City Council - Regular Meeting

You were together tolerate it.

I'm going to call the January 20th meeting of the West De Mo City Council to order and invite you all to stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance led by Councilman Matt McKini. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Great job, Councilman. Thank you. Okay, please sign in. [clears throat] Four members present. Okay. Uh Ryan, have there been any changes to the agenda? No changes, your honor. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as distributed? So move. Second.

Okay. It's a move and seconded, please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. Moving on to item two, citizens forum. Uh, anybody that would like to address the council on any item that is not either part of public hearings or new business, please come to the podium here. Give us your name and address for the record. I'd ask that you keep it civil and respectful and to 5 minutes or less. Is there anybody in the chamber that would like to address the council on citizens forum? [snorts]

All right, come on up. We need someone to start us off. All right, give us your name and address for the record, please. And you've got five minutes. My name is Aaron Ramar Ashelman. I uh live in West De Moine. My husband uh grew up in Valley Junction and I Could you please give us your specific address? I'm sorry. I due to the nature of my work, I would prefer not to give my specific address. I can give my dad's Okay, give your give [laughter] your Yeah, give your Yeah, give your dad's. That's good. Give your dad's He doesn't mind. My fault. I know him. He doesn't mind. He doesn't lie. Let me just pull it up real quick. We just We just 14 1919 19. No, it's 20ome. All right.

20 something. No, it's 1429th 19th Street. All right, that will work for us. Okay, go ahead. I will confess I have nothing prepared today, so you're getting off the cuff. Apologies in advance. Um, I have lived in West Deo my entire life. I have been to Valley Junction so so many times from the time that I was little all the way up till now. And I really really enjoy the historic nature of that part of our community. And you too.

Yeah, it's it's wonderful truly. And it is very unique and we do not have a lot of places like this in Iowa. We have a lot of small towns, but a lot of towns that have this idea of a main street are dying and they don't have the ability to maintain businesses like we do in Valley Junction. One of the things that I am frustrated by or that I'm seeing is this massive uproar about proposed buildings or apartments or town homes or whatever it may be the day of the week that I'm seeing it on there. The signs obviously say apartments. I have read through what I can find to ascertain what actually is occurring. And I think that there is a lack of information on what truly has been proposed regarding any changes to the streets, what it will look like realistically. And I think that is frustrating for the community when we don't have a clear understanding of what is or is not being proposed. And when you're talking about making changes to such a historic area, whether it's houses that are dilapitated, whether it is houses that are being sold or taken by the county because they want to be able to get money for their house and they can do whatever they want with it at that point. But without clear understanding, I think you're going to continue to have more uproar, more anger, and more frustration because I have looked in a lot of different places. I have read your responses on some of these posts. I have listened in on um the kind of town hall meeting that was held the other day with Kevin Travillian there and there is no understanding of what is being proposed and I think that is causing the most discomfort for the people in the community is that nobody knows what's going on and if you don't know what's going on then you can't formulate an argument you can't formulate a response and you just kind of have chaos and I think that's what we're seeing right now and so if the city council is looking at a proposal to change something within the junction then that needs to be addressed and it needs to be put out clearly. I have read your agendas in the

past. I have read and Googled essentially what has been proposed and I have not seen anything that lays it out. So my suggestion and my request from the council is if there is a proposal and there is a chat having about it to let us know what that is because for those of you who were not aware with the West De Mo school board and the closing of Walnut Creek campus that was something that was sprung on the community even though the school council have been talking about that for a while and so they had the information we did not and that was a very frustrating situation for a lot of people. So, my request [clears throat] for you guys is to be able to put together something, whether it's a onepage document or something that you can put out to the community with the facts of what has been proposed, what hasn't been proposed, and what the questions are for the community and for the council. On top of that, sorry, I don't know where I'm at minute-wise.

Uh, you got a minute.

Wonderful. I talk fast. So the other suggestion request that I have is that if there is going to be changes that they need to keep within the historical kind of structure of Valley Junction because there are great businesses that were added to Valley Junction, but the buildings with respect just look not great in the middle of Valley Junction. When you go from these beautiful historical buildings that we have to a giant black box that holds stores, it sticks out like a sore thumb. And they are great businesses in these buildings, but they are not fitting with Valley Junction. And if we cannot put the money into the infrastructure to keep the true historical nature of it, then if we're building things, it should be replicated within a historical nature of the area that we are in. And there are examples in different towns and different states of this being done. And I think that can be written into contracts if you are going to be doing changes to town homes, apartments, houses, whatever it may be, that there should be careful consideration that if they're going to contract to buy something, it needs to be within the confines of what Valley Junction looks like and the type of houses there. Further, parking sucks straight across. Okay.

We've had people say parking sucks. We've had people say, uh, we don't need more parking. No more parking. I think they don't want more parking because they don't want people more people coming down there, I think is what that would be. Um, and that's a concern if you're going to be putting in again, I don't know, apartments, town homes, whatever it may be. Um, parking is difficult and it does implement difficulties in different parts of Valley Junction, depending on where you're putting it, how it impacts the importance of the different festivals that they have down there, the markets that they're having down there, and things like that. So that would be my main request that if you guys would love to um acquies to that is to put some type of document together that you can put out on behalf of city council or mayor Trimble that you can put out there that just says what has happened, what has not happened and why what do we need to be aware of as a community.

Yep. And and I appreciate you being here. Your time is up. That's a very reasonable request. Um, I think the problem is what we've tried to do is, you know, what what was presented to us is town homes or or row houses and uh a rendering basically. Okay. What we had said to the developer and I tried to clear this up. I've I've tried this many times, but I think people are very motivated to try to make sure that this does not happen. Tried [snorts] to tell the developer that we are not able to approve this in one way, shape or form or another. can't do it because we first have to figure out what is going to be allowed and not allowed in these transition zones. So, because you brought this project forward and we don't have a lot of the specifics other than the rendering, um we're going to have to have a workshop to open up that discussion to figure out what makes sense, what doesn't make sense. And that is all the workshop was on November 17th. So, we had that. Then, there was a Valley Junction meeting. I went to the meeting. I tried to explain that we're not trying to jam a project down your throat. The developer came to us. This is what they said. We opened up a discussion on the transition zones. This is where we needed to go. This project isn't imminent. Uh it's uh they they would like to do it because they're claiming that they've got dilapitated houses there. But we've got to continue to have that dis discussion on what's allowed in those transition zones and what's not allowed in those transition zones. I think we all agree with you up here that we we love Valley Junction, the historic nature of Valley Junction. I want to address what you talked about with the buildings that don't fit in. Uh this isn't any fault of the council up here or really uh any council that's come before us, but you know, we had some economic development programs were put in place there. Um they were wildly successful. We didn't realize that they would somebody would tear a building down. They did. We also didn't realize that ever since

the start of Valley Junction, there were no design guidelines. So in the event that a building came down, in the build, in the event that it burned down, got torn down, got hit by a tornado, whatever, there are no design guidelines there. The residents brought this to our attention. We took a time out. We formed a committee. We put design guidelines in place to preserve the historic nature of Valley Junction. So, we all agree with you on that. Um, but I think there are some people that are motivated uh to try to make sure that apartments don't go down there. We've heard people loud and clear on the apartments. Um, again, that that is not a project that is imminent. We need to have further discussion on these transition zones. If you watched the workshop, we had staff who's here tonight that said, "We've got a lot on our plates right now. We've got a lot of other economic development projects that we're dealing with. It's going to take some time. We've been short staffed. We've got um [clears throat] we've been waiting on on some other uh some contractors to get us some information and different things. So, this this issue, this discussion is not going to be coming back to this DAS anytime soon. But that's not what the people that are against this want the other people in Valley Junction to believe. They want to get this chamber filled with people telling us no apartments. We've we've heard that and these are not apartments. But I hear what you're saying.

Okay. I hear what you're saying. We will work with the developer on a project that is not imminent, that [snorts] may not be supported, that probably won't be back here for months to try to get more details on what that project entails other than just the rendering. Am I allowed to respond? Yes, please. Thank you. I think that the word imminent is actually ambiguous because what I believe is imminent is very different than what someone else might believe is imminent. And when you're saying it's not imminent, I'm thinking possible years, but you just said months that that that the thing would even come back for a discussion. I can't tell you that the council would even support the project.

I think that is what the community would like to hear. And I think it is I know you've said it, but it's been in like Facebook. I can't say it. I can't say it anymore. I mean, I understand. I think that there's a lot I think it's fear related. I think a lot fear related and motivated. Um, but I think that's why if there could be truly a a statement on behalf of the city council on the website, posted in the neighborhood groups, everything like that that clearly lays out this was put here. We have not agreed. This is not happening at this point. The zoning laws do not allow for this. Further, we have a committee that was put together to ensure that if anything was done, it would fit within the design guidelines. I was not aware that there was a design guideline and this everything that you're saying, I don't disagree with you. That's everything that we said that night that we had that meeting.

Correct. But not everyone is at the meeting and we can't all I wasn't able I could only watch what was on the news. It wasn't the whole thing. And so I that's my request. It's just truly a one page that could be posted on city council's website that I can link to someone on an argument. If I see a Facebook post, I can say, "Hey, here you go. Check this out." And I think that passes quickly. Okay. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for your feedback. Really appreciate it. Councilman McKenna, I think you had a response.

Yeah. just uh uh Erin, thank you for being here and for sharing your perspective. I think uh obviously that's what this process is about. Um if you haven't had a chance to view the workshop video um you I I think it'd be helpful. I think anybody that um has more questions about what this is or what this isn't um being able to watch see uh the visuals and unfortunately I was not physically present. I had to participate remotely. Uh but you can hear what uh what the council shared on that. So I have Have you been You don't have to come back up, but um do you have a copy of the video?

Okay. We can get that to you. I'm not sure if it's I think it's on our website now, but if not, we'll make sure we get it to you. Okay. I think that would absolutely help.

Yeah. Because I think it frankly it addresses uh several items. Number one, it talks about, at least for me, I talked about the importance of codifying our design guidelines to ensure that we preserve the look, the feel, the character, uh, and everything else about Valley Junction. Second, I talked about the importance of trying to figure out parking because if anything's going to go down there, you know, I want to make sure that, uh, that we have sufficient parking and not just, you know, having people park in city lots because it's free. Um, and so, uh, several of the items you raised are things that, uh, that were touched upon that workshop. So, uh, would love to be able to get it to you and and I've got a link to it. I just I don't have your contact. So, if you want to stick around or email me, I can Yeah, we'll figure it out.

You know where your dad lives. You just gave us his address. I've been to his house before, too. So, I don't have it on DVD. I can't mail it. [laughter] All right. All right. Okay. He can ride, but he can't hide. All right. Councilman Hudson.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. Uh, Aaron, thank you for your comments, and I think it's important for everyone to know that we all learn additional information as well. So we have a workshop which maybe made it seem eminent at the time. Uh and everyone has a different definition of the word eminent when in fact it was a workshop just to learn more. And in response I've gotten lots of emails from folks down at Valley Junction. And I appreciate those emails. Had a long conversation with Nate Han on the phone. And guess what? I learned stuff. I learn more. I learn more. We all learn more. And there's no doubt there's passion down at Valley Junction. We've always known that. And I just appreciate your phone calls and your emails because that's part of the learning process and that's kind of what a workshop kind of brings out one side and then we hear more from another side and that how that's how we become holistic learners on the DA. So I just want to say thank you about that.

Holistic learners says the teacher. Yep. Thank you. All right. Anybody else in the chamber for citizens forum before I move online? All right. Come on up. either give us your name and address for the record or Jim Roar's address for the record. [laughter] My name is Sarah Cavan. My address is 3214th Street. So I'm right across the street from the houses that you're talking about. Perfect.

Um so yeah, I went to the um meeting that you guys had where and I got to watch the whole video which was really helpful, really informative. And I think what I wanted to come here today and talk about is just like give you guys more information on like what I know from my standpoint right across the street. And I did send an email to everybody and I appreciate um Greg Hudson sent me an email back and I really appreciate you saying thank you for that because it was nice to know that like I am being heard when I send out some emails. Um so anyways, I um I live across the street. I know people in those houses. I know my neighbors and I have been inside of those homes. So, it was hard to watch the workshop and then have people be like, "Those are dilapidated homes. Those aren't worth saving." I've been inside of those homes. I know for sure the house in the middle we're very close with. One of my daughters is best friends with the with the daughter that lives in that house. And so, we've been in that house many times. The foundation is immaculate. It needs a new roof. Um, but I have an old I have an overundy old home in Valley Junction. I know what that looks like to own someplace like that. And it's just it's normal. It's things that we do. Um, so anyway, so I just want you guys to know that these are not dilapidated homes. These are not unsavable homes. I've been inside of them. There's wonderful families living in them. Um, they are homes that could be really affordable for people. I know that it's really hard to live in West De Mo. Lots of people want to live here because of your school district is impeccable. You're, you know, like the neighborhoods are amazing. People want to be in West De Mo, but they can't because being outside of like the Valley Junction neighborhood, it's way more expensive. So, it's way more affordable to be in Valley Junction. And also like you every year we set aside money to do some projects on our house and sometimes they're big projects and sometimes they're little projects, but it's worth doing and it's worth saving. Um and I and it this project became imminent to me when my neighbor came to me and had a

letter from her landlord that said um you guys need to be out by December 26th, the day after Christmas. So he sent her a letter saying at the day after Thanksgiving saying we want you out the day after Christmas. And that was very hard for all of us to see. He did pull back on that after he got some push back. Um but still now he's not telling them when they need to be out. He's just saying, "I'm tearing down your homes." And to me, living across the street from that, I'm like, "Please don't tear down those homes." Like, "Somebody would love to buy them." Actually, my neighbor that lives in the middle home has told him multiple times that he will she will buy it from him and he has refused every time. So, him saying that they're dilapidated homes that are not worth anything is not true because she wants to buy them. Other people want to buy them. I know the realtor that's on Fifth Street that's fixing up the house on Fifth Street to make that part of his business. I think it's awesome. I think there's lots of people that want to invest in Valley Junction, but it's just a matter of getting the right people in there. And not to say that this guy that's trying to tear down the homes is a bad person that's trying to like do terrible things. I think yes, he probably has a beautiful plan for what he wants to do, but it just doesn't fit with what we're wanting in Valley Junction. And there's land really close to the Jordan house that's for sale. He could go build 12 of those 12 plexes. I will not even say the a word. It is not I will not say that that's what it is. It is it is 12 things on a three plot. You know what I mean? So it's like it is a lot for what we're used to. I would be if if something happens and it has to be torn down, fine. Build a single family home on top of it. Um because I just don't I have a deck on the side of my house. I don't want the sun to not be able to get through this structure across the street from me. So I I am I just want the facts to be heard. What I heard in the workshop was people being like, "Well, we don't know what's happening with those homes, what they look like on the inside or and it's like he's done no

work. I can give you a list of all the work I've done on my hundred-year-old house in the last 5 years. He's owned these houses for some of them two to three years, some of them five, six years, and he's done no work on them." So it's like I can give you a list of all the upkeep that it takes to take care of those homes. He's not taking care of those homes in my opinion. um he's patching some things, but he that's that's what he does and I get it. But it's like if you go into an antique shop and you buy a spot in an antique shop and you're like, "Well, I'm going to sell brand new furniture that looks amazing." And it's like, "Well, that's great, but not for here. We're we're an antique shop and we're selling antiques." And once you start to tell him it's okay to do that, then other people are going to be like, "Well, we want to sell our brand new furniture in there, too." And then it's just not going to be an antique shop anymore. And that's not what we want Valley Junction to become. And what I heard at the end of the workshop was people being like, "Well, maybe we just give them an okay and then we figure out these transition zones later." That's what I heard at the end. And I was like, "Oh, no. Don't give them the okay and don't figure out transition zones later. You need to like, in my opinion, you need to stand hard and fast on what you guys have already decided what you want the neighborhood to look like would be my opinion if that makes sense." Well, that's I appreciate you being here and sharing uh your your comments. And that's I think what we were looking at is that we've got to come up with what these what we're going to allow in these transition zones, what's not going to be allowed in these transition zones before we can decide on one specific project. Um and you know, but if you listen to the workshop too and and and Ryan Weiderstein from WB Realy, he is a really good guy. I know that maybe he hasn't made the best impression in this room on people in Valley Junction, but he is a really good guy and uh and he's a good developer. And he talked about in fairness to him that maybe one of the houses is dilapitated, one of them is actually not that bad. So he didn't say that they were all dilapitated, but that they were having some issues. But well,

thank you for being here and sharing that. And the other thing I would say is, you know, we if you want to tear your house down right now, unfortunately, and we talked about this in the workshop, I know you can do it. Yeah, I'm aware. There's nothing we can do to stop that. And if you're renting a house and your landlord gives you an eviction notice or says you got to be out by a certain time, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're putting an apartment building there. We can't stop that either. Or a townhouse,

town home, [laughter] whatever, you know, villa. We I mean, we can't stop that. So, I think putting together that serving the notice and that the project's going to happen. I could see where somebody would think that, but that just was not the case. It's he's exercising his rights to do what he wants with his property. So, but you know, in that meeting, we did talk about having potentially a four-fifth vote um if somebody wants to tear down a house in Valley Junction. And so, it's a very thoughtful council that cares very much about Valley Junction. We're going to have more discussions on this before anything moves forward. So, okay. Thank you for being here though. Appreciate it. I appreciate you guys. Anybody else in the chamber before I go online?

Okay. Anybody online for citizens forum? Hit star six to unmute yourself. Give us your name and address for the record, please. Star six, not pound six. We'll give a few seconds here as I know sometimes it's a struggle to try to figure out how to unmute yourself. [clears throat] Anybody online that would like to address the council? Okay, citizens forum is closed. We will now move on to item three, mayor council manager report, other entities update. Uh I will start down to my right with city manager Tom Haden. Any update for us? Report here. All right. Thank you, Councilman Hudson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [gasps] Just want to say the city's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration was uh was a great way to celebrate and memorialize Dr. King who certainly changed the United States of America for the better. And it's so cool that we have an MLK celebration in our own city. And I was there and I mean a point of pride is that my ac capella group from Valley High School was able to perform. That was really cool. I think they sounded awesome. They were amazing. One of the best I've heard of.

So, I want to give a shout out to uh the gentleman of a capella rain because uh they they performed the national anthem and a YouTube song called MLK which was great. Bridges from Roosevelt High School came in and sang a fantastic rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing. So, I think there's a lot to celebrate. definitely want to uh honor and recognize the students who were awarded as well because it's awesome to see young people get recognized by their community and by their city for the awesome work they're doing in the community and I just love seeing a celebration like the one that we hold. I'm proud to hold it here in West De Moines and it's just it's just great. It's a testament to Audrey Kennes who is our human services director. It's a testament to the human rights commission. Thank you to Tom Haden for his leadership. Thank you to the mayor for his leadership. Thank you to uh now Senator Renee Hardman who I know was instrumental in setting this up as well. So just there's tons of praise to go around because when you have 100 200 people show up for an event, I think that's something special. So I definitely want to say thank you to all of those who made it possible. It's great to be part of it.

You said it so well, Councilman. Councilman McKinnon.

Thank you, Mayor. Well said, Councilman Hudson. I appreciated uh the work everybody put into it and it was a excellent turnout. So, um I uh I don't have a whole lot to report. Mayor, I'm just going to give a quick summary of the development planning subcommittee meeting we had this morning. Um for colleagues on the dis here and those that are watching or in the in the room. Um during our last council meeting we had a uh we had a question about development uh kind of the southeast portion of the city and uh there was a he development where some folks from uh coming came in and expressed some concern. Uh we were able to address a lot of those concerns. There was concerns about traffic. We heard from Eric Peterson this morning that traffic study's been done and it's not going to be a problem. We talked to the uh developer about whether there was capacity to move the uh multifamily developments, different portions of that uh of that ground. It's not feasible given the topography out there. Um and they actually uh the developer did um agree to you know a good amount of screening and buffering and they even further went they went further and um reduce the density along the east uh side uh by a unit to have a detached uh or a detached town home right there as opposed to what they had previously proposed. So um I know the folks from coming are probably not too excited about it. Uh but the reality is um it is consistent with our comprehensive plan. We adopted a comprehensive plan that allowed much more flexibility than previously existed. We need more housing in our community. Um and this is going to help address a lot of that. So, uh we also just a couple projects, uh we talked about Ding, uh High School is going to be uh going through a a major modification. We talked about some of that. We saw some renderings. So, that was uh that was good to see. Um we talked about uh the additional parking that's going in for the Reclex. Um there's going to be something coming forward here to allow uh the city to parcel out some some ground there and

and move forward with the parking that we all know is necessary. So they're not parking at DMAC West or or uh the right tree service or others. So it's a good meeting and um a lot more activity coming forward. That's all I got here. Awesome. Thank you, Councilman. All right, Councilman Travillian. Nothing this time around. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Lot. Uh, nothing other than I miss my friend Renee up here, your honor. I know. I know. It's weird. It's weird having this empty seat here.

So, well, um, Councilman Traillion and I did attend the the Valley Junction meeting, uh, talking about the project, uh, and transition zones. We did have, uh, a great, uh, discussion. At times it maybe got uh a little bit a little bit out of hand. Um but but um ugly ugly a little a little bit here and there, but for the most part it was a pretty good discussion um with everybody that was down there. and Councilman Trailion uh did his best to facilitate the conversation, which I thought he did a pretty darn good job um given all the passion that was down there in that room and some of the hard discussions uh that that uh needed to be had. So, um, as as we said, we're going to continue to have more discussions on these transition zones at a later date and I appreciate Aaron the um you know the request and and we'll take a look at that and we'll we'll get with WB realy and see if we can get more information on that project and um we'll talk with our uh community economic development director Ryan Moffett who's in the back of the room about the request that you brought forward. I think it's a good one. So, okay. With that, we'll move on to item four, consent agenda. Are there any items that any council person like to have pulled and voted on separately? Otherwise, I would take a motion to approve [clears throat] the uh consent agenda as distributed.

Move approval. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote

for yes. Okay. Item five, old business. Item 5A, Davis Estates, west of Southeast 35th Street and south of Veterans Parkway. Amend the zoning map to establish single family residential zoning Hubble Realy Company. Um we have got um uh I'm sorry, we've got an ordinance for approval, the second reading, waiver, the third reading uh and adoption in final form. There are no outstanding issues. Uh and this was also approved unanimously by the planning and zoning commission. Motion considered a second reading. Second.

It's moved and seconded. Uh is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, please vote. [clears throat] Kevin [snorts] for Yes. An ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of West De Mo Iowa 2024 by amending title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Motion to approve the second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote [snorts] for yes. [cough] Motion to wave the third reading and adopt in final form. Second. Please vote

for yes. Okay. Item six, public hearings. Item 6A. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider. BEH 220 EP Parkway amend the planned unit development ordinance to allow five additional residential units within the Hamlet apartments and to align the PUD to the built environment initiated by True Parkway Iowa LLC. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice was published? January 2nd, 2026 in the De Mo Register and receive any written comments of this hearing. The plan zoning commission by a vote of six yes with one absent adopted a resolution recommending approval of the PUD amendment.

Okay. Anybody in the audience who would like to address the council on item 6A, please come to the podium here. Give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on item 6A? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And we've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the first reading and there are no outstanding issues. Move approval. Second. It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

I just want not really discussion. I just want to point out that um for those that have been around as long as I have, remember this was the Bay Farm and the building that they're proposing, which used to be a daycare, is the original uh barn from when that was a dairy farm. So, I think it's phenomenal that not only when um the Hamilton Apartments got built, they preserved that barn, but now they are opting to renovate that further and keep the character of it and then make uh dwelling units in it. So, I I think it's phenomenal those that remember the uh Maple Null barn and everything that went through with that. So, I just want to say uh thank you to Bay Properties for continuing this

and no uh no design guidelines required there. Absolutely. [clears throat] I [snorts] haven't been around as long as you because I thought it was BEH. Thank you for correcting me. [laughter] All right. Any other discussion before we vote? Okay. Hearing none. Please vote for yes man. City code of city west Iowa 2024 in the Bay planned unit development ordinance pertaining to plan unit development district regulations and guidelines. Uh I'm sorry I thought uh is this an ordinance? Move an ordinance. Yep. Move approval. Uh move approval of the first reading. Second.

Okay. Please vote [clears throat and cough] [snorts] for yes. Okay. Item 6B. We are being asked to defer to the March 2nd council meeting to give more time for this to work through the process. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Uh is there any discussion? Okay, hearing none, please vote for yes. Okay. Item seven, new business. Item 7 A, Banks Landing Town Homes, northwest corner south 88 Street in Booneville Road. Approve final plat to create 36 lots for multif family residential development in two outlots, JJR Holdings LLC. Uh we've got a resolution for approval and release of the final plat. There are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and second. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address council on this item? Is there any discussion in the DAS? Okay, please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. Item 7B, Jordan West Plat 4, 270 Jordan Creek Parkway. approve a preliminary plat to reduce the platted setback along the southwest property line of lot 6 Jordan West Plat 3 from 80 ft to 50 ft to accommodate construction of a medical office building Ryan Company's US Inc. We've got a resolution for approval of the preliminary plat and there are no outstanding issues. This was also approved by the planning and zoning commission on a unanimous vote. Move approval. Second.

It's been moved and second. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address council on this item? Okay. Any discussion on the dis? Okay. Hearing none, please vote four. Yes.

Okay. Item 7 C, fire EMS station 13, 1650 Southeast Mafet Lake Road. Approve a site plan to allow construction of an approximately 17,000 ft city public safety station, city initiated. Um, we've got a resolution uh for approval of the site plan and there are no outstanding issues. There is one condition of approval regarding the city council allowing deferral of the sidewalk until such time that the road uh is that the road is reconstructed or it is ne deemed necessary. Motion for approval. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Any discussion in the DAS? All right, please vote

four. Yes. Okay. Item eight, receive file and or refer. Item 8A, we will receive the FY2425 Westcom financial report. Uh item nine, uh other matters. Are there any other matters that any council person would like to bring up at this time for the good of the order? Okay. Hearing none, I believe. Yep. We will adjourn into the council workshop. Why don't we just take a couple minutes and we will start off on our 26 27 operating capital budget preliminary background and other matters.

All right. Uh, no. Close. 10 minutes. All right, Tim, let's get let's get rocking and rolling. We're going to come back to order. We're going to convene back as a in the workshop here. And uh this is the Tim and Chris show. We will let you take it from here. Short show. Hopefully. Short show. All right. I've got just a few slides. Um, feel free if you have questions. I mean, there's not that long of a presentation. So, you guys have all been through this numerous times now. So, um, we'll just run through what I got and then, yep, a lot of times for some of you.

Matter of fact, the first time Kevin and I went through this, I don't even think you were here. You missed it. No, I missed it. That would have been the Jodie Smith show, right? It was. It was. Chris Hamlet was here though. Yeah. Heck, we might have even had a citizen uh committee. Anyway, go ahead. We did cuz that was one of the first questions I asked and I was told that that was not something we wanted to continue. So, yeah, it's worked out the way we've done it, but there have been some people who used to serve on that committee that were pretty bummed out, I think, about it. But here we are. All right. We still appreciate all the everyone's input.

Oh, absolutely. Um, so this is just a very short agenda. I just wanted to talk about what's changed since last year in the world of property tax and the world of government revenues and things and then just give an update on where we sit today with our valuations and then kind of lead into discussion about the proposed tax rate. That's really, if you recall, we have our next deadline is to decide what our maximum levy rate for the next fiscal year is. Now we can always go lower but we can't go higher. So our thought is today if we could get some you know at least some head nods and some discussion on that then we can proceed with with where we need to go through the filing of the noticing and all those things.

I don't want to be presumptuous but I think we've always gone to the same place every year right like do the max and if we end up cutting we cut. That's right. Yeah.

But we'll get there in a few slides. Um so what's changed? Um there was a lot discussed last legislative session about property taxes and city revenues and things, but really nothing that directly affected our finances was a passed was approved last session. Now obviously there's a lot in the hopper right now that we don't know how that's all going to turn out, but based on what we have in front of us today, um you know, we had 718 the year before and those things. Um, the residential roll back did take a big swipe downward. It's as low as it's been certainly since I've been here. I think in the last 20 to 25 years, it's the lowest percentage it's been at 4453, which is nice for homeowners. Obviously, what that means is you're only taxed on 44% of your home's assessed value. Um, and that's really because the statewide uh growth is capped at 3%. And then I would say that, you know, that smooths out the bumps when assessments take a big hit, bigger or big increase. This roll back kind of cushions the blow a little bit. So that's kind of where we sit. And I mentioned it's good for the homeowners, but puts us in a little bit different spot. Um, also the commercial backfill uh was phased out. And so beginning with next budget year, there will not be any commercial backfill uh available. It was a 5-year phase out. And so this current fiscal year that we're in was the last year that we're receiving any of that. It was about three and a half million phased out over five years. Uh and it's gone now. Um on the plus side, we did approve a 1% natural gas and 1% electric franchise fee uh back in June or July of 2025 is when that got approved, I think. or 20 I

have 24 but

24 I'm sorry that's I why do I question myself um and and the revenues have been a little bit better than what we were projecting or what midame told us to expect when we entered into these things so um that helps and and just to clarify for anyone watching uh for the residents it replaced your 1% sales tax on your bill so you the net effect of all that was nothing um and Then we did beginning in July as you know change the percentage of hotel motel that's going to convention visitor beer and bravo went down from 28.57 to each of those. Now it's 25% to each of those. Um what else has changed? We had the uh consumer price index that we base a lot of things on including now kind of our non-union [snorts] compensation uh has a CPI factor. that number um from August 24 to August 25 was 2.9% increase in the CPI. Midwest was 2.8. So essentially the same and then hopefully you can see these numbers or these these lines. Um the yellow or the orange is where we actually ended up at the end of each fiscal year in terms of a surplus or a deficit in the general fund. The blue is what we budget. Um you can see we made some effort and and are continue to make effort to get those numbers closer together. Uh it's somewhat of a luck factor if you come out really close, but um we're doing what we can to get those closer because it helps you do forecasts and projections if you can rely on your budget numbers. And then our general fund reserve, this was planned that we would draw that down a little bit last fiscal year. Um we're

still sitting at 62 something% at the end of FY25. Target range is 30. So, we've got some cushion uh and and could draw that down if we if we get into some tough times or have some projected one-time expenses. And [snorts] then I did want to mention this and Chris put this together. Um the position review team uh kind of goes under the radar a little bit, but what you'll see when the budget comes if it'll be based off of the positions we now have in place versus what we're proposing and it'll kind of look the same. But we did want to just point out that over the course of the last year or so, we've whittleled off four and three/4ers FTEES, full-time employees through the either attrition or just department heads re reworking some things, uh things like that. So there will be a net net change of minus4.75 from last budget to what's being presented in this budget.

10 questions. Yes. public services superintendent. It says yes. I'm assuming that means that it exists. It means it was in this year's budget. Okay. No, the superintendent was taken out of the current year's budget. [clears throat] So that that was a 20 25 [cough] 26 change. But okay. So what's the yes mean that there is a person in that superintendent? Not because it says no, you'll have to retire. Yes. Means this was a change that was in the proposed 25 26 budget.

It was in the budget, but then we didn't fill it. Even though there's budget available, we chose not to fill it. That was a change that was in the 25. You did this slide. I should have let you talk in the first place. The ch the change was in the FY26 budget. Now we're budgeting for FY27. So the base has been reduced by 4.75. So if it says no, that was a change that was not included in the 2526 budget and is a change that happened during the current fiscal year. So So like if you look at the help desk analyst for information now that's not a good example. The GIS analyst, we did budget for that one that was originally in the budget. So it is a a change that took place in the current year. So it is

okay. Okay. So, we approved the budget and then after we approved the budget, you you reduce whatever. Okay. It's it's the opposite of what you would think. Okay. For the help desk analyst to since it was changed from contracted staff, does that mean we are already paying outside contracted staff and therefore this is not actually those extra two FTEEs, not actually a ton of extra money because it's replacing that and that probably cost almost as much. Yep. In fact, it was a it was slightly cheaper for us to go with the the our internal staff as opposed to the contracted staff. So even still that net public the non-public safety net change with adding those two, it's more of a wash for those two. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. So Chris, you said it it was cheaper to have our own staff than contracted. Yes, it was. Which is typical. Okay. Um in this case it was Okay. Sorry about that. I should have just let him talk. No, you're good. I didn't I prefaced it by saying it was his slide that he put together. So that's what I get for talking about things I don't know. So next area just is to talk about property taxes. We love property taxes, right? Like your Thanks. You really believe that, don't you? either [laughter] like candy land or some kind of some kind of a cereal. I tried to spice it up a little bit.

Saying they're fun and you'll believe it. Right. Right. [laughter] Right. You put it on the screen. It must be true. [snorts]

Um so this is just where we sit right now in our current fiscal year, the different levy rates in the city that add up to the $10.80. Um, if you recall, we had to drop the general fund levy, but we bounced up the some of the other levies below to kind of keep in that 1080 range. Um, this is where we what happened with our valuations. Um, and again, the roll back really cushioned the the the blow or the difference between total valuation [cough] versus taxable valuation. So our total valuation went up almost 8% last year [clears throat] but for a number of reasons the roll back being a big one also that we've captured some of that increase in tiff those two things combined um plus you know just some other tweaks here and there um we ended up as you can see we increased 3.2%. And I think I'd mentioned before that we would might be under that 2.75. Um [clears throat] what changed from the numbers we thought we knew back in September, October? Um [clears throat] Warren County came in quite a bit higher than what they had shown us from before. Um so they we were relying on some I guess maybe outdated numbers from them. Um they're not at the level of reporting things that maybe Poke and Dallas are all the time. They're working hard at it. They have some new people down there been emailing back and forth quite a bit. But that was one big change.

Well, Mitchellville is making them look pretty good about now. What's that? Mitchellville Mitchellville's [laughter] making Madison County looking Well, Madison County, Mitchellville, there's there's trouble around. Yes. Um and then so we are at a 3.2. two. Well, what does that mean? It's still $219 million of taxable valuation growth, which is a large number. Um, inflation.

Yes. Yeah. But it was a revaluation year. So, two years two years worth of change on a lot of the old stuff. Um, and this is just a reminder of the the the way that the tiers go in the legislation now. If you grow more than 2.7 2.75 you have to reduce your general fund levy rate by 1% which for us it was 797 so we're going to have to go down roughly 8 cents um in in in the upcoming fiscal year say that one more time y

according to this if you grow [snorts] well the first line less than two 2 and 3/4% you don't have to adjust your levy rate if you grow between 2.75 and essentially 4399 you have to reduce your general fund levy rate which is the top line here the consolidate that 797 has to go down by 1% which is 7.97 cents roughly eight.

So this is that situation where it would have been better to be at 2.74 growth than 3.25. In fact, had we been below the 2.75, we could have brought that all the way back up to 810, which was kind of the the benchmark from before. The legislation allows if you have less than 275 growth, 2.75, you can bounce your general fund levy rate back up to 810. Unfortunately, we were over that for this this year. So, when you say we grew at 3.2%, 2% our uh increase from last year. This is the taxable valuation, correct? The non-tiff tax the essentially the general fund value. Okay. I'm sorry. I thought you said we grew at 8%.

The overall valuation grew. Yep. But then when you consider roll back and what goes into TIFF and that the non or the taxable non-tiff valuation grew 3.2%. And so what number do we use 3.2 two or or eight for purposes of the ratcheting mechanism. 3.2. Okay. Sorry, I was confusing. No, that's all right. Thanks. The 3.2 is the key number when you talk about this chart here. We fall in 3.2. So, so then you said we got to reduce the general levy by was it eight basis points or something? It'd be eight cents. Yes. Eight cents. [clears throat]

Yeah. This this slide explains a little bit the same information, hopefully maybe a different way. [snorts] Um, we know that we have to come down 8 cents. We have to come down 1% and then we're going to be at 7.89 for next fiscal year, but we do have, as that last blurb says, we do have some flexibility in our other rates. And just because you know that you've got to come down 1% in your in your valuation, which means then you've got to be at this number, which then you have to adjust the um the levy rate accordingly to be able to get to that number. But it's not 1% in the valuation. It's 1% on the levy. Right.

Right. The rate has to go down by one. Okay. Yeah. And that's what this slide is kind of I guess staff's suggestion or recommendation is we know the top line has to come down by 8 cents would have to be at 7.89. Our thought was we've got a lot of flexibility in the employee benefits levy. If we wanted to keep at the 1080 we could increase that levy uh by the same amount roughly 8 cents. Did that show 2 then in the proposed 27 employee benefit? Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. That's a typo on my fault. 20 cents. Math is hard for me. [snorts]

I know. I know. [clears throat and laughter] That's why That's why Chris is right behind me. Surround yourself with good people. [laughter] Exactly. Right. Yeah. That should be 20 cents on the employee benefits levy is what we're suggesting. Do you know how much uh I always find it interesting um each penny is relative to um I'm going to say a number and then I'm going to look at him and he's going to tell me it's [laughter] different. So I'm just going to let him say the number. 70,000. It's about 70,000 is what we're projecting right now. It'll vary a little bit once we get the final Madison County. Yeah. So it's similar to what it has been in the past. Yep.

Yep. A little bit more. Um and Chris brought up a good point. Madison County has not filed their valuation. So all of this assumes that it's going to be just a modest increase. And their their piece of the total picture is very very small for West De Mo. But there's and and their auditor called me to kind of say we're working on it. We're going to get it ready as soon as we can. Got a lot going on down here. Yeah. Um so she was she did reach out proactively. Her name's Michelle Brandt, I believe. Discuss that. I want to see Madison County and Mitchellville in a steel cage. I want to see the battle between.

Now, when it comes to Madison County, um, you're suggesting that whatever they come back numbers wise is going to be pretty marginal. And so, there's no way that that would change this equation because it's just so small. It won't change it more than a few hundred the percent. It [clears throat] would never be enough to change it from 8 cents to 7 cents. No to zero. We would not fall below the 275.

Really all they have down there is land, a couple farmsteads, [snorts] and that midame substation that serves the Omnium data center. That's the big valuation down there is is the utility valuation in Madison County. There haven't been any new homes. It's also where someday Ruthenium will go, right? Correct. So that will make a a big difference and probably build some schools in that area someday. Especially if we can't use Tiff on it. Yeah. The valuation down there is going to change significantly someday. So

we do already have a development agreement in place for them by the way in case that comes up in conversation. That is that is very good. Yeah. Smart. They just put it on pause for a little bit.

Um, so what's left? Um, this is our calendar. We're here at the top um, talking tonight. Um, we will have the 16th meeting is that's when that budget workshop is, right? The 16th, not the 13th. Talk about the CIP. We'll be back in front of you at that that council meeting roughly a month from now. We'll also have our set hearing date [snorts] uh as an agenda item to approve to to approve the tax levy for the upcoming year. Um and then March 5th is the deadline when staff has to file the report with Department of Management to let everyone know what our tax levy rates going to be. and then they send that out to the counties and everybody gets their mailers by the 20th and same process has been done the last I think two years. So um as part of this uh budget workshop and given a lot of the dialogue that's happening up at the uh capital on property taxes and that's what this is largely funded by. I'm curious maybe Jamie if if there's a way uh to extend an invitation to our local delegation to join us on whatever day that is. Um

have it for Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. I mean just my thought I don't know. Sure. Um and and then uh who to our our local you know state representatives state senators that are you know have questions about how we're budgeting things. I mean, when we come in, you hear from, you know, [clears throat] all the different departments on the different things we're working through, I think it could be helpful. That's a great idea. And then, um, I know it's challenging. I've we've talked about it a couple times, but it to the extent we can [snorts] stream it, I'd like to. Uh, if we can't, I might bring my kids, uh, we stream their B volleyball games and and softball games. We can probably stream this.

We we've talked with it and they're that's what they're that's the plan. Are we? Yes. Awesome. It's gonna be like six to seven hours of streaming. It's a long I think.

Yeah. I don't know. Well, anyway, I think it'd be great if we could. So, let's let's have a conversation about that's a lot that's a lot of streaming, but people can come and join the meeting if they want to. But um all the rest should be said. Uh Matt offered to bring the baseball and softball streaming service. Matt, what is the name of the baseball softball streaming service? You know it. We got a couple of them. Uh I just have a new one this last week and Pixel Lot is a good one. Oh, come on. You're missing the joke. Game changer. Game changer. There you go. Love that. There you go. That one

back there. But the only the only thing I would say bringing in bringing in our delegation like what are you envisioning? We've got to think of like a part of the program that we bring them in on because they're not going to sit here all day long. They're not going to sit here for six, seven hours. [clears throat] I mean [snorts] up to them. I'm just all right. I like it. Sorry. I was just saying just let them know. Hey, we're having our budget workshop. If you're interested, it'll be a 7-hour period. You're going to learn a lot about the great ways that we protect and preserve your tax dollar and and deliver high quality efficient city services. come on in and uh love to see you. All right. Okay. All right. What else? What else, Tim? That's all Tim has. Uh any any questions, comments from anybody at this point in time?

Tim, can you go back to a slide? Uh probably the fourth or fifth slide with the budget versus actual over the couple of years. Yeah, this is the one. Um I was just looking at the 2024 gap between the budget and the actual and it seemed like two years [cough and clears throat] ago I guess we uh had quite the difference and that's when you all made the choice to kind of I think we had told me kind of before that to try to equalize those out a little bit and then how my my question really is how difficult was the process of being more realistic with the budget and versus actual which turned out really well

it's probably greater percentage coincidence that we came out relatively close last year. I mean, we worked at it and we were going to come out somewhat closer, but to close the gap by that much, there was some just timing involved. Um, I know one of the the biggest reason that the revenues or the actual surplus was down was our building permit, just the timing of when we received those those checks from mostly from Microsoft, but some other ones as well. Um, Chris, any other thing you want to add on that? Yeah, I was just going to comment that in 24 we had Microsoft come in and drop off a huge building permit on the last week of the fiscal year which really skewed things a lot. You know, had that check come in two weeks later um you know 25 would be looking a lot different. So it was a very [snorts] large you know tiny difference.

How but overall the gap is we've we're purposely saying don't come in and cushion your budgets. We're we're taking the cushion out. let's get what it's really at and if we need to make adjustments to add something if you really need it we will. So we've been continually pushing that together and yeah I mean yeah we're going to how many Microsoft's going to come in with seven big permits in the next couple years. So but that that's

some of that's hard some of that's hard to predict but but I like what you're doing. So basically what you're what you're doing is you're looking more realistic more realistically at historical vacancy factor and [clears throat] uh our ability to fill FTEES that um that we need to fill um so that you know basically where what what our real expenditures are going to be from a personnel standpoint is probably where a lot of it

we're not budgeting for as many contingencies as we used to like what if this happens then we might need this money. I look at this slide. This is our contingency. We've got these reserves. If something bad happens and we need to do a budget amendment, this might come down a little bit more than we planned. But that's okay. Um I'd rather cuz from my standpoint, if we budget for something, that means we have to go get it from the taxpayers. like we can't just budget for it, but we actually have to come up with that money through tax [clears throat] rates or whatever source of revenue. So, if we don't have to ask for quite as much, it's a lot easier on everyone.

Yeah. I I guess you're you're looking for I I think I think we do what we always do unless the council tells me differently is we come in at that maximum amount and if the council decides that at at that point in time uh we can afford to do another property tax cut then then we do that. But uh for me you know I've been saying you know I guess over the last 11 years we've gone from 1205 down to 1080. I mean it's it's a$125 per thousand that we've cut over 11 years. because I'm pretty proud of that and I think everybody on this dis should be pretty proud of of the cuts that we've done while maintaining the same level of service high quality city service that not a lot of other cities are capable of delivering taking care of our infrastructure needs and doing everything else that we need to do. I'm looking at this with some of the uncertainty and with the past cuts that we've done and to me I don't think this is a year for a tax tax cut personally. So

I I I I agree. I think I look at this line and if we knew that things were going to continue the way they were, I would say 62.9 that's high. We need to return some of that money to the taxpayers. Right. But given the uncertainty of the state house, I don't know that we can this year. Right. I agree.

Yeah. I like what we've done uh over the course of time. Um I uh maybe see what Madison County uh brings in, but if we can't come up with 70,000 to to do one penny, I I think we're that I'd be surprised. You know, I don't One penny is one penny. I get it. Uh but I I like seeing us get down in the sevens as opposed to staying at the 80, but that's a personal preference. Would you be okay if we listed our maximum would be that and then absolutely because we still have to go through the workshop and the whole process. We don't even have a final number just yet. We're getting there. We've met with all the departments. We've we've combed through some [snorts] numbers, but we're not quite there yet. Even

I think we're the same sentiment, right? Like you start, okay, if you [snorts] start, it's not really zero based, but you start where you're at and then you go, how can we drive efficiency and where can we find that? And then the decision is up here where we say, given the uncertainty of the state house, do we take a penny? Because to your point, Matt, it's 70 grand. Like it's 70 grand every year, though. But yeah, it is, but it's like you can't tell me we can't find 70 grand in the copy machine. Okay. We can Well, [laughter] I don't We can find it. What kind of a printing press you got going? He goes for swimming pools. You go I mean swimming, diving boards, you go for coffee machines. But I just think we got to be smart. We've

We all got our things. We've cut and cut and cut and again maintain our high level of city services. We've gotten lean. We don't know what's coming. We can always go lower, but we can't go higher. So, stick it to 1080 and then if we'll see where things come in. If there's clouds on the horizon, then we have to adjust accordingly. So, I agree too. But this is where when you know you guys put together this this more realistic budget of you know revenues and expenditures and looking out at that 5-year budget just assuming nothing passes this year but looking at that ratcheting mechanism and our historical growth

you know where are we going to be five years from now and [snorts] if we're looking at five years from now uh you know like we're okay for the next couple years but five years from now we're going to run into trouble. Well, that $70,000 might we might really want that 70,000, you know, and that's with no changes. With no changes. That's right. Yeah. I just want to make sure that we continue to maintain the same same level of service that we've been maintaining. Yep. Gets tougher and tougher every year [cough] and [clears throat] liable to get really tough this year. So, yeah, we need to look at other ways of maybe coming up with money,

not out of a copy machine. Well, and I've seen that. I I I was talking to a city the other day and I said, "Where are you on your franchise fee?" They went from one to five in one year just because of this, because of the uncertainty and wanting to make sure that they stabilize the city and maintain the the services. And I'm not not advocating for doing that, but there there are cities that are doing, right? I I think we need to look at ways of of you know maybe coming up with some money without putting it on the backs of the taxpayers because whether you yeah [clears throat] you know franchise fee, sales tax, whatever you want to call it, it still comes out of our residents pockets. So

there's other ways that we can come up with some money. We all know what that is. I'm not going to state what that is right now, but you all know what that is and we need to look at that. Yeah. Buy lottery tickets. No. Well, I did see the lost was coming up at the state house, too. That's part of I have not because of my conflict of interest, I haven't paid that much attention to the specifics of all that. We've got our legislative committee and we've got our lobby our lobbyist to look at that too. But I understand that as part of Dawson's property tax cut that he's increasing from a penny to a penny and a half

the lost. You know, now what that does for us, I don't know. Simple simple math would would almost tell you go from 14 million to 21 million 16 million 16 million to 24 million. What's and if they adjusted the formula it'd be even be be much better [laughter] while they're opening it up. Why not? Cuz what is it what what did we figure we were getting on that loss? We were getting like 70% of the of the loss that we generated. We're losing 30%. or was it the um I looked at it as if a little bit different spin that okay

in Dallas County Pulk County is not that much change from what we put in versus what we get out but in Dallas County we put in about 50 plus% of all the loss and we're getting back less than 20 so we lose 30% right there well more than 30% it's I don't can't do math but we're putting we put in 50% we put in 56% of the total say and we're only getting out about 20 of the total. So if the total's I don't know 5 million, we're putting in two and a half and getting back a million. I don't know the the way the numbers work, but with early in this session, as I've learned over the years, you [clears throat] know, we

previously I'd be going crazy because you read the bills and you're we we got to kind of wait. We we listen to what let it work its through the system and if there's something we can do to help you know some of these ideas are are not you know they got 10% for your uh general fund reserve but but I did notice in the next word said unless you could identify purposes that you could you know like it's it's our vehicle equipment fund or these other funds I think there's ways to still protect that I don't know if they understand if you want to get a AAA bond rating I wonder how the state does it. You have to have so much in reserves.

Yeah. So they So I hope that's things we can educate him. I hope. But but we're we wear Jamie out with fire alarms every day on um these these bills that come out. So well and you know the [clears throat] unfortunate reality is that it's their prerogative to do what they want to do and change the change the formula how they're going to change the formula. and uh they they can do that and then right we will take that we will take whatever money that generates and we will spend it as wisely as we possibly can right

you know we'll prioritize that and if that means that we're going to have to um look at making reductions or changing how we deliver services we're going to have to react to that and deal with the money that we're able to pull in and uh [snorts] you know we're not going to fire the firemen first I mean a lot of our budget is on public safety and public services. I mean, that's probably what 60 70% of our public safety alone is almost half and then public services is the next biggest department. 15 to 20. I think Chris has another number right there. I mean, if there's anything that the residents expect us to do, it's police, fire, EMS, plowing the streets, and paving the streets, right? So, mowing grass.

Mowing the grass so [snorts] you can throw grounders in the park to your kid. Yep. Public safety is 46%. Nearly 50%. Public services, public works is almost 13%. And public safety does not include Westcom. [clears throat] Or are you including the portion? Okay. Okay. All right. Well, anything else for the good of the order? No. All right. Thank you. We're J.