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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – MARCH 25, 2026 4 Council Liaison Rousseau said some councils can be a rubber stamp, ours is at the other end of the spectrum, and sometimes Council resembles an over-reaching HOA Commissioner Bonine asked Staff how they have seen the dynamic work with other Councils. Would they typically defer to Staff? What’s normal? Community Development Director Reilly said there is nothing normal in government. There are two common paths. One is where a group holds up a timeline for one reason or another. The other is where that doesn’t happen that often and the things that hold up timelines are more about criticism from the public. It depends on how tolerant a decision-making body is of the risk they are being asked to take. If they are not, they probably have written rules that make it almost impossible to take a risk. He thinks that may be part of the problem in Arden Hills. A lot of things that we have to follow were written a long time ago. Some of those folks are still around. That makes it harder to change because the risk is perceived as too great. Commissioner Brausen thinks it also depends on whether the staff is older or younger. He sees younger staff being more “by the book.” Seasoned staff may be more reasonable. He dealt with Shoreview on a few projects and its business friendly there. Community Development Director Reilly said Shoreview has a lot more financial resources. They have done updates to their zoning code more recently than Arden Hills has. Vice Chair Poelzer asked if the business owners on the commission had ideas for Senior Planner Fransen’s question about what three things make a community more business friendly. Commissioner Bonine thinks having an understanding about why things are the way they are. There are usually reasons why things are created. It’s important to know the original purpose and check in regularly to see if it still aligns with where we are today. It sounds like we have rules that were put in place a while ago and maybe those rules are outdated now. He would also like to understand why there is so much Staff turnover. Commissioner Brausen thinks part of it is that we are a smaller city. He suspects that pay may play into it. He asked why Staff decided to come to Arden Hills. Community Development Director Reilly said he came here because the opportunity to make something happen on a 400-acre site, where nothing has happened for over 20 years, was impossible to pass up. Arden Hills is very competitive when it comes to wages and we have a great benefits package. However, there is a reputation that it’s hard to get things done. Senior Planner Fransen said she was looking for her first planning role out of grad school. The ability to work on a variety of things drew her in. She wanted to do some land use/zoning code work but also economic development. Being a smaller city, she gets to work on more diverse projects. In a bigger city, staff can be more siloed on a particular path. She thinks historically the city has been reactive, rather than proactive in land use and economic development. The pay and benefits were also appealing. Council Liaison Rousseau said a consultant came in last year to complete a pay study. That brought current staff up to competitive levels. That contributes to the tax increases. We have to pay well in order to keep good employees.