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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — SEPTEMBER 22, 2025 2 recraft the cost participation policy. They meet every other month with an organization called Joint Engineers of Ramsey County (JERC). They have been discussing what a recrafted cost participation policy could look like. The County has three criteria for rethinking the cost participation policy. First, they want to simplify the process. When breaking down the costs of a project, it must delineate between what the County, City, Federal Funds and State Aid Funds are paying for. The County Road J and I 35E project includes two counties, three municipalities, MnDOT, two watersheds and federal funds. The cost breakdown table for that project is massive and it's a complicated process for the technicians to follow who pays for what. They want to simplify the process of cost participation with the cities. There is nothing they can do about MnDOT or Anoka County. But with Ramsey cities they can try to simplify it. The second criteria is to provide financial relief to Ramsey County cities. Cost participation expenses can be large and can eat up one or more years of municipal State Aid. They are trying to find a way to reduce the burden to the cities. The third criteria is that cost participation will not be zero. There will be some form of cost participation in this policy. John Mazzitello said they have been discussing this in the JERC meetings. There is a possibility that there may be a new cost participation policy by the 2027 construction season. He can't guarantee that. The County Board still has to approve it. Washington County went through this exercise five years ago. They made a really great case for changing the policy and the County Board decided to keep it the same. He can't promise the changes will be approved. There is a potential for having a reworked participation policy by 2027. Assuming it is approved, the cost participation, which is currently a 50150 spit on a large trail project, has a possibility of being reduced. He understands this has been a high priority project for several years. He would like to have a discussion with Council to gauge interest in moving this project out one year, on the chance it might reduce the City's portion of overall cost. Councilmember Rousseau asked what the likelihood is that the cost share would decrease the participation from Ramsey County if we waited a year. Is there a chance we could lose some of the anticipated funding? John Mazzitello said no. There is the potential for the County share to go up and the City share to go down. It would not be the other way around. Trails are split 50150 right now between the City and the County. They are trying to craft a cost participation policy that sets a flat percentage of the total project cost. Councilmember Holden asked if the County has received grants for this project. John Mazzitello said the City has. Councilmember Holden said the City used to pay lower costs and the County determined it was going to be 50150. When she asks for money from the legislature, for our City, why isn't that coming off the City's portion? We have our side covered. Where does it say it comes off the total. We work hard for our grants. John Mazzitello said he used to work as a Public Works Director at a City. That is one of the reasons he brought forward a change in this policy. Right now, any grant, regardless of who gets it comes off the total cost of the project and the participation applies to what remains. The County is looking to provide relief to the Cities for that. The policy has been that the grant comes off the top cost of the project for as long as he's been there.