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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – MAY 18, 2020 9 <br /> <br />Councilmember McClung suggested the City Administrator be given authority to bring <br />additional staff in as needed and revisit opening the building closer to June 1. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant suggested scheduling a short work session on May 28 assuming the Governor will <br />be making more announcements by that time and until then staff could be encouraged to come in <br />if they choose but the doors will remain closed to the public. <br /> <br />City Administrator Perrault wondered if Council would like to reopen City playgrounds. <br /> <br />After discussion it was decided to open playgrounds but post that they are not disinfected and to <br />use at your own risk. <br /> <br />E. COVID-19 Impacts on City Budget <br /> <br />Finance Director Bauman stated that staff has been looking into potential impacts on the City’s <br />finances related to COVID-19. The first topic is liquor licenses and what length of time the <br />Council would like to consider possibly waiving the license fees. Each week of credit for liquor <br />license fees equates to $745. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant said the time frame would be from when they were told they had to close until they <br />could have drive-up sales. <br /> <br />Finance Director Bauman explained that City Hall rent had an estimated loss of $1,000, revenue <br />loss on Park Facility rental fees is about $4,000. Unemployment costs are mostly for temporary <br />seasonal employees, based on notifications to date the maximum amount the City would be liable <br />for is $9, 212 over the next 52 weeks. In regard to utility revenue, commercial usage is expected <br />to drop and residential usage is expected to increase. They are unable to determine impact, if any, <br />until the quarterly billing. They are not proposing waiving late fees but have delayed processing <br />them. Recreation programs are projecting a net impact on the budget of $10,000. MSA state <br />street aid could drop in future years as gas tax collections have decreased. There will be a delay in <br />the totality of the first-half of property taxes collected but that won’t have a cash flow impact on <br />the City at this time. Permit fees and revenue are up over that last two years so she is not <br />projecting much of an impact. Total budget impact could be up to $33,000. If emergency funding <br />is made available to the City, we would currently be eligible for up to $11,712. <br /> <br />Council agreed to not waive late fees on utility bills. There was no other discussion on other <br />items. <br /> <br />F. HVAC Discussion <br /> <br />City Administrator Perrault reported this was a follow up to the February work session where <br />Council directed staff to solicit independent design proposals for the HVAC replacement at City <br />Hall. Requests for proposals were sent to six firms and proposals were received from five. The <br />proposals range from $46,200 to $99,780. Staff’s recommendation is to move forward with <br />Paulson and Clark who scored the highest. The City currently has $350,000 budgeted for this <br />project in the Equipment, Building, Replacement Fund but the final cost for purchasing equipment