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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-27-26-WSApproved: August 24, 2026 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION JULY 27, 2026 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 5:52 p.m. following the EDA Meeting. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Tena Monson, Emily Rousseau, Kurt Weber and Brenda Holden Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Jessica Jagoe, Public Works Director/City Engineer David Swearingen, Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson, Community Development Director Jake Reilly and Contracted Finance Director Gayle Bauman 1. PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL Gregg Larson-3377 North Snelling Avenue, Arden Hills — He thanked Councilmember Monson and Councilmember Weber for suggesting to the council that a reply was warranted to him. He did get a reply. He said franchise fees will be a part of the preliminary budget discussion. He said franchise fees were first proposed for adoption in 2014. The council chamber was packed. There were four Councilmembers who started the discussion stating they were in favor of adopting franchise fees. At the end of that meeting, all five voted against it. It came back in 2024 and Council adopted those franchise fees. He spoke against it both times. There are two things wrong with the current situation. Right now the City is collecting more franchise fees than we need. The first surplus of franchise fees was used to supplement the general fund and buy down the levy. This Council has let expediency trump principle. Principle is important for public official. Citizens dislike when an elected official says one thing and then does another. Residents were told that the franchise fee would only be used to pay off fire station bonds. As soon as we had a surplus, it was used for another purpose. The City should not be collecting more franchise tax revenue than needed. He asked Council to do the right thing and reduce the amount of the franchise fee to what is needed. That amount is about $270,000 annually, rather than $435,000. There may not be more surplus, but he is asking Council to commit to dedicate any surplus to a fund that can be used to pay off bonds in 2035. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 2 2. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES None. 3. AGENDA ITEMS A. Great River Greening Becca Tucker, Twin Cities Metro Program Manager and Alex Barr, Metro Area Project Manager with Great River Greening joined the meeting to give a summary of the Natural Resource Management work that Great River Greening is doing within Arden Hills. Ms. Tucker said they focused on habitat restoration work at Hazelnut and Floral Parks. The restoration work included buckthorn and invasive species removal, native species establishment and overall habitat diversification. The volunteers are doing great work at these parks. The work is supported by two grants funded by the Outdoor Heritage Fund. The work at Hazelnut Park and supporting the Natural Resource Management Plan goes through June of 2027. The funding for the work at Floral Park goes through June of 2029. Ms. Tucker said they submitted a proposal to the Outdoor Heritage Fund to request funding from July of 2027 to June of 2032. That proposal is under review. It would support similar initiatives at Chatham Park. She outlined potential funding opportunities that are available. Ms. Tucker updated on Hazelnut and Floral Parks. There was great success after the initial buckthorn removal in the winter of 2024 and 2025. Hand clearing and forestry mowing was done at both parks. Each park has had summer and fall treatments. Buckthorn follow-up management continues. Volunteers helped with seeding to establish the native under story that will continue to fight against the buckthorn. Ms. Tucker said National Public Lands Day is a nationally sponsored volunteer event. They will be hosting the event at Hazelnut Park. They are currently working with 50-75 volunteers and they expect that to go up. There has been a lot of interest to join the event. Ms. Tucker said over the last year and a half her organization has worked with the City to determine the current state of Hazelnut, Floral and Chatham Parks. A draft of the Natural Resources Management Plan is included in the packet. It includes current state of the projects, the potential habitats at each park and the proposed recommendations. Ms. Tucker said summary estimations are being prepared, as they look at the sites. These are possible recommendations. No final dollar value has been applied to any one of them. It will be necessary to prioritize what the City thinks needs to be done, as well as, recognize what can be maintained long term. They built 5-year recommendations for all three sites. Floral and Hazelnut had their big initial buckthorn removal as well as multiple years of establishing the native habitat. There will always be continued buckthorn maintenance over the first couple of years. It is about $2,000 per acre per year if every task was being completed at both parks. Ms. Tucker said Chatham Park is different because there are portions that have been treated for buckthorn and those portions look fantastic. That will eliminate the expensive upfront initial ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 3 buckthorn removal in those areas. The Outdoor Heritage Fund would functionally supply the funds for the proposed 5-year timeline. Councilmember Rousseau asked where the budget number of $234,000 comes from. Ms. Tucker said they have estimated buckthorn removal work to be contracted. That is the majority of the $234,000. A portion is supply budget and the rest is Great River Greening labor to facilitate the contracting and management of the work. This budget timeline starts July 2027 and goes through July 2032. Councilmember Rousseau asked what the total grant amount was Ms. Tucker said the total grant is about $3 million. There are nine partners supporting similar work. Chatham is one piece of that $3 million proposal. Councilmember Holden said she lives near Hazelnut and people have buckthorn all over their yards. This will be a full-time job every year. What do we do for education? Ms. Tucker they work directly with the Parks, Trails and Recreation Committee (PTRC) and the volunteer groups who are doing the work. She hopes the volunteer event in the fall will spur some connections with the community. Councilmember Holden asked if her definition of education is getting volunteers. She is concerned that people don't know even know what buckthorn looks like. Ms. Tucker said her definition is to make the connections that start the process where those volunteers will spread the education. She would love to work with the City to determine the best way to reach out to neighbors and community groups. Councilmember Holden said she would like to see the people in the neighborhoods near the parks that have been treated get some education so they can find it in their own yard. Ms. Tucker said there was a flyer sent before the project began. She can understand how a mid - work flyer may be beneficial. It can describe what buckthorn is, how to identify it, how to control it and what to replace it with. There are funds to support that education. She's open to other ideas for signage or other ways to connect with the community. That is part of the purpose of the volunteer events. Councilmember Holden thought a display case with piece of buckthorn in it may help people identify it. It could just be a poster. Ms. Tucker said she is working with partners to place interesting signs that are educational vs. just a QR code. She would like to connect on how the Natural Resources Management Plan and updates can get onto the website. She would like to see it easily available for anyone. Councilmember Monson thanked Ms. Tucker. She lives on Hazelnut Park and it has been transformed. She is excited about another grant for another park. She said the dollars in the plan are a menu to choose from. She asked Staff if this will be another work session topic or if there is already a plan in place for how to use this Natural Resources Management Plan. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 4 Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said Hazelnut funding ends after this year, Next year will begin the ongoing maintenance that we need to budget for operationally. He would like direction from Council on what approach we should take so it can be implemented in the CIP. Councilmember Monson said that only applies for Hazelnut for next year and Floral won't need to be budgeted until 2029. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. He added that through the Park System Plan, it is identified that funding should be added for Crepeau Nature Preserve. Mayor Grant thanked Ms. Tucker. He is in the Chatham neighborhood and he watched the transformation when the goats went through. It was amazing. Councilmember Weber supports the whole program. Maintaining their hard work after they are done is a must. We don't have to commit to the full value right now but we can start with maintaining what they have accomplished and we can see how it develops. He thanked Ms. Tucker and would love to have them back in any manner that helps the City. Councilmember Rousseau asked if there are any staffing challenges with meeting the full a -la - carte list. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said it will help a lot to fill the Parks and Recreation Manager position. Taking a lighter approach with more buckthorn focus is more manageable. That can evolve through discussions as we continue working with Great River Greening. Discussion ensued about timing of the upcoming grants. Presentations are in August. Allocations are usually made in September. Great River Greening will come back to the City with an allocation dollar value. It is then approved by the State legislature in the winter and signed into law in May. Further discussion ensued on other possible funding sources. Great River Greening has a list of funding sources for continued work on projects. The same large pot of state funding also supports the Conservation Partners Legacy program. This year that is 100% metro focused. That could be a possible funding source. Great River Greening can't help with the application, but she can get information to Staff to facilitate projects at other parks. They hope to connect with businesses and organizations in the communities they work in to have them extend their work either through private foundation funds or private volunteer events. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he is hearing that Council is in support of the new grant opportunity. He asked if Council is also in support of a lighter buckthorn focus being added into the CIP. Council confirmed they support that approach. B. 2027-2031 CIP Discussion Contracted Finance Director Bauman said she took the information provided by staff to put together the first draft of the 2027-2031 CIP. This pulls through to the 2027 budget. CIP is strictly ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 5 a plan for what you want to do in the future. It can be changed. It helps when forming budgets for the future. This year's plan is $42.4 million over the 5-years. She shared a graphic on how it's split between departments. The biggest changes were in the Water Department and Parks Department. There were a lot of park projects added and there were increases made to projects in last year's plan. She removed TCAAP Projects that are totally funded by other dollars. There was no impact on the Water Fund. She took them out to get through this process. The next biggest change was the Street Department. It dropped due to timing of projects. Councilmember Holden asked if the amount budgeted for trails is the amount with the 50/50 split. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said this is based off of the current policy with Ramsey County. The new structure needs to be approved. The hope is the City and County representatives can come together by August 12 and then it would go to the County Board for approval. Councilmember Holden said we know this is inflated and we know our portion will be less. We just don't know by how much. Staff confirmed. Mayor Grant said if the County were to reimburse us for the water main that was installed across from Bethel, would that go into the Water Fund? Council is discussing that agreement this evening. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. That $512,000 will be paid back when a construction contract is awarded with Rice Creek Boulevard. We can request it in spring of next year. Councilmember Monson would like to discuss the gateway signs and the natural resources restorations. She said this is assuming we get the Great River Greening grant. She sees Chatham is in there but she thought Hazelnut need money. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. This will need to be updated. This was created based on a May draft. The draft that Great River Greening presented earlier tonight is not represented. Councilmember Monson said for the sake of discussion, if we get funding to cover the entire $189,750, the amount stays as is, but the funding sources at the bottom would increase. Staff confirmed. Councilmember Monson would support that plus whatever Hazelnut needs. She isn't sure if gateway signs should be a project based on the EDA conversation. Councilmember Rousseau believes some of the EDA funds goes toward staffing costs. City Administrator Jagoe confirmed. A portion of the EDA funds go to support operating expenses. There isn't a programmed amount, for the 2027 levy, for the EDA. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 6 Councilmember Holden thought there was a 20% match on the $189,750. The last time there was a match requirement for the first five years. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said after Great River Greening presented the Chatham number, the entire amount would be supported with a grant. We would need to add money for Hazelnut because that funding will be used up after this year. He said Councilmember Holden made a good point. He will review with Great River Greening to see what that match is. He believes it's $15,000 over the 5 year term. What we have done to support that for the other projects is to have Public Works perform in kind to support that cost. We would help with hauling and chipping to equal that amount. Mayor Grant asked if the North Snelling and Royal Hills trail improvements were the total for the projects. Does it include the $200,000 from the developer? Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the $472,000 is the total project cost. Contracted Finance Director has the revenues in there. Mayor Grant asked about the Lake Johanna Boulevard Trail PIR $175,000. He asked if that is engineering costs. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. That is based on the County's Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) and is the value they told us to expect to budget for engineering and design. Councilmember Holden asked if engineering and design are split 50150, this number and all of the trail numbers may drop. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. Mayor Grant asked about the park shelter and building renewal. It covers one shelter at Cummings Park. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the shelter is at Ingerson Park. The picnic shelter at Cummings was removed. Mayor Grant realizes it was removed. At one point it was proposed to be replaced. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said Staff hasn't received direction to do the actual replacement. Mayor Grant said the Lake Johanna Fire Department (LJFD) shows capital of $502,000. Between the ladder replacement and the equipment replacement, Council can talk about the franchise fees and where we want to put that. That could be an option since they are capital dollars. He said we are generally in the $400,OOOs not $660,000 as presented here for sewer lining and rehab. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the next project planned is for the Venus neighborhood. That is the estimated amount to capture that entire neighborhood. Lining can be scaled back, if directed. He said he wanted to correct an earlier statement about the shelter. The ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 7 Ingerson shelter is included in the 2027 Ingerson line. The $85,000 is for the shelter at Hazelnut Park. That was identified through the Park System Plan. Mayor Grant said the water tower maintenance is an estimate. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he just received the inspection report that was conducted earlier this year. The estimate came back around $250,000 but he would caution against going that low immediately. We could lower it a little. But the last time around the bids came in higher than the inspection report. He'd like to see that play out before adjusting anything too drastically. Mayor Grant said there is $900,000 under water meter replacement. If we get a reimbursement from the County for water, that would put money in the fund to pay for that. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said that item is assuming that we had begun the water meter replacement process this year. We haven't. After testing some meters last year, they came back with really good accuracy. He was going to ask Council if we can get testing on the meters in Councilmember's homes to see if we can get a better data set on the accuracy of the meters are. The meters are at the age where we should start planning for it. Seeing the high accuracy of the tests completed, he would like to do a little more testing before pursuing this project. What was originally scheduled for this year, will be pushed out to 2027. He believes that amount was $400,000-$500,000. Everything will shift a year. Councilmember Holden remembers there were battery failures. Is Staff saying that isn't happening anymore? Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said there was an issue with some of the collectors. There were some areas of the city that were sending data constantly and it wasn't being received. The ones that were sending data more frequently were the ones that were failing. Once we had a better collecting system, we replaced the batteries that were overworked. There has been no uptick in replacement of batteries in the past couple of years. Councilmember Holden said if we suddenly have a rush of failed batteries, is Staff prepared to start replacing units. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he isn't seeing anything right now that is telling him to start the process. If we get an influx of batteries dying, he would initiate this. There are resources to ask questions once the process begins. It will take 3-4 months of planning before we can begin the meter switch outs. Discussion ensued that Public Works and Finance would need to be prepared. We could start planning ahead of time and commit to a vendor later. Councilmember Holden said we are on the edge. They are over 25 years old. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen agreed. We did a full battery replacement in 2012. They could have another 10 years. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 g Councilmember Monson asked if Councilmember Holden can share information about the budget at LJFD. This is showing the capital expenditures. We will get to the operating costs later. She wonders where LJFD is in the conversation. Councilmember Holden said they haven't started those conversations. City Administrator Jagoe said the numbers are from the preliminary amounts given at the last LJFD meeting and the budget discussion is next Wednesday. Councilmember Holden said the Safer grant ran out. There will be a significant amount of money in salaries. City Administrator Jagoe said these are programmed with what will be in the budget for the board to review on Wednesday. They aren't asking additional Full Time Employees (FTEs) this year. They haven't said if the will request additional FTEs next year. Councilmember Monson said what they ask for next year matters when looking at the question about Public Safety decreasing by a certain dollar amount. Discussion ensued that they were looking for three captains but we demanded a break. They were approved for three FTEs last year. This year they didn't ask for any. The discussion will be ongoing into future budget years. Councilmember Holden asked if Freeway Park got their pickleball nets. Do we need more money for pickleball nets? Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said he reached out to the Park and Recreation Supervisor and received a plan for how to approach it. We previously purchased nets that turned out to be too heavy to place on the asphalt without damaging the courts. We were looking at another style that got discontinued. The new plan is to get some lighter duty pickleball nets. They come with a storage box. We will buy a box that has a code or key for people who want to use it. The hope is to have something out there before the end of the season. Councilmember Holden asked if the $8,000 will cover four of them. Staff confirmed. Councilmember Holden said we should just order all four right up front. Mayor Grant asked about $75,000 on the emergency generator replacement schedule. He asked if it was a small generator. He thought that was low. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen will have to ask Public Works Superintendent Frid. This it to replace the generator at lift station 8. That is the lift station that has the most failures, and we want to convert it to natural gas. He doesn't have any more specifics, at this time. Contracted Finance Director Bauman said there was no change to the PIR fund levy at $430,000. Based on the projects that are programmed now, the PIR is set to go negative in 2028 and continue to go negative, unless another funding source is found. The equipment and building replacement fund is proposed to increase by $63,500. That is based on the study done last year on City buildings ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 9 indicating the future needs. The public safety capital fund (LJFD capital items) only needs $120,000 levy to cover the capital items for the next 10 years. Last year the additional levy went in there and then it was transferred it out to cover the additional FTEs, which is a general fund item. The increase in the levy in the general fund is part of the FTE. There was no change to the EDA levy, remaining at zero. The park development fund currently has just over $200,000. Because we are paying for our park development projects out of the PIR we can actually transfer that money to the PIR fund to cover those park projects. The preliminary numbers for the enterprise funds show small increases. The franchise fees can be directed toward the LJFD capital or it can stay in the debt service fund to accumulate. Discussion ensued if Council wished to recess the work session and reconvene after the Council Meeting. Contracted Finance Director Bauman was not going to be present. Council did not wish to have the conversation without her present. Councilmember Weber said he is interested in the PIR fund. Last year the Finance Director indicated that we weren't at the $1.5 million sustainability threshold for our streets and parks. We would require levy increases of about $75,000 for a few years. We added $180,000 last year. What happened there? The deficit has grown significantly. He would like some clarification around that when discussion resumes. Council recessed the Work Session at 6: 56 pm. Council did not reconvene after the regular Council meeting. The Work Session was adjourned at 9:32 pm. C. Code of Conduct Not Discussed. D. Immigration Enforcement Discussion Not Discussed. E. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion Not Discussed. F. Agenda Planning Not Discussed. 4. COUNCIL/STAFF COMMENTS None. ADJOURN Mayor Grant adjourned the City Council Work Session at 9:32 p.m. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 27, 2026 10 Clerk LA4�� David Grant Mayor