##VIDEO ID:tU4m0MQDhkk## [Music] good evening and welcome to the December 2nd city council meeting if you join me for a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America the stands indivisible andice all okay Mr lski roll call please Michelle vul here Luke helier here John burmel here Dan Walter here Joshua Lee here okay um we'll now move on to Citizens comments this is an opportunity for those in the audience to address the council for up to three minutes and these are typically for issues that are not on the agenda yep come on up if you want to state your name and your address Joseph Myers 17678 kering Trail Lake Phil Minnesota good evening evening thank you mayor go ahead Sor no yeah I know we chatting so it's all good imagine you got uh a letter from the city of Lakeville and it said I'm going to send your case to the lakevi PD and prosecute you in the court of law because You' ride drive for Uber imagine if that happened to you sitting in my seat two months ago that happened to me I own an Airbnb in the city of Lakeville and I was um several emails were sent to me and messages were sent to me in regards to this so good evening ladies and gentlemen and thank you so much for letting me to speak on behalf of short-term rentals in the city short-term rentals have become a modern solution to evolving travel economic and housing needs and there are legitimate concerns about their safety housing prices increases and all the like that you hear on your nightly news we have run ours in the city for over three and a half years and had no concerns it's families visiting other families and the cost of hotels are too expensive for them so they stay as a as a family in our home it's individuals with weddings coming to funerals staying down the street being a part of the neighborhood seeing if they could find Lakeville as a part of their home there certainly obviously tourism opportunities people visiting here from all over the nation and having options and economic options not just the big hotel down the street at over 200 $150 a night during High season they can stay in an entire home a four-bedroom home for $200 a night and we need to address these concerns responsibly I'm not asking for every every single family home in Lakeville to turn into a transient place and a place like a hotel this has been addressed Across the Nation in big areas small areas tourist areas mom and pop little little small cities big towns and there is a decade of experience on how we can deal with this this is a modern problem for a modern city and I urge this Council and this city to not just say no and to say what is the opportunity here how can we position our citizens to thrive the other part is economic increase interest rates increase housing prices we put our home on Airbnb not as a fourth business but as an opportunity for us to travel around the country and do ministry work we could certainly put it on for a long-term rental increase those rental prices as we know they're already increasing in the city Airbnb gives an opportunity an economic opportunity for us to travel and visit other places around the country so I urge the individual on this Council I urge the individuals in this city to take a modern solution to a modern problem what's next you know Uber right we don't want those Uber drivers in our neighborhoods door Dash it give you about 30 seconds thank you so much oh I'm in 30 seconds I'm done or yeah you got 30 more seconds oh thank you so much what's next and I don't think this regulation stops it I think it just moves it to the corners to the sides I do digital marketing for for a business I could add run an ad that no one in the city of Lakeville could see and people could come in I could pretend their family and friends I think we need a modern solution for a modern technology thank you so much thank you uh Mr Myers appreciate that if you would send me an email so we can follow up uh my email is my first initial last name at Lakeville mn.gov awesome okay thanks we love to thank you is there any other public comment okay moving on to item four additional agenda information Mr Miller nothing tonight mayor okay now we'll move on to item 5A our parks and wreck quarterly report and I'll turn over to our parks and recre director Joe Macy archin good evening Joe good evening uh mayor city council uh thank you for um giving me the chance to do the quarterly report today I start off by doing one piece here I'm going to need that lighter um all right so quarterly report this is for the Parks and Recreation Department September through November um so kind of our year- end report um so maybe a little bit longer than uh than our standard report uh starting with though Administration so talking about some of the administrative work we've been doing for the department and some of those highlights we'll be covering today include uh construction for Grand Prairie Park uh we'll be talking a little bit about the city's website our uh web pages as well as uh the upcoming strategic plan for the department and uh Grand Prairie Park construction um I'm actually not going to spend too much time on this slide um in the picture though you can see the the footings at Grand Prairie Park for the grand stand this was taken approximately two months ago um I'm actually going to go to the next slide where we've got a great drone shot of the park uh the communications did for us and we'll use our laser pointer here so in the background here you can see uh the um grand stand and baseball diamond uh you can see the field uh lighting is up in the front you'll see the new uh retention Pond there's actually two ponds on site that are being used to irri irrigate all of the park uh so that'll all be surface water that'll be reused uh the initial grading and Entrance Road off of 185th Street and parking lot is in for the um athletic deck um in the background here you can see the uh Cricut pitch which will also be used for lacrosse soccer football uh the challenge course which is right in the front that is substantially completed it just needs the safety surfacing and in this area we've got work done already for the splash pad the playground and the main building the main building uh will hold um a shelter restrooms changing rooms that'll all be included in that space uh you've got the Central Parking Lot here in the middle um and then you've got athletic decks uh three two and three those are identified primarily for football across soccer um this section here is the uh future skate park um so to kind of give you lay of the land that'll hopefully be coming a few years down the road next to it um and the this was taken a few weeks back the building that's next to that uh between athletic Tex 1 and two is the field support building that's another shelter shelter uh restrooms and it also has an office space that overlooks uh the fields that can be used for tournaments um that is coming along pretty quickly as well uh you've got the the Western most parking lot here and then athletic deck one which is identified mostly for soccer and Lacrosse and then the 10 pickle ball courts um thought it would be kind of a fun way to see kind of the scope and scale of the project where we're at with things as you know the project has been delayed a little uh this year or substantially due to the weather earlier this year but it has allowed us to get the grading completed the Retention Ponds are in all the storm water and um and water has been added so those utilities are done so uh heading through nove or December here we'll be getting work completed on two of the buildings and then the site will go dormant for a few months we'll be picking it back up in Spring um but still on track for us to be able to um open portions of the park in 2025 the bulk of the park will open in 26 which has been Our intention for 6 months or more so uh so that's Grand Prairie Park um moving on though to park facility rentals thought it'd be fun to kind of see where things are at this year since we've added antlers Park and some additional facilities uh so for Fields these are for straight field rentals a little over $20,000 in rental Revenue the big component with that is uh that most of our athletic associations do not pay for Fields um on an hourly basis or daily basis basis they pay a once a season fee so the bulk of that revenue is actually comes through the Youth Sports administrative fee which was a little over $80,000 Park shelters and buildings over $100,000 out of that uh Jonathan Pavilion itself was around 50,000 of that total and this summer we had 321 shelter reservations at atler Park there was a 35% increase over 2022 as you know 2023 the park was uh offline as it was being reconstructed um and that 35% increase is actually with two fewer operating months uh revenue for those shelter rentals from 22 to 24 um jumped from 177,000 to 30,000 one of the other projects that we've been working on administratively is updates to the uh City's website so to our Park Pages uh and our administrative uh assistant uh Stella has been working on adding new park pages to increase information for the public including data on Park amenities construction maintenance history has actually been a really neat addition to the site uh as well as information on upcoming Park projects so to date she's added 67 new park pages one for each of our Park facilities uh as well as five for uh Greenway Trails um uh conservation areas and those items more will be added over time uh but one of the other new additions to the site you can now track um the adop a park program as you know um we have a program in the city where um a family or an organization can adopt a park by visiting the site you can actually see which Parks have been adopted and you can also now request through the website the option to adopt your own um so a great way for the community to get involved in our Park um and you know take care of your neighborhood park and the other big component uh we are working on uh a new strategic plan for the uh Recreation Department um so that is um be the first strategic plan for the rec department in over 20 years we're excited about that process uh we're proposing utilizing the same uh strategic um plan consultant that we used for the art center for the past two times so that we can uh have a similar style of a plan uh but we'll be working with Parks Rec and natural resource committee for two uh dayong strategic planning workshops that are uh tentatively scheduled for February and uh after that we'll be setting goals and then working with the consultant to do two different implementation plans one for the recreation department and one for the Heritage Center um both working off of the same goals and initiatives but each needs kind of its own component to to push things forward but we're excited to go through that process since it's been so long uh since we did the last one uh Park maintenance uh quite a bit has been happening with our Park maintenance division um I already gave a little bit of an update on the process update but as a reminder this is the new proximity lock system that is being implemented for all Park facilities uh this is replacing the um Park keys that we've had for quite a long time uh and park uh renters um staff uh instructors contractors will all now have the ability to access Park buildings through a mobile device or they can pick up a card from the office and that gives us far more control over the facilities allows us to be able to track hours restrict access um there's some great updates coming with that we expect that that project will be primarily complete um early 25 cograph is another uh new addition um cograph itself is a software system that the city's been using for quite a while but Park maintenance will be utilizing it in a different way um and has started to implement that uh so we're using it for our maintenance requests they come in from all over the city uh in a lot of different ways and this is now centralizing those requests but it's also allowing us to track comments and questions from the public so if there are you know regular comments about Trail maintenance or tree along a specific route we can now put that in as a note and track it by the facility um which will allow us to better respond to um future requests from the public uh Kenmore park playground we've kind of touched on this but uh the council approved the new playground at Kenmore Park replacing a 25-year-old playground back in October um that playground was removed and the new playground has been installed uh the safety surfacing needs to go in and it'll be um complete for the season in spring we will need to do a bit of restoration work to restore the lawn and kind of the area around it but that's coming along nicely uh the Veterans Memorial uh had quite a few repairs that were done uh this fall Park maintenance did an in-house project replacing the concrete slab and the walkways around the memorial that's at arenson Park and that was done in time for Veterans Day and the Fine Arts Building um that this was a two-phase project it started with a landscape Improvement done by an eagle out who uh replaced the landscape block the decorative rock and replanted uh or planted new plants um and then our Parks maintenance crew came in and uh poured some new pads for benches and some sculptures and those types of things so it was a great um volunteer project tied to our Park maintenance staff as well and this should probably say winter is here um but the uh Parks maintenance staff has been busy um closing our seasonal restrooms putting Portable Restrooms in place blowing out irrigation systems um inspecting and repairing the warming houses prepping those to open later this month and then also working on our snowmobile and cross country ski trails uh inspections and tree trimming and moving on to Recreation uh quite a few events held this fall uh some of these I think several of you have attended uh so the who dun it hike uh in September 86 participants tour of Lakeville that's the uh tour of our biking trails uh the fall classic pickleball tournament with 27 teams and then of course the haunted forest with over 1,800 participants and fall programs for uh Recreation are doing really well uh as well um the nature programs at Ed makeo environmental Learning Center are new this fall uh as if you remember that's um open now for the first time going into fall so 193 participants there for the youth programs um the Youth Sports 64 participants yoga which is also held at Ritter at the Ed makeo environmental Learning Center 41 and the music together which is held at antlers uh 41 and Recreation Revenue uh so Revenue to date uh 368,000 I won't go through all the details on this this is just kind of a snippet of um some of the programs um but not all um just kind of gives you a little bit of a highlight and the recreation department has also uh recently imp mented a new survey program so after every class uh participants will now receive a survey uh that'll help us track um cost of programs customer service uh facilities there's all kinds of things that we're actually working on tracking through that and additionally uh participants or sorry uh renters who utilize the John Hen Pavilion are also now receiving a survey um those have been invaluable for us already with the rentals at antlers there's um items that we're tweaking adjust ments uh common things like you know cleaning and some of those things but it's been great feedback so far uh and the winter spring brochure went out in November um in that brochure and registrations have started for winter spring in that brochure there were 21 new program offerings that's uh 41 new sessions it's a 25% increase in our new programs over last year's new programs um and then that includes an expanded volleyball and pickleball leagues and also new Visual and performing art programs at the art center and upcoming events there's quite a few coming for the recreation department Santa Santa Secret store this weekend um illumination walk um pint-size Palms but check the website there's a lot of great things coming there as well and moving on to the art center um Art Center uh hosted the annual Art Festival September 2st and 22nd I think again several of you were there so thank you for that um a great event also record setting attendance for them the picture though is really what I'm going to focus on that's the new community art project that was donated by the friends of the art center it was designed by artist sheay Maye um from Minnesota and it was painted by uh the participants at the festival that has now been installed uh as part of that eagle scout project outside of the Fine Arts Building what a a fun new community art um installation uh the fall visual art programs are going quite well uh and continuing to set records uh the pottery programs um and our fall fall season for the Art Center is really October November little bit of September so this is really kind of a two two and a half month snippet of our programs uh but P Pottery registrations 202 participants specialty workshops 84 um and youth Workshop 65 but things are going quite well over there uh Miracle on 34th Street this was the latest production done by Expressions Community Theater that ran for two weeks um it is their best show postco uh there was a little kind of dip after covid so they're back into the thousands for ticket sales which is great A little over 14,000 in ticket Revenue it's actually the third best selling show um in their 18 years of existence so it was a pretty solid show for them and for the Performing Art series also really ramps up in Fall um a couple of these I'll just touch on tribute to Johnny Cash uh that was a new event 142 tickets Cinderella which was by uh twin City homeschoolers for the Arts that's a rental but a partnership 1,700 tickets sold uh and then Bridge Over Troubled Waters that's uh a with Collective unconscious that's a a really popular band that uh performs occasionally 371 and the Performing Arts Revenue uh total to date 622,000 uh again kind of a breakdown a snippet a snapshot of of where some of that Revenue comes from but this isn't all of the revenue lines it doesn't include pottery and some other items the total do does but not in the the breakdown and community art uh we recently installed a new uh public or um public art bench at uh casperson Park this was funded by the friends of the lake valer art center and is dedicated to our former Parks and Recreation director John henan uh it's set back from the Performing Art stage which was one of John's projects um and is kind of a fitting spot for that bench so we've told him he's got that reserve for live at the lake next summer uh as a reminder holiday art sale and empty bows fundraiser that runs this week so Thursday Friday Saturday um that'll take place showcasing our local artists and talent great way to help support local artists and also uh the local food bank and moving on to active adults uh active adults held their Belgian waffle breakfast fundraiser uh $10 tickets um 400 400 plus tickets sold um but that was a a great event for them that they hold every October uh the other fundraiser that they're currently doing to help support the facility is the Metro Dining cards that's a $35 sale they've sold 267 boxes of those um but is another great way to help support the facility and this event we had to highlight uh it's a a new one for the Heritage Center it's the Denim and lce stce uh brand new uh went quite well though it was the first time that we've done it again and this was in combination with the Apple Valley Senior Center but 50 active adults that attended that in feedback was really positive uh popular programs for the Heritage Center and these are not programs that are included in the membership so these are separate registrations there's a bit of a distinction with that so I wanted to make sure to highlight that these programs all filled the capacity and they included uh the intro to calligraphy the paint in treat uh Diamond dots Workshop sound healing and the Lakeville luncheons um but those are are quite popular over there and current membership for the Heritage Center has reached all-time high um breaking last year's record uh so 1,597 memberships sold to date last year's record uh high was 1,322 so a pretty decent increase over a year ago and trips uh the Heritage Center does quite a few trips annually here's kind of a highlight of uh some of the trips that they did here in uh the fall including uh the Mano History tour um the international owl Center and uh still water trol and then just a couple of events coming up for the Heritage Center uh so their bake sale is this Saturday uh holiday on Main is a Saturday so you'll see coordination between those events Heritage Center Art Center events it's going to be busy downtown but such a great event uh and then December the Lakeville luncheons uh the holiday social in December and then Grandpa Joe's candy shop and with that I'll stand for any questions very good any Council questions comments yeah I said it was G to be long that was long it was good so I have a question for you about some of the feedback from Antlers um based on that is sense that we're going to match the amount of events for next year or was it just because the first year we had a lot or what what's kind of your thought on reservations for next year I think reservations will be uh pretty heavy again for Antlers um we're sticking with the same reservation process that we did last year which will release uh reservations for all of our Park shelters January 1st okay and that include antlers um and at this point I think we're seeing you know from last year's feedback it's going to be pretty pretty busy I wouldn't wait if you want to shelter at antlers yeah from his mouth all right thank you sir appreciate it thank you moving on to item six our consent agenda Mr Miller any items you wanted to highlight thank you mayor and Council two items tonight item 6E is a facility use agreement with in health system uh for several years we have leas space at our fire stations to am to the AL Health System to house our Al ambulances this is a two-year extension to that agreement and then item 6h is a mowing contract uh for County and City boulevards this is an extended or expanded contract that we do to um that the county reimburses us for so that we can M the boulevards a little bit more consistently what they get to in the summer okay Council any item they' want to discuss or highlight if not I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll move approval is there a second second that was a tie that's a phal finish uh and any further discussion about the consent agenda and all those in favor say I I opposed all right consent agenda is approved we'll now move on to 7A the public hearing on the adoption of the feast scheduled by ordinance and I'll turn it over to our finance director Miss thank you Mr Mayor um tonight we are we are approving the fee schedule for 2025 this is a requirement by state law that we present this in a format where there can be public comment and then the the council will move to approve it um it does establish all of our fees uh for the 2025 year and we annually review this to make sure that we're U matching the cost that it it is that we incur to provide the services for these um items and that we're also keeping things in line with what our budgets are set for uh the proposed changes are consistent with the discussions that we had at the work session on October 28th there were two minor changes um that staff found since that October 28th work session um number seven it was updating the rates at the John henon pavilion rental went from the 2hour minimum to a 5H hour minimum instead of 4-Hour minimum the cost did not change it's just um making sure that we're maximizing that rental time um and then also change was uh 9B and that was the increase to the Lakeville Youth Athletic Association participation fee um going from $200 per field per season to $250 per field per season and that's reflecting the market rate adjustments so those were the only changes to what council saw at the October 28th work session um all of the notes from the increases and and changes and again it's it's matching our our cost of living increases for staff or um identifying things that are actually taking more time to do so we're trying to make sure that we're capturing all of those costs um just a couple other things the um the permit fees saw an increase for the first time they have not increased them and um the staff did a comparison of the neighboring City permit fees to make sure we were in line with our our neighbors and that's what those changes were reflecting um and with that I'll just open it up to if there's any other questions with there's so many items in here so um Council any questions thanks for clearing up the changes yeah so this is a public hearing is there any public comment about the fee schedule okay with that I'll take a motion to close the public hearing I'll make a motion to close the public hearing okay is there a second second all those in favor say I I opposed okay public hearing is closed and I will take a motion to adopt fee schedule unless there's any further discussion council member bural I'd like to move to approve the ordinance adopting fees and summary publication of the ordinance and move to approve the resolution adopting the 2025 fee schedule okay is there a second second any further discussion on the fee schedule okay seeing none roll call please vul hi helier hi FML I Walter I Lee I okay very good we'll now move on to the public budget meeting for the 2025 property tax levy and 2025 budget thank you Mr Mayor um this is a state um Minnesota statute requirement that we do this we hold the public hearing prior to the adoption of our 2025 budget and our 2025 tax levy um again we're providing taxpayers the opportunity to ask questions and present comments at the public hearing and after we do the hearing um Council will take uh close the public hearing and then uh decide on how we want to move forward with the adoption of the resolutions uh we did present the 2025 budget and the tax levy at the council work sessions in in August and November and then we also presented at the council meeting that we adopted the preliminary levy on September 3rd so with that I will start I want to first off thank everyone staff counsel for all of the input this is a large and lengthy process we start in May and it goes for eight months up until December until this this final step um so I appreciate all the hard work there is lot lots of thought and very careful considerations when we are looking at all of different items in our budgets so for 2025 we are looking at a total tax levy of 48,8 15,000 that is for all the funds this is a 12% increase over a 2024 Levy uh which equates to 5.2 million roughly this is again providing funding for our operations our capital or maintenance and our debt service this chart is shown the breakdown of our Levy we've got the general fund Levy is proposed to be at 32,9 77,000 that is roughly an 8% increase over last year's Levy our pavement management fund will be getting 1.8 million that is no change from last year's Levy our Park Improvement fund 450,000 up just 100,000 from last year Trail Improvement fund is 550,000 which is 150,000 up from last year technology is flat at a $300,000 Levy and then our debt service funds um roughly 9.9 million for our existing Debt Service funds that are Park referendum Debt Service which we are showing separately because of the impact to the home owners um this was the park referendum that was voted on in November of 2021 and the taxpayers said yes to it we issued the last um set of bonds in 2024 so what this Levy this 2 and a half% Levy increase is fulfilling that last big jump in the the levy to cover those the last set of bonds that we issued so looking at our community growth um for over last year roughly $340 million growth in our tax value or 2.8% um that is broken down you know if we are looking at how much that present gives us in property tax dollars it's roughly a million dollars um valuation growth on the existing property so not new construction was at 60 million or .5% so overall um the new construction of 2.8% and the valuation increases of 0.5% give us an overall tax base growth of 3.2% this graph is just showing the market value new construction that we've added over the years if you look back back into 2013 and um how much we've grown since then we topped out in 2023 20124 that was um our biggest growth so far there's been a little bit of a lull that we're expecting um and it has the the new development has slowed in the last year as you probably realized um we are estimating 2025 new construction um to be a little less so this is again projection for 2025 but that's what we are looking at this breakdown um shows you what the new construction consists of so we've got residential obviously is our our biggest growth factor in um 2023 and 2024 quite a ways up there $250 Million worth of new construction for um residential homes um commercial is the red uh the red columns uh and then industrial are the green columns and the purple columns are Apartments so we've seen some apartment growth in the last few years here um as those new developments come in looking at our tax capacity rate which is our tax base divided by all the these wonderful properties are paying to it our tax rate um at its highest was 41% back in 2013 um as uh the growth has absorbed a lot of our increases over the years it would kept dropping and dropping we are now um in another growth stage with adding uh Public Safety costs that are driving it up but also those Park referendum bonds are bumping it up as well um so we're looking at a tax rate of 32.6% for 2025 the impact on the median value home for Lakeville with that increase um or that tax rate R our median value home is now at $450,000 roughly and it would be $110 annual increase for the city portion of their taxes if you're looking at a million doll commercial property um they averaged about a 10% valuation increase they would be seeing a $1,100 annual increase in their City portion of taxes and just wanted to show this um graph because I think it's important to keep in mind that in the Dakota County cities Lakeville is still the lowest tax rate um and what this chart is showing you is what the city taxes would be at any of these other cities um with that median value home so for instance Lakeville the $450,000 home the taxes are $1,400 a year um you go to Egan that same home would cost you $1,600 a year so roughly $150 more um if you put that home in Burnsville you'd be paying $2,000 a year in the city taxes all the way up to I'll look at Hastings uh that same home would be $2600 a year in their City portion of the taxes so um just wanted to bring that to light because I think we lose perspective of how fortunate we are that Lakeville is still the lowest tax rate of our neighbors breaking down the general fund Revenue by Source our total revenues are 44 million the biggest portion of course is our property tax revenue at 33 million which is 75% of our revenues uh the next two smallest categories are um both at well intergovernmental actually jumped up to 8% this year 3.5 million um part of that is the the safer grant that we got and so 1.5 million is within that intergovernmental Revenue number charges for services and licenses and permits are both at roughly 7% at a little over $3 million each and then we've got um court fines miscellaneous and interest income that falls into that category at 2% so that's roughly 800,000 and then our transfers in are just 1% for 2025 at 170 as we continue to structure our fund balance and make sure that we fall within our policy guidelines we the city has a financial goal of staying between 40 and 50% of general fund fund balance this um helps us keep our AAA rating with Moody's and which is very important to us as we continue to issue bonds um for our target range for projected year end 2024 we are looking at I make sure I get the right numbers because we got they're right under the 50% Mark um so we're projecting at the end of 2024 to be at a 49.4% fund balance ratio and uh 2025 projected fund balance ratio of 48.7 % Julie the um the big spikes from 20 and 21 is that is it arpa dollars arpa and cares money yes yeah y breaking down the um general fund expenditures by a function uh Public Safety continues to be our our largest investment um in the city their uh fire and police together is at 53% of our total budget for the general fund at roughly 22.8 million um police is 17 million of that and Fires at 5.6 million of that total Public Works is at 15% of our total expenditures so there are 6.7 million General government is at 8% I mean 18% at 8 million and then Parks and Recreation is almost 6 million at 14% some of the factors or things that went into the general fund this year for 2025 we did have the new positions of the fire um we did get the safer Grant yay um the second go around so that is going to provide for um the salaries and benefits for 15 firefighters um it doesn't pay for any of their gear or any of the other costs that we need to put into place for those so the city is having to carry those what I'll call soft costs um police we've got four officers also added in 2025 two of those are cadets that will be partially offset with a grant um so those are the the new positions what we're also seeing in 2025 is realizing the ful year expense of what we added in 2024 so we added our first six full-time firefighters in March of 24 and we also hired two officers um in November of 24 so we're going to realize the full year of those expenditures in 25 and we also then had a 3% cost of living adjustment and step increases and as you well know um Staffing is our our biggest cost and when we provide to provide all the services that we do we're looking at the Utility Fund budgets um we factored in the cost for the 2025 Street reconstruction project we're covering ongoing major maintenance we did not issue or will not issue any new debt for the utility funds um we did have a slight rate increase um because of the wet spring and summer that we had the 2024 revenues came in lower lower than expected our liquor fund we are uh the Kia Cook store is actually in its fourth year I know it's hard to believe that it's it's already four years um we are keeping the sales conservative in our budget for 2025 uh they've been kind of flattish I'll say in 2024 um the liquor fund does include debt for the Kia Cook and the Galaxy store locations and we also um increased the transfers out of the liquor fund to 1.74 million and what that is doing is helping us keep the levy portion as low as possible by using those liquor sales um that support so some of the things that we using that liquor fund support for um The Debt Service fund on the police station which ends in 232 so that's 400,000 coming directly out of the liquor fund The Debt Service on the Kia Cook liquor store of 347,000 equipment fund we bumped that up this year um to 900,000 um that were're growing the equipment needs are growing and it's just another way to keep the levy portion of that down our technology fund is roughly at 67,000 and then we have the general fund with a fireworks donation to the um July 4th celebration of 30,000 so things to keep in mind as were um the things that would be impacting our property taxes obviously there's the other changes to the tax levy so you've got the schools and and the county with their um um taxes as well and those um little those small districts as well uh changes to individual properties values um they're based on the value of the homes as of January 2nd 2024 um and there is always this look back period the sales are looking back to October of 22 and and September of 23 so from that time period those are the sales that the county assessor is looking at in adjusting any of the market values for the current home base um our median value home actually uh just increased that small 1.28% for Lakeville and I me mentioned this before but our changes to our overall taxable market value for the whole city is a 3.2% increase so not large um and 2.8% of that was new construction again the valuation increases for the existing homes quite small 48% another um interesting that was thrown into it this year that benefited a lot of homes um it kind of hurts the businesses but the state changed their formula on the residential Homestead market value credit so more taxpayers were receiving that exclusion from their market value that brought down to their taxable Mark taxable value um it gets I put the formulas up here it's kind of um this is how they laid it out so basically um for a home that's you you used to be capped out at a $414,000 home now it caps out at a home that's at $517,000 so say a home that's was $450 last year um they would not have seen any Homestead market value credit this year they would see that on their 2025 proposed taxes they're actually getting a credit that brings down their taxable value um looking at the whole the overall average increase for the county Dakota County the average residential tax their total tax only when up 1.45% and for commercials that average the total to total tax went up 8% and that's all data from Dakota County with that I will open up for any questions or um open up for the public hearing any questions before the public hearing okay this is a public hearing any comments related to the budget and tax levy see none I will take a motion to close the public hearing I make motion to close the public hearing okay is there a second second okay all in favor say I I post okay the public hearing is closed any further comment from Council [Music] questions thank you for the it it's a like you said a long process and many conversations went into this and uh I think if this is your first glance at the budget this is a very complex series of decisions that goes into uh what next year's budget is something you didn't include but as someone on the Personnel committee I think about is the the premiums for health insurance and uh the city's ability to stay competitive with contributions to health uh pre health insurance premiums um thankfully our staff is is very healthy um and so our premiums this year were at a remarkably low low percentage uh in terms of an increase for next year which I I think is helpful for our overall budget as well so uh thank you to all of our staff for being healthy um and I hope that continues to be true um but um also wanted to just mention that in the sense that we've been able to then increase and be more competitive in our contributions to health insurance plans for our staff in the in the process of that too so just an add to the budget thank you we got other questions or comments about the budget if not I'll take a motion it's pretty lengthy Joshua move to approve four resolutions one adopting the 2025 property tax levy two adopting the 2025 budget three authorizing ordering fire and police vehicles and equipment and four authorizing the 2025 purchase and dis disposal of vehicles and Equipment he is there a second second okay any final discussion on the budget be I'll just add again my thanks to you and your staff and all the directors and everybody for putting this together and I really appreciate the way that you lay it out so it's hopefully easy for the public to understand where their dollars are going um and so I think that's that's really important so thank you and look forward to a prosperous 2025 at building permits that's my prediction um any with that I will take a roll call please burmel I Walter I Lee I vul I helier I thank you very much passes we'll now move on to our utility franchise fees and um our assistant City administrator Mr Kennan will be offering uh this up and just as a reminder for everyone this is a follow on from the last meeting where had uh public comment and information so this now allows the council to discuss it and I'll let you obviously see up thank you mayor city council as a mayor mentioned tonight on your agenda there is a review of the four ordinances that would be implementing utility franchise fees um as we mentioned at the last meeting the city currently has franchise agreements with the four uh utility uh providers in Lakeville Centerpoint uh Minnesota Energy Excel and Dakota Electric um the agreements allow utilities to install their facilities within the city's rideway and um in addition to that understate statutes uh the cities can impose a franchise fee to um charge the utility companies which ultimately does get uh charged back to their customers our residents um a franchise fee um after reviewing the uh multiple different levels city council landed on the $6 per uh residential home uh for each utility so one for gas one for electric for a total of $12 per household um the fee for commercial industry users will vary based on the usage and uh this chart kind of lays out example of those um levels and usage uh fees uh the fees would be used for um two uh upcoming projects uh the first one is part of the transition from uh uh paid on call to paid on called full-time hybrid uh fire department uh uh uh Manning the the fire stations um with that a lot of Renovations and improvements need to be made the four existing stations and possibly a a a construction of a or a combination of uh and construction of a new fire station um those costs would range between 60 to 68 million the second project is the first center this would be a uh First Responders training facility that would be located on the south metro area area available to everyone in the South Metro as well as the southern outstate area um we currently have 7.9 million in state and federal funding for that project um and the total cost of that is a 22 to 24 million um the franchise fees would go towards the $1 15 to18 million gap we have right there right now so the timeline the state statute requires a 90day period prior to city council adoption of the ordinance um that that uh 90 days Prov provided us a a period where we can um uh introduce this to the utility companies as well as the public we did this to social media on YouTube posts Facebook uh Instagram um starting in uh August and September uh the website we created a separate page in August for informational page for the franchise fees as well as a link to that uh page on our front homepage that kind of bring that to people's attention as they're visiting our website in addition the news we had newspaper articles and a newsletter uh we had a half-page article in the August newsletter that went out to every household as well as there was an article in the sun this week in the 26th of September and the mayor had a guest column in November uh in addition to those public uh informational opportunities we also reviewed this uh at multiple public meetings for City Council in January February April July and again as we mentioned in November finance committee reviewed this multiple times as well as the economic development Comm committee and also the Chamber of Commerce uh reviewed this at their issues committee as well as sent out emails at two different times to their memberships so the next steps include um this meeting uh the council will uh consider the four ordinances on the agenda and uh if uh Council does approve those ordinances um the next 90 days uh uh information period kicks in and that would start uh as we notify the utilities and the Pu on December 4th with implementation occurring in April of 2025 um just one word of note if Council does approve uh the ordinances we ask that you break the motion up into two um one would be for the actual ordinances themselves and the second would be for motion for the uh summary of ordinances for publication and staff was available for any questions okay very good um Council discussion as I sent a message I apologize for not being here at the meeting a few weeks ago but I did review it and heard the public feedback and did respond to those who were in attendance but wanted to open up the floor for discussion on this we've talked about it uh at work sessions and I've had a lot of input from everybody but wanted to have this discussion um before we move forward Dan um I think in making the decision on any kind of new tax or fee um you need to look at the rationale for the revenue and I appreciate Allen's uh pointing out the the logic uh and and the thought behind the fee here um I think um this is a community that has a strong history of supporting Public Safety um and and and to me that is the overarching issue uh here we are in a good position in terms of our Public Safety resour ources but with the growth that we've had as a community I think we need to make critical Investments uh to keep Pace it's our our newest fire station is 20 years old which uh might not seem that old to a lot of people but a lot has changed in 20 years in terms of the occupational health and safety for firefighters and and other things also the first center our our law enforcement and public uh excuse me first responder training facility I think is going to be an amazing Community Asset and a regional asset uh so I think the the purpose of the fee is is noble and um I wholeheartedly support and that haven't just gone through a campaign where I talked to thousands and thousands of people Public Safety is always at that uh top uh top tier of of reasons people choose to come to Lakeville the reason people like living in Lakeville so I think that is that that is absolutely critical I want to just address a couple uh of and and also just want to thank in the brief time I've been on the council this has been the most um rigorous issue in terms of people uh reaching out and expressing their their concerns or their questions about it so I appreciate everybody's weighing in on this topic I want to address a number of the a couple of the complaints that people have I um I think a legitimate concern is raised about the fairness of the fee um but I want to push back on that to me a a flat fee where everyone pays the same amount for 20 years is the definition of an equitable and fair system I get I I understand there's a legitimate point there that it should be more Progressive and that people with higher home values should pay more but to me this also helps widen and expand the tax base which I think is is is another uh quality uh that's important for it those that just sat through the budget presentation will see that we have limited options in terms of Revenue uh for the city we've got fees we've got uh the property tax levy um we don't have a local option sales tax option we don't uh also the other thing that that needs to be noted we get no local government Aid uh the state of Minnesota spends a lot of money uh supporting local government activities but but we get none of that uh because of the way the formula is set up and we can only sell so much liquor um so I I I I think so to me I think the the mechanism although imperfect uh Works in this circumstance the the other question why not just put this on the levy um I have a fundamental disagreement I think that the the current property tax system is either fair or transparent um yes we get our statements in the mail that show us what the valuation of our house is but nobody explains what that is uh mine went up $50,000 one year and then down 15 the next and it's it is it's kind of this mysterious system so I just reject that notion that that is somehow more inherently uh inherently Fair um uh you know no one likes to support to start a new tax this is a new tax I know it's a fee but to me it is it is a new P new new tax but to me the nobility of the overarching public safety goal um is the overarching factor here so that's all I've got thank you other comments yeah John um yeah I I agree in terms of the use for the uh the funds I mean back when we started talking about this in February and we've been talking about it publicly for for quite some time now uh you know we had discussions about the possibility of a franchise fee we could use that for um one of my uh comments was I I would consider it entertain the idea uh based on the uh the public safety uh uses for the uh fire department and for the uh first center and both are important uh the fire department is it's a critical need uh the first center is also uh in this day and age with training um and to have that right here in our community I I don't know if people understand what a benefit that is for our law enforcement that we don't have to plan a whole day of moving half the department someplace to train and then doing the other half at some other time so they're both very valid uh so for me I was willing to entertain it uh based on its use for the public safety funding and based on the uh the fact that I I did not want this to be a continual fee that would go on forever and ever so use and uh and timing uh in terms of the timing I'm I'm a little concerned about that um the way debt works if you take that on for 20 years eventually that debt does come to a a firm hard end and as it matures and gets closer it also becomes easier to manage uh through payments and whatnot um so for me a concern with this fee is is how the fee interacts at the end of the life of the debt and the problem is is I'm not going to be here to hold myself accountable for how that looks um so there's two possibilities one of them is uh that the uh the fee would stop the other one is is that the fee would continue and outlive uh the intent of at least my intent I can't speak for my colleagues but my intent would be to have that fund specifically the public safety for a certain period of time I'm not going to be here in 20 years I'm not convinced as a matter of fact I think it's more than a possibility I think it's a probability that this fee could continue on uh way past the uh amount of the the life of the debt that we're issuing uh either way we cut it the debts going to be issued so this isn't a question of whether we issue less debt or more debt this is a question of how we pay that and how we uh we uh fund uh the payment of that debt so I've heard a lot of feedback once again out on the campaign Trail um and most people are just like my my colleague council member Walter said most people are going you know it's an issue of fairness and we have a levy system that is transparent and in place and the one thing that I appreciate about the levy system is there's a beginning and there's an end and I was very honest with people on the campaign Trail the next few years for this this community are going to be really tough in terms of of finances because of our growth and catching infrastructure up to that but it's not a forever thing and eventually it will come to an end so for me um I'm just worried about the end game on this and I'm not confident it's the best thing for our community because of that other comments or yeah Michelle um it'll be short because I've made a lot of comments since February um and I still haven't changed my mind I'm not for um this fee and the reason being is a couple of things is that um now it's another burden on um churches that didn't have this burden and they're already strapped for funds in a church um it's kind of like a double tax to the citizens of Lakeville only in the the factor that the school district would now be paying these fees and of course that gets passed on to us as the residents of of the school district um so um and I honestly believe yes we're going to have a couple of tough years here um but I and I wholly agree that Public Safety is the number one responsibility of this Council I just believe that we should be bonding um and not having a extra fee um for me personally it like leaves wiggle room in the regular budget for increases where if we had to have the um debt that we're paying for on the bonding we're looking I'm not saying that we're not looking harder at our budget but it causes future councils over the next 20 years really look very hard at the budget and make sure that we're keeping costs down as the increases rise with the um debt for the necessary facilities um so those are just kind of my reasons they really haven't changed and I think I am just really grateful that that the public weighed in and um I am really grateful to our Communications Department for how hard they worked at trying to get the information out there so that the public would weigh in and I I haven't had honestly I didn't have anybody call me up and say oh Michelle this is a great idea go for it change your mind so um so for that reason I'll be voting against the franchise fee proposal any other discussion Joshua um it's I think council member uh well actually all the council members make points that I I think we've all wrestled with um I Echo much of what council member Walter has said uh thus far but I I do in some ways disagree that this is there is a term here we're talking about 20 years I think that is uh very similar to the term of the bonding that's how we came up with these rates so to me that is as as transparent uh and clear as we can get um from a a tax perspective um one thing that I'll add about um kind of what I was wrestling with in in terms of what is more appropriate property tax or franchise fee um is is how much this may impact our seniors or low-income residents um so I I I asked staff to run numbers and models on um not only what our median in home values are but those that are in that first quartile um and and still over that 20-year period this this becomes uh U lesser or or is a lower cost than that than if it were on property taxes and for me that was an important figure to look at um the other piece too when we are anytime we're talking about seniors we're talking about ensuring that what we are are taxing them is uh consistent stable predictable and that's something that I I value for this franchise fee for a critical service that we're we're providing um so I think in terms of the the questions and comments that I've received on this um it it really geared towards how is this Fair Equitable and and those are kind of my responses to that why franchise fee over property tax um I think those are the things that I I'm looking at the other thing too is the The Wider um base of folks that are are responsible for this ultimately Public Safety is not just something that our business owners and residents are are a part of but it's our visitors and folks that are coming through our community um and and so I to me it feels more fair and Equitable to increase the size the the responsibility of that shared um need with those who are visiting the community as well so those are the folks that are visiting our our Faith institutions um or other non uh nonprofits that are in the community so um that's where I I landed on on this as I was wrestling on in terms of where what direction to go so but I appreciate all the points that the council's made on this I think it's been a robust discussion and I've valued the input both from the community and from you all as we've talked through this well um I'll just close and say one I I don't want to repeat a lot that was said but I do appreciate number one the feedback that we've gotten from the community through emails and phone calls and then obviously the public hearing uh two weeks ago that conversation is invaluable and and really helps you know understand and certainly help you know guide us as as a community secondly I think as was stated you know if for me perspect for my perspective if the franchise fee was just something that we're trying to add in build revenue just to pad the coffers I would have not been suppor of I continue to believe that Public Safety is this City's top priority um you know whether that's clearing the streets like today but also um from a police and fire perspective and so uh having those investments in particular and I think both the first center which we've gone out and gotten Federal uh and state funding for to help uh lower that burden uh which helps with the franchise fee and and the same um to with the grants we've gotten for on the fire Staffing side have OB obviously alleviate some things on the levy side thirdly I do believe this is the most Equitable way to um distribute this and over the long term um expands the Pod or the pie if you will of of who's paying into this and so I think it's the best way to move forward uh and so with that I will uh take a motion to approve uh the ordinances for franchise fees yeah Dan and we need to do two motions correct correct um so I move to approve ordinances to implement electrical service franchise fees on XL Energy in Dakota Electric Association and adopt ordinances to implement gas service franchise fees on centerp Point Energy Minnesota gas and Minnesota energy resources is there a second second any further discussion on the motion okay see none uh roll call please Walter I Lee I bulk no helier I Burl no okay very good uh and with that I'll take a motion to approve the summary ordinances Joshua move to approve summary ordinances of the four ordinances imposing franchise fees okay is there a second second any further discussion mayor council just a reminder this um is a requirement that we didn't publ or publish these ordinances in the newspaper and so a 4 fits vote allows you to uh publish a summary as you know the in pack of these are rather long so if this motion does not pass we'd have to pass the entire all the ordinances into the paper so this particular vote takes a for fits vote okay very good appreciate that clarification um I'm not clarified say that again so we're required to publish these into the newspaper our legal newspaper um if you if we're allowed to do it in a summary form and a shorter form with a four fifths vote of the council um if it's if it's if this particular motion of just the publication does not pass we would need to ENT publish all four of the ordinances in their entirety into the paper which would be a added expense just for clarification we it's typically the procedure that we do summary ordinance correct we do on Long ordinances we do yes okay so I and I want to clarify too so that I mean this is totally unrelated to the motion we just passed this is a separate one just about how we want to publish correct right exactly was there right we the full ordinances are still on our website if anybody wants to read the entire ordinance we're just required to publish it and we have the option to do it in a summary form if for fit of the vote if for fit of the council agrees so basically what you're saying is when if I vote to yes on the second um approval it's just because basically the first one already passed doesn't matter that I voted no now it's a matter of the legality of How It's published in the in the newspapers basically what you're saying to me that's correct okay thank you R call please um Lee hi vulk hi helier hi vermal hi Walter hi very good again I want to thank uh you guys my colleagues for this discussion we've had over the last uh 10 months I appreciate it and it's uh it's been enlightening so thank you for that uh moving on to items eight and N unfinished a new business okay see none um announcements um first one's kind of a fun one we got a note from the open door that the city collected 386 pounds of food at the dlu which is the first time event we've done so hopefully we'll continue to be able to support that we had drop centers at City sites in downtown and then businesses and then the other is our next meeting is next Monday it's a work session that's a change typically our work sessions are the 4th uh Monday but because it's December 23rd we're moving up to December 9th so it'll be here uh in the lake Maran conference room at 6:00 with that I will take a motion to adjourn to close session to conduct the performance evaluation of the city administrator pursu to Minnesota statute 13d do5 subdivision 3A second okay all those in favor say I I I opposed we are adjourned into close session we'll give everybody here ample time to leave before we start don't worry do you want to go to the confence [Music]