##VIDEO ID:uaSQEVDegqw## good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of St Peter Minnesota it's Monday August 26th 2024 at 700 p.m. we are called to order would all please rise for the pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we've all received a copy of the packet are there any revisions or corrections to the packet or the agenda rather hearing none is there motion to approve the agenda move second um all those in favor of approval say I I any opposed the agenda is approved next up approval of the minutes the minutes appear on pages 5 through n of the packet are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as distributed so move all those in favor of approval say I I any opposed the minutes are approved we have uh on page 10 instructions for public hearings the process and procedures uh we have three public hearings tonight uh generally the public hearings are conducted in the following manner there's a staff presentation there is time for an applicants presentation if any and then time for public comment so the first public hearing tonight um will be called to order at 7:02 p.m. and that is a public hearing on the creation of tax increment financing District Number 1 -26 Madame mayor and members um as you are aware information is included in your packet I will introduce Mike bubani Mike is here in place of um Shannon Shannon is engaged in another activity so he sent the a team so we really want to thank him for that and you guys can all tell Shannon that sometimes when you see him Mike's here to make sure that I don't miss anything but I uh the hearing is really scheduled to provide for public input and the creation of this District really has about seven or eight points that I think are important that you know about first of all this would be a housing district and the location of this is in the North Industrial Park this is a project that we typically refer to has being the um PNY project that's why you see that afterwards and the map for this is on page 83 give me just a moment and I'll get to page 83 here um so this is located for a housing project I think one of the most significant issues that you know here is that this is a developer that we've worked on before and you do have a development agreement for this project that includes the opportunity um and for their use of tax incr financing this is substantially similar to other housing Tiff districts that you have in place within St Peter and very very similar um to what has gone on with this partnership group as well um as you know as a part of the tax increment financing District they' pledged that 20% of the units which are approximately 50 units have to meet the 50% Ami requirements that you see in State Statute and that you've adhered to um I'd also mention that based on the development agreement um this group has agreed to provide for five units that will accept Federal housing assistance so that could come in a few forms but usually we hear about this and talk about it in St Peter as being they'll accept a Section 8 voucher as well as a part of this project and that's something that we really haven't done before um but we've worked with this group and they're um looking at that um I think one of the other important issues is that we are going to do a 9010 split again similar to what you've seen with other districts and that district will last about $1 million $1.01 million or 12 years whichever comes first and that's not unusual this is a pay as you go district and we talked about what that means previously um we do have action items later on your agenda and really there are two action items there two resolutions related to this the first is to take this parcel out of a previously existing tax androme financing District um for the North Industrial Park um and so once that's cleaned up then we can establish the new District which is 1-26 and so if you're wondering why there's two resolutions there's two resolutions and that's the basis for that also mentioned that the Tiff development agreement and we've talked about this in the past as well um we have kind of two development agreements one is the development agreement that we enter with the developer that says they're going to build the building thus and so and how it is put together um the other is drawn up by your legal council from um what used to be called Briggs and Morgan now is called Taff Mary eel drafts a tiff development agreement that outlines all the specifics related to the financing and how all that works together um so I'd mention that as well again two action items later in your agenda um I don't know Mike did I cover most of it did I hit all the high points uh yes you did um I do have a couple of extra comments um you know one of the things I struggle with with a council that I've never met with before is how deep to get into the weeds you know how comfortable are you I don't want to tell you things you already know it sounds like you're all grizzled veterans so we'll avoid getting into some of the granular detail I'll just point out that as you read through the documents sometimes folks will read stuff in the Tiff plan itself and say well gosh that's not exactly what we're agreeing to do um and what I would mention is that the Tiff plan is it's just an an authority document what you can do whatever is stated in the Tiff plan doesn't doesn't mean you will it just gives you the authority to do things so one thing you'll notice is that uh Shannon has built in a budget based on not just this first building of 50 but potentially a second building as well and by including that potential second phase now and creating an extra- large budget so Todd had mentioned a million dollars um and this thing might generate 4.3 million gross over the full 26 years if you went if you went that long for any reason um we put that in there to avoid the need for a modification later so in the consultant world one of our little tricks is to put together a tiff plan and a budget that's right down to the nub so that if anything else happens by God you got to give us a call and we got to go through and do a modification which is just time and expense that you don't need to take on so Shannon built in hopefully quite a bit of extra budget in there that you won't need to do this thing and he's got the full life of the Tiff District so while it's a 12year contract um it's a 26 potential collection so if Phase 2 comes along you'll have that um ability to just approve a contract at that time um as far as the agreement goes Todd had mentioned as pay as you go just if you're if you're wondering whenever we're using property taxes as a tool for a subsidy it means somebody has to borrow money today because property taxes are collected over time and what we always want to do is have the developer be the one that takes on the risk that's what you're doing here so um not not only uh if we go the full 12 years and we haven't fully repaid the million dollars you're not on the hook to pay the difference um if simply if they don't pay their taxes um any reason whatsoever if money doesn't come in money doesn't go out so it's financially risk-free to the city it's the best way to do these deals and then in the agreement itself there are some added Protections in there um the standard one is indemnification so you know the example I always give is imagine some guy's up on a ladder building this thing and they fall off and they hurt themselves and then they sue the city because if you hadn't provided Tiff assistance they wouldn't have been on that ladder in the first place while the developers taking on the liability for that through the indemnification and another major point that I like to always mention is that in the contract itself is you know the developer is free to sell the project to somebody else later on but if they want to keep the contract alive they have to come to you first and get approval from that so they can't just sell it and then you're you would be able to look at the new potential owner and decide are they going to maintain the obligations that are in this contract or they have a financial wherewithal are they a good business partner you'd have the opportunity at that time to approve or disapprove so um I guess with that uh I'll stop and take questions anything to add before we jump into question I don't have anything else to add certainly it's appropriate if the council has questions but you do have this as an action item later and the goal of the hearing is to provide opportunity for public input sure well let's jump into the public uh thank you very much Mike you're welcome um let's jump into the public comment are there any members of the audience right now who'd like to address the Council on this matter hearing none we will uh close this public hearing at 7:09 and we will move into our next uh public hearing which is a public hearing on Klein Street improvements and we'll open that at 709 mayor members that's to me again there included in your packet that information really starts on page about 116 um as you're aware this is related to a development for a DOT truck station the council previously took action on this to authorize bids this is also located in the North Industrial Park and it's that extension of Klein really north of Mason for about 1,500 or 1,800 ft again you have a development agreement that has been agreed to by the state of Minnesota DOT and this is really a belt and suspenders approach to the hearing because they've already agreed to pay their share of the assessments they're aware of what the bids are communication with DOT is always good and and um they understand what's going on here um so it does provide for the assessment for them to pay half of the street and the utilities um that go in Clin Street um the action really follows Minnesota State Statute 429 for assessments and as you'll see later in the meeting um there is a resolution um to provide for authorized in this to move forward and so again Madame mayor happy to answer any questions and since this is a hearing it's appropriate for public input sure um are are there any questions for Todd hearing nothing at this time we will jump into public comment are there any members of the audience who'd like to address the Council on this matter hearing no one we will close this hearing at 711 p.m. and we will move on to our final public hearing on cullin Street improvements will'll open the hearing at 7-Eleven mayor members that's me again you'll see this included in your packet really the information starts on approximately page 120 or 1121 um this is for work that you've been intimately familiar with for a number of months related to Housing Development on what I would call the west and more towards north end of the Travers green subdivision as you know the goal here has been to develop additional residential lots that are in excess of 10,000 square ft um this hearing which provides for public input is really addressing action later in your meeting and um that action is to pass a resolution um ordering the improvements in addition to that um the bids have been received and so Pete will talk a little bit later and look potentially for your action to approve the bids and move this project forward and certainly we have some more to talk about related to that but the nature of the hearing here is really um to provide opportunity for public input and um put the Cil in a position to order the Improvement finding that it's feasible uh all of those things that are part of this process all right thanks Todd any members of the audience like to address the Council on this matter hearing none we will close this public hearing at 7:12 p.m. all of these items as to as Todd already mentioned will come up again under new business um moving on we now have time on our agenda as we do at every meeting for visitor comments is there any member of the audience who'd like to address the Council on any agenda item hearing none we also have time for General comments is there any member of the audience who'd like to address the Council on any matter whatsoever hearing thenone we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda the consent agenda begins on page uh 11 and concludes with the resolution on page 32 the resolution includes the following employee appointment ments uh Beth Ramil uh sorry Megan Doby Kyle Connell Don Hanan danan and sherid Stewart their positions and wages are listed within the packet the following licenses a temporary Gambling License for helping Minnesota Heroes and a temporary on sale liquor license for St Peter ambassadors locations and dates are listed within the packet and the schedule of dispersements for August 7th 2024 through August 21st 2024 is there any discussion of any item on the consent agenda hearing none is there a motion to approve the resolution second we have a motion and a second to call the rooll please council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member Ram I council member shrom I council member Devas I mayor Noel I the resolution is approved we have no items of Unfinished Business bus tonight our first item of new business is a job description for a Wastewater laboratory technician and Pete is here to talk to us about that thanks Pete uh Madam mayor and city council as you're aware we have six employees within our Wastewater division um one of those employees has left employment with us uh with the primary duties of that person was to operate the laboratory uh during the course of our advertising the last couple of times this position has been open uh we've had some Wastewater requirements in the job description that have been um one of the reasons we feel that people aren't applying for the position uh so since this uh job actually works quite a bit in the laboratory side and working with our human resources department um we came up with a job description that better better fits the duties and responsibilities of this position I know you talked about this at Workshop um last week and um if approved the job description we will uh uh create a wage scale that correlates to the points and the duties as described in the job description and with your blessing we would get advertisements out and try to solicit uh people for this position all right questions for Pete it was good to hear from Don and Curtis about this position last week I feel like it's a really sensible change and hopefully we help you recruit the right candidate right all right hearing no discussion the resolution adopting an updated laboratory technician position description is on page 38 of the packet is there a motion to approve we have a motion and a second call the role please Council I council member r i council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I resolution is approved thank you very much um our next item of new business is a 2023 a review and approval and members Jim Ikon is here as he has been over the last I'll I'm only going to say a few years Jim we won't go back that back that far but a few years many of you recognize Jim and his firm mmkr does your audit and so Jim is here to provide the findings of that audit all right well thanks again my name is Jim mikon I'm with mmkr CPA auditor for the city here this evening to provide a a presentation on the audit results for the year ended December 31st 2023 audit it is a uh the role of the auditor to provide an opinion on the city's financial statement it is a requirement in state law that the city issue an annual financial statement um that particular financial statement is required to be submitted to the office of the state auditor uh on an annual basis you're also required to submit to the federal government if you were to receive more than $750,000 of federal revenue on an annual basis which did actually occur this year so uh we'll be submitting to both agencies uh once approved by Council um as part of the as part of the audit process we're required to do a number of things um including testing your internal control systems over specifically over financial reporting uh your compliance with laws and regulations that relate to financial reporting as part of the audit process um we're also required to uh audit your compliance with Minnesota law laws and regulations the office of the state auditor uh issues a list of the laws um that pertain to city government that they want us to test they do change the list um annually uh um based on their own um knowledge and expertise on their end that they things that they're seeing that they want us to look at as I referenced we also uh then this year because you received more than 700 I should say you spent more than $750,000 you haven't quite received all the reimbursements yet but uh you spent more than $750,000 of federal Awards which triggered what we call a single audit of federal Awards in that uh situation we issue opinions on that schedule as well as uh our testing of the major program which in this case was a highway safety Grant or Highway planning Grant I guess you can say uh and then we issue opinion again on the compliance with various laws and regulations as it relates to that particular Grant which are significantly different than a regular audit uh given the federal uh Grant compliance that pertain to those expenditures so we issue an audit report as well uh as a management report as part of this process uh in that uh particular document we do summarize the audit results for the year first and foremost I was able to issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statements was the opinion you were looking for that's a clean opinion uh as it relates to that uh it's important to know as a council we as part of your uh audit report we are required to incorporate the financial results of both the rivers Ed's hospital and Clinic as well as the housing Redevelopment Authority both of those organizations are audited by other Auditors and we incorporate their audit results into your document which creates a bit of complexity as you might uh understand but certainly is has been uh the case for as long as I've been the auditor um so in my report we also issue um um findings as part of this audit um um the first finding that you see up on the PowerPoint there is um we had a number of adjustments that occurred as part of the audit uh process this year um uh and I would describe them as uh adjustments of of in this manner anytime an auditor uh finds an adjustment that is something that we noticed versus the the administration noticing it it can be defined as a financial statement an adjustment um uh I talked to Todd and Sally before this meeting just to kind of clarify this a bit um you know there's a there's a fine line here in in our auditing process between determining exactly uh what would be defined as assistance in the audit process or adjustment and uh this year um we we spent quite a bit of time uh validating that and making sure we understood what responsibilities uh us of of us um as Auditors and what is the responsibility of management and we spent some time as part of the the financial statement process and and segregating those out and determine exactly what was an adjustment and what was not and as we look to next year um and I say this uh as an important element of any particular audit is that well what is the corrective action plan as it relates to your audit results what is what are we going to do as it relates to this particular finding so first and foremost there was a corrective action plan incorporated into the audit results that talked about what that corrective action is going to be and that is going to be as as talked about earlier um outlining the audit process in in more clear goals and and procedures what part of the audit process is are are going to be responsible by me uh I'll give you an example um the county here in in in the state of Minnesota counties in the state of Min collect special assessments and taxes so there a process that you got to go through to take that data and incorporate into the city's financial statements well we do that as part of our uh what I would call an accounting uh assistance process well some cities hire us to do that and some don't um so you've hired us to assist with that process so there's really no there's no financial statement adjustment there because you've you've asked us to assist in that process in other areas you haven't asked us to assist but we we found other adjustments so uh you can tell there's a fine line difference between the two and we're going to work towards next year as in terms of outlining exactly what those differences are so that we can work towards not having a financial statement adjustment um next year so uh I talked to Todd and Sally about that earlier at about six o'clock and how we're going to work towards uh that corrective action plan U moving forward uh the second finding you see up there is relates to segregation of Duties so the city's Finance staff is not uh um to the level or the numbers that you would have or even expect to have perfect segregation of Duties within your Control Systems we've had that finding this year it's been in place for any number of years every city that we work that is of this size has that particular I'll call it reportable item you need to understand as a council that there's no concerns there there's no real corrective action uh uh we rely and you rely on other controls to overcome that particular El elent uh so no real concerns there two other findings we had in the Minnesota legal compliance audit one on collateral uh all Bank deposits in the state of Minnesota that are that are uh at a governmental entity are required to be collateralized to the tune of 110% of your deposits that exceed FDIC coverage uh so one of the banks um uh the collateral wasn't sufficient as of the end of the year uh what it typically relates to and it is again in your case is there was a deposit at the you know right at the end of the year that um significant deposit goes in collateral doesn't get adjusted quick enough and also you're under collateralized again it's not sufficient the prob it's it's not a significant finding but it is a finding nonetheless um it it it's just something that the bank working with the city needs to monitor a little closer um and that's what the corrective action States uh the other finding relates to withholding affidavits anytime that you work with a contractor um in in a construction project you're required to get a withholding affidavit um basically confirming that they've paid all of their withholdings they they've paid their vendors they've paid their subcontractors and you do that before you make final payment well in this particular in situation the final payment went out two to three days before the withholding affidavit came in so yep you didn't get it under time but you did have it you know when we when we looked and it was available so again the corrective action plan there is let's make sure we have that before we make that final payment so uh the last finding we have specifically relates to the single audit of federal Awards um we noted some completeness issues when in in the schedule of federal Awards mainly in in the reporting of expenditures when you look at that particular Grant uh there were more expenditures that we identified um in terms of the time of payments and timing of invoices coming in and and and the reporting of that particular item um that was labeled as a finding and again the corrective action plan there is to just make sure we're cutting that off correctly and making sure that those expenditures cut offs are appropriately reported specifically for those federal grants so moving forward uh it is important uh to note that we did follow up on the two findings from last year that that were uh that are no longer reported I always say this as part of uh an audit presentation of this nature audits come with findings um um that's why we're here that's why I'm here doing this um but the most important part is are we going to correct them and how are we going to correct them and I point to that bullet point up there the fourth bullet point and said yeah two findings that I stated last year aren't findings this year why because corrective actions work uh very important moving on I think to the next uh slide uh really getting into the other uh uh part of an audit which is financial results and I'll try to go through this quickly I think certainly the financial results of the city are very positive for the year end in December 31st uh 2023 really it starts with Market values when we look at um your overall you know starting uh uh Financial results you can see there the market values of the city have grown uh significantly over time it continues to even accelerate even uh at a faster Pace um than than uh we're even seeing in other cities around the state um so that's a real positive if you look at this particular next graph you can see the impact on the city this shows the average tax rate being used to develop U taxes uh for individual residents and that average tax rate is gone down in 2023 specifically related to that market value it's also impacting the county in the school um but certainly that average tax rate is a plus for taxpayers when you see that decline uh um but that being said if you uh and I'll show this actually later I don't think it's this graph but yeah is here um you can see that this is a graph that shows governmental funds revenues on a per capita basis this is showing um uh the city collects 1,183 per resident in revenues in 2023 and you can see even though that property tax rate went down significantly you actually generated more property taxes U which is really a mathematical formula driving from those Market values um so really increasing property taxes while decreasing property tax rates is a plus for your city for sure um one thing to point out just in a disclaimer here uh the Statewide data is 2021 uh that was the most recent data available when we published this report um the state auditor's office publishes that data and they're significantly behind on publishing information so we've compared it from a few years ago hopefully next year we'll have good comparable better comparable data other things that stand out to me is the intergovernmental Revenue line there uh you can see that uh that particular line has gone up significantly um in 2023 as well as 2022 as the city continues to um um utilize Federal and and State dollars um for various projects projects there's a a new Public Safety Safety Aid that came from the state that's part of that as well uh certainly that's a plus when it comes to city government um in in St Peter nonetheless this graph is the opposite when it comes to your your spending expenditures on a per capita basis the city spends $2,042 per resident in 2023 most of that increase as you can see is in capital uh capital outlay and construction Pro projects are increasing uh Again part of that is federal dollars being available for those projects State dollars um the current line is has gone up um um modestly it went up some but most of that is actually in the all other category which is in Economic Development loans which ultimately will be paid back um well we hope they will be paid back um that's the Hope um but certainly again helping with uh the city's Economic Development uh this particular graph shows the overall funds there's a lot of detail here I'm not going to get into uh too much but you can see the middle of that page is the general fund the general fund fund balance the equity position of the general fund improved by about 86,000 in 2023 there was a a final budget that adopted that that reflected a decline of about 400,000 roughly uh so you can see that was a pretty much a break even when it comes to fund balance uh there's a lot of Capital activity going on as in that graph most of that is restricted and and going to be funded with future projects it's no real concern overall there um I think the next graph does actually show the general fund in particular uh this this graph shows the general fund's financial position that $4.5 million fund balance is your Equity position at the end of the year the city is guided the city council is Guided by a fund balance policy uh stating that uh the fund balance as a percentage of operations should be between 35 I feel it's 35 and 50% of operations at the end of 2023 the percentage is um I don't want to misquote myself here so I'm going to make sure I use the right percentage 40 okay let's make sure I got it 48 there you go thank you Sally from the back um yeah so it's 48 so what that means to you is you're within certainly balance policy you're actually at the high end not the high end you're at the the appropriate end of that range but it's good for uh a policymaking as a council you you should make sure you're staying in that range anytime you get above that range there typically is actions that take place or when you get below that range you take action and when you're in the range it's a good place to be um so we do have other graphs here showing general fund revenues um again the the things that stand out uh to me is that that property tax line continues to grow even though uh uh you're having moderate tax rates um uh you saw some licensing to perent declines uh this past year but not real concern there um on the expenditure side uh Public Safety continues to be which is I believe the next graph Todd uh continues to be a growth area in terms of cost um that is a uh not a surprise uh that's happening all over our state uh um uh in terms of cost centers that's a a growth area uh but certainly uh again not concerning just that's the way life is in in our world right now so we also have a bunch of graphs on on Enterprise funds Enterprise funds um uh are a significant portion of the city's activities you have a lot of complexity in your city when it comes to these funds you have an electric fund uh which not every city has uh as you can see the laundry list of there um overall the the Enterprise funds did show an increase in in fund balance of about 89 it's actually debt position in this case 89,000 and you can see some ups and downs there there were some transfers that are made in these funds that are causing some of these declines again not real concern a concern on my end um one of the things I did mention in our pre-meeting tonight uh the city council has adopted a new uh policy when it comes to equity position in these funds um I commend the city council for this um I stated earlier that I don't see it all that often um and and so that's a plus uh you're really monitoring these Equity position these funds by having this policy in place and and when I looked at that I Incorporated that into my report the only one that stood out is the environmental service fund which is the one that uh probably isn't meeting that policy at this point but certainly there are plans in place to to get uh Beyond on that uh particular item so very positive trend lines when it comes to these funds um the my report does have uh fiveyear graphical presentations for all of these enterprise Enterprise funds um we focus on or I do on um the green line which is really uh a green line is intended to show cash flow are these particular funds cash flowing on an annual basis and you can see that part particular green line for the last five years in the in the uh uh this graph is above the line the yellow line in this particular one is probably the one that stood out the most um purchased power um you can see that that particular cost it went up I don't even know what the number was 16% stands out in my head but but and then and who you're buying purchase from purchase power from is certainly the vendors raise their cost cost significantly uh again here's the water fund you can see the green line is is a plus for all five years there were some rate increases in you almost all of these funds that are impacting uh um the funds as well as consumption was significantly higher in 2023 all over uh government uh this past year which is driving some of the revenues I think the next one is the environmental service fund you can see uh you know that uh I mentioned that one already and you can see the green line is not going in the right direction in terms of financial results it's not overly concerning certainly but you can really see uh why that might stand out to me as an auditor um um but overall revenues and expenses you can see even the increase over the last two years in the blue line has really gone significantly higher driving that particular fund um waste water uh certainly the green line is probably the highest of any Fund in this particular uh set and then I think there's one more do I have one more I forget I do not there are more in there if you're excited you can read those at nighttime reading uh no the last thing I want to talk about is the outstanding debt of the city uh we do PR present uh the outstanding debt in a graphical presentation here uh mainly because of uh some of the uh um you know debt obligations of the city uh uh are unique in in what you have and and it comes with a lot of complexity as I mentioned so we put these together to show some of the comparables so Statewide you know the average debt and the governmental activity runs about $1,700 per resident you can see in with the some of the new debt issues this year uh you're up to 1,400 um per resident um in governmental funds when you look at the next graph it shows your Enterprise funds uh in this particular fund you can see um the average is about 800 per resident Statewide and you're at um now you're with with uh payments uh and how fast those payments go down over the four-year period you're at 1,200 so overall when you add them together um you're at or at or just slightly above the average when it comes to debt um these graphical presentations are here specifically to point that out if you really just look at One Fund those Enterprise funds you might go wow you got a lot of debt in those funds but when you add them together uh they they they're they're uh basically at the expectation in my opinion for a growing city like yourself so back um in 2023 in particular there was a substantial increase for same could that be attributed to the fire station yes okay that's right and some equipment certificates would be in there too I mean like just such a large jumped to it's definitely the fire station good Jobing that Revenue to those debt services and so the sales tax has been a very firm solid above expectation above projection Revenue stream right thanks for pointing that out yeah I think I covered that uh there you go so um I'm going to skip by that one uh we do provide uh in our report some future accounting auditing updates the government Accounting Standards Board has been very active and issuing new standards thankfully going into next year there are n at least nothing significant which I'm grateful for frankly um so in summary I was able to issue a clean opinion on the financial statements um uh issued a single audit of federal Awards which is a key element of the audit success uh we went through the findings we have several findings that we'll work towards next year clearing and and staff is uh working towards implementing these new corrective actions um the LA the findings from last year were eliminated and certainly the compliance with those general fund policies in place uh with the one exception that I talked about already so overall very positive results uh and you certainly met my expectations and with your approval tonight this will be submitted to the state auditor and the federal government by Wednesday I hope Wonder so with that I'm open for questions any questions for J anything to add the only thing that I want to mention which I you should be really happy about Jim mentioned this at the beginning you know when we went into the 2023 budget year we anticipated you budgeted for deficit of approximately $400,000 and we came out in the positive about $887,000 and so there's a number of things to go on but I would say that over the last 5 10 15 25 years even um related to your budgets you are planners and you are very much On Target and knowing where you're at and so I think that's a positive outcome and it's great that your auditor can see that and identify that as a part of this for you so well said Madame mayor the appropriate thing is to pass a resolution that's included in your packet I think it's on page 68 or 69 um accepting the audit so Jim can hit the button and send this off I wouldn't mention too that this is something that um we put on our website so all the documents that you were provided what you saw in the packet for tonight is is the um management report but all of this information gets put on your website and that'll happen within the next few days or so so if you have friends or neighbors that really want to see all the detail and everything that goes on um that it is all there for them to see um that Jim's team puts together for us it's really well put together if you're into audits I recommend checking it out but you do a great job of kind of of of making it accessible for people who don't live in the auditing world so um are there any questions or discussion hearing nothing the resolution accepting the 2023 financial statements together with the independent Auditor's report is on page 68 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion then to Second call the rooll please council member ramp I council member shrom I council member Devas I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I the resolution is approved uh next up on new business amending boundaries of dist of Tiff District number 1-23 and the creation of tax increment financing District number 1-26 mayor members you did have a hearing on this earlier Mike is here from David drown and Associates if you have any additional questions I would say that the information starts on page 69 with some correspondents from um Shannon Sweeney um again I'm happy to answer and I know Mike is any questions that you might have about this um again there are two actions as a part of this the first is to amend the current tip District that area really changing the map and then the second is to put in place district 1-26 one thing that we will mention is all the appropriate jurisdictions are informed of this and have the opportunity to comment on all of those things which you see as a normal course of the business under the statute and so we receive no commentary from the county or the school district or region 9 tax jurisdiction this area as well too um again I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have um but that first resolution is really amending the current district and the second resolution is putting the new District 1-26 in place Brad um so to can clarify uh you know we often times I hear people say well why are we giving away this tax money um and can you clar just clarify for a tiff District um the only thing that is going back to the developer is any growth in the tax revenue anything say say we're getting already $1,000 a year on it that ,000 a year is still going to go to the county City School District correct that's correct and so it really is just more of a tax neutral move for the next 12 to 14 in this case 12 years yes that's correct and we've used a number of examples for this and certainly if anyone has questions they can give us a call um I would also mention or in addition you've had decertification of districts and so if these districts because of growth or excess um estimated market value um there are a number of reasons why they could pay in more um those get distributed at the end to the appropriate jurisdiction if there is an overage as well so yeah um um from my perspective it is tax neutral um it meets the butt for test but for you providing assistance it is this project wouldn't go forward and then you wouldn't have these new tax revenues that would come into the community and then also in the case of of this being a housing project well or even if it was a business we the city still collects utility revenue on it so it's still a growth in our Enterprise funds that goes directly into the cities you bet that's exactly true not to mention all the other things like additional people buy in gas or hamburgers or water heaters or whatever it is they're doing all of those things as well thank you kri I would say that if you were to bring back state of the city Todd Tiff would be a great topic just because I am hearing a lot more chatter about Tiff and questions about what does that mean um and just understanding how the city uses it as a tool to Spur development and even could use it to um you know redevelop blighted areas is really the purpose of it I well I appreciate that and I can certainly do another state of the city if you look back far enough on YouTube there's a fancy one where I use salt and pepper to explain how uh tax equ districts works well I appreciate that so we can do something um related to that so and it it is um um I don't want to say this is overly complicated but these are important issues and we want to make sure that people understand and we can articulate it clearly and accurately yeah thank you the only other thing I'll point out is um I can't speak on behalf of the school board or the school district but we do meet on a regular basis with the school board and Tiff is always something that comes up in those conversations and I've never left those conversations feeling like um there were grave concerns or any reasons that we should not pursue Tiff districts based on school board concerns again I can't speak for them if you're a resident watching this online reach out to your school board members do you have something to add can you come to the microphone Mike if you would I apologize for inserting myself in this discussion that's quite all right questions that you raised were good ones um I just wanted to point out that from the narrow perspective of the city it's a revenue neutral situation you've talked about some other ways that the local economy benefits but one thing that's a direct tax benefit right away is that most schools in Minnesota have an operating referendum that's a market value based tax we do not get to touch that as part of a tiff District so the school will benefit day one in terms of their operating market value referendum tax and then I would also point out because it's a housing project just remind everybody that a school district is probably more more interested in new kids in the school district than they are in the real estate taxes of building because of the state aid based on per pupil um population so I just want to say the school's going to come out of winter day one on on that project so thank you very helpful you and I I can share from obviously my day job is working within the district um it's pretty open conversation that the number of the need for students coming into the district directly impacts the our funding source as a district so any housing we're building is going to be helping them any further discussion on this matter hearing nothing further our first resolution amending the boundaries of tax increment financing District number 1-23 is on page 114 of the packet is there a motion to approve move second we have a motion and a second call the role please council member I council member deas I mayor noell I council member Johnson I council member Pettis hi council member ramp I the resolution is approved uh if there's any further discussion before we do our next resolution yeah could you go back to the map please Todd yeah uh 83 page 83 um the area and crosshatch there includes the entire kind of the entire Outlaw of the entire parcel up there which we just did the preliminary platon are there any uh dollars from this Tiff District that'll go into those other two lots that are not um the housing or the apartment area because the apartment is just the southern part of that crosshatch lot correct um yes that is correct so if there was additional development on that Northern parcel then that would provide additional increments but it as is proposed right now there's no housing in the northern portion that's correct so this this Tiff would not be used to subsidize or to en enhance those projects it's just for housing it wouldn't deal with the other uses that were out there correct it does allow us to provide resources for additional infrastructure that might be necessary so in our minds that's sidewalk Trail those types of things that would occur within this yeah thank you that's my question thank you mayor question uh any further questions hearing nothing further the resolution uh approving the establishment of tax increment financing District number 1-26 within Municipal development District number one and the adoption of the tax increment financing plan relating there to appears on pages 115 through 118 of the packet is there a motion to approve so move second we have a motion and a second call the vote please council member deos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member ramp I council member shrom I the resolution is approved next up Klein Street improvements may members this is included in your packet you did have a hearing earlier on this the documentation starts on approximately 118 119 give or take just a little bit you'll see some information that's including didn't hear from Shannon from David drown and Associates the information that he includes includes a discussion about Klein Street and cullin Street projects because they are substantially similar in nature although we have separate actions for all of these the first one relates to Klein Street and you're required to have a hearing again um your bond Council has asked this hearing occurs you already occur and you have some findings related to that that we ask that you document as a part of the resolution which is included on one um I'm I'm sorry on page 120 um this then provides all the necessary requirements to move forward with this project as a part of the assessment with the Department of Transportation and the approval of the infrastructure um which includes water Wastewater storm water roadway cing gutter all that has been approved previously by the council questions for Todd we have awarded this contract already then yeah um and so the the suggestion here from your bond Council that there have been recent court cases that have eroded some of this issue so this is more of a belt and suspenders approach um to this and so she's not concerned about that but we're going to make sure that we um cover this with belt and suspenders and so that's the ordering of the Improvement here so the only Improvement the only assess would be half for the do the another half would be for the city other that's correct thank you additional questions hearing nothing for further the resolution ordering the 2024 Colin Street improvements is on page 121 of the P wait did I go ahead I did go ahead the resolution ordering 2024 kle Street Extension improvements is on page 120 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion and a second call the RO please mayor noell I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member ramp I council member shrom I council member dasas I the resolution is approved now the Cullen Street improvements that I was so excited to as are we as are we so so the first item here m is you did have a hearing earlier in your meeting which is required as a part of 429 and so this is a resolution ordering the improvements this does not make the improvements take place however it is true that following this we have a recommendation and resolution um providing approval of the contract for this bid project um and so we can talk a little bit more when we get to that point and Pete and I have a memo included in your packet about that but this is the appropriate action um to continue to move forward at this stage of the process all righty questions for Tod there we are the only land owner we are um putting assessments on as a city correct we are the only land owner currently you have a development agreement that provides for transfer property and acceptance of the assessments and so that is in place currently but there's no other land owner assessed on here except for this that is correct thank you additional questions hearing nothing further the resolution ordering 2024 Cullen Street improvements is on page 121 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion and a second to call the vote please council member Johnson I council member Pettis hi council member ramp I council member shrom I council member I mayor Noel I the resolution is approved last item a new business tonight thank you Mike for being with us thank you uh 2024 cullin Street improvements esler drive to north of Clark Street bid award Pete's here to talk to us about that Pete's here to talk about um the bid process and um then I have a few things that I'll mention as well m madame mayor and city council um we're here tonight to ask you to authorize uh North West asphalt of Shaka uh to uh um be awarded the bid in the amount of 1, 19895 25 uh we did receive six bids underneath the engineers estimate estimate and uh it's very competitive market at this time uh so again we got very fortunate and we've got a good contractor online uh this would be an improvement between esler Street in Travers green and 500 ft north of Clark Street it is the residential development that Ben and Todd and myself have been working with you on uh going forward uh we were happy that we received 10 bids uh the low bid is approximately $300,000 underneath our Engineers estimate which is what we use to discuss with you on our uh pricing of our lots and so with that uh we' asked that you approve the resolution on page 124 um our contractor is very uh interested in starting this project here within the next few weeks and getting some dirt work done and dirt work move before fall so we'd anticipate this project really will be accomplished in two phases with winter kind of in the middle can you explain that a little bit so uh we did have during the course of this project our our um Consulting engineer did design it so that uh the contractor could start the work and could stop and then over the winter uh they get the utilities installed they'll put the street curbing gutter in uh sidewalk um driveway approaches uh again whatever we need here at this process um next spring and so we anticipate that you'll have a June July um subdivision where contractors are uh Building Homes so mayor members if I can articulate a couple of things that happen next in process should you approve this so certainly we sign all the documents and they start working all those things but as a part of this process yet this fall um we will be coming back to you with the final analysis on the bids the engineering fees those types of things and you'll be establishing prices on those lots block one lot one is this price block one lot two is this price and so that will be coming forward to you as you're aware and we've talked about this numerous times since this came in under our estimates that means the cost of those lots are under the estimates that you've seen previously but there's still a little bit of work to do related to that and we have you set those prices so so that we can transfer those properties um if there's a sale efficiently effectively and moving forward again remember you also have a development agreement with Miller Holmes for approximately 25 26 of these lots and so you have an agreement in place where they put some money down where they are agreeing to buy lots and that they will pay you for those lots when they are sold to the final user so when a homeowner comes in in place um as you know we've talked about this a lot there are a number of intricacies to this it's part of my job to say this is not a slam dunk this is an outside of the box idea that you've moved forward and we've been working on for now almost four years to move additional residential development forward on lots that are in what we would consider mid to Upper end of the marketplace so all of these Lots will be more than 10,000 square feet um this is not a slam dunk it's my job to tell you that it's not a slam junk but we do feel um we're in the right position the bids have come in better than we had expected um this we believe will continue to stimulate additional growth not only within the economy um but within the school district and meet needs that we see and have identified very clearly within the marketplace I'd be remiss if I didn't say that and I'm happy to answer questions about that and what data we look at um but this is the manifestation of that and once you move forward and sign a contract with the contractor you are building um there will be water sewer roads curbing gutter sidewalks all of those kind of things as a part of this so um this is kind of that where we are now jumping forward everything else has been um hypothetical um has been just thinking about it measuring it this is moving this project forward Ben Pete have we have we worked with Northwest Asal before um they haven't worked in the city here but we do have a couple of employees that have worked with them in other cities okay no issues no oh we checked resources and uh both our consultant engineer and our staff feel comfortable working with them okay I was surprised to see 10 bids not unpleasantly surprised but yeah was longer list than we usually see so is this a slam that people are going to that maybe I said it once too often but but it's important this I I I I I appreciate your yeah this is this is an outside the box I'll tell you that I've gotten dozens of contacts from other communities that are asking how do you do this how are you doing this this is an outside of the boox solution to what we really have identified as a Marketplace challenge with lots that are over 10,000 square ft where people are building 300 to 400 to $500,000 homes on them and all kidding aside I think staff has done an excellent job over the last couple of years pulling this together um obviously they were working with another Community organization that that fell out but then they found another partner in Miller homes to give us some assurance that we might be able to that we should be able to get some home started in building here I I it and on top of that we're already seeing Traver screen itself almost fill up so um I just I commend staff for all the work they've done on this I mean coming in 300,000 underestimate is I think I estimated down the 40 it should average about $7,100 a lot less compared to what the engineer's estimate was so yeah I I would say that to make The Debt Service move which you've already seen in examined as a part of Workshop we really anticipate that we've got to have about three and a halfish homes a year and that seems like um not a slam dunk but doable and one other thing to note I think I had asked you about this or Ben uh Ben Ben Baker um this is not a tiff District correct that is correct this is not we are not using Tiff resources for this the assessments the cost of this infrastructure is being paid by the sale of the lots and homes that would be built um on this on these Parcels so any new homes that are built will automatically just go straight into the regular tax RS darl um based on our housing study that we just approved a couple meetings ago there my recollection is correct we have less than 10 buildable Lots in town that are for sale yeah we believe that of that number only three or four are more than 10,000 ft darl and this this property has been available for development for at least the past 10 years that you've worked trying to get this developed privately but those efforts never came to fruition correct yes that's true thank you additional questions comments all right hearing nothing further the resolution awarding bid for 2024 Cullen Street improvements esler drive to north of Clark Street is on page 124 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion and a second to call the role please council member Pettis I council member Ram I council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I the resolution is approved thank you very much Pete uh moving on to reports on I uh don't have anything to report at this time we'll move on to reports of the council members Brad um well I had the opportunity Thursday night to go to another meeting uh or well a dinner hosted by climate smart municipalities um it was up it was up at the U uh similar to last year was meeting with uh business people and uh government representatives from uh North from North orine West faia estate in Germany um as they describe themselves they're kind of the California of Germany uh from a production and and uh population perspective uh they have uh they have a number of uh particularly green energy options and green energy businesses uh focusing um I focusing some on solar and uh but really working towards biodigesters and hydrogen is and hydrogen power for electrical generation is becoming a uh larger aspect of of their business development um I was able to meet other other uh Community other community Representatives around uh from around uh Minnesota uh uh there there was an intern uh there was an intern in the water department at New Elm that I that might be doing a tour with of our own water department because of how advanced ours is compared to theirs um it's meetings like these being able to come back and then also talk to our utilities about some of the things going on and some of the connections that are made I think are really integral and uh and uh I think it's very important that we continue to do these going forward so thanks um car I wasn't sure if you wanted to say anything about the Coalition of Greater Minnesota City's U meeting that happened last Thursday yeah do do would you like to share yeah I was there as well uh there the Coalition was doing um some Regional meetings and so they came down to um Mano so it was a great chance to meet with uh the their staff of course to meet with other local elected officials and City staff um we talked about a lot of things the last session um uh we talked about our hospital and um challenges that are happening across the state with EMS and uh it was just a really good meeting I don't know if there's anything else we talked about housing a lot as usual yeah I think what was nice about the regional meeting is that there were cities that don't typically have folks that go to the regular conferences and so we saw a lot of different people that were new faces and um got to hear from them and so um I know from a regional perspective we have a lot of the same concerns I mean in our area we were impacted by flooding for instance and so um um it's I think it it's more efficient for the coalition to do Regional meetings than individual meetings I know that they still want to keep doing that with cities um but this was a good opportunity and they've had some really good um Regional meetings across the state where they have uh I mean EMS is one issue um that kind of came out of a regional meeting and of course there was policy developed it like spurred from that so there's some positive things about bringing people together in this way and I guess I I left that meeting feeling uh it was just a good reminder of how important the work we do with our legislators to let them know what our priorities are as a city city to advocate for the city to advocate for our residents and our priorities is really um something that we've been doing I think in the last few years um it really helps that we've got council members who are in involved and um uh just to keep that keep that up because we have the opportunity to advocate for our our city and uh it's important any other reports from Council Members we'll move on report of the city administrator so Madame May I'd ask Pete to come forward I'm hoping that he can give um two reports a quick one on safe routes to school we've had a lot of discussion about that in the past and as you know we've been in a little a little bit of a holding pattern and moving that forward so I'd ask Pete to talk about that first sure safe routs to school um we have successfully successfully completed the require archaeological study survey that we did um it really was an exploration along Church Street where where the old railroad was located uh we did not find anything of historical significance so our plan now would be to communicate that to shipo and the other state agencies to get the green light to proceed with the project um our plan then would remain to take bids on Thursday and we will do an analysis of those and bring those back in September for Council action you already SE the bids in we have not received the bids we will this Thursday August 29th we would anticipate that potentially some construction happens this fall depends on the contract and their schedule but it could be in the spring as well right based on the federal funding that we have we need to have a little bit of the work started this fall yeah and if people have questions about that there's some great information on our website about where it is and all those types of things and a really great cooperative and collaborative effort with the school district and making that this is a project that is at least five or six years in the making and going forward so Pete um I'd like you to talk about electric program just for a little bit and if I can make my computer work out we want to point this out um to folks and then I have one last one after that Madam sure as Council has directed uh at the beginning of the year we started working on electric incentive program uh we do have two of them active right now on our website uh it's the electric water heater incentive so basically if you put electric water heater in you'll be eligible to receive a $250 onetime rebate uh that's for the purchase and installation of an approved electric water heater and uh there's some criteria on our website that you can look at and review uh there is an application fill that out and then somebody would come and take a look at that um also then we have a electric garage heater incentive um basically for people that have um garage that they would like to heat up during the winter time a little bit uh you're eligible to receive a $250 onetime rebate again from the the city for that uh we do have three uh electric heaters that we will authorize the rebate for we will have those in our possession so the homeowner purchases those from the city uh then our electric superintendent will come out and make sure everything's hooked up right and then that $250 would be accredited to your bill um we are working on two other projects that are coming up uh the uh new home incentive and that is if you install electric stove and electric water heater and electric Clos dryer you're eligible for a $500 onetime rebate and a new uh $7,500 or 7500 watt uh garage heater at no cost and so um there's some criteria again your uh air conditioner and water heater then at that time needs to be hooked up to load management so that we can manage that that load again um and the garage heater must be installed and the appliances should be energy star uh efficiency specification uh the the remaining one that we're excited about is the EV charger incentive again anybody that puts an EV charger at their place could get a rebate up to $250 um the uh uh if you work with our staff there to get a a vehicle charger in there um we put it on a separate meter and a time of use metering so this is a little different right now we use a flat rate uh you'd go to time of use metering so if you use it during Peak conditions it costs a little more if you use it during uh other times you'd pay less and so we're trying to shift how the customer uses that power it helps us out with grid situations and uh get some energy efficient installations our goal is to promote this going forward until you'll see more and more information starting to come out as a part of all of these Madam Mar I think Brad maybe um I just say I'm really excited to see these and yeah I'm commend you and your staff for what you be been able to pull together um like one of the things I talked about the meeting I went to LA or the dinner I went to last week with climate smart municipalities is it's moving it it's essentially moving towards uh moving away from fossil fuels the decarbonization and one of the ways to do it is to you know encourage electrification along these lines and the other thing with encouraging electrification is is we're the utility so it didn't it builds our customer base so our portfolio of renewable energy related to Electric um is is continues to grow substantially and so it's something we should be happy about yeah thanks Pete thanks Pete thank you Pete Madame mayor the last one that I have if I can make this work out there we go is I just wanted to provide today was um something that occurs almost every year as a part of um my work here in St Peter um the election season is upon us and and so that means that Pol political signs start to show up in boulevards and all over places and so um there'll be some more information coming out in the hot sheet um but we wanted to give people just a little bit of additional understanding related to that signage um so if you have a political sign that you're putting out um generally the rules are in St Peter that you should put that sign um on the house side of your sidewalk um because that's on private property where next to the curb line is right of way and owned by the community at Large um what happens if you don't have a sidewalk then generally we say we'd love for you to stay at least 10 ft in back of the curb at least 10t in back of the curb with that signage and there are special rules um related to signs on corners for vision for stop signs for people turning being able to see oncoming traffic and pedestrians and those types of things um so I wanted to get that out there there'll be some more information coming in the hot sheet we've already seen some of these signs out and again today was uh one of those days where we got our first concern about signs not being in the right place I will mention that most of the um campaign folks the folks that are putting out these sides are really gracious and cooperative and if we give them a call or send them a note um more often than not within a couple of days they move them to the proper location sometimes folks are doing things as simple as well the sign is in my yard here and I move it here to Mo and then I just don't move it back and now it's in the wrong spot and so people have been very gracious in working with us I would also mention that um for folks that might be running for office in the future that there is a state statute that says those signs have to be removed within 10 days following the election so again behind or on the house side of the sidewalk or if there's not a sidewalk 10 ft back from the curb call us if you have questions about corners and then those signs have to be put away um 10 days after the election in November so those are kind of the big four or five big rules that we have in place and again more information to follow Madame mayor that's all I have for you for tonight all right if there's nothing further I'll take a motion to adjourn so second all those in favor of adjourning say I I any opposed you're adjourned thanks everybody yes