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July 28th, 2026 St. Anthony Council Work Session - 2 <br />Councilmember Doolan asked if the 130,000 dollars allotted for the Comp Plan was the RFP for <br />the vendor. Finance Director Maloney stated that they do not have an RFP yet; the cost in the <br />brief is based on previous costs adjusted for inflation. Councilmember Doolan asked if possible <br />grants were included in this estimate. Finance Director Maloney confirmed no grants were <br />included in these estimates. <br />Mayor Webster reported that the preliminary levy, which accounts for the items that Finance <br />Director Maloney discussed earlier, will put the levy at 6.85 percent. She noted that there are <br />also three options to increase the levy up to as high as 7.4 percent. <br />Finance Director Maloney stated that the first option reflects incentives that the police force can <br />utilize, including recruitment incentives. She highlighted that the St. Anthony portion of these <br />incentives would be 17,400 dollars, and that many other cities use these kinds of incentives. <br />Mayor Webster recalled that there were two levels of recruitment incentives, one for police <br />officers looking to move from a different city, and one set of incentives for retaining current St. <br />Anthony police staff. Finance Director Maloney clarified that the proposed incentives will not <br />include current staff retention. Mayor Webster stated that she felt that the recruitment incentives <br />had been successful in the past. <br />City Manager Yunker informed Mayor Webster that these incentives had been mostly <br />successful, and that the Cadet Program was also quite successful. He noted that the police have <br />still not reached the staffing levels necessary for St. Anthony and their contract cities. <br />Councilmember Doolan asked if the cadet program is independently funded from another area <br />of the budget and asked if it will continue. City Manager Yunker stated that the police <br />department hopes to continue the program even when fully staffed. <br />Mayor Webster highlighted that the Cadet Program will be beneficial as current officers begin to <br />retire. <br />Councilmember Jenson asked how many sworn officers St. Anthony currently has. City <br />Manager Yunker reported there are currently 26 officers. Councilmember Jenson expressed that <br />the incentives could be important for recruiting the remaining four officers needed by the City. <br />City Manager Yunker reminded the Council that St. Anthony is always competing with other <br />cities for police recruitment, and many of those departments offer incentives. <br />Assistant City Manager Morello reminded the Council that they had previously discussed having <br />a separate line item for sustainability initiatives, which the second levy option explores. She <br />stated that Staff understands their discussion to mean that there was interest in exploring this <br />option and its costs, while attempting to use the funds for community-based programming, grant <br />matching, and more. She highlighted that in 2027, St. Anthony will acquire a Green Corps <br />member, so there will be additional capacity to provide this programming. <br />Mayor Webster reflected on the prior discussion of the separate line item for sustainability <br />initiatives, and reminded the Council that they estimated these initiatives costing around 20,000 <br />dollars. <br />Councilmember Jenson recalled the Council expressing interest in a small investment into <br />sustainability efforts, but nothing large, as they can be very expensive. He expressed that he <br />was in favor of the second option due to the in-depth discussion and favorable tone from the <br />majority of the Council to provide funding for these efforts. <br />4