##VIDEO ID:aDn5EfmYuNU## e e e I wasn't too far off we should have a naming contest that'd be fun good evening it's now 5 o'clock and I call to order the workshop of the Victoria city council our workshops are informal so we'll Dive Right into our agenda the first the only item on our Workshop agenda this evening is a 2025 budget discussion presenting this evening is assistant city manager and finance director Trisha Pollock Miss Pollock the floor is yours thank you good evening mayor members of the council tonight is our Victoria Recreation Center Enterprise fund budgets and capital Improvement plan and we also will do a review of the general fund budget our final adoption of the general fund budget will be um at our next meeting in December number so this budget Workshop um like I said is going to include the re Center and our utility funds um which are our Enterprise funds our Capital Improvement plan we look at for five years and then um again we'll discuss the general fund levian budget and then Council discussion but feel free to ask questions as we go through you don't have to wait till the end so staff project 1.2 million in Revenue uh for 2025 in the rec center budget with 72% of those revenues coming from the Eastern Carver County School District either through the city and District lease contract or through reimbursement for Staffing in maintenance costs the remaining 28% of the revenues are generated from membership and facility rentals and the revenues are 18.7% higher than in 2024 mainly due to an increase in the rentals and the memberships um and the programs are also slightly um increased and um the interest earnings operating expenses for 25 are projected to be 79 3,000 which is pretty flat with 2024 23% of the expenses which is 340,000 is for Debt Service on the facility which will be paid off in 2032 and also coincides with the lease um income from the school district there is $57,000 in planned Capital outlay which includes replacing carpet and flooring in the rec center and refinishing of the gym floor these investments will help address the many comments the city received in our Park system survey about the rec center space feeling tired and looking dark and outdated any questions about the rec center before we move on to utilities Council questions comments very good carry on okay so before diving into the Enterprise fund budgets I want to present some rate information for our utility funds I will be proposing some rate increases for our sewer rates and the storm water rate and we'll provide more detail within those budget discussions but this chart will show you where Victoria lands in comparison to its Market cities monthly utility bills all r are based off of a 6,000 gallon per month usage which is considered to be average for household bless you Victoria's household that uses 6,000 gallons of water would go from $727 a month to $758 per month an increase of $33.75 a month so the proposed as you see puts us kind of right there smack daage in the middle and this is a more detailed look at the um sewer rates um alone so the sewer rate increas is 8% and this chart is showing that Victoria is still among the lowest of its pure cities so we've been planning the continued incremental rate increase in the sewer fund over the next couple of years we started last year kind of a three year um increase and this is year two of that of those three years TR do you have what those the difference between current and proposed for the average family so the on this chart this would show what it would include for um the entire bill so the $727 m is what you would be paying now with that average 6,000 gallons so the sewer would also be 6,000 gallons based off of this projection okay so that's that's 76 so 7582 per month is what we would be proposing which is $3.75 for both Water and Sewer yeah we're not proposing an increase to the water rates okay just the sewer and the storm water got it thank you oops so here's a look at the the storm water rates um comparison and that would um be an 8% increase as well this chart shows um that we would be in the upper end of the rates for storm water with that being said um we have expanded our storm water department in the past year and have been making great progress with storm water maintenance projects and we anticipate this will continue with all of the ms4 perit permitting requirements so we will look at the um water fund revenues um as I just said we're not proposing a change in the water rates for 2025 our utility team continues to Moder monitor water usages and Water Conservation efforts continue to be a priority um we send out monthly letters still um to Residents that have continuous usage um trying to um conserve water and also um help them not to um as you say Throw money down the drain um with um water that's not being utilized wisely the expenses in the water fund are about 2.4 million which reflects a 10% % increase in the operating portion um it also includes a $55,000 expense to pull a well and have the pump and motor refurbished and inspected next year um the capital outlay has budgeted a portion for oversizing which we do every year um don't always have that expense depends on the development and um whether or not we'll be doing paying out any over sizing but we still put it in our in our Capital outlay um for Budget purposes um then we also have a water treatment plant water filter which was previously budgeted for um in 24 but we're carrying it over the downtown west Phase 1 Project was also budgeted in 24 and is being carried over and the water tower will undergo a complete painting in 25 at about an estimated $650,000 Debt Service is the principal and interest uh for the 2023 a bonds for the well six and the Stagger Lake Lane water portion of that project any questions about water fund so we're projecting a 7.8 million year end balance at the end of 2025 that's correct and do we have what do we have that money ear mark so there's quite a bit of um projects in the upcoming um CIP which we will be looking at further in this these slides but for example we have a water storage um project that's going to be coming up in 26 which is estimated roughly 4 million we don't really know what this point it's just a number that we have um in there and we would like to use use some of this money to pay for some of those expenses so that we don't have to issue debt if possible and also there are some water projects that will be coming up with these road projects that Cara is working on getting um some numbers for and so we want to keep our cash flow um at a point where we'd be able to pay cash for that instead of issuing more debt okay Council questions what what was the um on the water when did the customers receive a letter remember is it the highest usage like 10% or yeah so we we sent out um a couple of them this year one I believe was in July and maybe August or September can't remember but Kendra did postcards for the top 200 top 200 so it's not a percentage it's a number okay yeah so it just says did you know that you are number 10 out of 4,035 accounts in water usage and just kind of some um friendly reminders of how to conserve water and sprinkling and things perfect thank you do we do any followup to see if those are effective do people their water usage because of it I mean I think that there you know we definitely have some because people will call and talk to Dwight about it like I had no idea or you know we'll double check they're not on the continuous usage list because um again we try to try to notify people when we know that they have leaks that they maybe don't even aren't aware that maybe their irrigation has sprung a leak or something they don't know about but yeah we we try to follow up and and of course you're going to get some people that just are going they want to have the greenest grass in the neighborhood so but we can only try to encourage people but thanks that was just a curiosity question yeah yeah but definitely people call and they're like oh they have no idea so okay so the sewer fund so for 2025 staff are proposing a 9% increase as we discussed before um and that that it's the second year of the three-year proposed phased increases um the base charge is increasing from $342 to $14.63 and additionally staff are proposing an increase to the consumption rate um for sewers so that average home would increase um about $2.50 so per month so the change in rates is being recommended as a result of the ongoing significant increases that are being passed along from the Met Council year after year um as you can see in this chart showing the five years um past five years double digit increases and um from 2021 to 2025 um fees have increased by 64% on the expense side um overall there's a 8% increase which includes a 14.6% increase from the Met Council uh this chart um shows down the the breakdown of those expenses Capital outlay includes the sewer truck outfitting with a crane so we purchased the sewer truck this this year Unfortunately they were 12 months out on getting it outfitted so we've had it the chassis sitting there um and this this budget is carryover from 2024 for the portion to outfit the truck do we suspect that we'll be ready to go in 25 got some good confirmation from our vend thank you we have Brady in the audience nodding his head for those who are watching at home yeah the County Road 11 and Highway 511 downtown west utilities um and the downtown west Phase 1 are projects that are also um getting completed with the road projects um Debt Service is for the 2021 bonds for the South area project and the more recent 2023a bonds for that Stager Lake Lane West project any questions about sewer yeah did does the Met Council have any justification for their 60% increase over the last what was it four years five years well some of it has to do with growth obviously and you know we are billing more people so that does you know substantiate some of the increases however the way that they they determine their rates too it's by area so the more area that Victoria takes up the more area percentage that we're getting buil for um and number of connections so I mean it's kind of a multiple things but they do have a um meeting that we attend every year that explains you know their costs going up and percentages um you know they have a lot of the same um struggles that we deal with with just the costs of um the infrastructure costs and the you know labor um cost so kind of the same thing as as we're all challenged with thank you so 2025 in the storm water fund staff are pro proposing an 8% increase which is 95 cents um per month which is consistent with what we have been doing um historically there's no Capital outlay planned for next year and we're projecting a year-end fund balance of about 1.9 million all right then we go on to the capital Improvement plan if you don't have any questions about storm water also questions let's talk talk about storm water ponds for just a second I know that's always been a challenge um who's who who is my expert in that Brady and Cara would be so we've we've heard over the last several years that the storm water ponds are getting full and they need dredging and there was some conversation at the state that they were going to provide some resources to do pond dredging talk about that a little bit herea sure happy to Mayor members to the city council um the first good news I'd like to share is that we have a consultant currently conducting an evaluation of what we've identified as our worst pond so what we've been struggling with is coming up with a prioritization schedule for how to tackle the dredging so um it we it couldn't be as simple as a road where it's just it's this sold there's a lot more factors that go into a pond to determine um when it needs to be dredge so the city does have a program a asset management program that helps predict when the ponds need dredging but that's only a sort of a tabletop exercise so we've been working with the public works department and our Consulting Partners at WSB to come up with um a list of projects and then to help us prioritize and develop budgets so that we can have a better um system going forward for budgeting for starting to bite off tackling that maintenance so um we have a meeting I think Thursday to get information from them from their um analysis that they've completed so far so we are looking forward to that um on the regulation side it it it is I find it somewhat I don't know what word I want to use interesting I'll go with that um when I think back to when we first raised this issue so the issue in particular is how to dispose of the dredged materials from the basin um we were looking at a regulation that was going to say that we were going to have to have all these ponds ponds dredged in a short period of time and the state ended up having to pull back on that regulation because of the fact that there wasn't enough um landfills to dispose of these materials in depending on what the substances are that are found in them I do think that where we are today compared to where we were even 10 years ago have a better idea of what type of material we're encountering and the testing Protocols are a little bit better so when we get this work back from WSB I think we'll have much better budgeting tool and a better predictor of what what we're faced with in terms of disposing of those materials um the city did do a pond dredging project last year that unfortunately had to be cut short because we didn't have actual winter last year so um that that could present some additional challenges in dredging these things if we end up with not having hard freezes so think hopefully I answered your question yeah I think so it's that's shedding some light I knew this was kind of a area of mystery as to how we were going to manage these storm water ponds and and we've talked about it every year for a while and and now we've sounds like we've got some the wheels in motion to figure out and process which is awesome yeah and I what we're also excited about too is then when residents call we'll be able to have a you know projection of when we think we would tackle these ponds so then you know it we do maintenance every year um but really this is the larger scale pond dredging that we want to have a program and schedule for and be able to articulate that to folks when they call very good thank you yeah all right any other questions before moving on all right let's talk about Big Stuff Capital Improvements great so um as I at the beginning of the presentation um we're looking at A Five-Year Plan um we actually have um cips projected out you know 15 20 years even but um for for your purpose this evening um we're looking at The Five-Year Plan um these projects are adopted conceptually so that just means that um they will come back to you um anything over 20,000 will come back back to you for your approval so um just this is just a look at what is planned but it's not approving the actual purchases of it that will come back before you so the first Department we're going to look at is the Public Works equipment um this fund identifies the the purchase of a new field painter um the current painter is more than 10 years old but it will be kept and used in the streets department for painting crosswalks parking lots and hydrants um also in the 25 CIP is the addition of a pickup for our super our superintendent in the public works currently he's using the electric vehicle um while it's waiting to be equipped with lighting for our CSO but she will be um taking that um very soon um is what I'm hearing from Dave so um our superintendent is very Hands-On is in is always in the field um for multiple hours of of the day so um that is included uh the 2017 JD Moore has reached its end to life and needs replacement and we are also adding a dump truck to the fleet which um we've had on order and expect delivery for next year and was actually also a approved already this year um we thought we might have it before the end of the year so we were going we did bring it to council earlier this year um so that's the um dump truck that will we plan to use in the South growth area um the 2026 through 2029 includes the addition of a roller compactor for Road repairs replacement of three trucks and three mowers the Workman and Bobcat utility vehicle will also be Val valuated for replacement in the next couple years and if the Public Works determines the need for additional staff in 2027 um we would add an additional vehicle do you have any questions for Brady about the Public Works Capital Equipment also any questions on this I understand he's equipped to answer all the questions about the operating of these vehicles all right seeing none then we'll look at fire and civil defense the 2025 budget includes relocating a warning siren off of Highway 7 which is located on state property and is currently operating under a right ofo permit also also including a replacement of the 2008 Polaris Ranger ATV that provides off-road fire suppression and search and rescue capabilities um looking out further um you will see the replacement of two command Vehicles extrication and SCBA inventory portable radios and a fire inspector utility vehicle any questions for Dave Dave how often do we replace that SCBA inventory we have that come on up yeah we have that on a regular yes rotation right good evening mayor and Council thank you um I believe it's every 15 years is when um they're required to be replaced okay thank you and then do you is that sorry is that it's stacked so you're not doing all the SCB we do them all at once so yes we do them all at once okay it makes sense to have all the equipment the same and be uh consistent there are um NFPA regulations and requirements for the product as it gets developed and it's new safety protocols come into effect that it would make sense to just keep them all on the same track and have them all placed at the same time all right thank you Chief any other questions on the fire department okay seeing noney crowd tonight uh Capital facilities um the 2025 Capital facilities fund includes funding for the new Fire Station um as you know there'll be a public hearing for the bonding for the construction at this evening's regular meeting um the five years CIP also identifies um about a half a million dollars for renovations to the Public Work Shop um which would provide more adequate work break office and locker room space um for that team um um and also a vehicle um for the facilities maintenance employee in 2028 any questions about facilities just if we could have a brief overview of what the $550,000 covers is that you know that there was talk that to expand the public works there would be maybe an addition on the east side of it is is this that or or is this just reconfiguring the existing space yeah council member evansky um this is not the addition um to the East end this is a renovation of the current shop and it does not include any new square footage it does not it is um I believe there was going to be a little Dana can answer that I guess I think there is a little bit in the front to have the thank thank you mayor members of the council um so there this $550,000 has not been updated in several years so we probably need to um if if this is something that we're going to do we probably need to look more closely at a a better number um but it does include a small bump out of where the current I'll call it break room area is just to provide some more um square footage for the team to move around um this certainly would be more of a short to midterm fix um and if we decide once um we vacate the current fire station and move in move fire operations and Public Safety into the new Fire Station uh the plan currently has been to backfill um with some of the Public Works functions primarily utilities into uh the the current fire station so that would free up some staff and configuration so we've been holding off on really um really getting that number a little bit more finite until we had a better understanding of what we were going to be moving and what that space would look like at the current fire station with the public works moving into that but um regardless of what happens with there probably will still need to be some renovation done because the space um the locker room space the restroom space the the meeting room space and the lunchroom space are all pretty tight right now even if you divided the utilities out of there thank you thank you all right any other questions see that can move on okay um so the 2025 information techn techology fund identifies purchases for routine switch editions a server replacement and security cameras for the facilities um these Replacements are done on a rotational basis with annual incremental Replacements in order to keep equipment up to date without needing to replace them all in a single year um the 26 through 29 um years include audio visual replacement firewall switch replacements fiber connections and more security cameras questions about it this is a nice demonstration of our commitment to that it fund I know we've been talking about that for a long time that that's some of our that's infrastructure that's newly added to our CIP so thank you it's good the parks and trails fund um does not have any planned Capital expenditures for next year um the expansion of Bayfront Plaza and a new park in the South growth area are currently planned for 2026 and 2027 no specific plans um for those have yet been identified but would be an area of focus for staff and the park and wreck committee next year um the Holy Family tennis court and the trail will need some maintenance done um in 28 and 29 any questions about parks and trails maybe I missed it excuse me what was the plan for Bayfront Plaza like some of the details around the improvements or yeah Miss Hardy are you taking that one I can I can start um thank you mayor members of the council so I think initially the plan had been to look at kind of the seating area in um that go is on the hillside to see if there was some additional terracing or additional things that we could do there were also some ideas um people affectionately refer to it as the sandbox or the we was called The Sandbox um a little bit off to the the side there so trying to see if there is better use or purpose for that area as well and then making a stronger connection from the plaza um across the trail to that area so there have been some ideas floated around but um I think additional work needs needs to be done um to really understand what that what the what the community is looking for out of that space I was going to say I think it's a great idea to get community feedback on that because that continues to be a great Gathering Place and uh so whatever we can do to keep it up and listen to what the public wants I think that's great okay so in the water Enterprise fund um we spoke earlier about those capital I items um during that budget discussion um another item to note is the water storage facility um as I had mentioned um in 2020 6 and the water treatment plant renovation and roof replacement um and the plan as Dana had stated shortly um ago was that we would we will be doing some renovations to the water treatment plant um fire old fire station when they move into the new fire station so um there's some money that um we're budgeting for that purpose to utilize that building and also the roof was planned to be replaced um anyway so it' be a good time to do kind of all of that remodel and roof replacement in one year uh the sewer um again we spoke about this during the the budget items um some of the upgrades um to the Sewer will be done um in timing with those County Road projects as again Cara is still working on getting some better numbers there's quite a list there um we are hoping to pay cash for some of those um while we will likely be bonding for some of the more expensive projects any questions about water and sewer any questions see none go ahead so the long-term Street Maintenance fund identifies 5 and a half million of Street overlay projects in the 5year CIP uh staff are recommending these projects to keep our current infrastructure maintained additionally there is about 14 million identified in other Street projects um under that bonding section so um there is some MSA funds as you can see under under the Rolling Acres Road Highway 5 to Interlock in um there's some MSA funds we're hoping to use there and also with the roundabout on Highway 11 and Marsh Lake Road so um it's just kind of the timing of the projects and working with Cara on what's the best use of those funds versus what we can or can't bond for and it's just kind of a fine um fine juggling Act of when the these projects are happening and what we're going to be paying how we're financing them Cara would like to say Garen please I know you're dying to say something thank you I we are I did not want to hrish a bunch of numbers in the last two weeks as she was finalizing her CIP presentation um but we are starting to get refined numbers as we get further along on the project so um we will be having another really round of taking a look at what that financing plan looks like for the city probably in the next two months I'd like to have another round of estimates for the highway 5 project before um we make a lot of decisions but we're going to have to make some decisions on the 25 projects pretty quickly so um we'll plug some placeholders in for the big project but we'll start to have refined numbers for the the 25 ones I have some I'm sharing tonight but we're still missing a few gaps um to help fill in that picture but we'll be pretty close to being able to really dial in what that financing plan needs to start to look like particularly um which projects we want to use our state aid funds for and then working with Trish on the bonding piece so okay thank you so car I just had a couple questions before so we had a transportation update where we were given almost a suite of ideas about some of these projects that are related to the highway 5 reconstruction are those pieces in these projections and are these reflective of where our heads were at as to what we wanted or is this like the you know the bare minimum I would say um the projects are all in there when you start to look look at this particular line item of dollars or this particular line item of dollars they're moving around a little bit so in aggregate I feel like we're pretty well covered but as we start to dial in the details that's where we really need to come up with the financing plan to make sure that you can provide the cash that you need and the time that you need it because the you know the tools you have are specific in terms of what you can bond for and what you can use state aid funds for so overall yes but really refining those details like you have a number in there um related to some utility funds that when it came in in the last estimate it was high now the estimate I have is too low um so you know as those pieces come together and we get more information the numbers get more precise it's it's tough because they're such big projects that in in our world we're usually working with like a $2 million project and it's much easier iier for me to get more precise in terms of um type of cost type of expense where here we're working with $1 million of a number it's much broader okay understood thank you yeah any other questions or comments on the road projects I the Highway 11 South uh Highway 5 signal Improvement is that actually going to happen in 25 or is that going to happened with the larger scale Pro because it's not just the turn lanes and stuff right it's there's some curve stuff that has to be fixed right sure so council member Roberts this council did authorize um the design work for that couple months ago so that work has started the intent would be to actually tie that with the 5 and 11 project that's scheduled for 2025 so we want to get that intersection improved in 20 2 before the 26 and 27 projects start um because we want these other intersections to be working as best as possible before we close Rolling Acres Road and then subsequently Highway 5 so that is that is still the intent thank you yeah okay all right seeing no other questions we are moving on Okay so we're just going to take a um look and an update on the 2025 general fund budget in Levy some budget pressures um for 25 obviously what we just discussed the Street Maintenance fund and the overlays um and the large transfers that we are taking from the general fund and putting into that fund um also health insurance premiums um we have decided to change carriers um we were looking at over a 20% increase um on our health premium so um we are by switching carriers we are able to get a down to an estimated overall increase of 8% um our open enrollment begins tomorrow so once that closes we'll be able to get a better feel of what our actual premiums will be for next year um and we will be able to um hopefully make some adjustments um before we um have you adopt the final budget and lovey at the December 9th meeting um the compost site continues to be a budget pressure with the increasing amount of compost that's coming to the site um that are and many that aren't residents of the city of Victoria there are also contractors dumping large amounts of leaves and branches trees and now most recently people dropping off non-compostable items such as cement blocks um we're currently 60% over budget for this year and we will likely have a challenge cuing costs under budget for 25 I have a short um video of Mauricio one of our Public Works employees who um takes care of our comp comp post site and of just one weekend of composting good morning so every Friday we push it all the way down in so people have a space to throw their jar ways but every Monday this is pretty much where we deal with is uh a lot lot so is leaves branches all kind of stuff so you can have a little idea what's going on here on the old shop so as you can see um it gets full and that's just one weekend so um it continues to be a challenge um the costs um continue to be a budget pressure and um we have been um using social media Kendra's been doing some posts trying to um get across to people about you know not dumping things off that shouldn't be dumped off and also um having people keep an eye out and report if they see people coming there and dumping um that shouldn't be dumping like contractors and whatnot but um yeah it continues to be a challenge maricio said he's heard just when he's out and about about people telling people come dump in Victoria their compost s's open 247 so um yeah it's it's definitely um gotten all out of hand again are they supposed to put those bags aren't they supposed to dump the leaves out of the bags well some of those bags I think are those compost compostable bags that they're using I don't know if that's good evening mayor members of council um the as long as they're not in plastic bags is fine from what I understand we contract out the hauling away of the stuff through Minnesota top soil so a lot of those um like the cardboard bags if you will those are fine from what I hear from Minnesota top soil that they can go through the grinder and everything and those are completely compostable so those are what most of the bags are and that picture is probably a lighter weekend I have pictures from former weekends where it's twice as full as that so and a lot of this does have to do the over budget part I would say was due that big storm that we had in the end of August um that did a lot of damage throughout town so that did not help this side out any but thank you so any questions how often do they come to move this stuff out the the contractors you know are they here once a week are they here once a month are they here U during the storm right after the storm they were here about once a week for about two three weeks and then we'll probably go three or four weeks without anything is that on demand for when you call them they come and get it yep whenever my guys tell me that the site's full then I'll call them inota top so and they come out within the week can empty it okay so they put everything into a chipper but I would say probably right now every other week every three weeks they're out here so the things that are not compostable the the cement block and all of those kinds of things what's what's the protocol for those that stuff is still currently down there and if we were to get rid of it we'd probably have to bring it to demcon and pay to get rid of it down in Shak okay quick but quick a question though is so the the city itself had a lot of Parkway trees damaged in that storm you know these are Six Sigma events that you know we just can't predict and so it does have a tendency to push the budget higher in that or exceed the budget by higher amount does the city itself like when we're taking somebody's Parkway tree down because it fell in their front yard and Hauling that away are we the city itself bringing the that material to this site yes we do oh okay so in addition to Residents having trees that get taken down we yep and then the street sweeping where we're collecting leaves primarily is that going there as well yes all of our street sweepings go down here as well if it's if the Hoppers mostly leaves we'll dump it in with the rest of the leaves a lot of times we'll get um just your typical road debris and we have separate piles on site for that and we need to haul that down to demcon we have to get that tested for phosphates and then they'll get hauled down to demcon to get rid of right so we have separate piles and we really don't have a way to discern what is going in the compost site is really routine City you know lack of better expenses and what residents are doing or clearly we don't like the fact that people who shouldn't be using the site are using the site but it I mean I I understand we want to get our arms around this but it doesn't give me a lot of pause about that this is doing dual Duty and this the city of Victoria we've all been here a reasonable amount of time we've seen the amount of growth every subdivision that we put in has brand new trees that puts about 10 leaves on the ground when they're first in but 20 years into it there's piles and piles and piles that are going there so I guess my point is that I don't think we should be terribly alarmed that this is going off and this is a valuable service I mean obviously you know the video shows that setting aside people who don't belong there Victoria residents appreciate that we have this and we're going to have this natural increase we should expect that we should budget more for this and and pass that cost along into our expenses because it's services that our residents enjoy demand and and use and use in ways that they don't readily see it being used I mean I know I use it because I bring my trailer over there and get rid of my yard waste it's a valuable service but I think that there's this almost not visible use that is going on that we should keep in keep a frame of mind that well it might be over budget then maybe the the answer is is that we project to spend more on this 60% is unacceptable 60% over budget's unacceptable well Derek there's no I'm I I said this last year in the budget I said this last year in the budget that contractor dumping was going to pick up 60% is unacceptable and you can't tell me that the new neighborhoods that we've put in we're we're talking a year later we're talking a year later the saplings that get planted have not are not there's no way the new neighborhoods this is unacceptable it's 60% above it's $65,000 that we're paying for a compost site and you can't tell me who's dumping there well who's dumping there it's not just residents understood you can't tell me I would agree with you do keep in mind that $65,000 60% over budget we either didn't do our job back here last year when we talked about the budget I think or we have unacceptable dumping that's going on that we need to monitor which is going to cost us more things Derek we we had a huge storm we were all in this chamber when we had a dangerous storm blow I didn't even bring any of my yard waste I have one of the oldest growth neighborhoods and yards in this community I brought zero of my yard waste I can guarantee you we would be 65% over if I'd have brought my yard wasted council member jansy anything any other comments I I agree this the the storm unprecedented there's probably a lot of um a lot of over there over that but I think we do I think we watched this thing for a year we've watched it for a year Deb we watched it for a year you said that last year watch it for a year we're 60% over the budget council member Gunderson what are you suggesting do you want to increase the budget end I said end it no I don't want to increase the budget I want it ended I wanted it ended last year so for the for the there's no value correctly no you're just going there's no value yes okay absolutely get rid of it I said that last year I said the same thing last year I told you last year it was going to cost more than what we budgeted and we're 60% over yeah well I think we're just going to you know probably have to disagree about what we see it we just heard from our Public Works director that the city itself is is a air quote customer of that size site so what's getting dumped there is from our ordinary course of running the business and then our our tracking of it of what it's costing is is a number that's over budget and I still submit that trees grow every single year so we've been plunking subdivisions online online online and they are increasing the demands that Public Works is having to clean up it's evident trees aren't growing 60% year but again there's I I agree that they're not growing 60% a year and I do agree that we'd probably have some misuse of it so maybe there's a way that we need to start looking at are there ways that we can try to control the inappropriate use of this so one of the things that we had done in previous years and and we've had this conversation before about closing this compost site we've closed we've closed it before and we had to reopen it because the residents really really really wanted this compost site so we closed it we opened it back up and now we're at The Point again where we're we're seeing problematic use of this site um I my suggestion understanding that this is a this is a service that our residents want they've been very clear about that um so understanding that I I would love to look into some ways and maybe we we can learn something from our neighbors who also host compost sites how do they keep the dumic out do we can we put a camera on this um I know one year we had some folks um they open and close the gates and we had some folks making sure that they belonged here and could do that um Miss Hardy you have something to add yeah thank you mayor members of the council um and just to kind of build on on where you're going with that um I think one of the things that's changed from our from our last conversation about kind of controlling that site right so um whether that's through gating it or Staffing it or um having some other cameras on site one of the things that has changed since our last conversation has been that we made uh a decision to convert the old Public Works facility parking lot into public parking um and so that really took off the table um the gating um that would have been a very easy thing for us to do and I think would have solved a lot of problems although you'd still have some of the Staffing things of when do you lock the gate when do you all those things um we do have cameras on site now that are working um and um so we're we are able to see that there are most certainly contract vehicles that are dumping things on that site should we Implement some kind of a fine that is actually something that we are talking with the Sheriff's Office on it would be difficult for us to do that through our city ordinance codes because our City attorney would tell you that that's an administrative citation and as a plan B City we don't have explicit authority to do that but if we're looking under kind of the the statutes that um law enforcement uses there may be some options for us to do that but we would have to partner with the sheriff's office um to do that so that is an option that we're looking at another option to consider would be to go going back to limited weekends or um finding a way to use temporary or seasonal staff to help um with the the um you could have somebody check driver's license utility bills that thing so um you would have the site open but without being able to gate it um You probably would still have some challenges in previous years we've also used volunteer groups um but that was not for um a longterm where it's open just throughout the entire season um we when we had spe specific spefic weekends we did have some groups of individuals uh that the service was important to them they wanted to do their part and volunteer so it could stay and then we also had the Boy Scout Troops um help with that um but I think that would be unduly burdensome if we were going to say we needed that every day for an entire season so there are some things I don't think there's a silver bullet for us in terms of a magical answer I think it's going to continue to be a challenge no matter what we decide if we decide to keep keep that open C member Roberts please do we or are we able to talk to our different neighborhoods and find out how many of them have compost pickup versus don't I'd Cur be curious to know the percentage of the city that already has compost right like and I get you know my neighborhood has compost pickup as part of our HOA um but you know with again with the storm people still even though we had compost pickup you had too much so you had to bring it to the site I'd be curious to know like what the because it it feels a little bit of like um the hes and the have knots right like the maybe you know certain neighborhoods have the not using it but people who really need it if we take it away from them um it's going to be a burden on them um and then my other point so there there was a time where there was some discussion a few years ago right we had interest in uh someone buying this site so did we have a plan was it just we're not going to have a compost site or did we have a plan for a SE different location and I'm just curious would that location be more secure and able to um watch it better I guess yeah Miss Hardy please thank you mayor members of the council excellent questions um so I'll I'll start with the question that you just asked um our plan had been to relocate to our current Public Works facility so the challenge with doing that is access in andout so during the day we have big vehicles um we're and on weekends and then with um let's say a storm event we're worried about stacking so there are certainly some things that we need to do um in terms of circulation on the site and making sure that people um and in the public and our employees can safely um get in and out of the site itself um so behind our site our current site um where the building is there's a little bit of a ridge and then there's uh several Acres back there uh the idea had been to um look at um relocating the site over onto that area um but it would need grading um circulation improvements and so we never got to the step of actually budgeting for that um but that could certainly be something that we look into in the future um because yes there had been people who were interested in either leasing or purchasing the old Public Works facility from us and so it is possible that you all might make a decision now um with the fire station new build and with the fire station operations moving into the new Fire Station the cold storage a lot of what's being stored on that site could be in with our current Public Works facility and um what the current fires is so that would give you more flexibility to make decisions long term about the the use of that site including that building and would force the decision to relocate I feel like there's a couple of things here I that I think makes sense I think we do want to monitor the cameras and find out if there are some kind of enforcement that we can partner with on either uh our community service officer or the sheriff's department um we and we want to enforce that we want to make sure that the people who are dumping that shouldn't be dumping stop it um I because we have so much use on this and it's it's apparent here that this thing is being used um I I don't think I am in favor of closing this down personally right now I I would say let's let's budget for it um I think the stormm event that we had obviously increased the use of this and pushed pushed up that 60% increase in the cost but I also think let's take a look at our neighbors what are they doing how are they managing it and at one point in time I feel like we were ready to enter into a partnership with the Arboretum to do some of this compost work is that something thing I know we have a new director at the arbor edum I don't know if that's something we can revisit at this point in time to see if there's opportunity to have folks be able to take their yard waste over to their composting site they have a very large composting site um you access it from 82nd Street um and it's secure and it's secure and and they they actually use the compost um we we're just pushing it around and getting it out of here so they actually use it at the arbory Freedom so I think there might be some opportunity there to um for the greater good um neighborhood killed that council member Gunderson what when we had that conversation and commissioner maluchnik before commissioner udman uh when they were going to move it there squash that idea um Applewood neighborhood threw a threw up some complaints about smell and traffic and everything when both not only the county uh but also we were in a move over there with the county so that all went away with the Arboretum when we were going to go there so I would assume we would have the same roadblocks with that same Applewood neighborhood that we had last time which is on the other side of the street in Victoria from the compost site um so that that's how long ago was that do you remember that was so I mean we're not talking like 10 20 years ago we're talking recent um my opinion this is going to be money suck until uh we close it down um contractors are going to grow NE we could D we we have to double it now I mean we would we do $40,000 last year we did 30 do you know what this I believe it was 30 okay so we're we're almost $50,000 so if we account for another growth we're at $65,000 in this year's budget um for a compost site that marginally I mean I will tell you my neighborhood barely uses it we we pay our own we have Southwest come and pick up our leaves we and all of our yard Wass I don't take the time to haul it down to the site my neighbors don't we have so many leaves we 300 bags in a weekend between four houses so we don't use it at all come on a Monday and and see what the we what a weekend looks like like we're on our last round of of composting and we don't use this site at all so if we do start using this that Inc that that number will get will grow if I got rid of Southwest I picked up Southwest when we when we canel it the first time because it was a money suck then and then we only did $155,000 we're not even 10 years we're not even eight years down the road and we're $50,000 more we're we haven't grown that much neighborhoods haven't aged that much at all I can tell you right now that next year you're going to be looking at more money if there's no way to control it unless you have somebody there 247 monitoring an open site which will cost us $100,000 in staff so this is a money suck to no end until we figure something out how to either close it and open it out just on a weekend or close it outright and just say go to whomever your compost provider is with your with your garbage that I mean those are the options I mean and that's the reality and I said almost that word for word last year at this exact time when I saw the dollar amount that we were going to spend this year and now 60% more than that that it's not acceptable it's it's something that just isn't it just isn't there's nowhere else in the budget if any of our other staff or the city manager came and said we were 60% over because of whatever reason we would not accept that and this is no different and the only thing people are doing and from what I understand that's not from the storm that happens every weekend every Monday they show up and it looks like that that's not just a storm that's every weekend there's nowhere else in the budget will we say if we're 60% over we would accept that nowhere and I can tell you right now that if I said let's increase Parks and Rec 60% you'd all laugh this is one piece of that and there's nowhere else in the budget we have 60% increase and we and we we're writing this off as some public good it's costing taxpayers 60% more year-over-year where would we accept that where else in the budget would we accept that I mean either way they're going to pay for it though so they're paying for their own or paying money here you're right like and we're also again it's the halves and Hales not there's people who can't afford to pay for right like we do have areas that are but it's $112 a year I mean you they may see the offsetting if we got rid of it and I I think some people use they pay for it I'm southwest you know at at your home and then they use this for the cleanup overflow at the end of a season or something like that so I I'll look at our C Tock we all pay for yard waste and we all use the facility at some point so I think you get a little bit of that um and there's missing parts of the equation again we don't know of that total spend how much of it is our own city of Victoria using it and it's showing up in a bu a line item there and it's it's not necessarily part of the Public Works budget there's agree that there's going to be misuse and maybe there's some um some techniques that we can explore and use I know that there are other communities that have brush sites yard way sites they're gated and there's a form that you have to go to City Hall pull it off of a little thing open it up fill out your name and then bring it with you to the site so that it's available for inspection if a staff member is there so that now that's not going to be 100% of the time but it it's it's an active deter to say put up a sign you need to fill out your yard waste use sign with your name your address your you know your driver's license number and if somebody comes up to you a public works employee says do you have the form no I don't are you a resident no I'm not you don't belong here those kind of deterr now granted those the the model that I'm talking about also has a gate it it closes it's open during daylight hours and it closes at night to keep people from running in there after hours and and dumping things from you know uh you like a a you know a yard cleanup contractor who's saying you know I can just use the city of Victoria's site and not bring it to my own site um I think there's a couple of things I think there's several things that we can check on and one of those being best practices from other communities and um this this problem is going to go away when this when we move our Cold Storage out of here because we will do something different with this site um it will become something different and um I I'd like to revisit the Arboretum thing and see if that is an opportunity for folks who want to do their own yard work recycle their own compost and that's right down the road that's within three miles of us here so and there there may be another part of the Arboretum that becomes more accessible when the County Road 18 project is done yes very true that could alleviate the I feel like I feel like this is something that's going to resolve itself in a couple of years um this will no longer be an appropriate site for for dumping and you know if to your point council member evansky if we as the the city of Victoria had to figure out how to get rid of our yard waste and trees and compost and all of that stuff that would be a line item added to our our budget as well so so while I understand council member gunderson's concern over a 60% increase I think um I I I I really do feel like that was a little bit of a um anomaly for the year and we should explore um enforcement of not letting others dump other ideas that you'd like staff to explore I know we did take a look at um that several years ago we did take a look in all the trash haulers that service the city of Victoria also have compost available so that is another option for our residents as well any other last thoughts on this before we move ons all right Trish please okay so um we are going to continue to keep our Levy projections the same as the max tax right now um which is the 12.47% until after the Open Enrollment um and then we will re-evaluate where we're at um budget wise um because we can we all always have that ability to lower the levy um before that final certification on December 9th um so right now again the proposed Levy increase um would be a 1.94% increase in the tax rate um proposed final Levy of 9 million um this chart just shows the breakdown of our our Levy and the portions of the levy that are driving the overall increase of the 12.47% the operating expenditures have a minimal increase of 1 4% as previously discussed um the city has many streets needs um including the 5 a half million in overlay projects um which um shows here to be our largest stress on the levy the facility CIP has a couple of um projects planned um over the next year and an increase in revenue is primarily due to the increase in the number of budgeted new new home permits and an increase to the fund balance is necessary to align with our fund balance policy of at least 30% of the following Year's operating expenditures so staff is asking for feedback on the five-year CIP and Enterprise fund budgets um for the rec center water sewer and storm water and also feedback on the proposed general fund budget and Levy very good thank you Trish thank you so much okay Council uh we kind of picked up discussion as we went along but any last thoughts questions comments what was the um Improvement I think it was for resurfacing the gyms and then the floor the gym resurfacing and then the um carpeting in like the lobby area in the um what we call the used to call the daycare room they have another name for it now but that the Blue Room multi-purpose because we already did like the office some of the office furniture and and the painting and Furniture yeah we did that this year got it okay thank you yeah also any other questions comments I just you know I I think the culmination of our discussions is that we're I feel like we're aligned in an agreement with where staff has made recommendations for us to take things into consideration it it feels to me like we um we're on the right track and we have a good process to go forward with yes all right any final comments questions otherwise there are no further items for our Workshop this evening so I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn we have a motion can I get a second second all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion carries We Stand adjourned we will reconvene our