06-20-23-WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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