City Council - Regular Meeting

The April 21st, 2026 Auburn City Council workshop will be called to order. First item of business tonight is a FY27 school committee revised budget report from Dr. Doris.

Thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and to provide you with an update on our budget. The last time we met, we were directed to reduce our budget by $500,000 and the target of that was the local contribution. So I have provided you with a handout and this reflects our updated budget. The total budget with the reduction is 67,310,744. And this is a this reflects a 4.4% increase over last year's budget adding around $2.8 million. And then as far as the local contribution goes, we now have a 1% increase. This is $21,188,59 and this is up $200,258. And then in the handout, you'll see a table and this shows you what was changed from our original proposal. So, the state revenue, you'll see there's an increase there of $256,230. In the governor's supplemental budget, there was an $8 million uh amount that was going to be distributed to school districts with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students. And we were very fortunate to be one of the school districts that was identified and this news was late in coming to us. We did not have that initially and then as last week progressed by the end of the week we received the information from the department of education that we would be

receiving this money and also that we could count this as revenue in our budget. So, that was a real bonus for us. As far as the local contribution, this is down $500,000. And then with that state revenue coming in, we were also able to reduce the amount of money that we were using from our fund balance by $131,230. And then you can see the total budget overall in that table is down $375,000. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about how we came to that amount in terms of the reductions. So key takeaways from page one, we we were able to achieve the $500,000 reduction. This was offset by roughly $256,000 in new state funding and our budget overall was decreased by $375,000. So if you go to the back side of that handout, we were able to achieve this through a combination of targeted savings and new revenue. The first thing that the school committee did was look at the identified reductions and the first was the health insurance savings. We had budgeted 12% and the rate came in at 7% and that was a savings of $331,490. And that was an easy reduction in a way because there was no impact to staffing or services. But I do want to mention that originally when the budget was developed, any savings from health insurance was going to go back in the fund balance, but uh instead it's going

to be used as a reduction here to bring the local share down. And then the second identified reduction was summer school and we were uh fortunate to receive some grant funds for our summer school programs this year. So, we're able to make a reduction of $43,510 to the budget and that program is going to be maintained through the alternative funding source. So, those two together total $375,000 and that is also equal to our overall budget reduction. I also want to make a note of the fact that we considered reducing two positions, eliminating a classroom teacher position and a multilingual learner teacher position. And we had the discussion and that was not fully supported by the school committee. And so we are keeping those positions in the budget so that we can keep our class sizes small and provide strong instructional programming and support for our multi multilingual learner students. So in the end we were able to get to the $500,000. We did not eliminate any staff positions and were able to maintain our educational services. So, a balanced approach that meets the city's directive while protecting educational services.

Thank you very much, Dr. Doris. I appreciate the update. Any questions from the C. Thank you very much for that. You you did an excellent job and I'm proud of you. Thank you, Council Count. Similar Edmonds. It's great news. Um very happy that the outcome is is such and that you are able to do both a balanced approach and keep the education strong. Thank you very much for the work.

Previously you'd spoken about um a need around social support services for students. Do you see a pathway forward to that in any way? I I do in the coming years. I think if we're able to restructure and become more efficient that there might be an opportunity for us to add in a position or two in the future.

Any other questions or comments from the council? I do appreciate the work of the staff and the diligent work of the school committee uh to put the budget together and help uh us, you know, reach a a more palatable um tax levy by reducing the budget 500,000. So, we do very much appreciate the cooperative work um that went on. Um with that, if you want to move on to the um AMS update. Yes. So, the Auburn Middle School project when we came to the council and we spoke to you about that, there was a concern about what's going to happen in that gap year before we're able to close a school and realize the savings. How is the Arban School Department going to make that first substantial bond payment? And so one of the things that we talked about and voted on is considering asking for a $9.2 million bond initially followed by a future $2 million bond. And the reason why we're moving in this direction is that it would be a lower upfront cost for us and then it would reduce borrowing over borrowing over time and then it would also allow us to potentially utilize funds from the school revolving renovation fund. we would apply for a $2 million grant and you know there's no guarantee on that but we think we have a good chance of getting approved for the funding. So if we went with a 9.2 million that's a lower amount. It lowers

the amount that we would have to come up with in the first year which is the gap year before we close the school. and then there's a chance that the $2 million would be funded through another revenue source. So, if we go forward with the $9.2 million bond, this still allows us to move forward with our project to transition to a grade 6 through 8 middle school. And just a reminder of why we're doing this. This will strengthen our academic programming and student experience and offer our students more opportunities and it will improve our efficiency across the district and it will also support future elementary school consolidation. So if you have your handout here, you can see on the back side, let's move to that the financial plan. So we would structure our investment in two phases. It would be an initial $9.2 million bond followed by a future $2 million bond. And phase one would be the transition year would be FY28. This would be when the bond costs begin and the savings have not yet started. So the total bond cost that year would be 1.48 million. This is with the 9.2. If we went with the 11.2, that first year would be a little bit higher. It be around $1.8 million. So how would we pay for this? We would use our fund balance. We anticipate an increase in our state subsidy through the changes in the essential programs and services formula. Right now we're looking at potentially

$800,000 in addition to the usual increase that we would see. And then we would also be carefully looking at our staffing because as we look ahead if we're going to have our 6 through 8 middle school, we're going to look at our positions and we're going to structure filling those positions around the future model. So that is also going to save us money. And then phase two would be after we're able to close a school. You can see here in the table on the back side of that handout, FY28 is the gap year where we would have to come up with the money for the bond payment. And then FY29 is the year when we would begin to realize savings from closing a school. And then you can see the net impact of that over time. And I also want to mention this table has been shown to you before in a slide but it it looked differently than this. Um what is included in the savings? You have you have your maintenance. You have CIP. You have staff in there that are going to be reduced through hopefully attrition if this plays out the way that we hope that it does. So these are the savings that will happen when we close a school. So the FY28 represents a planned one-year transition cost. And then beginning in FY29, we have the annual savings exceeding the cost of the bond payment. And then there are positive financial impa impacts that increase every year after that. So that's what we're proposing.

So before we take questions from the council, um I I think um it might be helpful to frame up what the question will be before the council on this. So I do appreciate the work that the department and the school committee has put into thinking this through to um identify the total cost of the project. um how this would be phased in to lessen the near-term uh financial impact. But I think the appropriate question that will be before the council on a order authorizing a bond would be to authorize up to 11.2 million with uh a condition that it not uh increase the the uh tax levy. Um, I don't think it's the council's role to um insert themselves in the project and decide about the timing of bonding deciding whether there should be a SRRF application or how that would fit into this. So, um I think that gives the flexibility to the school department as the project rolls out to time uh when bonds are issued, make decisions based on uh whether they receive um SRRF funding and what um the interest rate might be on that and what the forgiveness is. So, um I I think it's important sort of to frame that out for the council to understand how an order will come in front of you. So, with that, any questions to the superintendent um regarding the project?

Council PL,

thank you. Um I just wanted to make a comment to the council, I guess, that so I'm I I'm appreciative that that we looked at this and broke it up into two bond payments. I understand that as far as the council needs to see it, it's really just $11 million. How that gets broken up is up to the school department, but I do think it's important to look at it as $11 million of bonded debt. That's that's the worst case scenario. There might be the revolving loan that we can have access to. Um, you know, there might be fund balance available. there might be increased state funding, but I think to responsibly approve this, we have to assume that it's going to require $11 million in in bonded uh dollars and also that it may have to be funded through stratei strategic staffing controls because that's the worst case scenario. There's a there's there's a half a dozen reasons it could be better than the worst case, but I think it's important that everybody understands that. I I for one can support this. I I I look at the numbers. I look at the math. That makes sense to me. There's the gap year of $1.48 million. That's a scary number, but I understand the mechanics of a fund balance. I understand the mechanics of state funding, which is um the school benefits a little more greatly from increases in revenue sharing than the city does, uh, for example. Um, so for those reasons, I can support it, but I'm well aware of what the worst case scenario is, and I think it's important that everybody understands that.

Other questions or comments from the council? Council Cow.

Um, thank you, Council Platz. I appreciate the your perspective being on both school board and and so I just um I agree we you know the the total amount is there. the worst case scenario. But I also just what's in what's um encouraging to me in addition to this potential savings from a grant is the potential savings that we see because this is the best approach for fiscal and facility management. So I think um you know I'm I'm kind of weighing on both sides with that.

Other questions or comments? No. Uh, if there's nothing further, again, thank you very much. We appreciate all the hard work that went into putting the, uh, plan together, um, we'll in the probably here in May, uh, have an order for May 4th have an order for the authorization for the bonding. That sounds good. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh, we'll move on to the city manager's proposed budget uh, presentation. Thank you, Mayor Council. Um, the numbers that you're going to see tonight are the numbers we've been talking about. So they've they've been pretty consistent with our last workshop and um and these numbers are now the entire manager's budget proposal is now on the website under the budget. So as the public is viewing now um they can certainly go on to the uh city's website and be able to pull those numbers up. there's a few highlights within the budget message that you have in front of you that I want to just bring attention to and then we still have more time um in this workshop to answer any questions or concerns you might have. I think that um again the numbers that we've been working on has been a manager's column and then a council column. So tonight I'm really just focusing on the manager column as you know and I'll inform the public depending on how your voting goes if uh if the budget never passes through the council u by the majority that's needed. Um the manager's budget becomes the budget July 1st. And so that's why it's really important for us to set in stone what's that number? What does that look like? Um so that uh we know that this is the official based on the charter uh this is the official budget being presented by the manager even though we've had that initial work that

was done. So currently as the budget sits currently it's and when I talk about budget right now I'm talking about school and and the city. So we're at 138 uh million48796. So this is currently expenses and of the total budget we're sitting at a 7.78% over the FY26 budget. So that's again talking about expenditures. We've been using the term tax levy as we've been talking about what's the tax levy percentage change. Um but this is the overall budget, city, school, county tax, debt service, uh everything that we have to allocate for. It's at 7.78 and this is the number that's being used by the superintendent provided us prior to the $500,000 reduction. So, um, when you take a look at the the city budget, as was I think, um, councelor Plattz mentioned regarding revenue, difference between revenue for city side and school side. Overall, um, the city brings in about $74 million in revenue. The majority of that, as councelor Platt said, is really coming from the state on education subsidy. and then uh the remaining 24,000 is coming in uh for uh for the city side through various uh revenue uh streams and we can talk about that in a minute when I get to one of the future slides. The um the other highlight that we've really been faced and we've been working against in this in this budget has been the 33% increase in the debt service. So that's been the mountain we've been climbing through this process. uh that's been a remained a fixed number and um so now

we're trying to work work through that as we make other adjustments. So now as we talk about the uh the tax levy component of the of the joint school and city side of this budget. Um, when we began the initial process, we were seeing a $7.5 million increase, which was a 12.95%. On the tax levy over the previous year, you had between six and seven workshops that we've been working through, making changes, adjustments, giving direction much like you did with the school, and the school came back with their decrease. So, as a result of that work, the current manager's proposed budget on the tax levy is now 6.3 million, which is $1.2 million less than the uh than where we were on the initial um six, seven meetings ago. So, uh, that's just a lot of great work, I think, um, from the team and from you giving direction on where we should hit because when you take a look at these numbers, when you look at our current increase of the 6.3 million, 5.5 million is fixed. That's our fixed number. We can't make any changes. That was those are going to be hard fixed numbers going into this budget. So ultimately the increase uh remaining was the 836,652. That's operational increases. Those were driven by health insurance, some contractual salary adjustments, cost of goods, but also reductions in other line items to make that happen. So we've talked about the tax levy. is a table um table provided that really uh shows that tax levy change um and again this one is just showing the initial

manager's budget and then the proposed manager budget where we are currently I also added um a breakdown of where does the this is now city side where does the city's um costs go and so I've broken this into a few categories ies. One, 46% of the the funding uh for the city side of operations is personnel and uh that's all costs related to supporting personnel, their training, their certifications, uh benefits, um and then uh then their salaries. And then our next uh largest portion of the budget is our debt service at 24%. that includes the general obligation bond as well as the public safety uh facility um public referendum bond. And then we have 14% that's allocated towards contracted services. Uh this might be our our solid waste management, our legal services that we contract out as well as some technical services that we contract out uh for various projects. And then we have uh transfers which is comprises about 9%. This includes the tiff funding allocations, our emergency reserve, we transfer money into our workers comp um account as well as county taxes and then tax sharing obligations and then also our general assistance. And then the last one is 7%. This is our programming that we do as a as a city as well as supplies, costs, costs uh for the various departments to operate. Um costs of materials that public works that might be salt, gravel, uh other material that they have. And uh so this just gives you a good breakdown of how are the dollars spent uh within the city. Uh so hopefully this is

beneficial. The next piece is as it pertains to the revenue and this is revenue on the city side. The um the largest portion that we receive here is the state revenue share. And as I've talked about before, this is this is a a funding source that we monitor very closely. I think there's um always opportunities for uh the revenue share formula to shift at the the state house. So this is one that we pay close attention to the mayor through the mayor's coalition and then myself with the main service center coalition. We focus on some of these core uh contributions from the state to help offset tax tax burden on our ourh residents. So, it's the tax revenue share, but it also includes we pay close attention on the homestead and how is the percentage being um presented, changes that might be coming regarding that. We have changes that are coming as a result of legislative changes on the homestead. But as it pertains to veterans, that's probably our our biggest impact that we'll be monitoring and the city assessor will be coming in on a presentation to talk about how did that shift um impact us as a community. And then there's the excise taxes. This is the local revenue source of um people registering vehicles, boats. Um that's our excise tax that comes in. So that's an 18% of our total revenue. And then general government revenue is 12%. This has to do with most of the uh fees. A large portion of this is permits and and then also just our day-to-day um billing that might take place as a result of

capturing costs that are um given to taxpayers for something that goes above and beyond what we would normally provide for services. And then our TIFF revenue is at 6%. This is the uh the funding that comes back in from our designation to TIFF. This is um currently supports um a lot of um programming within the city is how this is allocated currently. And then and then the fund balance stabilization. One thing that um that I did include in the manager's budget was to start reducing that fund balance contribution. So, it's reduced by 100,000 uh this year. And the goal will be as we work through the budget and we experience an increase in the state revenue share will be to take an equal amount of that state revenue share increase off from the fund balance so that we can start managing that more effectively in the future. And then EMS revenue is 6%. This reflects the services related to uh reimbursements uh for our EMS services. And then the last one is 5% which is grants and then also the GA reimbursement. So for every dollar we spend uh we get 70% of that reimburseed by the state. So so that's the breakdown of of the uh revenue. I also included uh some information regarding valuation because valuation is often um discussed as we as we work through the budget that valuation when it's set that will determine what the mill rate will be for the city and uh based on what is approved in the budget and so as many know we're working through the reval so I did want to give an update on this that currently Auburn has 9500 total

city parcels And uh currently uh they are they have inspected our contractor KRP is what I want to say.

So thank you. So and they have uh they've inspected 6,235 uh homes so far. So they are well on track. We're we're uh really pleased with the work that's being done there. Um so we are on track to complete complete this project on time. want to highlight within the budget does include um the senior tax relief program that was initiated um by the council the last budget and so those funding that funding is in there. Last year uh the program served 144 Auburn seniors. The average uh tax relief distribution was $874 that was returned. I have some information regarding fund balance. This is information that you've seen before because we we still have not received our our audit for FY25. So, the only number I can use is the the certified FY24 audit uh which represented unassigned fund balance for the city at 13.95%. The rest of the the document just provides some information regarding projects that we've been working through, some key accomplishments. Um, we have over $20 million worth of projects that are being funded uh through federal or uh congressionally uh delegated spending money as well as uh the projects that we have that we have funded uh or our our share of that. Um so we have a lot of projects that are underway that are in at least um one phase or another as we move forward. So there is a big lift right now within the city staff to uh to manage these funds, report on these funds, ensure that we're hitting our benchmarks for accomplishment on these. So uh so we'll be giving you regular high highlights on this as we move forward. Uh but

hopefully this information is helpful for uh the public as they read through to see where is where does all this money go and what are we accomplishing. So um I have the the budget uh document I can pull that up. Um I think you've given the superintendent provided the changes within the school. That means that the we had already put that in as the council recommendation. So, as that sits, that's the document that you have. Um, but any questions regarding the manager's budget and then certainly any questions regarding where we currently sit within your budget. This is a good opportunity to ask any final questions on that.

Yeah. So, let let's split this into two rounds of questions. One's the first let's deal with the proposed budget and then I think we can move on to um general questions about where the budget stands and what the forward-looking schedule is. So, questions about the uh the manager's proposed budget as presented. Council PL.

Yep. And I guess just so I understand the numbers, um I wasn't at the workshop last week, but my understanding was we were at a 9.7 something tax levy. So, that's taking this tax levy, putting in the schools cuts. Is that correct? or or was or was 97 just where we were at with the council budget discussions? It includes that $500,000 reduction.

Yeah. And there's going to be there'll be the difference, as the manager said, between the manager's proposed budget and the 9.7, right? Because there's additional actions that the council's talked about beyond the manager's proposed budget that gets us down to the 9.7% tax. And then uh just so I making sure I understand the numbers correctly in the manager's proposed budget understanding that we can't predict the increase in valuation. You're just you're just talking about this but from the line item level where I'm seeing a big goose egg last year we had $383,000 in overlay from increased valuation. Is that right? And we're just we're assuming zero for right now which is the responsible thing to do. Is that am I reading that correctly? So yeah, the the city assessor will determine the overlay based on what adjustments might be making she might be making uh within her process of uh determining the commitment. And so so it's really it's a hard number to know and so but it does usually come off from um that in the change in the valuation. That's where you normally see that that difference. So we never have that hard fixed number.

Understood. But so the last two years though, so we saw a $383,000 bump last year and 454 the year before.

Yeah. So ju just to clarify for new members of the council and the public what the overlay is. So if you think of the overlay is reduction in property taxes. These would be through abatement. So they could be individual abatement. Somebody calls up and says, "Hey, I used to have a pool in my yard. it was leaking. I decided not to fix it. I filled it in. Might reduce their property taxes. Um as you go through um the year, you'll have um some potential estimates depending on what's going on around the state from larger uh businesses that may be filing abatements. Um if there's any market rate adjustments, you may have people that in effect have an appeal. So that would come off the top. So, um, as we talked about last time, and as the manager just mentioned, um, if you're thinking about the 9.7 number, an increased valuation, um, you have to add the overlay to that because it would be a reduction in your property tax revenue. So you need about $23 million uh between overlay and increased valuation in combination to reduce that 9.7 by 1%. Um so that's just sort of give you a framework of thinking how that uh might be reduced. Um continue

that that was it. I I just wanted to understand the difference between what we see from years past, what we conservatively estimate for this year and understand that relationship. Other questions about the proposed budget?

No. Then let's move on. Uh just the budget generally, right? We we um for a matter of scheduling um you know, we have uh the workshop tonight. We have potentially a budget worksop for next Monday. I think uh whether we actually hold that workshop or not, it's going to depend on the comments we receive here tonight in the workshop about the budget and whether additional work needs to be done by the council. If we don't have the workshop next Monday, we'll then be at the meeting on May 4th in which there would be first reading of the budget. And as the manager explained way early on in this process, um like any other item that comes before the council, uh you know, a amendments uh motions can be made both at first and second reading. Um it's as a matter of process that's much more difficult to deal with um you know on the fly when you're doing the first reading than working the budget in a workshop if people have concerns about um where the budget stands and if um particular u line items should be increased or decreased. So, I think uh at this point, if the council has thoughts about the budget, uh as it stands right now, uh with the council's changes, right, we're talking about the 9.7 tax levy version. Uh now would be the time to raise those so we can have a discussion about where we're at. Council PL.

Yeah, sure. I mean, I I I would like to see this at the councelor proposed uh level of 9.7 tax levy. I'm not sure from a line item or I guess we probably haven't discussed that. That's not up to us. But it's unclear to me where that might have an impact going from what we see here to what is this the same version as I guess I'm still confused. Is this the same version that is what we came out of the workshop last meeting with the meaning the manager's proposed budget? Yes. So I'm trying to figure out what my comment

the answer to that is yes but just to make sure we're clear in in the packet for the last workshop there were two versions of the budget. There was the manager's proposed budget which is basically in alignment with what you see in front of you tonight that the manager is proposing as the proposed budget. There was a second version of the budget wi-i which had a lower tax levy impact at 9.7% which had additional reductions beyond what was shown in the manager version. and and that 9.7 version is where we're at. Uh absent any further action by the council, that's what would come before the council on May 4th for first reading.

So I I support both the manager's proposed budget as well as the current state of the council's budget. I I support both of those numbers where they are. Great. Thank you. Any other thoughts uh about the about the budget? Council,

I too support both. I I think uh a lot of hard work has gone in to get to 9.7 and um I think we've found a good balance there in terms of cuts that are responsible and not too severe that would end up uh really uh impacting the quality of services. Council Butler wondering if we were to do any ads back in if there are things that you would prioritize.

Um I think that when you take a look at at least the the council proposal, take a look at the the items that were left within that. I think we did we did remove the um the license plate reader program and for the $24,000 for that to continue. I think that that's a good investment for the results that that camera system is providing on the law enforcement. So I I believe that would be a priority add-on back into the uh into the budget.

Anything further? Well, we're not at a motion issue point. I certainly if um if the thought is to add that, I think you could raise that issue of a discussion amongst the council, see what the sense of the council is just like we've worked the budget um along at this point. Um so, okay. So, so council,

so I I think for myself in um in hearing that and then also the consideration um I have some curiosity around the library funds as well. Um one of the still outstanding questions is if you're having impact to staffing at all. I would like to hear about that maybe before we discuss those two issues.

Sure. I think that when we take a look at some of the staffing reductions that we've done, I think they we certainly have made um adjustments to accommodate delivery of service so that that we're not missing a step, I guess you could say, with that the best that we can. And so, um, some of the vacant positions that we've removed, I think we've created a good, uh, outsourcing option and still be able to, uh, save taxpayer dollars on those. I think it's much like what we did when the council approved the um, the striping team for uh, public works. I think we had looked at that. It was outsourced. There was some challenges with it being outsourced regarding their ability to to deliver um the timing that we needed the crosswalks to be painted um before school. A lot of challenges that way. So, we brought that inhouse, but we also talked about how we would leverage that the additional work for the those additional personnel to be able to meet some of our our growing needs and that worked really well. I think that when we take a look at electrical, that's one that we're doing. Um, we are close, if not already, probably hired an electrician. Um, which is great news for us. And but we'll be outsourcing some of the other electrical work because of our work with the school. We were able to put out a decent RFP uh for the electrical work. And when you are able to bring the school component in with the city, we're actually able to get a much better bid than we had in the past. And so, so that collaboration just demonstrated that I think it's a good wait and see. We we'll work this. I think there was no major changes that would drastically impact us. Uh that I I feel it would put us at

risk. And so um so I look forward to coming back and giving a good good report to the council on that in the future. So, I don't see the need to change there. I think there's some other elements that we've uh as we continue uh to refine the budget and go through and look at impacts, I think the other positions we've really taken a hard look at. We've been able to say, "All right, what's how do we continue delivering these programs and services just more efficiently?" And uh and so I think we're we're we're on a good track with that. So, I wouldn't make any changes there. I would keep those as presented and um and and the goal in that is just to can we now enhance even some of our programming because we're shifting some of our costs uh within within uh some of those departments. So, I'm hoping that we'll see a better return on the the delivery of the programming. Anything further from the council council Butler? Is there a suggestion for discussion purposes to modify the the current um council budget?

Sure. Um so first go around here but do my best. I do think as I'm considering um both kind of applied work experience that I have thinking about expansion of um home for goods projects and things like that. I think both for our fire personnel and our police personnel, we're going to see an increase of need of those supports to our community. And with that, um, I think it's a I think it's a pretty small ask, though controversial, I know for some, um, to see the added support both around, um, the license plate readers, and also, um, the training for fire personnel, who I know we've heard is a pretty young group, um, that really could use some additional support.

So, so, Mr. Manager, you might be able to clarify this. So I I I hear two uh proposals here. One uh is slot cameras, but the other is for the fire training. And my recollection on this, the reduction was just the timing of paramedic training. We're not actually reducing the training to any of the staff at the fire department. Is my recollection correct? That's correct.

That's okay. Um any so what's on the table at the moment is a discussion of uh the automated license plate readers. Is any other thoughts from the council on this? Councelor Rand the cameras to me are a lower priority um relative to the current fiscal constraints. Um I don't support adding it back in. It's not the tool that I oppose. It's adding the new costs while we're trying to reduce a double-digit budget. Other thoughts by the council? Council count.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have too much stuff in front of this thing. Work. That'll work better. Um I I've been grappling with with the uh flock cameras. While I understood, you know, we heard a lot of feedback and concerns from people. I think the answers, the information that we received um through that discussion, I I don't have uh necessarily the same cautions that I did before. I think uh as was stated during that conversation that it's um probably a greater risk of user error than it is the technology itself. Um the other thing that uh this seems to really be as as the chief said this is a force multiplier but this is it really is an opportunity it seems to be um to enable us to move forward with uh a tool that creates efficiencies and therefore potentially having our police officers be able to uh work on other issues. um that they may not have been able to get to before. Um I think there's been some some of the success stories we've heard about um probably highly valued from the people that that uh were impacted by that, our citizens that were impacted by that. Um, the other uh point I just want to remind uh my fellow counselors is the $24,000 that was requested would be to continue the lease if we were to cancel that and come back to it at another time. It would be a it would be a larger than 24,000. I don't recall how much larger, but it would still be, you know, we'd have to reinstate. And so there's there's some additional inefficiencies there. Um, I

I've been on the fence, but I I uh welcome thoughts from my from the other counselors. I I could support this if I really think it could potentially be um you know, a valuable tool. Um, I also do my my concern with it is we haven't had uh continued discussions around any kind of policies and whether or not we felt like we should be doing that before those things get implemented. So, uh, I' like to hear from other counselors and their thoughts. Council PL.

Yeah, I can um I can I can support the reintroduction of the flot cameras into the budget. Um, I, you know, tried to pull pull a emotion out of this of this this debate. I two things I want to say. One, I think in this budget process, I think we need to be we need to be um careful not to be proposing too many adbacks into the budget. We've done all this work to pair it down. It can be very enticing to do the good work of funding something when we've done the tough work of of unfunding it. Uh, so I just want to say that. So when we are thinking about putting items back into the budget, um I I hate that term force multiplier, but it it is this technology is a force multiplier. And I think that if we are putting items back into the budget, it should be things that are that things that you spend a dollar and you get much more out of it. And the way it was described to me seems very clear that it's a tool of efficiency. Um so I can support it. My other fear about I don't want to scapegoat this technology and I also don't want to get into a 40-minute debate about this technology either, but I I I get nervous about scapegoating this technology because if we scapegoat this technology in order to be consistent, we're going to have to do it to a dozen other things, some of which already exist in this city. Um, we have databases, we use AI for certain things, we have, you know, lawnmowers that drive themselves. Like this, this is the age that we live in. And so if we're going to pick on flot cameras, that's fine, but we need to extend that to every other artificially intelligent powered piece of software in this city. And I don't know that we want to go down that road. So to Tim's point, I think there's a concurrent and parallel um exercise of dealing with the policy behind this. When I hear constituents raise this issue, that's what I'm really hearing. People talk about policies that we need to have. Um but ultimately I could support that this particular ad back into the budget.

Counc Dval.

Yeah. So um I think when you know we're looking and talking personally when we're talking about adbacks I still look that we're looking at a 10% increase year-over-year and you know 9.7 whatever. I wonder if we're going to add something back. is are there ways that we could add something back that actually mitigates the impact of that rather large increase on people in the community. So rather than adding a tool, what you know this just an exercise, right? Right. But rather than adding a tool, we heard when we were talking about the senior tax relief program, for example, that um I remember councelor Walker saying that he thought that maybe there were a lot of people that didn't even know about this thing. And so year one, we had 144, however many people apply. Year two, are we going to have 200? And so then that becomes a less successful program. Is there money that we could put there instead of someplace else? If we're going to add something back, that makes sense to me given just how big this increase is at a base level.

Other thoughts on this issue? Councelor Rand, when I look at this and I see that adding the flock cameras back in is roughly $24,000, but um not filling a vacant position in the police department is roughly the same, $25,000. So why would we not add in hiring another police officer over the cameras? I I just want to understand what the difference is. Yeah, they Yeah, there 24,000's not going to cover a police officer vacancy. I'm not sure what my my recollection was it was a delayed filling of a position that's going to save 25,000.

That was just you know you're going to experience that when timing for the academy. So that's where some some savings came in. Yeah. Other thoughts on this council walk

I would just like to add a little bit to it. Uh, I listened when the chief came up and explained this whole thing. And my whole point with this block camera or whatever else we have out there is if we could get more out of it than what we actually are being told that it's doing for us, I could support that. But I can't support just having these four or five cameras out there because it might it might help us in four cases by looking at a license plate. I would like to see a lot more out of it than what we're really uh asking for. $24,000 may sound like it's a little amount of money, but it's a lot of money. And if we're going to spend it and if we could get a lot more out of it for very little more, then that's what we should do. But just to put it back or to hang on to it because it may be a higher cost next year or the year after, I I think that's short thinking. And furthermore, I think there's grants that would come forward if we didn't have this in place anyways. And there are an awful lot of cameras out there that are watching everybody and everything that maybe we should partner with other people to save that $24,000.

Anything further? Any thoughts or questions?

So, I I'll just add my thoughts on this. Um, I certainly support the technology um what it does. Um, I think that the way I look at this is this was on the expanded services list. Uh, I understand that we're already using it, but um, it's not something that was in the budget before. And I think the way to look at this, even though I support the Flock cameras and I think they're uh a valuable tool, is what we're saying is we're prioritizing this $24,000 expenditure is a higher priority in the budget than any of the things that we cut. And I I'm not sure that that's that that's the case. Um,

I mean, I guess just to pay play a little devil's I mean, I agree with you, but the conversation did start by asking the city manager what he prioritized as, you know, an adback. So, I I guess I understand both sides. Um, to councelor Duval's point, I I hadn't been thinking about senior tax assistance, and that is actually something that previous to this meeting is is another thing that I think we're going to have to talk about and possibly fund that more. So whether we fund flock or not, if if we're in the discussion of adding something back, I I want to make sure that stays on the table because I think senior tax relief is is a is a high priority.

Any other thoughts on the license plate readers? So if not, let's have a um as we did throughout the workshop, show of hands here uh regarding adding the 24,000 back into the budget. Those that are in favor of that opposed. Council Gary. Okay. Okay. So um given that we won't be adding those back in at this time. Are there other adjustments either additions or other reductions uh that people want to discuss and workshop?

Yeah, council butler fearing may we may reach the same result. Um I do think um with the amount of feedback we receive from the community, it's worth discussing the library um and the funds for the library. So like to open discussion there. And do you have a specific where where we stand right now is um a $50,000 reduction in um the requested budget. Is there a thought about what the adjustment to that would be? Is a proposal to restore all of that part of that? I don't know that I have an answer for you. Okay, that's fine. Um,

I have a question. Great. Just to further I guess what's the maybe it's on the sheet that I I should have in front of me, but what's the difference in funding with the proposed budget compared to last year's council approved budget? Is it an increase? So, it's a general terms, I would say it's flat funding. It goes up. I think the manager may have this right in front of him. About $3,000 is my recollection. Is that Is that right? Yeah. I'm trying to That's That's fine. I just it's it's basically but about 50 grand less than the request is what you were saying,

right? And to remind people the their their budgets made up of several components, right? They have their endowment, they have fees they generate such as the they rent the space for the uh pizza shop, they rent out rooms, they do copying, they have the non-resident card feed. Um, and then they have the city portion of that. It's 2,132 over last year.

I guess my feeling is, uh, and I appreciate your last comment, Mr. Mayor, because you're right. We need to align what our priorities are. Uh, and if we're talking about flock cameras, now talk about the library. To me, the library is is is to me is a is a higher priority. Um, but that said, as I sit here and think about should we be um funding the library more? I I I don't think so. And I I can be hated for that comment, but I I just look at what we just asked the school department to do. We just asked them to cut $500,000. Um, so I think asking the library to come in $50,000 under their request is it's hard. I understand there's a a budget impact to that, but um I think it's very fair. Uh, and again, in the context of flock cameras, it it makes me think I shouldn't have said my earlier comment about flock cameras and wanting to fund them. I think there are more valuable things that we could um we could fund, but I I actually don't think that that money should go to the library. I think that unfortunately they need to make the same concessions that every other department in the city is making right now.

Other comments on the library. Council,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree. I um in addition to the school request for cuts, we've asked the city to to to make um adjustments and and reductions from what the manager proposed. So, I think uh it's equitable. Uh there's just a need to to have the library reduce. I'm happy that it's come down from where, you know, the 10% was part of that important exercise, but you know, I um I don't think I could justify adding more back in. Um, yes, we heard a lot I heard a lot of feedback from folks, but it was at that $122,000 um cut and I don't think that they also had a full scope of what we were asking everyone in the city budget to to do. So I I'm you know I have not you know I'm my hope is that they'll be happier um with the the level and if they want to come forward they have two opportunities to do that and u public uh public readings.

Other comments from the library council Gary

thank you Mr. Mayor. I support my the the library with my whole heart. I know the good that they do to our community to the seniors to the young young little ones that come in for their first time and even keep coming back. I too am happy that it is a lot lower of a cut that when they started. I mean 50,000 is a lot of money but if you get a few good events I mean they can do another auction. They can do they can we can do big sales. I mean, I'm willing to come and go over there and help out. So I'll I'm going to support this reduction of what we have like what like every we are telling everybody every department every department is taking a hit in one way or another in order to lessen the the bleed of our taxpayers because there's a lot of taxpayers that aren't going to be able to afford a lot of things with even with the raise that we are got it down to now in the the budget the property taxes and I worry about the new families that take take out a mortgage and things. I mean, my heart's the library and with all the departments and everything else, but we have to do the right thing for our residents.

Other comments.

So, so a few I have a few thoughts on this um to follow up about the feedback from the community. So, um, I received a pro around 40. I have I don't have the number with me. I was counting them as we went along, but around 40, uh, people contacted me. All of this was at the $122,000 cut. I've not had anybody contact me at when after we reduced it to 50. Of those 40, half of them were not Auburn residents and three of them were residents from other states as far away as Colorado. So, um, look, I think the library provides a very valuable service and clearly this is a painful cut. I think the city recognizes that. Um, the the the city is having conversations with the library about some potential ways that they can do some of their business more efficiently. um somewhat in alignment with what the city did over the past few years with the airport that I think can help mitigate um you know some of these reductions because it's certainly a valuable service um and uh but I do think that uh the $50,000 um at this point is equitable given what's we're doing with other departments as well. Um, anything further on the library? So, if we can have a show of hands on this one to um at this point, I would say uh add back in some amount. We we haven't had a discussion, but is there counselors that would like to add in some or all of the 50,000 back into the budget? Okay. Not seeing any. We we won't

proceed on that. Are there other items um councilors wish to discuss uh either additions to the budget or reductions to the budget? Is is now the time to talk about senior tax relief? Now is the time to talk about anything in the budget?

Okay. All right. Uh well, I think we should as as Kelly said with the last topic, I think we should just discuss it. Um, I also have concerns about the 150 that's in there not being enough um to cover the increased increased demand this season. Um, I also I mean when talking about pri prioritizing I I do think our um at risk elderly, you know, homeowners, taxpayers are like priority number one uh or at least, you know, up there tied with other priority number ones. Uh, so I think it's worth a discussion. If we're throwing around numbers like 25,000 or 50,000, I would at least like to have the discussion as to whether those numbers should be added into the the line for senior tax relief.

So before we go on with that, I I don't have the number in front of me. I don't know if Mr. commander, if you remember, but um uh in round numbers, um the thought last year was that the maximum amount, which is $1,000, which is if you you get a match of up to $1,000 on the property tax credit, we could serve up to 150 people. We didn't get there. My recollection is like 144. Y is that right?

That's correct. So, um I do I do think that there is some potential that that could increase. Um I would point out that there's an increase in the property tax fairness credit. Um the maximum amount uh for people under 65 was lower. that was increased by the legislature, but the cap on the senior side from 65 and above um still remains the same. Um I can't I think it's $2,000. Um uh so that's what's been going on at the legislature with this. Um thoughts people have on the on the property tax on senior property tax relief. Council Randall,

how do they how do the seniors know to to um apply for this? Is there help for them?

So, um yeah, that's kind of a two-part answer. So, last year, uh the city did a mailing to all mailing addresses in Auburn, not just seniors, right? Because there's some folks that their neighbors help them or their family helps them. So there was a mass mailing to everybody. Um we put in my recollection is in the tax bills we put a slip in there as well. Um so I think uh people are are aware of the program now. I think that um it's pretty clear what the timing is because the deadline is tied to the federal tax filing. Um, one of the impediments in the past has been that um, uh, some people that are, um, eligible don't file for the property tax fairness credit, especially seniors that income's too low to be required to file taxes. um you know, if you're if if they're getting help from say the AARP program or filing services, typically um the the people that are helping them are wellversed in this and know when they should file for the property tax credit. Um so that's one of the thresholds, right? they have to file for that first and that's somewhat of an impediment. Um it's pretty clear at the state level that there is underutilization already of the property taxis credit, right? A lot of this is a just a knowledge issue for people to understand what's available to them. So I'm not sure if I fully answered the

the question, Council Randall, but yeah, other thoughts? Uh, Council Gary. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The only drag is if somebody wanted to take advantage of our tax program break, they had to have it in by April 15th. So, if there's still others out there that could have qualified, should have qualified, and would have put in the paperwork if they knew for a fact we were going to provide this extra money. Now they can't sort of do it because the door is locked.

Yeah, it's it's true to say the deadlines pass, but the but the information that the city provided was to encourage people to file. um when when people filed they don't uh uh even last year they didn't know um whether they would qualify or not or if they did qualify what the benefit would be. So people have been encouraged to file. Um the program is always dependent upon the appropriation by the council, but uh because of the way the schedule works, they'll be um encouraged to file. Um and then it's really a question of the amount of appropriation that's available uh for those that do submit and qualify, how what what size the benefit will be. But if the deadline passed for people to fill out the form and turn it in, the city knows now how many applications it has. Not that they've qualified, but they would know by now how many that's that is applied. And then you would know sort of how much money we'll have to put in there unless we decide if we can decide as a council to extend and open up the deadline so more can file.

I think I think one thing that we could provide to you rather than making a decision tonight, we can provide you with a count of the applications that we've received. We know that the max is at $1,000. I do know that the initial applications because we did see many that were applying because they more information got out. However, um many of them in the initial they did not qualify and so uh but we can we can get a count for you and then that would to council Gary's point it would give you an idea of how many applications are in. I'm not sure that staff will have they will not have reviewed those to know how many of those qualify other than the ones that they've been doing as they had periodically came in. But I'm sure there was a a large amount that came in within this past the last week rather. Um but we can provide you a number and uh and then you can make a decision from there.

Council, yeah, that was your question. Any any other thoughts on this council plan? I had a just a procedural question. Is it is it best um if we continue to consider funding senior tax relief more is it best to write that in as a line item in the budget? Like alternatively, could we ever say that just the program in general if we ever hit the max amount that we've authorized up to 25,000 out of fund balance? Would that go against the ordinance that we passed for fund balance expenditures to be for one-off items that you know are not annually repeating or what?

Yeah, it's a great question. I I I don't think in the budget you can appropriate contingent funds. I think that um you know the policy that the council adopted was um for one-time um uh payments basically. That could be some type of emergency situation. It could be a one-time project. I think there's probably latitude in that that um if a if a actual number were known about additional funds, the council could take action to take money from the fund balance to appropriate it for that purpose for that year. I I think that's within the latitude of the policy. Um so that would be a possibility. I guess I was just thinking of a way to keep it off in in the immediiacy to keep it off of the tax levy because if we write it into a line item, it increases the tax levy by $25,000. But if we don't, if in the back of our head we just say to ourselves, let's see how it plays out. And if we reach the max, we'd have to find a a non-budgetary mechanism to fund it, then maybe we could do that. But

yeah, the only comment I would make is it always comes off the tax levy. I understand. just not a future tax levy because those funds wouldn't be available. Council Dwell, um I guess I I don't 100% understand how this thing works, but my what I sense is that there's a budget we have, you know, however many people apply and if they qualify and up to whatever level, we reimburse them up to 150,000. So, if we have 500 people, then we're not giving everybody $1,000. Yeah. Not everybody will qualify for the,000.

Yeah, they wouldn't qualify. But we had 144 or we gave out 144,000. So, we averaged $880,000. 60 times 144, whatever that is. 87474.

So, so ju just to clarify the point, you're you're on the right track. So there's a pool of $150,000. It's distribute proportionally. So last year because the applicants who qualified at whatever level they qualified, that aggregate amount did not exceed the $150,000. So everybody got the benefit they qualified for. So, just to make easy math, let's say you had twice as many um uh that applied and they qualified all at the same level, they would get half the amount that they would have gotten, right? Because there's it's not it's not the way the timing works, it's not possible to know what the outcome of this will be when you appropriate the funds. Um you know perhaps uh uh if I could suggest a a way to handle this I think it is important to understand the um the number of applicants right um so perhaps what we could get is the number of applicants what our rejection rate was last year because you're going to have some non-qualified people um and we know the maximal benefits $1,000 uh we were 10 and something last year. So we could multiply both of those to get a sense of with the number of applicants at the rejection rate what that would look like. See how that lines up to the 150. Um and um then we can always amend uh the budget uh on the 4th if that's the sense of the council or the council could always um decide to wait and then um if there's some type of a gap, decide uh how much money they

might additionally appropriate out of the undesated fund balance. um um to create a larger pool in which the proportional distribution would be made from. Council count just for our references uh quick math if we were to in if if the number of people receiving increased 175 and they continued to get an average of $874. As of this year, that would be $153,000. So we're not too far above what we already budgeted even for that amount of increase. So as you're thinking as we're thinking about that um any additional increase beyond that

council dwell uh yeah so two things as we look at the rate of you know sort of acceptance like qualified understanding why people weren't qualified would might be helpful just in general terms like so that's that's thing one thing two is who decides the criteria like So, the first one up there that is like the 10-year Auburn resident one, like that that seems like an arbitrary number, but maybe it's not. I don't know.

It's it's not. So, so basically when the council worked this last year, um they built this off the property tax credit. And one of the strategies of the council was that there is a significant amount of work even if you build off the property tax sus credit from an administrative load to tell us someone qualified or not. And they're reducing the overall load by leveraging what the state does with their process um to do this. the there's also um some statutory guidance regarding um these um and that's where the age and the 10year residency comes from and some of those things that were built into this. So um the

so it's arbitrary but we don't have control over those arbitrary numbers, right? somebody decided

I don't know that I would say it's arbitrary, but they they're um their qualification standards that have been um utilized by the state and numerous municipalities around the state for some time now. Other other thoughts on this? So, it's acceptable to the council will uh wait until we take the budget up again. the manager will bring in some more information and we can decide at that time if we want to increase the appropriation or wait and see um um after the review takes place and what the actual gap if any might be.

Yeah. And and just for efficiency sake, I I would say that unless something else is brought up to our attention, the senior tax relief is probably one of the only things that I would be looking to amend or add funding to um just so we don't get into some runaway meeting where everyone's trying to add something new. Um I'm hyperfocused on that. I think it's really really important. Uh so I look forward to getting that information and if we have to do something on the fly, great. That's where my heart stands. Other thoughts? Councelor Dwell. I I second what councelor Platt just said. Council count.

And I'll third uh just to connect it to that was one of the um strong strongest uh recommendations from the ad hoc homelessness committee uh given that um the the number of elderly who were um becoming homeless simply because they could no longer afford their their rent. So, this is a really key novel and and uh program that we should be proud of and I I would support it. It's the only thing I would really support at this point. Council Randle,

I also support increasing um the funding to the um tax relief for seniors. Otherwise, I don't support any other adding to the budget. Anything else? Council Gary.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm concerned about funding for the sen Auburn senior community center. I want to make sure that's open for all Auburn seniors to be able to meet during the week that they want to hold their meetings. So, so the Auburn senior uh center closure was in the discussion of the impact statements on the original getting from the 12.95% tax levy down to the 7.5 in the current 9.7 version and in the manager's uh proposed budget uh that the reduction at the senior center is not included. it would be available as it is now. I would like to make sure that if there's any other cost associated with it within reason that they get the funding they know need in order to keep the doors open and to also have the money to have a staff person somewhere in the facility especially when the seniors meet because as it is now you go to the senior meetings or you go during the day there's nobody in the office and Usually it falls upon the the senior clubs in order to do all the work, but if anything happened, they'd have to go run to Hasty in order to get help for anybody at the senior center.

So, I don't think any funding needs to be added to keep the open. It It's the same right now in the budget. It's the same uh service level as last year. Regarding the staffing, what's happening at the senior center is no different with other any of the other parks and w programs there. We don't staff a lot of these programs to have someone on site all the time at every individual program. So are you suggesting that there be a budgetary increase to increase staff to ensure that uh all the time the senior center is open there's somebody there

at least somebody to come and check on them every once in a while maybe not totally sit in the office. It was only recent in the last couple of years did we lose the staff person that was in the office. There was two staff people. Now there's one staff person for the senior center, but she's not there. And that's when sometimes people the seniors need help or they may want more information about a senior program that that's not part of the senior groups.

Right. So I understand that last year in the budget there was a reduction. In my recollection, the manager can remind me there's a reduction of one recreation specialist in the budget last year. Um that didn't um because of the way seniority works the that was a person that had been working with senior programming those assignments were reshuffled among other folks. So I think that it it's the same question. Are you suggesting that um the uh budget be increased? Um, we obviously wouldn't have the dollar number, specific dollar number, but you are you suggesting that we increase by a recreation specialist at add a position into the budget so that somebody can be at the senior center whenever it's open because the staffing there's not enough staffing today for that program and lots of other wreck programs to have a person at each program that's going on all the time that that's happening. There are people that are available to service those programs. But so I guess that's the question. Are you for the council? Are you asking the council to consider adding additional staff to the budget

for a few hours, at least a couple hours during the day when say like First Auburn meets, somebody should be there to explain programs, take fees, and do stuff and just to make sure everything is going okay in the senior center. But I'm more I'm also concerned with that they I mean we're all grown-ups and I know we know the right things to do but it's still nice to have a person so if something happens that when they need to go running or call somebody that that somebody will come and be of assistance. I mean, councelor Walker knows how would cut backs how there's no staff person there anytime during the senior time.

So I so I understand your point again so we can get the question in front of the council. Are you suggesting perhaps a half-time person or a full-time person? What what are you proposing be added into the budget? at least a part-time person to be in there. So, Mr. Manager, what if you could tell us the approximate cost of a half-time recreation specialist?

If we're if we're looking at someone say 20 hours, 25 hours, I'm assuming is what we're talking about here. Um, you know, I think we're we're somewhere's, you know, in the in the range of probably around um it's it's it's a different difficult position to fill because I think we have to look at what hours are we talking about. I think council Walker and I have had a good conversation regarding, you know, there's there's a need to ensure that the coffeey's on, there's there's things that are placed out, the room is set up, and so we're working through those efficiencies with the changes that's in the manager's budget. So, I I feel more comfortable moving forward with what we have right now and and then applying that that shift in the staffing that we're looking to do to make sure we have that available. Um, you know, if if if the council wanted to put an additional um, you know, $25,000 in the budget, then that would we would we would be able to accommodate somewhere around 25 hours. um plus um plus some of the the fringe that's included in that for us to to cover that person. But um I I really think that we have we have a structure planned and I think it's going to meet the needs that as the uh chair of the age friendly has shared with me about there are some some needs there like council Gary's mentioning that I'm I feel confident we're going to address. So, we're running short on time. So, I guess I'd get the sense of the council here. We have a show of hands on um those that would be interested in adding 25,000 into the budget for a part-time recreation specialist.

Okay. So, um given the uh feedback, we won't be adding that at this time. Um are there other items? We we won't be able to speak to them right now, but I just trying to get a sense of where people are. If there's other items, I don't have another item, but I I do want to thank the council for their consideration on all the topics we've discussed tonight. Appreciate the balance. I appreciate that we're able to respond to some of the topics that our community members are bringing up to us and look forward to finding those areas we can strengthen our community. So, thank you.

Other other topics folks have? So, I think where we're at, um, Mr. Manager, we will not need the budget workshop on the 30th. We'll go to first reading on the 4th. Uh, basically, um, with the budget that we entered into tonight and on the 4th, we the council can consider the information regarding the senior property tax program. an amendment could be made at that time if it's a sense of the council to change that budget by adding additional funds. Um, anything else from the council in the workshop?

Great. Thanks very much. I appreciate everybody's input this evening. Uh, the workshop will be adjourned. Uh, we'll take a five minute break and then reconvene for the council meeting.

Are you doing your slideshow first? I think so. Yeah. Okay. That's like one of the first.

You want me to drive? The April 21st, 2026 Auburn City Council meeting will be called to order. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of United States of America to the republic which stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. If we could have the counselors introduce themselves beginning with council Gary. Good evening. Belinda Garry, Auburn City Councelor at large. Good evening. Rachel Randall, Auburn City Councelor Award One. Good evening. Tim Cowan, City Council of W 2. Good evening, Matthew Duval, City Council, W three. Good evening, Jeff Harmon, Mayor. Good evening, Kelly Butler, Ward Four, City Council. Good evening, Leroy Walker, W five. Good evening, Adam Platt, City Council at Large. Phil Croll, city manager.

Thank you. The first item on the agenda tonight is the consent agenda. There's two items. The first is authorizing the mayor to vote the shares of the Louiswis Railroad Corporation at the annual meeting. And the second is the acceptance of the 2025 Edward Burn Memorial Justice Assistant Grant uh which is awarded to the Auburn Police Department at $17,418. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Been moved by Council Walker. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by councelor Duvall. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? The motion is adopted. The next item is approval of the minutes of the April 6, 2026 regular city council meeting. Are there any errors or corrections? Is there a motion to accept? Motion to accept. Moved by council Walker. Is there a second? Seconded by councelor Cowan. The vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor?

Motion is adopted. The next item is communications presentations and recognition. Uh we have a presentation this evening by Cassella, our solid waste management vendor, regarding the uh solid waste uh program and pending ordinance changes and Right.

All right. Good evening. Um, my name is Talia Webster. I am an operations supervisor for Cassella Waste. Previous, Excuse me, I'm getting over a cold. Um, previously the municipal account manager. Um, but I've moved into the operations role. So, I actually have the new municipal account manager here with me tonight. Her name is Terresa Galvin. Um, but we're going to talk through automation timeline, what goes into all of the prep for that. Um, what the transition is like, talk about carts, talk about cart placement and all of that. Um, so we'll start with the anticipated timeline. Um, so right now we do we're in the middle of doing a citywide road evaluation. That is in progress. And I say that's in progress because we still have some parking things to work through with public works. Um the cart placement evaluation goes handinhand with that. So the road evaluation um basically we try to figure out you know are there one ways um are we going to have any issues collecting carts on any any of the roads? How are we going to um educate residents to place their carts without any service interruption and I'll get into more of that in detail on the next few slides. Um the cart order is in progress. Um the way we put that order together is we use a city assessor list to identify single family homes um ADUs and multi-units. And that helps us determine how many carts we're going to need to actually distribute. So we're looking at about 16,000 carts. That would be 8,000 uh trash and 8,000 recycle. Um tenative timeline right now and we would have to work with the cart company on how long the distribution is going to take because it's different based on the amount of carts that you have to get out. Um but we would be looking at the week of June 22nd or 29th and um automating the week of July 13th. Um so um Cassella, we've been driving

the roads. Um the driver has been reporting back to evaluate the current service methods. So whether we drive down a road, we back down a road, or it's a group pile where residents have to bring their trash and recycle up to um the top of the road or the nearest main road. Um changes might be made to have services um provided today. However, we try to make as minimal of changes as possible. Um the automated arm is only on the on one side of the truck. So, we where we run into some of those issues is, you know, you have a one-way street in the downtown area. If there are residential units on that street, there's nothing we can really do about that. We can't drive the wrong way down a one right street. So, everybody has to put their carts out on that right side. So, that's what we're looking at identifying and notifying people kind of ahead of time. Um, the evaluation is going to be made public. Um it can be posted on the city website and if there are any like nuances where you know we have to drive down um a part of the road and then turn around and back down a part of the road, we will actually send letters to residents so that they're aware of cart placement, specific cart placement. Um the evaluation that will be made public will include the street name, the route day, the service method, and whether it we're driving down it, backing down it, backing into the top, or it's a group pile. And then um the cart placement will tell them which normal means right out in front of your house um or in your driveway, whether they have to be on the odd or even side because we're backing down it or it's a oneway. And then whether or not um it's going to be a group pile. And this is kind of a visual example of what the uh the road looks like. And we do take notes. So you'll see there's some nuances. Bowden Street, the turnaround's not always clear. That's going to be something that will be important to communicate with residents. If there is a turnaround at the end of the road,

we're going to need to make sure that especially on trash day that that is clear so the truck can um easily maneuver around. And then obviously tight parking. Um so I've just provided some examples of the visuals that we can provide residents. So Bowden Street is going to be a backdown because there is no turnaround at the end. So, that just means the truck is going to back down and all of those residents on the um odd side of the street are going to have to bring their carts over to the even side of the street. Um a group pile example is Whan Drive. I don't believe we traveled down this today. Um but the road is very narrow. There are overhanging branches and it's not safely passable for our collection vehicle and our driver to to drive down, try to turn around and come back out. Um, so the carts will need to be placed at West Auburn Road for collection. And you can see the um the orange highlight there of where the cards can go on either side as long as they're not in front of mailboxes, telephone poles, parked vehicles, that sort of thing. Um, some of these roads we can make exceptions where we can't back all the way down, but we can back into the top of the road and collect the carts there so they're not out on a busy road like Route 4. Um, or yeah, Route 4. Um, so an example of that is uh East Auburn Lumber Road. Um, it's narrow and it's dirt and there's no adequate turnaround. We don't travel down it today. So, the carts will need to be placed at the top of the road. In order for the truck to back in, they have to be 30 feet in from um Route 4. So, on that evaluation list, it would have the road name. It would say back in, and then we can send them kind of a visual of this is this is the where the carts need to be placed.

Um so, there are some guidelines for proper cart placement. Um, always allow one to three feet of space in between the carts. This just allows the driver to grab them with the automated arm and the fingers of the arm without knocking the other one over if they are too close together. Um, there's a good chance that, you know, your recycling container is going to get knocked over and then we're going to have a mess. Um, so a lot of the literature says 3 ft minimum. Um, there's a visual example over here. You can see that's a lot of space. So we say a minimum of 1 foot is usually typically um fine. Um we need them to be at least 3 to feet of space away from any fixed object. Um we have taken out mailboxes. We have hit telephone poles. So that's something we want to try to avoid. Um parked cars, fences, anything of that nature. Um we need to make sure the carts are away from that. So we typically direct residents if your mailbox is on the right side of your driveway just place your carts on the left side and to avoid that altogether. There are a few other um additional guidelines for cart placement. Please ensure that the front of the cart is facing towards the street for collection. If the carts are backwards um and the lid flips open during service, there could be a situation where a trash bag gets caught on the lid and when the truck brings it back to put it down, it flings the trash bag. We've seen it before. Um or there's a there's a you know um sorry, there's a situation where um the lid can crack because it's hitting the metal truck in the hopper. It happens a lot in the winter time. So we try to avoid that alto together. Um the container has to be upright. Um keep all materials inside of the container. Do not place them back to back. Please make sure they are side by each. And

again just reiterating, keep it clear of uh all obstructions. Um we know winter is a challenge. It's a challenge for every department. It's a challenge for public works. It's also a challenge for us. So, um, the main thing is that we can only service roads that have been properly plowed and treated. With city roads, that's easy because we can communicate with DPW. If we get to a road and it's not treated, we can call and say, "Hey, we need can't get down this road right now." They can come out and help us. It gets a little tricky with private roads. So, if we are traveling down private roads, we just ask to please make sure they are plowed and treated by 6:00 a.m. Um, just a reminder, too, that drivers work long hours. Um, be patient with reporting u misolctions before 3 p.m. because winter weather can cause delays even if it's not snowing. Um, and we just uh tell residents, you know, keep the carts lids closed. That prevents water from getting into them. Um, a lot of the times in the winter we run into situations where the carts become extra heavy because of all the ice that's frozen at the bottom and it can cause the the uh cart to fall into the hopper of the truck when we're servicing it, which if that does happen, um, our driver will report it and we'll get them a replacement cart right away. Um, and just use your best judgment in winter. avoid placing their carts in the street when there's a winter storm because that will cause issues for public works when trying to plow. Um, and if there's snow on the ground, what we typically say to people is treat it as you would treat your mailbox. Kind of keep a space clear for um your trash cards as you would shovel your mailbox out for the mailman. Um, so communication ahead and getting

ready for automation. um we will send a mailer out to all residents that will have information about cart delivery. And this is what the mailer will look like. Um so it'll just say, you know, um beginning whatever date um we're transitioning to automated collection. Cards will be delivered within this time frame. It'll have information about the app and then just kind of reminders about um it must be inside of the cart. we can't collect any material outside of the cart and information like that. It also has a Cassella phone number, so if anybody has any questions, they can reach out to us and uh we'd be happy to answer them. Um upon delivery of the carts, each resident will receive a brochure that will have a curbside pickup calendar, um a zero sort recycling poster that shows residents what is recyclable and what is not. It'll have again those cart placement reminders that we walked through in the last slide, information about the app, and frequent frequently asked questions. So, we can customize those to the city. Um, but essentially all the frequently asked questions is when will automation begin? How will I know which cart is for trash and which one is for recycle? Um, who do I call if my cart goes missing or is damaged? things of that nature and changes to the uh recycling schedule. Um so Auburn is currently using the Cassella app. Um we will be switching app platforms at some point. Cassella is developing their own app. Right now we use a third party. Um but Auburn will remain on the recycle better with Cassella app throughout this transition and probably for the rest of the year. Um, it's a great tool that we've used over the past, I think, year and a half to two years. We'll push out important information and I've included a couple

of screenshots. We automated the town of Durham last week. Um, so we've sent out service alerts just reminding residents of important dates. Um, as you can see in the bottom one here, um, we linked the cart placement list so that residents can click that. It takes them to the town website and they will be able to see, you know, their road, how it's serviced, where they need to place their carts. Um, cart order. So, delivery. So, I think we already talked about the number of carts. So, we're estimating about 16,000 carts being distributed, 8,000 trash, 8,000 recycle. Single family homes will receive a trash and recycling cart. multi-units, we try to do our best to get that information ahead of time so we're delivering the correct amount of carts the first time and not having to go back. Um, however, it does happen. So, um, what we've experienced with some accessessor lists is sometimes addresses get left off for whatever reason. Um, but that's no worry. If someone does not receive a cart and upon the initial delivery, just report it to us. We will still pick up your trash even though it's not uh carted for the first few weeks because we know this is a big change for for everybody. It's a change for us as well. So, we're going to make sure everything is off the ground. Um there will be a certain date that we ask people to wait to report that they haven't received a cart because it again it's going to take you know 3 weeks, two weeks to make sure that everybody gets one. Um, and that date will share as we know kind of a a better timeline, exact timeline of cart delivery, but we do ask that everybody be patient with us. Um, but you know, we do our best to get everybody the cart the carts the first time. Um so once the cards are distributed, the initial distribution is done, um we

will send the truck out and they will drive the routes and pick up with an automated truck. Um again, we know there are probably going to be some folks who don't receive a cart right away, but we're going to have a rear load truck on call or either operations staff um with pickup trucks to make sure that we pick up everything off the ground. Typically our driver will report that to us if we didn't see it. But um for the first two weeks we're going to have a field team out there working ahead of the truck driving around um to ensure that carts are placed properly. So if we see a cart that's placed backwards, we'll tag it and let them know. And there's a picture of the orange tag that we use on the slides. I think there's a zoomed in one um on a later slide. Um, but just essentially saying, you know, we we picked up your trash today for next time. Please make sure the cart's facing forward. If they're too close together, we'll tag it for being too close together. We'll move them. And uh we'll we'll be doing that for for a few weeks. It looks like public works will be um on the routs with us helping with education and proper placement.

Yeah, I know Scott and I have discussed that of going ahead um of the trash truck if there's parked cars or if the carts are placed wrong. um doing that ourselves as well as we've got to go out ahead of time with some of these parking ordinance changes um to put door hangers out to to let people know of of changes that are happening like you know maybe they can't park in front of their house anymore because the bins are going on that side. So we plan on being out there being active.

Um so this is just a closer uh picture of the the tag itself. Um but we'll use the bright tags to educate residents again. Um we will place them on the handle of the cart. So, we're not going to stick them right on the front. Um, a lot of people associate the tag with a bad thing, but it is not a bad thing. It is just a reminder like, you know, we came up on your cart and it was backwards. We're just fixing it so the truck can get it, correct it going forward. Um, if we do see a resident outside of their house, we will try to talk to them directly. It's a lot easier to show than it is to just leave a tag and leave. Um, but we prefer to do that actually is talk directly to the resident if possible. If there are any additional comments um that we want the resident to know, we can write them on the bottom too. There's a note section of the tag. Um so there will be some changes to the recycle collection. Um we'll be going from an every other week or an A and B schedule to a weekly collection schedule. So no one will have to manage whether it's an A week or a B week. Um which will be great. And then previously, the city opted to remove metal and glass from their single stream recycle program. With the extended producer responsibility program, the city will add metal and glass back into their curbside single stream program. And so this is just the difference of um the previous recycling poster in education that showed just cardboard, mail, junk mail, paper, and uh plastic jugs, tubs, and lids. And then the new um recycle poster that we'll use to educate residents, which includes the metal and glass. And this will be in the brochure that we distribute. Um so I wanted to just talk about what some of the materials that we accept in

curbside collection are processed and made into. Um highle cardboard boxes become more boxes. Uh paper becomes egg cartons. Uh plastic can become uh fleece jackets and other plastic bottles or new plastic bottles. Aluminum becomes new cans. Metal becomes new cans. Um and glass becomes roadways. And I do have some additional information on um where Cassella sends that material um after it is processed. So cardboard and mixed paper is 100% shipped domestically to Canadian and US paper mills that make new boxes. HDPE natural and colored which would be your milk jugs and your detergent bottles are shipped domestically to a processor in Alabama. They make a variety of new plastic part products such as car parts, buckets, toys, just about anything um that you use or buy that is hard plastic. Um PET or your average water bottle. Um those are shipped domestically to make into new water bottles and fleece clothing like hats, socks, and carpeting. Carpeting companies also like the PET material. Um tin is shipped domestically to make new tin cans and other metal products. Aluminum is one commodity that can be recycled over and over again and does not lose any yield. Um that is sold domestically to make new cans. Tubs and lids. So it's mostly your number fives with uh three and seven plastics. Those are also shipped to Alabama. They make recycled paint cans that sell in Home Depot, Lowe's, anywhere that you probably buy paint. Um the next time you buy paint, check the bottom of the can. The vendor is KW Plastics. They have an 85% market share on paint cans. So, more than likely the paint can was made by them by a recycled project. Um, glass, most glass is being sent for road work and construction sites or to

the landfill as cover, daily cover. Um, investments are being made into our equipment right now to make them make glass a certain um, size and specification. Some recyclers do not accept it if it's not ground up enough or it's, you know, ground up too much. So, we're investing in equipment in our facilities to meet the specs of different buyers so that we always have an outlet for that material. Um, and just a quick note about extended producer responsibility. Um, municipalities will be eligible for recycling programs. um they'll have the option to receive reimbursements for covered for covered recycling costs. Um eligible and participating municipalities will submit 2026 data in March of 2027. Um it should receive the reimbursement payments by October 2027. And I believe currently um where the state's at with the timeline and you can find the timeline on the main D website and they will post updates as things are changing. But we're currently waiting for the stewardship organization that will kind of be running the whole program. Um I believe there's an RFP out currently and they will be hiring that SO um in the next few months. And that is all I had on automation. Hand it over to Adam.

Oh, sorry. Your head pulled up. here. Um, so while Dennis is passing that out, kind of cover it a little bit. Um, with automation, automated recycling and solid waste collection. Um, Cassella gave us a list of the road eval that they did. Um, so Scott and I hit the road after that looking at roads that they had flagged for parking issues, possibility issues. Um, so we went around, we looked ourselves. Um, I can go through them all or I can just read a couple. For example, um, like Pleasant Street, uh, just up here is a one-way street from Court Street over to Elm. Um, right now the park the no parking signs are on the right side of the street. So all the parking's on the left, but with this automated truck, arms on the right. So we're going have to move those parking signs to the other side so the bins can go on that side. Um so that's something that we'll have to change as per ordinance so it can be enforced. Um we tried to look at it with as minimal impact as possible. Um where we already have signs out there. Uh for example, summer winter street area. Um there's already some November to April. no parking signs. Um, so we'd leave those in place. You know, if you saw the sign over there, we'd basically add that below that to just say no parking on that particular trash day. Um, where our ordinance states that you can put trash out the night before. Um, we need no parking there from from 7:00 the night before to 7:00 that night of the actual trash collection. So, um, it just basically be adding signs to those posts already. um and tried not to add any more that we had to or post both sides of the street if we didn't have to. Um I

guess you next one. So streets with parking changes we listed out there. Um I know another one for example, Brookside Circle is off of Dennis. Goes from Denison over to Winter Street. Uh right now it's posted on the outside loop of that. Um so we got to change it to the inside loop of no parking. That way the truck can get through there because it's a one-way street. Uh, I think I covered Yeah. summer, winter. So, we threw that in there, but I had the our sign guy make up a template today. Um, I don't think that's the final product yet. I think we're going to change it a little bit more to instead of just saying Sunday through Monday 7P to 7P, it's going to be Sunday 7P to Monday 7P just to avoid any confusion. So, yeah, we do have or we will have a page on the city website dedicated to curbside collection should people have uh FAQs, frequently asked questions. So, we did have a map kind of see it on there. We highlighted where some parking changes may be made andor adjustments to what's already there for signs. There were So, uh, after we get these ordinance changes approved, um, we're going to have to go ahead and install the signs. Um, when we first install them, we'll probably bag them or cover them for now, um, with some door hangers to residents on each side of the street, stating if if there's a change in parking, you know, this is what that means. So, we're going to be putting out door hangers, trying to be as educational as we can, and informative we can as we can. Um, it's kind of going to be a working document, per se, um, because there's

probably some stuff that we didn't see when we were out there, um, that the truck may run into. So, um, but we can have, uh, Chief Men, uh, make adjustments as needed for 90-day parking changes before it becomes a written ordinance. Um, yeah, we're going to be, yeah, the group drop locations will have meetings with those residents. Um, just for instance, on the camp roads off a hotel road, they're have a certain way they're going to have to put them so that truck can back in and pick those carts up and not just be a free-for-all like it is right now. Um and then so chapter 44 I believe it is.

Oh um the solid waste ordinance chapter it was more or less language cleanup in this chapter. um a lot of striking some old language out um where especially where the city is providing the carts now. We had to add that in there um that it's got to be in the city provided carts instead of you know what it was before. Um stating that they must be placed curbside on a hard level surface clear of obstructions. It's basically all the the recommendations that Cassella put forth. um covers the oneway stuff. Yeah, it's it's basically just a bunch of language cleanups um that we did. Um for those scroll down through, you can see the the highlighted stuff comes up. Yeah. So, it's just like I said, just clean up clean up and update the language that was already in there.

If I if I can add for for Adam, I just to highlight here, we really had to um number one to it. I know Adam wanted to mention this, but this was reviewed by our police department, by our um planning department, obviously public works um with some some guidance as well from Cassella. what you're seeing in a lot of the language is really just reflecting the new carts for example. Um there's language before when we weren't issuing carts right to the to our residents. So this really the language large and part in this chapter particular you're seeing that the reflection of you're now getting two carts issued how they they need to be placed. Um and and I would highlight um just you know quickly as as you go through um something that uh Cassella said in their presentation everything must be in the bin. You you see today um you'll see that highlighted in this as well that it's it's stressed in there. You see today you drive by and you'll see anytime that somebody has extra trash and they they lay it beside it. It will not be collected. Um, leaf collection um is something that um is is if it fits in your bin, no problem. Um you can put your extra bags of leaves and and and have them collected. Uh but the days of rowing up, you know, 8 10 bags, you know, something on the side that you see just will not be able to be done. There are programs for people to to to get their to to dispose of their leaves and those types of things just like we do with our branches and and that type of uh that yard waste. Um, but just that's I think an overarching just quickly that's what you're seeing is is really reflective of this major change and that's really what you're you're going to see throughout this chapter 44 in particular.

Any questions from the council? Council Black, thank you. I had uh one question for Talia. Um, in the, uh, brochure that gets handed out to residents, is there any mention of what to do with solid food waste? Is that something you guys handle? I mean, obviously you can throw it in trash, but I It's kind of a loaded question. At the city level, we are trying to figure out ways to encourage our citizens to divert solid food waste from the trash stream. Is that something that you guys address or acknowledge or is that just

um not specifically in the draft, but if that's something that the city wants to address, we can add language in there to direct residents to um either, you know, contact a a food waste collector or, you know, if there's dropoff points throughout the city. Um that's something we can absolutely add.

Yeah. So, Mr. Dout has been working on this. If you So, we do have uh drop sites for um composting or or food waste. Um, one is at currently at Grace Lawn, um, right by public works. Um, as you know, we, uh, currently owners of 67 Kittyhawk. Um, so on the southern part of Auburn, we're looking to add those same types of drop uh, sites there. Um, we also have, uh, 21 sites um, currently in the program um, in the city, and that's all the schools um, are are working to divert some of that waste through the composting program. So, um I expect that what we're what we're looking to do, we're really just getting um well, we're not quite through year one of of that program. So, I think some continued evaluation is certainly what we're looking at is whether or not we need to add additional uh drop sites or, you know, look at just making more convenient. Um yeah, that's it.

Yeah, that's great. I appreciate that update. I just this is seems like a a unique opportunity for us to be in touch with 9,000 parcels, 16,000 cans. So yeah, I don't if there's any modification of communications that would serve the city or the council, it seems like a great opportunity to piggyback on it. Yeah, absolutely. I think there's some information in the app today. So if we need to update that, um there is a waste wizard. So if residents search for a material, so if they're searching for what to do with food waste, the app will direct them to those drop off locations and and we'll ensure our our city communications and is uh is complimenting that and make sure that we we take the opportunity to to promote that as well.

Council Duval, just on a related note, are you worried that people might think yard waste is recycling? Like I fill up my one bin and then I'm going to fill up my other bin with like what do you do in that sort of um so with us being out in front of the truck for the first, you know, two or three weeks, we usually flag that. We flip both lids and we check if we're stopping. Um the drivers are really good about flagging that, too. So they don't see what's in the cart until they're dumping it. But if there is a specific house that they've noticed either has um continued contamination of their recyclables and or yard waste in the recycling can, that will be reported through our dispatcher who communicates with the city.

It I would also just to add to that as well. It's we address that actually in the ordinance yard waste and lease collection. It's stated that there um if pe folks are looking to dispose of that um that they can contact the public works department and hear more about the program and how they can um get through. So it does maybe not completely answer that you know in terms of you know addressing that. I think uh Talia's answer is probably a little better about addressing the I guess violations quote unquote if somebody's doing that. U but we do address it in there as well to make sure we're pointing people where they need to go. Yeah, I saw that. I think you could be it it it's slightly ambiguous about which bin you put it in. So

the questions from the council council when you're ruling um the cart distribution out is there a plan for where you will be approaching first how that will roll out through the city? So we go by route day. So we'll start with Monday. We'll do all of Monday. We'll move on to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc. There's no specific order of roads um but it's just by route day.

Other questions? So I have a couple questions regarding the parking. Um I know it currently on the current schedule when we have holidays the pickup days are changed. So what is that still going to continue and what does that mean in these no parking areas? Um, are you going to have to deal with cars that are parked there because you're picking up on a different day? Yeah, it's a good question. Honestly, probably I I know I didn't think of that. You know, when we have holidays to push out stuff, but what's the holidays now? Is it 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's?

We run Fourth of July, too, think. Yeah, we'll have to we'll have to look at that on those specific days. and come up with a plan for that.

Okay. Um, so I've had a couple people ask me about these private roads and you know, a good example was the camp roads off hotels, these group piles that are at a distance like that. They're bringing the cans to these piles and um I've had people ask me about this. They can't fit the cans in their vehicle and they're a half a mile from where this group pile be. So, what's the strategy for that? Are they are we going to be able to have a dumpster or cans there that they can just bring their trash bags to and put them in? How will this work?

Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you've got further on that. I know we were going to try and leave it to the road associations in there um to figure that out. I know either way, like if we had a dumpster, the hard part would be the abuse. You know, people driving by, it's not monitored, they're going to fill the things up with their trash. Um same with the bins, although everybody's getting one, there's possible theft of the bins, you know, of people not from Auburn. Maybe they live in mine, Poland, whatever. Um, but I don't know if you've got any other

Yeah, I I think it's going to be a a literal case by case basis and working with each one. Some I think are set up and and the two bins can be delivered um for each unit. So, say there's 10 homes down the um this this camp road or whatnot. Um they would be given the carts and they could be put at the drop the group site um or group location. Others may need to make some modifications. That'd be certainly my recommendation. If you know they're I believe most of the common practice is they put the trash in their vehicle and then they bring it to that that drop site. Well, your carts would be there. So, I would expect they'd be labeled, you know, you know, whatever address that is assigned to and they can put them there. I I think it's literally has to be a case by case. So, we be working with Cassella Public Works. If there's an homeowners association that is maybe struggling with what the solution is, I think we just have to work with them and determine the the bottom line is if you're in a group um drop site situation, you're remaining in that situation and you're still getting these carts. So, we need to figure out what's the best way to make it as convenient as possible for for them as well. So, so would it be fair to say that the city's aware of where these um where these situations present themselves and who the organizations are that's involved there and you're going to work with them to see if they some solution can be identified?

That's exactly right. Um, and the last question I had, this came up before and I'm not sure there's an answer to this yet, but if we have residents that get the two carts and they they are maximizing their recycling and they find that one cart isn't enough, is what's the do we have an answer to that? Do they have to go to the incinerator? Can they get additional carts? How are we going to handle that?

In the current moment, we are not offering additional carts under the program. Um, Cassella does manage all of our cart program and the issuance of that. Um, so the the recommendation would be is that if you are over the limit um then it would be um bringing it to mid main waste energy um or looking for somebody to help you with that. But essentially getting it there is is the only other option. Other uh final questions from the council? No, thank you very much. Appreciate the uh update and we certainly look forward to the start of the automated pickup program.

Thank you. um for the council. Um right now the um current scheduling thought is that these ordinance changes that were h passed out would be uh before you for first reading at the second meeting in May. And um I would encourage people watching if they have questions the this ordinances will be in the packet because their ordinance changes. It will require two readings. Uh so we'll give people an opportunity to provide any feedback that they might have on the ordinance changes. Uh with that we'll move on to the first open session of the evening. If there's any members of the public that would like to address the council on items not on tonight's agenda, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any, the open session is closed. We'll move on to unfinished business. The first item is ordinance 060462026 amending chapter 60 zoning of the city's code of ordinances regarding legislative document 427 an act to regulate municipal parking space minimums. This is for second reading and public hearing. It's a reminder to the public. Uh LD427 was an act of the current legislature to um change the uh parking minimums and this this item that's before the council amends our current ordinances to conform to that act. Is there a motion?

So moved. Second by councelor Platt, seconded by councelor Walker. Does any member of the public would like to address the council on this item? Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any, the public hearing will be closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. The vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Randall, yes. Councelor Cowan, yes. Councelor Duval, yes. Councelor Butler, yes. Councelor Walker, yes. Councelor Plattz, yes. Councelor Gary,

yes. Seven having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. Move on to new business. The first item is ordinance 0704212026 amending chapter 2, administration of the city's code of ordinances regarding article 8, citation system of code enforcement. Um, as a reminder to the council and the public, this was an item that was previous work that was previously workshopped. uh and it updates the uh process for code enforcement citations. This is for first reading. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by councelor Cowan. Is there a second?

Seconded by councelor Walker. There's any member of the public who'd like to address the council on this item. Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comment will be closed. discussion by the council. Council plat,

thank you. I had one question and forgive me if this is blended a little with the next ordinance vote, but as I read these my I think I understand what this is doing. It's cleaning up some of the language of um fee structures, getting it into the proper um section of our, you know, of our uh of our ordinances and giving some of that authority over to code. Is that correct? giving the authority to enforce uh some of these fees to to the code department. Am I correct thus thus far somewhat? Correct.

So my question then is uh what does the increased burden of enforcement do to the code department given its current state of staffing or I think the manager could address that. I think code enforcement's doing the work today. Uh and this is just clarifying the direct authority that they have um for the work that they're doing. Yeah, it really is. It's addressing the language, ensuring that that clear line of enforcement is there rather than within the clerk's office, wherever that might have been in the past.

So, no material change to the expectations and responsibilities of that department. Great. Other questions or comments by the council? Not seeing any. The council ready for the question. Vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Cowen, yes. Councelor Duval, yes. Councelor Butler, yes. Councelor Walker, yes. Councelor Plattz, yes. Councelor Gary, yes. Councelor Randall, yes.

Seven have voted in the affirmative and none in the negative. The motion's adopted. The next item is ordinance 0804212026 amending chapter 14 business licenses and permits of the city's code of ordinances regarding penalties and violations. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by council plat. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by councelor Butler. Is any member of the public that'd like to address the council on this item? Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comments closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. Vote will be by Excuse me. Council, the vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Duval, yes. Councelor Butler, yes. Councelor Walker, yes. Councelor Platz, yes. Councelor Gary, yes. Councelor Randall, yes. Councelor Kell,

yes. Seven have been voted in the affirmative and none in the negative. The motion's adopted. The next item is order 3704212026. Approving a mass gathering special event for city of Auburn's lobster festival on May 16, 2026. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Moved by council Walker. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by councelor Cowan. Does any member of the public would like to address the council on this item? Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comments closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. The vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor posed. Seven having voted in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion is adopted. We'll move on to reports. Uh just a couple brief things. Um, I want to thank uh the staff and the members of the comp plan committee that facilitated the four open houses over the last uh couple weeks. A lot of work in preparation for that. I appreciate those citizens that came out and provided their comments. Um for those that weren't able to attend um in the upcoming I believe the next comp plan meetings on the 28th um and uh comments that were received will be discussed. So if uh people didn't get a chance to participate they can listen into the comp plan meeting. I also want to thank the uh staff from Norway Savings Bank Arena. They hosted the um Chamber of Commerce businessto business trade show. Did a great job. It's really a good uh additional use of the arena when the um ice is off the surface. Uh with that, council Gary,

nothing at this time. Council Randall, I don't have anything. Thank you,

Council Count. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Just a update from uh this morning's homelessness committee. Uh we heard from excuse me, we heard from the uh um director from the warming center about uh utilization and services provided over the winter. This year they were open uh they they opened in 1 and November um and then in the 1 of December went to 24 hours. Uh and they were they saw 771 unique guests since the beginning of when they were opened. Um averaging about the max of what they were trying to service with which was 100 uh per day. Um so a lot of really good work going on and they're still on uh schedule to move towards um uh converting 40 beds into permanent uh shelters. So keep you posted. Councelor Dval.

Uh yeah, quick update. Um sustainability and national natural resources board met a couple weeks ago and talked about a lot about the new uh solid waste disposal program, but also talked a little looked at the sustainability scorecard. Got an update on the Littlefield Dam, which is slated to that work is slated to be done this summer. And as I understand the bids came in very low which will allow us to do some other things. Um and then we had a presentation on dark sty dark skies. There's a LD1 1934 um that's addressing uh light pollution in Maine and there will be Maine dark sky week the second week of May.

Thank you. Council Butler. The 911 committee meeting met last week and um reviewed uh budget year-to- date. Continued to struggle a little bit with um overtime related to staff staffing. Um in addition to that, we discussed um and had a presentation from Allied Cook on the relocation efforts. Um everything's very thoughtfully planned right now. There's a lot of good communication around um looking at any potential barriers to successful move and timeline and it's all looking pretty good. Council Walker,

thank you. I have three dates that are important. Uh United New Ain Association will meet April 28th at 6:00 at Rollley's Diner. The speaker will be Jonathan Labonte. So please join us. April 29th, Age Friendly is putting on a uh get together at the senior center at Pentingill Park. The doors open at 11 11:30. There'll be a speaker from uh Senior Plus. I think we're going to be talking about uh Oh, it's it's gone. It's gone. Anyways, it'll be talking about us older people, that's for sure. So, come join us there. And uh and also there's a movie at 12:30. The movie is going to be Ghost. And the last one is April 30th at 6th Street Congregational Church, New Auburn. Um the neighborhood watch group, please. Uh Sixth Street Church, 6:00 April 30th. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Platt.

Thank you. Um just uh to recap what everyone heard today on the presentation of the school budget as well as the bond request. I want to thank everyone for that. Um the school department, the school board and all the staff. Uh one thing that didn't get brought up in their presentations was another item from last week's school department meeting. Um there was a vote taken by the board to create a capital reserve fund. Um I think as the mayor and manager know the creation of such funds uh from the school department require a referendum vote. Uh so the first action by the school board was to vote on the creation of the reserve to vote on the funding of the reserve fund. Uh and then over time that'll come to the voters uh and they'll have to vote on the creation of that reserve fund. What it does is allows the school as you I've kind of beat this horse dead but I've talked a lot about excess fund balance that the school was sitting on. What a capital reserve fund allows a school to do is to take unassigned fund balance, which is the fund balance that they had slightly too much of and allows them to assigned those funds into the capital reserve fund and um to be spent on capex projects such as Auburn Middle School um and or other facilities uh projects. So, I'm sorry, that would be a facilities capital reserve fund. Um so, that's it. I don't think that comes across our plates at all. I think it bypasses the city and goes right to referendum. I'm not positive on that, but um anyway, it's it's an important piece to know about the school department. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, mayor. Uh only one item, just the uh most of the uh committee meetings that were held were covered by the counselors. U public safety facility ad hoc committee met uh this past week. Uh we received 100% designs uh from uh Allied Cook. uh those are now being currently reviewed. Uh the numbers are coming in uh close to where we had anticipated and so we feel we're right on track. We also spent time uh reviewing the timeline as uh councelor Butler mentioned. There's a lot of moving parts with this 911 being one of them. Uh 67 Kittyhawk being another one as well as um Engine 2 uh station on South Main Street. All those need to be completed uh for the project to proceed on time. And so the team is moving forward. They also were able to allocate and identify some additional funds uh through our Noah uh grant to address um some of the uh water uh mitigation that's needed at the Minet Avenue project. So uh so that's some additional funds that will be able to be applied to that to save save within the bond fund. So, the team is doing a great job with that and uh uh things are progressing well.

Thank you. Move on to the second open session of the evening. If there's any member of the public who would like to address the council on items not on tonight's agenda, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any. The open session is closed. Uh the council has uh one executive session item tonight. Uh no action is expected at the conclusion of the executive session. We expect the council to directly adjourn when they come out of executive session. So the executive session is pursuant to one MRSA section 405 sub6c for discussion of an economic development matter where premature disclosure of the information would prejudice a competitive or bargaining position of the body or agency. Is there a motion to go into executive session?

Motion to move. Moved by council Walker. Second. Seconded by councelor Cowan. Vote be by show of hands. All those in favor. The council be in executive session.