09-23-2020 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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WORKSHOP MINUTES CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 2021 PRELIMINARY BUDGET DISCUSSION The Finance Director explained that tonight staff and Council will continue the 2021 budget discussion from the last workshop. She explained the taxable market changes and how that will affect property taxes. The City Administrator reviewed the budget addition of contracting with Ramsey County to run elections for the city. He stated that the City Clerk has taken on more human resource duties and he is also proposing to reclassify the Clerk position into a City Clerk/Human Resources Manager and it would be more feasible if the election duties were passed to the county. The Community Development Director reviewed the budget addition for a zoning code update. She stated it would involve eliminating outdated terms and regulations and provide better organizational structure. She stated she would lead the project along with Bill Weber, Weber Community Planning. The City Administrator stated staff is proposing to use fiend balance to pay for this one-time cost of $22,500. Fischer suggested also using capital improvement funds. The City Administrator stated that staff is also proposing to budget $25,000 to put towards a rate study for adding a stormwater fee to fund proactive stormwater maintenance. He noted that Little Canada is one of the only cities who does not collect a storin water utility fee. He explained that the MS4 Permit fee is anticipated to increase substantially which will need a revenue source to pay for. He noted that there are other storm water projects needed, but there is no specific source of fiinds to pay for these. Torkelson stated that he feels all three of these additional budget items are priorities. Montour asked what the levy percent would go to if all three of the additional items are included. The Finance Director explained that the fiend balance is proposed to be used for the zoning code update and rate study since they are one-time costs, and the levy would increase from 2.68% to 3.48% if the election contract is added. Torkelson stated that he did not see anything budgeted to review the police services contract costs. McGraw stated that he would like to understand the formulas used by the Sheriff s Department to determine the costs that each city is charged. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:29 p.m. John T. Veis, Mayor Attest: Christopher Heineman, sty Administrator 3