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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - NOVEMBER 12,2024 year or two. She thinks we are dumping everything in one year, in addition to all the salary increases. Everybody understands that the increases have to hit because everyone is getting a large increase. Councilmember Rousseau disagreed. She said we had started to go down a path of strategic planning so we could look at doing a vision over the next several years. She has heard Councilmember Holden say everyone is looking for a Cadillac. She thinks that's a generational difference. Families she knows have hatchbacks and mini-vans. She thinks the Master Park Plan is the first step in investing in our parks in a way that we can maintain. We need to do some significant planning and start to put processes to discuss funding. No one is looking for a $4 million park. Her 4-year old was bored with the equipment at Cummings after the park improvement project. She thinks it's important to put some things in place so all the residents can enjoy the park, not just the pickle-ballers. Councilmember Monson asked if we were to cut the Parks Master Plan out of the PIR Fund, would that change the levy? Finance Director Yang said no. Councilmember Monson asked why removing the Master Parks Plan would not change the levy this year. Finance Director Yang said the levy is set at $250,000. That gets incorporated into the overall fund balance. You have to consider revenues, as well as expenditures and how that would change the fund balance over time. If we were to remove the $75,000 from the CIP fund, it will just adjust the fund balance up by $75,000. Councilmember Holden asked how money gets into the PIR Fund. Finance Director Yang said lely and other revenue sources. Councilmember Holden said it would be less money we would have to take from the General Fund and put in the PIR. So it's all the same money, regardless of where it goes. She is insulted by Councilmember Rousseau saying it's a generational thing. It always comes back to age here. This isn't generational. She has a lot of residents with little kids on her street and she talks to them. There was a similar comment last time regarding meetings lasting until 9:00 gets to be too late for folks who work. Those types of statements need to stop. This is the way she views it, it may be a different way of looking at it. She said kids being bored at a park is normal. Kids get bored if they go to the same park over and over. She wanted to know how we will pay for the trails. There is $4 million going towards trails. Residents want trails. Residents want parks. We can change the maintenance schedule on the parks. We can add things to them now. But it takes planning. Part of that is not just jumping in and hiring someone before we even know how we're going to pay for things that are already in the Parks Plan that we need to finish, which includes the four trails. Mayor Grant said it includes five trails. Councilmember Holden said the fifth trail isn't being paid for by City dollars. 1l