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ARDEN HILLS CITY COTINCIL WORK SESSION _ NOVEMBER 12,2024 criticized projects the City does. Staff carries the burden when there is no solid plan to rely on. He sees a benefit to completing a Parks Master Plan. Mayor Grant objected to the word "criticized". Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said if we do one thing, Staff is criticized for doing it that way. Questions are why we didn't do it a different way. If we plant the wrong tree in the wrong location, we are criticized. We can do understory rehab and be criticized. We need a solid plan to follow so Staff isn't bearing that burden. Councilmember Rousseau is in favor of doing the Parks Master Plan this year. When she shares that her child was bored, it's not just her child. There are a number of her neighbors who said their kids don't want to play at these parks anymore. She may ride bikes to Wilson in Shoreview because they can't get across the freeways to get to the other parks. If we wait until 2026 to complete the Parks Master Plan, when are we going to budget resources to execute it? Will it be in2027 when we're paying for the trails? She apologized about the Cadillac comment. Councilmember Fabel was not offended by the Cadillac comment. He has 4 children and 5 grand children who like to use the parks. He supports keeping the Parks Master Plan in this year. Councilmember Monson outlined what Staff needs. She said 15.5% will balance. She wondered what it would look like to remove the $75,000 for the Parks Plan. She is fine with the 15.5% and 13% would put us under by $132,000. She asked how much underfunded the 12.55olo was last year. Finance Director Yang said S182,000. Councilmember Monson asked if that was the number when it was voted on it. She thought it was closer to $130,000. She didn't know if there is a threshold point for other Councilmember who are willing to underfund the budget. She would be fine with 15.5%o and showing l3%. She said if someone else has a percentage that reflects a dollar amount that will be made up in the budget during the year, either from not spending anything or from extra revenue coming in, she would like to hear it, so we know what percentages to talk about at the Truth and Taxation. Councilmember Holden said we already know it's not going to be 15.5% without under budgeting. Last year we did $182,000, but we are meeting budget this year. Additional costs will have to go into this. It's already under budgeted at 15.5o/o. Councilmember Monson said that's our maximum. So we can't do anything about that, anyway. Councilmember Holden confirmed. She said she doesn't believe Councilmember Monson wants to hear what anyone else says. Everyone is going to have their own opinion and it's a waste to argue about stuff. Mayor Grant said we have shown that, traditionally, our expenditures are not as high as we anticipate and we tend to come in on budget. We can under fund by a certain percentage. There is a risk we'll come out a little below. He would rather do that than fully fund and end up with an excess ofrevenue. 13