[0:09] Call to order the city council regular meeting of the city of Wyoming, Minnesota, for September 1st, 2026. Let the record reflect we do have a quorum member Luger, member onstead, member Schilling, member Yeager, and Mayor Iverson are present. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

[0:28] to

[0:32] the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation

[0:39] under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:48] First on the agenda is Open Forum.

[0:50] It's an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council and items that are on or

[0:56] may not be on the current agenda. Items requiring council action may be deferred to staffs or

[1:02] board and commissions for research and future council agendas, if appropriate.

[1:07] You will be limited to three minutes and we ask that you conduct yourself in a professional

[1:11] courteous manner and refrain from the use of profanity, failure to abide by this policy,

[1:17] may result in the loss of your privilege to speak.

[1:20] Do we have anybody here, I believe Mr. Babid is the only one?

[1:24] You know the drill, name address.

[1:33] Thank you.

[1:35] So I had a few things, we had three minutes, so I'm going to try to go really quick, and I just, first I want to put my opinion out about the way we financed the new city hall, doing bonds that are more expensive and cost them to taxpayer be more money.

[1:50] I think last meeting I was at, not last meeting with one, two meetings going and said we had to get it done and we wanted to wait for a vote and all that stuff.

[1:58] I kind of confused me because I remember when

[2:01] past mayor had to be where they were looking at money

[2:04] to buy what's not a lake's gas.

[2:06] I think he wanted the people that I was.

[2:08] That was I'll get signature.

[2:09] So we could have a boat.

[2:11] Yeah.

[2:11] And I just, I just, most of me, I just don't understand

[2:16] why we're going to charge our citizens more money

[2:19] so that we don't have to have a boat.

[2:22] Yeah.

[2:22] I just think that's wrong.

[2:23] So, my second thing is I was just wondering, I was thinking about after I gave the list

[2:29] of how many pack holes there were large, maybe even smaller than $159.00 and did get fixed

[2:37] before the scumball suicide run, but I was, I'm just still curious, why we did the roads

[2:45] to the south that weren't in nearly as bad shape that I run through there and why we did

[2:50] and I guess my idea would be, yes, one of the citizens

[2:54] council don't want to stop it, it's a,

[2:57] which one should be the first or second,

[2:59] and you know, it's, I've been invited,

[3:03] avoiding term 59 for probably six, seven years,

[3:08] I go on a deal and drive instead

[3:09] because I don't want to go through all the problems.

[3:12] To do the section that was done instead

[3:14] of that section, you mean his balance?

[3:16] I, I just, I can't understand it.

[3:19] So, um, um, uh, third thing, and, uh,

[3:24] the only one that's nothing against you happy for you, everything like that, but, um,

[3:29] I've heard that, uh, we are paying $180,000 plus a $300 month, uh, gas allowance.

[3:36] I just got a curiosity went on to, uh, Dr. Gohan said, what's the average salary of

[3:41] city administrators and thousands under 10,000 Minnesota?

[3:43] But I got back to average salary for a city administrator.

[3:47] You've been a sodas $90,642 per year.

[3:50] But has a range of 72,366,114.

[3:55] There's another one that says the average salary is 56.

[3:58] Another one that says it's 149.

[4:00] I'm obviously missing something.

[4:02] What information do you guys have that

[4:07] fans somebody, that kind of money for a town under $10?

[4:11] Yeah.

[4:11] I don't know. Could be a great guy. Give me doing phenomenal job. I don't know. Yeah.

[4:17] It just shocked me when I heard that much and I just want to look so.

[4:21] Okay. Well, thank you for inquiring about that. We appreciate that.

[4:24] Okay. No answer. No, he does a phenomenal job and he's comparable. We do

[4:30] comparables every year when his review comes up and he's done. I'm not seeing any of that.

[4:36] We have, yeah, we have sister cities that we compare his salary to and he's done a really

[4:44] good job keeping us one out of the news to keeping us financially stable.

[4:48] Three are credit ratings are really high compared to cities of our size.

[4:53] And that's all thanks to Mr. Lidwood for what he's been doing.

[4:56] So I think you're a little bit misinformation in terms of what the average is.

[5:00] I think Member Schilling can kind of test it out.

[5:04] Yeah, that's duck.co that's not other cities that we use for comps and I got to say paying

[5:10] someone 180,000 to run our almost six million dollar corporate city is actually under in

[5:15] my opinion.

[5:17] So I'll give you an example 15 years ago when I left city of ealy they were going to

[5:23] pay me a hundred grand to be their building official and fire marshal somebody googled it

[5:27] and said that Duluth was paying their building official thirty five thousand dollars and

[5:32] not going to have anybody run a city at 70,000, you're not going to have somebody run a city

[5:35] this site at 100,000.

[5:37] We base it on comp cities, the same thing we do with all of our contracts and labor

[5:41] negotiation.

[5:42] We gather all of the information, and that's what sets that salary.

[5:48] They do the same thing in the private sector, they're just because I googled it, they're

[5:52] not going to, oh, well, they pay $50,000, and I was going to take the job to $50,000.

[5:57] Put up the headaches, run the city, run the corporation as it sits.

[6:01] This man runs our city with a very skeleton staff now and we're questioning why we're

[6:07] paying him a hundred and eighty grand a year, and it's your right to work in the private

[6:13] sector.

[6:14] Yep.

[6:15] And I run projects that are more than six million.

[6:17] I work with big teams.

[6:20] I've had a responsibility for multi-vocations and I didn't think that how that was a while ago,

[6:26] so inflation was kicked out.

[6:27] How long ago?

[6:28] 12 years ago.

[6:29] Okay.

[6:29] Okay, so I understand even talking to my people that are still in that kind of field.

[6:41] Yeah, and you have every right as a taxpayer to question that. You have every right to do that.

[6:46] So I know as we sit here and we go into closed-door session and re-review his contract and stuff,

[6:52] we make decisions based on his performance, based on how the city is doing.

[6:59] and we feel that it's been a really good value.

[7:02] I also know being the Vice President of the Minnesota Meyers Association at one time

[7:08] president, I know how many cities when there's an opening come directly to him first and

[7:13] wanting him to be a part of their city.

[7:19] I guess from force lake came open a year and a half ago, it's my understanding it and apply that's two and a half size times one only.

[7:27] To me, that would be if somebody's striving to get ahead and wants to make more money and have more responsibility going to a city that's two and a half times the size of the one you run in,

[7:35] would be a natural expression when you're young. I don't know, maybe you did apply. I don't know, the guy in center go got it, you worked out for a year and a half.

[7:44] I don't think this is a continuous, I'm not sure that this continues to be appropriate

[7:48] for open forum.

[7:50] I like the mayor.

[7:51] I absolutely respect your questioning as a taxpayer.

[7:54] I think that is your right, but I think to have further conversation, I guess I would put

[7:59] it to Mr. Loonon in terms of whether or not that starts to get into data privacy and employee

[8:06] confidentiality issues, so we're discussing performance.

[8:09] It's an open forum. He's entitled to tag us up as far as counsel regarding

[8:14] the performance of English. Yeah, I'm just, I'm gonna, you know, I'll just say

[8:20] that if somebody is happy in their job, do they leave? I mean, if you're happy

[8:25] with your job, I'm very happy where I'm at now. I'm not gonna leave. So if you're

[8:30] happy and you enjoy your work and what you're doing, are you more apt to stay at your

[8:35] job then to go to a bigger city. That's, I mean, again, we can't answer that. That's

[8:41] Mr. Lin-Win's opinion and what he wants to do, where he wants to land when he's done

[8:47] with Wyoming or just done being a city administrator. That's all up to him in personal choice. And

[8:52] that's actually same with you, right? You're going to go where you want to go and stay where

[8:56] you want to stay. So I think, and again, we appreciate your comments to answer your

[9:01] road project one you were here last time we talked about that we do a road tour

[9:05] every year we rate them and then we can you let me finish please thank you so

[9:14] we do rate them we do we're very fiscally responsible when it comes to our

[9:18] roads so at any point in time you can look online and see our road projects and

[9:24] what we're planning to do and how we plan on financing it when I first became

[9:29] mayor we had no road plan zero zero road plan we had no money saved for it we had

[9:35] nothing and we've come a long ways in the last 12 years as me as mayor and as

[9:40] this council has been sitting here and we've put money away and we've been

[9:44] able not to have to bond for every single road that we're doing so we're working

[9:49] at it we know next year and you know this we know that we're already looking at

[9:52] getting that road done so you'll be able to run back on it and walk on it and

[9:58] drive on it here by end of next fall so you'll have that and let me finish please in terms of the

[10:05] building that you were talking about that building wasn't right for the city of Wyoming there

[10:09] wasn't enough room absolutely was not so the time was right on the building that came we have

[10:15] outgrown our police and fire station I mean there's so many things that go into it and cities are

[10:22] spending 54 million dollars for one building. We're getting three for nine

[10:29] million and I think that's something that we should really be happy about and

[10:33] I know that well the police is not your crack so even if it gets to be 13

[10:39] million let's talk about that 54 million for a brand new building and we're

[10:44] getting a building that there's only a few who aren't happy about it anybody I've

[10:50] talk to, I think council can say that too, are really happy with the financial decision

[10:54] that we made and it was hard. We've been looking at it for 10 years, 8 years. It's been

[11:01] so long, I kind of forgot.

[11:02] I'm happy that they're paying more than they would have to if we bought Gigabart.

[11:06] Well, I don't know. I'm just going to say this. When we, well, maybe not, you're financial,

[11:12] right? So I'm not going to argue with you. It's been a good decision for our community as

[11:16] whole. That's what this council does. They look at the community as a whole and

[11:21] what's best as a whole for people and for the city. And that's what we did. And

[11:26] we were viscally responsible. You may not agree with it. And that's your choice.

[11:30] Your your tax fare totally get all of that. So your three minutes are up. So yeah go

[11:37] ahead. I asked a question through all of this. When we're getting back to Mr.

[11:43] the language salary and the cops if you don't think his sources are that great

[11:50] can we supply him with the sources that we used to determine I think we

[11:58] give him the list of the system cities council is the one who approves that list

[12:03] that we use for myself and all of our contracts so that is the thing that the

[12:06] council has that they're disposed so that you can easily provide for him or we

[12:09] are able to as well. We use the same capacity for every, I don't have it right here in front

[12:15] of me. We can certainly provide that. So we use that same for all of our American units,

[12:18] whether it's our police patrol, our sergeants, myself, our local 49ers. So it's all the same,

[12:25] it's all the same city groups. Well, yeah, Mr. Mavit had come and asked for, asked me for anything.

[12:30] So if you have it and you can supply it to him, email it to him, that might be appreciated.

[12:38] Last question, how much is what are we looking at, and then also that final yet, probably

[12:42] perhaps in Greece?

[12:45] So, we do the September, we do a do not exceed, and then we whittle it down from there.

[12:50] So, we're going to have an update later on here, so hopefully you'll be able to stay and

[12:54] kind of listen for it.

[12:56] Okay.

[12:56] Thank you.

[12:57] Okay.

[12:57] Thank you.

[12:59] Anybody else?

[13:01] No.

[13:02] Okay.

[13:02] Then we're going to move on to approval of minutes, number one.

[13:06] Consider approving the minutes of the work session meeting of the Wyoming Minnesota City Council for August 18th

[13:13] 2026 if there are no comments changes or

[13:16] Questions do we have a motion to approve so moved motion to approve by member Luger

[13:22] Do we have a second second we have a second by members shilling all in favor?

[13:27] I

[13:28] Opposed so approved number two consider approving the minutes of the regular meeting of the Wyoming Minnesota City Council

[13:35] for August 18th, 2026.

[13:38] If there are no comments, questions or changes,

[13:40] do we have a motion to approve?

[13:42] So moved.

[13:43] Motion to approve by members.

[13:45] Shilling, do we have a second?

[13:46] Second, by member Luger, all in favor.

[13:49] Aye.

[13:50] Opposed?

[13:51] So approved.

[13:52] Consent agenda items under the consent agenda

[13:55] will be adopted with one motion.

[13:58] However, council members may request individual items

[14:01] to be pulled from the consent agenda

[14:03] for discussion and action if they choose. For the audience out there, the majority or all

[14:09] of this is usually things that we have talked about or have budgeted and approved during our

[14:13] budgets. Approval last year. So consent agenda number three, four, five, six, and seven. Does anybody

[14:22] wish to pull an item from consent? Seeing, yes? No? Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Do we have a motion

[14:31] Motion to approve consent agenda 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

[14:37] We have a motion to approve by member Onstad.

[14:40] Do we have a second?

[14:41] Second.

[14:42] Second by member Schilling.

[14:43] All in favor?

[14:45] Aye.

[14:45] Opposed?

[14:47] So approved.

[14:48] Acknowledge receipts of reports of officer boards, commissions, and department heads.

[14:53] Number 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

[14:58] Does anybody wish to pull a report?

[15:01] Seeing none, we'll move on to new business number 14. To consider resolution 26-09-115, a resolution

[15:10] approving the proposed tax levy payable in 2027. Mr. Limwood, are you starting us up on this?

[15:17] Well, thank you, Mayor. Members of council, we will have Jesse Sturds from our Abdel-Icon Myers,

[15:21] our finance director. She will be with us shortly, but she will go through the preliminary levy,

[15:27] as provided to council prior to the meeting, and she will go through some of those highlights,

[15:30] and I think Mr. McFarland is working on getting her up with us and there she is.

[15:44] All right. Can everybody hear me?

[15:47] Yes.

[15:47] We can. Thank you.

[15:48] Okay.

[15:49] All right. Thank you, Mayor Counsel.

[15:52] Tonight we're going to adopt the Freeland Levy.

[15:54] So just a reminder, once the Freeland budget is set tonight,

[15:58] the Levy cannot increase at all.

[16:01] And when we approve it in December,

[16:03] that'll be the final adoption.

[16:09] So tonight I'm going to go over the tax levies

[16:11] and then we're going to look at the general fund revenues and expenditures.

[16:19] Right. So this is the overall tax levy summary.

[16:25] So the top line there, the general levy, is going up $385,743.

[16:33] And that's 8.22% of the budget. That is that top line there.

[16:37] the EDA levy is going up about $2,500 and that's about 16.67 percent towards the

[16:47] middle there, the capital levy is going down 55,000 and that's a negative 7.01 percent and that

[16:56] is due to, oh sorry about that, it is mainly due to the street replacement fund is

[17:03] increasing about 100,000 there and that's according to the long-term plan for the last five six seven

[17:10] years we've been increasing that $100,000 every year and then if you notice that capital levy is

[17:15] going down about $155,000 and that is because we're going to do a transfer from the capital revolving

[17:22] front in the amount of 208,000 to cover the cost for 2027 so then farther down the line there is the

[17:31] debt levy and that's going up about $266,957 and that is going up 46.52% and that is mainly due to

[17:44] number one, the 2016 bond is falling off for next year, that's the top line and then we have

[17:52] that 2026 lease revenue bond coming on at $387,000. So that's what's making up that larger increase there,

[18:00] but we also have a bond falling off,

[18:02] so that offsets that decrease.

[18:04] So then overall, the overall tax

[18:07] limit is going up 9.89%, which is $600,000, $200 from 2026.

[18:16] I still have not received the tax capacity yet from the county.

[18:19] I've emailed them a couple times.

[18:21] I will reach out again.

[18:23] As soon as I get that, that will be updated

[18:25] and then that will in turn reflect

[18:28] like this 50 tax rate as well.

[18:30] Are there any questions on the tax levy piece of it?

[18:34] All right, member Booker, any questions?

[18:37] Nope, no questions.

[18:38] No, we're on stand.

[18:38] No questions.

[18:39] Member Yeager.

[18:40] I did have a question when you mentioned transferring

[18:43] to the transferring out of the capital revolving fund.

[18:47] When do you expect the bond proceeds to come and replenish that?

[18:52] September 3rd.

[18:53] September 3rd.

[18:54] OK, thank you.

[18:56] Yep.

[18:57] No questions at this time.

[18:59] All right.

[19:02] So then this slide here shows the types of levies broken out by the different types of levies.

[19:08] So there the orange part is the general fund levy.

[19:11] As you can see, it's increased slightly since 2023 over the past five years.

[19:17] The debt service levy is the yellow piece and that's remained pretty steady throughout the five years.

[19:23] the capital levy is the black portion at the top and that is it's been up and

[19:31] down the last five years we it's kind of fluctuated with the city's needs the

[19:36] street replacement fund again for the past five years we've increased that

[19:39] that hundred thousand dollars so that's again according to the long-term plan

[19:43] and then the very very little sliver at the top is the EDA levy and that's

[19:48] remained steady throughout the last five years.

[19:54] This slide here shows estimated property taxes

[19:58] and I do want to point out that this is

[20:02] no change in market value.

[20:05] We have not received the amounts

[20:06] from the change in market value from the county.

[20:09] So this is strictly an estimate

[20:11] and no change in market value.

[20:14] And as requested, I did add that $700,000 in there as well.

[20:18] Thanks. Thank you. AT $200,000 House is approximately gonna go up about $70.000. A $300,000 house is gonna go up about a $114,000 house is gonna go up $400,000 house is gonna go up about $159,500.000 house is gonna go up about $203,000, $600,000 House is gonna go up about $248, $700,000 house is gonna go up about $292,000.

[20:47] and then that commercial property and a half a million is going to approximately go up $377.

[20:53] And again, this is strictly estimated due to no change in market value.

[20:58] So everything on the screen is estimated.

[21:03] All right, revenues and expenditures.

[21:05] So on this screen, we see the general funds broken out by the type of revenues

[21:10] it is, property taxes, license, intergovernmental.

[21:13] And I'll point out just a few of the larger changes there.

[21:17] So the top line is a property tax line that's going up about $385,743.

[21:24] So that line item every time I increase or decrease a revenue or expense,

[21:30] that is the number that gets changed every time that drives the levy.

[21:35] So that number has been changing every time you guys have seen that

[21:38] just because of the revenues and expenses changing.

[21:42] The licenses and permits are going up about $21,000.

[21:45] dollars. And that is an increase in building permits and driveway permit revenues. And

[21:51] that's based on the prior year's activity. So I reviewed all the revenues this year.

[21:57] And I determined that a few of them were under budgeted the past couple of years. So we

[22:01] really dug into the revenues that took averages for the last couple of years. So the building

[22:06] permits and driveway permits were raised a little bit according to that. The intergovernmental

[22:13] is going up about $35,200.

[22:16] And again, I reviewed the revenues

[22:19] and we increased the state grants and aids,

[22:21] the police state aid and the fire state aid

[22:24] due to the last couple of years of activity.

[22:27] And then the interest earnings is going to go up

[22:29] about $30,400.

[22:31] And that's the increases due to the higher investment

[22:35] balances and interest rates.

[22:39] Expand interest side here.

[22:41] It's broken out by department.

[22:44] So at the back of your memo, you guys have line-by-line items.

[22:49] These go according to the departments on those BS&E reports.

[22:53] So you guys can follow up on me if you want on that.

[22:56] So a few of the larger changes on here is the City Clerk's Office is going up about $54,885.

[23:03] And that is a number of different items.

[23:06] Some of it is wages and benefits increases due to coal and step increases.

[23:10] We increased 35,000 in network municipal computers due to the growing needs of the city and

[23:18] it increased prices from vendors.

[23:21] We added a new line item for the city share property taxes for $6,500 and then we also

[23:28] had an increase in dues of subscriptions for about $9,800 for the BS&A subscription.

[23:35] towards the middle there, the financial administration's going up about $19,799. Again, that's

[23:42] a number of different items, including wages and benefits with coal and steppe increases.

[23:48] There's an increase in professional services for PMA fees and annual financial solutions.

[23:54] There's an increase of auditing and accounting to offset cost of the audit. And then there's

[24:00] increase of dues and subscriptions for that BSNA subscription as well in

[24:04] that department.

[24:07] To quite in the middle there is the police department is going

[24:10] up about $182,452. Again that is wages and benefits due to coal and step

[24:17] increases. We increase the overtime line item of $25,000 due to the

[24:23] actuals for the past couple of years so we increase that. And then we also have

[24:27] that BSN8 dues and subscriptions of $1,900 in there as well.

[24:33] The building inspections go in about $22,654, and that is due to wages and benefits

[24:40] of stepcrisis and colas, and then about $7,100 for that BSN8 subscription.

[24:47] And then last but not least is the highway streets and roads is going up about $174,861, and

[24:55] And again, that's due to wages of benefits due to COLDA.

[24:58] We added a number of increases in contracted services, equipment repairs, vehicle maintenance

[25:06] motor fuels to align more with the actuals of the past two years.

[25:11] We added in a line item of $10,000 for engineering due to their activity for 2026.

[25:18] And then we had some fees for the BSNA subscriptions as well.

[25:23] This last slide here shows what the percentages of the general fund.

[25:29] So the tap through areas of here is the police department, which is the orange.

[25:32] It's going up or it makes up 39.85% of the general fund.

[25:37] The streets, highways and roads there is the green and that's 20.85% of the general fund.

[25:45] And then the little dark green piece there of the city clerk's office makes up about 12.99%

[25:51] of the budget. The remaining pages of your budget or the budget memo are the

[25:58] line-by-line items for BS&A. So with that I will stand for any questions and

[26:03] I believe there's also a resolution that needs to be approved for to adopt

[26:07] the Freeland Levy. Mr. I'm going to start with a question. How long have you been

[26:11] doing our finance doing this part with working our budget and stuff?

[26:19] It'll be

[26:21] years. You've seen some changes, you've worked with other cities as well. So when you say

[26:27] you've had to increase from previous years, that sort of thing, how does that work into

[26:32] your thought process and what the city does?

[26:36] Yeah, so what we do is I kind of review every year we go line by line and I work with the

[26:42] department heads as well and we go line by line to determine how the budget was set the

[26:49] previous year. So were we short on a line item, were we long on a line item? And if we were

[26:55] longer short, we kind of taken average of the past two to three years to determine what that

[27:00] 2027 budget numbers should look like. Okay, so few of those revenues were running a little short,

[27:06] so we did increase those just because we felt it was time to increase them. Okay, and what are

[27:12] you seeing in terms of increases, in terms of product services, that sort of thing, overall in the

[27:18] cities that you work with.

[27:21] There are a lot of them are 6, 7, 8, 9% increases as well.

[27:28] A lot of it's due to fuel and health insurance is a huge one. Wages are a huge one.

[27:36] It's kind of all over the place. So we're seeing higher increases this year.

[27:41] Okay. Thank you. Okay. Questions from council? We'll start with member Schilling.

[27:46] No questions at this time.

[27:48] Okay.

[27:48] Member Yeager.

[27:49] No questions at this time.

[27:51] Member Looker.

[27:52] No questions.

[27:53] And number on-site.

[27:54] Just one quick question.

[27:55] Just a definition.

[27:56] Use the word subscriptions a lot.

[27:58] Not like you just to generalize what that means.

[28:01] Just so that people don't think we're ordering a lot of magazines.

[28:04] Probably.

[28:04] Yeah.

[28:07] Subscriptions are they you are consistent like BSNAPs.

[28:14] Copy machines, anything that has a subscription towards it, the mailing machine probably has

[28:20] a subscription-based.

[28:22] Rob, you could probably add some more, I haven't.

[28:25] I think our BSNA Pro Phoenix is a subscription service, civic plus that we use for creation

[28:32] of our agenda and our website, our website is a subscription service, so anything, anything

[28:36] like those types of items would be examples.

[28:38] I believe the police department also has subscriptions to update and keep the officers

[28:44] current.

[28:48] As far as like a written material or we have training materials that are of subscription

[28:52] patrol online, that type of thing, that's what it's getting nice, yep, yep, yep,

[28:55] yep, okay, thank you, all right, we appreciate it, it's always good to see you, I see you guys

[29:02] too.

[29:03] Yeah, thanks.

[29:03] All right, so number 14 is to consider resolution 26 on 915 and a resolution approving

[29:10] that proposed tax levied payable in 2027.

[29:14] There are no further questions.

[29:16] We need a motion to approve what is in front of us.

[29:18] Do we have a motion?

[29:19] So moved.

[29:20] We have a motion by member Schilling,

[29:22] a second by member Luger.

[29:25] Is that what you heard?

[29:25] Okay.

[29:26] We have a first and second.

[29:28] All in favor, I oppose.

[29:30] May.

[29:31] So approved.

[29:32] And again, this is what we have to send to the state

[29:35] by September 28th.

[29:38] And from there, just so the audience is aware, from there, we whittle that down.

[29:43] So we look at things, there are some things that have not come in yet to kind of figure out.

[29:50] So that's why we do that.

[29:52] We cannot go over that.

[29:56] Okay.

[29:57] Keep it short.

[29:58] Okay.

[29:58] Keep it short.

[29:59] Down.

[30:22] I'm not going to put anything in writing on that. We still have more things to go through and look at. And I think that one of the increases have come because of the

[30:31] The new building, not the new building, the buildings that we are working on, right?

[30:36] So some of that comes from there, you know finance.

[30:38] So you probably understand that.

[30:40] So some of that is coming from there, unfortunately, a lot of colas, and that's something every city,

[30:45] county, everybody looks at is those colas, especially when you have unions.

[30:50] So we're looking at that as well, insurance goes up, go ahead.

[30:56] Yes, no, I will actually add to that too. So the 10% is we'll call it 10 right now. We aren't we're not going to exceed it, but

[31:05] When I did obviously this is the largest levy number. I've seen since I've been on council. So

[31:11] We have some things as the mayor said that we're still trying to figure out

[31:14] But we have to set this in order to give us our starting point to whittle down

[31:18] I can't give you a number what it is

[31:20] But in the 10 years I've been in my house my taxes have gone up $583. That's it

[31:25] That's $58 a year and we've done a road project every year and now we're doing a building.

[31:30] The biggest increase of this is that city project we're about to do, but I'm looking

[31:35] at my personal taxes and I'm going up $100 a year.

[31:39] We don't want it to go up at all.

[31:40] I get that.

[31:41] But as services charges, things are cost more money.

[31:45] That's just an unfortunate part, so we're the ones that have to make that decision and

[31:49] naturally we don't have that happiness that we always want.

[31:52] But I'm just going to say it's I'm not ready for any

[31:56] Okay, no, yeah, I don't know. We get it. But this is just a city

[32:03] Water said

[32:25] The school that she goes up six, that's a great deal.

[32:28] There are people that struggle to make their own part.

[32:32] We can't control that part of it, right?

[32:34] Dan, we just, we can't control, we can control ours.

[32:38] And I think I always tell residents, if they really want to know the difference

[32:43] that they've paid in taxes since this council has been seated.

[32:47] Mr. Lindwood does a really great job with being able to compare.

[32:51] And I'm with members shilling as well.

[32:52] I mean ours have gone up, but over the last ten years, it looks like it's a lot, but when you look at it, it's not.

[33:03] So, and everybody, I totally get it. We're in one income family. I get it. That's just me. So I understand what you're saying.

[33:11] But there are needs of the cities that we have to do. We have to pay our road. We have to pay our employees. We have to be comparable to other cities.

[33:20] that's just things that we have to do for a city to provide the services that

[33:26] were elected to do. So, appreciate your comments, anybody else? No, I was going

[33:31] to add one more thing. You are 100% correct. We have the voter school voter

[33:35] levies, obviously. That was approved by them. And then overall my taxes in 10 years

[33:41] completely, not just city, but all of them have gone up $1,100 in 10 years. But

[33:46] And here's the big key.

[33:48] My value has gone up by 57% in that time.

[33:53] So that also is what sets that rate.

[33:55] We don't have anything to do over what the assessor assesses

[33:58] are properties.

[33:58] I come in and argue every year.

[34:00] And it's my duty to do that, just like you're

[34:02] doing this as well.

[34:04] So I have to look at what might happen to avoid you.

[34:07] Yeah, no.

[34:08] Because I knew this, when I saw this on the agenda,

[34:11] I'm like, all right, I better do a little research and see

[34:12] where we're at.

[34:13] So yeah, I appreciate it.

[34:16] Okay, so we're moving on to number 15 to consider resolution 2060916, a resolution regulating

[34:24] non-essential water usage upon critical water deficiencies as authorized by Minnesota Statute 103g.291

[34:33] in the city of Wyoming, ordinance 36.60. Mr. Limwood, are you taking this?

[34:41] Okay.

[34:43] Honorable Mayor and Council, as many of people have noticed, we haven't received much

[34:47] rain as of late in the State Department of Natural Resources sent out notice recently

[34:53] that we are going to have to reduce water consumption on the public water supply.

[34:59] And this will be the first water ban that I have gone through as public work superintendent,

[35:04] but I know that the city has been through the exercise before and the Department of Natural

[35:08] resources laid out where we needed to be. We ran some numbers on how to get there and the

[35:14] most effective way to do that was to do a watering ban. So that's where we're at. We have

[35:21] to reduce down to about 415,000 gallons a day. And we feel that we'd be able to do that with the

[35:29] ban in fact. Mr. Reeves, just for everybody watching that are here, can you help people understand

[35:36] and the water tower, the pressure, and how we come to that,

[35:40] because I think that's super important,

[35:43] you know, to, we have aquifer, right?

[35:45] I have my own, I have my own well,

[35:47] but the people that are on city water.

[35:50] So the, the consumers that are on city,

[35:54] on the public water supply, that is drawn,

[35:56] is ground water, drawn out of the aquifer,

[36:00] and the, with the lack of rain and the drought

[36:04] that set him, uh, it's affecting the water level in the aquifer and so we're trying to preserve

[36:08] that so that we can have drinking water. And so essentially the department of natural resources

[36:13] is asking us to reduce so that we have water for drinking. Um, the, the, I can go into more detail

[36:19] if you'd like about the, the wells and the towers and all that works if you'd like. That's fine,

[36:23] but I also know this is going statewide so I know almost every city is going through this. I don't

[36:28] know if it be that's not with ones that I talked to you. Yeah, that was one thing I was going to

[36:32] mentioned is we're probably not the only entity out there that's having the same discussion

[36:36] this week. Yeah. Yeah. Winston did there's yesterday and then North branch did there's

[36:40] last week. Yeah. So countywide not just started. Yeah. It's coming. Yeah. Members should

[36:45] lead. Did you have any questions? No. I just know that we need rain. Okay. I'll be acre.

[36:49] Same conditions as previous water bands. Is everybody, people who had watering permits, so

[36:57] their permits still valid? They're not. Okay. It was 2023. So they wouldn't be valid anymore.

[37:04] Are we going to get the word out to them that their permits are no longer valid?

[37:11] We had no intention of reaching out to anyone. Those were essentially 30 day permits.

[37:15] They could either seat or sod. Okay, because when we first started doing water, water and

[37:21] advance everybody had their little WP numbered permit on their mailbox so yeah we

[37:29] asking yeah we would just those are only good for 30 days so essentially we

[37:33] already actually have a request but those are 30-day permits and those are for

[37:36] seed or sod but they're only good for that 30-day duration so any of that we had

[37:40] back in 2023 during that ban would be no envoy at this point so we wouldn't have

[37:50] questions with loves and rain.

[37:52] All right, so we need a motion to approve resolution 260911.

[37:57] I'm not gonna read it all, but basically it's a water van.

[38:00] So do we have a motion to approve?

[38:02] So moved.

[38:03] We have a motion to approve.

[38:03] I'm members shilling.

[38:04] Do we have a second?

[38:05] Sure.

[38:06] We have a second by member on-stead, all in favor?

[38:09] Aye.

[38:10] Opposed?

[38:11] So approved.

[38:12] Number 16, to consider entering, you know what,

[38:15] while I'll read 16 and then we'll do,

[38:18] we'll go backwards a little bit.

[38:19] So, number 16 is to consider entering a closed-door session under Minister of State Statute 13D.03

[38:25] to discuss labor negotiation strategies for a contract in the bargaining unit I-U-O-E local

[38:33] 449ers. So, what will happen now is when we go into closed-door session, we're actually going

[38:38] to really quickly talk about reports from our council and then we'll go into a brief recession

[38:43] and everybody will need to leave, so for the night.

[38:47] So let's do council reports.

[38:52] Let's start with Member Luger.

[38:54] I have no reports thank you for attending.

[38:56] Member Anastas.

[38:57] I have no reports.

[38:59] Member Schilling.

[39:00] I have no reports as well.

[39:02] Thanks for coming in.

[39:03] Thank you.

[39:04] Member Yeager.

[39:05] I have no reports.

[39:06] Thanks for coming and thanks for watching.

[39:08] And I have none either.

[39:10] It was actually a very quiet two weeks.

[39:12] All right, so we will adjourn for five minutes at 739 and then come back in and go back

[39:23] into a close session.

[39:25] Okay, so we are a brief recess, five minutes at 739.

City Council - September 1, 2026

Transcript