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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 24, 2025 4 City Administrator Jagoe has the breakdown of the percentages that the 7 contract cities pay of their budget. She can ask Ramsey County for additional information. Councilmember Rousseau said she would like to know a little more about that. When setting the preliminary levy we were looking at worst case scenario. A lot of this has to do with public safety but she wonders if they are over charging us. City Administrator Jagoe said RCSO stated the issue they are having with the reconciliation is the mid -year implementation of the labor contract. There were delays in getting the contract settled so the deputies and sergeants were working without a contract. They had to then make up for the beginning of the year with a lump sum payment to each employee. That unknown made it difficult for them to tie out the numbers. Mayor Grant said his issue with this is it happened after September 30. The County has to follow the same calendar for setting preliminary and final levies. Giving us this information after the preliminary levy was set is not acceptable. They should have had an estimate in advance of the deadline to set preliminary levies. Councilmember Weber said he has brought up the issues of the cost of the policing services and the late invoicing with the County Commissioner. She expressed great interest in getting to the bottom of this. She represents several cities in the contract group. He knows that during County Commission meetings the Sheriff has been asked about how the billing is broken down to the contract cities. He doesn't think there has been a clear answer yet. Mayor Grant said things would have been different if not for this mid -year contract. They should have figured it out long before September. Councilmember Monson said the question at hand is what we do with this significant and unexpected surplus for 2025. She thinks it's fair to say the levy was set as a worst -case scenario. We have this one-time "bonus money". Staff have recommended several options. She doesn't think we should assume the full $900,000 but we can assume some percentage of that. She would like to use some of the surplus for the short-term options and some for the long-term options. Councilmember Rousseau said we were anticipating about $360,000 savings from staffing costs this year. She would be interested in reducing that with the levy. She recognizes we would have to consider putting that back into the levy next year. She would like to see some of the money towards some short-term costs. Putting money aside for technology, the Comprehensive Plan and the maintenance plan that we will be discussing in the spring. She asked how much it would take to get the general fund to 50%. Finance Director Yang said the target would be 50% of what we set for next years expenditures. It would be approximately $400,000. Councilmember Monson asked for clarification that we need $400,000 to go into the general fund to hold 50%. Finance Director Yang said we would need $500,000 to get to the 50%. The $400,000 is the incremental that would be left over.