City Council - Regular Meeting

Are we Saadia Sattar? Somebody.

You get me today. Okay. Nick Sadler, Budget Management Services. We are happy that we are at the first budget work session for the FY2027 budget. We've got three budget notes that we want to share with you. These budget notes were requested over the past year. The first one is from Councilmember Melton. WANTING US TO BRING INFORMATION BACK ON A PERMANENT BAND STAGE AND PUBLIC ART AT CITY PLAZA. THE SECOND ONE CAME FROM COUNCIL MEMBER HARRISON ASKING ABOUT THE URBAN TREE PROJECTS IN PARKS RECREATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES. And then finally, three of you at the April 6th budget work session asked three separate questions that you wanted us to do some follow-up on from Solid Waste Services. So we're going to go through those budget notes. We also have staff here from those various departments that can answer deeper questions if there are any. Okay. So first with the band stage, there was a very detailed memo that was in your agenda packet that went through the different designs for the band stage as well as the art, the public art that was being shared there. Essentially we're looking at a range of two million if we are going with the permanent uncovered stage at the 1.85 with the low level art to 3.6 million for a more permanent covered stage at 2.85 million with the highest level of public art. So there is some mixing and matching there that if you decide to move forward with this that you can do. At this time, obviously, this was not included in the FY2027 capital improvement plan. So if council wishes, we can reprioritize, you can reprioritize the capital projects that are proposed. adjust revenue to pay for this depending on what you would like or we can include this in consideration for funding in the FY 2028 capital budget. Happy to answer any questions that I can.

Councillor Lambert Melton.

Sure, I just wanted to provide, thank you very much. I wanted to provide a little additional context. This was not a specific request from me. I personally do not have a heightened interest or disinterest in a bandstand. This did come from the Economic Development Innovation Committee. It was part of the public realm study and recommendations and an ongoing discussion we were having with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and just general discussion around what improvements should we make to the Fayetteville Street Corridor and one of the discussions we had that kept sort of rising to the top was a bandstand in City Plaza area to sort of activate that space. And we had referred it out of committee with a recommendation that we seek a budget note. So that's where we landed here. It has been some months since we've had that conversation and I really haven't heard much about the bandstand since then. I'm assuming it is still a priority for Downtown Raleigh Alliance. And so this is where we landed. I don't know what it would seem we would want the covered stage, I would think, because I think the point was for it to also double as seating for folks that are out there eating lunch and visiting at the convention center and whatnot. And so that's obviously bumping us into the more expensive option. So I guess it's just we've got to figure out if we're going to prioritize it and how we're going to pay for it.

Councilor Patten.

Yeah, hi, thanks. I'll say for my colleagues, I think my instinct, and we can discuss more, is to ask us to be programmed into the 28 fiscal year budget rather than asking for a reprogramming of this budget that's almost baked. So that's kind of where I'm at now. Council Branch.

Yeah, I would agree about fiscal year 20, but I have a couple of questions that can hopefully help direct that. My first question is who would program this? Like who would maintain it? How would it operate?

So, Council Member Lambert-Melton may talk a little bit about what was discussed in the committee. However, I think from ours, from a programming perspective, it would be a shared responsibility and a joint partnership between us and DRA to kind of make sure that, number one, we're not competing and conflicting with anybody anything that any events that we have programmed as part of our lineup each year and then two that we're not competing with anything that bill king has set aside for dra so i would think it would be a partnership jonathan did you all get that far into conversation in the committee

Yeah, I mean, we talked about an ongoing effort to provide more flexibility in that area. First, it would serve as a day-to-day function. People can just use it. They can eat lunch there. They can work from there. And then the second part is these things like the live after fives or the pop-up. I think that they want to be able to do more programming there once we have the option. And so I think it would really function well. like we're seeing right now with these events, some of that are happening in Moore Square and then some that do happen on Fayetteville Street, but they have to bring in, obviously, a stage and everything.

So with that, and I had a feeling that's where it was going to go, I would say definitely let's move this to fiscal year 28 budget, but also look at partnerships and possibly sponsorships that can help offset some of the costs into this as well. So that would be my direction that I would give.

Can I add one thing? Yep. We didn't talk about the second option, the public art. We have those two pedestals that are on Fayetteville Street right now at City Plaza. It's called City Plaza. Am I saying that right? And they're empty, but we use them for like pop-up installations. And I think that maybe if we're going to push the bandstand to fiscal year 28, I would like to see the public art move forward in this budget. Those options range from 150 to 500. I'm assuming we could find some capacity for that, even if maybe comes out of when we close. Don't we have a...

Can I recommend that we hold off until the fall when we close out FY26 and make a contribution out of fund balance or capital reserve?

Yeah, so are we good with getting the art piece back in the fall and seeing if we can fund? My preference on the art is I feel like we could do the lower option where we purchase two pre-made structures that fit on the existing fund.

Well, Sarah Powers has just walked in. Oh, wonderful. Yes, we are talking. We summoned you. I will just say, I'd be curious, Sarah's input on the private funding capacity and any additional work that's been done about the four sculptures.

And while you're answering that, Sarah, it was my understanding, this is years ago, that the intent was to have rotating art on those pedestals on a regular basis. So I don't know whether that budget was baked in at some point that ceased to be the practice.

Hi, I'm Sarah Powers. Welcome. Thanks for inviting me to the podium. Glad I stopped by. The intention probably wasn't to have that rotating. The plaza opened with three empty pedestals and no consent for art funding yet, so the solution was to have artwork loaned for a small sort of artist stipend to cover kind of a rental agreement. What we found is... less and less artwork is made like that right now sort of so there was very few artists who would apply we wouldn't we were getting kind of the same old stuff over and over again so when the plaza was renovated a couple times we sort of thought that They were gonna go away, pedestals are going away, so we cut that program. We did put the acorn there, which is really great, because that's where they drop it for New Year's. You don't have to take an acorn on a field trip. That works out pretty well, but the other two pedestals we have not come up with. The loan isn't ideal. There's fairly small pedestals to find something with that small footprint with the impact I think folks wanna see, but...

if that's where we end up we probably could relook at that program and maybe more with a temporary versus you know there's not a lot of like metal and stone monoliths that are loanable in that scale yeah i was going to add the conversation we had in the committee was a permanent installation something that can be a signature for the city um when people come from out of town it's like a kind of go-to get your photo taken here type of art slash economic development slash branding opportunity. Conversation we had before we walked in is the three options in front of us, and I don't know if you have the specifics, but level one is sort of purchasing a pre-made structure that will fit 10 to 12 feet tall. quicker delivery, but obviously there would be less customization. Option two would be mid-level, which would be a 10 to 12 foot fall, two 12 to 10 to 12 foot fall structures that we would commission. So obviously it'd be customizable. And then the high level would be custom design, 20 feet tall, interactive. And I think the mayor was asking if you had thoughts on that or what conversations have happened.

I mean, that's a lot of art. That's where you're gonna have some interaction. That's when you're gonna have some light interact, maybe kinetic light, something very striking 24 hours a day. Just artwork is more expensive right now. The more customization, the more the artist is involved in designing with community engagement to get to the scale purchasing artwork. You know, it's going to be abstract. It's going to maybe be colorful, but there's not going to be a lot of inventory. I think it's going to be sort of what is out there. Transportation is going to be a good chunk of any of these. Getting the artwork made and put in place and the durability is key. Probably the high level, you're going to have to sort of put in infrastructure, too, to support it, especially if it has some sort of kinetic or light aspect to it.

Well, I mean, hearing that, I would like to see if we, my personal preference would be to get this art piece back in the fall and see what reserve funding we have, and that may help us decide which one of these levels we want to do.

Yeah, and I would say I'm fine with that as well. I think this probably needs some more baking, if I can use an art term, to really figure out what works.

If we can come back with more detail of what's in this budget range.

Yeah, maybe the city manager, you could work together and bring us options in the fall with a little more specificity and then the funding mechanism for them.

Okay. Thank you for being quick on your feet.

All right, on to the next budget note. This budget note came from Mayor Pro Tem Harrison, and the program was, the leaf out program was developed, a leaf out program was developed by Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources. The initiative was put forth in the budget process, but ultimately was not in your recommended budget that the city manager presented back in earlier May. The first year cost of the program right now are $650,000, which would include operating needs, equipment, supplies, and staffing necessary for this. And because this wasn't included, council could identify offsetting reductions in the general fund budget, the operating budget, utilize additional revenues or consider other funding if they wish to include the program in the 2027 adopted budget. I know that there is also a grant that is in the works that is going through the state and I think Steven Bentley is here to speak to that if there's any questions on that.

Okay, we'll start with Mayor Pro Tem Harrison.

Yeah, I just want to ensure that the leaf-out plan has funding this year. You know, we put the plan, you know, approved it. We have a goal set now for 2032 to have 24,000 trees planted, and I'm concerned if we don't have clear funding to start the process, I don't know how we're going to get there. And I know this grant might be underway, so I would like to hear details about that. And I just wanted to mention, in the budget, we do hear, it does talk about the leaf-out plan. So I want to understand, again, what parts will be funded, particularly how many trees can be planted with funding that you have in mind with the grant, staffing, partner contracts, who are specific partners we might be working with,

education activities as well as maintenance costs because as we all know if we plant a tree it's not enough we better water it too so yes very curious to hear what is planned with that grant Stephen and the timeline of it yeah Stephen Bentley with Raleigh Parks the one million dollar grant has multiple components and we haven't finalized our agreement with the state a good portion is maintenance so we have a tree canopy now that needs to be maintained and part of those funds would go towards that The other would go towards, believe it or not, tree removal because we do have some hazard trees. And then the other bucket would be this community focused on tree plantings. We can bring back a detailed summary of how that grant would move the needle on the leaf out program. It will, but not to the expectation of what the 650 would. Grant doesn't supply for staff to do that, but we would hopefully have some really great partners who have been enthusiastic along the way. So we could follow up with a very detailed memo on that. what we believe the grant can do in year one, and then those things that it cannot do that we were hoping to do.

What is the total cost of the grant or how much money?

It's one million dollars.

And that all is to go to leaf out?

No. The grant was intended kind of in the three buckets. One is tree care, so that is safety and all of our street trees need to be regularly pruned and maintained for safety purposes. The other is to support some tree removal for dying or diseased trees. And then that third bucket would be more of the leaf out, which is Planting and community issue initiatives since we haven't finalized the contract with the grant or we have it locked into those thresholds Or we don't know how much they'll allow us to pull up one and reduce the other so that would be kind of a two-way conversation with the grant or

So is the grant approved or?

It is, yes, yes.

But there is still some conversation about how the monies can be used.

Yes, we just don't know how much flexibility we'll have within the grantor to say we wanna now do more of this and less than this.

Is the agency?

It's the state of North Carolina. I don't recall the specific agency. The other is this can only be used in certain census blocks. It can't be used anywhere in the city. But it would be used in census blocks in which we desire which are historically underinvested and areas that need tree canopy. So it aligns with our values.

Yeah, I would like to see the details on that grant so I can just better understand it. I do, again, have some concerns here if we're not putting any of our own funds to this project, particularly for personnel, because I know you all have jobs already, every one of your staff members. We only have one urban forester. He has a huge job. And so if we don't have someone that is propelling this effort forward, I just fear that it will not HAVE THE OUTCOMES INTENDED AND SO THAT'S SOMETHING I WOULD DEFINITELY LIKE TO MAKE SURE IS IN OUR BUDGET IS A PERSON WHO IS GOING TO REALLY BRING THIS PROJECT HOME AND NOT JUST PARTNERS BECAUSE PARTNER CONTRACTS AT THE END OF THE DAY THEY'RE NOT OUR FOLKS AND WE DON'T HAVE THE SAME LEVEL OF ACCOUNTABILITY.

And so wanted to kind of clarify a little bit of staff's intentions around this is to kind of develop a strategy, right? We're talking about how do we invest these funds in planting trees, but we need to develop a strategy of where the trees are going to go, what kinds of trees, how many in certain specific areas. So we will have dedicated staff working to try to figure that out as we get through the first year of the program. Because right now it's just a blank template and we're talking about planting trees, but we really need to be strategic about how we do it so that we best use the funds that we're able to get from the state and then leverage those for our own internal funds as well as meet the needs and the concerns of the community around the program.

Yeah, I agree. The strategy is important, but my question again is who's going to have the time and the focus on it, so... That's why I wanted to put back to council is ensuring we have at least one person who's implementing this program. And then also, again, the details on the grant to ensure that we're making headway on our goals. So how many trees can we plant with the grant? What are the numbers so that we can see that we can get to the 24,000 goal?

Okay, Councilor Patton and then Councilor Silver.

Building on some of those questions, so we've received the grant, but we don't have the money in the bank. We have not drawn it down.

The grant has been approved. So sequencing is you apply for a grant. They will say you are approved. Then it is a contractual negotiation between the fundor and the recipient. And that's the stage we're in right now. Got it.

So that sounds slow. How long before we have money in the bank?

I couldn't give you that. We've had grants that sit for a year or two. Our grant for Smoky Hollow, we still have not received funds and that was announced two years ago.

Yeah, yeah, okay. I was nervous you'd say something like that. And then, so looking at this 650,000 is a bit higher than I remember talking about in the SWAT committee. I realize more work has probably been done. So what is, broadly speaking, but a little more specific than on this bullet point, what's included in the 650,000?

It would be a combination of things. One thing the manager talked about is we wanted to develop a strategy with partners, and we looked at some small granting program, similar to the Office of Raleigh Arts. If we're working with a nonprofit, there needs to be certain criteria and thresholds. So that takes time and energy to do. So there was a person baked into that. Then there was some materials and supplies that we could use with our partners. We have three or four that have been open to say we can help you plant trees. And then actual funds to buy trees to not only put on our property, but the partners would help leverage on private property.

Okay, so one staff position and then...

I believe it was at least one staff position, yes.

Okay, got it.

That will be part of the breakdown we will share.

What has those eager partners that we have that have been part of this process, like how have conversations developed? How do you envision this program?

They've been waiting patiently. That's the way I would share. They've just been open to say we can fill a niche that historically you do not, which is right now we regulate trees and maintain trees. We do not have, besides our street tree program, a really assertive on private property tree planting program, and they will help us fill that niche.

I HAVE A COMMENT AND THEN A QUESTION. I CERTAINLY WOULD SUPPORT THE $650,000 FOR THIS YEAR, NOT KNOWING HOW LONG THE GRANT WILL TAKE. BUT I THINK BECAUSE OF THE NEED, AND THIS IS WHERE MY QUESTION IS COMING IN, YOU JUST MENTIONED PRIVATE PROPERTY, SO I ASSUME IN TERMS OF PLANTING STREET TREES, BECAUSE I TOO, LIKE MAYOR PROTEM, THOUGHT THIS WAS ALREADY BAKED INTO THE LEAF OUT PROGRAM. that there are street trees, there are trees on city-owned property, parks and other, and then there are trees on private property. I think we all know that street trees are the most expensive of the three, and so it's my hope, because I think that is where we have significant need, particularly in some of the areas you mentioned. So that's why I would push for front-loading it, because since we want to do this by 2032, it makes more prudent sense to have the money to start and then the grant would be value-added since you said it has limitations in terms of what census tracts it could be implemented. So in terms of the program itself, I know you're saying to develop a strategy or a city manager said that. Is the plan for street trees, trees on city-owned property and then private property, which you're going to work with partners? Is that what the strategy looks like?

Councilmember Simmel, it would be all of the above. And I don't want to think we're starting from zero. We have incredible data on heat islands from our sustainability office. We have mapped every street tree in the city. And we have GIS data on our own property. So we have strategies in place. We just don't have a strategic and intentional program to deliver the plantings. The maintenance and limbing, we have foresters that do that. Okay.

And the last point, this may be getting in the weeds, but you've heard me say this before and others. I am concerned about some of the type of street trees. Like, in my opinion, a crepe myrtle should not qualify as a street tree. And the opportunity to kind of right the ship of providing the shade for people to walk on our very hot climate so that there's a tree that provides shade and not a tree that just fills a tree well. And so to me, I'm hoping this strategy starts to provide some of those benefits to those walkers, but also those benefits just to the city in general about air quality, water quality, and cooling our city. So that's just sort of what I wanted to make.

A follow-up comment. Positive knows we've updated our manual for trees, and recently the manager executed our native plants policy. So moving forward, not only park projects, but all my peers that are building anything in Raleigh through the City of Raleigh government now have to adhere to a native species policy.

That's great.

Councilor Jones. Thank you so much. I was just wondering a few things. So the 650 would be for the city, the city would then make, that would be, who would be in charge of it, and then we would partner with others.

That's correct.

Have we done a similar tree planting program in the past?

Yes, we had a program I would have to go back and look that was called Neighbor Woods and we would supply trees to landowners teach them how to plant that how to maintain it don't have much more information about that because that does predate my leadership role right I guess I'm just saying if there was any iteration of it before I guess in the planning phases this is where we would incorporate what lessons learned from that to then create something new yeah and then reach out to our partner organizations to help us accomplish that Yes, as well as we have had some national speakers come in during Reflect Raleigh, the planning department brought in trees across Atlanta, which is an incredible model for not really the city of Atlanta, but city of Atlanta supported getting it off the ground. It is a very robust philanthropic-led tree planting system in Atlanta. And that's our hope and aspirations down the line.

Awesome. And what does that communication look like if this is approved and you have that 650? How would we as council find out about it? Would it be an update that you would give to us during a work session or how would we hear about the program?

I think we could not only do work session council updates, we could also do manager's updates. And also we have a... sustainability, wildlife, and urban trees, which you appoint those members, they would certainly get, which the community members really move this policy through, they would get routine updates.

And we have growth in, or I don't know what you're called now, but growth in natural resources that might be... Environmental resiliency.

There you go.

Thank you. Environmental resilience. If there's some place that we can know where that lives so that we know where to go back and forth, maybe that's just an idea to put on your table. So thank you so much.

Council Branch.

So we're implementing a leaf out program in the new year, correct?

Correct.

So what does the additional, because it sounds, I'm understanding there seems to be some overlap between the urban tree budget note we have here and our leaf out program. So I'm trying to figure out the delta budget.

Yeah, I would not see an overlap. Our current role as a city is to maintain and regulate trees, and a portion of that is tree planting. but it is not community-based tree planting. It is replacing street trees. When we build something in a park or working with transportation, we plant trees there. We do not have a community forester. And essentially, that's what this does. It liaisons with nonprofits or corporations to say, we'd love for you to work with our nonprofit partners in the city to grow our urban tree canopy. That is the core of what this request would be.

Okay. So it's all about just working in the private sector and improving the private sector. And community partners. And community partners. Yes. Okay. And since 50 is needed to do that?

Yes.

Okay. One of the things we always do when we're dealing with budget notes, I know in the past on a budget note there was usually a recommendation of where, the money could possibly come from. This one doesn't, I don't see that, so. What are the options of the 650?

The options are to raise taxes 5 tenths of a cent, to raise your tax rate from 1.70 to 1.75, cut expenses elsewhere, or raise another revenue source through fees or something like that, that third one being probably the least favorable option in this particular instance. So cut expenses somewhere else, raise revenue. Okay, so.

So Mayor Pro Tem and then I'll come back to Councilor Pat.

Yeah, I think after hearing about the nature of the grant and we're not sure about the timeline, I am prepared to make a motion to move forward to fund this program for that first year cost of 650K. I think to Council Member Silver's point, Hopefully the grant can then help us down the road to reduce expenses on this effort, but at this point, with the community, I think, in great support, and many of us, I think, had a sense that we were moving forward on this with the plan, I think it's really important that we start the work, so I'm gonna put that motion forward.

Okay, so we have a second to the motion, and let me go to Councilor Patten and then Jones.

Yeah, I think a bunch of people seconded it, but I'm happy to second that. You know, trees are planted in the fall, as you've taught us, and if we don't find a way to fund it this year, we lose an entire year, and so then suddenly the amount of trees we're committing to plant each year becomes higher, right? Every day that passes, there's more trees that need to be planted in that time, and yeah, I was sort of thought we had... I had hoped that we would see this baked into the budget already, so I would like to pursue this funding. I'd like to do it without raising revenues, so I know that means we have to go dig in the couch cushions, and I know that will be hard, and it's been a hard year, and I understand that, oh gosh. So I understand the challenges of that.

I could suggest that I could work with the manager on what the grant allows for and then we do get some small fees through the development process and look at that and then bring back the delta on a recommendation to the manager. Is that, on how we get year one going, but not exactly at this. We wanna make sure we look at all aspects of revenues and the grant to see if we can pull down the 650.

Okay, I'm gonna stack. I have Jones and then Lambert-Melton and then Ford. High interest in this topic. I have noticed, yes.

Yes, no, I'm very, very excited about it. I love the work that went into it, but Councilor Patton touched on, you know, where, which choice did we want, because I know raising taxes even further is not something that I'm not really interested in either. So thank you for sharing your thoughts on that, and we'd love to hear, you know, other places that people might think we would find money. But before I can support, I'd just like to have an idea of where we are funding it from.

Lambert, Melton.

Yeah, two things. Council Member Jones, I agree. I won't support an additional tax increase, and so I don't feel comfortable voting on it right now. If a vote was called, I would vote no for that reason. I also think we typically do budget notes when we pass the budget. And then Mr. Bentley's point, I would be very interested for this to come back at our next budget work session, or one before we pass the budget, figure out where you can find some money to close the gap, what the delta is, and what the funding mechanism could actually be.

Councilor Ford. Ditto to my learned counsel to the left. But yeah, I don't know that I think we can do a motion and approve anything today if we don't know how we're gonna fund it.

Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, I would agree, but also on page 298 in our budget under Capitol Heights for Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources, it says urban tree canopy improvements at locations throughout the city, $500,000.00.

That is why I suggested we will come back to you with an update. A couple years ago, the manager supported both invasive species and trees to be part of our capital budget as green infrastructure. So if we come back and work these numbers, this 650 would go down.

Okay, so that is this 500 that I'm reading here part of that 650? It is not. That is part of the capital budget. That's our CIP. CIP budget. Just the CIP? That's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So we can do some trading off to kind of get there. Again, I think short of having a design program, committing to 650 in year one when we don't really know where and what we're planning is unrealistic. So I don't want us to set expectation that we're going to plant $650,000 worth of trees because by the time we get to the point of planting season and get the partners on board and staff after July 1, that's a short runway, but we will go back and look and see what we have in CIP. What Mr. Bentley mentioned a few minutes ago was about the grant agreement. We have the opportunity in a lot of our state grants to go and massage the grant language to kind of designate how the funding will be stipulated throughout the functions that are approved on the state level. So by putting it in buckets, much like we've done the bonds, that will allow us to then ultimately say, you know, one-third for maintenance, one-third for plantings, and that kind of gets us to an amount as well and then whatever we're able to get out of CIP and out of his regular annual departmental budget. So we can bring all that back next Monday at your next work session.

So I want to go back because we do have a motion and a second on the table.

Unless you withdraw the motion.

Yeah.

Is the motion to direct staff to bring back a funding source? No.

No, it's the approval during this.

Do you want to amend your motion?

I mean, I still support this. I do have concerns, again, that we're not planning at the speed that I thought we were, and the personnel piece is what I think is really important. I can hold off. I guess I'll withdraw my motion until next Monday, but my intent here doesn't change.

Oh, well, that's fair. That's fair. Direction to staff.

I think we got the direction we need. Thank you very much. Absolutely.

Thanks, Stephen. All right, the next topic is an information request that is coming back to you regarding solid waste services. The first question was to provide a list of comparable services provided by other cities and jurisdictions. That list is in the memo that has been provided in the packet. Just some summary about the list. Most of the cities surveyed here in North Carolina provide similar core services to Raleigh. with several supplementing services like bulky pickup, white goods collection, seasonal leaf collection. Some services are provided by municipalities, while some are contracted out by the municipality. And then the cost recovery, which we'll get to in the third slide here, really depends on the particular municipality. The other question that we got was a 10-year history of solid waste services and the monthly rate structure. And as you can see from the chart here, we've had these gradual intentional increases. that help soften the cost and the shock to our customers. So what we don't wanna see obviously is a spike and then fall back down. These have been intentional increases over the last seven years. Obviously in FY26, solid waste services became a full enterprise, which we were able to do still with softening that ultimate fee increase to our customers. And then finally, we got the question about other municipalities and the split of general fund versus user fees for the solid waste services enterprises. And it really runs the gamut. We just looked in North Carolina because we wanted to compare apples to apples in terms of finances and how those things work. So it runs the gamut from Wilmington. who is 99.7% funded by user fees to Winston-Salem, who is 17% funded by user fees. Right now, and these are all proposed budgets for FY27. We were able to get that information directly from our partners throughout the state. Raleigh is at 1% provided by the general fund, and those are for activities that are public good in nature, picking up dead animals, working with the special events crews, things that are, that are more, again, more public good with 99% paid by user fees. So happy to take any questions and our colleagues from solid waste services are here as well.

Okay. Thank you for this information, which is intriguing. Any questions on this?

Yes.

Yeah, just a couple questions, and I don't know if I missed it, apologies, but compared to these other communities, are our fees very different percentage-wise? And I don't know if you have that data here.

That was in the April 6th budget work session, and I believe that we were very favorably compared with our neighbors. I don't know if Solid Waste Services staff has that, but we can get that sent back out to you.

That was a question that came to me in some of the budget questioning, so I just wanted to check on that. In particular, a question about they thought the town of Cary had much less lower fees than we do. So I'll check that one to make sure. Yeah. And can you tell me who has a compost program here? Do you know?

You all know who has a compost program? I don't have... I didn't see a compost program in any of the municipalities that we surveyed.

I thought the town of Cary might have one. I wasn't sure what status you have any of those. Because all the services are mentioned here, but I didn't see compost.

We can review that and get back to you on that. But to my knowledge, I don't think that they do have a municipal-wide service. But maybe they do. No, I'm just kidding.

Sylvia Beyer, Assistant Director of Solid Waste Services here on behalf of Chicago. The Cary municipality has a food collection service through Compost Now.

And they are paying for that service through their fees? It's not a separate fee structure, like it's just all wrapped into one?

I will have to double check on that.

I think the customers are paying for that Okay, yeah, I think maybe a city manager just update on how their compost program works or for food waste that would be helpful All right any other questions on solid waste Well

That is all that we have. Just wanna go through next steps. Obviously tomorrow night we'll welcome the public in for a public hearing on the FY27 proposed budget at 7 p.m. Next Monday, in addition to the information on the urban tree program, we'll also bring a packet of ordinances for you all to consider. After tomorrow night, you are legally eligible to adopt the budget at any time. after tomorrow night and then we'll have budget work sessions each monday in april and or each monday in april each monday in june until the budget is adopted it's been a long spring and then then the council must adopt the budget by june 30th so anything else any other questions no not all right thank you thank you and uh we do not have further business so we are adjourned