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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-10-25 WS'It ,-ARkEN_HILLS Approved: December 8, 2025 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION NOVEMBER 10, 2025 5:30 P.M. - ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council Work Session at 5:30 p.m. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Brenda Holden, Tena Monson, Emily Rousseau and Kurt Weber Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Jessica Jagoe, Public Works Director/City Engineer David Swearingen, Finance Director Joua Yang and Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson 1. PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL None. 2. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES None. 3. AGENDA ITEMS A. 2026 Budget Discussion Finance Director Yang said she will provide a presentation on the 2026 budget, then will open it up for Council discussion and questions. Staff has reviewed the CIP and Operating budgets during the July, August and September work sessions. Today we will revisit some of the changes made since those prior discussions. Finance Director Yang said we set the Preliminary Levy Budget on September 29, at $7,132,267. This is $1,104,255 or an 18.32% levy increase over the 2025 Budget. This as a balanced levy increase of $1,089,255, an increase to the PIR levy of $180„ and an offset of $165,000 from excess franchise fees from the Lake Johanna Fire Department (LJFD) new station ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 2 project. The changes since the Preliminary Levy adoption include personnel changes to reflect current wage and corresponding step increases based upon recent staffing updates. This is an increase of $14,617. Updated non -union health and dental premiums. The preliminary levy included a 15% placeholder for health and 4% for dental, which is sufficient to cover the updated premiums, with no impact to the levy. Finance Director Yang said the police contract amount was adjusted to reflect the latest estimates from the Ramsey County Sheriff s Office (RCSO). This is a decrease of $101,056 or 1.67% of the levy. Finance Director Yang shared a City-wide budget summary, which includes the General Enterprise Utility Funds, and Capital Project Funds. She highlighted that the total City-wide revenue budget is set at approximately $20.3 million. Total City-wide expenditure budget is set at approximately $20.9 million. That leaves 2026 with a $500,000 negative change in fund balance due to the timing of capital projects within the Enterprise Funds. The existing fund balance will cover the negative change. For Enterprise Funds, the City utilizes the fund balance, which is on a cash basis, to cover future operations and CIP projects. Discussion ensued regarding a discrepancy on the total budget between two of the presentation slides. Finance Director Yang will look into it and get back to Council. Finance Director Yang said the City-wide summary is broken out by revenue and expenditure types. Charges for services and property taxes generate 77% of revenues. Charges for services make up 39% of total City-wide revenues. This includes planning fees, water tower rentals, and recreational programs. Taxes make up 38% of total City-wide revenue. Property and liability insurance, engineering, central garage, and technology are budgeted within the Internal Service Funds but are then allocated back to departments. Intergovernmental includes other state, local grants/aid, municipal state aid (MSA) and local government aid (LGA). Finance Director Yang said 95% of expenditures come from other services/charges, capital and personnel expenditures. Other services/charges is 49%. Public safety falls under this category. Capital makes up 26% and personnel is 20%. Discussion ensued regarding the businesses vs residential taxes and if we are maintaining similar percentages as previous years. Finance Director Yang will follow up and provide that information to Council. Finance Director Yang said wages and benefits for full time employees (FTEs) remains unchanged from 2025. Total personnel costs are increasing by $234,086, with $159,297 or 68% hitting the General Fund Finance Director Yang said General Fund revenues by source include an increase in Property Taxes of 16.1% over 2025. There were some smallcr year over year decreases in the other revenue categories. She said licenses and permits are based on a three-year average. Assumptions are similar to 2025. Miscellaneous revenue is similar to 2025, as well. Finance Director Yang stated that the General Fund expenditures by department doesn't include the $100,000 transfer to the Cable Fund. Public Safety makes up 48.5% of total General Fund ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 3 expenditures. General government makes up 23.3% of total General Fund expenditures, Parks and Recreation make up 15.4% and Public Works makes up 12.8%. Finance Director Yang shared a chart showing the 2026-2030 CIP, showing a five-year outlook by department. The largest Capital expenditure is the PMP Street Project, making up 54% of total projected expenditures. Parks makes up 16%, water makes up 10%, equipment makes up 6.7%, and public safety is 6.5%. There have been no changes since the September 29 meeting. Mayor Grant asked what raises the Parks number so high in 2027. He wondered if it was the trail. Finance Director Yang confirmed that includes the Old Highway 10 trail. Mayor Grant asked if it includes the $1.22 million which is the City's share or the entire cost of the project. Finance Director Yang confirmed it includes the entire project. It's the total expenditures. Finance Director Yang shared a listing of the 2026 Capital projects which have a total projected cost of $6.1 million. She noted the items that were moved to a later year. Finance Director Yang said there is no change to the Utility Funds, based on previous discussions. The water rate is set at 4%, sewer at 3% and surface water is 6%. Discussion ensued regarding the amount those rates were reduced from. Finance Director Yang stated a comprehensive utility rate study was last completed in 2018. The City revisits rates annually to ensure the long-term health of the funds to cover operations and capital investments. Finance Director Yang shared the tax impact of the 18.32% levy, based on a 2026 median household of $496,400. The annual tax impact is $255. Finance Director Yang shared a chart showing the City's tax levy changes over the past decade. The tax levy has increased over the years, the City's tax rate has averaged 25.90% Finance Director Yang said the 2025 City tax levy increase was 13.50%, the 2025 City Tax Rate is 27.65%. We were the lowest among Ramsey County Cities. She noted that Ramsey County has not published the 2026 preliminary levies. She will share that with Council when she receives it. Finance Director Yang said setting a proposed levy for 2026 at 16.88% would mean a levy of $7,045,829, or an increase of $1,017,817. This is an increase of $685,817 to the General Fund. It includes the $850,817 under Total General Fund Costs and,the reduction of $165,000 from the excess franchise fees. Finance Director Yang said there is $332,000 in CIP Funds. Total CIP Fund costs include the $152,000 plus the incremental PIR Fund amount of $180,000 that was passed during the preliminary levy. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 4 Finance Director Yang highlighted other funds relying on tax levy dollars. The EDA's proposed levy is set to $100,000. In 2025 the $100,000 EDA levy was transferred to the General Fund to reduce the overall General Fund levy impact. Councilmember Monson said we funded the EDA but then transferred it last year. She said the General Fund included that levy increase. She asked Finance Director Yang to explain the difference. Finance Director Yang said the proposed levy this year includes the $100,000. Because we transferred the 2025 levy to the General Fund, that levy is $0 for 2025. Now we will be proposing an increase of $100,000, setting the levy from $0 in 2025 back to $100,000 for 2026. Councilmember Monson said it's not an increase in the General Fund, it's just not taking the money in. Finance Director Yang confirmed. The increase was not taken into the EDA Fund. Finance Director Yang said there is no change in the Equipment Fund from the prior year. It is set at $100,000. Staff will bring back an equipment replacement plan to Council in March that will feature a leveled cost structure. Finance Director Yang said the proposed levy for the PIR Fund is $430,000. This includes a $250,000 base plus the additional $180,000 that was passed during the preliminary levy meeting. The Public Safety Fund is set at $312,000. This includes a base levy of $260,000 and $52,000 for the City's share for Fire Captains and three additional FTEs. Finance Director Yang said the Truth in Taxation (TNT) meeting is set for December 8, 2025. The levy cannot be raised but it can be lowered. Staff is seeking Council feedback regarding a few items. The current benefit assumptions include a 15% health care increase for union employees. The City's health contribution is set to 87%. She asked what changes, if any, Staff should assume. City Administrator Jagoe noted the union contract specifies the 87%. She asked if that variable is included. Finance Director Yang said we just got the rates this morning. We can come back to it. Councilmember Holden asked what the percentage was. Was it more or less than the 15% placeholder? Finance Director Yang said they only provided a dollar amount. She will have to look at that amount and make the comparison. Finance Director Yang said there are no dollars budgeted for the 75�4,Anniversary. There is a $10,000 placeholder for strategic planning. She was seeking direction as to whether that money should be transferred to be used for the anniversary celebration or if Council would recommend an increase to the levy. Mayor Grant asked the Councilmembers who are on the 75th Anniversary Planning Committee. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 5 Councilmember Holden said this topic is up for discussion next on the agenda. She said they have decided there will be a drone show. That can be paid for through the reversal on the lodging tax. She said the drones can advertise the people who donate. The $10,000 would be nice to have because we will still need things that won't be supported by the lodging tax. It would give us something to move forward with. Councilmember Monson agrees. She said when looking at all of the events, the cost was about $20,000. That did not include the drone show. She would like to see more than $10,000. She asked if there is enough flex in the budget that we can take $20,000 in savings from somewhere else. Do we need to directly allocate that amount? Finance Director Yang said a one-time expense can be covered by fund balance. She would caution that if it were something ongoing, we would want to include it in the levy. Councilmember Rousseau said she is interested in moving the $10,000 from the strategic planning. She thinks we have a good road map for strategic planning. She noted the Economic Development Commission (EDC) is interested in getting involved with the planning and trying to get the business community sponsorships. Mayor Grant and Councilmember Weber both agreed they are also in favor of moving the $10,000. Finance Director Yang said the Economic Development Authority (EDA) Fund is projected to be $755,000 at the start of 2026. Adding the proposed $100,000 levy and accounting for expenditures, the fund will be at $584,000. The expenditures include the gateway signs and operating expenditures. Councilmember Rousseau said we are researching the affordable housing options and discussing changing the governance structure of the EDA by adding two EDC commissioners. She is interested in making sure we have some funds there over the next couple of years. Discussion ensued regarding if the EDC decided they aren't interested in gateway sings in the coming year or if they were going to continue the conversation. Taking the $180,000 for gateway signs would not reduce the 2026 levy it would just prevent a reduction of the EDA Fund. Councilmember Weber said the EDA Fund use was left on the table as an open question. He asked if we have an answer on if we can use the funds for affordability. Finance Director Yang said some of the acceptable uses are administrative staff expenses. The City could develop grants or loans for businesses. We could use it for property development or use it for advertisement and marketing to bring businesses in to the City. It can be used for anything related to growing the City. Councilmember Weber asked if it can be utilized for affordability, such as a land trust. He thinks there are a lot of options, other than signs. He isn't opposed to signs. That is a goal from the strategic planning. However, he would like to continue to grow that fund and put it to good use for the City. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 6 Discussion ensued regarding earlier comments that removing the $180,000 for gateway signs would lower the levy. Staff said we are not allowed to move EDA Funds and put them in the PIR Fund. The sign funding will not resolve the shortfall in the PIR Fund. Councilmember Holden summarized all of the ways that residents will see rising costs. To levy residents at the 18% isn't proper. Councilmember Weber said budgeting money for the PIR Fund is an attempt to fix the projected shortfall that we are expecting. Five years down the road we are looking at a $7 million shortfall. We must start planning for that now. Councilmember Monson is open to discussing if the gateway funds should be held in 2026 but it wouldn't have a levy impact. She is open to a lesser amount to the EDA Fund. She said there is $750,000. That will drop very quickly if we do the signs. There is no plan for the EDA yet. One levy point is $60,000. She would be open to put $40,000 into the EDA. That would drop one levy point but still add to the EDA. She would like to wait to see what the EDC says before eliminating the funds for the signs. Councilmember Holden asked if there will be a surplus at the end of Fiscal Year 2025. Finance Director Yang said preliminarily she is anticipating about a $500,000 surplus. Mayor Grant said this may not be the year for the $100,000 in the EDA Fund, given all the other levy amounts. He can see reducing or eliminating the PIR excess. He said there was $122,009 of unfunded levy costs from the previous year. He asked if Staff had looked at the projected 2025 General Fund spending. Finance Director Yang has not done a deep dive on that. She is hesitant to share what she has looked at, as there are some key pieces missing from that data. She said to level set everyone in 2023 our Fund Balance Policy of 50%, we were at 47.4%. In 2024 we were at 45.4%. We need to make up for those. Mayor Grant said if you project 2025, are we running a surplus or a deficit in the General Fund? Finance Director Yang said the $500,000 surplus is her estimate. Mayor Grant said that is not to be confused with Capital which is also $500,000. We haven't finished the year and there are more things to look at. He said $450,000 to $550,000. Either way, it's a sizable number. He said we have covered the $122,009 easily. If our levy is $1 million, would mean we need to have $500,000. He is hearing we are already pretty close to that this year, which means if things pan out, we'll be pretty close to the 50% by the end of the year. He asked if that is conceivable. Finance Director Yang confirmed. Discussion ensued regarding page 5 of the agenda memo stating the 18.32% vs. the 16.88% on the next chart, which would be a zero budget. The average median household would see a difference of $20.00 per year. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 7 Councilmember Monson is open to reducing the EDA levy and she wants to transfer the $165,000. She said if we don't add to the PIR Fund we can't fund the things that are core for the City. She is not okay with it being zero. She would be open to reducing it a little to try to lower the levy points. She said we have the General Fund, the PIR Fund, the EDA Fund, the Equipment Building Fund, Public Safety Fund. All of those things should be self-sustaining. They shouldn't be relying on General Fund revenue. Transferring General Fund dollars out of that operating fund to help support funding another bucket is not sustainable. She would like to get away from assuming the General Fund will float the rest of our funds. It appears there is a $500,000 savings, but she isn't interested in transferring that money to a fund that we previously chose not to fund with a sustainable approach. She asked if we reduced the PIR by $60,000 would we be out of the red in five years? Ten years? Finance Director Yang said if we increase the PIR levy by $120,000 annually, and shifted the PMP Projects, we would be green for the next 10 years. Without shifting the projects, we would be in the green through 2029. Councilmember Weber is pleased to hear we're coming in under budget for the year. That is like a bonus. This year's success is next year's benefit and it shouldn't impact how we make any decisions right now. Councilmember Holden said in the past, the City has always underfunded the budget a small amount. These are estimates and things happen. The PIR Fund is looking out 20 years and shows us in the hole. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen has a replacement schedule. We may not approve every single thing. The numbers are plugged in to create the estimates but that doesn't mean it will all happen. If we move under that presumption, we might as well raise the levy to 30%. Mayor Grant agrees. Projects are lined up ten years out. They may not happen exactly the way they are laid out in the schedule. We are planning, but they may not happen in that year or in that amount. We need to manage. This year the Fire Department, Police Department and City Staff increases are all coming due at once. He would like to smooth that trend before increasing the levy. He sees the need for Capital. He thinks $180,000 is too high in a year like this. We should not be at 18%. Councilmember Weber agrees we should not be in this position. He said underfunding the levy previously is exactly why we are in this position. We should be trying to fix this PIR Fund. It is in a dire state because of lack of attention. Councilmember Holden said we have always had a surplus to carry over to fill this stuff. We have the money out there. She doesn't want to hear it's because it's been underfunded. A lot of things have come due all at the same time. We have done well. People love living in Arden Hills. They are happy. They like that the taxes are low. It brings in businesses. Residents have affordable homes where they aren't paying the same tax as other communities. She said it's always blamed on everyone else. We didn't have the PIR Fund in dire straits until about two years ago. We don't have to speak loudly to make sure everyone will take our side. We need to look at what we have. Mayor Grant said we are currently projecting approximately a $500,000 surplus. Staff is not overspending their budgets. We have a lot of budget centers. There should always be the budget ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 amount and the amount spent is a little less across all of those cost centers. When we have underfunded in the past, we were essentially planning that. If it's a matter of a couple percent, we can come in 2% under because we never spend 100% of the budget. Councilmember Monson asked how we get to what Finance Director Yang needs for the next meeting. Mayor Grant said we have answered some of her questions. He hopes we are close so we aren't doing this from the bench on December 8. Councilmember Monson we have to get to a number. Mayor Grant said the EDA is sitting at $100,000 levy. Where does everyone stand? Councilmember Weber said he wants assurance that whatever we negotiate tonight doesn't end up with us at the dais fighting. He said if that's going to happen anyway, let's just do it there. He doesn't want to have the conversation twice. Councilmember Rousseau would be okay with cutting it in half at $50,000. Councilmember Monson said $40,000 because removing $60,000 is a clean levy point. Councilmember Holden agrees with $40,000 because it's a levy point. She doesn't feel that she should be told when she can talk about a subject, even if it's been talked about before. Mayor Grant could go as low as zero, but he could say the $40,000. Councilmember Weber appreciates Councilmember Holden's right to speak when she wants to. We have had meeting after meeting trying to hammer this out. The TNT meeting last year was four and a half hours. That's not the place to be having this discussion. Now is the time. He can live with $50,000. Councilmember Holden said saying that the TNT meeting, which is for the public to hear where we stand on the budget, is not the place to discuss the budget blows her mind. Mayor Grant said the TNT is required by statute. Councilmember Monson said we should do $50,000 on the EDA. Mayor Grant said this is a general consensus during the work session and we could wind up somewhere else on December 8. Mayor Grant said there is the discussion of the $180,000 which is the PIR excess. He asked if anyone wanted to speak to that. Councilmember Monson asked if we assume no shifting, and we want to be positive in 10 years, what is the minimum amount? Finance Director Yang said that is the $180,000. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 9 Councilmember Monson will hold at the $180,000. She would like to see where we land after that EDA reduction of just under one levy point. Councilmember Holden said there was a $10,000 increase under Council for contractual services for Mayor and Council. We went from $42,000 in 2024 to $52,000 in 2025. How much did we use in 2025? We increased if by inflation to get to the 2026 number. If strategic planning isn't in there for 2026, shouldn't we take some of that out? Finance Director Yang said the $10,000 is in there. Councilmember Monson is looking at the option where the balanced levy includes $180,000 for the PIR Fund, taking the $165,000 from the excess franchise fees and decreasing the EDA from $100,000 to $50,000. This is a levy of 15.23%. Councilmember Rousseau said she is interested in increasing the PIR by $180,000. She asked if there is $10,000 for implementation of the Park Master Plan. Finance Director Yang confirmed. Councilmember Holden noted that under Planning and Zoning, the contractual services amount is nearly doubled. She said we have hired a Community Development Director. He should be able to do most of this work. City Administrator Jagoe said in 2024 and 2025, the Planning and Zoning Code updates were budgeted. The budgeted amount remained the same in 2026 in anticipation of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment. We will do the same amount in 2027. Councilmember Weber said he supports the $180,000 for the PIR levy. Mayor Grant said there is reason to beef up the PIR. He doesn't think this is the year to do it. He said maybe it's not zero, but he thinks $180,000 this year is too high. Maybe it's zero, maybe $50,000 or $60,000. That wouldn't get us in the green in 10 years, but Council will have 10 years' worth of management to deal with the projects. There may be State funding or grant opportunities in the future. We can't plan for those things, but we can't just say $180,000 just to get us there. Councilmember Monson said we can't control future Councils. If we don't start putting money in the PIR Fund now, then the levy for the PIR Fund will be significantly higher. We will likely take another hit on levy. If we shift the projects and split them, as has been discussed, we will take another hit on cost because everything gets more expensive. We can bond. That also costs money. Knowing what we know, if we don't fund the PIR, we are setting ourselves up for a bigger levy hit down the road. She supports the $180,000. Councilmember Holden said when we talk about PIR and the road project for next year, it's in the budget as $3.3 million. When talking about the PIR in the future, we're talking about the full cost of the project. She asked if assessments lower the PIR. Finance Director Yang said it does. That is included in the fund balance projections. We have generally seen a 40% collection rate. That is included. The remaining 60% comes annually, based ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 10 on the 10-year deferred assessment from Ramsey County. We aren't getting 100% of the dollars in one year. It's spread out over 10-years. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the $3.3 million is not only for the streets projects. Councilmember Holden understands that it also includes water and sewer. When we look at the budget, we say it's $3.3 million. Discussion ensued that the levy is based on the budget, which includes both expenditures and revenues. It looks deceiving because we have a budget number that considers all revenues/assessments. The levy is meant to balance out the activity within the fund balance. Mayor Grant said the previous year's unfunded levy cost is $122,000. It is conceivable that we will have our 50% at the end of the year, after Director Yang completes her analysis. If we have that, why would we include it? We've already made it up this year. Councilmember Weber thought it is because we don't have the money yet. He said by removing the money that we owe, despite the fact that there may be $500,000 waiting there to pay it off, we are underfunding the budget with the anticipation that we can pay back that $122,000. He isn't comfortable doing that. He understands the argument for why we may want to. It seems like an easy place to reduce our levy, but we don't have that money yet. We can't guarantee that. Councilmember Holden asked if Finance Director Yang has looked into it and talked to each of the Division Directors. Finance Director Yang asked if she was referring to the 2025 projections. Councilmember Holden confirmed. Finance Director Yang said she hasn't shared the projections with the Division Directors yet. Councilmember Holden asked if she will have that for Council before December. She said it isn't any different than the rest of the numbers we get. We believe Director Yang is doing a good job so we have to believe she is correct in projecting what the surplus will be. Mayor Grant said he got confirmation from Director Yang that she can firm up the numbers by November 17. We are trying to maintain a 50% fund balance. If we get there, then he will talk about under funded balances for the budget because we don't spend the entire budget. We haven't gotten there. We don't have the numbers firmed up. Councilmember Rousseau said it isn't clear where the $500,000 is coming from. If it's something that we have over -budgeted in the past, we.can-look at budgeting more appropriately next year. Finance Director Yang said it is not due to over -budgeting. There is some personnel savings in there and there is favorability on the revenue side for permit fees and building projects. Those revenues were higher than anticipated vs. the budget. 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. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 12 Councilmember Holden and Mayor Grant are voting no. Mayor Grant said that is three votes in favor and this item will be discussed at the TNT hearing. Council recessed the Work Session at 6: 53 pm. Council reconvened the Work Session at 8:10 pm. Finance Director Yang had a couple of follow up comments regarding the previous discussion. She said Mayor Grant asked about the difference between two numbers earlier and she explained the first number is the preliminary levy that was set on September 29. The new number includes the changes since then. So they will not tie out. Her other point is the Union health increase is about 7% vs. the 15% placeholder. It's not a huge levy change, but that is something that can be adjusted to reflect the actual. B. 7511 Anniversary Planning Budget Councilmember Holden said the committee would like solicit businesses and see if they are interested in sponsoring a portion of the celebration. Councilmembers could be assigned a couple of business to visit. Councilmember Rousseau said the EDC would like to connect with someone on the committee. They are interested in drumming up some sponsorship support. They thought there could be decals that businesses could display in their windows. There could be opportunities for local businesses to have a booth at the event so they can talk about their business with residents. Staff will touch base and either extend an invitation to the EDC to attend the Anniversary Committee meeting or ask one of the Councilmembers on the committee to attend the EDC meeting. C. 2026 Fee Schedule Discussion Mayor Grant requested this discussion stay high level stating that Staff can explain how they came to the changes. Council can ask questions along the way. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said the memo outlines the proposed changes to the 2026 Fee Schedule along with narratives from the Department Heads explaining the reasons they are requesting those changes. The changes are reflected as red lines in the text. Councilmember Weber said there are changes requested regarding right-of-way utility permits. The change includes a move to linear foot. He supports that. He thinks the fee is low. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he agrees. The Assistant Public Works Director worked with a consultant that also worked with Shoreview. So this format is very similar to Shoreview's format. He found out New Brighton is $0.50 per foot. Councilmember Weber said St. Louis Park is $1.00 per foot. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 13 Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he discussed with Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson that there is time to do some additional research to analyze that value closer. He will do that. Councilmember Weber would be okay at $0.50. He explained that this is in regards to directional drilling, underground. This would be charging based on how far they go vs. charging for a flat permit or installation basis. It is charging them based on how much work they are doing in the right-of-way. Councilmember Monson asked if Staff can discuss the TCAAP fees, specifically the WAC and SAC. She would like to understand what it means for potential development. City Administrator Jagoe said the TCAAP WAC and SAC charges are used whenever a new development comes in and a new connection to our infrastructure is made. The rate is intended to cover the costs of the infrastructure that the City will be installing for the Rice Creek Commons project. The costs include trunk utility costs, water tower, booster station, lift station, Roseville water main and other things that we need to do for infrastructure to support the Rice Creek Commons project. The rate we are proposing in the Fee Schedule is the per -unit charge. Another avenue to collect infrastructure costs would be through an assessment on the properties. The other option the County has presented is a cooperative agreement. If the other mechanisms didn't happen, it still ensures the City has a fee that would cover the cost of the infrastructure. Councilmember Monson asked if that was for the trunk fees only or if it includes the private utilities in the neighborhoods. City Administrator Jagoe said it is based on the number of SAC units that are charged by the Met Council. The private developer will bring extensions into those neighborhood areas. This is the City's recovery of the trunk utilities. Councilmember Monson said the Rice Creek Commons WAC and SAC fees are much higher than in the rest of the City. That's because we have existing infrastructure in the rest of the City so the cost is lower. City Administrator Jagoe confirmed. Councilmember Monson would like to see the per -unit language. City Administrator Jagoe will add that. Councilmember Holden asked where the Primer/Tracer area is included. City Administrator Jagoe said not under TCAAP. That would be the Water Availability and the Sewer Avail abIity in the existing fee schedule. Councilmember Holden asked if that covers what we need for that area. City Administrator Jagoe said it should. The developer will pay for all of their costs for the extension near the DMV. They will have to run the services to that site and pay the connection charge for that connection point. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 14 Councilmember Holden pointed out that the hours for the park shelter rentals are loam-IOpm. There was an issue with people partying until 1 Opm. She thought we were going to do something different like saying the rental ends at 9pm so they have an hour to clean up. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said she will have to look at the contract and see what the language says. Councilmember Holden doesn't want to go through this every summer. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the issue is we can't enforce that. Councilmember Holden said when the police are called and the Ramsey County Sheriff says they don't have to leave until 10pm. People figure they have time after 10 to clean up. People keep arriving to the party as late at 9:30pm. We need to be able to say to the police that the party ends at 9pm and the people that rented it have that hour to clean up the space. Councilmember Weber said it sounds like further discussion is needed for this. He doesn't know what the problems have been. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he will forward the rental process to Council. We can bring it back after Council has had time to digest it and we can discuss if modifications are needed. Mayor Grant asked if there is any issue with how much we are charging, as this is the Fee Schedule discussion. Councilmember Holden says the Fee Schedule says "until 10:00". She thinks people assume they are paying to use the space until 10:00. This shouldn't be a big thing. She just asked if anything has changed from the last time we discussed it. Councilmember Rousseau would like to know how often this happens and what the issues are. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said it doesn't happen every time, but it is not uncommon. Mayor Grant said the hours should be stricken from the Fee Schedule. Times will be in the policy and in the rental agreement. That will uncouple the fees from the policy for renting. Councilmember Rousseau said Staff wants clarification about the Student Rates for 2026. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said the pet licenses were changed to a lifetime license last year. Bethel, students apply for the license as a requirement to stay in student housing. Most students a+: -- temporary residents. They are here for a semester, maybe a year but • they were paying the same as every other resident. There was a discussion if college students, city wide can have the student rate applied to them. There were 20 cat licenses in 2025. Nine of those were Bethel students. There were 65 dog licenses in 2025. Five of those were Bethel students. Staff is seeking clarification if this should continue to be referenced as it is. Would stating college student, apply to any college student. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 15 Councilmember Rousseau would be fine with it being anyone with a college ID. Councilmember Weber asked if there is any data on how many animal control calls are directed to Bethel. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hanson said she would only get a report about a dangerous dog. City Administrator Jagoe said we get an incident log that shows if there was a call for service. She has never seen an animal control designation in that log. There are steps the City needs to take if a dog is reported as a dangerous dog. Councilmember Weber said his point is the reason we have a fee, at all, is to cover those animal control calls. If we aren't getting calls to Bethel, he doesn't see a reason to have a fee, at all. He's fine with it remaining $15. Councilmember Holden said it's not just covering the Bethel students. It's all rentals. Councilmember Monson agrees anyone with a college ID is eligible for the student license. D. Work Session Topics City Administrator Jagoe introduced four topics from the Agenda Planning list that are to be brought back for a future discussion, based on Council prioritization. The topics are Committee/Commission Goal Setting, Committee/Commission Membership, Committee/ Commission Liaison Role Policy and Approved Policy Discussion. Staff is seeking additional detail and direction on what Council is looking for in regard to these topics. Mayor Grant asked for Council discussion on Committee/Commission Goal Setting. Councilmember Rousseau thinks the EDC goal setting will happen at the commission level. They are working their goals for the next two years. They will bring that to Council when they have a plan. The PTRC has a new Staff member that will help with goal setting. Councilmember Holden said they are setting their goals now, for next year. They should have goals for the next year, ready by September. That way if we want to include something in the budget for the goals, we'll have it prior to budget discussions. She would like to see it defined by a specific date. Saying we need their goals by September 30 would allow time for discussion and budgeting. Councilmember Rousseau agrees with that. She said the EDC is looking at a two-year plan, so they will be a little ahead of the game. Mayor Grant likes the idea of them all bringing their goals in at the same time of the year. Councilmember Monson said if we give them a date to have their goals for review, that should close this topic out. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 16 City Administrator Jagoe asked if Council is comfortable with just giving a date or does Council want to see a policy that outlines their work plan timing. Councilmember Holden said it should be present your goals to Council by such and such date. Mayor Grant had mentioned earlier by September and Councilmember Holden said by September 30''. City Administrator Jagoe replied that that sounded good. We can cross that topic off the list and get that to the Committee/Commissions for their work plans. City Administrator Jagoe said for the Committee/Commission Membership item, Staff is looking for direction if this is in regard to the number of members or member composition of resident vs. non-resident. Discussion ensued regarding youth membership. There was previous discussion that a second youth member could be on a committee/commission as a regular resident without the "Youth Member" designation. It was limited to two total youth members. Further discussion ensued regarding the number of openings in each committee/commission. This topic is resolved. City Administrator Jagoe said the Committee/Commission Liaison Role Policy is in regard to what the roles and responsibilities of a Council Liaison are. This is a carry-over topic since 2024. She provided the memo that was provided during that initial discussion. She asked if there is any more Council would like to see or if this can be removed from the list. Council agreed to keep this topic for a future work session discussion. City Administrator Jagoe said the topic of approved policy discussion was added in June of 2024. Staff can't recall, specifically what this topic is in regard to. Staff asked if Council recalled the main reason for this topic being added. Councilmember Holden said we didn't want to talk about every single item that came forward. Councilmember Monson thought there were a lot of policies implemented and the process wasn't written down anywhere so a new Councilmember to understand the policy. For example the City Council won't vote on a topic discussed at a work session during the Council Meeting on the same date. She remembered it being a way to help a new Councilmember to transition into their role. Councilmember Weber said if it's not on paper, it's not a policy. It's a preference. The problem is every council will want to do things their own way. It could change every two years. Councilmember Holden said she and Ciy Administrator Jagoe have been discussing the newsletter. The Lion's Community Picnic is advertised in there, but someone said the Church's Halloween event shouldn't be in there. What's the difference? Councilmember Monson would support Staff creating a clear policy on community events in the newsletter. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 17 City Administrator Jagoe said there is a Newsletter Policy and the Senior Communications Coordinator is working on updating the Social Media Policy and the Communications Policy. Council agreed this topic is resolved. City Administrator Jagoe said Staff will bring back the Committee/Commission Liaison Role discussion to a future work session. E. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion Councilmember Monson said a Lighting Ordinance was written a while back, where we had lights every 40-feet. She said 40-feet is very close together. Councilmember Weber said guidance is every 100-feet. Councilmember Holden said that was agreed to for walkability and safety. It was recommended to us by two developers and a consultant. It has to do with the height of the light. The lights we chose were not as tall because we wanted to make it more intimate and didn't want the light spread. Councilmember Monson said the JDA discussed the trails during a recent meeting. We wanted to widen the trails. We wanted a separate trail for bikes. There were some TRC limitations. She said we should understand those limitations if we want to make any changes to allow for a better trail. Councilmember Rousseau said the PTRC is confused about this. She wondered if the County will build the sidewalk and the trail at the same time. They are uncertain if they can provide any feedback. It would be nice to get them some clearer information. Councilmember Monson said the PTRC can be invited to the JDA or at least send them a link to the meeting to watch. Councilmember Holden said it would be nice for the PTRC to get a copy of the plan. She doesn't think they understand that all of that is in the plan. She keeps hearing that they want to make sure it's walkable. The plan is right there. They should look at it. Councilmember Monson said that plan is very hard to read. Expecting someone to open the TRC and understand it, is setting a high bar. She just wanted to allow some grace for those who are trying to read it. Councilmember Weber thought the presentation gives people a good idea of what can be expected there. Mayor Grant said there is 150 feet to do a trail. That gives us the ability do to quite a few things in that space. He said TCAAP will definitely be walkable. F. Agenda Planning Mayor Grant asked if there is anything Council would like to see on the upcoming agendas. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 10, 2025 18 City Administrator Jagoe said Community Development Director Reilly will be bringing back more information on next steps for the Affordable Housing Policy to the November 24 meeting. She said the Committee/Commission Liaison Role discussion could be placed on the December 8 meeting. Discussion ensued regarding what was on upcoming agendas. The Committee/Commission Liaison discussion will be added to the November 24 meeting. If time doesn't allow for discussion it can be pushed to a later date. The agenda on December 8 is full with some Public Works items but the Committee/Commission Liaison item will be added, if needed. 4. COUNCIL/STAFF COMMENTS Councilmember Monson asked about the discussion regarding Ramsey County's Cost Share Policy. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the group meets tomorrow. He will update Council if there is anything significant to share from the meeting. Councilmember Holden wanted to clarify Boston Scientific started buying land in Maple Grove in 1994. It wasn't until 2006 that they started in Arden Hills. She wanted everyone to know that information. A n.-FnI TR N Mayor Grant adjourned the City Council Work Session at 9:00 p.m. qJst1hing David Grant Clerk Mayor