.
[1:09:45] You all know what that is.
[1:09:46] It's really anchors in our community survey.
[1:09:47] You're going to be seeing that here this fall.
[1:09:49] But it's also our other, you know, serving platform that we use.
[1:09:53] And again, tools can direct you to that, et cetera.
[1:09:56] But we have done going in relationship with Polco, principally.
[1:10:00] For our community survey, elected official budget funding. I just wanted to kind of talk through that. You all requested, you know, this topic to, to be on the agenda here. Certainly, your travel and training with both the Mayor and Council's information here rolled forward. Business meals. That's, again, money have available.
[1:10:22] So, Mayor's initiative is a larger number here at 36,000, that's something that, you know,
[1:10:26] Mayor's office has the ability to sort of provide us discretionary investment opportunities
[1:10:31] for Mayor's, norton, if you want to learn more about that, can tell you what she's done
[1:10:34] with that in the past.
[1:10:37] From a staffing perspective, there's one FTE assigned to the Mayor's executive assistant, and
[1:10:43] then Temp Salaries, which traditionally supported an intern for the Mayor's office.
[1:10:49] So with that, you do have the general wage adjustments applied here and it's a popular
[1:10:55] printinotopic for you all to think about, but just wanted to kind of anchor you in some
[1:11:01] of these things and there's sort of the amounts and then there's the how and what types
[1:11:04] the services are provided within those amounts as well that you may want to talk about.
[1:11:09] Well, I'll start. And this has nothing to do with the current mayor's initiatives. I have no
[1:11:19] questions that they're all valuable initiatives. And I know a lot of them are very important to our
[1:11:29] community. My question is more from a policy standpoint as far as, so the mayor has a $36,000
[1:11:45] budget line that actually the mayor can use at their discretion where the council, if we
[1:11:56] have an initiative, and I know Council Member Miller had one at our last
[1:12:01] Council meeting, Council Member Palmer has had some in the past.
[1:12:06] We have to get approval on all of those, and so I guess my question is what is
[1:12:12] the oversight to Mayor's initiatives?
[1:12:16] Councillor Mayer-Sanissia, I think you all are aware that we start current mayor is very,
[1:12:23] very high in responsibility, and so all of the financial policies still apply to that.
[1:12:29] And there's also the public purpose doctor in that applies.
[1:12:32] So if there's, for example, an expense that's related to something that needs to go through
[1:12:35] microcontract process or something of that nature, we review those things.
[1:12:41] There's multiple sort of checkpoints through facilities, but facilities.
[1:12:47] Well, not the finance word.
[1:12:48] Finance.
[1:12:49] Effort there.
[1:12:51] So those types of things are important.
[1:12:53] Also you all have access to be able to bring forward ideas
[1:12:57] for we do carry a million dollars in contingency each year
[1:13:01] that's already built into the baseline of the tax levies
[1:13:04] that has been utilized either by coming forward
[1:13:08] with city council requests, with staff requests,
[1:13:10] or sometimes there has been some costs related
[1:13:12] to mayoral requests.
[1:13:14] If there needed to be a match for a grant
[1:13:15] or something of that nature, that's been much greater.
[1:13:18] So, there's not oversight in the sense of it coming to the city council beyond the budgeted
[1:13:24] amount.
[1:13:24] So, budgeted amount of $36,000 needs to meet the financial policies in the public purpose
[1:13:29] doctrine.
[1:13:30] Just like if there was $36,000 budgeted for communications outreach or something of that
[1:13:35] nature.
[1:13:37] Mayor.
[1:13:38] And I all of the expenses that come that we use in our office go through, we fill out all
[1:13:44] paperwork, they go for signage, they go to finance, and there, you can, you have access to them at every meeting that they show up on the finance report.
[1:13:55] Could you do that differently? That would be, I mean, that's really.
[1:13:58] So then I know that it has come up at this table on potential staffing for council, council members, whether that's a halftime FTE or
[1:14:13] or part of the current staff support that falls under the mayor's budget.
[1:14:21] Can you talk a little bit about that options in that area?
[1:14:29] But sure, council president, council members, this has adjusted over the years.
[1:14:33] So before my time, there actually was a mayor and council budget all combined into one budget.
[1:14:37] And so I'm not exactly sure how that worked, but my understanding is that there was a fair amount
[1:14:41] support for Mayor Brady. Of course, much of this was before like the internet, it's social
[1:14:46] media and things of that nature. So I think there's room for conversation about having
[1:14:51] there be mutual support, especially kind of goes back to some of the prior discussion
[1:14:57] and if there's a policy.
[1:15:00] Let's see discussion around communication and engagement. Like there may be more capacity there to be able to do some of that, like scheduling rooms, scheduling meetings, things that that nature. I don't think it's, you know, everybody gets office support, but if you, if it's if there's some parameters within that, I think there's probably some capacity and I think that's also a conversation amongst yourself if you're looking at adding an additional person, then you would need to be looking at doing that now.
[1:15:25] I think it could be healthy to have that person report to administration, which it did in the past, especially from the perspective of like the labor unit that it's in, things of that nature, not for day-to-day activity, but just for making sure that if there is support for eight different people that we're following, the council rules are procedure and code of conduct, things of that nature, and I think we've talked in the past about that there would be additional capacity within communications and engagement and personnel there.
[1:15:53] if you have some of that agreement on what does the policy look like for having best practices
[1:15:59] for elected official communications and engagement married with what is the best practice
[1:16:04] for strategically communicating and not deluding your message as a whole. So I think there's room
[1:16:10] to have that conversation and it's really the pleasure of the elected buddy.
[1:16:16] Other thoughts?
[1:16:18] Councilmember Miller? Sure. I mean, I don't necessarily think that the next step is to add
[1:16:23] a half-time FTE for the council, but I would be in favor and I've talked to the council
[1:16:28] President Schubering as well about feeling a limitation of staff support, having to go
[1:16:35] through a rules and procedures process where we're not asking for more than 30 minutes of staff
[1:16:40] time for any single question. And I do feel like having some support for communications initiatives
[1:16:46] that can be filtered through a general communication strategy would be helpful for doing outreach
[1:16:51] around specific areas, geographic town halls.
[1:16:55] I see them, the mayor are operating quite effectively
[1:16:57] with their town hall initiatives.
[1:16:59] And at the same time, feel a slight disconnect
[1:17:02] in some of the, like, when it, from the public,
[1:17:04] when is the mayor leading an initiative,
[1:17:06] where is it Council?
[1:17:07] How do we work together?
[1:17:08] And I think some of the staffing that we see here
[1:17:12] kind of sets that up to be the way it is
[1:17:14] that the mayor has additional support.
[1:17:16] And yet, the community isn't always
[1:17:18] understand that the Council is the voting body.
[1:17:20] So I wonder how we can begin to better indicate and and build those in from a collaborative place even in the budget
[1:17:28] So I don't have a prescribed solution to this, but I would support more conversation on it
[1:17:34] And I think just to follow up on that
[1:17:37] I think that given that we will have a new mayor in 2027
[1:17:42] I think it's the time to have that discussion and to look at
[1:17:46] You know, each one of these line items, I mean travel and training, you know, there's 16 in the mayor, budget and we don't know if the next mayor is going to be as international and as a spokesperson as our current mayor and I also, I'm not finished mayor.
[1:18:14] And I do think the mayor's initiatives, I think, bringing that into Council consideration, I think, is important.
[1:18:25] I do think also when it comes to partnership, the mayor and the city council are partners, I think the looking at what was a mayor city council budget,
[1:18:38] Maybe an option that we should we should have further discussion on as well so that it's it's one budget and it's not
[1:18:47] Not separated
[1:18:49] This way so Mayor Norton. Thank you
[1:18:51] I just want to be really clear because the community gets off on this and gets very confused none of my travel
[1:18:58] Internationally has been has none of the cities budget has been used. I've used my personal funds for all international travel
[1:19:05] Just what that on my
[1:19:06] Thank you.
[1:19:08] Also, my member, Pomer.
[1:19:11] Well, I appreciate what the Mayor has done it.
[1:19:13] And I think if you're going to change anything, I would talk to the Mayor if she's a
[1:19:16] one that sat there for eight years and has done it.
[1:19:18] And maybe she has some suggestions that she can give to us to the administration.
[1:19:24] Because I don't know her positions at what she's doing.
[1:19:29] But her travel and her training has been very good for Rochester and very up front when
[1:19:34] Rochester, so her budget is different than ours, but there's a reason for that, and she is the mayor, or it is the mayor's position.
[1:19:43] I'll just speak to the three percent. I am not in favor of a raise, and I don't think that's necessary for us.
[1:19:53] Are there a discussion?
[1:19:55] I think that's a great idea, Councilmember Palmer.
[1:20:00] As far as we want to hear, the mayor's thoughts on this.
[1:20:05] So why don't I further discuss?
[1:20:06] Could be a carryover to the next meeting. I mean, we have 90 minutes for our next study session.
[1:20:11] We could, you know, bring this slide back. If you have some time between now and then,
[1:20:15] to collect some thoughts on these issues, but I'm certainly happy to, happy to do that.
[1:20:21] Just a quick, I'm not going to go through this point by point, but as you know, in the council,
[1:20:27] asked about process and this also kind of walks into our engagement strategies,
[1:20:32] drone, key important and big policy issues.
[1:20:35] So the council asked about how can we engage better with the budget for our next two year budget.
[1:20:42] We also have strategic planning.
[1:20:44] So we do anchor strategic planning efforts every year.
[1:20:48] And so I think this process that we're laying out really does provide the opportunity to
[1:20:54] to walk this strategic planning process with the budget process with higher levels of engagement targeted out in the community meetings.
[1:21:03] We can consider some of your fifth Monday types of meetings, you know, for town hall budget feedback.
[1:21:10] So, Deputy Administrator Steinhauser is together a great request for proposals for us to be out, getting proposals on potential consultants that can help us through the process.
[1:21:21] They typically have some, you know, things that they bring to the table, but just say that
[1:21:26] there's a organizational and employee input piece of this.
[1:21:31] There's high touch and high engagement with community partners and board and commission members.
[1:21:35] Similar to what we've done in the past.
[1:21:38] Individual meetings with mayor and council members.
[1:21:41] Community outreach and so, you know, we'll continue to refine the process as we move along.
[1:21:46] But you all, in next, you know, late this year, into early next year.
[1:21:50] ahead of the budget process so your policy priorities can be reflected in it, we'll have the opportunity to update your strategic priority.
[1:21:58] So again, we'll be out with an RFP on that soon. Bring the results of that back to the City Council for consideration.
[1:22:06] So you have the opportunity to select a team that makes sense to support your process.
[1:22:12] And again, all the great similar budget stuff that you all know of in the cadence and, you know, I'm not going to go through the calendar for you all on that.
[1:22:19] But any questions on strategic planning, action planning,
[1:22:22] budget for next year?
[1:22:24] Good.
[1:22:25] OK, this a few slides here are kind of bundled together.
[1:22:31] So I'm going to go through a handful of these fairly quickly.
[1:22:34] So we have summer festivals.
[1:22:35] We just wanted to lay out what we're spending
[1:22:37] in sort of this community experience space.
[1:22:40] I know there's been a lot of active council conversations
[1:22:41] here, but you can see what we've done for fourth
[1:22:44] of July, celebration of the city, the level of investment
[1:22:46] we've made.
[1:22:47] We did a little bit differently this last year with the way we did fourth-fest, et cetera.
[1:22:52] So these are the budget amounts we have available if we want to do any rethinking monetarily.
[1:22:56] That's one way, but then I think also we're proposing that we spend some time process-wise thinking about how we might want to do these next year as well and you have Riverside Forward here.
[1:23:07] I do just want to point out $36,000 here is for fireworks. It's not for a fourth-fest.
[1:23:12] That's correct. I'm sorry I'm about that.
[1:23:15] So just some some are festival highlights here just again I'm not going to go to the council member Miller and just a point of clarification. Celebration of the city is Rochester Fest. Correct and it has always been carried in the budget of celebration of the city and at some point in history Rochester the Rochester Fest organization is the organization and 501c3 that's been operating that.
[1:23:38] So again, some of the highlights of things that we've done with Riverside and Forward
[1:23:43] Concerts and, you know, the net investments in there.
[1:23:47] Previously you talked about some destination marketing, focused efforts as you had conversations
[1:23:52] around the chat to a theater.
[1:23:54] There was some additional conversation about a new destination, marketing initiative, very normal
[1:24:00] for a group like experience Rochester to have a very active destination marketing presence.
[1:24:05] We put a lot of our lodging tax revenue into the operations of the Civic Center and Rochester
[1:24:12] sports, but there's sort of this traditional convention of visitor's bureau activity that
[1:24:18] you want to think about as well.
[1:24:20] There was a requested $300,000 investment to focus on more active festivals and events and
[1:24:27] visitor information center and continuing with the certified tourism ambassador program and
[1:24:32] quarters and just other things that are trying to support the tourism strategy that experience
[1:24:38] Rochester is trying to deliver on and they've done a nice job of going through their
[1:24:43] most recent tourism planning effort or outreach effort there.
[1:24:49] From a financial perspective on lodging tax just walking you through this so we tend to
[1:24:56] think about it in a few areas. Again, just overall anchor.
[1:25:00] Permittment for experienced Rochester running the in contracting with vendors for the operations of the Civic Center. Again, we have about 600,000 and it also goes to Rochester Sports.
[1:25:13] We try to retain the residual for capital investment because we have substantial capital needs there. And you've seen those in the past, but they're very material. And then our debt service, which we are on a trajectory, as we talked at a previous meeting toward satisfying.
[1:25:29] that in early 2030s. When we do that, we can redirect that into future capital investments within
[1:25:36] the Civic Center. But until now, I mean, that's really supporting the previous expansion.
[1:25:42] So, I want you to see that we're on a forecast to trend upward in this area. This does reflect
[1:25:47] the additional $300,000 that, you know, could be done. If, you know, from policy perspective,
[1:25:53] you so desired, but just wanted to give you sort of a better connection and break it out of
[1:25:59] and the long policy issue as you all requested previously.
[1:26:03] So with that, I'm going to just advance.
[1:26:06] So Mr. Parrish, just so I'm clear.
[1:26:07] So the 300,000 dollars, the destination marketing,
[1:26:12] is that in the operations of the Chattoe piece,
[1:26:17] that's the 300,000 that we're talking about.
[1:26:20] That's a, or is this a separate one?
[1:26:21] It's both.
[1:26:22] There is a component.
[1:26:24] So if you're talking about daily activation,
[1:26:26] there's a component about the downtown Welcome Center,
[1:26:29] where and the festival coordinator that would also be working on the Chateau. So there's a mix of that, and I believe.
[1:26:37] So when we have our discussion on September 9th on the Chateau, these three positions,
[1:26:46] are these two positions in this downtown welcome center? We'll be a part of that.
[1:26:51] I think maybe. Operations. Well, is that correct? Just if you look at this slide and correct me,
[1:26:57] I'm wrong here, but there's the Chattoe piece and how do you activate the Chattoe and work with that?
[1:27:01] And I think the Chattoe events manager is wrapped up in the, you know, the approach overall.
[1:27:07] The 200 whatever thousand that's needed to do that.
[1:27:10] The second two items here are really focused in that $300,000 additional enhancement.
[1:27:15] So if you can break these, these out in those two areas.
[1:27:18] Item one I think walks with Chattoe, two and three really walk with this enhanced $300,000 investment
[1:27:24] and activation that's talked about more here.
[1:27:25] I think it's a little bit more nuanced than that, but we will clear.
[1:27:28] Yes, I think we're both kind of teases out.
[1:27:32] Yeah, so first of all, I think we will provide more information to this and
[1:27:38] an upcoming reports and recommendations on a city council meeting.
[1:27:43] But I do think they are somewhat co-mingled in using a percentage of
[1:27:49] that 300,000 focusing on specifically the activation and potentially staffing
[1:27:53] of the Chateau as well as the visitor centers, those sorts of things, and then a smaller portion
[1:28:02] of that 300,000 focused on partnering with the community to activate the Chateau.
[1:28:08] So if, for example, we were to say, don't do anything on the Chateau, but do these other
[1:28:12] things, I think it would be a very different number.
[1:28:16] So they are sort of co-mingled in that 300,000, and we'll work to provide more information
[1:28:21] on that.
[1:28:22] Thank you.
[1:28:23] And there's an additional investment beyond the 300,000 that anchors it in.
[1:28:30] Okay, so then just thinking about this,
[1:28:33] we have a variety of, you know, we talked about how we're delivering public music activities,
[1:28:38] how we're delivering, you know, the Chateau,
[1:28:41] destination marketing, other festival items.
[1:28:46] As part of our ongoing evaluations, we have one forecasted for public safety.
[1:28:50] We're working on an RFP in that space that you all will see in September and so that's another conversation.
[1:28:58] But we also are proposing to really have one that's anchored in community experience.
[1:29:03] So thinking about how we do that for 2027 and bring back some recommendations on how some of these additional items work.
[1:29:11] Because again, a lot of work in the tourism space that's happened, parks continues to do their master planning.
[1:29:16] And we have a lot of things in a library space that are ongoing, but this really would focus
[1:29:21] in some of our, we'll caught third-party community experience providers and really just
[1:29:26] seeing like, are those in alignment, is there need to be some shifting to optimize those existing
[1:29:31] investments and thinking about arts and culture and other elements of community experience?
[1:29:36] So with that, before I move on to the next last two pieces of the conversation, just any
[1:29:42] questions you have in the previous slides that you had seen in the community.
[1:29:46] Councilmember Miller.
[1:29:48] I do have a question because it comes up every summer, the idea of like how Rochester
[1:29:52] Fest is evolving, how the city's role in guiding that is, what is the length, what is
[1:29:56] location.
[1:29:58] And obviously Thursday's downtown is growing quite a bit.
[1:30:00] But over the years as well, and just curious where and how the city and us have a conversation about
[1:30:08] the right level of programming, working with event organizers to make sure that it's, you know,
[1:30:14] inefficient event that's while using these resources, as well as well attended as relevant
[1:30:19] is not competing with two events in the downtown space and is basically moving forward to the modern
[1:30:27] time as a relative that draws people across the community in region.
[1:30:34] I think that's part of what we're trying to get to and looking at the broader system.
[1:30:38] I would just say generally we've been providing a specific level of support and Rochester
[1:30:44] Fest as the entity that's been operating has programmatic ability to be able if they feel
[1:30:49] confident that they could pull that off we just don't give them more money.
[1:30:53] So they have a fixed amount that they're receiving and I think that that would be a healthy
[1:30:56] conversation that we could either have going into the two-year budget and having some of this
[1:31:00] information might be helpful because there are any number of groups that maybe would be
[1:31:05] interested in partnering together or not partnering together which also then becomes the challenge.
[1:31:09] If there's individual visions then how does the budget process like play into maybe marrying those
[1:31:17] up a little bit whether that's through reducing funding for one or the other is a little bit challenging
[1:31:22] And that's one of my concerns too, looking at the possibility of a festival coordinator
[1:31:28] in the presence of RDA running a series of downtown programmatic events, plus
[1:31:32] Rochester Fest, how we're making sure from a budget process, those are all happening in collaboration
[1:31:37] and partnership and not in a competitive way for a potential audience for a downtown
[1:31:44] some repostable when those happen in similar times,
[1:31:47] similar locations, and I'm just struggling a little bit
[1:31:52] to understand how we best manage that, particularly
[1:31:56] in light of a potential opportunity to invest funding
[1:32:00] from the Logging Tax to create a festival department
[1:32:03] with an experienced Rochester.
[1:32:07] I think it can be part of this whole idea around the evaluation.
[1:32:12] Could also try to assess impact, right?
[1:32:14] I mean, I think, you know, this is what we're doing, but part of that will include recommendations for enhanced impact.
[1:32:20] And these are all very challenging conversations.
[1:32:22] People get used to sort of how you deliver these things in the past.
[1:32:27] So, you know, receiving list of recommendations on how you might optimize and enhance some of these investments.
[1:32:32] And what kind of impact and putting numbers in front of people in terms of attendance and all that will certainly be part of the evaluation.
[1:32:40] Council Member Palmer.
[1:32:41] going off with Mr. Miller's kind of talking about is the celebration of the city seems like we've
[1:32:46] increased it, increased it. I'm not particularly sure that we need to keep doing that. I don't
[1:32:51] know if it started out as a this good it get going and see if it could run on its own, but I believe
[1:32:56] that dollar amount you're showing is only for a cash outlay. It does not include our employee time that
[1:33:02] from parks increase and is that correct? It's sort of correct. There are some billbacks that they do
[1:33:07] So there is, like, when we clean up the streets around there for the parade, they don't pay for that because there's
[1:33:13] tangential value to having streets we think, things of that nature, but
[1:33:18] like many other event permits, they are paying for some direct services, but this has been going on for quite some time.
[1:33:23] So there are other services that are likely going in kind to be able to
[1:33:28] support what the celebration of a city that has been operated by Rochester Fest.
[1:33:34] But I would say they do reimburse for the lion share of the costs, but there is some
[1:33:41] immeasurable amount of costs for parks and public works that does not get reimbursed
[1:33:45] easily.
[1:33:46] And your 4th of July is only for the fireworks.
[1:33:48] What would it take for us to do an inexperienced Rochester event that they had prior to that?
[1:33:53] So you are still carrying in this budget the $20,000 that was slated to be removed in the
[1:33:59] 2026 budget from public music so that could go over to them and then you could have a conversation
[1:34:04] also about lodging tax and whether or not that might be able to support it. I think the policy
[1:34:08] question is, would you like to have an entity like experience Rochester operate that or not and
[1:34:15] I don't know what the pleasure of the city council is, perhaps that could be additional conversation
[1:34:19] at your next study session.
[1:34:24] I believe the cost this year was close to $40,000. Now granted,
[1:34:26] We were in the 250th celebration, so perhaps that would, you know, you would scale some of that back a little bit, um, but that was a proximate cost that was estimated.
[1:34:36] Thank you. Council member Miller.
[1:34:39] I'd be in favor of that. I think additional discussion about the interim 2027 year and then a fuller evaluation of community impact.
[1:34:47] It could be a thoughtful process to be able to step into a different model.
[1:34:52] build in partnerships, understand how the community would receive these. I'll just
[1:34:56] also say I would love to see the fireworks move down to Cascade Lake once Link is open.
[1:35:00] Then we have much greater access. Pitch the lacrosse field is the point to shoot them, but I do
[1:35:06] want us to figure out how to evolve and make sure that all of our community and investment
[1:35:10] and festivals and public events continue to be relevant to the diverse cross section of our community.
[1:35:18] And evolve as our community grows.
[1:35:21] You're on up. There's no more questions in this space. I think the remaining slides can forward to the next
[1:35:26] That's okay.
[1:35:28] All right.
[1:35:29] Thank you.
[1:35:30] Can I just ask if there's other anything else we need to discuss at the next, that would
[1:35:34] also be helpful to them now.
[1:35:37] If we want to make an amendment to the supplementary budget, how do we do that?
[1:35:43] It would be helpful to have that information now, especially if it's increased in the tax
[1:35:46] levied because that's going to be coming on September 25th.
[1:35:48] I anticipate that I will be making about a $100,000 ask for the any path home initiative
[1:35:55] As we look at future programmatic efforts, it or possible staffing of a community engagement
[1:36:03] professional for the neighborhoods surrounding our homeless shelter network.
[1:36:10] So, I would like to have that discussion at the next meeting.
[1:36:13] We can show what the implications of that might be for us.
[1:36:15] That would be great.
[1:36:15] Thank you.
[1:36:17] Come to member key.
[1:36:18] Yes.
[1:36:18] Just on the overall.
[1:36:20] You asked for an additional feedback on the twenty-two.
[1:36:23] Early on slide seven government services growing in my view I was trying to look at the overall
[1:36:28] seven year view and we're at about six percent a year average which is above the growth of
[1:36:34] Rochester and also like above inflation but we've also added a bunch of services like 311 and most
[1:36:41] of all of those things have been council approved so I'm watching thing in is it reasonable but
[1:36:46] but I'm also watching on page 12 when you talk the tax capacity below 50 percent. I just have this
[1:36:52] had feeling that that is so overwhelmingly supported by these increase in property values that
[1:36:57] have happened over that same seven year list that if we ran into an economic struggle where
[1:37:05] things stabilize or went down 10%. I mean, I think we're at a point where I think we'd really
[1:37:11] struggle as a city to try to figure out how to absorb those because right now we've been sort
[1:37:16] of getting by on some of the city growth. The services that we, I mean, we've also had voters approved
[1:37:22] but 2% increase for the parks for our friend.
[1:37:25] So most of the things like looking at that
[1:37:27] as of the bigger seven-year picture,
[1:37:29] but I really do get concerned when I see that 8% twice
[1:37:33] in the next five years and saying like,
[1:37:35] how can we defend that as public services going up?
[1:37:39] Is it, you know, I know there's things
[1:37:41] with benefits and these other things,
[1:37:42] but I think some of those things we have to find
[1:37:43] a way to absorb which we have in the last couple of years.
[1:37:46] We've had twice in the last couple of years
[1:37:48] where we projected a higher levy increase
[1:37:51] and when we got back to. So that was good to see. The other point I'll make, and this is
[1:37:55] budget discussion, but budget discussion, send us in different directions. But I mean, I really
[1:38:00] do appreciate that our major capital projects are staying pretty well within bounds. We have
[1:38:06] an all kinds of trouble with closed roads net, but we're not falling down or getting in the way of
[1:38:10] mail or getting in the way of other private things. I think that I'm glad to see the attention going
[1:38:16] that, but I'm hoping it leads towards a, you know, early 27, 27, mid 27, where streets are
[1:38:22] more open and safer than they have been. So, those are my couple, I've got a couple of
[1:38:28] little things here, but just to tie it out as far as I could support the budget, the sub-menge
[1:38:34] budget, the way it is. I do want to just stay for people watching this. We really did a two-year,
[1:38:39] we do a two-year budget. So, this is a year of just looking for what's, you know, the nominal changes.
[1:38:44] This isn't a full budget year, I think the people around the table know that, but for anybody
[1:38:48] listening, we're really just looking at what changed year over year, and I appreciate the
[1:38:53] RPU perspective on that and the communication stuff, so that those are my comments and if there's
[1:38:58] any reaction.
[1:39:01] Council Member Palmer.
[1:39:03] Yeah, just to be clear, it's not 2% of the Park River, I remember it's $2 million that
[1:39:07] they get these years.
[1:39:08] So just to be clear on that, I'm lonely on slide 11 with the total growth of your estimated
[1:39:13] and market values 5.2%, I think that that's reasonable for us to stick to.
[1:39:17] I know that we have some tip funding that's coming off under the full budget, so I like to see
[1:39:23] us be at that 5.21. I think that makes sense for people. If you're out of the neighborhood
[1:39:27] talking to people affordability is a huge issue, and I think that we can justify a 5.21.
[1:39:33] Is there something specific that you would recommend removing from the budget?
[1:39:36] I'll bring it up next time. I've sent an email already.
[1:39:38] And administrators, I'm going to remind us of what Councilmember Palmer's proposing is a reduction of the current percentage that we're looking at by 3.9% what is the number.
[1:40:00] Financial number, that kind of leads. That's in the neighborhood of $300,000.
[1:40:04] That would be $300,000.
[1:40:08] $300,000.
[1:40:08] $400,000?
[1:40:09] $300,000.
[1:40:10] $300,000.
[1:40:11] $300,000?
[1:40:12] $300,000.
[1:40:13] $500,000?
[1:40:14] $500,000.
[1:40:14] $500,000.
[1:40:19] $500,000.
[1:40:20] is what kind of budget cut would.
[1:40:23] About 400,000.
[1:40:25] 400,000.
[1:40:26] There we go.
[1:40:27] OK.
[1:40:27] We can get you a specific number about what it would look like.
[1:40:31] What the total dollar amount necessary to cut would be to have the levy amount at 5.211.
[1:40:40] Okay.
[1:40:41] We'll can show that to you at the next study session.
[1:40:44] And hopefully.
[1:40:46] And remember, we have to get to agreement on what would those things that would be cut in
[1:40:50] to be able to make it there and we've had and to suggest that there would need to also be
[1:40:54] healthy discussion about whether or not there's support for any path home funding.
[1:41:00] Cool. And just to be clear, I was asking for that not because I was advocating for it, but I just
[1:41:05] wanted to be clear that we would have to find $400,000, which is not including the addition that
[1:41:13] Council member, during is going to propose.
[1:41:18] Any more, may or no, just take, I think the caveat for all of this for the community though
[1:41:26] is that we don't know exactly what cost of living increases are going to be.
[1:41:30] We don't, we don't exactly know what, what the bill will be at the end when the county
[1:41:36] rolls out the amount that we're going to have to spend.
[1:41:40] So this is your best professional guest
[1:41:43] and months as to where that will take up
[1:41:45] where these numbers are going to take us.
[1:41:48] Correct.
[1:41:48] We typically do not get the final estimated market value
[1:41:51] from the county until after you adopted your preliminary
[1:41:54] levy and it's at some point in November
[1:41:57] right around the time that they're sending out the tax notices.
[1:42:00] So we every year are trying to get that
[1:42:02] and advanced to understand as their new construction
[1:42:05] coming online that will adjust that.
[1:42:07] but Councilmember Keene is correct that a lot of that is being absorbed now what I will say is that there are other communities that don't have growth in assessed value or new construction and some of those communities are at double digit increases year over year in their levied increase and really what you'd be talking about any year if if we started to enter that trend is service reductions.
[1:42:29] Thank you. That's what I want to clarify. I think that's extremely important not to be a labor of the time here, but like if you hear about
[1:42:35] But it's kinds of budget conversations that are happening through the state.
[1:42:38] This is actually pretty remarkable.
[1:42:40] I mean, you see, like Minneapolis named Paul, they're coming in at very high projected structural
[1:42:46] deficits in the 30-plus million range and talking about tax-loving increases, you know, much
[1:42:51] more material than that.
[1:42:52] I think why we're not in that situation is because we've had prudent budgeting in the past
[1:42:57] and you've all been very responsible in the decisions you've made.
[1:43:00] So I'm just emphasizing that from our neighbors around here,
[1:43:04] but particularly our neighbors to the north.
[1:43:07] We're doing quite well.
[1:43:09] All right, and thank you.
[1:43:12] And we will move on to Rochester Public Transit.
[1:43:16] My name is Joe Outlook.
[1:43:26] Great to see you.
[1:43:30] Yeah, it's a good way to do this.
[1:43:37] It's a good way to do this.
[1:43:40] See if we can have done that 30 seconds.
[1:44:04] Oh, which show we're breaking.
[1:44:07] Take it away.
[1:44:08] Good afternoon.
[1:44:09] I'm Rachel Fauge, the Director of Transit in Parking.
[1:44:12] So it's been just over six months since I came in January and presented on the financial
[1:44:18] status of the transit department.
[1:44:20] So just here to give a mid-year update and where we are in our initial plans and where we see
[1:44:25] kind of projections as we move through the rest of this year, next year and the future.
[1:44:33] So today's route.
[1:44:36] We'll be going over a few things.
[1:44:38] One is our financial outlook,
[1:44:40] so we'll be looking at where we were, where we are.
[1:44:43] And how we plan on trust in the cloud.
[1:44:45] Yeah, thank you.
[1:44:48] Got it.
[1:44:49] The pun was not subtle or deep,
[1:44:53] but it was there.
[1:44:54] We'll be reviewing our KPIs.
[1:44:57] We have our partner in via here.
[1:44:59] Nicole, he was soon in the future.
[1:45:00] We'll be presenting on kind of view as for casting implants. And then kind of going over our existing in future community collaborations and timelines on what council should expect over the next two years through the transit department.
[1:45:15] So just to level set in a reminder, this work is ongoing. So this is not been.
[1:45:20] We came in January and nothing's happened over the last seven months. We have made many improvements and many changes in the transit department
[1:45:27] One was RFP for operations and so that award has been given in that they start next Wednesday, Tuesday, September 1st
[1:45:37] And then I'll additionally as presented in January kind of talked about the biggest cuts that we are able to make are within our CIP projects and so we're going over some of those reductions that we've made
[1:45:47] And then additionally our advertising RFP which I briefly talked about previously, but it's an opportunity for us to generate additional revenue for the transit department as a reminder our only form of revenue is fair and advertising.
[1:46:02] We don't collect any local tax dollars.
[1:46:05] So no tax levier sales tax dollars are utilized within the transit department.
[1:46:12] So for our financial outlook, we came back in January and presented this slide to talk about what we anticipated the impacts to the transit fund would be over the next three years.
[1:46:26] And this is due primarily to the fact that MINDOTS required contribution for local share
[1:46:32] it was shifting from 5% to 15%, historically that percentage was 20%.
[1:46:37] So just to provide that additional context there, so 2024 and 2025, there was a reduction
[1:46:44] of that local share of dollars to a 5% match.
[1:46:48] And then this year, 2026, 2027, and potentially 2028 that will be 15%, but historically
[1:46:56] that match has been 20% and that's what that match is on the capital improvement side consistently.
[1:47:02] So there was no reduction in that match requirement for the past few years.
[1:47:07] So as we're looking at these numbers, you'll see those also reflected within the data sets
[1:47:10] in the KPIs that you see in our projections.
[1:47:13] We anticipate that match going up to 20% in 2029.
[1:47:18] So you'll see that being reflected within the graph as well.
[1:47:24] Oh, I didn't even talk about it.
[1:47:25] So, in January presented that we were sitting at about 5.3 million within the transit fund with an anticipated loss in 2025 at just over half a million dollars, and then a project at loss for 2026 at about 2.4 million.
[1:47:41] And as you'll see, this is our current projection. So in 2025, we actually were able to put around 300,000 dollars into the transit fund for a transit fund to sitting at around 5.6 million right now.
[1:47:52] And for 2026, our anticipated loss is only 0.8 million, and as reflected, that is based on that's based on a reduction in CIP projects.
[1:48:03] So we reduced our office remodel project substantially, although that hasn't come forward to council yet.
[1:48:09] We did slim back even with the proposed plans that we're working on right now to bring to council in the future.
[1:48:14] But additionally, we reduced any fleet enhancements, so we're only in the business of doing replacement fleet right now and not expansion fleet and that it did allow us to have a reduction in this dollar amount.
[1:48:29] And the transfer development plan as presented on last Monday is now being covered by our operator via, so we are able to cut that expense as well.
[1:48:38] So a really great reduction in the projected loss for 2026, but as indicated we're still not we're generating enough revenue to cover that 15% and cover our capital right now, but we are working on a projection for that.
[1:48:56] Mayor Norton.
[1:48:58] So the 2028 the 2.78 is that with a 20% assumption or is that still showing the 15 that's the 15, but if you have.
[1:49:07] read through the tip in this, the tip,
[1:49:10] row cog tip that's out for public review right now.
[1:49:14] Min. has awarded us replacement vehicles,
[1:49:17] a substantial amount hit in 2027 and 2028.
[1:49:20] And so those are those big hits that you see happening there.
[1:49:24] And I can go into deeper if anybody has any questions
[1:49:26] and what those numbers are,
[1:49:27] but or class are size of those vehicles.
[1:49:29] But that's what you see primarily reflected there.
[1:49:32] You'll see the loss of operating,
[1:49:33] but additionally the large expense
[1:49:35] of those replacement vehicles, which are necessary to run a transit system.
[1:49:40] Comfort member Palmer. Why are you excluding the link BRK?
[1:49:44] That's a great question and primarily because as of right now, beyond the startup grant, the
[1:49:49] pilot grant that we've received for, for, link we don't have secured funding from midnight
[1:49:54] for operations after that grant is. So that's for three years. And so we didn't want that to,
[1:50:00] Potentially skew the data in here. Link is primary, it's cover through those hopeful $min dot dollars after that, but we don't have those secured and so we didn't want to. If we put that in here, you would see dramatic losses because we're only showing what we know and we don't know that grant is locked in yet.
[1:50:21] Well, there's a causal person who likes to say that hope was not a plan, so I would like to see that included.
[1:50:27] We can provide those updated numbers, but they do skew where we're living right now in this
[1:50:33] data set.
[1:50:34] And so we just wanted to do a server providing what we know.
[1:50:37] We do anticipate support from from M in dad.
[1:50:41] But we don't that's not a known because we don't receive those operating dollars until the year,
[1:50:46] like until I just like brought it up to Council last week until those are approved.
[1:50:53] Council member Miller.
[1:50:54] And I guess I would just add that legislative priority of ours,
[1:50:57] of Minnesota City is sustainable transit funding from the state and so we continue to advocate for those
[1:51:02] I serve on the improving local economies committee. We've had some discussion of that and we'll
[1:51:08] plan to continue to make sure that hope turns into advocacy turns into plans.
[1:51:13] And we have had significant conversations with Mindut and there are aware that we are actively
[1:51:17] working towards wanting to make sure that we have similar consideration for an outstate bus
[1:51:22] traffic transit system as there are funding sources similar to what the grant is for the next three years that are available to all of the BRT system that is not outstate.
[1:51:33] And I just will take a moment to plug that Min. has been incredibly supportive.
[1:51:37] They did provide a pilot grant to support the one month prior to the revenue start date for like actually almost two months prior to the revenue start date as linked to cover some of those operations costs.
[1:51:47] that will hit prior to August 19th.
[1:51:51] So we are really grateful on the partnership,
[1:51:53] and they have an incredibly collaborative,
[1:51:55] and know that this is an ask.
[1:51:57] And if it's any indication,
[1:51:59] this is probably anecdotal data,
[1:52:01] but linked did receive an entire full page feature
[1:52:03] and the great Minnesota transit plan that
[1:52:07] made out just adopted.
[1:52:09] So it is a highlight of the system,
[1:52:12] and it's a highlight of our city as well.
[1:52:14] Council member Keen. Yeah, I'm going to just follow up and Council member Palmer Sam. I understand
[1:52:18] that there is one transit like fund at the end, but I think it would be misleading to try to
[1:52:25] reflect BRT in here now, especially, I mean, I actually struggle when I look out in 2829 because that
[1:52:31] is a male supported thing so that there probably shouldn't be depending on our metrics. We shouldn't
[1:52:38] be under running it, but the fact that we don't have those federal and state commitments yet,
[1:52:42] It just would make this less valuable for me to try to move through.
[1:52:46] But again, it's jumping off the page here that you are out of funds in 2028.
[1:52:52] I don't know if I'm cutting to the end of it for you.
[1:52:55] Spoiler.
[1:52:58] So, were there any questions?
[1:53:01] Council member Miller.
[1:53:02] Just a point of clarification, because you threw out August 19th.
[1:53:05] That is the plan start date for LinkedIn.
[1:53:07] It's our current plan start date for LinkedIn.
[1:53:09] that's what's our agreement with FTA indicates.
[1:53:16] If construction delays happen,
[1:53:17] if something were to happen, this definitely something
[1:53:19] that would be effectively communicated to Council on the team.
[1:53:22] Now, the 19th is a Thursday,
[1:53:25] so it's likely that we won't implement a service change on a Thursday.
[1:53:28] So we would likely have links start on a weekend
[1:53:31] consistent with how we perform service changes right now in the system.
[1:53:37] And for clarification, when link comes online,
[1:53:40] that will be a service change. So it'll be treated the same way as as our other, but obviously
[1:53:45] much larger and much bigger, but it will be implemented as a service change. So you'll see
[1:53:49] other changes to the fixed road system at the same time. Thank you. Continue.
[1:53:56] So how are you measuring all these things? We have kind of isolated four main key performance
[1:54:01] indicators for us to be able to view. Now the data that we look at is pretty concise for transit.
[1:54:07] you know, we're looking at what's in JDEs, so what's in our fiscal monitoring system that the city has.
[1:54:14] What our operating data is, so that's our ridership and that's our vehicle revenue hours.
[1:54:18] If you recall our contract with our operators based on vehicle revenue hours, it's a contractual hourly rate.
[1:54:25] And so those are two metrics that we can easily track.
[1:54:28] And then it allows us to make these specific KPIs allow this to view the source data in really meaningful ways.
[1:54:34] and so we don't have lots of diverse data but we do have a lot of data that needs to be analyzed
[1:54:40] appropriately and I would be remiss. I did forget this at the beginning. I would like to thank
[1:54:45] my transit team and our finance team as well has helped put together this data. Although
[1:54:51] a set of metrics that you see on here this is months of work in months of collaboration
[1:54:56] between our two departments and I just want to give a special shout out.
[1:55:00] To both Lindsay, Lindsay B and Lindsay H, through both departments, because they've dedicated a substantial amount of time to bring this to us today, and data drilling isn't as straightforward as we all think it could be.
[1:55:14] So, we have four, four proposed or four key metrics that we'll be looking at as a reminder, this is living data. So, this is data that's updated on a monthly basis, and that's with both our fiscal and our ridership data and all of that that's coming in.
[1:55:29] So I'll walk through each one of those and kind of explain what you're seeing on those.
[1:55:33] I know there's a lot of questions on how to interpret these visuals.
[1:55:38] And again, as we gain revenue through advertising and ridership, they will change these metrics.
[1:55:43] And so our revenue is not just as used to the end there, is not just ridership revenue that would
[1:55:49] be advertising revenue as well.
[1:55:53] So our first one that we have to look at is our operating revenue
[1:55:56] surplus chart and so you'll see there's an operating and that's that light blue line and then the dark blue line as indicated is the CIP and the operating totals and has as I explained in 2028 and in 2027 we have some substantial CIP projects with the replacement vehicles.
[1:56:12] So that's where you see that kind of large dip in there and then that additional dip down in 2029 is based on the assumption that that local match will go up to 20%.
[1:56:21] So you can see this trend is we're following and so this allows us to really take a look at the impacts that we're making revenue exclusive or surplus revenue.
[1:56:30] So obviously the goal is to not be down the goal is to be up.
[1:56:36] So this allows us to really utilize a symmetric to track it that way.
[1:56:42] And our next one on here and probably the one that that has drawn maybe the most amount of questions prior to this meeting is the annual year to date revenue versus target.
[1:56:51] You're today at revenue versus target year-end revenue.
[1:56:55] So these are not additive bars.
[1:56:58] These are reflective of where we are right now.
[1:57:01] So that's the blue bar that you see.
[1:57:03] The green bar that you see is where we would hope to be trending
[1:57:07] right now.
[1:57:09] So that's the metric that we'd like to be seeing
[1:57:11] and this is end of July data.
[1:57:14] So this is the metric that we'd like to be seeing
[1:57:15] at the end of July and that gray bar that you see
[1:57:18] is where we need to be at the end of the year.
[1:57:23] So if you're just following that trend,
[1:57:25] it's clear that we're going to be following a little bit short,
[1:57:27] but this allows us to visualize the gap between those.
[1:57:30] And so the goal is, as we're looking at these two bars
[1:57:33] between the blue and the green bar,
[1:57:35] the blue bar will hopefully at some point meet the green
[1:57:39] and then at some points surpass the green.
[1:57:41] And if it surpasses the green,
[1:57:42] that indicates that we're in a surplus and not a definite set.
[1:57:45] So that allows us to track those two metrics as they're going
[1:57:48] and know what our year end goal is at the same time.
[1:57:52] Mayor Norton.
[1:57:55] So I want to be delicate about this,
[1:57:57] but I'm also wondering, we've had a lot of call-offs,
[1:57:59] we've had a lot of missed trips.
[1:58:03] The sheer not because people didn't want to take the bus,
[1:58:06] but because the bus wasn't running,
[1:58:09] is that part of what we're seeing here?
[1:58:12] So it could be.
[1:58:14] There's a couple of things.
[1:58:15] We do always see a decrease in ridership during the summer,
[1:58:18] and we are in that time of year right now.
[1:58:21] And so it's hard for us to look at our ridership data and assume one thing or another, and
[1:58:26] as a reminder, our riders are majority like anonymous.
[1:58:30] And so we don't have the ability to talk to individual riders because their process of purchasing
[1:58:34] a pass or process of riding is an anonymous experience.
[1:58:37] We do, we have city-wide surveys that happen twice a year.
[1:58:40] We do know there's an impact of loss of ridership because we have nests trips, but as an additional
[1:58:47] reminder, we have around 500 trips a day and on those days of massive mistrips, it was 23 to 40.
[1:58:55] So although substantial, a smaller percentage than I don't want to minimize the impact,
[1:59:02] but that I just want to be clear on what that impact was.
[1:59:06] Council member Dory. And this might be an antidotal question as well, but it seems like this summer
[1:59:12] we had more cool places to be days than typically are normal and what's a revenue loss for
[1:59:19] one of those days because that might be easier to measure.
[1:59:22] Yeah, so we actually tracked that data through a tablet that's on the buses and it allows
[1:59:27] the drivers to push specific buttons. And so that is tracked the same way if somebody came in
[1:59:33] and refused to pay a fair. They could track that data. So it's not technically lost revenue
[1:59:39] because it was never anticipated revenue, so we don't, it's not there likely not somebody who
[1:59:44] is going to be writing the bus anyways, so like it allows us to determine that number,
[1:59:49] but we're talking like 20 to 40 individuals. So we, we still charge someone if they're going to use
[1:59:56] the bus to commute, you can ask specifically the driver.
[2:00:00] Okay. The writer would come on and say, would like a cool place to be, and then the driver would track that writer, and so it's separate data.
[2:00:10] Council member Palmer.
[2:00:12] Well, this is going to be new, but the dependability is the number one issue for me, and you're not meeting that expectation.
[2:00:19] With a larger employer in the town, given way, free bus passes, it's hard for me, and you get the revenue. I understand that, but it's hard for me to believe that we're going
[2:00:29] have an increase in ridership when the larger some player opens up four major ramps.
[2:00:34] So I don't see much hope for what you're trying to do other than getting dependability
[2:00:39] down to be number one issue, and when you say that we only miss 10 or 20 trips, it doesn't
[2:00:44] matter, but if I'm on the 10 or 20 trips that are missed, I don't get to work. I don't get home.
[2:00:49] So now you become dependable and I preach this many different times in meetings that we've had
[2:00:53] with you here. So I'm disappointed greatly with the lack of dependability. I understand
[2:01:00] you're new. I understand we have a new operator coming, but it almost seems like we're
[2:01:04] rearranged in the seats of the Titanic. And your numbers don't aren't saying I'm
[2:01:08] wrong.
[2:01:10] Yeah. And I'll definitely touch on that. I think that's one of the things that Vez
[2:01:13] has been working really hard on. They have been overhiring for the positions that were
[2:01:18] short right now. And we'll be consistently hiring to fill that gap. But also, our utilizing
[2:01:23] technology to ensure that we have efficient trips and that way we can reduce the
[2:01:27] amount of vehicles needed which means we can reduce the amount of drivers needed
[2:01:30] during peak during those those analysis and I'll say that none of these
[2:01:34] changes are ones that we can it's unfortunate and I wish I could change the whole
[2:01:38] system in two weeks but we're not in a situation which that can happen. All of our
[2:01:41] service teachers have to happen in the appropriate FDA protocol. We have to
[2:01:45] announce as we have to do public engagement. All of those take around three months
[2:01:49] to research and implement.
[2:01:50] And so even shifting the routes to better fit the needs
[2:01:53] of our driver capacity isn't something
[2:01:56] that we can do in a quick removal of a bandage situation,
[2:01:59] but there are specific plans that have been implemented
[2:02:02] to get us to where we're going.
[2:02:04] And I do, we are still trending in Alberta
[2:02:06] ridership regardless of the situations
[2:02:08] over the past year.
[2:02:10] Councilmember Miller.
[2:02:12] Want to any detail on this in detail,
[2:02:14] but are we seeing from our partners at Mayo Clinic
[2:02:17] that their transit ridership is growing or falling?
[2:02:22] I don't know what their, like, in terms of federal ownership.
[2:02:25] No, in the shuttle, are they adding shuttles or removing shuttles?
[2:02:29] So with the, the oncoming of link, there will be a reduction of shuttles as we service
[2:02:33] some of the spaces with link that were historically serviced by shuttle service.
[2:02:37] And I think that the addition on there is I am so proud to say the collaboration and the level
[2:02:42] of partnership that we've had with Mayo over the past six months.
[2:02:45] It's definitely indicated that they are in support of our PT and they want to steer more
[2:02:51] individuals to utilizing our PT, but they understand that we're under the same constraints
[2:02:55] and we understand theirs.
[2:02:56] We need to have a reliable service and we're working towards that and definitely hopeful for
[2:03:04] the future.
[2:03:05] But I'm very excited about the partnership that we have and I'll go over some of those as
[2:03:10] we come up in a few slides.
[2:03:11] But to council member Palmer's question when they open four new ramps, do they do they plan to reduce their shuttle operations because now people are just driving themselves?
[2:03:21] And that's an question unfortunately I can't answer because I'm not within me.
[2:03:25] Operations.
[2:03:30] Continue.
[2:03:33] So this metric indicates our ridership target and so the blue bar is where we're at.
[2:03:38] The green bar is where we think we're going to be tracking based on our current trends for the year.
[2:03:46] So, and then that 1.1, almost 1.2 million is our target ridership to reach the revenue.
[2:03:52] Now, that green number and that green number are they'll move and they'll adjust as our cost per ride adjusts over the course of the year.
[2:04:02] So, those aren't static numbers either.
[2:04:04] they're taking into account revenues that's being brought in.
[2:04:07] So as our cost provides, so it's easy to think
[2:04:10] that each trader pays $2, but that's not true.
[2:04:13] That's only if they're buying a single fair at full rate.
[2:04:15] If they're buying a monthly pass or a ride pass,
[2:04:18] that's a reduced number or another example is our student
[2:04:22] writers write for a reduced rate.
[2:04:25] And so all of veterans write for free.
[2:04:27] And so all of that hasn't impacted that total
[2:04:28] ridership dollar amount.
[2:04:33] And this is, as I've affectionally been calling it kind of our doomsday clock, but if we were to make no modifications to this system, but we are, and we have been making modifications to this system, if you recall, I'm the slide that I presented in January, we would have been out of money in about two and a half three years.
[2:04:49] And so now our projection is about just over four years
[2:04:53] until we anticipate if no shifts in ridership,
[2:04:56] if we're trending the way that we're trending,
[2:04:58] if that line graph that we...
[2:05:00] The indicators of the KPI stays in that downward trajectory. This would be, this would be a word,
[2:05:04] be trending. But we don't anticipate that. And we've already seen moves in the contrary.
[2:05:10] Council Member Miller.
[2:05:11] Yeah, just a question. Since this dashboard is largely a snapshot, as you've mentioned.
[2:05:15] Are you tracking those measures over time and how might we understand improvements? I think it's great.
[2:05:21] And I know that we've seen drastic improvements for this presentation. But again, we're just looking at this snapshot.
[2:05:27] and only comparing time periods for a couple of the measures.
[2:05:33] So for anybody that looks at this and says this is really bad, right?
[2:05:37] If there's a photo taken, published on lines and where,
[2:05:40] if somebody sees, well, four years or out of money,
[2:05:42] that's a better state that we were in.
[2:05:44] And I just wonder how we're telling that story to the public as well,
[2:05:48] that you and your team are doing great work to improve our position.
[2:05:52] And I think one of the ways is just providing a constant update on these metrics.
[2:05:56] These are actually all power B.I. and so it's live dynamic data and if anybody would like access to that on our council we can definitely provide that without admin rights.
[2:06:10] But additionally we will be providing this monthly to council and our monthly updates in replacement to the transit report that you have in receiving.
[2:06:18] I think this provides a better snapshot of what's going on and where we are and you can track that on a monthly basis.
[2:06:23] I just want to say, I love this dashboard. You guys did an amazing job. I mean, yes, it is a snapshot in time.
[2:06:36] But to really have this level of transparency and where we are headed and it really helps us with our decision making.
[2:06:44] And so I really encourage all of our departments to really look at this dashboard.
[2:06:52] and I know I haven't even seen all of it yet, but it really is what I'm looking at when it comes
[2:06:58] to really getting a real clear crisp view overview of the dynamics in that department. So thank you.
[2:07:08] Well, thank the Lindsay's. They worked really hard on it and appreciated that. They worked with
[2:07:11] Lindsay's back there.
[2:07:16] So as we kind of wrap up these metrics, what are the things that we
[2:07:20] want to ensure? And I think these are some of the topics that we've touched on. But again,
[2:07:23] Increasing a brighter confidence. We want to ensure that they are they know that vehicles coming they know that bus is coming to pick them up
[2:07:30] They know that paradigms of vehicles coming to pick them up and they can depend on it and they know they're going to get to where they need to go when they need to be there
[2:07:37] Reliability fits within that as well and obviously none of this is going without saying that we have our transit development plan coming up
[2:07:45] But that doesn't mean we're not doing any analysis of our of our systems before then
[2:07:49] We've already sent our December service change to via to review for optimization and efficiency and so those conversations have already started and that data has already been shared and it's not even September first yet.
[2:08:03] And then additionally having service changes that are thoughtful and and provide the service that's most effective for our system.
[2:08:09] And we can do that with our partner in via so at this time I'll hand the clicker over to McCall Houston to introduce yourself and to provide an update on what via is planning for the next few years.
[2:08:18] Welcome.
[2:08:21] Thank you.
[2:08:22] Just wanted to start by saying thank you for having me.
[2:08:25] I am super excited to be here and I think Beez and entire company is really excited for this partnership over the long term.
[2:08:31] I'm going to dive into a little bit of kind of how we look at things over the long term and how we think about planning.
[2:08:37] To be totally honest this week and next week in the next week my team is so focused on making sure that September 1st is smooth and to your point that buses are running as they should be.
[2:08:46] but we do want to give you a little bit of a peek behind the curtain on what we're doing
[2:08:50] in more of a long-term approach. So first, we have a team at via called via strategy. So that's
[2:08:57] different than who's going to be here every day managing. We have a dedicated, uh,
[2:09:01] transit planning and consulting practice that are, like, true experts in this and it comes with
[2:09:06] our contract and is part of our partnership that we are available to help and do and support whether
[2:09:12] on a variety of things, whether it's a public engagement, full network resilience, strategy
[2:09:18] is mobility, hub and infrastructure planning, really kind of from start to finish, working
[2:09:22] alongside you all to figure out what the best long-term plan is for our PT.
[2:09:30] And one thing that we really believe is that while you do make trade-offs obviously any time
[2:09:34] you're planning transit, there are a lot of ways that we've seen and have been able to implement
[2:09:38] where we're both expanding access and improving efficiency.
[2:09:42] So kind of a very high level of our core philosophy is that we tend to look at the least
[2:09:46] sufficient routes, likely move that into micro transit, that way you can decrease costs and increase
[2:09:51] the coverage, medium efficiency routes, we like to optimize service, make sure we have the right
[2:09:56] because these are the right hours.
[2:09:58] And then in the most efficient routes, that's where we...
[2:10:00] 10 to read the invest and improve headways as we see really frequent headways or what drive ridership the most.
[2:10:08] And kind of the three pillars of how we think about this. Again, there are always trade-offs as we do work through this.
[2:10:14] But we try to balance between the rider experience, efficiency and coverage.
[2:10:19] And each of these mean quite a few different things. So for us, like coverage is an example, isn't just the service area.
[2:10:24] It's what's the service mode, what are the operating hours?
[2:10:27] right or experience is the booking model as well as stock locations and frequency and wait times
[2:10:32] and there's just a lot of different pillars that we look at here.
[2:10:34] efficiency is cost per trip for you all as our partner but also productivity in
[2:10:39] multimodal coordination amongst all of the different methods of getting people around.
[2:10:46] And we've taken this approach with quite a few different partners, a few that are highlighted here.
[2:10:51] One, the first one is Sioux Falls, South Dakota which is actually relatively similar system
[2:10:55] to what we have here. We went and did a full network redesign a few years ago, saw a very significant
[2:11:01] increase in ridership. I think in the first year it was up about 23%. And we were also able
[2:11:06] to co-mingle micro transit in Paris Transit, which allowed efficiency to increase by 53%. So
[2:11:12] phenomenal results across the board there. Mobile Alabama is actually launching a full network redesign
[2:11:17] here. I think in about a week or two. And there was a massive community engagement push behind
[2:11:23] that piece. It was important for our partner there to make sure that voices were heard.
[2:11:27] So we engaged over 2,000 different community members met with tons of different partnerships.
[2:11:32] I think that's a playbook that will actually apply very well here where they're very strong
[2:11:35] partners in the community. And then Salt Lake City we've done like very deep transit planning
[2:11:41] with them over a few different modes over the past eight years. So I think via strategies
[2:11:46] has a lot of different elements that we can bring. And it's not a one size fits all.
[2:11:51] but it's not here is the playbook and how we do it,
[2:11:53] but here's how our many playbooks can be applied
[2:11:56] across different markets as like is gonna do Rochester
[2:11:59] and be the best for the future year.
[2:12:05] Thank you, McCall and I just want to point out
[2:12:07] McCall was one of the leads for the Mobile
[2:12:10] Alabama transition as well.
[2:12:13] So to familiar with the space,
[2:12:14] a lot of familiar situations also an HEU unionized facility.
[2:12:20] So just good for additional reference there
[2:12:22] and some context.
[2:12:25] And as we move through, definitely new and continued partnerships are how we're going to be
[2:12:29] successful in this space as well.
[2:12:31] So again, to touch on our really honored collaboration with Mayo Clinic, I just feel consistently
[2:12:37] supported by that team and they've been an asset in ensuring that we can do certain things.
[2:12:41] And a great example is I'll just jump ahead to the time limits on the next slide, but we will
[2:12:46] be doing a service change in December to move back to the second street, transportation centers,
[2:12:51] And that was facilitated through an substantial amount of conversations with the Mayo partners because
[2:12:56] the construction for their facilities is what's kind of in that space. And so we want to ensure that we have that,
[2:13:02] but they also see the value and us moving back there. So really appreciate our continuing collaborations with them
[2:13:07] in constant conversations right now with UMR to to see how we can facilitate more student and faculty access to Rochester public transit.
[2:13:15] Our continued collaboration with RPS and trying to pusho viability in that and as we've
[2:13:21] brought buses out to John Marshall and in trying to encourage students to write that our data for that
[2:13:26] it's really it's pretty successful looking right now we have around 1,000 rides for months for students
[2:13:32] and so although that's not a substantial amount of students that's about 40 on a monthly basis
[2:13:37] but that's 40 students that we're not writing transit before. So really interesting data coming out of there
[2:13:43] and then the Southeast Minnesota Transit Management Organization that's getting started up we had the
[2:13:48] steering committee meeting today and so their tagline is your region, your ride, and so that's an opportunity for us to collaborate with
[2:13:56] transit agencies throughout the Southeast Minnesota area, and to see how they can filter in to Rochester and in effective and successful way, but also provide transit to
[2:14:06] to more rural areas of the state as well. So really great, a great asset to have in the region, and then the TDM work group that's
[2:14:16] her headed by Matt Lynch is an indefinal asset to Rochester Public Transit. He is collaborating
[2:14:23] creating those collaborations. I'll thank him for those continued conversations that we've
[2:14:27] had with the UMAR. And then as Amanda gets on deck, but really excited about the work that she's
[2:14:33] doing and how transit can incorporate itself into her economic mobility plan. But I also forgot
[2:14:40] to put a DMC on here. We do collaborate highly with DMC as well, especially with the upcoming
[2:14:45] week without driving activity and so we'll have a learning opportunity for individuals to come out
[2:14:50] and experience the bus and get on a bus and learn what that looks like and again at John Marshall,
[2:14:56] but then have a fair free day in conjunction with a week with that.
[2:15:02] And then what does the next year or plus look like? So via start, next Tuesday, as I've said a few times during this presentation, as indicated, we have our next service changes targeted toward December. I know I'd originally hoped that to be in October.
[2:15:16] But construction impacts, what facilitates moving back in a clean way on the second straight, but through those conversations, the collaborations with our internal construction teams and mayows construction teams, we feel good about moving back to the second street transit center in December.
[2:15:30] And then in January, you'll receive hopefully an intent to award for our, well, prior to that, but our advertising RFP updated will be in January.
[2:15:40] So that's a substantial increase to what we currently have.
[2:15:42] I think right now we have about 15 wrapped buses.
[2:15:45] We're hoping to increase that to 51, which is our entire diesel fleet.
[2:15:50] And then the electric buses would not be wrapped.
[2:15:53] Obviously the link buses would be wrapped, but additionally the remaining buses would be available if we needed incorporate them into the link route.
[2:15:59] we wanted to keep them unwrapped, and but it also looks at increasing maybe the percentage back to
[2:16:05] the city as well and more advertising in our transit shelters, and so right now we only have
[2:16:11] advertising in one, so we're definitely hoping to increase that number as well. Summer 2027 bringing
[2:16:17] on the link BRT mode, which will definitely have an impact to our fixed road system and hopefully
[2:16:21] a very positive way as individuals are exposed to transit and allowed to experience it in a low risk
[2:16:29] capacity. And then we'll also in 2027 start the TDP as indicated. There's a lot of things happening and we're still doing ongoing analysis, but we want to ensure that we incorporate data from link into the TDP as well.
[2:16:42] And then in 2028 we would implement that transit development plan and as a reminder that's a five year outlook.
[2:16:49] But with via and via strategies as a partner, we there would be again continuing on going analysis if that's the best fit for this city as well.
[2:17:00] And now any discussions or feedback?
[2:17:03] Very thorough.
[2:17:04] Council member.
[2:17:06] Well, thank you.
[2:17:07] I enjoyed the presentation.
[2:17:09] I appreciate that we do, did you say two city-wide surveys each year?
[2:17:14] And I would guess most of those surveys would go to non-writers, and some of that data
[2:17:19] could be helpful.
[2:17:21] Is there a way to get beyond the anonymity of the current ridership so that we get user data
[2:17:28] as to how we can make the transit system
[2:17:32] even more desirable for ridership?
[2:17:37] Yeah, that's a great question.
[2:17:39] So our transit service goes out
[2:17:41] with our service changes through Polklo.
[2:17:43] So it gets blasted to the entire Polklo Lisserv.
[2:17:46] We typically have pretty good turnout on those,
[2:17:48] like 500 plus survey responses.
[2:17:50] Some transit riders, some not transit riders.
[2:17:52] And within those surveys,
[2:17:53] we're always asking, are you a transit rider?
[2:17:55] And if they are, it leads to a series of questions
[2:17:57] what route do you take, what hinders you in that space, so we are tracking all of that data.
[2:18:02] What's interesting is historically, I mean historically, the last two surveys that I've
[2:18:07] been a part of prior to the one that we just did a few weeks ago.
[2:18:11] It was the central park was a hindrance that we saw in there.
[2:18:14] It was the harder for them to access where they need to go because the central park.
[2:18:17] But now that summer has started, it's delays, it's construction delays that seem to
[2:18:22] be the number one concern on people's plate.
[2:18:26] But I will add, like we do two surveys a year, but we also encourage individuals to reach out directly to RBT at RochesterMN.gov, that comes directly to me and some of my team and we keep that data and utilize it for upcoming service changes.
[2:18:42] So if there's an opportunity to provide input, you don't have to wait for a survey either.
[2:18:46] Maybe another way of asking that is there a requirement for anonymity based on the federal funding or other resources that
[2:18:53] henders us from doing that.
[2:18:55] There's not.
[2:18:56] But I think as there's more adoption and more utilization of our current app in future apps, we could
[2:19:03] reduce some of that as well.
[2:19:05] Currently with the transit app, we have looked at the possibility of pushing out survey questions through that.
[2:19:11] However, it was very cost prohibitive to add that as a feature.
[2:19:14] If you're curious of what that cost was, I think it was around $30,000 a year to add survey as an option.
[2:19:19] And within the transit apps, we chose to maintain with Polco.
[2:19:25] Continue.
[2:19:26] And one more question, did the change from a loop system to out and back?
[2:19:33] Did that change ridership much?
[2:19:35] We did.
[2:19:37] At the jump, with the implementation of change, did see a reduction in ridership?
[2:19:41] and that's not unexpected, changes is scary and overwhelming and can be a little bit hard
[2:19:46] to adapt too. And so we did see a slight reduction, but we have seen that kind of recover and
[2:19:51] come up and is a reminder the spring service changes were in line with summer, which has a
[2:20:00] Some of that reduction was just because the weather was nicer, too. But we did notice this slight reduction.
[2:20:06] We are grateful for the writers that decided to reach out and ask for kind of how to move through that system.
[2:20:11] And I think it was a good opportunity for my team and myself to learn and lean a little bit more on to change management as we move through that.
[2:20:18] We definitely saw it as a positive, but for individuals that have been writing as a loop, it felt overwhelming.
[2:20:26] Council member Keen, did you have a question?
[2:20:29] So first off, I really do appreciate your team coming in with KPIs, but also understanding
[2:20:36] that this is a way to look at it and there's different connections to it, but it almost
[2:20:40] is almost like looking at the scoreboard than looking at the game.
[2:20:43] And within the game, it still strikes me as our biggest problems, we're still trying to get
[2:20:48] over is the collapse of ridership during COVID, it has not come back, whether that's systemic
[2:20:56] or something we just have to figure out, this idea that we got funding help during COVID and
[2:21:04] now we're coming out of it. And that's clearly the main problem when you look at this.
[2:21:09] I still can't get over the fact that our director called it a doomsday clock. We've got to get past that.
[2:21:14] I'll try. I'll try. I'll try. But I mean, are we looking at more the system as a,
[2:21:21] like are there any other systemic problems? I mean, I've always heard that the Rochester
[2:21:25] population with a 55-mile spread just can't do public transit in an efficient way and that's
[2:21:33] why our system is sort of supported by the parking rides and the other things is like catching
[2:21:38] catch camp but they're not paying for themselves. Is are we looking at it that way or because
[2:21:43] I'm still looking at this whole BRT as a major, major change and I'm just wondering if the whole
[2:21:55] He's got to change or I don't want to try to do a strategy thing here, but those are the kind of things we're thinking of because I don't want to just look at the scoreboard
[2:22:03] I want to kind of make sure we're understanding the game. Yeah, and the answer to all of this question is yes
[2:22:09] We're it's one of the reasons why we saw a lot of value in having via come on as a partner
[2:22:13] But I think there's additional opportunities and we're looking at and I did leave this off of and I apologize off of the timeline
[2:22:19] But the new North Broadway Park and Ride Location will provide an opportunity for us to diversify the transit hub, and if you don't need to go all the way to downtown
[2:22:28] You don't have to do anymore. And so we're going to be looking at that and implementing some effective change in what our service area can do and what those
[2:22:35] Those transit hub areas look like as well, but we are looking at it very
[2:22:39] We're going to be holistically looking at other partners, looking at other systems are doing,
[2:22:44] but VA is doing some incredible things with data, and I think we kind of glossed over it,
[2:22:48] but I think it's important to mention some of the ridership issues that we've had with
[2:22:52] paratransit services as well, and VA has been able to analyze our current vehicle capacity
[2:22:58] and our current driver capacity and determine that in a lot of situations we wouldn't need
[2:23:02] to call overflow rides, we just aren't booking in an efficient manner, and so they can look at
[2:23:07] and really look at, is everybody going to the same place?
[2:23:11] Okay, how do we coordinate that ride?
[2:23:13] So it makes sense and we can pick up multiples and drop them off.
[2:23:15] So they've already started conversations with those,
[2:23:17] those main drop-off locations, you know like elderly centers
[2:23:22] and facilities that bring in a lot of individuals
[2:23:25] and how can we more efficiently drop people off?
[2:23:28] So those are all things that have already started
[2:23:30] before September versus even come but also before via was even on board.
[2:23:34] Our transit planner, Sandra Abouza, if you see her name, she did get married, so it's different, she didn't leave.
[2:23:42] But she's been having a strategic outlook on this priority, even via coming on board.
[2:23:48] I'm glad to see the micro discussions coming into the discussion.
[2:23:51] I think via does bring a lot to the table more than just that sort of not just operational partner, but also having that experience.
[2:23:58] But I also want to sort of vote for
[2:24:02] Not so much asking what a customer's watch about watching what they do and this whole thing with the male shuttles and how they got put in place
[2:24:10] I and and then we're gonna try to figure that out in the meantime BRT comes in and I think it's gonna change behaviors
[2:24:16] depending on who gets to 2,500
[2:24:19] parking passes and who gets something else, but I am worried about this system because I
[2:24:25] I'm not just the, you know, the ridership thing with working at home, the whole, the
[2:24:31] finding thing, but it still is looking at Rochester as this 58 mile place that we're
[2:24:38] trying to do public transit for 150,000 people. Is it a winner or do we need to do something much
[2:24:45] more focused? And I know that Mr. Gets are wanting to jump in on something. Thank you. I'm sorry,
[2:24:52] Rachel, please jump back in here, but I just wanted it to take a different spend to Councilmember Keen's question as well. So first of all, I'll just
[2:25:00] Start by saying Rachel has been in her team events so focused on this and you can see the impact. I'm excited about the ideas via brings to improve the service in other ways and grow ridership.
[2:25:10] But you asked about the scoreboard and so I want to maybe go to the flip side of that for a moment and just share that. One of the things that I'm always talking with Rachel about and she's always talking with her team about is watching the scoreboard numbers because the reality is
[2:25:26] the consistency and the reliability of our service must improve or we will have to
[2:25:35] make drastic changes. And so one of the reasons that we're watching this so closely
[2:25:39] is because if the ridership drops due to inconsistent or unreliable service,
[2:25:46] we have backup plans that we can reduce service, such that we then do have enough
[2:25:50] drivers to deliver the service more reliably. So that's the flip side of the answer
[2:25:54] And I know that Rachel and her team are focused on and we'll get us there without having to take that drastic step and the via team, but I just want to put that out there that that is the other the other side of that coin and if we can't fix this the right way then the other way is to just drastically reduce service so that we can have reliable service because reliability is a must.
[2:26:14] Yeah, no, I appreciate that, and I don't want to be little, because I really do appreciate
[2:26:17] it, I have KPIs, but I guess the other part of this, the underpinning of this, is this idea
[2:26:23] of the number of people who are so dependent, and I don't mean just people trying to get to their jobs,
[2:26:27] but people running businesses that this is the way the stuff works. And if we fail on it, it really
[2:26:34] is going to drive a lot of other problems that I just don't want to have to deal with.
[2:26:39] Yeah, and I'll say, and I hope my team nods behind me, but one of the things I consistently say,
[2:26:44] is we're looking at numbers, we're looking at dollars, we're looking at metrics, but all of
[2:26:47] those are reflective of actual people that are trying to move around their daily life. And if
[2:26:51] they're maybe they're going to work, but maybe they're going to appointment, maybe they're going
[2:26:54] to visit their family. And I think there are things that we have within our system that don't
[2:26:58] provide that experience either. And so what are the ways that we can really meet people where they are?
[2:27:03] And I think that's when we're looking at service changes. And that's when we're looking at marketing
[2:27:06] when it comes to transit and transit has a different spin on it. Like we are shifting our system
[2:27:11] to meet people where they are, not asking people to meet us, and so there's a little bit
[2:27:17] of both.
[2:27:17] There might be some last mile conversations in there as well, but we really want to provide
[2:27:22] a system that works for people and not force people to manipulate their lives to really work
[2:27:26] for our system.
[2:27:27] Come to the moment.
[2:27:29] You mentioned the park and ride, but we have the park and ride right now.
[2:27:31] You're just replacing the one that's at the Haley Center.
[2:27:35] In 2019, we had over 2 million riders.
[2:27:37] The city of Rochester hasn't grown that much. We're down to 600,000 dollars.
[2:27:41] The 600,000 writers right now, the city hasn't grown that much.
[2:27:46] And so I don't like the idea that OGs were too big and we can't survive.
[2:27:50] We had two million writers. Something happened to those two million writers.
[2:27:54] And I think that Mr. Yester is right on the number, and I've said it 20 times,
[2:27:57] is if you're not going to be reliable, they're not going to use you.
[2:28:00] And I don't care who's running the ship if you don't have reliability.
[2:28:04] I'm not a fan of your micro-transit. We did a pilot program. It was $285 a writer
[2:28:10] Cost and I don't know who thinks that's considered a good number, but
[2:28:14] If that's what we're gonna be bringing to it that does not work. Yeah, I would ask for us not to look at that microchains
[2:28:21] Pilot as an example of a microchains assistance look like in other cities because it doesn't
[2:28:26] Doesn't mimic what we would see in in similar urban systems
[2:28:31] Okay, we've got four people now that want to speak and just to be clear, Council, we are
[2:28:41] over on this item and we will be kind of press to on the next one. So I've got Mayor Norton.
[2:28:51] I've got council member, oh, okay, I've got council member Fredrick, so go ahead Mayor Norton.
[2:29:01] And let's be brief, I want to end this topic.
[2:29:05] It's an interesting topic and I appreciate it.
[2:29:08] I had a question, maybe more for thank you.
[2:29:15] The point has been made that we've seen a decrease in ridership and that is true.
[2:29:19] And we know that the pandemic was part of that.
[2:29:23] I don't know if it was all of it.
[2:29:24] I'm wondering since you do services in other cities
[2:29:27] is what we're experiencing unusual
[2:29:29] or is what we're experiencing happening across the country?
[2:29:33] I think there were hits across the country.
[2:29:35] I think the numbers that we're seeing here
[2:29:36] a little bit more drastic than in other locations.
[2:29:39] My guess is part of it here is the reliability piece.
[2:29:42] I think we do see major hits with reliability.
[2:29:45] So that's obviously our number one priority to fix.
[2:29:48] and then some of the innovations with the Mayo system is my understanding, and those have probably
[2:29:53] had a good chunk of the impact as well. So I think similar, but maybe more exaggerated.
[2:29:57] And I'll say that the timeline is a little-
[2:30:00] Local government's leading when it came to COVID impacts to our system because it was also when our IB and
[2:30:04] parking ride came offline. And I think that would be a miss for me to not mention that now that
[2:30:09] did reduce a lot of our ridership within the system.
[2:30:13] Council member, Fredericks.
[2:30:14] Yeah, do you have the updated periure costs periure at this point? I heard it a few months ago.
[2:30:22] What it was, but what are we sitting at now?
[2:30:24] Yeah, I can pull that up. It's a dollar.
[2:30:29] of course I close my computer and then you ask.
[2:30:36] I can pull that data.
[2:30:43] I know, I got it the
[2:30:45] first time. Well, while you are pulling that up and a council member Miller, if you can make
[2:30:53] it brief, we will let you ask your question while she's pulling up the number. A request
[2:31:00] then for via because you operate in the Sioux Falls market, I was just looking at the numbers,
[2:31:05] there are nearly 200,000 people over 81 square miles, but very similar population density does.
[2:31:12] You've done drastic route redesign micro transit integration. Are there materials that you could
[2:31:17] share with the council about kind of what you did in that market and what impacts you've seen because
[2:31:21] I suspect that that's just going to be something that's quite unfamiliar and would be a helpful
[2:31:25] resource and how we understand how your involvement might change the prospect for our system.
[2:31:30] Yeah, absolutely. I think at a high level it was like decrease the the routes that were inefficient at micro and increased her frequencies on more efficient routes, but we have tons of materials that would be happy to provide.
[2:31:42] Get a number for us. It's a dollar 40.
[2:31:44] All right, dollar 40 per.
[2:31:46] Per ride.
[2:31:48] And I think it's important to have that clarification to a rider is not a ride.
[2:31:52] And when we present numbers and we present data that's data based on rides.
[2:31:56] And so that's not that could be one person riding multiple times.
[2:31:59] more clear. My question is what's a costing us per ride?
[2:32:02] Oh,
[2:32:05] I can also give you that number. Thanks Lindsey, a dollar 64.
[2:32:10] There you go.
[2:32:12] Good.
[2:32:13] Well, thank you both very much. Welcome again.
[2:32:17] Good luck next week with the rollout and we will take a six minute break.
[2:33:56] But I just want to warn the council we may run over our 630, but we're not going to take it out on Amanda, so take it away.
[2:34:05] I will, I will threw my best to guys out of here by a six thirty. So wonderful. Yeah, council president council mayor. Thank you so much for your attention this evening. I know it's been a long evening.
[2:34:19] But I met some of you during my start in the city, but my name is Amanda Liner. I'm the economic mobility program specialist. This is a brand new role that started in February.
[2:34:28] So, today, tonight, we're going to give you a six-month update or progress upgrade on economic
[2:34:34] mobility work to support inclusive growth. Sharing key findings and lessons learned as we're
[2:34:40] identifying emerging areas of focus, as this work moves from discovery into action phases.
[2:34:47] So, we'll bring this slide back up at the end, but tonight we'll be seeking your feedback on the
[2:34:51] emerging direction of this work to inform its continued development, especially as we're moving into
[2:34:56] more in-depth stakeholder engagement and community code design process.
[2:35:03] So I wanted to start tonight by providing this shared definition of economic ability to ground this conversation. So when we're talking about economic ability, we're just saying it's the ability of someone to improve their well-being over time, going from where they are now to a greater state of financial security and opportunity. So that can be an individual level or intergenerational. I also really like this framework provided by the National League of Cities, where you can see a transition through stages of economic stability, security and well-being,
[2:35:33] That's not always a linear process, but it helps you see what's involved in those stages.
[2:35:38] And also shows that this is a very individualized process that involves multiple systems coming together to influence these outcomes.
[2:35:48] So why are we talking about economic mobility now?
[2:35:51] Every way you come in and talk about growth that's going on in the Rochester community.
[2:35:55] However, this growth doesn't equal the same opportunity access for all residents.
[2:36:01] So really, when we're adding economic mobility into the conversation, we're just saying let's
[2:36:05] have improved coordination, alignment, and solutions building across internal and external
[2:36:11] systems to get better outcomes for residents.
[2:36:14] I want to note too, when we're talking about economic mobility tonight, we are not saying that
[2:36:18] the city is leading and owning all of these processes.
[2:36:21] We'll be very specific and you've seen in your slide deck where there's been specific areas
[2:36:26] where the city can lead support and inform that work.
[2:36:29] and we're seeing this very much something that needs to be done in partnership with organizations
[2:36:33] in the community.
[2:36:38] So you talked about economic mobility as a part of economic development
[2:36:43] a few weeks ago, so I'm not going to take too much time here, but economic development is looking
[2:36:48] at growing the economy. Economic mobility is saying who can actually participate in that growth
[2:36:53] and what are their barriers to accessing it? So when we consider economic mobility, that's a more
[2:36:58] inclusive, look at economic development and economic opportunity access.
[2:37:04] In addition, the city of Rochester received this grant from ICMA last fall to kind of stand
[2:37:11] up this work, identify mobility areas, online stakeholders and develop pilot work.
[2:37:16] So we're part of a national network of communities that gets to work on this kind of together,
[2:37:19] which has been really helpful.
[2:37:22] But after this grant is done, really what we want to do here is lay the ground work to
[2:37:27] line systems connect work to support and sustain inclusive economic opportunity and economic
[2:37:32] development as we move through this grant and beyond into sustainability.
[2:37:39] So I mentioned in the beginning that this position is new but economic mobility work has already
[2:37:45] been happening both outside of the city or to the inside the city and outside through external
[2:37:52] partners, how we've been thinking about land use, transportation, economic development and housing,
[2:37:56] those systems are all coming together to influence economic mobility outcomes for folks in our community.
[2:38:02] So this isn't about doing new work.
[2:38:04] It's saying let's be intentional about how this work spans different departments in the city, different work with partners,
[2:38:10] how residents are experiencing the interaction of those systems, and where really small changes,
[2:38:16] layering on that economic mobility lens could have different outcomes for folks.
[2:38:22] So this is an overview of the work that's been done to date since I got started in February through
[2:38:26] to the end of this year.
[2:38:28] So we've taken a very intentional data-driven approach,
[2:38:31] really to understand systems and constraints,
[2:38:34] do extensive engagement with stakeholders
[2:38:36] and understand and uncover data.
[2:38:38] And really the intent with all of this
[2:38:40] is to be very mindful about where the city
[2:38:43] can have the most meaningful impact and collaboration
[2:38:45] with the work that's already taking place to be additive.
[2:38:52] So the first two stages this work
[2:38:53] really looked at deepening our understanding
[2:38:55] of economic ability challenges within the community
[2:38:58] through a variety of ways and we'll go through all of these here, but a lot of external stakeholder
[2:39:02] engagement, workshops, data discovery, and through this work we uncovered over 30 areas,
[2:39:09] specifically impacting economic mobility and Rochester, and then work with stakeholders and
[2:39:13] key leadership to prioritize these down to four mobility areas where the city has the unique
[2:39:19] opportunities to add value and working towards narrowing that down to one specific focus area
[2:39:24] for work under this ICMA grant.
[2:39:29] So this is showing the outcomes of that narrowing work through
[2:39:33] engagement with stakeholders and city team members to elevate the four economic mobility areas
[2:39:39] from those original 30 where that were identified as most impactful to residents opportunity
[2:39:45] access and specifically where the city had some action lever to lead support or influence the work
[2:39:52] which is shown here through these different colors.
[2:39:55] So I'm not going to go through this with you tonight.
[2:39:59] You're all very aware.
[2:40:00] Our work that's being done in connected and reliable transit, affordable housing supply, where the city supports.
[2:40:06] And these two other economic mobility areas that were elevated are areas more where the city would influence through bringing stakeholders together through policy, data driven approach and systems level alignment.
[2:40:21] So even with narrowing into those four areas, that's still quite a lot of work to be done.
[2:40:26] So what we're doing right now in this next stage is more in-depth and targeted stakeholder and partner engagement working with local experts and diving deeper into data sets to get to a much more detailed and prioritized
[2:40:39] a singular economic mobility focus area for work under the ICMA in grant.
[2:40:45] So we use this decision matrix and conversations with stakeholders and leadership to start
[2:40:51] narrowing process for the ICMA grant across those four general economic mobility themes.
[2:40:57] Specifically, we were looking at the level of current momentum leadership both inside and outside
[2:41:03] of the city in these different spaces, as well as the impact of grant resources to move the needle
[2:41:08] in these areas. Through this analysis, conversations with stakeholders and leadership, career readiness
[2:41:13] and workforce system alignment was chosen for further exploration, for pilot work under
[2:41:18] this grant. Completely recognizing that all four of these areas are highly interconnected and
[2:41:23] important to economic opportunity access and work will continue with the gold increase connection,
[2:41:29] alignment and focus collaborations to move towards that more sustainable and long-term
[2:41:33] economic opportunity access. Before you go off of that slide in and I really appreciate it
[2:41:41] this look at this. So with the current momentum for career readiness at moderate and level
[2:41:52] of leadership, is that what you're looking at is focusing on bringing more momentum and what
[2:41:59] is that look like and and having the city take a higher level of leadership.
[2:42:06] Yeah, that would be correct. From our conversations, there wasn't really a lot of city
[2:42:10] bandwidth dedicated toward creating this in work for system alignment, both with working
[2:42:15] done in the city and alignment with external partners on work already being done. So we weren't
[2:42:21] playing a huge role in that to date. So the plan is to play a bigger role in our visible role.
[2:42:29] That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Because, and you and I have talked, and I've mentioned this to
[2:42:35] Ms. Steinhouser as well, is I think the connections with our largest employer here in Rochester
[2:42:42] and really understanding those pathways that they use and then kicking our position as the city
[2:42:51] in making sure that those pathways are clear to our residents and neighbors so that there is a pathway
[2:43:01] for the residents of Rochester and Omsid County. Yeah, and we'll dive into those deeper conversations
[2:43:09] as this work moves forward. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.
[2:43:19] Okay. So to start kind of understanding
[2:43:22] what's going on in the career readiness and workforce space we did a deeper dive into labor force
[2:43:28] data with a support of our partner at deed and really we were just looking at occupations
[2:43:33] that were growing the most quickly in the area if they were actually creating economic mobility for
[2:43:38] folks. So to do this we examine wages, household costs, our households that these supported
[2:43:44] and education barriers to get into those occupations and found that they segmented into these
[2:43:49] groups shown here on the slide, with only some of these occupations actually supporting economic
[2:43:55] mobility based on this data and actually the majority likely supporting more stability
[2:44:00] but not economic advancement.
[2:44:05] I'm not going to spend too much time here, but we actually looked at the data and asked
[2:44:09] who is accessing these mobility occupations and you can see there's distribution,
[2:44:19] not equal
[2:44:19] community engagement and resident voice to understand this more in-depth.
[2:44:24] So as I mentioned, the city is not intending to own this work.
[2:44:27] We don't want to be a workforce development provider.
[2:44:30] We fully recognize that this is a community-wide
[2:44:32] system spanning work that needs to be on in partnership.
[2:44:35] With others in the community, this map is meant to be a preliminary look
[2:44:39] at some of the partners working in this space.
[2:44:42] And many of these have been engaged to date and preliminary discussions
[2:44:45] around economic mobility challenges that they are seeing
[2:44:48] that's showing up with the people they serve.
[2:44:52] Council Member Doring.
[2:44:54] Just for clarification, are those representative organizations or is that the exhaustive?
[2:45:00] This is very preliminary. Yep, needs to be further explored with engagement with these folks.
[2:45:08] So from this early stage kind of preliminary engagement with folks in the workforce development space, this has also been helpful to start to create an asset map draft, very much still and draft form.
[2:45:19] And this can help us start to understand the resident experience across the ecosystem, how these pieces connect together, where people enter the system or gaps infection can be, could be occurring.
[2:45:31] So, from this labor market data in these stakeholder conversations, that's kind of converging
[2:45:36] around these two main focus areas, more in-depth analysis of career pathway access barriers
[2:45:43] and household stability barriers.
[2:45:46] So, so far, the data has been telling us what's happening now, more in-depth stakeholder
[2:45:50] engagement and adding in that resident voice is going to tell us why that's happening and
[2:45:55] allow us to be toward more in-depth co-design and solution generation with the community.
[2:46:01] So that kind of leads us to where we are now. So maybe getting us to 630, we'll see.
[2:46:07] But wrapping up the end of this refined stage where we've kind of narrowed in on this specific
[2:46:13] economic mobility focus areas leading into community engagement and co-design to better understand
[2:46:19] the specific barriers that are occurring in that space and add in the resident voice to explain
[2:46:24] why this is happening.
[2:46:25] While this is all occurring, we continue to engage with national experts at ICMA, continue
[2:46:33] to have more in-depth conversations with stakeholders to have more in-depth and refined conversations
[2:46:38] in these places.
[2:46:39] The slide here, can you hold?
[2:46:41] Oh, when you're done.
[2:46:42] OK.
[2:46:43] Pretty much done.
[2:46:44] And then, yeah, continue to work across these for primary priority mobility areas.
[2:46:52] Council member Fredericks.
[2:46:54] And do you get through it?
[2:46:55] Yes, we're at the end.
[2:46:57] So I enjoyed my visit with you.
[2:47:01] And what I started thinking about after you left is,
[2:47:05] she'll go through all of her people.
[2:47:06] I wonder what her biggest cliche were here.
[2:47:11] Mom and I'll be here.
[2:47:12] This is a front verb thing I think we need to look at.
[2:47:14] I'd like to hear what that is.
[2:47:18] I think what has come to mind quickly to me is that
[2:47:26] We have a lot of people in this space doing really great work, and it's just fragmented and
[2:47:34] residents often don't know about it.
[2:47:35] So I feel I'm not saying that all the solutions are there.
[2:47:38] I'm saying we have some great gems to work from, and we just need to connect those pieces
[2:47:45] together to make a more cohesive pathway for residents.
[2:47:49] Yeah, I used to go down to City Hall, everybody did in person, talked to somebody, and
[2:47:54] And then they'd see, yeah, go here, go there.
[2:47:56] Now people are sitting there at home on their phone
[2:47:58] surf and on where do I go, where do I go?
[2:48:00] And I think, like, as to the point, like, when you know,
[2:48:04] where to go and makes it so much easy,
[2:48:05] like, you just have that, you know, that access
[2:48:08] that other people don't who don't know it.
[2:48:10] So, to me, that's a huge piece of this is,
[2:48:13] how can that be equitable to more people
[2:48:16] to know how to navigate these pathways?
[2:48:19] Yeah, maybe the point of making
[2:48:19] I'm not needing just to say city hall.
[2:48:21] It was anywhere.
[2:48:22] you went and that worked in person and you talked to people and you made connections,
[2:48:25] you could see it taste and feel it and you don't get pointed in the right direction.
[2:48:30] Quite frankly, it's almost a lost art at this point, so.
[2:48:38] And minister of his own?
[2:48:39] Could I just also offer that I wanted to recognize that Amanda is right around her six-month mark,
[2:48:44] and she's done an amazing job to bring us to this point, although she's been in the city of
[2:48:54] lot of work condensed down into a few slides that help us to then focus in on to your point what could
[2:49:01] actually hopefully move the needle to a degree in helping connect people to existing resources
[2:49:06] or understanding what the gap is, but just want to say thank you to her for doing all of this.
[2:49:12] And it feels like way longer to me, but it's been six months. And she also honored her first
[2:49:16] for a into at a study session actually can be flexible.
[2:49:22] That's fair class on flexible and
[2:49:24] session presentation.
[2:49:26] A bridge her presentation.
[2:49:28] So council member King.
[2:49:30] Yeah, thanks for being here.
[2:49:31] And again, I did me with you.
[2:49:32] I appreciate.
[2:49:33] Again, there is something about this that I get suspicious of with the idea of
[2:49:37] like economic mobility, but I really like the thing you start out with.
[2:49:40] And it started out with economic sustainability,
[2:49:42] moving to economic security, moving to like building wealth.
[2:49:46] And I almost thought it missed the first one is like at risk starting out at risk and I am still unclear if like I mean
[2:49:54] I know this is not like I really appreciate the cities not trying to take this in here. We're gonna do this, but if you had
[2:50:00] If you're going to do your key metrics, would it be based on the transit system would get better in support, or the housing system would get better in support, or would it be, we've, like, dramatically improved lives of seven families?
[2:50:18] Yeah. Yeah. No, I understand and appreciate that point. And that's what we're getting to now with leadership in these areas, housing transit to develop more of those metrics.
[2:50:28] But yes, I think to your point, we're in the process of thinking more in depth about what that will be, is it, you know, increased ridership, is it, are we looking at household cost burden?
[2:50:38] So we're having those conversations now.
[2:50:40] And I think they're all contributors too, but then, and I, and I always get caught up with this mobility, because I look at this mobility as being able to, you know, kind of build on what I build a career or build something.
[2:50:52] My other comment is, and this is getting personal lately, but I don't like to see the
[2:50:58] first time we talk about economic mobility, we talk about, let me help you start a business.
[2:51:03] Because 85% of us get a W-2, that's what our careers are, and to say we're going to start
[2:51:10] out with entrepreneurship, is a wonderful thing, and hopefully, you know, we could, some people
[2:51:15] really do all with that, but it is ignoring the majority of the population, and I, and I
[2:51:22] want to, I like that thing when the mobility occupations pay 50% or above, how do you get
[2:51:28] people to start not just like saying like I just need a job, I got to go get the first job
[2:51:33] and try to get them to build skills and those first jobs to get them to the next and get into
[2:51:37] that. And that's the mobility piece that really interests me in this. It is daunting though to
[2:51:45] about how to go about it. So that's the end. I couldn't agree with Councilmember King Moore,
[2:51:52] and that's why I focused on our largest employer because I think, you know, there are those
[2:51:58] that wants the ability, but a lot of our employers provide wages, increases, benefits,
[2:52:07] part of those benefits are our professional development and education and others that can then
[2:52:14] lead them to that economic mobility.
[2:52:17] So what I was very excited about hearing from you
[2:52:21] is your answer to council member projects question,
[2:52:25] which is in the connections need to be there.
[2:52:29] And if we can be a conduit for helping make those connections
[2:52:35] between those agencies that work in this area,
[2:52:39] workforce, workforce mobility, or workforce,
[2:52:42] I don't want to say development because that's your other one, but the and the employers, I think then that is how I would see success in our part of it is making connections it can be lasting.
[2:52:59] Council member Doring.
[2:53:02] Yeah, I wanted to make sure I address the three questions you put on your last slide.
[2:53:06] I like the prioritized economic mobility areas if I'm reading those on slide 19 of your presentation.
[2:53:16] Focus area one career pathway access barriers and households stability barriers.
[2:53:21] I would I would love to see some in depth work in in the trades.
[2:53:28] What that means for folks and economic stability and long term career pathways.
[2:53:32] I'm fascinated by the work of equity across our economic space.
[2:53:39] So I know that we kind of glossed over for a lack of time over the
[2:53:43] the racial slide in here.
[2:53:46] I'm interested in a more equitable workforce across racial barriers,
[2:53:51] as well as gender barriers.
[2:53:53] I'd love to see that information.
[2:53:55] and for me success metrics would be a more equitable workforce.
[2:54:04] So, obviously, that for me includes across those ethnic or racial barriers, as well as the gender gap in some of our occupations.
[2:54:15] So, I hope that's helpful.
[2:54:17] Very, I appreciate that. Thank you.
[2:54:18] Council Member Wall.
[2:54:21] Thank you.
[2:54:22] I had to, unless I missed it previously in the presentation,
[2:54:28] I had to look at what Alice means from the,
[2:54:32] but I, what?
[2:54:35] Yeah.
[2:54:37] Survival occupations.
[2:54:39] I presume in economic mobility, we're not simply trying to eliminate.
[2:54:44] I mean, that represents a huge part of our workforce.
[2:54:48] We will always need servers, food prep, how do you work into the economic mobility ladder?
[2:54:57] Yeah, no, I fully recognize that point.
[2:55:00] And I think this is just meant to say that based on the data, if this was the only income coming into a household,
[2:55:08] it would not really be able to support even a single adult. So I think it's the understanding that what that means,
[2:55:15] and that overall, that would have to be supplemented in some other way. So I think going back to, I can't quite remember when the point was made,
[2:55:25] but thinking about how people transition
[2:55:27] through those different stages,
[2:55:29] but kind of just recognizing what that means
[2:55:31] to be in some of those occupations
[2:55:33] and that there are other supports
[2:55:36] that those people are needing.
[2:55:38] And if I could add, and Amanda, you correct me from wrong.
[2:55:42] So you're absolutely right.
[2:55:44] Like we are hospitality-based community, right?
[2:55:47] And so, but when you think about economic mobility
[2:55:50] income and pathway is one component of economic
[2:55:55] mobility and where we influence and directly lead are in the housing
[2:55:59] pathways, the transportation pathways and so again thinking about what's
[2:56:05] the work that we do that if someone's not going to get out of that survival
[2:56:09] occupation how might we provide support for that household thinking about
[2:56:16] those other pathways?
[2:56:20] Councilmember Miller.
[2:56:22] Yeah, just going through the questions or feedback.
[2:56:26] Yes, these resonate.
[2:56:28] Not so we have anything to add from the current framework.
[2:56:32] I would love to know, especially looking at it's like 20,
[2:56:35] and even beyond December 26 at what point the council should expect.
[2:56:40] Check-ins or updates in this process.
[2:56:42] I mean, often when we do development processes,
[2:56:44] we'll have stars.
[2:56:45] This is when we should expect to hear back next.
[2:56:47] And here would be the scope of that,
[2:56:49] so helping us understand how we're involved, moving forward.
[2:56:53] And then I think part of success would look like having
[2:56:57] built out metrics, much like we had in the transit space.
[2:57:00] So we understand what we're measuring,
[2:57:01] and so that we can track that over time.
[2:57:03] I think this scorecard of our public transit system
[2:57:05] was a good part of what measuring success
[2:57:09] in one of these areas would look like or part of it.
[2:57:12] And I would just wonder how we're adding these tangible ways
[2:57:15] that you know equitable workforce is based on a specific set of measures and helping us understand
[2:57:24] how we're measuring progress because otherwise it can feel quite vague and intangible to
[2:57:32] understand whether we're making progress or not for whom. Yeah, no, when I completely appreciate that
[2:57:38] and that's part of what we're working on now. We narrow in that focus how we can get more what's the
[2:57:43] right where to put this stepping stones of kind of those metrics because economic mobility
[2:57:49] right is it's generational. It's maybe five, 10 years. So that's what working on right now
[2:57:54] as we narrow in that focus to identify more specific metrics that could be used. And I think
[2:58:00] along with that, we can work alongside leadership to provide kind of that glide path for you all
[2:58:04] and keep you all informed as this moves forward.
[2:58:09] I want to go back to something council member
[2:58:12] during said and he mentioned the trades and I look at, you know, the construction trades and, you
[2:58:19] know, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, there is one we have a need or growing community
[2:58:25] and there is economic mobility in those professions as people get furthered license than through
[2:58:33] apprenticeships and so and I didn't see that up there and so is there a reason or is it something
[2:58:42] that you can add into, I saw repairs.
[2:58:48] Oh, that's probably just because it wasn't,
[2:58:50] Yeah, one of the ability.
[2:58:52] And I, you know, yeah, I think the construction trade
[2:58:56] should be something that you certainly should look at
[2:59:00] and look at as a major piece of our economic.
[2:59:08] No, I appreciate that, and I will say these were meant to more be more like wage brackets
[2:59:12] more than definitive, these are the specific occupations that will be focusing on.
[2:59:18] So I completely appreciate that.
[2:59:20] And again, this is a finite period of time with this grant to be able to bring us to a certain
[2:59:25] point, but part of the next exploration process that Amanda is sharing about also
[2:59:31] there's continuing adjustment and refinement for the next few years of the Rochester Public
[2:59:39] Schools strategic plan and I know they're focusing on some of that so this is an intended
[2:59:43] to like replace all of those other things but also in order to have an outcome that's necessary
[2:59:48] in order to deliver on the grant requirements we can't boil the ocean either doesn't mean the ocean
[2:59:55] So it's this we can't keep boiling it later. All right
[3:00:00] Well, thank you. Great presentation in more ways than one. It was brief. It was worthwhile. And you got some new information for us.
[3:00:13] All right. With that, study session schedule.
[3:00:18] Thank you, Vice President. Council members, just a quick reminder. This coming Monday is the fifth Monday of August. So you will not have a study session or a council meeting.
[3:00:26] So, okay, so that's something that you're going to feel sad about, get prepared for that now and then the next study session following your September 9th, which is a Wednesday Council meeting, which is the week of Labor Day, is the City Administrators recommended supplemental budget. So additional feedback from what we heard here today as well as continuation of the discussion of those last slides and action plan update as well as credit card service fee.
[3:00:54] So lots of aligned type of activities, then just did also want to point out forthcoming later
[3:01:01] in September.
[3:01:02] We have some updates on stormwater quality credit transfer policy.
[3:01:06] You've seen that once before, as well as mode shift and housing access update.
[3:01:13] All right.
[3:01:14] We are adjourned.