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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – JUNE 20, 2023 12 <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau stated they had received the Comprehensive Financial Report at the <br />last Council meeting and the Parks and Rec spending is about 50% less than some other cities. <br />She was wondering if staff could pull nearby cities without community centers financial reports to <br />see what their spending is versus ours. <br /> <br />Cities suggested by Council were Lauderdale, Falcon Heights, and Little Canada. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden stated when they looked at programs they wanted to know how much <br />the City was willing to subsidize the programs for, they came upon 80/20, hoping some events <br />would make more to subsidize other programs. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant asked if she was looking at personnel costs or programs costs. <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau said she was thinking of starting with their overall financial reports at <br />a high level and see if there were any patterns they wanted to dig deeper into. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden said they also have to look at neighborhoods as many people use <br />Roseville or Shoreview programs. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant added they’d need to ask if they have a separate parks department, or if it was <br />bundled in with O&M. <br /> <br />Councilmember Holden said they used to have it split where O&M had people dedicated to the <br />parks. <br /> <br />City Administrator Perrault thought her question was directed at Recreation; Parks spending <br />would include parks maintenance – mowing lawns, replacing equipment etc. and wouldn’t target <br />what the Recreation department would be spending on programs and seasonal employees. <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau asked if they could break it down to recreational. <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau noted she would not be available to attend the next City Council <br />meeting. <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau reported the PTRC had an action recommendation to put a buckthorn <br />project into place, so it will be coming to the next work session for discussion. <br /> <br />Councilmember Monson wondered if anyone had looked into the port-a-potties at the parks <br />being ADA compliant and family friendly. <br /> <br />Councilmember Rousseau said they had not. <br /> <br />Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said some of the shade structures were built <br />to have single units but some of the newer structures were built to have the ADA style units. <br /> <br />Mayor Grant said on Old 10 there is a sign that says the project will be completed by November <br />1. At one point they were told it would be completed by the school year starting, so he wondered <br />what the definition of completed was for the roundabout and road project.