City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we have 6:30. We will call the Monday, November 24, 2025 city council meeting to order. If you could please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Thank you. With that, do we have any additions to the agenda tonight? I have no additions for tonight, mayor. Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Motion second. We have a motion to second. All in favor say I.

I. Posting sign. Motion carries. 5. With that, we will move to public comments. If there is anyone who would like to discuss anything that is not on the agenda, please come forward. And seeing none, we will close public comments and move to the consent agenda. Is there anything on the consent agenda to be pulled for further discussion? Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion. We have a We have a motion, a second. All in favor say I. Post same sign.

Motion carries 50. And that will take us to business items. First on the list will be the Southern Valley uh Southern Valley Southern Valley Alliance uh update. Um Nick, do you want to do introductions? [clears throat] Like to welcome Christy Larson from Southern Valley here. Give us an update on the goings on over the last year. We'll do. Perfect. Thank you. Yes.

New name change, Southern Valley. So [laughter] all good. Um so my name is Christy Larson. I'm the executive director of Southern Valley Alliance. For those of you that are not familiar with our organization, we are the nonprofit that provides all of the domestic abuse services for Scott and Carver counties. We are located in Shakapei right now. Um we had been in Bell Plane previously and in January of 2024 moved our location to downtown Shakapei to be more centralized between the two counties. So, some of our services that we provide, we have a 247 crisis line that we have available to anyone. Um, that can be for somebody that is in crisis that needs to access that resource. But we also encourage family members, friends, um, anyone to call that to really get some information and support. Sometimes, um, victims just want to talk through a situation or get some of that emotional support. And that crisis line is for that reason as well. We have two different support groups for victims each week. We have a virtual option and an in-person option. We um provide legal um assistance. So, we don't have a lawyer on staff, but we provide advocacy in the courtroom. So, we'll work with victims. Maybe they're applying for an order for protection or harassment restraining order. We will work on that paperwork with them, go file it at the court, and then see them through that legal process. So maybe that's going to court with them, just providing some of that emotional support um when they're in that court process. A couple of years ago, we did start a transitional housing program. Since there are no shelters in our service area, um and you know, lack of housing is one of the major reasons people stay in an abusive relationship. Um we knew that we needed to do something to provide some housing solutions to the people that we serve. So, we have seven different apartment units that are scattered throughout the two counties and um the victim and their children can

live there for up to a year while Southern Valley helps out with the rent and utilities and then during that time provide some really intensive case management to help that person get back on their feet um and move on to permanent housing after that. Um and then we do a lot of presentations and education in the community. So aside from community groups, um we also go into the schools. So middle and high schools are typically where we go to do some workshops on healthy relationships and dating violence, really to work with our youth to stop that cycle of violence before it starts. So um we do try to get out to all of the different communities to work with our youth as well. So those are just some of the things that we do. Um last year we served about,00 individual victims and we took about 2,200 crisis line calls. So it is prevalent throughout our community. I know that we served um at least 15 people from mayor. I say at least because the majority of the callers to the crisis line are anonymous. We don't collect the demographic data. Um so I would imagine that number is a lot higher. That's just what the information that we have. Um, so we appreciate your support. We are a community-based nonprofit. We're community funded. We receive um some grants, but we also rely on community support from um private individuals and businesses and community organizations um to fund our services. And especially as we enter into a little bit tougher um funding climate, we are really looking to our communities to help us continue to provide these really vital services. So that's a little bit about us. Just wanted to open it up to see if you had any questions or wanted more information.

Questions for Christie. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming in. I appreciate you coming back every year and kind of give us a little update on things and certainly I, you know, speaking for everyone. We love everything you guys are doing for it, you know, and it's good to see there's somewhere, you know, for people to get in touch with someone. So, we do appreciate especially when we know it's hitting home, right? And like you said, you're not giving out you don't get a lot of the information sometimes, but from what you do know and I think you can probably get some idea from things that um it's certainly helping our community along with everyone else in both counties. So, thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much. I did leave some um brochures, just our regular brochure and then we also have like a friends and family brochure that people can kind of look through if they have somebody they want to support and get some information for. Um, as well as information about our holiday gift program that we're going to have coming up here. Perfect. Yeah, any of that stuff we love having and as as we run out or need more, Nick or Alicia will certainly be in touch to get more and restock that restock that. So, thank you. I appreciate it. Yep. Thank you. Thank you so much. You have a good Thanksgiving and good holidays. Thank you. [clears throat]

All right. With that, we will move to number nine. To consider adoption of a resolution supporting Carver County Public Works application for local road improvement program funding for Carver County Road 30. Thank you, mayor. Uh the local road improvement program is run through the state of Minnesota and one of the compo components when you write a grant under the LI program is they'd like to see that local support for the projects you're doing. So, the project that Carver County is looking at [clears throat] will be taking place on County Road 30 between Highway 25 and County Road 10, the entire stretch uh between there. And what [clears throat] they're doing is they're doing a uh reclamation project. So they will be uh grinding up the asphalt in place um and they will be adding adhesive elements to that mix as it's being grinded up and then it'll be reppaved right on the back end in one seamless transition. Uh that's [clears throat] the uh SF excuse me the SFDR stands for for the resurfacing that'll constitute the base course and then they'll come back with a wear course after that. Uh but they're gearing up for this project in 2026. Uh, I don't have firm timelines on it quite yet, but this is where they're getting their grant applications or grant grant application materials in order. Did receive word that if they if the grant is not received, they do still plan on moving forward with the project.

Perfect. Any questions on the project? It's just a mill and overlay more or less then basically a a fancy mill and overlay and then they're going to How much are they widening? I thought they were widening the shoulders. Yeah. doing and then they're shoulder widening too. Okay. Okay. I think that was like a on all the Carver County roads. I think that their goal is to widen a lot of the shoulders and I recall that a couple years ago talking about do they know how long it's going to take? They don't have any project specifics quite yet. Once I find that I'll make sure I get that out to the community at large and city council.

Thank you. Then with that, I'll look for a motion to approve resolution 2025-9 in support of the application for funding. Motion second. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Do you Was it in here how much the match was, Nick, or or how the program works, what kind of funding they're going after? No, this is just a resolution of support. Okay. Yeah. Right. Right. I just wasn't sure if Carver County had mentioned [clears throat] anything on what they're applying for. Not not on the financial end of things. Okay, perfect. Perfect. All right, then. Uh, with that, we have a motion, a second. All in favor say I. I. Same sign.

Motion carries. 50. And that will take us to adopt adoption of resolution delegating registration authority to Carver County for cannabis businesses.

Thank you, mayor. Uh last year about this time last year we adopted our ordinance which regulated cannabis uh businesses a wide v a wide range of them and then place them in the specific zoning districts where they were going to be allowed. A part of that what in that ordinance also uh came down to licensing and registration authority of cannabis and hemp related businesses uh especially on the retail end of things. So right now the city we contract out with Carver County for tobacco licensing services. We don't do that in-house and with that they set up the operations where they go in they test they make sure they're not selling to underage people and then they will go uh through that law enforcement process on the back end to take care of it and then issue the licenses with Carver County itself. In our ordinance we have the ability to either keep registration authority or delegate it off. The registration authority functions quite similarly to tobacco in nature even though it's a different product and uh we're not set up here at city staff to do licensing and registration and handful of other cities are delegating off to Carver County as well. We got an email from Carver County asking for confirmation on what we'd like to do. So it is our recommendation to delegate authority to Carver County for registration.

Seems to make sense, right? Keeping it all in one. So, thank you. So, with that, I'll look for a motion to approve resolution 2025-20. Motion. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

I. Post sign. [clears throat] Motion carries. 5. And with that, we will hit our final business item. Uh, consider adoption of resolution accepting the donation of personal property for use by the fire department. Thank you, mayor. Pardon me. Emergency medical training specialists of Norwood Young America has uh requested to make a contribution of personal property to our fire department. Our fire department utilizes them uh for training purposes and so they have some extra surplus that they were looking to give away and our training officer said that would be really good for the fire department to have. So they have arranged that to happen. We have the list there. It's about $7,050 worth of value. So we're looking to have council approve the acceptance of this donation.

Wonderful. I'll look for a motion to approve resolution [clears throat] 2025-21 approving the donations from emergency medical training specialists. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? So again, a thank you to emergency medical training specialists. Great donation. Um very much appreciated and everything will go to good use. So with that uh we have to approve it. All in favor say I. I [laughter] oppose [snorts] same sign. Motion carries 5. I lose track a lot. Uh we'll go to uh city council reports. Council member health, anything report on? Nope. I have nothing. Council member Fouch,

I have nothing. Council member Jackson, uh we discussed just the tree lighting coming up on December 7th. We talked about possible uses for the uh concession stand down by the park because it's not being used. The hot dog hut. Nothing super major. Perfect. Thank you, Council Member McNeely. Nothing. And I do not Oh, we did. Uh Nick and I met with the uh a member from the HOA in Fieldstone just to make sure we're all aligned on there. a lot of rumors going around with the possible uh uh uh uh um expansion

expansion and property being sold and there were some concerns at Fieldstone. So, we just met with him so we're all on the same page and we're all uh getting the same message out. So, it was a a quick quick meeting but um I think it was much needed. And so with that, I will look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion second. We have a motion and a second. [cough] All in favor say I. [clears throat] Post sign. We are adjourned and with that we will jump [cough] right into the workshop and call the meeting to order.

Thank you mayor. First up on the list is our long-awaited personnel policy update. Uh the personnel committee has been working on this since about April of this year. Um so a little bit of over uh overview. The personnel policy we currently have the template that was used for it was from the 2015 version from the League of Minnesota Cities. The League of Minnesota cities uh does a fantastic job of outputting various templates, samples and things for cities to use and their personnel policy is one of them that is widely adopted by cities across the state. Uh some sparse updates from them. So it's been about a decade time uh it was time to take it uh for a new overhaul. So personnel committee worked on that. We utilize the leaks template as mentioned for the update and in the packet is included uh a change log to the personnel policy, the new personnel policy in full that would be proposed for adoption at our next meeting and then the current personnel policy. I'm not going to go through everything line by line uh because that was the job of the personnel committee and the work that they did. And thank you to Chad and Mike for all those months of work reviewing really exciting HR material. Um, [clears throat] so I'm just going to go over the change log here and talk about uh that in general various parts of the policy which reference sick and uh fa vacation and sick time have been updated to reference PTO. So about a decade ago sick and vacation was still used that since changed to PTO. So just cleaning that language up in there. various uh parts of the poly reference the work week have been aligned to the current Sunday to sea Saturday schedule. It had referenced the older I think it was a Monday to Tuesday schedule in there prior to that. Uh a good chunk of these I won't go through all of them but a good chunk came under state law conformity updates over the last uh 10 years a lot of the

laws have changed and so the new personnel policy has been updated in order to reflect a lot of those changes. So a number of various changes in there and then the earn sick and safe time policy has been incorporated into the personnel policy itself. We had adopted that uh a while ago and that was kind of a standalone but now this gets it integrated in with the policy where it ought to be. A lot of state law updates came in the areas of sections affected uh regarding the uh various types of leaves that are now being offered uh for the entirety of the list there. And then some changes to the respectful workplace policy, respectful workplace policy section and then the cellular phone use updating that to um updated with uh modern times over the last decade what's been available to people to use and the laws regarding that. So there was a good number of changes up there updating that uh under other chain other updates uh to the personal commun communications and use of social media. Minor updates and clarification on how to handle situations uh conduct as a city employee. Added a section on honesty and misrepresentation of facts. And then we also added some language reinforcing positive work environment and what we would like to see there. Under appearance, we added language uh regarding condition of clothing as well as types which are not allowed or not accepted uh acceptable to wear. In that regard, uh falsifications of records, this received a pretty substantial update. Uh a number of whistleblower protections were added to this section of there. So if anybody wants to come forward with anything, they're going to have protections under this policy. So they don't fear retribution for bringing uh transparency forward. Under political activity, they expanded the language on polit political activity as it relates to conduct in the

workplace. Making sure that's uh more clarified about what's acceptable and what's not when you're at the workplace, not necessarily when you're outside of the workplace, but when you're uh on city time. Trading and probation period. We added language clarifying the atwill status of employment specifically for probationary employees, [clears throat] discipline for any reason up to and including dismissal, no vested rights uh no vested interest to or property right to continued employment employment during or after. And then time served in other roles does not count towards probation if there's any uh lateral transfers in there potentially in the future. The meal breaks and rest periods. We've allowed uh for 15minute breaks to be combined with a lunch break. This also somewhat m uh mirrors how it functions in the union uh union contract as well. It's not uncommon for staff to not take their morning or afternoon break and just make a hourong half on half off type of arrangement. Direct deposit and then improper deduction over payment policy. These are kind of together. So it clarified that and then as well as adds procedures for dealing if there was an improper deduction and or an overpayment on a check clarifying processes on that. Under uh this one is actually this change log needed to be updated. This 4-hour language is actually under 808. My apologies there. Under 808 leave policy for exempt employees. Uh it was updated to allow for the 4hour threshold of PTO use. though this is something that's very common that I've seen but in mayor's old policy it didn't for exempt employees salaried employees nonovertime eligible employees it's common that if you are if you are away from the office for more than four hours in a day you use PTO to compensate for it if you're if it's less then you don't

the idea being that you exempt employees will regularly put in over so that there's that balancing factor over time that happens with that into the leave policy for exempt employees. New addition to the policy which details use of leave for exempt employees. Uh so we added more detail in there. It's after 4 days I if there's an absence of uh greater than 4 days I come to city council notifying you of that. And then uh if I am out of the office for more than 4 hours and it's not scheduled 24 hours in advance, then I make sure the mayor is notified for that short-term uh reasoning there. Under health, dental, and life insurance, we updated language to provide specifics regarding the contribution towards insurance uh premiums. Before it was very vague language and it didn't really spell out what the cuts were in there. So we cleaned that up. Under job related training and conferences, we remove language relating to college classes. It's never been used and I just don't see it being used in the future. Uh request for participation in training in conferences. We remove language requiring requests to be in writing. So before we had to pe they were supposed to be submitting it in writing but since we have a small tight-knit group if they come in and they want to take a conference or training they can submit that to me verbally tell me what the conference is about they can give me a link shoot me an email something of that nature and then I can approve it that way. Regarding outofstate travel, those requests used to be required uh uh those requests used to be approved by the city council. Uh but uh we're recommending that be delegated down to the city administrator as long as it meets budgets and all that good stuff. And for travel meal allowance, uh this was updated. So it bans reimbursement if related to political parties. That's a new section in there. Reimbursement is not eligible for family members. That's updated. And then it clarifies which federal reimbursements rates are used. Before it just said it there will be a

reimbursement according to the federal schedule, but there's multiple federal schedules depending on which one use. So, we've clarified that. So, it's good on that. And then the final section we looked at, this is just bulk aligning things to the union contract. Again, that work week from Sat Sunday to Saturday, holidays, [clears throat] updated those to match what we've got in the union contract, PTO, and then funeral relief all for the same reasons. So, that if there were any uh comments, observations from [clears throat] personnel committee they wanted to throw in. I don't have any. I think you captured most of it. Um, and again, thank you for all your work on this, too.

Um, it's just as we have now a couple weeks, go through it. If there are any questions, just try to get get in touch with Nick. Yep. Um, and then he can get in touch with me and Chad if there's something we need to discuss on that. But make sure to um there's a lot of changes. Again, nothing major, just a lot of cleaning up really is a lot of it for 10 years um since it was last updated. So,

is there a timeline where we would review this like in less than 10 years from now? Like [clears throat] like or is 10 was that 10 years like a typical time frame? So typically what you would want to do you keep an eye out the legal put they put outformational updates that you can get a hold of if there's major changes to the personnel policy or major changes to state law which affect HR related issues and then really it's the job of the city administrator to stay up to speed on that to make sure that we're updating it as needed. So, if it's a year from now they come out with a big law or two years from now they come up with a new law that requires major changes then I should be getting that in front of the p uh personnel committee which then comes up to the city council for inclusion an amendment into our personnel policy.

Okay. I think I think it would be important that we keep up on that because there are some on here that were really outdated, right? And if we ever had to fall back on the personnel committee or the policy, that would have been really tough. My my gut tells me probably every five years, I think we should we should at least take a glance at through it now because of the union and we really only had one employee who was really more from the policy. it, you know, but there were a lot of state changes, a lot of things we we could have gotten it, you know, it's just um 10 years, I think, was a little longer than we probably So, 5 years for a full review, but uh city administrators should be monitoring to do amendments every year.

Yeah. Yep. Amendments as they come up and changes are needed. The league keeps their template up to speed and they put outformational memos on updates and the league does a great job of letting us know if there's big changes to their templates or things that have gone on with the emails and stuff. So, yeah, probably five years I think is a good a good number. [snorts] Any other questions on that? Mhm.

If not uh then going on to uh the new online portal implementation implementation [clears throat] get through the multitude of pages there we had there. So from the last uh about a month or so ago, we uh looked took a look at Nuva as a potential option for offering an online portal for our utility billing uh customerf facing experience. Uh city council at that meeting directed staff to prepare additional information regarding the implementation their questions on sunset period from the a tove on that type of switch as well as the advantages between the two systems. So I put together thisformational memo. We met again with new to get some uh new information and for implementation and sunset period uh on their end they need about 60 to 90 days once they get the authorization to get everything up running ready to face the public side. We felt this actually worked really well with the time frames we were thinking in our heads thinking you want to have that threeishmon or so uh transition because we want to make sure we get out plenty of information to the public regarding the transition of things especially if you're sunsetting the a forcing all of that to the new end of things. So that'll give us a guess solid at least threemonth leadup. Uh if city council would like to go forward with implementation of this and we would post it in all the usual places making sure we're hitting it with utility bill inserts. Uh we'd likely avoid putting in the newsletter and we would have it a specific insert in and of itself just to give extra prominence to it, a different colored paper just so it sticks out and people we make sure people see it and are aware of it. Then on social media with the city's website and uh displaying on the electronic side, we would also have recommendations in

there uh on uh we saw on some of these later pages here with the slides they had in here. Um new themselves will have announcements, best practices, Q&A, fact sheets. We're going to have those included as well once they get those drafted for our specific uh situation. But then with the three-month leadup when it comes back to implementation, we would recommend that it be a clean break when we have three months of notification. Yep. A is ending. You're going to need to go over and sign up for autopay here. Get that done rather than having a crossover time. And then we'd also see about if council would like to do a couple months of penalty forgiveness just because this is a major change with people switching over in case they don't cleanly get it as we did with the shut off situation and other things we've done some of that extra forgiveness in there uh as we go along with things [clears throat] for the current. So before I move on, any questions on implementation timeline and that sunset period?

Um I I don't even know how I how mine gets paid because it set up so long ago. I know we had this conversation. So the people that is affecting with the sunset like how are you notifying them directly if they don't recall how what how they pay? I mean, I know that sounds really bad that I don't recall what system I have used to pay my bill.

That's going to be a little trial and error. And that's where I think we come in with those two months of penalty forgiveness because some people aren't going to know. [clears throat] And there's no way for us to know if people know if they remember. So that penalty forgiveness in there is that people go, "Oh, I forgot or I didn't realize or it's been set up so long. and all of a sudden they're getting a late notice and an extra bill and they're going, "Well, what's going on here?" But in that notice we give out that telling them to turn over, we'll have specific information there. Hopefully they read it, say, "If you're on a make sure you're rare, get things changed over in time." If people called and said, "Hey, how how is my bill paid?" Would you be able to tell?

Yeah, we can. So, like if I called and said, "Yep, your process is getting sunseted, so you need to do this." Okay. Mhm. And if they I mean I think it's been like 15 years. Like that's why I don't That's why I like I really don't recall how I That's why I like the forgiveness portion because you'll get your second bill and you'll see an outstanding balance and then I'll freak out and you'll freak out and you'll call the city and then remember that you had it on autopay. Yeah. And we'll make sure you get the instructions on how to get set up under new with that. Okay. I mean, I'm assuming I'm probably not the s I'm not the only one in this doubt situation. I'm sure there's a lot of people.

Yeah. And I certainly support the grace period, you know, if even if it goes three months if we think that's needed just to make sure everyone's cut because they might not notice it right away. And Right. Yeah. They might not even like open their mail because they just know it's always paid. Right. And you know, we we can, you know, have some heads up when we start seeing odd things that more and more people aren't paying. I mean, we can dig deeper into it, start contacting people also. Yeah. I would say if if they go two months [clears throat] and they didn't c catch it. I mean, can we contact them?

Oh, that's what I was about to say. We could probably build a list and that if we notice these people are getting a couple months behind, we try to reach out to them. If we if we've got a number on file, if we've got an email on file, reach out direct, give them a call, leave them a voicemail if we don't get a hold of them. Yeah. Stand out because it'll be people that haven't missed a bill before. Right. Yeah. I mean, and that should jump to be quite a few more people than normal. So, right. Yeah. [clears throat] I'm not concerned with willing to work with anyone, I think, on that. There's no first. Well, I mean, I get my internet bill and I don't open it because I know it's autopaid.

I open the city one because I like the newsletter. I want to look at that. But if I didn't have the newsletter in there, I probably would just put it in my pile and end up actually recycling or you know, getting rid of that, you know, shredding that document because I don't I already know. I'm like, well, I already it's auto pay. It always comes out. Okay. I think it those sounds like good efforts we'll make to try to get people on board that right and just being Yeah, because we'll know. Well, they'll be keyboard warriors out there

because they'll see the price. They will auto probably populate a late fee, right? Like if they miss it, you in utility billing, you run the late fees. So if you choose to go a month or two without it, I just don't do that process in utility billing. You just don't run the penalty part. Okay. So then so then people aren't going to complain like, "Well, I got charged a penalty even though we're waving it." You they'll just never see the penalty after until after like four months of them not correct after the grace period's over. Okay. So that's good news. All right. So just getting the word out. [clears throat] That's what we want to make sure we're blasting it for three, four months. Yeah.

So people are inundated with it. And I mean, even if you can say like contact city hall if you don't know how how your auto pay is set up. Yep. [laughter] Happily, council member. We would love especially a specific council member. Well, I figure I'm not the only one. So we can do a YouTube video for us that we can put out there. Sure. There you go.

And then on the current system versus new uh look to bring a little procon advantage disadvantage was requested for that. So right now the city uses a current mixture of uh Banyan data system which is our base software system we use for utility billing but also our financial accounting system docuend which is where we send our emails from and then all paid which is our third party credit card processor. [cough and clears throat] So with those we have these three different systems people use docu um banyan has been good uh but uh it doesn't have any functionality outside of the the bulk AC which people are signed up for docuend we had much higher hopes for that than the reality of it was we've had hassles and hiccups with that sometimes they'll email out two bills in one month which was strange for a little while there and then all paid all paid function is just fine. It's just not a very customerfriendly experience that you have to have your account number when you go into it and if you don't have your paper in front of you

and your amount

and then you have to call city hall figure out what that is and so being able to set up a portal with all of that when you talk to the uh with new that's all one-stop shop now it's all in one place with added functionality you get to see the history of all your bills your payments you can get notifications you can set yourself up for tell me my bill text me when my bill is due do ahead of time and [clears throat] things of that nature. The advantage of the current system over new is a little bit is on the cost end. So the a right now is essentially free because it's a bulk transaction through ban right now for 40 bucks a month and the city pays that cost. So if you are on autopay you don't see a fee for that. Uh the credit card transaction fee with all paid is 3% and with new it would be 3.5%. So a half percentage point increase on that. And the a processing fee with new is $1.99 per transaction. I had mentioned this before uh but when you pencil that out, if you use zero gallons of water in a month, a $1.99 is the equivalent of three and a half% on the credit card fee. So if you use more than zero gallons of water, it's cheaper to do the AC option rather than paying a percentage the three and a half percent. on that. [clears throat] The advantages of new over the current system as mentioned it's a one-stop shop. It's a customer portal. Uh gets us into the modern age to use uh parliament of our times. Um but a lot adds a lot of nice functionality and customerf facing features that we think they'll enjoy on that end of things. [clears throat] Uh some talking points uh to go over. We had mentioned the forgiveness up above, but the other thing I want to uh like to talk about is we have this increased cost that we're looking at regardless. Well, if we move, there's going to be an increased cost whether it be on credit cards or an AC. One option that could be available to

council as we're coming up on our utility rates flipping over for the year. [clears throat] Uh thinking about that, it's a $1.99 for a fee. You could lower the water and sewer base rates by a dollar a piece and then that would offset any added cost to anybody who would use be using the system to pay for their utility bills. How that uh functions up bleeds over into the budget end. If you do about a dollar base rate reduction, that's about $10,000 a year in revenue reduction for the water fund and then the sewer fund on that front. and when we get to the budget section, we can take a look at that closer. But just want to toss that out there for discussion on what council may or may not be feeling. Any thoughts? I mean, I I still um the same boat like $1.99. I'm not like a super big fan of it since there's no charge for me now. Isn't there a charge right now if you pay online

uh through all through all paid? There is. Yeah, that's a 3% credit card fee, but if you're set up on autopay, that's an a transaction right now. You guys are Yeah, that's the $40 that the current currently the city pays.

You could still drop a check off at the front door. Yes, absolutely could. Okay. Yeah. I mean, [clears throat] we have to do some utility rate changes coming up anyway for the wastewater and then the water that I don't think we need to adjust anything right now. But right, I mean I don't like charging fees, but it's kind of the reality. Wherever you go, most credit most businesses now are charging that credit card fee on credit card transactions. Yeah. It's not uncommon.

No, because it does add up over time. Yeah. You know, for the business or the city to to front that fee. Yeah. 40 bucks a month. 10 grand a year. But it won't it doesn't even have to be a dollar, right? I mean, dollar is just a number. Those chose could be 50 cents, 75 cents. I just chose a dollar each because that's roughly the$1.99 offset. I think we if because when are we looking at water and sewer rate changes? [clears throat] We're going to be looking at those at the next council meeting, the introduction of the ordinance with passage uh at the beginning of the year

because I know we were trying to keep it kind of steady because water is going to go down and sewer is going to go up. We get the but we're going to make it kind of level because the bills together, right? We're planning that change for the 2020. Can we can we bring this and has have it as part of a discussion point when we're looking at rates to see if there's any thoughts to maybe address that as well? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's the right approach because even if we move forward with this program that can be implemented at any time throughout, we could we could look at that. So,

yep, it's certainly something for us to consider and start thinking about where we're at with that. Um, and I can tie that in with the utility rate study when we're looking at when that's potentially going to hit and how that'll fluctuate and then we can build scenarios off it there. And not that any it's a huge amount, but there might be some offset that we want to consider. But um you know the AC fee of $1.99 if having your auto pay means you don't get one late fee throughout the year you know from not paying or missing a bill you've you're saving money you know it's kind of having that in it's yeah I mean you're paying for the convenience but you know

I don't know what you know what my bill is at 3.5% is you know well actually I do it's 350 because my bill is usually about $100 a month so it is cheaper for me to do the AC. But if you add that up over time, you know, that's $25$26 a year in addition that I'll be paying that I wasn't paying because of the system. Mhm. Because it's because we we post bills once a month. Do cities ever do quarterly billing for water and sewer?

That's that's [clears throat] more of an older practice. used to be quarterly back in the day and then cities move generally have moved from quarterly to monthly.

So, is it doable? Yes, it is. Right. Well, I was I'm just I'm throwing out lots of I know it's only $1.99, but I said like if you add it up over the year, you have 12 transactions, you know, if you're doing 350 times tw, you know, 10, that's $35, you know, so we're talking $40 if you use a credit card, which they already were getting a fee of 3% before, so that's not new. But then you have $2, which is probably the method I would choose. It would be $25 $26 a year that I'm paying just in fees. 24. Well, there's 12

12 times two. Oh, 24. Yeah. I don't know why I was thinking 10. That's 20. I don't do math well in my head. [laughter] I know. For me, I support the conversion over. I support the uh um the no late fees for a few months. And I think we can certainly have more discussion on this. I'm open to discuss it, but [clears throat] um maybe there's a number we come up with that makes sense or maybe there isn't. And um I think that can come once we know, you know, no sense having too much discussion. We don't even know if it's going to switch over. Yep.

And then with wrapping that up, want to go back to with the new Bay system in general, is this something you would like me to bring to the next city council meeting for approvals? Is this something city council wants to move forward with?

Well, and I hate to throw this out late in the game, but is nove the only option because I know [clears throat] like with other um bill paying a is free whereas credit cards the only feed one that's feed because like at the funeral home we've had certain things that have changed that certain vendors they're like hey if you don't switch to AC you're now going to get charged this credit card fee but AC is free. So, are there other I mean, are we limiting ourselves? Are there other is this too late in the game to say are there other companies that wouldn't charge an AC fee?

Nope, we're not too late in the game. Uh, New came to us by way of New Germany just because they had implemented it successfully and they've had overwhelmingly positive feedback from it. I'm sure there are other companies that do the exact same type of thing. We can certainly research those to see if there are other options which do essentially the same thing but may not have the ACV fee tied to it. We can do that. Yes, I think it's worth doing the exercise and and looking around. But I would like to I'd like that we have someone who's used it

and they've liked it. there hasn't been issue because there are some programs we've switched over to that haven't worked out as well as they have that we were told they would be you know but um so I like it for that reason but no I certainly I don't see a problem with looking around and maybe there's other communities if they can support it and they have some good things to say about it you know here in Carver County yeah because overall it's appealing to me to I mean it doesn't seem like a huge fee but I can see how a lot of people are going to be like hey well that is $24 more than what I was spending before and it it can be a big deal to some people. So, um I can see how it could become an issue, but so if we say, "Hey, well, we looked at all of the companies and this is

reasonable and the best rate we could find." I don't know. Mhm. Definitely worth a look. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Very good.

All right. Anything else on that? All right. and we'll move to the uh final 2026 budget review. Thank you, Mayor. So, I do not have any new updates to the 2026 proposed draft budget. So, with that, uh I'll go that will [clears throat] hit general fund first. So, at the end here, we're still looking at revenues over expenditures in the amount of $11,674. And so, we'd like this to be zero at the end of the day. So, I'd like to hear from council what the recommendation or the wishes are for what how we would like to handle this. You could just reduce the levy by an additional 11,674. Or we can take a look at allocating that money into one of the other uh CIP funds to offset and then create a flat levy for the year that could go into parks, sidewalks, and trails. I if I may may make recommendations either streets or trail and sidewalk replacement.

I go sidewalk. Oh, sidewalk. I would prefer sidewalk also. All right. 674. I wonder if people would appreciate having a lower levy with all the levies in place, you know, with all the taxes going up. It might be good for our citizens. My property tax went down. Did it? Yeah, I brought mine. Mine did not for the city. Yeah, [clears throat] the city did. Yes. Yes. I was pleased to see that. I was like, "Hey." Yeah. So, that's what I I mean, that's what we need to focus in as the city. We can't focus in on what Carver County did, right? Or um schools.

The schools, which there was no approved levies. That's just based on uh the value of your home. Yeah. To your point, I agree with what you're saying, you know, um for an 11,000 where I think it could really help this. We know we have a lot coming up with the sidewalks and trails and anything we can do to help. Sure. Build that where we don't have to bond for any of that work as we talked about moving over to concrete and uh uh those sorts of things. But now, if it was uh $150,000, that's that's a big difference in 11,000. or if we were sitting right now our preliminary we're at an 8% increase right

but based on where we are overall I think funding these seems appropriate to me for this amount is where but that makes sense you're right I think everyone would appreciate [clears throat] spread out citywide that's not going to amount to much for saving right yeah I think it because we're only that makes sense we're only what almost 12 different you're right if it was like $100,000 then I would say we need to lower our tax rate, but I think we've already done a really good job by continuing to lower our tax rate. Nick's on it. [clears throat]

I think you also have the by shifting it to the CIP. If you get questions from somebody saying, "Well, why didn't you just lower my taxes?" Like, we know the sidewalks and we know that amount isn't going to get lost in some purse somewhere. It's going for Yeah. this specific project. So, you know where those dollars are going, right? And if anybody's walked the trail system, they would know that there are some very significant areas that need repair sooner than later because they are kind of a hazard. Mhm. Yeah. I'm comfortable putting in sidewalks, too. And trails. Yep.

All right. 408771 adjusting up there. And there we go. [clears throat] Perfect.

I've added that to the trail and sidewalk replacement levy. That then once again balances out to a 0% levy increase. Keeps it flat. And then for uh next meeting, we have our truth and taxation hearing. I'll go I'll do the presentation on that like usual and then I will have the resolution prepared which adopts it according to what we're looking at today. Awesome. Okay. Thanks, Nick.

Other than that, real quick on the utility funds, just buzz right to the bottom on the water fund looking at revenues over expenditures well expenditures over revenues of 17,431. But these are plan deficits like we had talked about with utility rate portion. The 2027 adjustment will take care of all this. plenty in reserves. And then in the um sewer fund, looking at revenues over expenditures of 160,000. Again, we'll have a project coming up to balance that all out. Under storm sewer revenues over expenditures of $75,200 and uh $250 because we don't have capital outlay in there for that. And then with the EDA, the inflow of the 50 and then the transfers out on that end as well. So they're balanced at that point. So those all will be our budgets for 2026. Any other questions I can field on that?

No. Um I know this isn't anything for right now, but it's top of mind. So sewer, we can levy part of the money from property taxes. Correct. You can. It's Yes. So the answer and we have Yeah, the answer is yes, you can. But we have now since stopped doing that or correct. Okay. Because I know that was a goal years ago was you water has to be self-sufficient. Yes. Sewer self-sufficient. utility fund should should be but you can if needed levy for sewer

right which we had we had in the past you can see it under the 24 budget there okay and this was the tail end of it in 2023 it was 194,000 and we stepped that down into nothing here because we knew the debt was falling off right but that was our goal y was to make sewer [clears throat] and water completely self-sufficient outside of Right. the tax base. Mhm. And we have accomplished that. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted just to make sure that it's a lot of numbers that we look at. It is. And it's hard for people at home that might be watching because they can't see the spreadsheets. Right. Okay. Well, I'm happy to see that. So, thank you, Nick, for all the work you've done to

Yeah. get us where we are today. [clears throat] So, just two comments, Nick. You touched on one of them, and I apologize. I meant to make these comments in council meeting, but since we're still being taped um to Nick's point, truth truth and taxation is December 8th, 2025 here at city hall. Yep. And one other thing I forgot to comment on, I just want to congratulate the Mayor Lutheran High women's volleyball team for winning their second state volleyball tournament, second consecutive. So, let's repeat then. With that, if we have nothing else, we will adjourn.

Yeah, see it won't change at all. I know. I was pleased and hard on them