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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – NOVEMBER 13, 2023 4 She wanted to understand how they look at that to be sure they’re funding for this year and future years. Councilmember Holden said they do plan ahead for big PMP projects because that’s where they get the big holes. They’ve had 10 year forecasts, which could change. The roller coaster is the PMP projects. Councilmember Monson felt if they could plan further out than one year they could spread things out, and to know when they need to hire more staff. Councilmember Holden explained they have done that by putting building in the basic maintenance; they have a maintenance schedule for the roads so they can plan ahead, they have it for the parks and trails, park equipment, parking lots. They’ve been collecting money from the stormwater ponds for 15 years because they knew they were going to have to start cleaning them. Councilmember Monson wondered if there are other things they want to think about spending money on and how to build that into the budget. She assumed that would be something they could talk about at a retreat; what each Councilmember’s priorities are, and how much do they cost, how do they agree to set priorities. She felt it was a different way to think about the operating side of the budget. Councilmember Holden said she hadn’t received an email about scheduling the League of Minnesota Cities. She wondered if that had come out. City Administrator Perrault stated he needed to confirm with LMCIT whether or not she felt one of the staff attorneys would substitute in a good capacity for her. The one date that worked for the Council wasn’t available for her and she offered the suggestion of another LMCIT staff attorney helping out but he needed to know if a different person would offer the same collaboration/mediation services that she does. If not they will need to find an alternate date. Councilmember Monson stated she would like ADA port-a-potties at each playground and she didn’t see that in the budget. She talked to PTRC but they didn’t have a quorum so she didn’t know how it comes up the chain. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said PTRC needs to make a recommendation to Council that is what they want to see in the parks, and it would come to a work session as a separate item. Councilmember Rousseau thought there were a lot of little projects that PTRC or other committees would want to work on and they could go to staff to see if they would need more staff or funds. Councilmember Holden asked how much money was left from maintaining roads. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen replied that he wasn’t sure but they didn’t go over budget.