Budget Committee October 27, 2025   10/27/2025

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:17
    Good morning.
  • 00:00:17
    My name is Aisha Chugtai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:00:21
    I'm going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Monday, October 27, 2025.
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    Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.
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    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
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    Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.
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    We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.
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    At this time, I will ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:01:03
    Councilmember Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:01:05
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:01:06
    Wonsley is absent.
  • 00:01:08
    Rainville.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:01:09
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:01:10
    Beta.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:01:10
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:01:11
    Allison is absent, Osman is absent, Cashman present Jenkins is absent, Chavez present Chaudry is absent, Palmisano present, Vice Chair Koski present
  • 00:01:29
    Chair Choctaw?
  • 00:01:30
    Present.
  • 00:01:30
    That is eight members present.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:32
    Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.
  • 00:01:34
    I will also remind my colleagues that we will be using speaker management today, so please make sure to sign in.
  • 00:01:43
    Today we have two presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2026 budget from the Climate Legacy Initiative and the Capital Budget.
  • 00:01:52
    I will first invite Deputy Health Commissioner Patrick Hanlon to begin the Climate Legacy Initiative presentation.
  • 00:02:01
    Welcome, sir.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:02:04
    Chair Chugtai, Council members, Patrick Hanlon, Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability, Healthy Homes and Environment in the Health Department.
  • 00:02:11
    Today I'll be going over our Climate Legacy Initiative 2026 recommended budget.
  • 00:02:17
    As a reminder, the Climate Legacy Initiative is a major investment that was created by the mayor, passed by council as a first step of the city's climate equity plan.
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    The Climate Legacy Initiative is funded through a portion of the franchise fee.
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    The franchise fee is a local city-based tool that's been used to address climate change, and it's part of a community-led approach that came out of a series of city-based alternatives to the municipalization of gas and electric utilities.
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    We have other items like the Clean Energy Partnership and other ways that we work with our utilities, but this is one of the tools that came out of some of those conversations.
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    These are the partners when I go through this whole list.
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    This is a team effort by community members, community organizations, city enterprise staff, and there's probably two main partners not on here that are some of the most progressive utilities in the country with both Excel and Centerpoint that are key partners in this work.
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    The 2026 recommended Climate Legacy Initiative budget.
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    These are estimated allocations based on the mayor's recommended budget.
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    The allocation to the program area overall.
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    We had tough cuts, as you all know, across the enterprise.
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    For the most part, the Climate Legacy Initiative, the buckets of funding that are laid out on the right hand side there have remained constant from 2025.
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    The allocations reflect our emphasis, the continued emphasis on equity, savings for residents, so making sure that whatever projects that we're doing people get savings, financial savings, savings for small businesses, greenhouse gas reductions of course, climate sequestration and innovation.
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    The franchise fee funding supports on the right hand side we had 8.4 million dollars of climate programming and greenhouse gas programming that was additionally funded by PCAR, Pollution Control, annual registration fees that got us back to close to that 10 million dollars we had because of the temperate weather conditions last year we had some less funding that came into the franchise fee than expected but we are in that 10 million dollar range
  • 00:04:25
    52% of the overall funding has gone to distressed communities, so that is south side green zones, north side green zones, any income qualified program, properties that qualify for those programs, and then non-profits that serve people in low income situations.
  • 00:04:40
    The main buckets of the climate legacy initiative are weatherization, deep greenhouse gas reduction in workforce, urban forestry, policy and coordination, outreach, charging infrastructure with our public works department, the administration that is the base programming to support a lot of this work, carbon sequestration, homegrown circular economy, and then zero waste initiatives.
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    I want to put this on here just as a reminder of our franchise fee, the franchise fee that was increased to support this work.
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    This is an example in the residential category in that middle is the franchise fee that was used to the average impact on the average homeowner.
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    that was used to fund a lot of this work.
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    On the right-hand side is the estimated savings that come out of a lot of our greenhouse gas, sorry, our weatherization programming for residential properties.
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    And then on the left-hand side is the utility costs, the average utility costs that these homeowners face.
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    And that red increase was a 2022 rate increase.
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    There are two rate increases that are going on right now with both utilities.
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    I believe the Excel energy rate is up around $160 on the average homeowner and so I just want to lay that out and there are nuances to that that is part of getting to a carbon-free future as well as some of the increases that they have but also AI and data center increases and costs of utility costs that are being placed on utility ratepayers.
  • 00:06:20
    The first category I mentioned was weatherization and deep greenhouse gas reductions.
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    This is the single biggest use of the climate legacy initiative funding.
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    It predominantly goes towards weatherization and getting out to residential folks in residential areas.
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    There is also money for small businesses industrial large greenhouse gas reduction projects across the city.
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    The main metrics of success that we have in this category are
  • 00:06:45
    We've had
  • 00:07:03
    There's a tremendous increase in the number of properties that we've been able to get to because of the climate legacy initiative funding and on the right hand side in the upper right hand corner is the recommended 2026 recommended budget in that all of these categories combined
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    This is the residential focus.
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    I just want to point out where a lot of this funding goes.
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    If I were to take this map and take all of the program funding that goes back to 2013, we set this program up from the beginning to be very intentionally investing in the north side green zone, south side green zone.
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    and Inequity.
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    So this map looks very similar if I were to lay out a lot of our data.
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    On the right hand side is if we're including multifamily, the left hand side is residential only.
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    And the investments look similar as most of the investments going into North Minneapolis
  • 00:07:56
    and into South Minneapolis with programming that is available across the city and that's intentionally how we tried to create the program is that more of the funding goes into these communities but it is still a resource that is available across the city and I just want to point out that the Northside Green Zone that we were looking at this data this week is 3.3% of parcels in the city
  • 00:08:21
    and they receive about 9.8% of properties are in the Northside Green Zones and then about 15% of the funding.
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    So they outperform the number of properties, even if you look specifically at the Northside Green Zones, our programs are getting into and addressing equity and how we get the money out into community.
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    The next category is workforce.
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    When we talk about hitting some of these big numbers that we need to hit to reach our climate equity plan goals, our greenhouse gas reduction goals, we need to have the workforce to be able to do that work.
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    And so CPED is leading the charge on this with
  • 00:09:02
    with their programming connecting young adults.
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    I should have taken out young adults.
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    It's adults to accredited training and workforce opportunities in green fields.
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    And then the Health Department plays a supportive role in exposing youth and young adults to programs in green careers so that they're even aware of the opportunities that are out there.
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    So in solar energy efficiency and even traditional fields like HVAC and how that can play a role in energy savings.
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    So the key business lines are CPED with the Green Workforce, Health Department, and Green Career Exposure.
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    These are the metrics of success looking at, they've trained 206 folks this year.
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    31 people have participated in the Green Career Pathway, so that's getting into more, into the career fields.
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    And then the number of people actually placed into work is 29.
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    And those numbers may seem low, but those are actually consistent with a lot of workforce numbers, and that's getting people who
  • 00:09:58
    We're either underemployed or unemployed into these fields.
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    It's a lot of success in just the second year of that program in getting people trained.
  • 00:10:08
    The next area is urban forestry, obviously to plant more trees.
  • 00:10:12
    I don't think that we've come up with a technology or an innovation that matches trees and all the benefits that it brings to our community in terms of air quality, aesthetics, energy efficiency, carbon sequestration, especially on the fight on climate change like we're talking about here today.
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    There are three main lines of service.
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    The urban forestry program, sorry, that is the city tree sales program.
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    that is the residential giveaway that I think all of you are aware of in your communities and getting awareness out for folks to go pick up their trees.
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    Commercial canopy, so that is us going out to areas where we know we need more canopy in the city and doing plantings on those commercial sites.
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    And then green zones planting is being really intentional about going to the green zones and doing plantings with folks in the community.
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    Metrics of success, in that program we've planted over 5,000 trees with the tree sale program.
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    Commercial Canopy about 462 and the Green Zones 391 trees.
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    I think there's a lot of work that we need in this space in terms of Green Zones planting and that is an area that that group continues to focus on is to get the word out in the Green Zones and to get planting out into the Green Zones.
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    And again on the upper right hand corner is the recommended budget in each of these categories.
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    This is the policy, next category that I'll go into is policy outreach and community awareness.
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    This is making folks aware of all of the resources that are out there and that are available to them.
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    It brings in marketing dollars, which is really unique to have in government programming, be able to get the word out to people and so that they're aware of what's available to them.
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    We focus, we have intentional relationships.
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    I'm going to just keep repeating Northside, Southside, Green Zones and having intentional relationships in those communities and making sure that we're getting people out there and building relationships with people to make sure that they're aware as well.
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    So it's not just the marketing where people are seeing that but that they're having relationships.
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    We have seven neighborhood organizations that we work with.
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    to ensure we have those close community connections as well, and those are mostly, again, in the north side, south side, and green zones.
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    And then we use Meter Marketing, which is an organization that is a company that is used across the enterprise here, and so we're able to have consistent marketing.
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    We have an establishment of a dashboard through COSL, which will be coming soon, so that will put some of this information, some of these metrics in your hands, so that you can, in the community's hands, so that they can see how their money is being used.
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    And then we have groups like the Climate Legacy Roundtable that is a group that is helping to advise, especially around equity, on how we can make these programs easier to use and better for people that are in low-income situations.
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    metrics of
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    The programming through Public Works is absolutely amazing in terms of the impacts on greenhouse gas reduction.
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    They have EV charging, EV car sharing led through Public Works.
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    There's been a number of programs that Public Works has been involved with around planning through Bloomberg Philanthropies.
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    They've gotten money from the Department of Energy.
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    and some regional grants as well that has really bolstered this program and is really returning a lot of impressive results in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, not only greenhouse gas reductions but dollars saved.
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    So if you look down at the bottom
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    Over 250,000 EV car share trips, 70,000 public EV charging hours, and over $2 million in emission-free miles driven, and $22 million saved for people.
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    And that's one of the things that we do with both our green car share program, this program is we really track the dollars that are saved, and there's incredible amounts of money that is being saved by these programs as well.
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    Administration, this is not the most exciting part, but it is essential that we have the capacity to run these different programs.
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    Our contracts have quadrupled since the Climate Legacy Initiative inception.
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    This has given us the ability to scale and so that we've set up programs and that was the aim from the start is to build something that we can scale to really work on climate change at the scope of the problem.
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    So we have contract execution support, we've had enterprise support so we're starting to address climate change from an enterprise perspective with our director of climate equity action and we have project management so we can talk about those high level concepts with leadership and then drive them with our operations across the enterprise and get them into
  • 00:15:10
    services that are coming out of the city from an operational level.
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    We've had over, I mentioned over 200 contracts executed.
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    70% of our climate actually plan is now set into motion.
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    So we're actually tracking all the different aspects of our climate equity plan.
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    And we have interdepartmental core teams initiated so that city facilities working on decarbonization, residential decarbonization with folks like regulatory services with CPED.
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    Climate Legacy Initiative, funding flexibility, climate metrics, I mentioned some of those dashboards and then looking on the horizon at some of the potential like the network geothermal Carbon sequestration, this is another area if we're really going to hit our climate, our greenhouse gas reduction goals, we're going to have to have elements of carbon sequestration This is the only, our biochar program is the only carbon sequestration program in the city, one of the few in the country
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    and Biochar, just to repeat this, is taking wood waste, pyrolyzing it at 700 degrees Celsius and turning it into a beneficial amendment for soils.
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    When you pyrolyze the Biochar, you turn it into a carbon sequestration that sequesters carbon for over a thousand years.
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    And so there are key lines of key business lines in this area our production of the biochar Use of the biochar through urban farming stormwater roadside applications.
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    There are many beneficial uses we partner with the meadow walk and ensue community on this program and then carbon accounting is looking at the getting carbon credits for for biochar through either resale or retention to meet our own greenhouse gas targets and
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    and below are the metrics of success and if you want to go out and see that project over near Malcolm Yards that is under construction right now.
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    Homegrown circular economy, this is the smallest piece of the climate legacy initiative, but we believe that there's a lot of value in it, especially in the future.
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    There is almost 10% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the embodied energy around the food that we grow and the food that we consume.
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    and so this funding goes towards urban farming, food rescue, project grants.
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    These programs, these 14 community grants along with a lot of other work that the city is doing around food rescue and supporting fresh food in neighborhoods is incredibly important especially as we talk about programs like SNAP being cut and so having these kinds of support in the community is helpful and we see this as an area that is on the horizon for our greenhouse gas emissions and climate equity plan.
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    The last piece I'm going to go over is our zero waste programming.
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    So, zero waste funding was used to evaluate long term strategies to get to zero waste.
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    So we have, they're looking at five innovative waste grant projects that they're doing out in community.
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    A lot of this climate legacy initiative funding is funding that is going directly out into the community.
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    And this is another example of that.
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    They have used some of the funding to look at zero waste reduction planning as we talk about all of the issues that are going on with the HERC.
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    right now and how we can look at our waste diversion programs, recycling campaigns to make sure people are using those, and then getting those innovative waste grants out into the community.
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    Down below is the timeline on each of those different areas of evaluation, awareness campaigns, and then waste reduction grants.
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    And so those are all coming out at the end of this year.
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    These are the main numbers of success that we've had with the Climate Legacy Initiative Program so far.
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    Over 40,000 people reached, that is directly getting messaging out to folks.
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    Over 10,000 people have received direct assistance, so that's getting a tree, that's getting a weatherization grant.
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    and the City Council.
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    and I had to check this number a few times on the EPA calculator, but over 63 million miles driven by gas-powered cars.
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    That's the equivalent that we've taken away by all of these different programs and so we're getting into the space where we are operating at the scope of the climate problem.
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    We're not there yet.
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    Serving over 2,000 people in low-income situations and then I mentioned the dollars saved.
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    Those are real dollars.
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    The Public Works Department does a great job of accounting with the programs that they do.
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    In the Green Cost Share program, we count every single dollar of every single program of money that people will save.
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    And these are the estimated lifetime savings that people will get through the programs.
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    And in fact, if you wanted to take those bottom two lines of the $110 million through the EV car share and the $254 million in estimated project savings through the Green Cost Share work,
  • 00:20:19
    That is about the benefits that we're getting as a city through these programs.
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    So 364 million dollars over the lifetime of these projects that we've already done.
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    That's not counting the projects that we will be doing.
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    And again, this is the last slide, I just want to stress that this is an equity-focused program, so 54% of the spending is in distressed areas.
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    That's including our administration, so as we get more and more programming, that number will get higher and higher because a lot of our programs are up in the 59%, over 60% in terms of funding that gets out into addressing equity in the city.
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    And that is the conclusion of our budget update for the Climate Legacy Initiative and I will stand for questions if there are any.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:21:09
    Thank you for that presentation, Commissioner.
  • 00:21:13
    Colleagues, are there any questions or comments related to this presentation?
  • 00:21:18
    I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:21:25
    Thank you Madam Chair, thank you so much Deputy Commissioner.
  • 00:21:28
    Great work this year.
  • 00:21:31
    We had talked about this a little bit in the Climate and Infrastructure Committee last week and I believe I had asked for a follow up just on the energy savings that were achieved through the weatherization and retrofitting this year.
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    So I think that's a really important metric, maybe the most important metric to show to the community that these investments that we're making in our franchise fees are directly going towards lowering your energy bills.
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    and I thought it was especially impactful that you mentioned how AI and data centers are going to drive up the costs of energy for regular residential customers like ourselves and so it's even more important now that we're investing in clean energy systems in our homes so that we can keep those costs low.
  • 00:22:16
    And so I had asked that for a follow-up.
  • 00:22:19
    I'm not sure if you have any update on how you measure that.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:22:23
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Cashman, we'll be getting that memo back to you.
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    These presentations were actually scheduled on the same day on our last round and so we've been planning on getting you those results back prior to the next climate infrastructure meeting.
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    So we have those very close to being ready for you.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:22:41
    Great, thanks.
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    I just wanted to mention that in case anyone else had that question too and we have a plan to get that information.
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    I had one more question about urban forestry.
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    Do you know the cost difference in how much we buy the trees versus how much we sell them through our city trees?
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    It said another way, like how much is the city subsidizing in the tree sale?
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:23:01
    Yes, that's a good question.
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    And I used to have these numbers when I was more intimately involved with the program.
  • 00:23:08
    I think they're $25 for a tree, so that's the cost for a resident.
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    And then the trees are around $125, $150 for a tree if you were to go to like a Bachman's.
  • 00:23:21
    I may be off in those numbers slightly, but it's in that ballpark.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:23:25
    OK, that's helpful.
  • 00:23:26
    Thank you.
  • 00:23:27
    And then I just wanted to ask a little bit about zero waste programming and how the metrics of success will be measured for those programs that are going out.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:23:40
    I have Public Works folks behind me and I think they can probably speak to that question a little bit better.
  • 00:23:44
    Chair Chugtai, Councilmember Cashman, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:23:48
    Director, if you'll begin by introducing yourself.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:23:50
    Good afternoon, Director Chugtai and Council.
  • 00:23:53
    I'm Nick Carroll, Director of Solid Waste Recycling.
  • 00:23:57
    So you asked all the metrics could be measured.
  • 00:23:59
    Well, we've got the recycling campaign that we're putting on right now for we're gonna
  • 00:24:06
    We'll be able to gauge participation with that and that's going to steer us towards eventual mandatory recycling and that's I think one measurement there is level of engagement.
  • 00:24:16
    Two, we have the waste grants.
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    We'll meet with all of those those communities of five different groups at the end of the year to see how they produced and what they were able to show which we can bring back to council for results on that.
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    And then we also have the
  • 00:24:30
    the waste study fee going on right now, which we hope to use to start working toward commercial zero waste goals.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:24:39
    Okay, well more to come on that.
  • 00:24:41
    I know we have another presentation on some of our advancements towards our zero waste goals that will be heard in this week's Climate and Infrastructure Committee, so others who are interested in that can attend.
  • 00:24:54
    Thank you so much.
  • 00:24:55
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 00:24:56
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:24:57
    Next I will recognize Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:25:04
    Thank you Vice President Chuktai.
  • 00:25:07
    I know that when we originally launched the Climate Legacy Initiative, from my recollection, the theory of change was let's use our local capacity to try to scale up investment and try to capture some of the benefits in the federal dollars.
  • 00:25:25
    those federal dollars are probably not coming anytime soon and so I've been rethinking how we want to approach this and you know as I look at our budget we have 9.5 million dollars going directly into investing into some of those interventions and I've been trying to shift my thinking towards would it be better to use something like that for debt service for bonding so that we could actually do
  • 00:25:48
    Investments at a larger scale and be a bridge to a more sane federal government.
  • 00:25:54
    And I don't know if you have any opinion on that.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:25:58
    Chair Chuck Tai, Council President Payne, so the question is by taking the 9.5 million dollars and putting it into bonding?
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:26:09
    Use that to do debt service on bonding so we would issue municipal bonds to try to, you know, and I don't even know what our statutory limitations would be on this pathway, but the idea here is do
  • 00:26:23
    $100 million of investment using bonding and then having the 10 million dollars I'm not doing the math 100% accurate here But like the idea is use this to basically pay do the debt service on bonding and a higher degree of investment in climate action Rather than the direct use of these appropriations for the interventions Because I think we need to start scaling up a lot faster than at this pace, but that's not within a realistic
  • 00:26:51
    Council.
  • 00:27:08
    using the franchise fee-to-pay debt service for a larger investment on climate action.
  • 00:27:14
    If you have any thoughts on that.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:27:15
    Sure Chuck, Council President Payne.
  • 00:27:19
    We haven't looked at that possibility.
  • 00:27:21
    We'd be open to conversations around that.
  • 00:27:23
    I know that debt markets are tight right now in terms of development and I'm not aware of specific tools in that space.
  • 00:27:31
    And I do know that a lot of our goals were set with the climate equity plan Counting on an increase in federal funding and so now it's it feels much more like we're fighting this alone So these dollars have been incredibly important to be even to even do any of this work at a local level But we'd certainly be open to conversations with probably other folks in the enterprise to talk about what that may look like and if there are opportunities like that out there
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:27:56
    Yeah, let's let's start that conversation.
  • 00:27:58
    Obviously, it's not going to be something we resolve in this year's budget process, but I think it's a longer term vision that we should at least explore.
  • 00:28:07
    Sure.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:28:08
    Wonderful.
  • 00:28:08
    Thank you.
  • 00:28:09
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue.
  • 00:28:11
    Thank you very much for for this presentation.
  • 00:28:16
    I will ask the clerks to file this report and we will welcome our next presenter.
  • 00:28:25
    Thank you again.
  • 00:28:27
    Our next presentation is the capital budget.
  • 00:28:35
    I will invite Liam O'Brien from the Finance and Property Services Department to begin this presentation.
  • 00:28:41
    Welcome, Mr. O'Brien.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:28:47
    Good morning, Council Vice President Chuktai, Vice Chair Koski, and Council Members.
  • 00:28:52
    I'm Liam O'Brien, a Senior Budget Analyst with the Budget Division, and I'll be providing an overview of the capital budget.
  • 00:28:58
    I want to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to all the departments that contribute to the capital improvement plan and the year-round effort that goes into it.
  • 00:29:06
    Their collaboration and commitment are essential to making this process successful.
  • 00:29:15
    Today's presentation will start with an overview of how the capital improvement plan, which I will refer to throughout the presentation as the CIP, is developed and what role the capital long-range improvement committee referenced throughout this presentation as CLIC has in that process.
  • 00:29:31
    Then I'll summarize the mayor's recommended 2026 to 2031 CIP, focusing on 2026 funding and budgeted spending.
  • 00:29:39
    Following that, the Banking, Investments, and Debt Division will discuss the city's debt levels.
  • 00:29:44
    Finally, participating departments will present the details of their recommended capital requests.
  • 00:29:52
    The 2026 Mayor's Recommended Budget Book is now online and fully interactive.
  • 00:29:57
    Its capital section includes links and reports summarizing funding sources, budgeted spending, and a capital decision overview highlighting department requests, click recommendations, and the mayor's proposed 2026-2031 CIP.
  • 00:30:10
    The second link leads to the click webpage, where you can view this year's click report and the capital budget request forms submitted by departments in March.
  • 00:30:22
    The CIP is a six-year plan that's updated annually.
  • 00:30:26
    The City Council adopts the capital plan simultaneously with the operating budget, although appropriation is only adopted for the first year of the capital plan, which is 2026 for the current 2026-2031 CIP.
  • 00:30:39
    The CIP takes a year to develop and adopt.
  • 00:30:42
    From January to March, city staff prepared and submitted their capital budget requests.
  • 00:30:46
    Budget staff then reviewed the submissions and posted them online for public access and click review.
  • 00:30:52
    In April, city staff presented their capital requests to CLIC and answered questions over two full days of meetings.
  • 00:30:59
    From April to June, CLIC members had community listening sessions to assess the impacts of capital projects, rated budget requests using an established council-approved system, and created numerical rankings for each project.
  • 00:31:13
    These rankings were then balanced against available unrestricted funding to develop CLIC's recommended 2026 to 2031 CIP.
  • 00:31:21
    In July, CLIC presented its annual recommendations to the Mayor, informing the development of the revised 2026-2031 proposed CIP.
  • 00:31:30
    In August, CLIC presented to City Council and the Mayor released the 2026 budget and online budget book, outlining the recommended CIP we are presenting on today.
  • 00:31:47
    This graph shows prior adopted and current recommended capital budgets over the past 11 years.
  • 00:31:53
    You'll notice the 32% budget increase from 2025 to 2026.
  • 00:31:57
    Much of that comes from roughly $63 million in budgeted funding for the Nicollet Avenue Bridge and $37 million in additional enterprise bonds, which are paid through the city's utility fees.
  • 00:32:07
    These enterprise funds will repair and replace aging, sanitary, and stormwater sewer infrastructure.
  • 00:32:16
    The capital budget represents on average 16% of the city's total budget.
  • 00:32:20
    From 2025 to 2026, the capital budget grew 4% due to the higher project activity I mentioned in my last slide.
  • 00:32:28
    Despite this increase, careful financial planning allowed us to reduce the estimated 2026 bond redemption levy, the primary levy impacted by the capital budget, by $1 million.
  • 00:32:44
    The 2026 CIP is funded from several sources.
  • 00:32:48
    The largest is a mix of levy-funded and enterprise-funded debt, totaling $201 million, which represents a 25% increase from 2025, largely driven by expanded project planning, particularly in the sanitary and stormwater capital programs.
  • 00:33:03
    Other government funding, which includes state, county, and federal aid, as well as certain city revenues tied to capital work, doubled from 2025 to 2026, totaling $115 million in the 2026 capital budget.
  • 00:33:14
    This includes $58 million for the Nicollet Avenue over Minnehaha Bridge project, which was moved up in the capital plan to occur in 2026.
  • 00:33:22
    Finally, enterprise revenue from city services like water, stormwater, parking, and sanitary sewer contribute $20 million to the 2026 capital budget.
  • 00:33:35
    Expenses for the 2026 capital budget include construction costs which total 266 million and represent a 26% increase from 2025, a byproduct of higher project development in the upcoming year.
  • 00:33:48
    Design and project planning accounts for 71 million of the proposed budget which rose by just under half from 2025.
  • 00:33:53
    This cost is necessary for the direct design, planning, coordination, and oversight work needed to ensure capital projects are completed on time and meet city and community priorities.
  • 00:34:04
    General overhead totals $26 million, up 55% from 2025, representing the indirect administrative, management, and support costs required for the smooth progression of capital development and planning.
  • 00:34:20
    Thank you for your time.
  • 00:34:22
    I'll welcome up the Banking, Investments, and Debt Divisions Director Alan Hoppe and Senior Manager Dave Wheeler, who will provide an overview of the city's debt.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:34:39
    Good morning Budget Committee members.
  • 00:34:41
    I'm Dave Wheeler, Senior Manager for Banking, Investments, and Debt here along with Director Alan Hoppe to present briefly on the debt service components of the capital budget as well as a brief overview of the debt management for the city and how it relates to the capital budget.
  • 00:34:58
    To begin with, I'll just touch on some of the terms we use, our frequently issued debt types that you'll see us referencing.
  • 00:35:07
    First of all, our bond redemption levy.
  • 00:35:09
    This is the levy that's certified each year to pay debt service on principal and interest coming due in the next year.
  • 00:35:16
    This relates to our levy-funded debt.
  • 00:35:19
    That's property tax supported, general obligation bonds.
  • 00:35:22
    The city has two main types.
  • 00:35:24
    Our primary and largest outstanding debt type is levy funded debt that finances general infrastructure projects payable solely from property taxes.
  • 00:35:35
    This is formally referred to as net debt bonds.
  • 00:35:37
    You may still see that term from time to time, but we've shifted to terming it levy funded debt.
  • 00:35:43
    It's a little more clear, concise descriptor of this type of bond.
  • 00:35:47
    Second type, the city has some capital improvement plan bonds.
  • 00:35:51
    These are primarily city government public safety and public work building projects that finances.
  • 00:35:59
    These are included in approved CIPs and can be bonded for once that is approved.
  • 00:36:06
    The city also issues general obligation improvement bonds.
  • 00:36:09
    finance their secured by special assessments against benefited property, typically street work and reconstruction as well as some disease tree removal from park board.
  • 00:36:20
    And finally, general obligation utility bonds.
  • 00:36:23
    These are payable from user fees and revenues of the enterprise funds.
  • 00:36:30
    Our typical debt issuance cycle is a rather long process.
  • 00:36:35
    It begins with click as Liam just walked through that process.
  • 00:36:40
    From there, those projects ultimately go to Council in December for project appropriations and debt authorization.
  • 00:36:47
    This relates to the next year's capital program.
  • 00:36:51
    At that point we begin our work with project managers throughout various divisions and departments to identify the needs, project cash flow needs in the coming years for projects that are ready to bond.
  • 00:37:04
    From there we kind of home in on a bond issue size for the year and produce a resolution for BET ultimately to approve the sale of bonds.
  • 00:37:14
    Subsequent to that authorization to sell bonds we begin working on our preliminary offering documents
  • 00:37:19
    coordinate with bond rating agencies, S&P, Fitch and Moody's.
  • 00:37:23
    I notably have AAA ratings from all three agencies and we begin our work with bond council and municipal advisor on the appropriate timing structuring and sizing of the bonds.
  • 00:37:35
    At that point we bring the bonds to market taking bids from underwriters and award the sale to the lowest true interest cost of the city.
  • 00:37:45
    Once a sale is closed, the proceeds are placed in project construction funds used to pay the projects as they incur expenses.
  • 00:37:55
    This is a brief look at our 2025 debt issuance we sold in Q3.
  • 00:38:00
    On August 20th of this year, we issued 134 million dollars par at a 3.81 percent interest cost to the city.
  • 00:38:08
    Again, the main
  • 00:38:10
    Bond type was the capital infrastructure levy funded debt as well as a sizable portion for enterprise projects and then a small assessment portion.
  • 00:38:21
    Here's a look at the city's estimated debt capacity at the end of this year.
  • 00:38:25
    This includes the 2025 bonds.
  • 00:38:28
    The city has a statutory legal debt limit of almost 2.4 billion dollars.
  • 00:38:33
    We only have about 340 million dollars counting against that debt limit.
  • 00:38:38
    This is primarily just levy-funded debt that goes against this debt limit.
  • 00:38:43
    It's defined as a percentage of the taxable market value.
  • 00:38:48
    So we use about 14% and you'll notice that's right in line with the average for the large city issuers around the state.
  • 00:38:55
    They use kind of 12% is about the mean debt capacity usage.
  • 00:39:03
    And then this is our year-end debt balances by type and the year-over-year change from 2024.
  • 00:39:09
    Again, our main balance is in the property tax-supported debt and enterprise funds.
  • 00:39:17
    So we have some nominal increase from last year in aggregate.
  • 00:39:21
    Just note that the Convention Center does have a large payoff coming on refinancing from 2020.
  • 00:39:27
    Those monies are identified and set aside to make that payment.
  • 00:39:32
    So that issue will be retired this year.
  • 00:39:38
    And then looking at the more historical trend for the city going back 10 years Noted on the other slide the city's peak debt limit or peak debt outstanding was back in 20 2004 1.2 billion dollars, so we're down at about a hundred eight hundred fifty one million dollars at year end You'll see that's kind of been trending consistently about two point eight percent Growth year over year and our outstanding balance at the end of the year.
  • 00:40:04
    So a very consistent steady
  • 00:40:09
    debt outstanding and on an inflation adjusted basis, very low year over year growths.
  • 00:40:17
    And at this time, I'll turn it over to Director Alan Hoppe.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:40:25
    Good morning, committee members.
  • 00:40:27
    I'm Alan Hoppe, Director of Banking, Investments, and Debt for the city.
  • 00:40:34
    I have several slides I'm going to go through here.
  • 00:40:37
    So Dave Wheeler just kind of covered up to now, so to speak, and I'm flipping here now to the go forward.
  • 00:40:46
    So here you see what's in the proposed budget for 2026.
  • 00:40:49
    15 million of assessment or improvement bonds.
  • 00:40:55
    100 million of various purpose and about 100 million of enterprise projects.
  • 00:41:01
    Of this 214, once we go through that process that Dave discussed where we work with project managers and even though you've got all these authorizations, how much are you really ready to spend this year?
  • 00:41:20
    And
  • 00:41:21
    Ballpark number maybe we'll look at 160 million or something.
  • 00:41:26
    We won't know for sure Probably for about six eight months from now once we've gone Through these each of these projects with managers Project managers we asked them for a cash spend forecast and of course whatever we don't bond for this year will bond for in future years
  • 00:41:50
    This gives you a picture of what we're expecting for the 2026 debt service expense budget.
  • 00:41:57
    Most fair debt services
  • 00:42:01
    paid in December, December 1st usually.
  • 00:42:03
    That's the larger principal amounts.
  • 00:42:07
    Of course we pay interest a couple different times during the year based on the kind of bond issue that we've put out.
  • 00:42:16
    You can see the different categories where we have debt service.
  • 00:42:24
    So you have levy type debt, you have
  • 00:42:28
    Assessment debt funded by the assessments You have downtown assets funding some of these Projects or programs so quite a range of revenue streams to cover these various Capital funding tools
  • 00:42:52
    This is a lot of text for anyone that wants to get into the details or a little more insight on variable rate debt.
  • 00:43:03
    I'll summarize it as we have several percentage points of our debt.
  • 00:43:07
    in variable rate debt.
  • 00:43:11
    Variable rate debt is very volatile.
  • 00:43:13
    You can't predict what it's going to be next year versus the majority of the debt we sell is fixed rate debt.
  • 00:43:20
    On the other hand, historically, variable rate debt in the long term has
  • 00:43:27
    has been relatively cheap.
  • 00:43:28
    The problem with variable rate debt is if the rate goes up next year, did you set aside the money for that surprise?
  • 00:43:35
    And so that unpredictability gets most entities being conservative about how much variable rate debt they want to have on their books.
  • 00:43:44
    It's also a concern of the rating agencies so we can do it, but we want to think it through carefully before we do it.
  • 00:43:53
    Here's a picture of our annual debt redemption levy, and it includes a permanent improvement fund levy.
  • 00:44:04
    And so that, the first thing that jumps out of you is that big spike there.
  • 00:44:10
    for 2027, an increase even in 2026, and that has to do with the permanent improvement fund levy itself more than the traditional debt service levy, and that's the fund for the ERP system that you've heard about.
  • 00:44:29
    So I'll mention the permanent improvement fund
  • 00:44:33
    basically is current financing for your capital projects, whereas the debt, we're typically doing long-term funding.
  • 00:44:41
    And this chart basically brings together both of those concepts, current and long-term.
  • 00:44:49
    So we have
  • 00:44:54
    We have several different pieces of information here so the slide itself can be a little complicated but generally speaking you can look at the levy from 10 years back and see where it's gone over the last 10 years and
  • 00:45:14
    Generally speaking, you see in the very bottom footnote a growth rate of about 4.2%.
  • 00:45:21
    A lot of volatility in between, but generally speaking, in the neighborhood of inflation.
  • 00:45:29
    I want to thank you for the opportunity to present this information.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:45:49
    I will now welcome up Mary Altman from the Arts and Cultural Affairs Department Good morning, I'm Mary Altman, Public Arts Supervisor for the Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs I want to thank the Finance Department and particularly Liam O'Brien and the Capital Long Range Improvement Committee for all of their support during the last year as we've developed these budgets
  • 00:46:18
    So, the Art in Public Places program has been around since the mid-1980s and has been traditionally a part of the Capital Improvement Program.
  • 00:46:26
    It's guided by three types of artistic values and goals that are part of adopted city policy.
  • 00:46:33
    That includes artistic goals, stimulate excellence in urban design and public art, value artists and artistic processes, community-based goals, including enhanced community identity and place, and involve a broad range of people and communities,
  • 00:46:48
    and the resource goals or the practical goals which include contribute to community vitality and use resources wisely.
  • 00:46:56
    This map shows the 100 plus artworks that have been developed during the history of the Art in Public Places program as well as the 15 projects in progress and compares them to the areas of concentrated poverty.
  • 00:47:17
    So there's two public art projects in the Capital Improvement Program currently.
  • 00:47:23
    The first one is Art in Public Places, which is funded annually by ordinance at a minimum level of 1.5% of the net debt bond.
  • 00:47:32
    And the second one is a special one-time project over four years, and that is Upper Harbor Public Art.
  • 00:47:39
    We requested a special funding for Upper Harbor Public Art.
  • 00:47:42
    Traditionally, the city has funded separately outside of the public art
  • 00:47:47
    program, major capital investments, most recently including the new public service building and the renovation of Nicollet Mall.
  • 00:47:59
    And so this built a project in North Minneapolis that is consistent with the levels of funding that we've been putting in other projects.
  • 00:48:09
    I'm sharing, I should just go back, I'm sharing today images of the High Lake mural which is going to be dedicated on November 8th.
  • 00:48:17
    Typically I show a whole bunch of different artworks but I'm focusing on one today so that you can just learn more in depth about one work in particular.
  • 00:48:26
    and this was designed and developed by four artists, Pablo Calaca, Diani Bianchini, Natchez Bolio and Greta MacLean and it's under the High Lake Bridge.
  • 00:48:39
    It's a 6,200 square foot mural that also contains mosaic, largest painted and mosaic mural in the city.
  • 00:48:49
    So Art in Public Places, as I've said, is typically funded through 1.5% of the net debt bond.
  • 00:48:55
    The purpose is to contribute to the livability and vibrancy of public places, build pride in community and cultural identity, and create opportunities for artists to earn a livelihood.
  • 00:49:07
    The Public Art Advisory Panel selects approximately three new projects every year and we also fund through this program the major conservation of artworks that are in our collection and so typically it funds two to three major conservation projects every year
  • 00:49:27
    The fiscal savings varies for each project depending on who our partners are and also what neighborhoods we're working with.
  • 00:49:36
    For High Lake we were collaborating with the Minnesota Department of Transportation as they own the wall and MnDOT has contributed to the installation of new mural lights as well as the re-tuck point in all of the walls under the bridge.
  • 00:49:56
    And the location of art in public places is citywide and I just wanted to share on this slide We're actually doing two projects here We're doing the new mural, but we're also restoring lights by Seitu Jones that were installed in 2007 these were lights were significantly damaged in 2020 during the unrest on Lake Street and
  • 00:50:22
    and they were damaged in part by MnDOT crews who had taken over graffiti removal for public works during that time to relieve them for other things that they had to do.
  • 00:50:33
    Also we had some damage from campfires under the bridge.
  • 00:50:37
    and just overall from other kinds of vandalism and so over the last year those 16 lights by Seitu have been reinstalled.
  • 00:50:45
    His vision was to have a mural at this location in conjunction with those lights and so he has been collaborating with the artists on the development of the mural as well.
  • 00:50:55
    Just to highlight community engagement, the community engagement plan for every public art project is unique.
  • 00:51:03
    It's based on the neighborhoods and communities that we're working in and their needs and the partners we're working with.
  • 00:51:09
    As you know, this is an extremely complicated site at High Lake.
  • 00:51:13
    It's a block and a half from the
  • 00:51:15
    former Third Precinct and this community has been engaged a lot by the city and other bodies since 2020 on their vision for the future of the city and so we told the artists we needed very in-depth engagement because that's the expectation in this area right now but we also told them it needed to be unique
  • 00:51:35
    and fun engagement because people are a little tired of being engaged about their vision for this area of the city.
  • 00:51:42
    And so the engagement included dozens of activities including nine residencies and local schools and also mosaic making workshops in the community.
  • 00:51:56
    In terms of Upper Harbor public art, the vision for this project is actually based on another project by Seitu Jones which was done when Heritage Park was developed.
  • 00:52:10
    Seitu was brought in early on.
  • 00:52:12
    as Heritage Park was kind of a blank canvas in those days, just like Upper Harbor is sort of a blank canvas in terms of the infrastructure.
  • 00:52:20
    And he developed a series of 16 artworks, small-scale artworks to help kind of create an identity for the new Heritage Park development.
  • 00:52:29
    We envision the similar thing happening for Upper Harbor.
  • 00:52:34
    We've just asked for one-time funding over four years.
  • 00:52:38
    This will support four to five projects.
  • 00:52:41
    And juxtaposition was hired by both Public Works and the Park Board during the planning for their Projects within Upper Harbor and they developed a public park Public art plan and came up with a variety of themes that will be a basis for our work The total funding that we're requesting is part for this is 1.55 million dollars And I will stand for questions
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:53:14
    All right, thank you.
  • 00:53:15
    I see, hold on a second, I want to make sure I'm reading the, getting the right, yeah, okay, I just want to make, Council Member Cashman.
  • 00:53:25
    Thank you, Vice Chair Koski.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:53:27
    I had a question for you, I can't remember your name.
  • 00:53:31
    This is from an earlier slide.
  • 00:53:35
    It was about the slide number seven.
  • 00:53:39
    that says that 2% of capital improvement plan for 2026 will be funded through the value capture source.
  • 00:53:46
    And I was wondering if you could share what the capital projects are that are planned to be funded from that value capture source which is levied on the housing in downtown Minneapolis.
  • 00:54:02
    This slide's seven.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:54:06
    Is that Liam?
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:54:08
    Yeah, I believe so.
  • 00:54:10
    It was in the first set of slides.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:54:15
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Cashman, we can definitely follow up in an administrative memo regarding that question.
  • 00:54:22
    We do have the information on hand, but we'll just double check it and send it along.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:54:26
    Yeah, I know that source is supposed to be used for transportation, infrastructure, and economic development projects specifically in that streetcar designated area.
  • 00:54:37
    So my question would be what is planned to be funded through that source for 2026 and then also looking out through 2031 if possible what the plans are for using that source.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:54:47
    Yeah, I can definitely provide 26 to 31 uses of value capture.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:54:51
    Okay.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:54:51
    Thank you so much.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 00:54:52
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:54:53
    Thank you.
  • 00:54:55
    And I'm not seeing any further questions for Arts and Cultural Affairs, so I believe next we have our Municipal Building Commission.
  • 00:55:07
    Welcome.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:55:12
    Good morning.
  • 00:55:13
    My name is Erin Delaney and I'm the Director of the Municipal Building Commission.
  • 00:55:17
    Thank you for your time and attention this morning to talk about some important projects that we have received approval for four projects that I'll review with you today.
  • 00:55:30
    Just again as an overview, the City Hall Courthouse is jointly owned by Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis.
  • 00:55:38
    NBC staff are responsible for all aspects of the building including security, custodial, utility, administration team and we also have a team of building trades employees too at the NBC.
  • 00:55:53
    We have a total right now of 48 employees.
  • 00:55:57
    The MBC board is comprised of Councilmember Vita and the Mayor from the city side.
  • 00:56:03
    The county side has Commissioner Irene Fernando and the second commissioner is Marion Green.
  • 00:56:09
    Those four represent the MBC board.
  • 00:56:14
    And this is a breakout of the four projects that we have received recommended funding for.
  • 00:56:22
    You'll note that the total is just over $7 million.
  • 00:56:25
    And because of the joint ownership of the building, the capital budget is split 50-50 between the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County.
  • 00:56:34
    So the request to the city is just over $3.8 million.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:56:40
    The first project, let's see, oh.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:56:44
    The first project is the exterior improvements project.
  • 00:56:48
    Over the last six years, the MBC has managed projects on all four sides of the building.
  • 00:56:54
    And now we're ready to do the exterior improvements to the interior of the building.
  • 00:56:59
    Reminder that the interior of City Hall actually is an exterior wall.
  • 00:57:04
    So this is phase five of this project.
  • 00:57:06
    It's the last phase.
  • 00:57:09
    And the work centers on
  • 00:57:11
    Masonry repairs, window sealant repairs, heat tape replacement, gutter repairs and actually we've noticed some additional damage on the roof of the interior court as well.
  • 00:57:24
    So we will be working on that in this project.
  • 00:57:27
    So that's exterior improvements.
  • 00:57:31
    The next project is heat exchangers and pump replacement.
  • 00:57:35
    We have been conducting a design study this year to work on this project.
  • 00:57:42
    Essentially, there are two primary pumps in the water system in City Hall and the exchangers feed off of those two pumps.
  • 00:57:50
    We have a closed loop system in City Hall.
  • 00:57:53
    The fear if this work isn't completed is that it could lead to freezing water in the closed loop system.
  • 00:58:01
    So the request for this work is $600,000.
  • 00:58:05
    Again, that would be split to $300,000 for the city.
  • 00:58:10
    The next project is the electrical bus ducts replacement.
  • 00:58:15
    This is a request for $75,000 to start a design of this work.
  • 00:58:22
    We have been incrementally replacing bus ducts as we do construction in the building.
  • 00:58:28
    And we believe we have four bus ducts remaining that need to be carved out to complete this project.
  • 00:58:39
    This is a vital project in the sense that just a few weeks ago we actually did have a very short power outage in the southwest corner of the building on the second floor, which was directly related to the outdated ages of our bus ducts.
  • 00:58:56
    So that is MBC 19.
  • 00:59:02
    The next project is the fire alarm system replacement project.
  • 00:59:09
    We are completing the design for this year as well.
  • 00:59:13
    We have the design money.
  • 00:59:14
    I included a photo in this slide of the dot matrix printers to really alert everyone to the age of the current fire alarm system.
  • 00:59:26
    It's a Honeywell system.
  • 00:59:27
    It's absolutely functional right now, but now is the time for a replacement.
  • 00:59:32
    There are two panels in this system.
  • 00:59:35
    One panel serves the Adult Detention Center, which is inside the building, and the other panel serves the City Hall Courthouse building.
  • 00:59:44
    This is a current request for $1 million.
  • 00:59:46
    Again, that would be split between the county and the city.
  • 00:59:53
    Those are the four recommended funded projects.
  • 00:59:56
    I'm happy to answer any questions at this time.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:59:59
    I think we'll continue to the next presenter.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 01:00:02
    Okay, great.
  • 01:00:04
    Thank you.
  • 01:00:04
    I'd like to introduce Barbara O'Brien, the Director of Property Services.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:00:25
    Good morning Chair Chagte and Council Members.
  • 01:00:30
    My name is Barbara O'Brien and I have the honor and privilege of being the Director of Property Services for the City of Minneapolis.
  • 01:00:44
    Property Services is a vital division within the Finance and Property Services Department.
  • 01:00:50
    dedicated to delivering exceptional facility management services for properties that the city owns, operates and leases.
  • 01:01:01
    Our division plays a critical role in supporting city departments through a wide variety of internal services including space and asset management, facility design and construction, maintenance and operations, security,
  • 01:01:19
    facility furnishings and initiatives for energy reduction and sustainability along with custodial services.
  • 01:01:28
    Our team actively oversees and manages a portfolio of 62 facilities, ensuring that the needs of the City of Minneapolis are met efficiently and effectively.
  • 01:01:43
    with over 2,250,000 square feet of valuable space under our care, which is the equivalent of about 40 football fields or nearly one and a half of US Bank stadiums.
  • 01:02:02
    We are committed to optimizing the environment where city functions thrive.
  • 01:02:10
    Property Services employs effective strategies that carefully consider budget constraints, conduct thorough facility condition assessments.
  • 01:02:21
    We ensure compliance with building codes and adhere to planning and zoning regulations.
  • 01:02:28
    Additionally, we align our efforts with insights from the Safe and Thriving Communities Report while addressing space and staffing needs for all departments.
  • 01:02:38
    This comprehensive approach guarantees that our initiatives are not only efficient, but also meet the highest standards for community safety and well-being.
  • 01:02:54
    Property Services' mission is to provide a safe and equitable work environment for all city employees and visitors to our facilities.
  • 01:03:04
    In line with that mission and in collaboration with various city departments, Property Services is proposing 11 projects as part of the 2025 through 2031 capital program.
  • 01:03:21
    These projects aim to enhance the effectiveness of public safety, public works, animal care and control,
  • 01:03:30
    early voting services and various essential office functions throughout the organization.
  • 01:03:38
    By investing in these initiatives we are not only improving our facilities but also empowering city employees to deliver exceptional services to the community.
  • 01:03:56
    Beginning with the Minneapolis Fire Department, there are two capital projects that are currently programmed.
  • 01:04:03
    FR-11 is the replacement of the existing Fire Station 11.
  • 01:04:08
    The goal of this project is to provide a new facility that will meet the fire department's operational needs and maintain the fire department's capability to meet the five minute response, five minute or less response time in accordance with National Fire Protection Association standards.
  • 01:04:34
    FR-15 is the replacement of the alerting system across the entire fire station portfolio, which is 19 stations.
  • 01:04:43
    This project is currently in design and will provide a faster response times, increase situational awareness, and provide adjustable zoning within the fire stations that will alert and will improve firefighter health and wellness.
  • 01:05:09
    MPD 05 is the major renovation or replacement and potential relocation of the existing Minneapolis Police 4th Precinct to meet the current and future needs of the Office of Community Safety and the Minneapolis Police Department.
  • 01:05:30
    The existing facility, shown in the image on your screen, has space shortcomings and inadequacies that no longer align with public safety goals and standards.
  • 01:05:47
    Initial pre-design studies will result in data that will inform decisions to relocate or fully replace and we anticipate this work to begin
  • 01:05:59
    in 2026 when funding is made available.
  • 01:06:08
    MPD 07 provides for the upgrade and improvements of Minneapolis Police Department facilities.
  • 01:06:16
    In March of 2023, the City of Minneapolis approved the terms of a court-ordered settlement agreement with MDHR.
  • 01:06:26
    As part of this agreement, several facility assessment studies were conducted.
  • 01:06:32
    These studies identified facility shortcomings and improvements based on best practices for better, safer work environments for MPD staff and visiting members of the public.
  • 01:06:47
    Additionally to the settlement agreement, MPD 07 provides for facility improvements targeting standardization across MPD facilities, ensuring common functionality.
  • 01:07:10
    PSD 11 is the Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction Program.
  • 01:07:17
    This program will accelerate progress in energy conservation and emission reduction through strategic investments across the city's 62 facilities.
  • 01:07:30
    This program is critical to reaching the goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from all city operations by 2040, as outlined in the 2023 Climate Equity Plan.
  • 01:07:46
    This program would include interdepartmental collaboration and will position the city to lead by example through critically thinking and taking active steps to conserve and reduce.
  • 01:08:07
    PSD 15 is the second phase of the traffic maintenance facility upgrades.
  • 01:08:14
    Phase 1, as you may recall, was complete in 2015 and that project had a focus on the interior spaces of the facility.
  • 01:08:24
    Phase 2 will address the mechanical and electrical infrastructure that are original to the facility, built in 1961 and added on in 1970.
  • 01:08:38
    This project will also include ceilings and lighting, electrical distribution, roofing, life safety, and it will address the ADA deficiencies within the facility.
  • 01:08:56
    The City Hall Re-Stack Project
  • 01:09:00
    also known as PSD20 is a joint project between the City of Minneapolis and the Municipal Building Commission.
  • 01:09:10
    Phases 1, 2 are complete and Phase 3 is nearing completion.
  • 01:09:18
    To date, all major construction is nearing completion on schedule and within budget.
  • 01:09:28
    This project has made it possible to relinquish several leased spaces and will result in a modern collaborative work environment for city employees and elected officials for our city.
  • 01:09:43
    We are very much looking forward to the final transformation in the upcoming year and the new functionality that City Hall will have.
  • 01:09:59
    A planning study was conducted in 2023 to examine options for reconfiguration, expansion, or relocation to meet current and future needs.
  • 01:10:12
    Animal Care and Control, PSD-22, seeks the renovation of existing facility to address current deficiencies of functional space
  • 01:10:25
    with the potential to add a secondary location to meet the programmatic needs that are currently unmet.
  • 01:10:39
    PSD 23 proposes a new facility for public safety training and wellness.
  • 01:10:46
    This facility will be designed to provide for pre-employment
  • 01:10:52
    continued education, in-service classroom, and computer training needs in addition to physical wellness and mental health counseling for public safety employees.
  • 01:11:07
    The existing facility is leased.
  • 01:11:11
    It's leased space that does not meet today's training and wellness needs and cannot be adapted or expanded.
  • 01:11:19
    Moreover, it is a space that is dedicated to just a single section of public safety employees, MPD only.
  • 01:11:33
    This project would be inclusive of all public safety employees.
  • 01:11:43
    PSD 26 is a security improvement program
  • 01:11:47
    related to physical security equipment such as cameras, fencing and gates, access control devices.
  • 01:11:57
    Most of the physical security systems were installed in 2012 through 2014 and are now nearing the end of their life cycle.
  • 01:12:09
    This project will support the modernization of existing aged equipment and meet increasing security needs across our built portfolio of 62 owned and operated facilities.
  • 01:12:25
    Finally,
  • 01:12:27
    PSD 32 involves the planning, design and construction of a complete renovation and build-out of the 3000 Minnehaha site, formerly known as MPD 3rd Precinct.
  • 01:12:44
    The renovation will result in a mixed-use facility that will house the city's elections and voter services operations and a community-focused tenant and will be known as the Minneapolis Democracy Center.
  • 01:13:02
    This project will allow the city to relinquish from three separate lease spaces and consolidate elections and voter services functions.
  • 01:13:13
    Community engagement has been really central throughout this project from the decisions to relocate elections and voter services to this building as well as ongoing input during design which began in May of 2025.
  • 01:13:37
    Thank you for your attention.
  • 01:13:40
    I'll be happy to address questions related to any of the 11 projects just presented.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:13:47
    Wonderful.
  • 01:13:48
    We'll now continue to the NPRB section and then we'll come back for questions at the end.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:13:54
    Fantastic.
  • 01:13:55
    Then I would be honored to invite Adam Arbison from Minneapolis Park and Rec Board.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:14:02
    Thank you, Director.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:14:03
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:14:15
    Greetings Chair Chiu Chai and Council Members.
  • 01:14:18
    My name is Adam Arvidson and I'm the Director of Strategic Planning at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
  • 01:14:24
    It's my pleasure to present to you today the capital budget request for the Park Board as a part of the overall city process.
  • 01:14:33
    Some of you have maybe heard me say this before, but I always like to start by talking about how the Park Board develops its capital improvement program.
  • 01:14:42
    We have what was at the time the very first in the nation empirical data-driven equity metrics which drive the selection of all the projects that go into the CIP.
  • 01:14:54
    What's unique about the park board metrics is that we do look at characteristics of the assets in those parks in our decision making, but also characteristics of the community around those parks.
  • 01:15:05
    So we're trying to merge the needs of the community with the needs of the actual asset.
  • 01:15:10
    And we have seven different metrics that together create a score for each park and then those scores lead to a park's inclusion in the CIP.
  • 01:15:22
    This system has been going on since 2017 so we're a long ways into it and we are at a stage that I like to think of as phase two of MPP 20 which is the big funding agreement between the city and the park board for these capital improvements.
  • 01:15:41
    Phase one really focused on parks in communities and neighborhoods that had seen a lot of historic
  • 01:15:47
    This is the first time that we've seen this kind of disinvestment or had been sort of marginalized within funding structures and those parks were primarily clustered on the north side and in the upper south and that was really phase one and a lot of those parks are under construction now or we've just seen recent projects rolling out
  • 01:16:05
    Where we are at the moment is in what I like to think of as phase two.
  • 01:16:10
    And these are parks that are actually scattered all over the city.
  • 01:16:12
    You can see by the map there before you.
  • 01:16:15
    And they are what could probably be described as parks that are kind of tired or declining.
  • 01:16:21
    So that's why you do see parks still in some of those core community need areas like, say, Stewart Park.
  • 01:16:29
    or even Cleveland Park.
  • 01:16:31
    But you're also starting to see parks like Pershing and Kenney or Beltrami that might not be in those historically sort of disenfranchised neighborhoods but we do have assets there in those parks that are really starting to decline.
  • 01:16:49
    So the commonality between most of the parks that are in the CIP now is that those parks have not been invested in for a significant amount of time and we have tired playgrounds, tired buildings, tired athletic fields, and the like.
  • 01:17:04
    The other big thing I want to talk about is another kind of retread from last year, which is funding the North Commons vision.
  • 01:17:12
    So last year I presented to you that our board had taken the bold step to ensure progress on implementing this landmark recreation center and field house on the north side.
  • 01:17:24
    This will be a facility that we have not ever had in the city in terms of a major indoor field house and recreation space.
  • 01:17:32
    So we dedicated all of the 2026 capital improvement dollars to the North Commons project.
  • 01:17:41
    That was approved by the Board of Commissioners last year.
  • 01:17:47
    It was presented to you just about a year ago when I stood here.
  • 01:17:51
    and then we did submit that through the city's CBR and CLIC process to go forward.
  • 01:17:57
    So what we're seeing is that that 2026 year of the CIP is pretty much exclusively North Commons and then the rehabilitation funds that we normally do.
  • 01:18:07
    This project is actually currently under construction.
  • 01:18:10
    It's pretty exciting.
  • 01:18:12
    There's a lot of big piles of dirt over there at North Commons and we are expecting to be under construction for about a year and a half or two and then open that project to the public.
  • 01:18:22
    We are still seeking some additional state funding to assist with that project that will be necessary in order to complete the water park portion of it.
  • 01:18:30
    and down below you can see that there's a lot of different funding sources in this package including federal, state and local dollars.
  • 01:18:40
    So the main core of our six-year CIP is always divided into kind of two types of projects.
  • 01:18:46
    We do have our kind of large ongoing projects or programs.
  • 01:18:51
    These happen in the current six-year CIP in about 37 parks or more.
  • 01:18:57
    and there's really four different project areas.
  • 01:19:00
    The Parks CP, which is the capital infrastructure projects, these are equity metrics selected projects in specific parks where the initial, where the main, the overall investment in those parks is less than a million dollars.
  • 01:19:15
    So these are some of our smaller parks and we're looking at 22 of those different parks in the six year CIP.
  • 01:19:23
    The goal here is really to enhance recreational infrastructure and also transform those parks based on the community visions that were created over about a six year period to try to bring our park system up to current state of the art.
  • 01:19:37
    The Neighborhood Parks Rehabilitation Program, or Park RP, is investing about $26 million across that six-year window.
  • 01:19:47
    And these are projects where we're just taking care of some of the failing infrastructure across our system.
  • 01:19:52
    Everything from HVAC systems in our buildings to trails to athletic fields and diamonds to the benches and drinking fountains that are scattered throughout our system.
  • 01:20:02
    These are not park-specific.
  • 01:20:03
    The money really goes where the immediate need is.
  • 01:20:06
    We also have an ongoing playground specific project that will invest $8 million at 16 parks across 16 years.
  • 01:20:16
    Interestingly, I just recently presented to the Board of Commissioners that in 2031, which is the outmost year of the CIP, we'll actually be completely caught up with our playground program in terms of being able to replace playgrounds right at the end of their useful life and not beyond.
  • 01:20:32
    So this program has been very effective in getting us caught up on the type of facility that is one of the most used and also is potentially the greatest risk in terms of safety and accessibility to our community members that use them.
  • 01:20:46
    So the playground and site improvements program has been very successful under NPP 20.
  • 01:20:51
    And then we have the athletic fields and site improvements program.
  • 01:20:53
    That's just one project at the Nokomis athletic fields.
  • 01:20:57
    Very large athletic complex in serious need of renovation.
  • 01:21:02
    We also have single park projects at 20 different parks in this case across the CIP, the six year CIP.
  • 01:21:09
    These are projects again that are equity selected and have budgets of over a million dollars.
  • 01:21:15
    That breakdown between a million and under a million is that we have a kind of a uniformatized investment in a park based on the size of that park and the amount of assets in it.
  • 01:21:25
    So those parks that have more that are larger end up in this category and you can see the list of projects there.
  • 01:21:32
    They're scattered as I mentioned earlier kind of all across the city.
  • 01:21:36
    Those projects go into our CIP as with a fairly general description called plan implementation.
  • 01:21:43
    We do have long range plans for adopted for every single park.
  • 01:21:47
    but what we do when we start a project is we actually consult with the community about what we should be building with the allocated dollars in that particular phase.
  • 01:21:57
    So we don't necessarily predetermine what the need is.
  • 01:22:00
    We do community consultation or sometimes we call that participatory project scoping.
  • 01:22:06
    So community members around that park get to have a say in how that construction project is scoped and what we do design.
  • 01:22:13
    So we keep that general especially when it's five years down the line.
  • 01:22:17
    So here's the grid of dollars.
  • 01:22:20
    You'll notice in the 2026 year, there's a lot of zeros except for that North Commons, the Park 36.
  • 01:22:28
    I do want to note, most importantly on the next slide, that we're actually a little bit behind the city process typically, so we do not have a 2031 CIP adopted yet.
  • 01:22:39
    That will happen in another month and a half.
  • 01:22:42
    So when I submit the CBRs through the city process and that get reviewed by CLIC,
  • 01:22:48
    That number in the big red box is sort of a big number that's a bit of a placeholder.
  • 01:22:54
    And then the very next year, we kind of flow that into specific park projects.
  • 01:22:59
    At this time, I don't know what specific park projects are going to happen in 2031, so we place that into the park CP, and then that gets revised immediately the following year.
  • 01:23:10
    So we still stay about five years ahead, but just not six.
  • 01:23:14
    And I think as I'm concluding here, I do want to just make a plug for an online interactive tool that we do have that will help you understand what's happening across the city.
  • 01:23:25
    The true CIP is an interactive online tool that shows all the capital investments since 2017, which is the beginning of the NPP20 funding agreement.
  • 01:23:36
    It's both regional and neighborhood, and we update that regularly throughout the year.
  • 01:23:41
    If we receive a big capital grant, it goes into the true CIP.
  • 01:23:45
    If our board makes an adjustment mid-year, that goes into the true CIP.
  • 01:23:50
    So you can filter by year, status, source, commission, or district, and most recently, City Council ward.
  • 01:23:57
    So you can get to that at minneapolisparks.org slash budget, and then just click on the Capital Improvement Plan tab.
  • 01:24:03
    and you'll be able to see and filter and understand what is happening, plan to happen, or what has happened in your wards and districts since 2017.
  • 01:24:11
    And with that, I understand we're not taking questions right now.
  • 01:24:16
    I should introduce the next speaker.
  • 01:24:17
    Excellent.
  • 01:24:19
    It's my pleasure then to pass it along to Kathleen Mayell from the Public Works Department.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:24:25
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:24:34
    Good morning Council Vice President Chugtai and members of the committee.
  • 01:24:38
    My name is Kathleen Mayell.
  • 01:24:39
    I'm the interim director of transportation planning and programming for Public Works and I'm happy to present to you today on behalf of Public Works and a note of thanks to Liam O'Brien as well as my colleagues Katie White and Gustav Stewart for their help in preparing this presentation.
  • 01:24:56
    As an overview, Public Works continues to invest in our aging infrastructure and equipment while managing bonding capacity and balancing our customer rates.
  • 01:25:06
    We continue to experience cost pressure for critical components across all divisions.
  • 01:25:11
    Recent examples include steel for traffic signals and chemicals for water treatment.
  • 01:25:18
    The transportation program balances funding across competing priorities guided by our plans and policies including the Transportation Action Plan, the Racial Equity Framework for Transportation, Vision Zero Action Plan, our 20 Year Streets Funding Plan, and the ADA Transition Plan for Public Works.
  • 01:25:35
    Every effort is made to leverage outside funding opportunities and increase what we can accomplish with our program and our local funding.
  • 01:25:43
    Historically, the city has been very successful in federal funding grants managed locally and we are committed to seeking out additional sources through competitive nationwide processes.
  • 01:25:55
    County-led transportation projects are also advancing with the support of federal and state dollars.
  • 01:26:01
    Public Works' recommended capital budget is influenced directly by the outcomes Minneapolis performance metrics, which are sourced from a variety of plans and policy documents.
  • 01:26:12
    As Liam mentioned in his earlier presentation, the process of developing the projects in the CIP being presented on today is a continuous cycle and these projects have undergone multiple rounds of revision including from the CLIT committee.
  • 01:26:26
    The Public Works CIP programs a variety of projects across multiple transportation, water, and utility projects.
  • 01:26:34
    The funds that constitute these programs are from levy funded debt from property taxes, general fund transfer as described in the 20 year streets funding plan ordinance to address ongoing asset management needs, municipal state aid funds which fund higher volume arterial streets throughout the city,
  • 01:26:52
    This presentation goes through all the project types shown on this slide.
  • 01:27:18
    first with tables showing the capital projects for each area followed by highlights and additional information.
  • 01:27:27
    This slide to begin with shows just a portion of the programs and projects in our paving program.
  • 01:27:31
    Note that paving here is loose and encompasses programs and projects that advance transportation policies and initiatives around modal goals such as our ADA ramp replacement program.
  • 01:27:43
    Of particular note here is the PV074 cooperative program where we contribute local funds toward the success of projects being led by Metro Transit, Hennepin County and MnDOT.
  • 01:27:54
    Notable upcoming projects from our partners include Hennepin County's Franklin Avenue reconstruction that will start construction next year and MnDOT's University Avenue Northeast reconstruction that will begin work in the next two to three years.
  • 01:28:10
    This slide shows more programs and projects in our paving program, including some of our major reconstruction projects like First Avenue North downtown and 35th and 36th streets.
  • 01:28:23
    This slide shows the rest of the programs and projects in our paving program.
  • 01:28:31
    On average, the paving program is valued at about $91 million each year and encompasses $36.8 million in federal grants for the years 26 through 29.
  • 01:28:43
    We anticipate being able to leverage additional federal funds for later years in the CIP.
  • 01:28:49
    Funding in this area maintains a state of good repair on city streets by investing in necessary reconstruction, rehabilitation, and repair projects.
  • 01:29:00
    The 20-year streets funding plan continues to guide our approach to programming across transportation divisions.
  • 01:29:06
    It was updated earlier this year to incorporate the use of our transportation equity priority scores and other updated data points to inform the CIP.
  • 01:29:15
    The plan includes a criteria-based system for programming that balances traditional asset management with equity considerations.
  • 01:29:24
    Asset condition considers the condition of the infrastructure, safety data, and utility needs.
  • 01:29:29
    Equity considers various race and income information, as well as transportation, environmental, and other data like vehicle availability.
  • 01:29:40
    Our guiding principle for paving is the right fix at the right time.
  • 01:29:44
    Strategic investment and rehabilitation can extend the useful life of our street infrastructure, maximizing the benefit of the city's investment and postponing more costly street reconstruction projects.
  • 01:29:57
    Street reconstruction projects offer our greatest opportunity to change the design and function of our streets to better address current uses and needs and to advance our goals around safety, equity, climate, and mode shift.
  • 01:30:12
    Each year, Public Works has provided programming bonding targets from finance.
  • 01:30:17
    Per the 20-year streets funding plan, Public Works must program a guaranteed minimum amount of funding for city street capital projects and provide an annual report.
  • 01:30:28
    Targets for the paving program is a summation of the base net debt bond funding level plus the additional funding provided in the 20-year streets funding plan.
  • 01:30:38
    The base net debt bond funding level is defined as $10 million and the additional funding from the 20 year streets funding plan ordinance is defined as $21.2 million plus inflationary adjustments from the beginning of that effort.
  • 01:30:53
    Each year, Public Works has programmed the full amount of funding as required per the 20-Year Streets Funding Plan Ordinance.
  • 01:30:59
    In 2024 and 2025, spending and paving programs were just under target as money went to critical infrastructure needs that are not represented in the chart, which focuses on the paving projects, such as bridge, signal, and intersection improvements.
  • 01:31:16
    These projects include needed pedestrian improvements, such as bump-outs, upgraded ramps, and protected bikeway infrastructure.
  • 01:31:26
    These images illustrate some of our recent city-led and cooperative projects, including Hennepin Avenue, a coordinated transit priority project with Metro Transit, and the 4th Street Southeast Bikeway project.
  • 01:31:45
    Many of the targeted pedestrian and bicycle programs live within the active transportation, Vision Zero, and sidewalk funded projects in the CIP.
  • 01:31:54
    This funding improves and expands pedestrian and bicycle networks outside of street reconstruction projects to provide safe, convenient and comfortable mobility options.
  • 01:32:07
    It includes major trail maintenance, protected bikeways, pedestrian safety and safe routes to school programs.
  • 01:32:16
    These programs utilize proven and effective quick build safety improvements to rapidly reduce crashes on our streets in support of our Vision Zero goals of zero traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2027.
  • 01:32:29
    The Vision Zero program shows the successful application of the Safe Streets for All grant, including MnDOT's provision of the local match.
  • 01:32:40
    The last two rows show sidewalk specific programming.
  • 01:32:46
    An average of just under 23 million is available annually for pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
  • 01:32:52
    The Safe Streets for All grant and the MnDOT local match increases this from historic averages.
  • 01:32:59
    The goal of these active transportation projects is to improve and expand pedestrian and bicycle networks outside of those street reconstruction projects.
  • 01:33:08
    Our Transportation Action Plan modal networks, the Vision Zero Action Plan and other policy documents support the implementation of these low-cost, high-benefit projects.
  • 01:33:21
    The operations of our traffic and lighting groups are reflected in this table.
  • 01:33:26
    They are sorted by program areas with project nestled within these categories.
  • 01:33:35
    On average, $14 million is allocated each year for traffic and street lighting work.
  • 01:33:41
    Traffic and lighting programs maintain a state of good repair for traffic control infrastructure.
  • 01:33:46
    These investments enhance mobility for all modes and improve safety.
  • 01:33:50
    This includes upgraded traffic signals and street lighting and retro-reflective signage.
  • 01:33:57
    This year, we are proposing to capitalize the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program.
  • 01:34:02
    This had previously been funded out of the General Fund, but is here proposed as part of TR022 at $500,000.
  • 01:34:08
    Starting with next year's CIP, the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program will be shown as an individual ongoing program.
  • 01:34:17
    The Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program is very popular and it also compliments the work already being done in our Vision Zero work.
  • 01:34:26
    These funds directly relate to requests from communities and allow us to respond to observe concerns.
  • 01:34:32
    This is an important addition to our data driven work we do to improve safety including neighborhood safety through our Vision Zero program, the ADA ramp improvement program, and bicycle related program funding.
  • 01:34:49
    This slide shows the upcoming projects on city-maintained bridges.
  • 01:34:53
    BR-101 is used for smaller repairs annually.
  • 01:34:58
    Bridges over the Midtown Greenway are being advanced in partnership with the Hennepin County Railroad Authority or HICRA by leveraging federal bridge funding administered by MnDOT.
  • 01:35:14
    Bridges are an important component of our transportation system.
  • 01:35:17
    The bridge group maintains a state of good repair primarily through the repair and rehabilitation of existing bridges using an asset management framework.
  • 01:35:26
    Currently this averages at around 20 million per year, though this average is high due to the Nicollet Bridge over Minnehaha Creek.
  • 01:35:37
    The Fleet Division has ongoing capital needs reflected in this table.
  • 01:35:46
    The Fleet Division use capital dollars to purchase, maintain, and replace existing assets.
  • 01:35:51
    This includes non-public facing EV charging infrastructure to provide power to city vehicles that are operated by city employees providing services to Minneapolis residents.
  • 01:36:02
    These investments advance the city's climate goals as stated in the climate equity plan by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while responding to resident needs and are reflective of trends and needs across the metropolitan area.
  • 01:36:15
    FLT 01 includes the installation of smart dedicated EV charging infrastructure.
  • 01:36:22
    What makes this infrastructure smart is that it's connected via a cell network and we are able to manage and monitor use, energy consumption, and charging sessions.
  • 01:36:30
    Locations planned for installation in 2026 include three police precincts and adding additional chargers at the Hiawatha maintenance and solid waste facilities.
  • 01:36:40
    With a ratio of one charger for every three EVs, 50 to 70 level two chargers will be added each year over the next six years.
  • 01:36:52
    FLT02 program is designed to replace shop equipment.
  • 01:36:56
    In 2025, we replaced three in-ground vehicle hoists, air conditioner refrigerant, recovery and charging machines.
  • 01:37:04
    In 2026, we'll be adding an additional hoist at the Curry Maintenance Facility along with one heavy-duty tire changer.
  • 01:37:12
    The Vehicle Management System Program, FLT 03, funds a motor pool program which is designed to reduce the total number of vehicles and increase vehicle usage while making sure city vehicles are available for city business.
  • 01:37:24
    Launch Mobility was selected as the vendor as they offered a digital platformer for reserving vehicles and were the only vendor on the market that offered keyless solution.
  • 01:37:33
    So users will be able to unlock and reserve vehicles via smartphones without the need for a key.
  • 01:37:40
    In 2026, we are also purchasing needed equipment and software with the following years being moved from the capital to operational budget.
  • 01:37:50
    The pictures on the left shows one of our two level three charging stations.
  • 01:37:57
    We will be adding five more of these in 2026.
  • 01:38:00
    In the center is one of our 71 level 2 charging stations.
  • 01:38:04
    The top picture at right is a tire changer.
  • 01:38:09
    And then the bottom picture is one of our 12 portable lifts.
  • 01:38:17
    The parking funded projects in PK-004 fund upgrades to the 12 off street parking ramp structures the city owns.
  • 01:38:29
    Up to $5 million annually is used to fund projects that keep the parking ramps in a state of good repair.
  • 01:38:35
    Recent projects include upgraded exit systems at Hawthorne and Hoff ramps, as shown in the pictures.
  • 01:38:42
    We also regularly innovate our parking systems to ensure reliability and good customer satisfaction.
  • 01:38:50
    With things like elevator modernization and new heating and air conditioning systems for the ramp lobbies.
  • 01:39:01
    Similar to the parking program, sanitary programs work to maintain a state of good repair for critical infrastructure.
  • 01:39:07
    These investments protect and improve the existing network, including approximately 840 miles of underground infrastructure and 12 lift stations.
  • 01:39:17
    Aging infrastructure is one of the primary drivers of the capital program for the surface water and sewer division.
  • 01:39:24
    The Division uses an asset management approach to combine infrastructure condition data with a likelihood and consequence of failure to establish and prioritize capital improvements to ensure continued success of the sanitary and stormwater systems.
  • 01:39:38
    The Tunnel and Sewer Rehab Program is used to rehab and reconstruct our sanitary system.
  • 01:39:44
    Work performed under this program includes the replacement of lift station components, rehabilitation and or replacement of cracked or failed pipes and pipe segments, removal of structural flow restrictions and maintenance hole repairs or replacements.
  • 01:39:58
    This program covers the sanitary system rehabilitation with the exception of work associated with road reconstruction projects which is budgeted under a separate program.
  • 01:40:08
    Condition assessment data is utilized to identify the high priority areas where infrastructure improvements are needed and made.
  • 01:40:16
    The Inflow and Infiltration Program, or INI, is a program where we are seeking support for the continued removal of inflow and infiltration from our sanitary system.
  • 01:40:27
    The removal of INI from our system helps us meet the Metropolitan Council's Environmental Services capacity goals, minimizes risks of combined sewer overflow events, and reduces the overall volume of wastewater sent to the wastewater treatment plant.
  • 01:40:44
    The collective outcome of meeting these goals is a reduction in annual costs paid to MCES for the treatment of wastewater from Minneapolis, which in turn impacts Minneapolis utility rates.
  • 01:40:57
    The PAVING program is utilized to fund sanitary sewer infrastructure improvement needs driven by transportation rehabilitation projects.
  • 01:41:04
    This program will maximize citywide investments by aligning sewer rehab projects with street reconstruction or resurfacing projects,
  • 01:41:14
    And finally, SA99R is a program that allows surface water sewer to respond to requests to perform sanitary work for others.
  • 01:41:21
    This program provides a financial cost center to accumulate charges until the time of reimbursement without financially impacting other programs that the division is performing.
  • 01:41:30
    This program is funded by revenue funds.
  • 01:41:35
    Nearly 50% of the sanitary mains are over 100 years old in the city and 80% are 80 years or older.
  • 01:41:42
    The sanitary system is critical for protecting the environment and ensuring public health is met in our region through the collection and conveyance of wastewater to a wastewater treatment plant.
  • 01:41:54
    The Division maintains 840 miles of pipes and 12 lift stations.
  • 01:41:58
    Condition and risk data are utilized in replacement
  • 01:42:02
    are utilized in prioritizing projects to ensure the continuous operation of our system.
  • 01:42:07
    Various rehab and replacement techniques are utilized including pipelining, open trench excavation, and trenchless techniques.
  • 01:42:17
    Similar to the sanitary work, stormwater programs work to collect and convey stormwater to meet regulations, prevent negative impacts, and improve water quality.
  • 01:42:30
    SW004 EPA stormwater regulations provides funding to support the implementation of the city's Clean Water Act permit which regulates how we manage stormwater and protect our lakes, creeks, and the river.
  • 01:42:44
    The purpose of the Combined Sewer Overflow Improvement Program is to remove clear water from the sanitary sewer system.
  • 01:42:51
    This program complements ongoing sanitary inflow and infiltration work.
  • 01:42:56
    SW011 is the Storm Drain and Tunnel Rehab program.
  • 01:43:00
    This program covers the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs of our stormwater collection, conveyance, and treatment system.
  • 01:43:07
    Our system is comprised of 566 miles of stormwater piping, 24 pumping stations, 16 miles of deep drainage tunnels, over 400 outfalls, and 12 holding ponds.
  • 01:43:20
    This program funds repair and rehabilitation activities on the storm system to maintain service and minimize risks.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 01:43:28
    Program SW-039 funds our citywide flood mitigation program.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:43:34
    The planning for this program is informed by hydraulic modeling of the storm drain system.
  • 01:43:38
    This has been a basis for identifying and prioritizing problem areas through mapping and also for evaluating options for mitigating ongoing flooding problems that occur throughout the city during heavy rain events.
  • 01:43:52
    SWPDR establishes the annual funding similar to the sanitary above to perform data-driven repair and rehab activities as needed to the storm sewer system in coordination with capital paving projects.
  • 01:44:05
    The program will maximize citywide investments by aligning storm sewer rehab projects with street reconstruction or resurfacing projects.
  • 01:44:13
    SW99R allows surface water sewer to respond to requests to perform sanitary work for others, similar as just described for the sanitary program.
  • 01:44:21
    And SWALY is a program for maintaining the storm drain systems and alleys throughout the city.
  • 01:44:29
    The stormwater system consists of about 560 miles of pipes, 23 pump stations, and over 1,500 stormwater best management practices.
  • 01:44:38
    The majority of storm mains are at least 50 years old.
  • 01:44:42
    The stormwater system collects, transmits, and routes surface water runoff into several surface water bodies throughout the city.
  • 01:44:49
    Stormwater treatment is provided, where feasible, to improve water quality prior to discharge.
  • 01:44:55
    The stormwater system is critical for flood mitigation and ensuring water quality in our regional surface water system.
  • 01:45:01
    Stormwater management is required to meet the Clean Water Act permit and city ordinance requirements.
  • 01:45:09
    The surface water sewer team ensures that these regulations are met through the capital program.
  • 01:45:16
    The storm water and sanitary capital programs are critical for ensuring the continuous operation of the storm water and sanitary systems and to protect human health, protect the environment, and support a thriving community.
  • 01:45:26
    These systems together are vast, including over 1400 miles of underground infrastructure and 36 pump and lift stations.
  • 01:45:33
    These capital programs help to ensure the 48 million gallons per day are conveyed to a wastewater treatment plant and compliance with our Clean Water Act permit is achieved.
  • 01:45:46
    And to end with, water.
  • 01:45:49
    As an enterprise fund, operating revenues must be sufficient to cover our operating costs and a well-planned capital program.
  • 01:45:58
    When making recommendation for water rates, water staff ensure best value water services are provided to all Minneapolis customers and the fund's finances are managed to meet the needs of current and future customers.
  • 01:46:12
    The total estimated value of the water treatment and distribution infrastructure is approximately $2 billion.
  • 01:46:19
    A $20-30 million annual capital program results in an overall renewal interval of 65-100 years, which is a recognized standard for a long-lived asset of this type.
  • 01:46:34
    Assets are managed to minimize life cycle costs at an acceptable level of risk while delivering established levels of service.
  • 01:46:42
    Water's capital program is split amongst seven projects improving treatment and pumping infrastructure, three projects in distribution and metering, and three facility improvement projects to modernize spaces where our employees work.
  • 01:46:56
    The reimbursable project, WTR9R, is an annual pass-through appropriation to the perform water distribution system improvements requested by others throughout the city for development, renovations, and improvements to the right-of-way.
  • 01:47:12
    The water fund is reimbursed upon completion.
  • 01:47:18
    In September, our tap water won the best in glass award as the best tasting tap water at the Minnesota American Water Works Association annual conference for the second time in recent years.
  • 01:47:29
    This is a testimony to investments made in drinking water and the drinking water treatment infrastructure and to our staff operating and maintaining these facilities.
  • 01:47:40
    That is the end of the presentation on the capital program.
  • 01:47:42
    Thank you for your time.
  • 01:47:45
    and I'm the last of the speakers.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:47:47
    I believe so.
  • 01:47:48
    I see a couple additional slides.
  • 01:47:49
    Liam, are you going to come back for those or are those just there in case needed?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:47:56
    Council, Vice President Chuktai.
  • 01:47:58
    Those are there as needed.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:48:00
    Awesome, excellent.
  • 01:48:01
    So with that, I want to thank everyone who worked to compile this capital budget presentation and I will ask my colleagues if there are any questions or comments related to this presentation.
  • 01:48:21
    Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:48:24
    Thank you Vice President.
  • 01:48:25
    This is a question for the parks.
  • 01:48:35
    For your capital improvement plan and just in general long-term planning, I'm wondering the extent to which you incorporate
  • 01:48:45
    density and access to parks in your future planning processes.
  • 01:48:49
    I have a constituent and a number of constituents actually who've raised the lack of park space in the Como neighborhood as an issue.
  • 01:48:57
    Van Cleve Park is
  • 01:48:59
    City Council
  • 01:49:19
    There is any planning for increasing park access in the Como neighborhood specifically and then just generally how you're thinking about density and population growth and access to park land.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:49:32
    Certainly, Chair Chigtai, Councilmember Payne, thank you for the question.
  • 01:49:36
    There's a couple of ways that we do consider density in park planning.
  • 01:49:41
    One of the ways is that actually neighborhood density is one of our equity metrics that we use, so those neighborhoods that are becoming more dense, the parks, the existing parks in those neighborhoods would get additional points so that we're investing in them sooner.
  • 01:49:58
    That doesn't necessarily help if there aren't parks in the neighborhood, if we're in a park gap, and I
  • 01:50:02
    I certainly recognize that Southeast Como, there are park gaps in that part of town.
  • 01:50:07
    In fact, the Trust for Public Land Park Score identifies that as one of the few areas across our city where there's not as good access as others.
  • 01:50:17
    So there's a couple of ways that that shows up.
  • 01:50:19
    In our Parks for All comprehensive plan, we do have an overarching map that identifies where the park gaps are and it charges staff to work to close those gaps.
  • 01:50:29
    Southeast Como is an identified park gap.
  • 01:50:33
    The current work with the Grand Rounds Missing Link, which passes through the eastern end of that neighborhood, specifically will seek to create additional parkland along with that trail, so it's not just a trail corridor.
  • 01:50:46
    There will be kind of park-like nodes as well.
  • 01:50:49
    We're collaborating with a variety of partners, including the city and the University of Minnesota, to try to acquire additional parkland in that location.
  • 01:50:58
    our comprehensive plan also has a general statement about looking for park gaps where we have seen increases in density so that is something that we keep an eye on so that even the map that is existing in the comprehensive plan can be adjusted if we're seeing density changes and I think
  • 01:51:16
    From that sense, the Como neighborhood in particular, there's a couple other neighborhoods in town that have seen significant or more significant density increases without having a whole lot of park access Como neighborhood is one of those that we do have our eye on because there's a lot of funding from a lot of different sources investing in the Grand Rounds missing link right now that tends to be thought of I think at the moment as our primary way of sort of
  • 01:51:44
    to try to get some parkland on the eastern part of that neighborhood, specifically along the 27th Avenue corridor as the missing link gets implemented.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:51:57
    That's helpful and one thing I just want to make sure that is on your radar.
  • 01:52:02
    Tuttle School is actually up for sale right now by NPS and it is currently publicly owned but not with the park board and there's a real opportunity I think in having some sort of collaboration with school board and park board when it comes to creating more accessible public land in the Como neighborhood.
  • 01:52:21
    I'm hoping that that's something that maybe we can follow up on.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:52:25
    Chair Chigtai, Council Member Payne, we're aware of the Tuttle School sale.
  • 01:52:31
    We've been collaborating with public schools over on the north side at Willard Park on a similar vacant building sale.
  • 01:52:39
    I think those discussions are ongoing.
  • 01:52:40
    I don't have anything to report at this time, but we're certainly aware of Tuttle School.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:52:45
    Yeah, keep me in the loop of any developments there.
  • 01:52:47
    That's something I'm paying a lot of attention to.
  • 01:52:49
    Certainly.
  • 01:52:50
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:52:51
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 01:52:52
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano followed by Councilmember Cashman.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:52:57
    Chair Choctaw, all of my questions are actually for Director Maillol.
  • 01:53:02
    And the first one is about the alley renovation program.
  • 01:53:09
    I don't understand because we get a lot of input from residents and complaints from residents about their alleys.
  • 01:53:16
    For the alley renovation program, is this pothole patching or is it stormwater drains maybe?
  • 01:53:22
    Or what is it?
  • 01:53:25
    I don't think that it's for any sort of resurfacing or maintenance.
  • 01:53:29
    I get a lot of questions about alley maintenance.
  • 01:53:32
    I bet many of you do too.
  • 01:53:34
    And I just want to be clear about what it is and what it isn't when we have
  • 01:53:39
    these line items in our budget.
  • 01:53:41
    Director Hager, hi.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:53:43
    Good morning, Madam Chair and Council Member Palmisano.
  • 01:53:47
    Jennifer Hager, currently serving as Interim Deputy Director and City Engineer for Public Works.
  • 01:53:52
    There are two programs right now in the Public Works CIP that address alleys, PB-006 and PB-063.
  • 01:54:00
    And one of them is focused on reconstructing alleys.
  • 01:54:03
    or constructing alleys that currently have not been constructed to standard or renovating existing alleys.
  • 01:54:11
    And so what you described could fall in, those repairs could fall within those programs, whether it's pothole patching, putting an asphalt overlay on an existing concrete alley or taking up certain portions of the alley and rebuilding that just to make it flow better, the water flow out of the alley better and repair some of the damaged surface.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:54:33
    Thank you, but we're not doing any sort of full reconstruction of any alley unless there's something wrong underneath it.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:54:40
    Madam Chair, Council members, so we are strategically rebuilding alleys when that is the repair that is required.
  • 01:54:46
    So it falls under the right fix at the right time.
  • 01:54:49
    So sometimes our surface water and sewers division, for example, might be going in and doing an alley drain.
  • 01:54:55
    They're impacting, say, half of the alley with their project and we might come in with our alley funding and then repair the rest of the alley so that we don't leave a short segment that's unaddressed.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:55:07
    That's helpful.
  • 01:55:08
    Another question I have is about safe routes to school.
  • 01:55:15
    I know there's a process for choosing and implementing the Safe Routes to School program, but could you just briefly, I'm not sure if anybody here is familiar with it, Director Mayell, the Safe Routes to School program, can you just give us a really brief sense of how that program works, who's selecting those improvements?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:55:39
    Thank you for the question, Chair Chugtai and Council Member Palmisano.
  • 01:55:44
    The Safe Routes to School Program, we partner with Minneapolis Public Schools and we have partnered with them on system-wide plans to prioritize where different investments can be made and it is a partnership that we program with them through our team on the Safe Routes to School.
  • 01:56:04
    So there's often times some planning work done at a school first and then that tees up and we often apply for grants through MnDOT for implementation dollars as well for those.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:56:16
    Right.
  • 01:56:18
    A program that I had gotten once in my time was actually funded through a TIGER grant and I think that was maybe Met Council.
  • 01:56:28
    It was about a bus stop like a Metro Transit bus stop.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:56:30
    Chair Tug-Tie and committee members, yes.
  • 01:56:33
    Tiger grants were federal grants and so it probably would have been for larger than a bus stop but a larger Safe Routes to School project.
  • 01:56:42
    I'm not sure exactly which one you're referring to.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:56:44
    47th and Xerxes but it's more of a emboldened crosswalk with flasher lights and just improvements to that one corner of the intersection.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:56:59
    I believe that was part of a larger Safe Routes to School project for Southwest and had additional work on Xerxes.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:57:13
    Is the funding for street improvements at George Floyd Square held somewhere in the Public Works budget?
  • 01:57:19
    Because it is my hope that we will finally move forward with a plan, the flexible open plan for me.
  • 01:57:27
    But is there room here for whatever final decisions are made and where is that money held?
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 01:57:33
    Chair Chigtai and Council Member Palmisano, yes, there is a capital project for George Floyd Square.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:57:41
    Thank you.
  • 01:57:45
    Wonderful, and finally I'll recognize Councilmember Cashman
• • Michael Cashman
  • 01:57:49
    Thank you, Madam Chair, and I have a question for Director Arvidsson as well.
  • 01:57:54
    I think it's a little bit similar to what Council President Payne was bringing up, but I did notice, and the seat through CIP is really great, it's awesome to see the word specific investments, but I did notice that the downtown west neighborhood, which is 9,000 people and growing with how many office to residential conversions are on the
  • 01:58:17
    are on the timeline here that the downtown west neighborhood hasn't had a parks investment since 2017 and there's no plan all the way through 2030 for a park capital investment in the downtown west neighborhood.
  • 01:58:30
    Is that typical for a neighborhood of 9,000 people to have no investment for 13 years straight and is there anything that you've noticed about why downtown west as a residential neighborhood is really being left out of any capital improvements?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:58:46
    Chair Chigtai, Councilmember Cashman, there have been investments on the riverfront in the downtown west neighborhood, certainly across the, since the inception at least of
  • 01:59:02
    in 2017, those show up as regional investments and not neighborhood investments.
  • 01:59:07
    So it's a little bit different, but downtown west is a bit unique in that it really doesn't have neighborhood parks.
  • 01:59:16
    It does have Gateway Park, which is an unusual neighborhood park, and then it does have the riverfront.
  • 01:59:24
    In the CIP that was just presented to our Board of Commissioners and is still technically in draft format, we are making significant investments or proposing significant investments at Gateway Park and also we've been working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for some years
  • 01:59:41
    on acquiring land to build a skate park along Second Avenue, the break room skate park.
  • 01:59:50
    We are proposing park board investment through park dedication in that project in the CIP that's in front of the Board of Commissioners right now because we've I think kind of finally achieved with MnDOT an option where we might be able to acquire some property there.
  • 02:00:09
    Yes, it's a challenge because it's a heavily built up location with not a lot of space with which to acquire parks and therefore not a lot of parks to invest park dollars into.
  • 02:00:22
    So the only thing that I can share is that we've got those two, both the Gateway and the Break Room, which are likely future investments and then the kind of historic and ongoing investment in the Riverfront.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:00:34
    So the gateway and the skate park would show up after 2030?
  • 02:00:38
    It wouldn't be included in this forecast?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:00:45
    Chair Chuktai, Councilmember Cashman,
  • 02:00:49
    Yes, so some of the money that I just mentioned for Gateway and for the Break Room Skate Park, that's being proposed in the Park Board's CIP that's in front of the Board right now.
  • 02:01:00
    So until they adopt that, it won't show up in the true CIP.
  • 02:01:03
    So that's proposed in the draft that is public but not yet adopted.
  • 02:01:08
    Though Gateway Park does show up with a future investment under NPP 20.
  • 02:01:14
    and nope I stand corrected that's a brand new investment so if the board adopts the budget then that will show up under NPP 20 money also because Gateway Park I think possibly because of in relationship to the earlier question by Councilmember Payne because of the density increase in residential there
  • 02:01:36
    its equity number came up so there's a proposed investment in Gateway in one of the out years in addition to the park dedication money that I've just referenced to you but those won't show up on the true CIP until our board adopts the next budget because they're just newly proposed.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:01:52
    Well and then in terms of strategic planning how do you incorporate demographic changes in neighborhoods where we are going to be seeing thousands of new residents in the next couple years?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:02:03
    Yes, Chair Chugchai, Council Member Cashman, I think the Break Room Skate Park is one example of that.
  • 02:02:09
    So we had identified that the Downtown West and frankly also the North Loop were seeing significant residential increases and so we've taken steps to acquire property either through partnerships with public entities like with MnDOT for the Break Room Skate Park or through park dedication in collaboration with developers like the North Loop Park
  • 02:02:32
    on Third Street.
  • 02:02:34
    And so we're in these heavily built up neighborhoods.
  • 02:02:38
    It's hard to find park space.
  • 02:02:39
    And so we have those on our radar and are trying to find locations in many cases for new parks like the Break Room Skate Park and like the North Loop Park site.
  • 02:02:52
    Those have been kind of sort of carved out of the existing city infrastructure for lack of a better phrase because we know those neighborhoods are densifying and
  • 02:03:02
    we have limited options but we try to take what we can achieve.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:03:06
    Okay I'll just note that you know in the theater district and the entertainment district there are several surface level parking lots and many of the owners of those surface level parking lots are interested in selling those plots because parking demand has really changed in the last few years and someone that comes to mind for me is 5th and Hennepin it has the Bob Dylan mural on the side of the building it's not being used but it's just a
  • 02:03:30
    a lot in downtown Minneapolis and even the city has a lot of parking assets downtown that might be considered for greenery.
  • 02:03:39
    And we are actively trying to build a residential population downtown.
  • 02:03:44
    We added 2,000 new residents to downtown last year.
  • 02:03:47
    We're at 68,000 now.
  • 02:03:48
    That will be growing.
  • 02:03:50
    And I hear every day from downtown residents that they don't even have a place to bring their dog to
  • 02:03:55
    to really relieve itself.
  • 02:03:56
    There's just not enough green space downtown so I'll be advocating for the park commissioners to really take this into consideration and hope to see some new sites in downtown identified for future parks.
  • 02:04:11
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:04:14
    Wonderful, and I'm just going to quick invite Director DeCenza, actually Mr. O'Brien, back up to answer an earlier question and then I believe we will receive and file this presentation.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 02:04:29
    Liam O'Brien, Senior Budget Analyst with the Budget Division through the Chair.
  • 02:04:33
    To respond to Councilmember Cashman's earlier question regarding value capture and the 2% listed there on slide 7.
  • 02:04:41
    So the projects that are for that 2% is Nicollet Avenue over Minnehaha Creek or BR 127.
  • 02:04:48
    PV074 which is a MnDOT cooperative projects capital project PV160 is the First Avenue South project PV182 Lake at Nicolette reopening and then PV189 which is transit improvements tied to the Nicollet Mall Thank you and how much was in the last one transit improvements for Nicollet Mall?
  • 02:05:12
    Nothing in 2026 but in 2027 10 million and 2028 10 million Okay thank you
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:05:19
    And with that, I'll ask the clerk to file this presentation.
  • 02:05:26
    And we have concluded all business to come before the committee today.
  • 02:05:30
    If there's no objection, we stand adjourned.
  • 02:05:32
    Thank you, everyone.