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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, May 8,2023 Page 6 the bond interest rate, as of December 31, 2022, the bond interest rate was higher than the City's investment earnings. If the Council asked her as of March 31,2023, the answer would have been yes, the City is earning more because the market had changed so drastically. It changes on a daily and weekly basis. Unfortunately, the City is required to take a point in time and evaluate the City's investment portfolio to what the market is doing at the particular day in time. Ms. Pietrick explained with regard to the under billing in the water fund, 2021 was the first year the City enacted tiered water rates,at the end of 2021,keeping in mind tiered rates, revenues were not coming in where she anticipated they should be due to a drought, so she was concerned if tiered rates were working correctly or was something else in play. She would not normally do a re-evaluation of a rate study in two years. St. Paul Regional Water does theirs every five years. City staff did ask Ehlers to come back and re-evaluate the rates to make sure the calculations were working correctly, the staff was working through analyzing commercial and residential accounts and collectively concluded that something was not right. The City consultants told staff to really look at the residential and commercial because something was not working correctly. As soon as she was notified, she worked with her utility billing staff to try and figure out why the tiered rates were not working correctly. That is when staff identified a problem in the computer system. That has been corrected and staff has spent numerous hours calculating bills to make sure they are working correctly when the new rates went into effect in 2023. Staff evaluated a sampling of all utility bills and continue to do so and are hopeful with the new financial system the City is putting in that setting up utility rates is not as cumbersome as it is in the current system. Groff moved, Strahan seconded, accepting the 2022 Annual Financial Reports. Roll Call Ayes: Etten, Groff, Strahan, Schroeder, and Roe. Nays: None d. Establish the 2024 Budget Process Calendar City Manager Patrick Trudgeon briefly highlighted this item as detailed in the Request for Council Action and related attachments dated May 8, 2023. Mayor Roe noted that sometimes the during the June Legislative update timeframe the City also gets some preliminary information from the Ramsey County Assessor's office, and he wondered if there is any plan to provide that information at that time. Mr. Trudgeon explained staff will try to provide what it can. The County has changed how it presents the information to the City and staff does not really get that detailed information until August.