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Mounds View City Council December 43, 2024 Regular Meeting Page 9 1 City Administrator Zikmund requested the Council introduce an Ordinance that would amend 2 Chapter 7 regarding Levy Limits. He explained out of the 785 cities in Minnesota, 102 have a 3 charter, noting only two have a levy provision within the Charter. He indicated the City of 4 Mounds View has the most restrictive Charter in the State of Minnesota. He commented in 5 January of 2021, the Charter Commission began reviewing Chapter 7 and spent the majority of 6 the year addressing this task. He noted in September, the Charter Commission made a 7 recommendation of a Resolution that would amend Chapter 7 that eases the levy cap on a 6-3 8 vote. It was noted Mounds View was in the lower 10% when considering the per capita levy. He 9 indicated the levy cap was suppressing the City's ability to levy and hire additional staff. 10 11 City Attorney Riggs then commented on the process that would have to be followed in order to 12 amend the City Charter per State Statute. He indicated this provision allows the Council to adopt 13 an Ordinance to amend the Charter noting a public hearing would have to be held. He reported 14 the vote to approve the Ordinance would have to be unanimous (5-0). 15 16 Russ Warren, 8044 Greenwood Drive, explained he was the Chair of the Charter Commission. 17 He offered for collective consideration, the work product from the Charter Commission. He 18 commented further on the joint conversations he had with the City Council regarding the levy 19 cap noting he understood this was the most important issue. He discussed how the current levy 20 limits were not keeping up with CPI and the City's expenditures. He reviewed the proposed 21 language change noting the City could now have a levy increase of up to 6.5%. He explained the 22 Charter Commission recommends approval of this new language. 23 24 Mayor Mueller opened the public hearing at 8:13 p.m. 25 26 Valerie Amundsen, 3048 Woodale Drive, discussed how the proposed language would impact 27 Mounds View taxpayers. She encouraged the Council to let the residents vote on this issue. She 28 commented on the taxes being paid by residents from Mounds View, North Oaks, Arden Hills, 29 Shoreview and New Brighton for a $345,000 valued home. She noted Mounds View was paying 30 the highest amount when compared to each City. She discussed how this amount would surge 31 over the next five years if the language change were approved. She understood this was a 32 complicated issue, but feared if the language amendment were approved, residents would not 33 want to move into Mounds View due to high taxes. 34 35 Brian Amundsen, 3048 Woodale Drive, stated this Ordinance cannot and should not be acted on 36 this evening. He reported the Ordinance cannot be acted on this evening because it was being 37 introduced this evening. He explained the City's Charter requires Ordinances to be introduced 38 and then 14 days prior to action being taken. He indicated the Ordinance should not be acted on 39 because it was a Council proposal and did not originate with the Charter Commission. Rather the 40 matter originated from the Council and the Charter Commission Chair brought this matter to the 41 Commission in January. He stated at a joint meeting in June the Council and Charter 42 Commission rejected the three amendments suggested by the Charter Commission and instead 43 supported Fridley's charter language. He commented since July staff has worked with the 44 Council to draft language and this language was presented to the Charter Commission by the City 45 Attorney. He noted all of these proposals for this amendment were driven by the City Council.