Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Carney Board of Alderman meeting. Call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, [clears throat] with liberty and justice for all. Sabia had a chance to take role. I have taken role. Everyone is present. You have the board.

Thank you. We have no public hearings notice this evening. Is there anybody that would wish to address the board under open public comment this evening? Seeing nobody move, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Anybody on the board have any questions or items of discussion on the consent agenda this evening? Seeing [clears throat] none, if we can entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. All in favor? I oppose. Consent agenda is approved. We have no ordinances this evening and no resolutions. Uh we will turn it over to our city administrator for the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget presentation.

Good evening. Um this really is my favorite time of year and I just need to share my screen. [snorts] Ryan, do you have that? I do, ma'am.

Thank you. Um, so if you didn't bring your budget book, there is um a copy of the budget in the packet and I just made some slides to kind of lead us through. I'm not necessarily going to use my budget book. I'm going to use more of my notes, but if you let me know, um, maybe I'll pause after each slide, see if anybody has any questions or, um, clarifications. Great. Yeah, it looks like we all have our budget book, too.

Great. [clears throat] So, this year's budget, if you open it up um to the old fund summary, so there's a tab that says budget summary there. This is a snapshot of every single one of our funds. And it the very first column is the estimated fund balance that we are going to which is also referred to as the cash carryover balance where we are estimating where we're going to begin the year. um we roll those numbers into the current year revenues and um do spending from those and we have accumulated that part of it for emergency reserves, part of it for capital other capital projects. Um but I think that's important to know. So our total uh total funding current funding sources for fiscal year 27 is $52.1 million. That does not include that very first column um of the $19.9 million of cash carryover. It does include $22.6 million of operating revenues, $8.1 million of federal grant revenues, uh 5.8 million of debt proceeds, and 15.6 million of transfers from in our funds. So those are transfers from some of our funds into other others of our funds. So for example, if we got debt proceeds, we might receipt them in one fund, but then move them to a capital projects fund to keep them safe and make sure that we are able to properly account for all of those costs and where they're not coming in other places. So, what this slide is showing you is that um looking at our overall budget, we are

getting $8.2 million of our $22.6 million of operating revenues is charges for services. That is absolutely the biggest category of revenues that the city receives. This year we have $8.1 million of grant proceeds that are um that are calculated into this. Then we have $6 million of sales tax revenue. That is our other than grants which are not really operating because we only get them they're they're not you're not getting grants every single year. You're getting them for certain awards. But charges for services and sales taxes are the biggest categories of of revenues in this year's budget. [clears throat] Any questions about

Do you got a copy? I can't read that in there. Have you got a copy of the same copy of the slides? I don't and I don't understand why you guys are seeing that view. Hold on. Well, it's so small. I can't let me see if I can make it bigger. You want me to run coffee? Well, it has all my notes on it. Oh. Um, Sheila, if you click the monitor there at the top right, it'll go full screen. The monitor, the little gray dot. The little behind the Okay. Go back onto your slide. Okay. Little gray dot on the right.

The little gray dot on the right. Okay. Mouse over your slide, please. here like put up a little. Sorry guys. Right here. Yeah. No. Is that where you met me, Ryan? Uh, no. It's actually on the slide itself. Uh when when you try double clicking on it I I think you connect that on on the slide on the slide like on where your numbers and stuff are. Okay. See that right there?

There's a box right here. I'm sorry. Go back to where you were. Okay. The problem is is that there's a window there, Ryan. Okay. um click the window and move it. Okay. And it will when you go back and mouse over it'll show that little gray circle I was talking about. If you put your mouse over your slide where your numbers are in the middle of your slide, hover over where the numbers are in the middle. There you go. That that button right there. [clears throat and laughter] Thank you, Ryan. I really appreciate that. No problem. Can you see it better now?

Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. I will give you uh pictures afterwards, although that's not necessarily going to help you. Okay. So, Tan, do you want to trade places with me?

This is showing that this is showing just a breakdown of our operating revenues. So before we were looking at um [clears throat] all of our revenues, now we're just looking at operating revenues. You can see that 36.1% of the city's operating revenues come from charges for services. 26.7% is sales tax. Then 12.8% is intergovernmental. That is not the same as inner fund transfers. Intergovernmental would be amounts that we receive from other governments. So like we get payments from MDOT for um gas taxes and motor vehicle fees or when we get money from a CI for a reimbursement those are intergovernmental and then property tax revenues you can see that it starts the majority of our of our revenues are from charges for services and sales taxes. um that is how we fund most of the of the services in the city. And then um just some highlights about these revenues. So sales tax, it is lower this year um based on what is actually coming in when we're comparing it to fiscal year 25 receipts. It's down about 2.2% which is about $130,000. The marijuana sales tax is also uh lower this year, 3.4. 4% which is is about $4,000. And then the senior property tax credit is also affecting our revenues. The county estimated that that would have an $11,000 impact on our budget this year. We are working on a a schedule of fees. Um it it doesn't have a lot of impact. So I kind of put the arrows back and forth. You can see our licenses and permit

number is 1.3% of our total overall budget. And so, um, any changes to schedule fees wouldn't make that much of an impact. And then charges for services, there's an up arrow there, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, but the comprehensive water and sewer utility rights study that HDR has completed for us. And I should pause. Does anybody have any questions about that? I don't know why I highlighted everything, but there it is. [laughter] Okay. And what this slide is showing is it's showing that our total costs, all of the things that we are planning, the spending that is planned in this fiscal year 2027 [clears throat] budget. The total costs are 47.5 million. Um 15.6 million of that is operating costs. Then we have $4.5 million of principal and interest payments on debt that we have outstanding currently. And then $27.4 million is capital projects and outlay. So not regular recurring costs. And what I did is I allocated it based on all of those payments together. This is where the city is spending its money. So you can see our biggest spending amount this year is on straight, sidewalks, and trails. That is because we have budgeted costs for the 19th Street complete street project. Um we are budgeting that in this year because we have accepted a federal grant and we need to make sure that we are setting aside and reserving the match the cost that the city is going to have to pay. And in order to obligate that, we are sticking it in the budget in this year. Even though we know that we're not necessarily going to spend all of it

this year, the entire cost is there to make sure that we have the funds when it comes time to complete that grant and that work, if that makes sense. We also have some sidewalk projects. Um other than that, you can see um public safety $4.8 $8 million. That includes not only the police department, but also the municipal court costs. Then we have $9.9 million for the water um the the water treatment plant and water distribution. Um and a lot of that is because there are some water line projects in this year's budget. um the Nation Road water line and the uh Westside CI water line as well as um just operating costs. But just so you kind of note that is all of the costs and how they're allocated this year by what I would call function. Can

I ask you a question please? [clears throat] Last year we carried over money for the street or for the sidewalk street event. Is that in the same Is this a carryover rollover from last year? Yes. So we Yes. So we if if it was held last year and we didn't spend it yet and we knew we weren't going to spend it by the end of the year, it is refudgeted in this current year until it gets spent. That is how we make sure

like the full the full amount. So that is left on our contractual obligation. That is how we are making sure that we can fulfill our contractual obligations. So when you guys accepted a grant, a federal grant award, you agreed and voted to that you would fulfill that and we don't want to break that contract because that has impacts on our ability to get feed grant funds. Yeah. I just know didn't know if it was going to be reduced because we spent some money last year. when when we if we reduced any like if we spent money then that part would not have been rolled over. Okay,

there might be an exception if if Shelley did an estimate and said inflation looks like now these costs are going to be a little bit higher and so that would be the exception because Shelley did a lot of estimating. we are getting as we get closer to having to fill that obligation, we want to make sure that we have the funds set aside to fulfill our contractual obligation. And so she is looking at those costs to make sure that um that she is updating the engineers estimate [snorts] to make sure that we have enough cash to take that over. Thank you.

Yes. And then this slide, I do not know if I can hide this. Maybe make this go up here. So this slide is just our operating costs. So we do have a lot of capital outlay projects, but you can see and I know this makes sense for you for what the board's priorities are. public safety for we are spending 27.3% of our operating expenses on public safety and then 21% um of our total operating costs are for water 14.8% 8% are for sewer. And you can see by function how the city's operating costs are allocated. And it makes sense. Drinking water, flushing toilets, public safety, the things that you really need in a community to make sure that it is thriving and um and growing. and the key changes from from last year. Um so we had revenues that were not growing like we are used to. They actually declined a little bit and so we had to make some decisions and prioritize. We know that city employees are the ones that are out there making services happen. And so what we did is we really prioritized personnel expenses. Um trying to make sure that we could continue competing with other area uh governments for employees um especially public safety and that made some changes kind of throughout the entire budget. We did some

organizational accounting changes, but we also looked at professional training and development this year and we said no outofstate conferences like all conferences need to be as local as possible. Sometimes there is something that you have to have and so there there might have been something but we didn't have a a lot of growth in revenue and it was very little and we had to make some increases in personnel costs. So that meant that we had to decrease some other costs. So the way that um departments did that is they took a good look at professional training and development and they got rid of any out of state travel to um national conferences. They looked at independent contractor and professional service fees and cut those out as much as they could. Um and they also looked at some uniform expenses and cell phone expenses. So, our new agreement with Ring Central, um, they have some they have an app where it will actually allow city employees to use their personal cell phone and it looks like it's coming from the city. And so, we're we're looking at how can we make some changes in operations in order to prioritize personnel. You can see that our personnel of that $15.6 $6 million. $8.1 million is personnel costs and $7.5 million is non-personnel costs. Any questions about that? And then this [clears throat] kind of goes just detailing um the personnel costs. So salaries and wages in this budget total $5.6 million. $2.3 million

is employee benefits um which is like social security match the loggers um all of those things and then we have $227,460 of professional development. Um in this budget there's a 1% cost of living adjustment effective April 1st 2026 and a one step merit increase on employee anniversary dates. We also are proposing a vacation leave acrual policy that is not expected to um add any cost to the budget. But there were also some other things that did increase our um employee benefit costs. There was a slight increase in employee health, dental and EAP benefits. Um we began a new uh benefit that we are testing out this year cash in lie of health insurance benefits. So, if employees are covered, have coverage from somebody else, the city will reimburse them for a very small amount of that cost that if they're on their spouse's um or somebody else's insurance. And then there's a there was a small increase in workers compensation premiums this year. There was an increase in loggers expense and there was an increase in the employee training and professional development expense. Do you guys have any questions about that? Okay, so that was a lot of slides to kind of go over this very first page of the budget. Um, nothing else has that many slides to go over it, but you have a snapshot on this budget summary, this very first page, and it impacted throughout all of the funds. And so I wanted to go into and give you more detail so you could see big picture.

This is what is happening. And now we're going to kind of dive in and look at the um the general fund. And so I'm really focusing on the general fund summary page, but you can see the general fund has operating revenues of $6.3 million and operating expenses of um $6 million. So there is a $284,949 revenues over expenditures. Um and there is capital outlay of $831,748 plant and within this general fund budget um there is an there were some organizational and accounting changes. There was a change to how shared administrative costs are being accounted for in the budget this year. In prior years, we have shown them in the funds outside the general fund as an expense. That is the same this year. But inside the general fund, we didn't show them in the separate departments. Instead, we recorded the transfers as a revenue um inside the general fund. This really caused the general fund revenues to appear higher than they truly were. Um, and so sometimes that got confusing. And so what we did is we made this change. So beginning this year, the city hall and public works administrative budgets are going to net to zero since their costs are being allocated directly to the departments and funds that benefit from them. And this actually increases the transparency by showing the full cost of the service that the city is providing. So now you can see if the police department has the largest

share of employees and they are taking a larger amount of um IT services or they are taking a larger share of HR services. They are getting charged a higher amount for that where a uh department that has no employees wouldn't be getting charged for for those services. They would be maybe they have a lot of capital projects. So maybe they will be getting charged for a lot more of the public works costs, but that change is going to now show exactly how much the full cost of providing ser those services is. Any questions about that? Oh, and I should also tell you that we also made some changes in the funds. The solid waste department, it was in the general fund in past years. We moved that into its own fund again for transparency to be able to see the full total cost of providing the service and then we took part the part-time hours for cemetery recycling and cons the custodian and we consolidated it within public works that really was for flexibility to be able to use those hours where we were not using restricted funds. if if we have somebody mowing and they are they can now mow the trails and they could mow the sewer lift stations. And so that will allow us to allocate those costs to the appropriate place instead of having an employee who is only able to be used for sewer or for park if that makes sense. Any questions? Okay. So then if we look at the general fund revenues, they totaled $6.3

million. I think I I tried showing listing where does the general fund get most of its money. So you can see sales tax is the biggest amount that is funding general fund services. It makes sense. Police are funded out of general fund. People are not paying fees every time they call 911. Tax revenues are funding public safety services so that they're there when we need them. And then you can see property tax is actually the next biggest chunk of revenues that the general fund gets. Um 25 a.5%. And then franchise tax, 19% of the general fund revenues come from franchise tax. This year um we are transferring proposing transferring more use tax money in um that is because while the use tax has always paid for personnel to police officers and animal control, we are also proposing that some of the capital expenses um are for police and for animal control will um will be transferred in from the use works. And then you can see everything else [clears throat] makes up a very small proportion. Um, fines is 2.7% um, all the way down to transfers in at4%. Some key changes from last year, charges for services are down. That's because of that accounting change with the administrative share of costs and because the trash, the solid waste fund has its own fund now. is no longer into in the general fund. Um federal grants is down, but that's because we're we got a cyber security grant this year. We're

not getting another one next year. And um transfers in from other funds are up and that is to fund those capital outlay purchases that we'll talk about in a few slides. And so this is showing our $6 million of operating expenditures in the general fund. Where where's that $6 million going? And you can see that [clears throat] 68.3% is going to police. And then you have 10% going to recreation. You have 8.3% going to community development. Um a little caveat though because I broke out the animal control and the code enforcement amounts from there. they are really housed in community development but I did want to show them separately. Um and then we have community events and services and that is really money that is going to the enrichment council. I do want to tell you all of these numbers this year have the allocate their share of the allocated cost. So you might see that um that the police department well it grew a lot. It didn't necessarily grow a lot. It now has those its allocation of shared costs shown in it if that makes sense. And the key changes from last year were the accounting changes, the professional training and development. Um we are taking place or AI out of our budget. Um, it's not that it wasn't important, it's just that we felt like prioritizing personnel costs was more important than continuing to pay for Placer AI this year. Um, we also took out engineering CAD software. We reduced some professional fees. We reduced some independent contractor fees, uniforms, cell phones. There were some indoor

drones that were being looked at. We took those out and there was a retro refletoometer um that actually measures how reflective sign the coding on sign street signs are and we removed that. And the reason that we did that is not that those costs weren't important. It's just that we thought that prioritizing personnel who are performing the city services that that was more important. Any questions about that? And then, so I just skipped over a lot of pages in your budget book. I did it all in one slide. Um, Jerry is happy about that. I'm saying that though because if you have a question about a specific department like please feel free to ask because now I'm going to skip all over all those all the pages to capital outlay in the general fund and I'm going to tell you that um there's $832,000 of capital outlay um that there is [clears throat] um money for the com for computer and network equipment in city hall and then you have this line that is called a computer computer equipment replacement plan. So what we are doing is we know that computer equipment does not last forever. So we are starting to set aside that is not just for city hall it is citywide. So what we are doing is we are starting now to set aside money so that we have cash to pay to replace that those servers, the switches, all of

those things when it is time to do that. And um then we have some consulting, economic development planning that is in this year's capital outlay budget. This $20,000 is just carried over from last year. [clears throat] Um, it's been in there kind of as a placeholder. We do have the World Cup watch party. $20,000 that is sitting there for the watch party this year. We have this temperature control dog kennel. Um, $50,000 is budgeted and that money is coming from a transfer from the use tax fund. The use tax is allowed to be used for parks, pets, pathways, and um police. Thank you. And so um so we are planning that the comprehensive plan update that is not it is being carried over from funding from last year. We were going to be looking at new software. We ended up not doing that and we are trying to roll that money that was budgeted in the previous year over for a comprehensive plan update. It has been I think 15 years 10 10 years since our last one and and it it's it's due. And then for the police department um for Motorola mobile radios that is planned on being use tax money funding that and the computer equipment also um use tax money. The Ford computer switches those are being planned to be funded from the wireless capital improvement fund. Um, and when we get there at the end of the um, at the end of this presentation, I

can talk about that too, unless you have questions. Now, radar units are supposed to be funded with a grant. First aid car kits, um, those are just coming out of the general fund. Ballistic vests, they it has an asterk, which means it is being planned on being funded with grants. Tasers are being funded with proposed to be funded with um use tax money, a patrol vehicle which is being planned on being funded just from the general fund and then a public works SUV. So should I ask a question please?

Um on so all these items are coming out of Capital Outlay. I know it's a small item. My only question is is how we're classifying a World Cup watch party as a like tangible longived asset, right? Like is it are we doing like an improvement to like a screen or something that's going to be permanent or like that's the only kind of throwing me off here a little bit.

The reason that it's in capital outlay and then and not in operating is operating expenses are typically re recurring and so we're not going to be depreciating this. I wanted to segregate it out of our operating budget because it is a one-time expense. We're never gonna do a World Cup watch party ever again. Um, and what I am always trying to do is be very careful about having a structurally balanced budget. So our current operating revenues that are coming in are more than our our or equal to our operating expenses. And so in order to get that out of operating expenses, that is why it's shown in the capital outlay.

Makes sense. I appreciate the clarification. I do have a question. Everything [clears throat] else is a tangible asset. The patch is actually money we're using to put on a big event. Yes. [clears throat] It's not really to purchase any capital. Correct. So, I'm kind of with Randy. Does it really fit in the capital budget? I mean, I I understand what you're saying, but I mean, does it I mean, there's no tangible

and we will not be, believe me, we're not going to be capitalizing it and depreciating it for financial statement purchases. It is just a like where we put it in the budget to make sure that there was enough funding from it and to show that it wasn't messing up the operating expenses. [clears throat]

We good with that page? Yes. Thank you.

Okay. And so now I think I'm going to go for a start. the we have a lot of things overall and we talked about um the general fund which is is one of our most intricate and complicated funds and now we're going down to the special revenue funds. General fund is not restricted by law. It can be really used for anything in the city. All of the rest of our funds kind of have a restricted purpose and so I think it gets easier. And so our next is fund 11. It's the DWI drug fund. Um, we are we get revenues there if they're restricted. They can only be used for DWI and drug enforcement costs. And so the police department had a request for portable breath testing instruments and that qualifies to be used with these funds. Any questions about that? [clears throat] Then the use tax fund. So, even though I know we kind of already talked about it, this is just showing from this fund 12. If you look at it, there's uh 57 th3,635 of use tax money is slated to go to police. And that is for those mobile radios, the computer equipment, the tasers, and the two two officers that we talked about. Um then parks $547,200. It is for um improvements at Back Porter Park. The covert replacement on North Park Road and Jesse James Park also has a covert that needs to be replaced. In addition, there is money for a match in if we are lucky enough to win a grant for corn playground surfacing for there and also electrical upgrade for the Jesse James Park. Um, also Hall Park um

is use tax money is going to help fund use or the Hall Park project along with grant revenue and then the pickle ball and skate park debt service. And then under pets, we have um almost $150,000 and that is the temperature controlled dog kennel. Um also asking this fund to fund the animal housing costs. Um so if we have a dog that is not picked up by its owners, um that starts adding up those costs, especially if we can't get it adopted out. And then P there's one our code enforcement uh animal control officer is paid from use tax. And then we have the pathways which is the MPorter connector trail, the reg Regency drive, state route 92, state route 33, um sidewalks and trail reconstruction costs. Any questions about that? I'm excited to see the proposed improvements to a temperature controlled dog kettle. That's exciting.

We are too. There's a lot of concern about that in the community. Um fund 13 is the sales tax fund. There are some changes in this year. So all of the general sales tax money is now being put into this fund. So before it was one of the general we have two general sales tax 1% general sales tax amounts all of that is being receded here now um also marijuana sales tax is receded in this fund and it that is not a change um but we are transferring the geo bond money that is required to pay the debt service on the interchange and then there is lower sales tax revenue and lower lower marijuana sales tax revenue. in this uh this fund. Any questions about that? Okay. Sorry. And then we have um fund 14. This is the park capital improvements. It is being used to pay the Lions Park renovation debt. Um so just debt service on that. And then we also have bug 15, the cemetery fund. This had a change from last year. The part-time hours, I don't know if you remember a few slides ago, I talked about how we are now consolidated those in public works. So, we could use flexibility. Now, we'll be able to use um street employees plus some of these hours and really more efficiently and effectively use those resources for mowing. And then police training is fund 16. Um it has a $5,000 transfer. It can only those funds can only be used for

postcertified police officers. And so what we do is the cost of training is way more than this fund brings in. So we pay for it out of the general fund, but then we do a transfer into the general fund to reverse some of it each year. the the cemetery fund. So, we have a part-time cemetery Sexton. Yes. That currently is a park employee. Cemetery employee, but reports to the park director. Yes. So, is that going to change and they'll now report to Shelly?

No, we haven't quite worked out all the details yet. Um, we we've talked about it very high level. probably will not change who it reports to, but we'll do a more concentrated and uh collaboration of planning so that we can effectively use those resources. So does that mean he then will also be working on public works projects?

No, it would mean more think more maintenance. So you have a lot of maintenance, mowing maintenance for the cemetery. You have it for trails, you have it for parks, and you have it for city properties. And we have gotten a away from using um a lawn service as much and doing it more in house. And now we will be able to use hours and and we'll be able to allocate those based on so if you are uh if you are mowing a sewer lift station, tell us how many hours you're spending on that because that's going to get charged to the sewer fund. And if you are out mowing the cemetery or you are out mowing park trails, then you need to tell us what you're doing so that that those hours can be properly charged. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Thank you. But the only vehicle we really have to do that is through the city hall department or the public works department because those are the where the shared administrative costs are all housed. And so that's why. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Let me go to the next page. Now we're at fund 17, the park fund. You can see there's $747,000 of revenues and $747,000 of expenses in this year's budget. There is also $41,625 of capital outlay. So honestly, the biggest revenue source for the our parks department 66.4% of the funding comes from general fund transfers. And then the next biggest share is charges for services and think um recreation fees and then you have some other miscellaneous things like uh shelter rentals and some franchise tax. So some changes um this I don't know that it's necessarily a change. It's less money this year from franchise tax than the year before. That has happened every single year. that is happening because it's cable TV franchise tax and people are just moving away from cable TV and they are doing um streaming and satellite and so we do not get franchise tax on that and then we have charges for services recreation fees they're showing down a little bit but really it's because we based it off of fiscal year 26 actuals um when I was preparing this presentation I was like oh it's We have expenses for adult softball. It didn't actually happen in this year's budget. When we based it off of actuals, we zeroed that out. And um so hopefully our recreation fees will come in ahead of budget next year. And then transfers in from other funds. We did increase the general fund transfer

um by $10,000 to the park. Any questions about that? And then you can see for our um operating expenses again, $747,000. You can see the biggest cost is administrative costs, followed by uh 35.2% of the budget for maintenance, 18.3% for recreation, and um 3.2% for amphitheater. There are some recreation costs that are in maintenance. So, think of prepping fields to play. And so, this is a guideline to like look and see how things are doing, but know that there are a lot of expenses for recreation also in maintenance and administration. I just want to point that out because I don't want to mislead anyone. And then our key changes from last year again, professional training and development, um outside contractor fees, dues, cell phones, and rides for kids fest events. And then our fiscal year 2027 highlights, um four free concerts that does not include the World Cup concert. Is that correct, Eric?

That is not correct. Yes, including including the World Cup including the World Cup. Sorry, I misspoke. But that world cup, that concert is not in your budget. Correct. Okay. Then food and flicks Fridays, four of those. The kids fall festival will um again be this year. And then challenger sports soccer camp and market at the park. That is going to be the new name for the farmers market at Lions Park.

I'm excited for that. [clears throat] And then the park fund capital outlay. Um the replacing the final sets of softballs. Um also a replacement John Deere gator and AE devices [clears throat] and heated cabinets for medical emergencies parks. Any questions about any of that? Okay. And now we get to fund 18, the transportation sales tax fund. We have $2 million of operating revenues and $1.6 million of operating expenses. Um the revenues over expenditure amount is $377,000. And you can see our capital outlay is $954,200. So we are planning on taking every bit of that savings and investing it in our streets. So where we get the majority of our funding really it's almost split equally between intergovernmental which is um the special the carne special road district and the mod money and then the transportation sales tax and then we have some interest income. So remember sales tax is down this year. Um, MODOT fees and taxes based on fiscal year 2026 receipts are projected to be a little bit higher this year. And then the Carnegie Special Road District, also based on actual fiscal year 26 receipts projected to be a little bit higher this year. And then for our expenditures of $1.6 $6 million. Um really the the big changes

we added um $9,000 under street preservation for covert drainage expenses. I think the public works director told me that we are behind on storm water uh storm water maintenance and so we are trying to start addressing that. Um, we also have $30,000 more in this year's budget for sidewalk maintenance. We have money in $5,000 for bridge maintenance, and that is for the Jesse James Farm Road bridge there by Penrods. And then $7,000 for concrete street maintenance. And then we have $954,000 of capital outlay. 120th,000 of that is for a truck um with upfitting. 9,000 for a trailer. $470,000 for street preservation. $200,000 that we are starting to put money aside because we know that we're going to have to have some costly repairs, possibly a replacement sometime in the future. and we would prefer not to borrow money as right now rates maybe aren't going up um but they were there for a while and so we're really looking to start setting money aside and planning for future expenses. Then we have money um for the Raymond Hall bridge, $50,000 for storm water pipe replacement and $5,200 to replace some garage doors. Any questions about that? And then um fund 19 that is the capital improvement sales tax. Uh this is where

this fund has been paying the debt service on Watson Drive. That debt is almost being is almost paid off. It is where we will get the funding to pay for the city debt service on the city of whole. a museum project. And then um then we have fund 20, the water and sewer revenue fund. That fund has been holding money that was accumulated before we separated the water and sewer systems and that is going to be closed this year to the water capital improvement um improvements fund. And so after this year, it should not be showing up and we won't be talking about it again. And then the water and capital improvements fund fund 24, the Carne Westside CI looped waterline and capacity project is budgeted in that fund. So that money from fund 20 is going to be transferred in to help pay for that Carne Westside CI project. Any questions about that? So the old water and sewer revenue fund that what used to be co-ingle that's now separated for better recordkeeping that's going to finally disappear.

Yes. Okay. And that was at the urging of our auditor. They did not like that. [laughter] Makes sense.

Okay. Then um sewer capital improvements fund fund 25. Uh this has some funding for partial design of the wastewater treatment plant expansion project that we are getting ready to do. We need to start paying for the design um so that we can get that wastewater treatment plant expanded as soon as possible. And then the water construction fund of $3.4 million um that is fund 26. It is funding the nation road water line extension and completing the I351 $1 million1 million gallon water tower. That water tower whenever you are doing uh capital projects you hold back retainage and so that retainage is going to need to be paid out at the beginning of next fiscal year. Any questions about either one of those? And then that brings us to fund 28, the highway construction fund. Um, this is where we the funding for the 19th Street complete street project cost is housed. And then also we are looking to spend some money on engineering fees to hopefully score. We're going to be applying for a grant for the Nation Road complete street project and we're hoping that we can get our points score higher so that we can actually get a federal grant this year for the nation or when we apply and be lucky enough to get a federal grant for the nation road complete street project. Also, there is a very little amount of money for the 33 and Meadow Brook Drive intersection improvements. The hope really is to cost share that with MODOT

or even where they fund the majority of those costs and I do not want to forget about that. So I left a little bit of money in there so that we do not forget about that project. It is an important project. And then our street construction fund is fund 29. Um, this is an old capital project fund that was created when we constructed Watson Drive many, many years ago. Um, the money in there is just slated if we need to do banners and flax. And then water and sewer sinking, um, fund 30 is $1.1 million and that also is getting closed this year, that fund. So there will be 681,000 of that is going to the water capital improvements fund and 386,000 is going to the sewer capital improvements fund for the design of the wastewater treatment monthly costs. Any questions about those three funds? Okay. So, I just put I don't want to forget tomorrow night is the conference or the water and sewer rate openhouse. Um, it will be right here at city hall from 4 to 6:00 p.m. HDR will be here. City staff will be here to walk through the proposed rate adjustments, walk through reviewing the utility rate study, talking about the wastewater system improvements, and also answering questions about the winter water average method of sewer billing. All of that will be right here um from 4 to 6 tomorrow night. So I hope that people come that have questions

and these are just slides from HDR came to two meetings that they've done presentations. They presented information at the December 15th meeting and then based on feedback that they received from you guys, they made some changes and then presented the follow-up information on January 20th. And what they did is they looked at all the costs that it's going to take to be able to continue providing services for of both water and sewer. And that's these slides. And so they came up with proposed rates. Um you can see their their slides here. They use some assumptions in order to determine these rates. And so the senior discount continuing for volume based sewer billing. Um it also includes an opt-in residential winter water average sewer billing option. They are proposing changing the uniform rate structure for any usage over a thousand gallons. and then their sewer rates assume that voters approve the revenue bonds to allow us to do SRF loan program funding for the capital projects that must be done for the sewer the wastewater treatment expansion. Also on the water side they are assuming pay as you go [snorts] funding for capital projects. Any questions about that? I would if you did I would say come tomorrow night and talk to HDR. Um so this is a graph that HDR created

to show what it shows is that our utility rates are lower than many regional municipalities in the Kansas City metro area. Um, and not that that matters, I guess, if you're being asked to pay more, but it it does show that we are in line with other communities. Um, water and sewer services just cost money to provide to people and they're very important services because people get sick without safe drinking water and without um clean streams. And now we get to fund 33, the water fund. You can see 3.8 million of revenues, $3.8 million of operating expenditures, um capital outlay of $61,866 [clears throat] and our water fund operating expenses um of $3.8 million. The key changes from last year really have to do with increasing increased needs of distribution maintenance. We got a little reprieve this year because we're building a new water tower. So, we didn't have to do any maintenance to the old water tower, but that is going to change. We're going to start a new contract to make sure that we are properly taken care of so that our new water tower can last for many, many years. Also there um is software maintenance, Kansas City, Missouri water purchases, um test chemicals and meter set parts. We had to increase the amount of money that we purchased from water from Kansas City, Missouri a little bit

this year when we did our capital project of redoing the recar painting. And then um we are about ready to you guys actually approved the agreement tonight to update the filter media and that will take cause us to have to take red take out our water plant for a short amount of time and it will increase the purchases from all right and then um for capital outlay We have $24,000. It's not a lot of money, but what we are doing, this is a replacement program. Again, we are trying to start setting money aside so that we can not have to go out and borrow money every time we have something go wrong. And so, we are starting, it's a small start, but you have to start somewhere. $24,000 that is starting out that program. also um water line replacement of $171,000, the ground storage tank rehab of $170,000, a clear well seal for $55,000, and maybe I won't say all the amounts because you guys can read them on the slides, but also microcom RTUs for a tower upgrade, mixer for the 1 and a half million gallon tower, um a hydrant meter with backflow, and a backup power generator for our wells. Any questions about that? And then our sewer fund. Um, so we have $3.3 million of operating revenues and we have uh $2.8 million of operating expenditures

and that means that this year we have $490,000 of revenues over expenditures and that's all going to be spent on capital outlay. That is a little bit misleading. And so that $490,000, it is coming because our debt service repayment schedule. We had a one-year reprieve when something got uh paid off and then something else comes on. We wanted to make sure that we were we remembered that and didn't think that that was going to be a permanent savings. It would be like refinancing your house and not having to pay for one one year, but then you're going to have to be making those payments going forward. And so it looks really good for this year, but it's that money is needed for capital projects. Um, so thank goodness we were able to capitalize on that this year. Oh, why that does that? Um, so for our operating expenses of $2.8 million, we do have some key changes from last year. Um, there is more plant maintenance that needs to be done, more collect collection system maintenance and more lift station maintenance. Um, also just inflation with test test and treatment chemicals and then that one-year reduction in the required payment schedule for our debt. Any questions about that? And for sewer capital, we're doing some really, really important things. um sewer lining and manhole replacement and rehab and pipeline pipeline rehabs all in an effort to reduce influent infiltration um throughout our system.

And then there's also an electric gate for security at the wastewater treatment plant pump equipment replacement that is not to actually purchase pumps right now. That is the savings account because those pumps are really expensive. They don't you don't have time to go out and get a loan when a pump goes bad. We need money on hand to be able to make those um purchases if that happens. So again, in several of these funds, you can see us making an attempt at spending putting money aside for future purchases. And then the spectrophotometer also is included in this year's budget. And then um that brings us to our new solid waste fund and it is a it was in the general fund last year and all the years before we moved it to its new separate fund. Um, and the part-time hours are now in public works to allow us to for flexibility and be able to use those hours when we need them and where they need them. Okay. And then we have fund 51. This is the park construction fund. money is transferred here from the use tax fund. Also, there is grant funds um to do some of these projects and it is accounting for the Hall Park project, the Mac Porter Culver, the Jesse James Park culvert, or in place playground servicing, um contingent on receiving that grant, and then electrical upgrades at Jesse James

Park. And then fund 52 that is the shops or the storm water projects fund. There are two projects that are budgeted in in that fund this year. One is the shop storm water project. Um that will all be reimbursed from the shops CIB or yeah the shop CIB but also we are required by DNR to make improvements to the at the recycle center for our compost brush area. And so that project is funded in in here. And then finally, fund 53, the sidewalk trail construction fund. It has um the project costs for the Mac Porter Park connector trail, the Regency 92 uh Regency Drive, 92 highway, and route 33 sidewalk projects. that is called pathways and um but that is what pathways is referring to and then there is some money in there for trail reconstruction. We are hoping to leverage that money with a grant. Um however even if we can't that Fishing River trail well all our trail infrastructure really needs replace and rehab and we need to start tackling that a little at a time. Okay. And then um is fund 54. That is where we are funding the exclusive meeting space um for court and public meetings, making security improvements to city hall. um making ADA improvements to all the public spaces at city hall and uh doing a project to

um take care of the exterior of the museum and that is in that fund 54 fund 55 and 56. These are both general obligation bond funds. [clears throat] I think I understand why they were two separate funds when they were usually cities have one go general obligation bond fund and so I am streamlining them into a new fund 57. I was making this presentation, I wondered why I didn't just take one of those in made a whole new fund. But that is how my mind worked when I was creating the budget. So, um, so I the both the 2015 and the I3519 Street Geo bonds fund, those funds are just going to go away. They're transferring into this nice new clean fund with 57. And that is where we collect a very small property tax levy for the payment. And then um the sales tax makes the rest of that debt service payment. And then fund 61 is the inmate security fund. We don't very often make purchases out of that. We did in this current year's budget that balances down very small. Now what [clears throat] what the only thing that we can use that money for is it's restricted to funding purchase and maintenance of life scan fingerprinting devices. So it accumulates until it's time to upgrade that equipment. There is a K9 fund. Um there is nothing budgeted in it this year. There is some money um there, but there's there are no expenses that are

being budgeted out of there. Sheila, point of clarification. That's because previously our K9 fund was all pretty much donation driven. Uh our officers worked really hard and we're hoping not to require that anymore. We're absorbing those costs in the regular police department budget. Correct.

Yes. Okay, that is correct. And then we have in fund 65. This is the wireless capital improvement fund. It is getting collecting money from the franchise tax on um wireless phone services. Every [clears throat] year it goes down. We have the agreement that you approved for and I'm not remembering the name of the of the agreement for the [clears throat] looking at these franchises and the money that they are paying to Avazar

um Azavar. So they are revenues are going up but it's because we are collecting money that should have been paid that was not paid if that makes sense and so that will not be forever. Um, but this year what it was doing is it was funding the debt [cough and clears throat] service on the police station improvements and I think the museum improvements. That debt has all been paid off. And so this year we were able to use some of that balance to go towards the police force switches. And so there's a transfer from there into the general fund for capital. And then fund um I don't know I didn't write down what fund it is but it's the shops at Carney TIFF fund um fund 73. That fund all it is is the contractually obligated costs economic activity [snorts] taxes and pilots that we have an agreement and we are paying those depending on how those receipts actually come in, they all get paid the following month to the developer to repay certified costs. And so that money we're guessing what it is and then it gets shrewd up at the end of the year. So you guys, we are almost done. So, um I mean I just told you all of the amazing things that we were able to where we were able to allocate money and and resources to be able to do a lot of amazing things for our city. And then there's never there there are always more needs than there are revenues. And so I like to let you know

kind of what requests were not able to be funded and if we had more resources we would have hopefully been able to fund some of these things. So there were $1.7 million and unfulfilled personnel cost requests. Most of those had to do with um police positions in the police department and then a park maintenance person. You do know that we are getting ready to put a new park online and that is [clears throat] going to create additional maintenance costs without adding a person. And then um $120,000 of compression adjustments were not funded. There is a 1% COLA, but the initial request was for 5%. So $245,000 for COLA I put on there. And then we look every year at increasing our loggers benefit from an L7 plan to an L6 plan. And that would have cost $410,000 more, which um is less than it would have cost us last year. So we are going in the right direction. And then uh things that are not personnel related. So supply, service, equipment improvements. Um $1.4.9 $4.9 million across the city. $1.3 million in the general fund. Uh $101,000 in the park fund, $800,000 in the transportation fund, $1.5 million in the water fund, and $1.2 million in the sewer fund. And that is my presentation. So, it's no doubt um

we've seen a sales tax our sales tax growth has softened and I think personally I I think a lot of that's from from false some from some false pandemic peaks. Um, we've seen some economic activity. I guess I'll use the word normalize. Um, I think we've seen some shifts in a lot of the free CO money is not there anymore. Some of that liquidity is kind of drifted away, but um, all that we've done some really good things in this budget, I feel um, we've continued to establish asset replacement programs. Not only establish them, but we're funding them. um that's been new in our budget the last couple years. But what I believe is and what I take away from our our budget process this year is uh I feel like our staff, our department heads have put forth a great tool for us to use for our fiscal year 2027. Um a lot of hard work, a lot of hard decisions. Um, we done done a lot of good things with the budget. I know it wasn't easy. Um, but but I think we put forth a a a budget um that really hits and and uh really takes care of the board's priorities that we set forth um in our priority planning session for the same fiscal year of 2027. So, she like sincerely appreciate all your time, all the department heads and staff, your time. I know it's um not always fun or easy making those decisions and especially when we have more needs than we do revenue. Um but does anybody else on the board have any comments or

feedback or any last questions on the buzzer presentation this evening?

I think it looks pretty good. My um my hope is that uh we're going to see some added uh sales tax revenue from the World Cup that we don't uh fully anticipate yet because we don't know what that impact's going to be yet to offset this uh downfall. So um I'm feeling optimistic about that. You were saying it's down. I'm think that's all right. World Cup's coming. But um so I'm hoping that that's going to be the case. But no, I think there's been a lot of hard work here put in. You can see that. Um I think it's a good budget to work with. [snorts] I would love to have more revenues and everything else as you know. Um like I have more reserves kind of that way, but um expenditures are what expenditures are. So we can get some sales tax.

And we do have some things coming, right? Lewab, uh, Chipotle, and well, if if it gets approved, I guess, at at one of your future meetings, but it's under planning and zoning. Autozone. Autozone. That would be one of the first ones. So, I think those three will will help with revenue, especially if you look at Facebook. Everybody's going to be broke because they're going to be spending all their money at Chipotle. So, [laughter] but you know that's

well I think we we'll capture all that money that leaves our community that goes to Chipotle just going to finally stay here where belongs part of it anyway. [snorts] But you know hopefully our our sales tax revenue will will rebound next year with with those businesses and I'm sure we're not done so with new businesses. So, [clears throat] we'll have to be optimistic about next year. So, and so tonight's just the presentation, correct? Nothing for the board to formally to vote on or no.

Great. Thank you for that presentation. We'll move on to mayor's communication. A couple items this evening I want to mention is uh Martin Luther King Jr. day I was out checking the roads uh all that wonderful snow we had and I drove past city hall and I thought it was Eric Marshall but I was corrected this evening it was actually uh Donnie Smith and then I heard that Shelley Daniel as well um I sorry Shel I didn't see you I just saw uh who I thought was Eric but it was actually Donnie um on a holiday out working with this regular street crew and and transportation crews but I noticed uh that we had uh management here uh cleaning off the sidewalks in city hall uh cleaning out um the the uh driveway as well. So, thank you Shelley and Donnie for um coming out on a holiday and working with the rest of your team and let and uh taking care of city hall. So, I just wanted to pass that appreciation along. Um, and then obviously the transportation crew as well for for all their hard work and overtime. And then um I I'm sure everybody noticed it, but I was super excited to see uh our four-legged friend, Mr. Woody, getting adopted. So, I believe was that our first true um adoption process that that our staff kind of initiated and handled. So I I know it's one uh adoption, but nonetheless, it was awesome to see that uh we are now equipped and have the training and and staff and and tools available to to do that and even a cool story that he's just up the road with the local Carney family. So which is good because I was going to probably adopt him. I mean, he was such a good boy. So um that's all I have for mayor's communications. We'll move on to city administrator's report.

Just want to remind everyone um it will be we'll have all of the experts here to talk through the right study if you can come to the open house tomorrow night um from 4 to 6 right here. And then also our next meeting will be on a Tuesday night because of President's Day. So we'll move on to alderman discussion. Alderman Spencer. Nothing. Alderman [clears throat] King. I don't have anything. Alderman Holt, I don't have anything. [cough] Alderman [clears throat] Leman,

I will piggy back off of your comment about the street cleaning um with the snowstorm. Um, I think this is probably the most [snorts] favorable comments I've ever gotten uh for our public works staff and and transportation department. Um, it was it was an amazing job. Um, you know, I remember years ago pre-treatment was unheard of. um it just was never done. And and to see the guys out there, guys and gals, um out there uh pre-treating pre-treating our streets and and being prepared for [clears throat] hopefully the biggest snowstorm this year, but we'll see. Um

Gary Lezac says couple weekends next few is going to be pretty

chaotic. Um, but it was it was amazing to see how in a couple of days you could see pavement again. So, uh, great job, guys. Um, and the only other thing I'll say is I'm very happy to see the climate control dog kettle in this year's budget. Um, that has been a sore subject. um especially out in the tech world. Um and um you know those those kennels that are out there now were here when when I actually worked for the city and in the street [clears throat] department. So um that's that's great to see and hopefully it's one last thing that we hear on Facebook. So, you know, it it the and the thanks goes back to our constituents there for supporting us with that use tax measure. And I mean, we continue to put those dollars for use for our our promises. And every year, I mean, look at the impact it's made on our budget in a positive way. So, um it it is nice to see that revenue come in and that's putting it right back to work for the taxpayers. We're finally going to get sidewalks down Regency Drive.

Finally. So, let's see how much blowback we get on that. [laughter] That fought once before, remember Dave? Believe that concludes alderman discussion. Can we entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I oppose. Everybody have a nice evening. Thank you.