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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—AUGUST 19, 2024 15 Councilmember Fabel agrees. He attended the EDC meeting recently and didn't hear any enthusiasm for the sign on 96 and Lexington which is what that number was assigned to. Councilmember Holden thinks we should pull it. She said when she did site visits previously what she heard was mostly public works items like curbs, fire hydrants, etc. She thought if we pulled the money out of the budget for this year we can put it back in next year based on the findings of the EDC in-person visits with the businesses. Councilmembers agreed to push the item to 2026. Councilmember Holden asked about the operation and Public Works staffing update. She asked if the $138,000 is based on this year's number. Finance Director Yang confirmed. She said the $138,000 included salary and benefits. Councilmember Holden noted they haven't negotiated their raises so she thought the number was probably closer to $150,000. She thought they will expect their raises to fall in line with what City staff received. Finance Director Yang stated this number includes a 3% COLA increase. It also includes 10% increase in health insurance. Councilmember Holden said that number needs to be increased. Finance Director Yang said she would use a mid-range estimate there. She made Council aware that the Public Works staffing is not included in the preliminary budget. That topic will be addressed during the general fund budget discussion. Finance Director Yang discussed the baseline, estimated ending fund balance by year. It includes the CIP fund, the PIR fund, Old Highway 10 and Lake Johanna Trails. The Highway 10 Trail has a $1.3 million city share and the Lake Johanna Trail is $2 million city share. Those are impacting the fund balances starting in 2026 through 2029. We would see a negative fund balance in 2028. Council has still not agreed on whether these projects will move forward. Finance Director Yang said the public safety fund includes the new fire station starting in 2025. For this baseline scenario, it doesn't have any additional revenue sources to offset the new fire station bonding. Council direction is requested. Finance Director Yang moved to the proposed fund balance per year. Building replacement fund has a levy proposal of$210,000. This would be a $110,000 increase annually. Finance Director Yang said the public safety fund assumes the franchise fee revenue source to offset the new fire station bonding at $375,000 annually. There is also a levy proposal for $260,000 which is a $90,000 increase annually. This includes the $40,000 increase to offset the captain's salaries. Finance Director Yang reminded that during the April 20, in-house discussion and at the May work session, the $455,000 funding gap for the CIP was discussed. With these updated project