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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 11 Councilmember Monson said this isn't a question about if we trust or believe Staff. We shouldn't be banking on fees from a permit to fund our City. Fees are to establish and administer the permit. It is wrong for a City to count on permit fees to fund the City. We have to be willing to fund the City in an ethical way. It's great we got some revenue but we shouldn't rely on that. She doesn't believe we should be funding the General Fund that way. She is uncomfortable using the permit revenue as a pathway in the future. Councilmember Holden said it's never used as a pathway. We budget, we reduce the number of permits, it pays for people's salaries. There just happens to be extra money. She noted there is a 100% increase in printing of the rec program guides. She said postage isn't going up that much. She thought we were trying to make the guides smaller so we don't have to print as many pages. She said we budgeted $12,000 in 2024 and this year we're going to $22,500. She asked why that increase is so high. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the cost of printing the guides has gone up significantly in the past few years. What you see in the spreadsheet is included in the contractual services item, underneath the budget summary. He said the actual cost for 2024 was nearly $18,000. It costs approximately $6,000 to print each guide. Councilmember Holden asked what is included with contractual services. We are fully staffed now. She hopes we aren't hiring a lot of consultants. We have talked about making the guides smaller with QR codes that people can scan with their phones. Surrounding communities have about six pages. She asked if we are moving in that direction. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he is happy to take direction if Council wants to have further discussion on how future guides should look. Mayor Grant said we didn't know we were going to get Micro Control. Thanks to some of those permits, it lowers the need for a higher levy. Director Yang said we have some savings on Staff. He isn't sure how much of the $500,000 is from permit revenue or how much is from Staff savings. The point is when the analysis is complete, it appears our budget will be $500,000 favorable. He has a problem with having a budget surplus and still setting our levy at 18.32%. Councilmember Monson is not interested in having a conversation on how we are printing newsletters. Mayor Grant said there is five minutes before the Council meeting. He thinks the PIR Fund excess line of $180,000 is still up in the air. There has been a general consensus for the EDA around $50,000. Councilmember Weber thinks Mayor Grant mischaracterized the status of the request for the PIR Fund. He thinks we have a majority who agree. Mayor Grant asked if we do. He asked Council to state their position on $180,000 for the PIR Fund. Councilmember Weber, Councilmember Rousseau and Councilmember Monson are in favor of $180,000.