City Council - Regular Meeting

0:00 – 1:35•RSRandy Schubring

The Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Welcome everybody to our September 21st, 2026 city council meeting. We begin every council meeting with our open comment period. This is an opportunity for anyone from the public to speak on items that we will not be taking public testimony during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each person has up to two minutes for a total of 20 minutes. I will keep track of time through two methods. One, the stoplight here at the dais and the digital clock on the wall to my left. I'd ask each speaker to be concis

3:55 – 4:12•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Ms. Dennis. This is our open comment period. Anyone else wishing to be heard during this period, please step forward. Seeing no one, I will close the public comment period and ask Clerk Kasel to please call the roll.

4:30•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Next up we have the City of Administrators report. Administrator Zelms, take it away.

7:37 – 7:53•KNKim Norton

You bet. It's been a busy fall and I want to thank Council President Schubring for covering on Latina Fest. I got there at the very end and heard a really interesting panel discussion that you participated in. Thank you for representing the city so well on that panel.

7:55 – 13:15•KNKim Norton

That was really nice. And there was also a fun event on Sunday called Transition Town, which is about how the communities can respond to be more resilient moving ahead. Given all the changes in the world including climate effects and economy and the whole thing so very interesting. So it's a nice little weekend of activities Coming up this week. We have Wednesday two days away Looking forward to this we have nearly 200 young people registered for the youth leadership and success summit It's open to all high school students in the county The governor is going to kick it off in the morning. We'v

13:16 – 13:54•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mayor. The Mayor's Medal of Honor is kind of like Rochester's Academy Awards for volunteers. It's a very exciting event because people are surprised. They don't know they're going to get it. Great event. With that, we are looking at the order of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Moved by council member wall and seconded by council member Fredericks. He got in before you just oh, do you have a just want to make a clarification?

Just that there was a. Last a late change if anyone was watching that there is a change in the resolution for G1 on the agenda. It's not a change to the agenda right now, but I'll just point it out. Thank you council member.

14:08 – 14:38•RSRandy Schubring

Yes, so check online and if you want a paper copy, I know Ms. Edens has some. So with that, all in favor say aye. Poe say nay. On to our consent agenda, I believe there are no polled items, is that correct? Therefore, I invite a motion to approve the consent agenda in its entirety. Moved by Councilmember Doering, seconded by Councilmember Miller. All in favor say aye.

14:39 – 14:57•RSRandy Schubring

Opposed say nay. Motion passes. We are on to our public hearings, and our first public hearing is G1, which is a conditional use permit. by MGK LLC and we have Ms. Taryn Edens to present this item.

29:37 – 30:54•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you and Mr. Uh, before I open the public hearing, I just want to, um. Thank you, council member. So before I open the public hearing, I just want to remind folks that public hearings are handled a little differently than open comment period. First, we've now had the staff report. Now we will ask the applicant to come forward. They will have up to 10 minutes. TO DISCUSS THEIR REQUEST. AND THEN I WILL OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARING. MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC HAVE UP TO FIVE MINUTES EACH TO DISCUSS THE ITEM. AFTER THAT, I WILL CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. THE APPLICANT WILL HAVE AN to address any questio

39:10 – 39:21•RSRandy Schubring

Mr. Welch, you do have one minute and 40 seconds left. You did ask for additional time. And I'm gonna ask my council if there is a motion to.

39:21•AFAndy Friederichs

Motion to approve what Mr. Walsh is asking for.

39:24•RSRandy Schubring

How much time, council member, are you going to give?

39:27•AFAndy Friederichs

How much time would you have, Chair? I think five minutes. Five minutes? Five minutes it is. Okay. I'll second.

39:32 – 39:44•RSRandy Schubring

There's a motion to add five additional minutes to the applicant's time. And it's been moved by Council Member Fredericks and seconded by Council Member Keene. All in favor say aye.

47:05 – 47:20•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. Welch. At this time, I will open the public hearing, and our first speaker is Justin Hasse. Hasse? step forward and you have up to five minutes.

49:29•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. Haase. Next up, we have Brian Posse.

53:12 – 53:24•DDDan Doering

Council President, I have a clarifying question to ask about acronyms being used. Okay. So I have better understanding. What does AGL mean? Thank you.

53:25•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Council member. Mr. crew up to 5 minutes.

56:29 – 56:51•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. Coon. This is a public hearing. Anyone else wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward. Anyone else wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward. Anyone else? What's that? Come forward, state your name, and you have up to five minutes.

59:39 – 1:00:22•RSRandy Schubring

I'm going to say no, but if council members don't want to allow the rebuttal, we'll be fine. Okay, Mr. Welch, you have five minutes to, and if you can address any of the concerns that came up during, well, actually, I'm sorry, sit back down, because I didn't close the public hearing, and I do wanna ask one more time. This is a public hearing. Anyone else wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward. Anyone else wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward. Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and invite Mr. Welch and the gentleman from Barr to step forward. And you

1:05:38 – 1:05:50•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Thank you. At this time, I will ask my colleagues if they have questions for staff or the applicant. Council Member Wall.

1:05:52 – 1:06:26•NWNorman Wahl

Thank you. And this would be for staff. It is under The conditions, it's number three. Due to the anticipated negative impacts of the quarry use, the applicant shall enter into an operations agreement executed by the applicant and the city that includes, the first bullet, planned controlled explosions only occur outside scheduled and non-scheduled flight. How could you do a planned explosion for a non-scheduled flight if you don't know they're coming?

1:06:58 – 1:07:31•RSRandy Schubring

Councilmember, can I ask a follow-up to your question? So, Mr. Reid or Ms. Terrence, can you talk about the number of unscheduled flights that come into RST? And obviously, we have medical emergencies that come here, but... What amount of unscheduled flights happen? And then when an unscheduled flight happens, how much notice do you have?

1:08:40•RSRandy Schubring

Can you address the second part of my question as far as when there is an unscheduled flight coming in, what kind of notice does the tower get?

1:09:24 – 1:09:48•DDDan Doering

I have a follow-up to Council President's follow-up from Council Member Walz. The unscheduled flights, I appreciate the description of those unscheduled flights, student flyers, all that kind of stuff. What are the kinds of weather conditions when those student flyers choose to fly? Are they the favorable conditions that were described by the blaster in this case? Or do they go up when...

I have a question for our attorney. We're in a quasi-judicial thing here and one of the Applicants said, you know, focus on facts and openness and I have a quandary that I have facts in front of me that were documented in reports. And then I have other experts who come in and say, those are incorrect. Is there a certain way that we're supposed to weigh these? Is there something with public safety outweighs taking of of land assets? Is that just our job to pick the expert we believe? Thank you, Council Member Keene.

perhaps can contradictory points in front of you follow up as is helpful to you thank you and then I wanted to ask not sure if it's community development but one of the resolution whereas is the report received concludes that the quarry would create a direct aviation hazard And we've been talking to those specific facts, or is that a finding of fact based on that report? Or is it based on other, uh, other, uh, professional judgment?

Okay, and let me ask Mr. read just in it is it the almost way it came up. How did we pick that group to do this assessment versus another group that would be more familiar with our airport zoning or our airport construction work on that runway or somebody that, yeah, how do we pick them as the experts?

Okay. And last question. This is just on the, uh, when I get into this idea of this, if it did go towards approval versus denial, and then you end up with these conditions, can you talk about the. Administrative complexity and what the authority is to to, um. Uh, enforce those sort of conditions.

1:14:55 – 1:15:45•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Yep. I have a follow-up to Councilmember Keene's last question. So, twice, Mr. Reid, you mentioned the lead in the air traffic control process. group in the tower and and their comment is that the I guess I'm struggling with it sounds like a very off-handed comment and it's not official and so I'm asking kind of when did you ask for their their opinion and and on this issue and is it in writing somewhere that opinion or is it just kind of an offhanded comment that

1:17:02•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you for giving us that context, Mr. Reid. Mayor Norton.

1:17:09 – 1:17:33•KNKim Norton

I'm looking for some clarification. I heard two different things on whether the quarry is in A or C, and it was multiple times the owner's representative mentioned it was in C, but in the visuals that I'm looking at, it clearly appears to be in A. So I'm struggling with this, and I'm wondering if someone can provide clarity for that.

1:18:15•SPShaun C. Palmer

Is the third party report done by an engineer from Minnesota?

1:18:35 – 1:18:49•SPShaun C. Palmer

So our meeting agenda was published on Wednesday. You're sending emails out today, and we get a report from this other third-party report comes in on Friday. Am I missing that timeline?

1:19:11•SPShaun C. Palmer

Can I ask the gentleman from Barr Engineering?

1:19:18•SPShaun C. Palmer

You're an engineer licensed in Minnesota, correct?

1:19:26 – 1:19:37•SPShaun C. Palmer

And I'm going to take you to downtown Rochester where you're blasting similar material? Same rock. Same rock. And how many blasts do you think you've done? Two or three, probably?

1:19:40•SPShaun C. Palmer

Okay. Okay. And who's doing the blasting? Is this a professional person that's doing the blasting?

1:19:59•SPShaun C. Palmer

Okay, thank you. If we approve this today, the next step would be for an operational agreement. Is that not correct?

1:20:44•SPShaun C. Palmer

A question for our engineer over there. Can this quarry last 30 to 40 years in operation?

1:21:22 – 1:21:33•SPShaun C. Palmer

So they're going to blast the rock. They can come in with loaders. They're going to break it up. Is this for crushed rock? Yep. And there's a need for that in Rochester?

1:22:02 – 1:22:35•RSRandy Schubring

I have a follow-up to Council Member Palmer's questions about the blasting and comparing it to the blasting that's happening downtown at Mayo. So we've, some of us watched that blasting and they have a process where they put something like a covering over it that keeps the debris, I think it's to keep the sound low, but is that something that you've explored to, or does something like that mitigate the dust and rock coming into the air.

1:24:08 – 1:24:31•NMNick Miller

Just a question. I guess for either staff or our engineering blasting expert, for the comparable airports where there are existing quarries within that radius, are any of those quarries, have they been approved post-airport operations commencing or were they pre-existing and the airport was built there? I mean, do we have some analog to a process that was followed in another case?

1:25:34•NMNick Miller

And could you speak to the process they're using of coordination there?

1:26:43 – 1:27:44•DDDan Doering

Yeah, just one more question about a perceived discrepancy between the resolution and what we were told by Barr and the group coming forward. In the cover page for this item, it says community development, Rochester Airport, note the high degree of coordination, very significant possibility that flight operations of RST RST may need to be suspended before and after blasting activity, and I am making an assumption that that is based, and that's what's informing one of the whereases in the resolution that we're being asked to pass, where it says the continuing land use would require the use of e

1:27:56 – 1:28:09•DDDan Doering

So, but then what can I ask one more follow up? Go ahead. So then what I understood is that in an operational agreement, we could limit that amount of blasting activity. That's correct. Okay. Thank you.

1:28:20 – 1:28:44•SPShaun C. Palmer

I make a motion adopting a resolution recommending approval of a conditional use permit number CD 2026-008 CUP by MGK LLC for limestone aggregate quarry with the six conditions and with the seventh one added that less than seven blasts per year. Second.

1:28:44•RSRandy Schubring

Motion made by Council Member Palmer and seconded by Council Member Fredericks. Council Member Palmer, are you gonna defer? Oh, go ahead.

1:28:53 – 1:29:33•SPShaun C. Palmer

I mean, we have a state of Minnesota engineer who's very well-knowledged about what's happening here. I'm comfortable with that. I'm uncomfortable with something that shows up on a Friday afternoon after our meeting agenda has been published. And I've been around enough blasting that I'm comfortable with what they're trying to do, and I understand the airport's original two problems, and number one was the waterfall, and everybody else agrees that waterfall is not, birds are not going to be a problem on this site. So that's the reason for my motion.

1:29:35 – 1:29:47•AFAndy Friederichs

Yeah, just one of the things you said at the end there, Council Member Palmer, did you state that only seven blasts a year? Correct. Is that fair? I should ask that before I jumped on a second.

1:30:16•AFAndy Friederichs

I just don't want to pigeonhole you and impede your operations if it isn't effective and you need to do a few more. Yeah.

1:31:24 – 1:31:43•NMNick Miller

I'm curious. I don't remember who said this, but at some point during the presentation, there was a mention of if it were not amenable to keep Zone A into the approval, that you would be looking for certainty to be able to continue with a project that only incorporated areas within Zone C.

1:32:00 – 1:32:17•NMNick Miller

Okay. I know that staff mentioned that there's largely no difference from staff's perspective is how I understood it. Would that remain your position here? That it would, should this move forward, Zone A and Zone C would be seen equally there?

1:32:41 – 1:32:55•NMNick Miller

So I'm then curious what my colleagues, particularly the movers, would feel about a modification to the motion that would remove the area zone A.

1:32:57•AFAndy Friederichs

I don't believe in land restriction as low as possible. And if we're within guidelines and safety measures, I like to have them the freedom to operate in their space.

1:33:07 – 1:33:39•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, if Mr. Miller wants to make that motion, I would support that. I go back to the seven. It's a business decision, how much rock they want to have blown and how much they're going to do. So that's where I'm comfortable with seven. And if they've already said that Zone C was agreeable to them, I'm not particularly sure that I want to, you know, if it gets to the pass, I'd accept the motion. All right, second in motion.

1:33:41•RSRandy Schubring

Okay, we'll get to that if we need to. Mr. Keene. Yeah, I see Mr. Keene. Go ahead, Council Member Keene.

Yeah, again, when Council Member Palmer made this motion, he talked about this last minute report or being out of state. I've been following this a little closer. It sits out by the airport and other residential parts of Ward 1. This has dragged out a long time, and I think the staff did a good job of showing the things starting there. But this idea of like degrading that report over somebody's local, that's a finding of fact that I just can't do. And based on that, I'm not going to support this motion.

1:34:19 – 1:36:15•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. King. I'm struggling with this and so we have denial or we have the motion that we just heard. Now, I did hear continuance. What I have difficulty with is I'm looking for, and I understand that this has been going on for quite some time and I really commend Mr. Reid and the airport and and the applicants of working together up to this point I do have some I'm uncomfortable about the report that came out late this week and also some of the some of the characterization of that report by by the applicant that concerns me I'm also concerned about hearing about the coordination that

1:36:18 – 1:37:42•NWNorman Wahl

I will not be supportive of the motion. The current motion. I really appreciate the care offered by the applicant in terms of blasting and assurances that you give. I very much do appreciate that. However, Mr bars word said, you know. 1 in a 1000, which doesn't mean. zero it means something could happen safety is always paramount i believe it's safe i believe the applicants uh believe that certainly the staff believes that but even if it's you know a remote chance are you still saying there's a chance uh and it could compromise safety In addition to the local pilots that we heard earlier tonig

1:37:46 – 1:37:58•DDDan Doering

Just I do not plan to support the motion as it's made right now as well for very similar reasons to Council Member Wall. So I appreciate his efforts to express that much more eloquently than I can.

1:38:00 – 1:38:32•NMNick Miller

I guess I'm not ready to support the motion that's presented, but I am closer to where Council President Shubring has expressed an interest in considering how this project continues with a look at Zone C further airport operation coordination and a little more time to understand if this is a workable solution. But I would be inclined to see this move forward with some additional carve outs and clarification of the number of blasting events per year.

1:38:34•RSRandy Schubring

Call the question. Clerk Acaso, can you call the roll?

1:38:57•RSRandy Schubring

Is there a alternative motion? Council Member Palmer.

1:39:08•AFAndy Friederichs

Help me with that since it was your idea.

1:39:12•RSRandy Schubring

I think your colleague next to you, Council Member Palmer may help you with that.

1:39:17•SPShaun C. Palmer

I would second a motion to continue this till the second meeting in October.

1:39:23 – 1:39:35•RSRandy Schubring

Is that good? Motion has been made by Council Member Fredericks and seconded by Council Member Palmer. Any further discussion? Council Member Keene and then Council Member Wall.

I'm just gonna reach out to Community Development and let's say this is the second meeting in October. What are you looking for? I'm not sure what the continuation is gonna do there. I think we're trying to work on these six conditions. Is that the idea? But I'd rather get something from staff or how you feel we'd move forward if this were the direction.

But I guess what I'm looking for here is what's gonna happen in the four weeks. Is this a negotiation to say here are the conditions and the specifics and we have an agreement that we could do this? I mean, I'm not sure if I'm putting the onus on. Is that the onus is on the petitioner or is the onus on the airport?

Okay, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna portray out that there's gonna be a, it'll be on reports and recommendations, it'll say recommend to approve or deny, and then it'll say if approve, it's with this operational agreement, and that would be an agreed to thing, or maybe the thing comes back to us, it says we couldn't get to an operational agreement, and we recommend denial. Is that, am I thinking about it the right way before I vote, or is that, am I making this up?

1:41:38•RSRandy Schubring

Let's pull Administrator Zelms into this.

1:42:49 – 1:43:17•RSRandy Schubring

What I would say as far as our process here, we are choosing not, if this motion passes, we are choosing not to make a decision on the denial that came from planning and zoning and the recommendation from staff. So what we are continuing is that decision. So that decision will come back to us in the same form is my understanding. Is that correct, Mr. Spindler-Craig?

1:43:30•RSRandy Schubring

So can you spell that out to us? Do we need that to be in the motion that Council Member Fredericks made?

1:43:58 – 1:44:19•RSRandy Schubring

Okay, if the applicant can step forward and let us know if you are willing to continue this. Thank you. All right, with that, we have, who are you pointing to? Mr. Reid, did you wanna say something? Go ahead.

1:45:25•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. Reid. I think we're asking for more information as well to make our decision, if that's from my standpoint. Council Member Wall.

1:45:35 – 1:46:14•NWNorman Wahl

So I think that Mr. Keene probably covered what I want to ask, but I'll be a little bit more pointed. For whatever it is that the council is asking, is the staff, Certain about what we're asking is the applicant certain that we're going to get the information that we're going to ask for within about four or five weeks. Where's the burden lie? to make sure that we get whatever it is that we want in order to make a decision.

1:46:40•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. With that, Clerk Caso, please. I'm sorry, this is still. Council Member Doering, go ahead.

1:46:50•DDDan Doering

Could I ask Community Development to tell us what that information you heard is so we can make sure that we're all on the same page?

Yeah, I just want to add to this. Again, I'm looking down this thing and I'm getting to the point I'm okay with the continuation because it's getting the right facts here. But I don't want to imply that I'm willing to accept like this, create a direct aviation hazard, like even if it's a one in a thousand, one in a million. That's not what I'm hoping to hear from this. But I'm also telling staff that, I mean, if this is a Degrade degradation to the airport. I want to make sure you tell us that and don't say, well, that's what they wanted. Because I am not comfortable on this trade off that if,

1:48:25•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Councilmember. With that, Ms. Edens, go ahead.

1:48:46•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Clerk Kasel, please call the roll.

1:49:07 – 1:49:24•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. Thank you. We'll be back on this. And we are going to take a seven minute. G2, which is our 2027 Annual Action Plan Community Development Block Grant allocations. Mr. Brent Svenvee.

2:01:49 – 2:02:24•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Mr. Svenby. AT THIS POINT I WILL OPEN THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD OR THE PUBLIC HEARING TODAY. ANYONE WISHING TO BE HEARD ON THIS ITEM PLEASE STEP FORWARD. Anyone wishing to be heard on this item, please step forward. Seeing no one, we will not close the public comment period, but I would invite Mr. Svenve to come back and invite my colleagues to ask any questions you may have. Council Member Wall.

2:02:25 – 2:02:38•NWNorman Wahl

Thank you, Mr. Fendi. I was very pleased that you reported on the loans that are repaid to the city and how you include those into further grants. That's terrific. Thank you.

2:02:40•AFAndy Friederichs

Thanks for your work on this. Your meetings are popular with the public. A lot of people show up.

2:03:12•AFAndy Friederichs

I like the areas you're allocating the money. Thanks for your work and thanks for the people that are on the board as well.

2:03:50 – 2:04:05•NMNick Miller

Just a question, I noticed most of the applications are for operational support, with one exception for purchase of assets. Are these typically new programs that these organizations are proposing, they're ongoing operations, and what other funding sources do they rely on?

2:04:18•NMNick Miller

but they do tend to be ongoing programs whether funded or not.

2:04:25•RSRandy Schubring

So I'm unclear, do we need a motion to keep the open comment period open until November 2nd?

If someone would like to make that motion, I'll make the motion, which we probably should have before we opened it, but authorizing the opening of the required public comment period regarding the 2027 annual action plan as required by the US Department of housing and urban development for the receipt of community development block grant funds. The public comment period will close November 2nd, 2026. Second.

2:04:55 – 2:05:22•RSRandy Schubring

A motion made by Council Member Keene, seconded by Council Member Doering. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Thank you. We will be back on this on November 2nd. To our reports and recommendations, we have one item, which is H1, the 2027 Preliminary Tax Levy and Supplemental Recommended Budget Administrator Zelms.

2:13:14 – 2:13:25•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you, Ms. Zelms. Take a breath and another drink of water. And are there any questions from members, Council Member Doering?

2:13:28 – 2:13:44•DDDan Doering

Just for clarification, this is a process question. We heard in our open comment period tonight that this was brought forward in reports and recommendations and there was a disappointment that there wasn't public comment. That public comment can happen at that December 7th meeting, correct?

2:14:15•DDDan Doering

And is this year's process divergent from processes we've used in the past?

2:14:44 – 2:15:29•NWNorman Wahl

I understand that we are setting the cap tonight and that we will establish the budget on December 7th. Most of you know that I'm talking significantly with the public these days, and by far the largest item that I get is property taxes, and it really is painful for some. I would say not most, but it is really, really painful for some. So any sharp pencils that can be applied to the budget between now and December 7th, I would be very much appreciative of Councilmember Palmer.

2:15:30 – 2:16:57•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, I also have been out talking to a lot of different neighbors and affordability is a huge issue to most everybody I've talked to and People are struggling. I did ask our last study session that we keep it to the 5.2% Which I think is a reasonable request I think that just less than $400,000 that we could take out of the budget to hit that. What it does show is that we do have growth in our community, and growth is good, and people have been struggling with the growth downtown, and the benefit of that is that our property tax levy will not be going up that much. It's a $400,000 difference.

2:17:00 – 2:17:26•RSRandy Schubring

Can I follow up on Council Member Palmer's thoughts on any path home? Can you remind us what is the process for us to detail where those funds are going to go? Ms. Edens, were you gonna take that? You were smiling, so that's why I thought you were going to answer it.

2:18:17•NWNorman Wahl

I would ask Mr. Palmer what it would take to get you to support the tax levy proposal for tonight.

2:18:25 – 2:19:27•SPShaun C. Palmer

Well, I was quite clear at our last meeting that if we took $400,000 out of our contingency fund and let that be $600,000, that would meet that dollar amount. And it doesn't affect the budget. And the budget's been well put together, and a lot of input is put into it, and a lot of blood and sweat and tears. It's not a budget full of fluff. But I think that the contingency is something that we sometimes use as a piggy bank that we don't need to. And I think that we do have a, 47% funds sitting there that's gonna go down to 42, maybe 43%. It's a little bit kind of like any path home. We needed $

2:19:27•NWNorman Wahl

So I expected you to come with a motion tonight.

2:19:33 – 2:20:09•RSRandy Schubring

We'll see. Can I ask a question about contingency funds since it came up? Ms. Elms, can you talk about, one of my concerns about going into the contingency fund is that It's not a sustainable way to budget. It then brings us to what do we do a year from now and do we go back to that? So, Ms. Elms, can you talk about, as far as best practices and contingency funds and supplemental budgets?

Council Member Keene. Yep, I'm looking, again, I've gone through the study sessions we've done on this. I think we've done this. like i've gone through it enough but it's interesting to me that a resolution the language is slightly different we're not talking about percentage difference we're really talking about the real number of tax levy and the real number of budget is there um is that a consistent way we do it or is this because i was looking for the preliminary tax levy increase of 5.59 and that's not part of the resolution council member i believe we've always made it the dollar amount

Very good again, I think the dollar amounts do for us. It is a cleaner way to communicate. I just, I just feel like we're changing the language to the public and I guess this is really setting our dollar our agreements with the county. So they can send out our statements.

2:24:25 – 2:24:46•NWNorman Wahl

I believe that I have read twice, including either today or yesterday in the Minneapolis paper that the Minneapolis General Reserve is 17%. Is that possible, is that true? Who knows that? 42 or 47? Ms. Selms, you look like you might have.

2:25:03 – 2:26:05•NWNorman Wahl

So as regards the contingency, last month we spent about half of it. And we will return, if we spend no more, about $500,000 to the reserves on January 1st or December 31st, if my math is at all good. If we reduce... the contingency to 600,000 this year. And we as a council were committed to not funding projects, but really truly only emergencies. We might have 600,000 on December 31st of 2027, perhaps. Obviously nobody knows that, that's what contingency is. But I'm not necessarily convinced that bank rolling money just to put it in the reserve should be our prime consideration.

2:26:09 – 2:26:36•SPShaun C. Palmer

Mr. Wall, I think I read the same article, but I believe as everything with taxes is kind of goofy, It was a fund reserve. And so if you look at our, um, park and rec department, their fund reserve, it does not meet the, the, the overall, uh, number that we're looking for it at, um, 42%. And some do and some don't, but they keep trying to get to that spot. I think that's what it comes from. Yeah. Um, but after a motion has been made, I'd probably make an amendment.

2:26:38•RSRandy Schubring

Is there a motion? Council Member Keene, go ahead.

I'll make a two-part motion. Number one, adopting a resolution certifying the 2027 preliminary tax levy of $124,901,338, which includes the preliminary operating and capital budgets and establishing Monday December 7th as the public hearing date for the final adoption of the 2027 supplemental budget and levy increase and part 2 approving a $100,000 funding for any path home from the 2025 state statewide affordable housing aid fund.

2:27:20•RSRandy Schubring

Motion made by Council Member Keene. Is there a second? Seconded by Council Member Miller. Council Member Keene.

Yeah, again, it was a nice surprise going from 2025 to 2026 and seeing the 2027 come down 2027. 2% or more. I also note that they are electric went from 6 down to 4 because of operational things that happened through the year going into 2027. so those are nice to see and I usually like to state we staff works very hard on trying to get this budget all together and keeping everything straight. But. I ALWAYS WANT TO CONSIDER THIS TO BE OUR COUNCIL BUDGET. THIS REFLECTS OUR PRIORITIES AND DECISIONS WE MAKE THROUGH THE YEAR. YOU DO THE BUDGET AT THE END BUT IT REFLECTS THE DECISIONS AND THE PRIORI

2:28:10 – 2:28:28•NMNick Miller

Yeah, I'll echo that. I think we've had a nice time to review this at multiple points, make reasonable changes, find alternative funding sources for the IndyPath home request. And should there be a motion to come forward to alter the contingency, I'm not going to be supportive of that.

2:28:30•SPShaun C. Palmer

Yeah, I'll make an amendment to reduce the tax levy by $400,000.

2:28:34•RSRandy Schubring

A motion has been made by Council Member Palmer. Second.

2:28:39 – 2:29:03•SPShaun C. Palmer

seconded by council member wall council member palmer i think it's important to hit our 5.2 percent with the growth that we have anticipated i think it's nice to be able to tell people um because we have growth your tax levy um a dollar amount will not be going up i believe that the contingency would be an area that the staff could look at to get it but it's not if they think that's more important than something else let them make that decision

2:29:06•RSRandy Schubring

Any further discussion on that? Seeing none, Clerk Caso, please call the roll on the amendment.

2:29:34•RSRandy Schubring

We are back to the original motion. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Kasel, please call the roll.

2:30:02 – 2:30:22•RSRandy Schubring

Thank you. We have no council-initiated actions. Again, no ordinance first or second reading, nor any tabled items or other business. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Motion made by Councilmember Miller, seconded by Councilmember Doering. All in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Good to see you, gentlemen and ladies.