Budget Committee - November 19, 2025   11/19/2025

Roll Call

• • 00:02:46
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:05:17
    Good morning.
  • 00:05:17
    Calling the St Paul, City Council, Finance, and Budget Committee to order.
  • 00:05:21
    We have a, it looks like a light schedule, but it's not.
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    We've got our wonderful staff member Madeline Mitchell from OFS is going to offer us our 2025 year on projections.
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    And then we also are having a conversation about the chair's budget and any budget amendments that are coming from my colleagues today.
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    So even though it looks pretty light, we've got a lot to get through.
  • 00:05:46
    So Madeline, to the best of your abilities, please give us your best timely presentation.
  • 00:05:54
    I think what I will do is, again, kind of mischief, not mischief management, but time management.
  • 00:06:02
    So we'll be open to questions, but kind of the moment we hit a critical point, I'm going to make sure that Madeline gets the rest of her presentation.
  • 00:06:08
    So with that, I hand it over to you today.
  • 00:06:10
    Hi, Madeline.
  • 00:06:10
    Welcome.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:06:11
    Good morning, Council Members.
  • 00:06:13
    I'm Madeline Mitchell, Budget Manager in OFS.
  • 00:06:16
    I'm here today to present the 2025 Projected General Fund Spending and Revenue.
  • 00:06:21
    I was asked to be brief, so I will do my best.
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    I'll talk quickly.
  • 00:06:26
    I would like to start by thanking the budget team and all of our department partners.
  • 00:06:29
    There's a ton of work and time that goes into making these projections, so thank you to all involved.
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    If I could distill this presentation into two takeaways, they would be that this is an extraordinary year.
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    to the
  • 00:07:02
    we have two extraordinary and unexpected costs that created immense pressure on the city budget this year two and a half million in costs related to the cyber incident 1.5 of which is in the general fund and the seven and a half million paid in September as the result of a recent lawsuit this is the best information we have right now transactions and budget amendments will continue to process through the end of the year
  • 00:07:25
    and then revenue will continue to come in even into 2026 as some of our revenue lags a month or two behind and then we have year-end transfers and internal charges that occur well into 2026 so this is a really busy time of year for city accountants as they continue to clean up entries and make final budget changes on the whole we are projecting that we will have a one-time deficit of 8.4 million for 2025
  • 00:07:49
    This number comes from comparing projected revenue to projected expenditures.
  • 00:07:54
    Said another way, we expect to spend $8.4 million than we will receive in revenue.
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    As you know, we do have a spending and hiring freeze in place to help with this gap.
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    We won't know the full impacts of this freeze until the books are closed on 2025, but we're hopeful that it will continue to help bring that $8.4 million number down.
  • 00:08:14
    In OFS we are actively working with departments to find creative solutions to close the gap for 2025, but it will be a significant challenge So to start here's a high-level summary of our projections I'll walk you through reading this table The amended budget in the second column reflects the adopted budget plus any changes that have occurred in the last 11 months including budget amendments and any carry-forward needed for purchase orders that were open at the end of 2024
  • 00:08:44
    The third column are projected actuals, and those are a combination of actual spending and revenue that has occurred and posted in our finance system and any anticipated additional spending and revenue for the remainder of the year.
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    The fourth column there is the projected variance.
  • 00:09:02
    That's the difference between the projected actual spending and the amended budget.
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    A positive number in the projected variance column is a good thing.
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    on the spending side, it means a department has not overspent their budget.
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    On the revenue side, it means we collected more revenue than budgeted.
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    And the last column shows the percent of the amended budget over or underspent or over or under revenue.
  • 00:09:26
    We are expecting the 2025 general fund budget to be overspent by $8.9 million.
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    which is balanced by additional projected revenue of 5.3 million over budget.
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    And if you're doing the math here, you may wonder why our deficit is 8.4 instead of the difference between 8.9 minus that 5.3 number.
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    And this is because the number in the fourth column, that projected variance, are variance to budget.
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    So if you look at the second column, you'll see that our amended spending budget is 419 million and our amended revenue budget is only 414 million.
  • 00:10:03
    The majority of the difference between those two is due to our carry-forward process where budget authority for open purchase orders is rolled forward into the next year.
  • 00:10:12
    If we compare projections of actual revenue to actual spending, that's where we get the $8.4 million number.
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    I want to highlight here that absent the cyber incident and the lawsuit payment, our projections would show us coming in very close to budget, $618,000 to the good.
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    So that's that bottom number.
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    Next, we have Spending by Department.
  • 00:10:35
    Oh, sorry.
  • 00:10:36
    Yep, sorry.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:10:38
    Who's question was it?
  • 00:10:40
    Oh, Council President.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:10:41
    Thanks, Chair.
  • 00:10:43
    So, Ms. Mitchell, just to make sure I understand, because we were going kind of quickly through that.
  • 00:10:47
    So even before the cyber incident costs and the lawsuit payment costs, we would have been $8.4 million below what we expected to be, or does that include those additional costs?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:11:01
    Council President, the 8.4 million includes the cyber attack and the lawsuit.
  • 00:11:09
    So were it not for those two items, we would be 617 to the good.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:11:14
    OK, so you're showing them underneath, not as additional information, but pulling them out of what's above to illustrate why.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:11:20
    OK. Yeah, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:11:26
    Councilmember Johnson.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:11:28
    Thank you.
  • 00:11:29
    So that is really helpful, additional context.
  • 00:11:32
    My question, I guess, is more of if we're projecting at a time, I guess looking into November, December, we're in the final months of the year.
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    Can you just share a little bit more about what steps are being taken to curve that projected variance?
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    I know we talked a little bit about the hiring freeze in the previous slide.
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    but what exactly is taking place right now that is going to curve that because clearly that would be over budget and it's finances that we don't seem to have and even looking at just the next slide over and the department spending I'm just curious as to what each department is doing when my understanding is that they were all instructed to give
  • 00:12:19
    to basically see where they can make cuts.
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    Some of these are going to be less in dollar amounts than others, and I'm just wondering what steps are being taken citywide?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:12:31
    Yeah, Chair Kim, Council Member Johnson.
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    So I'll tell you a little bit about the methodology for the projections first.
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    So the way that we projected these is we started with actuals, so what we have already spent this year.
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    and then we looked at recent history of payroll and salary expenses and projected that out for the remaining pay periods of the year.
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    So that's the sort of salary expenses, which as we know is the bulk of our general fund spending.
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    And then we worked with departments to get an understanding of what other costs they have.
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    Committee.
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    may have been spent in prior years and will not be spent this year.
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    The hiring and spending waiver process that we have in place means that departments, we are putting additional scrutiny on any hiring decisions and so they are essentially limited to positions that have urgent public safety needs or that would otherwise cause additional financial burden to the city.
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    And then on the spending side for any
  • 00:13:55
    of the city of St. Paul.
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    so we'll know more about that as we close the books on 2025 but I think it's going to be very different from department to department just knowing that the needs are going to be different in each department.
  • 00:14:36
    All right.
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    Next we have spending by department.
  • 00:14:39
    So the majority of departments are coming in underspent in 2025 and that is largely due to the spending and hiring freeze that we have in place.
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    There are a few exceptions largely related to public safety and cyber costs.
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    Emergency management and OTC are projected to be overspent.
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    That's all related to the cyber incident where we had emergency management and OTC staff operating out of the EOC for something like
  • 00:15:04
    this is where the lawsuit was paid from.
  • 00:15:33
    but for that payment we would have had savings in this department and as a reminder the general government accounts isn't really a department but it more is more an account for activities that exist across the city but are not necessarily assignable to one specific department so we budget for things like city elections, outside legal services, district councils, city-wide audit and tort liability costs there.
  • 00:15:59
    The parks department is projected to be overspent by just under three million
  • 00:16:03
    A large chunk of that is driven by replacing and repairing lights hit by copper wire theft.
  • 00:16:07
    The remaining is due to unexpected costs related to summer storms and closing off caves.
  • 00:16:12
    And there are also increased costs for rec center and pool safety, which I believe Director Rodriguez touched on in his recent presentation.
  • 00:16:20
    The police department is projected to be $2.5 million overspent.
  • 00:16:24
    I will note that this will be closer to $1.5 million once a budget amendment is processed that recognizes additional spending and revenue.
  • 00:16:32
    This is largely due to services and materials including computer software, maintenance supplies and ammunition.
  • 00:16:40
    There is underspending across departments and like I said related to the spending and hiring freezes that will thankfully help offset some of the higher costs in other areas.
  • 00:16:51
    Overall I would say because of the pressures that we are facing this year
  • 00:16:54
    Many departments have made changes to how they are operating, so we are treating this year as an outlier rather than an indication of future spending patterns.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:17:08
    Council President.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:17:09
    Thanks, Chair.
  • 00:17:10
    I know that we often have unavoidable things that come up, but I guess I'm curious about some of those reasons for the overspends that you're talking about, which are significant, especially in fire parks and police.
  • 00:17:22
    I mean, for example, replacing copper wire lighting theft issues.
  • 00:17:26
    We've frequently heard from public works, for example, that they don't have the money to replace the lights in certain areas.
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    I'm trying to understand how a department is allowed to spend money that it doesn't have beyond its budget to make choices like that.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:17:45
    Chair Kim, Council President Baker, do you want to jump in there?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:17:50
    Chair Kim and Council President Naker so in the case of the copper wire theft because of the public safety concerns related to lights being out across the city and the like pervasiveness of that issue earlier in the year there was a decision made to proceed with doing as much replacement as we can and an understanding that like throughout the year
  • 00:18:19
    OFS would be working to make sure that the city still kind of came in on balance.
  • 00:18:23
    I know like in the slide where we can see, you know, our revenues are actually coming in better than budget, right?
  • 00:18:28
    So I think we have five million more revenue than we had budgeted for.
  • 00:18:31
    So in a typical year we would see some overspending in parks to address that public safety need and we would still be coming in on budget because we have, you know, better revenues than expected.
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    But this year because of the unplanned kind of one-time spending that came up,
  • 00:18:47
    that is kind of adjusting, but OFS is still working to ensure that we do come in on budget on the whole, but basically there was a decision made earlier in the year to try to address that public safety need and Parks was directed to do that.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:19:08
    Great, Council Member Bowie.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 00:19:09
    council member council vice president Kim thank you so much I just want to also just like piggyback off of council president Akers question because I I just think in terms of being good stewards of our of our dollars and we go through an entire process right to adopt the budget and we go through an entire process to be able to approve whether it's transferring ours or in emergencies and even
  • 00:19:32
    and the City Council.
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    are there guardrails right?
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    Is there caps in terms of like where is the alert systems I guess of when a department is going over budget and then how is that being conveyed to council members in advance?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:20:06
    Sure.
  • 00:20:07
    Chair Kim and Council Member Bui, thank you.
  • 00:20:09
    I would say, I mean, throughout the year, the departments, like in the budget presentations, departments are presenting kind of where they are in process.
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    So I think we all shared our budget to actuals at that point.
  • 00:20:24
    So in, I think that was August, September, departments are sharing kind of where they are during the year with that budget to actual data.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:20:32
    And I would also add that
  • 00:20:35
    There are a number of different guardrails in place.
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    One of them is that departments hit budget restrictions.
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    And then for certain categories, we don't have those on personnel because people need to get paid.
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    But for services and materials, once a department is going to be over in that, it does trigger an alert to OFS.
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    And so then that is when we look into it and see what is causing that.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:21:04
    Thank you.
  • 00:21:05
    Council Member Johnson.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:21:07
    Yeah, I appreciate it.
  • 00:21:08
    I won't elaborate a little bit more.
  • 00:21:10
    I won't labor the points.
  • 00:21:13
    However, what I will say is just that with the projected variance, the projected variance from the budget is the gap that we would be looking for.
  • 00:21:23
    And as the folks are going through the budget or overspending the budget or being able to exceed their department budgets by the end of the year,
  • 00:21:34
    budget committee.
  • 00:21:52
    but last year we also had similar issues where there was overspending in some of these same departments and I'm not actually sure if that's a one-off situation or if that's a reoccurring one in some instances for different reasons but I remember having conversations in particular about overtime and overspending which actually warranted council decisions on the police department and having conversations similar in the fire department
  • 00:22:17
    Committee.
  • 00:22:38
    And I'm just wondering, instead of treating something like this as a one-off, how we're planning ahead for future potential pending lawsuit litigation that we have to account for that can come in projected higher, or even just additional emergency situations that come up.
  • 00:22:54
    Because it doesn't seem like that is something, if we're treating this like an anomaly, then I would expect to see the numbers or the variances as well.
  • 00:23:01
    but we've seen those in 2024 we've seen those in 2025 as well prior to this you know in the space of like even talking about how to budget how to budget for the year and as we head into next year you know I'm I'm not sure if we kind of allow for overspending and two of our largest departments you know just doing quick math like of our overall like the projected expenditures you know
  • 00:23:29
    I'm looking at the numbers and even hearing from how we were responding and talking to departments about how they would be needing to think about their proportion of the overall budget.
  • 00:23:47
    if they're overspending their budget I don't see how they're contributing to the 8.4 million dollar deficit that's there and then some of these other departments or even the Housing Redevelopment Authority having to account for millions of that 8.4 deficit because they cannot doesn't seem appropriate for me and it's actually quite concerning and so I guess my question really is like
  • 00:24:06
    we're treating it like an anomaly but I don't necessarily know if it's a one-off situation because we can't predict the future of litigation and pending lawsuits but we also can't predict the future of how to respond to crisis and emergencies without being able to budget for that or to plan for it in the future so instead of like treating it like a one-off I'm just wondering what can be learned from this year because last year's numbers were
  • 00:24:31
    and some of these departments weren't all that different in overspending, which thus required additional budget contingencies, additional action from Council, additional reporting requirements this year for some of the departments that were overspending in their overtime budget by millions.
  • 00:24:47
    So that's not an anomaly.
  • 00:24:48
    And I'm just wondering how we're planning ahead for 2026.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:24:52
    Chair Kim, Council Member Johnson, I should clarify that the piece of it that we are treating as a one-time anomaly is the lawsuit in the cyber attack.
  • 00:25:01
    The lawsuit was a historic payout.
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    We've never had an amount even anywhere near that number.
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    So it really was something very different than what we had before.
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    Committee.
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    was an anomaly in that way.
  • 00:25:27
    And then the cyber attack as well is not something that anybody expected.
  • 00:25:32
    We have made investments and put new systems in place to prevent against that going forward.
  • 00:25:40
    There are investments included in the 2026 budget to help protect against future attacks like that as well.
  • 00:25:47
    Anything else, Laura?
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:25:55
    of the City of St Paul.
  • 00:26:18
    I guess I just want to understand that a little bit better.
  • 00:26:20
    Is it that we adopt a balanced General Fund budget when we adopt the budget?
  • 00:26:25
    And then over the course of the year, all of those budget amendments that we see coming in front of us at the Council week by week, that's how we got to a point where the amended budget overall showed a $5 million shortfall.
  • 00:26:36
    And I guess my follow-up to that would be,
  • 00:26:40
    as I think Councilmember Bowie said very well, I think it's important for this council to understand the impact of those budget amendments as we're making them.
  • 00:26:47
    Because I think we're putting a lot of faith, there's always the attachment that says and the mayor certifies that there is money for this, right?
  • 00:26:55
    I've never thought as we've been making those amendments that that means that we're gradually adding to a $5 million or whatever the size is every year gap at the end of the year.
  • 00:27:04
    And I think it's important for us to have that context as we're making those amendments.
  • 00:27:08
    am I understanding it right that that's how we got from a balanced budget to this point over the course of the year?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:27:15
    Well, Council President, the main piece of that difference between the 419 in expenditures and 414 is what we call carry forward and that's when a department enters a purchase order in the prior year which is attached to budget authority from a prior year and then that
  • 00:27:38
    purchase order is not closed or not completed.
  • 00:27:40
    The purchase is not made.
  • 00:27:42
    That authority from the prior year moves forward.
  • 00:27:44
    So it is essentially similar to like a use of fund balance.
  • 00:27:49
    And this is just sort of like an accounting technical piece where we only added on the spending side.
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    The assumption is it's like we have savings from that in either the year before or the year before that that we are pulling from to make those purchases in the current year.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:28:07
    So the $5 million, just to make sure I understand, is all dollars we expected to have spent in the previous year that we had budgeted for that weren't spent end up getting spent in this year.
  • 00:28:18
    And we're showing it as a $5 million loss, but we actually had $5 million left over last year that wasn't spent.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:28:24
    Council President, yes.
  • 00:28:26
    OK, thank you.
  • 00:28:32
    On the revenue side, we are coming in pretty close to budget overall, about 1.3% over our initial projections.
  • 00:28:39
    The biggest driver here is in that third line, that's pension aids, paramedic fees, and interest earnings.
  • 00:28:44
    We expect about 2.7 million higher than budgeted revenue on interest earnings on city investments.
  • 00:28:51
    That's in part due to the higher interest rates in recent years.
  • 00:28:54
    We do expect this revenue source to decline in the future as the Federal Reserve is projecting cuts to interest rates.
  • 00:29:00
    then we are projecting an additional $400,000 in paramedic fees and around a million in additional police aid and police pension aid and disability insurance.
  • 00:29:09
    Police pension aid is based on the car insurance premiums and also the number of police officers that we have.
  • 00:29:15
    The amount we receive for fire and police disability insurance is based on the number of employees on duty disability under the age of 65 and the cost of health insurance.
  • 00:29:25
    So this increase is driven by more people going on duty disability and then paired with rising healthcare costs.
  • 00:29:32
    Franchise fees are also coming in better than expected by about one million.
  • 00:29:35
    2024 was a five-year low for both gas and electric franchise fees and 2025 is more of a return to normal.
  • 00:29:46
    For many of these we have already made appropriate adjustments in the 2026 proposed budget to reflect these increases.
  • 00:29:56
    So we're continuing to work on finding solutions to end 2025 on budget.
  • 00:30:02
    We're hopeful that we will continue to see further savings from the spending and hiring freeze.
  • 00:30:06
    We have also started the process with the state of Minnesota for potential reimbursement of costs related to the cyber emergency.
  • 00:30:13
    Within our own budget we are looking at all options including grant funds that are expiring soon to see if we have any eligible expenses that have yet to be shifted to those grants.
  • 00:30:22
    We're looking at special funds with healthy balances that could provide support to the General Fund on a one-time basis.
  • 00:30:29
    This includes evaluating some of our own internal charges to determine whether we can reduce or eliminate some of those expenses for this year.
  • 00:30:37
    So, closing this gap will be a big challenge, but it's essential to maintaining the health of the General Fund long term.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:30:46
    And that is the end of my presentation.
  • 00:30:48
    Great.
  • 00:30:48
    Question from the CP.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:30:50
    Thanks, Chair.
  • 00:30:51
    Two questions.
  • 00:30:53
    Can you say a little bit more about what you expect to be the potential reimbursement for the cyber incident?
  • 00:30:57
    I know we were really proactive and smart about declaring it an emergency so that we would be potentially eligible for some of those reimbursements.
  • 00:31:04
    So I'm just wondering what the scale of that is projected to be and when we would know.
  • 00:31:08
    And then second of all, is OFS coming to this body
  • 00:31:13
    asking for any amendments or changes to the current budget in order to fill this gap.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:31:21
    Sure, thank you Chair Kim and Council President.
  • 00:31:25
    So the first question related to the reimbursement request with the state, we're still in that process.
  • 00:31:31
    I believe the, and I know we have some emergency management folks here so they can check me if I'm wrong, I believe that we're currently waiting on the governor to declare the official emergency.
  • 00:31:41
    We had to work through, we had to be told by the state that we should request an official emergency declaration and then we had to work through the county to do that.
  • 00:31:48
    So there's a lot of kind of bureaucratic steps.
  • 00:31:50
    So I believe that's on the governor's desk right now.
  • 00:31:52
    And then if he declares that this is an eligible emergency, then we would continue to move through the process to ensure that our expenses that we have coded to the incident are actually eligible.
  • 00:32:04
    There's potential for us to be reimbursed for up to, I think, 75% of our costs.
  • 00:32:09
    So it would not be the full amount.
  • 00:32:12
    But we've worked really diligently with all departments to ensure that we have coded all of our
  • 00:32:18
    of the City of St Paul.
  • 00:32:38
    So we're doing everything we can to make sure that we make the best case for why we should get reimbursed for that full 75% of our expenses.
  • 00:32:48
    But at this point, it's not clear to us.
  • 00:32:52
    There's just a lot of steps that still have to flow through that we don't have control over.
  • 00:32:56
    but we're doing everything we can and emergency management is leading on that and has been doing really great work so we're as prepared as we can be to get as much money as we can.
  • 00:33:07
    Your second question, I just talked for so long I forgot what it was, sorry.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:33:12
    Any asks to this body for amendments to cover the gap?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:33:15
    for the HRA.
  • 00:33:32
    So we're kind of in discussion on that.
  • 00:33:35
    But I don't think we anticipate any other budget amendments.
  • 00:33:40
    A lot of the solves that we're looking at would be looking at expenses currently in the general fund that are eligible to be paid for out of other sources that are already budgeted as well.
  • 00:33:50
    So if there's a grant that's already budgeted that's underspent, can we move any current general fund expenses into that grant?
  • 00:33:57
    and out of the general fund.
  • 00:34:00
    So most of what we're looking at would not require budget amendments.
  • 00:34:04
    But yeah, that's it.
  • 00:34:06
    Thank you.
  • 00:34:08
    Thank you.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:34:10
    Council Member Johnson.
  • 00:34:11
    And I guess just so I know that with the fees of the 75% of the costs, is that of the $1.5 million, or is that of the, what is our actual cyber cost looking like?
  • 00:34:23
    So looking here, we've heard many different numbers, so I'm just wondering.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:34:28
    For sure, Chair Kim and Councilmember Johnson.
  • 00:34:32
    So the numbers, the number kind of continues to change because there's still ongoing work related to the cyber incident.
  • 00:34:39
    Right now we're at around 2.5 to 2.7 million.
  • 00:34:44
    Some of that is for employee salaries that we would have already paid if not for the cyber incident.
  • 00:34:52
    It's not $2.7 million in addition over and above what was already budgeted.
  • 00:34:59
    Some of that is people's current salaries.
  • 00:35:02
    But there is overtime in there.
  • 00:35:04
    There are contracts for support that we did not have in the budget already.
  • 00:35:10
    So some amount of that $2.7 million is over and above what was in the city's budget.
  • 00:35:15
    We're hopeful to make the case that the full $2.7 million is eligible.
  • 00:35:19
    and so that would be 75% of that but I doubt that the state would agree that that full amount is eligible because there are, we included some folks like current salaries and there's just really specific rules related to current salaries and eligibility.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 00:35:44
    Thank you, Vice Chair Kim.
  • 00:35:46
    I do have a question.
  • 00:35:47
    I just wanted to get a quick refresher.
  • 00:35:50
    I know you talked about it in the third slide here, but in terms of the lawsuit payment, can you just walk us through what is also the source of it?
  • 00:35:59
    From my understanding, I believe it just comes from the general fund, but has it always historically been that way?
  • 00:36:05
    I'm going to talk about a little bit about that from my understanding there's like a tort fund but once it exceeds that then it comes from the general fund.
  • 00:36:15
    Has it always been that way or has there been some adjustments to actually address some of the lawsuit payments?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:36:23
    Chair Kim, Council Member Bowie, it does come from the General Fund.
  • 00:36:27
    As far as I know, that is where we have always paid for things like this and it's just exceptional in that it's a much bigger number this time.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 00:36:39
    And then can you speak to, I guess if you could just like reference the tort fund and how that's budgeted for.
  • 00:36:48
    And it seems like that's kind of like the mechanism we use to actually fund lawsuits, but it seems like historically it exceeds that.
  • 00:36:58
    Am I correct?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:36:59
    Council Member, I believe the tort budget has around 720,000 in there.
  • 00:37:08
    And it's been a mix.
  • 00:37:10
    There have been many years where we don't meet that budget at all.
  • 00:37:14
    There are years where we exceeded a little bit.
  • 00:37:16
    And then there are years like this year where we exceeded by quite a bit.
  • 00:37:21
    So we do have an amount budgeted.
  • 00:37:24
    And then it's really highly dependent on the way
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:37:29
    litigation flows through the city.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:37:49
    Do we have when I guess it's we would have October year two dates at this point so now we have the projections, but would this be based off of October numbers or Chair Kim council these are based off October numbers Would we be able to get the October numbers by department?
  • 00:38:11
    I'm just curious as to how we're tracking I
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:38:14
    Chair Kim, Councilmember, yes.
  • 00:38:16
    The thing that I would add to that is that there is a lot of analysis that goes into those projections to make them what they are.
  • 00:38:26
    There are quite a few accounting entries that have yet to be made.
  • 00:38:32
    Departments doing journal entries to move costs between funds.
  • 00:38:36
    So the actuals may not reflect some of those changes that need to be made.
  • 00:38:43
    So they don't tell the full story and that's why we put the work in to do projections so that we can figure out some of that before you all see that.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:38:51
    And then also I guess just to the piece of the projected spending and revenue and the carryover from year to year.
  • 00:39:00
    Do we anticipate having carryover this year?
  • 00:39:05
    Are there certain things that will show up next year in an amended budget or protected actual variance that is money that is not being expended this year that we're anticipating for next year?
  • 00:39:17
    and I'm just curious as to how that gets factored in as like what we continue year after year because for some of these I'm just wondering like if we had five million dollars of unders of unspent money that we moved into the year we carry over you know consistently year to year I'm just wondering if that like how do we have a chance to see like what is actually being carried over in the budget process every year that didn't get completed
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:39:44
    Councilmember, we're still working through that process right now.
  • 00:39:48
    Given that we are in the situation that we're in in the general fund, we're reviewing how much, if any, is appropriate to carry forward into 2026.
  • 00:39:57
    So more to come on that.
  • 00:40:01
    In general, I would say over the last few years, we have been working on our carry forward process to make sure that we are really
  • 00:40:08
    of the City of St. Paul, City Council,
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:40:23
    Chair, I would just add that we're also planning to connect the carry forward process next year with our spending waiver process this year.
  • 00:40:30
    So we would want to see from departments, did we approve this spending?
  • 00:40:35
    Did it go through the spending approval process in fall of 2025?
  • 00:40:39
    And if so, that's like we already approved the department could do that spending.
  • 00:40:44
    And so that would likely be allowed to carry forward.
  • 00:40:46
    But if that was not kind of pre-approved, that would have additional scrutiny.
  • 00:40:52
    So we're trying to ensure that we connect those processes this year.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:40:59
    Council Member Johnson.
  • 00:40:59
    And just as far as like the budget process itself like I think what is really interesting to me is like so many of those decisions are internally done and not communicated to council about what actual requests are coming in like which positions are being approved which ones are not being approved which like things are being cut which is not being cut what is the communication look like to council about the
  • 00:41:22
    Committee.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:41:38
    Chair Kim and Councilmember Johnson, I think we're certainly open to continued communication on those items.
  • 00:41:47
    I think the year-end projection meeting, I know that Madeline did this presentation last year, so I think this is a space where we're providing that information.
  • 00:41:56
    I think a lot of these processes are administrative in nature, so certainly happy to share information and share understanding.
  • 00:42:08
    There's also just a level of administrative work that's happening based on our responsibilities in terms of managing the budget.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:42:23
    Yeah, I think it would be really helpful just to, especially for some of the positions and like for example, the hiring freeze.
  • 00:42:30
    The positions that have been approved, not approved, those budget impacts, like those questions to me, like if they're going through a process, we have documentation of what that process entails.
  • 00:42:41
    If they're going through the processes we had into 2026 to continue, there'd be an argument for why they would, or rationale for why they would continue.
  • 00:42:49
    Committee, but likewise would be for carryovers and things that would get into the 2026 budget.
  • 00:42:56
    I'm assuming we would, as Council, still see those projected on the time when we have budget proposals for next year, or is that not right?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:43:07
    Chair Kim and Councilmember Johnson, I'm just going to make sure I'm understanding the question.
  • 00:43:15
    When we're putting together the gap for next year, are you asking if the carry-forward is considered as part of the gap?
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:43:24
    And to what extent the Council has the ability to weigh in on that?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:43:28
    Sure.
  • 00:43:29
    So when we're putting together the gap, we're looking at the next year, so like the 2027 budget, and that the mayor's proposed budget is solving that future year gap.
  • 00:43:44
    What we're facing this year is sort of extraordinary circumstances that have created a gap in the current year.
  • 00:43:50
    and so we're working through solutions to solve that gap like in real time and some of them we can do administratively just because of the way that the budget is already set up and you know grants have already been accepted and so we can try to move expenses into those but then some of the other potential solutions are things we do need to come to the Council on so I think we're working through that process to the best of our ability of
  • 00:44:18
    Council.
  • 00:44:18
    Um and then in the areas where we can administratively move forward solutions.
  • 00:44:25
    We're going to do that and then in the areas where we cannot move forward without
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:44:39
    It sounds great.
  • 00:44:40
    All right.
  • 00:44:40
    Thank you so much for coming to chambers and having such a great update.
  • 00:44:45
    We appreciate all the time and energy that you put into all of our financial documents.
  • 00:44:49
    So thank you so much.
  • 00:44:50
    We are now going to transition.
  • 00:44:52
    It's 1045.
  • 00:44:54
    We're sort of right on time.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:44:56
    So we're right on time with still a lot to go.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:44:59
    We are going to transition to just really briefly speak about the Chair's 2026 proposed
  • 00:45:05
    budget amendment to the mayor's proposed budget.
  • 00:45:09
    And then we will take time, and I will time folks, but whatever time remains after short of my spiel is the amount that we'll have for amendments.
  • 00:45:20
    It appears as of yesterday there were 12 and as of this morning there were 15.
  • 00:45:25
    So I'm going to just also briefly speak about process and what to expect moving forward.
  • 00:45:30
    So, since the mayor's proposed, has proposed the 2026 budget, the City Council's been in a very lengthy and deliberative process on the way our final budget vote
  • 00:45:41
    on the way to our final budget vote on December 3rd.
  • 00:45:44
    This process has included detailed presentations and briefings from every single department, community engagement across the city and every ward where we heard directly from residents about their priorities and concerns and a strong collaboration with our OFS partners.
  • 00:45:57
    The depth of input we've received reflects the shared values and concerns that we all share about St Paul.
  • 00:46:03
    As we present these proposed amendments, we do so with the weight of our fiscal reality in mind.
  • 00:46:08
    The budget decisions before us require balancing competitive priorities with very limited resources.
  • 00:46:14
    At the end of September, the Council voted to approve a 5.3 maximum levy.
  • 00:46:19
    We understand that increases in property taxes are felt acutely by our residents.
  • 00:46:24
    Our amendments are designed to strengthen our core city services our residents depend on most and we believe that these changes will strike the right balance between investing in what matters and exercising fiscal responsibility during these challenging times.
  • 00:46:40
    Specifically these amendments include in no particular order restoring the number of firefighters
  • 00:46:47
    I should use this one.
  • 00:46:48
    Restoring our rec center hours, restoring our library hours in FTE, our firefighters, restoring our BLS night shift unit, restoring our cares unit, our council communications staff, restoring funding for our audit committee and our children's collaborative, adding additional funding for our district councils,
  • 00:47:05
    restoring our Council's safety and security renovation, our Listening Houses Work Now program, and sustaining our commercial corridor funding at the level of 2025, which was proudly led by our HRA Chair Johnson, and carrying forward our reparations commission funding.
  • 00:47:24
    We also have identified key sources that help us balance the budget with our priorities.
  • 00:47:29
    We're increasing our ambulance transportation fees, we're eliminating vacant positions, reducing
  • 00:47:35
    We have money for mill and overlay, removing funding for robotic stripping, repurposing transfers from HRA, and we are adjusting the timeline for hiring our unfulfilled hero director position.
  • 00:47:48
    And this information will be posted to Legistar, but our total proposed uses is 4.1 million, and our total proposed sources is also 4.1 million.
  • 00:47:59
    So I'm very proud as the very interim budget chair with our budget chair, Chair Yang, to offer a proposed amendment to the mayor's budget as a balanced one and one that has a very strong support of both our colleagues but also the residents that we represent.
  • 00:48:23
    I'm going to potentially embarrass our budget officer.
  • 00:48:27
    Is there anything that I missed that you'd want to just make sure that we emphasize?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:48:34
    Thank you, Chair Kim.
  • 00:48:36
    Yes, the proposed amendment shared with you all is, I would share that it has the consensus, it has the broader support.
  • 00:48:46
    We are still working through to provide a finalized version in the sense, you know, match to match.
  • 00:48:52
    This is where the source is and this is how it is going to be paid for and we appreciate your patience and engagement as we refine the amendment to ensure accuracy and alignment with the council priorities.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:49:08
    Awesome.
• • Nelsie Yang
  • 00:49:08
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:49:09
    Thank you.
  • 00:49:11
    I'm now just very briefly going to very briefly talk about essentially how what this process looked like and what folks can expect moving forward.
  • 00:49:19
    So we had asked folks to submit an idea to our budget officer by Friday, November 5th.
  • 00:49:28
    Any idea that they had in terms of how they would like to amend the proposed chair's budget.
  • 00:49:35
    and it's also the Councilmember's responsibility to budget solve for it and we were asking for potential budget solves by this last Monday at 5pm.
  • 00:49:46
    It was also very clear that budget solves for our amendments cannot include funds that we used for the Chair's budget proposal and that we would be strongly discouraging our colleagues to provide or bring forward amendments that impact or alter the Chair's budget.
  • 00:50:02
    as we have a very strong support through conversations with all of our colleagues.
  • 00:50:09
    So all of the amendments with a potential budget solve were distributed to commude yesterday by noon and for review and also a little bit of vetting.
  • 00:50:21
    So now moving forward we will hear all of the amendments today and next week it is each office's responsibility to submit their amendment into Legistar with no less than four supporting members and to do so so that we can vote on it with our final adopt our final budget and max levy on December 3rd
  • 00:50:45
    and I'll put all this in writing for folks.
  • 00:50:47
    So, just for the millions of viewers at home, if you hear an amendment that you really love, please lobby your council member.
  • 00:50:53
    So, it is 10.50, we have 40 minutes right until 11.30 and we have 15 amendments, so whatever that is, it's like two
  • 00:51:08
    of the Council.
  • 00:51:21
    And again, what we're looking for is what it is, kind of why you're interested, and if you have a potential budget solve for it.
  • 00:51:28
    You don't have to be incredibly detailed, but we do have a list that our budget officer provided us if it's one time or ongoing.
  • 00:51:35
    I am going to distribute the list that was existing for our budget officer within that timeline.
  • 00:51:43
    And then
  • 00:51:46
    My understanding is that Councilmember Bui has also provided three additional amendments.
  • 00:51:57
    I'm not sure if they have budget implications or not, but we will find out shortly.
  • 00:52:00
    So we will prioritize the ones that were submitted within that timeline and then we'll take up the three that Councilmember Bui submitted this morning.
  • 00:52:09
    Yes, Council President.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:52:11
    I'm happy to use my time to say this, but I just wanted to thank you for your leadership on this process.
  • 00:52:18
    I think people throw the term unprecedented around a lot.
  • 00:52:21
    is not always in context where it's appropriate.
  • 00:52:24
    And in this case, everything about this has been unprecedented.
  • 00:52:27
    We started by saying that we were going to have a transparent process for our budget, that we were going to talk about our budget publicly in a way that we never have before, and that we were going to commit to a timeline and stick to that timeline and an inclusive process.
  • 00:52:40
    And you and I have both been through enough budgets to know that it's easy to say that at the beginning of the process, it's much harder to actually lead through it.
  • 00:52:46
    this conversation is unprecedented the fact that we're sitting here today talking about our amendments publicly so that everyone knows what we're thinking is unprecedented the fact that we are proposing 13 amendments that we have consensus on as this council I've never seen so many amendments that are that we have funded
  • 00:53:02
    and they are all responsive to the things that we've heard from our constituents specifically about frontline services and things that affect people's daily lives.
  • 00:53:10
    And then we're going to continue and be on time and on budget on December 3rd when we adopt our budget.
  • 00:53:16
    So I don't want that to go without being said because it's been your leadership and yours also, Chair.
  • 00:53:21
    that's gotten us to this point, and I'm really proud.
  • 00:53:23
    And we're going to disagree, right, on some of the details of this.
  • 00:53:26
    I know we will.
  • 00:53:27
    But by and large, this process has been unprecedentedly good and transparent.
  • 00:53:32
    So I wanted to say that.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:53:33
    Thank you.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:53:33
    And if that took my time, it's fine.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:53:35
    I really appreciate that, yeah.
  • 00:53:36
    And just a strong kudos to the leadership team with you and Council Member Johnson.
  • 00:53:41
    It's just been such an incredible partnership.
  • 00:53:43
    And a huge kudos to our budget officer and our operations director, J.A.
  • 00:53:46
    Wilms.
  • 00:53:47
    It's the teamwork that gets us through the bulk of the work.
  • 00:53:52
    And again, a huge shout out to the staff in OFS who've been incredible partners through this.
  • 00:53:56
    So all right, with that, now it's 1053.
  • 00:53:59
    So we're going to still stick to the two minutes.
  • 00:54:02
    And I think we're just going to go from the top.
  • 00:54:03
    So I'll be the kind of guinea pig in this exercise.
  • 00:54:07
    So I'm going to start my two minutes.
  • 00:54:10
    I do plan on bringing these together.
  • 00:54:12
    I guess I could bring them separately.
  • 00:54:15
    of the United States.
  • 00:54:16
    I am in strong partnership with chair Yang and council member Coleman on both of these items.
  • 00:54:26
    The immigration defense fund, St. Paul is home to 70,000 migrants.
  • 00:54:33
    In Minnesota specifically, the Vera Institute for Justice estimates 51% of migrants facing deportation are without representation.
  • 00:54:40
    Now more than ever, with the federal administration intent on subverting our constitutional rights, we need to sustain funding for our own Immigrant Defense Fund.
  • 00:54:49
    St. Paul partners with Minnesota Legal Aid, advocates for human rights, and the Immigrant Law Center to provide representation to residents facing immigration action.
  • 00:55:01
    The New American Loan Program, or Naturalization Support Fund, in a similar vein, the New American Loan Program is one of the package of programs the city has to support our migrant community.
  • 00:55:12
    This program is particularly for permanent U.S. residents going through the naturalization process, which is lengthy and incredibly expensive for new residents.
  • 00:55:20
    This program offers an interest-free loan to assist residents with the cost of naturalization.
  • 00:55:24
    So the amendment for both of those that Chair Yang and Council Member Coleman and I plan on bringing forward is to amend the budget to the City Attorney's Office to increase by $300,000.
  • 00:55:35
    The amendment allocates $300,000 in one-time funding to support the Migrant Defense Fund and the New American Loan Program.
  • 00:55:40
    We have a budget solved that we will be using unspent.
  • 00:55:43
    Special Fund Dollars 211 that were specifically budgeted for the Police Academy.
  • 00:55:47
    They did not use any of their funds, and they're planning on using salary savings to fund the 2026 Police Academy.
  • 00:55:54
    I have 15 seconds left, and I would yield to two of my colleagues if you want to speak for 10 seconds about it.
  • 00:56:03
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:56:04
    I really appreciate this part from my colleagues.
  • 00:56:06
    We look forward to earning your support.
  • 00:56:07
    Can I ask a clarifying question?
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:56:08
    Sure.
  • 00:56:09
    So just to be clear, Chair, the funds, the source for this would be from unspent funds for the police academy in 25.
  • 00:56:16
    It wouldn't affect the department's ability to hold academies in 26.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:56:20
    The police, based on their proposal, they are using salary savings to fund their 2026 academy.
  • 00:56:26
    So it does not impact their ability to host an academy next year.
  • 00:56:28
    Thank you for the question.
  • 00:56:31
    All right, going down the line, I did two in two minutes.
  • 00:56:36
    We have retained two PEOs proposed to be cut in 2026.
  • 00:56:40
    Whose amendment is that?
  • 00:56:41
    All right, Council President.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:56:42
    We've thrown down the gauntlet by doing two in two minutes, so we'll see what I can do.
  • 00:56:46
    As we all know, parking enforcement is a huge issue in our city.
  • 00:56:49
    One of our basic promises to our constituents, our residents, our employees, our visitors is that we set our laws and we enforce our laws and right now that's just not happening when it comes to parking enforcement, which means that accessible parking spaces are taken up.
  • 00:57:04
    We're not seeing the turnover that we need to support our businesses.
  • 00:57:06
    and people get frustrated when they pay for permit parking districts every year and then they don't actually see that enforcement happening in their neighborhoods.
  • 00:57:13
    The reason for that is that we have currently 10 parking enforcement officers citywide.
  • 00:57:18
    That's three at any one time because they're divided into three shifts and we're proposing, the mayor has proposed in this budget to cut two of those so we would go down to eight parking enforcement officers citywide.
  • 00:57:30
    Parking enforcement officers not only pay for themselves with the ticket revenue that they collect but also
  • 00:57:34
    They're a critical pipeline into the police department, specifically for young people, specifically for young people of color.
  • 00:57:40
    So this proposal is to retain the two PEOs who are being proposed to be cut and add six additional PEOs, which would bring us up to a total of 16 officers.
  • 00:57:51
    We do need to have 25 to be fully staffed, so this doesn't get us there.
  • 00:57:56
    But it is revenue neutral in that it is bringing in the amount of money and actually a slightly more through expected ticket revenue according to the department.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:58:04
    We're at 1 minute and 16 seconds.
  • 00:58:06
    Any questions or additions?
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:58:11
    Wonderful.
  • 00:58:11
    There's a whole 45 seconds for questions.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:58:12
    I know.
  • 00:58:13
    Reason on through.
  • 00:58:14
    This is great.
  • 00:58:15
    I will lift up a single finger to show you your one minute mark, and then I'll maybe give you one of these at your two minutes.
  • 00:58:21
    All right.
  • 00:58:22
    Next up, we've got higher community prosecutor and the city attorney's office.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:58:26
    Thanks, chair.
  • 00:58:27
    This is also me.
  • 00:58:28
    This is a revenue neutral or budget neutral proposal.
  • 00:58:30
    The downtown alliance has proposed
  • 00:58:33
    hiring a community prosecutor that would live in the city attorney's office.
  • 00:58:37
    They have the budget for this so this would not be coming out of our general fund, but the idea is to budget for it and then take the dollars from the downtown alliance.
  • 00:58:44
    A community prosecutor offers benefits such as reduced crime through strong relationships with the community and proactive partnerships that try to get at the root causes of some of the quality of life crimes we see in our neighborhoods.
  • 00:58:57
    Committee.
  • 00:59:03
    and these are folks who can actually get a little bit more proactive and more relational about solving these problems rather than taking everything through a justice system that is frankly already overloaded and is not going to take those crimes as seriously.
  • 00:59:15
    These are folks who can actually get people into the treatment they need, get people connected to the services that they need and kind of like familiar faces, be the prosecutor who's more familiar with the individuals who are regularly committing these kinds of crimes so that they actually get the help that they need.
  • 00:59:30
    Committee.
  • 00:59:31
    So this is a model that's been proven in many other jurisdictions, and again, we would not be paying for it.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:59:35
    This would simply be accepting the grant from the downtown alliance.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:59:49
    My last one is lighting Sheppard Road.
  • 00:59:57
    So as we all know we have lost lighting throughout the city due to copper wire theft and it is the most both used but also sort of most remote stretches where we have lost lighting that are the most dangerous both to pedestrians to cyclists and to motorists and they're also the areas that
  • 01:00:16
    there are public spaces that we've invested in and when they're not lit they don't feel safe and then people don't use them so we are losing all of the investments that we've made in these spaces because people don't traverse them because they're afraid and we've been hearing from many of our constituents both Councilmember Jost and I about Shepherd Road the cost for lighting Shepherd Road is extremely high because the lights actually need to be replaced with new lights that are harder to steal from the whole idea here is not just to replace the wiring
  • 01:00:43
    and have it get stolen again, but to replace the lights with lights that will prevent that theft.
  • 01:00:48
    The $750,000 I'm proposing is only for the stretch from downtown from Sibley to Eagle Street.
  • 01:00:54
    This is the stretch that Public Works recommended starting with because it's the most traversed and has the most potential for conflicts.
  • 01:01:02
    The proposed source is from the CIB fund for lighting.
  • 01:01:06
    And actually, I was originally proposing $500,000 from the lighting fund.
  • 01:01:11
    and $250,000 from the street, alley, sewer and lighting program.
  • 01:01:15
    But we've now seen from OFS that there are balances in those accounts and actually there's about 1.1 million in the lighting fund.
  • 01:01:23
    So I'm going to revise my proposal and suggest that we take all of that 750 from the lighting fund, which will still have several hundred thousand dollars left over after that for lighting in the rest of the city.
  • 01:01:35
    This does just come down to where we think we need to replace lights.
  • 01:01:38
    And I know that we might argue about that, but I think Shepherd Road is worthy of your consideration.
  • 01:01:43
    We've received 54 emails, 53 in support, one opposed.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:01:48
    Perfect timing.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:01:50
    Six seconds to go.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:01:50
    Six seconds to go.
  • 01:01:51
    And we are cruising right now, actually.
  • 01:01:54
    So this is fantastic.
  • 01:01:55
    All right, next up we have EV Car Share.
• • Saura Jost
  • 01:02:03
    I think multiple folks had this on their list of amendments.
  • 01:02:14
    The EV car share program is something that we utilize throughout the whole city.
  • 01:02:19
    and right now we're in a really challenging situation.
  • 01:02:22
    This came in kind of last minute that we did not have the funds that we needed for this item, a lot of it due to the federal government and other pressures on our city.
  • 01:02:34
    So what we're asking is for the city to kick in $200,000
  • 01:02:39
    to be able to restore part of that.
  • 01:02:42
    We're also hoping to get some support from Minneapolis and through regional solicitation, but this is just a program that is so important for accessibility to transportation and as well as transportation that is better for our environment and that I think a lot of our wards really care a lot about because we do still have areas
  • 01:03:05
    We would like to continue to maintain what we have and expand the program.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:03:21
    I will add on to that and strongly second everything that Councilmember Jost shared.
  • 01:03:26
    I will also add that in this moment as we are thinking about the need for new investments in both our multi-modal transportation infrastructure and our climate resiliency work.
  • 01:03:37
    of the City of St. Paul.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:03:59
    Thank you, and with the last 10 seconds I'll add my understanding is that they're using the decertified funds to allocate the $200,000.
  • 01:04:08
    Thank you so much for the time.
  • 01:04:10
    Perfect timing.
  • 01:04:12
    All right, St. Paul Port Authority to increase staffing capacity.
• • Nelsie Yang
  • 01:04:16
    Chair Yang.
  • 01:04:17
    Thanks, Chair Kim.
  • 01:04:17
    Yeah, this is a budget request that came from the St. Paul Port Authority.
  • 01:04:21
    Our budget committees were very filled, and so we couldn't put them in, but they're going to be coming in.
  • 01:04:27
    later today at the Council meeting to present.
  • 01:04:29
    They originally asked for a $500,000 increase, and the mayor's proposal wasn't granted any increase, but their revised ask is an increase of $250,000 for inflationary costs and to increase their staffing capacity.
  • 01:04:45
    And as you all know, they are a very important partner to our city, especially, and so this is why I've added them to our list.
  • 01:04:54
    and you'll all hear a bit about over $900,000 in excess TIF coming back to this city and so that is where the money for this would be.
  • 01:05:04
    However, if this is an ongoing cost then we'll have to definitely think ahead about what we want to do for future years too.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:05:10
    Thank you.
  • 01:05:12
    All right.
  • 01:05:15
    Question from Council Member Johnson.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:05:17
    Not necessarily a question, just wanted to add as the treasurer of the St Paul Port Authority.
  • 01:05:23
    They have also been operating a net neutral budget for years now.
  • 01:05:28
    So this is actually an increase that they have asked for after not receiving an increase for several years and counting in a row.
  • 01:05:35
    And so some of the staffing pieces that they're asking for,
  • 01:05:38
    while we've kept up with other inflation costs throughout the city regarding salaries and other staffing capacities.
  • 01:05:43
    The St Paul Port Authority hasn't actually received an increase from the city.
  • 01:05:46
    And so this is something that I think, just when we were hearing about what their rationale was for and asking for it.
  • 01:05:53
    We have obviously adjusted salaries and staffing capacity in the meantime on the port in the last few years, but the actual increase has not been reflected in the budget.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:06:07
    I'm the treasurer of the port, Council Member Johnson.
  • 01:06:11
    Moving right along, we have Fund 7, FTE Public Safety Specialists.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:06:16
    Whose item was that?
• • Nelsie Yang
  • 01:06:22
    I have a couple of things in my email that I didn't see on the list, but I'd be happy to skim over it if we have time later on.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:06:40
    Yeah, yeah, I think at this point we are cruising.
  • 01:06:42
    So the next one is funding for I-94 study.
  • 01:06:45
    I believe I'll just offer, I think there might be a typo, but I'll let Council Member Coleman address that in near two minutes.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:06:53
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 01:06:54
    There is a typo.
  • 01:06:55
    It is one tenth of the amount of money listed here.
  • 01:06:58
    So the ask is for $50,000.
  • 01:07:00
    The total cost of the study is $500,000.
  • 01:07:03
    But fortunately, we are not being asked to fund all of that.
  • 01:07:07
    So I will just say quickly, coming into the Council much more recently than other folks here, working very quickly to get up to speed on top priorities from folks in Ward 4 for what they wanted to see in the budget this year, this was one of the first asks that came to my office.
  • 01:07:21
    Within weeks of being seated on the Council, I had heard from multiple district councils asking to sit down and have a meeting about
  • 01:07:29
    the I-94 study that is listed here.
  • 01:07:32
    So we know that the rethinking I-94 process has been going on at MnDOT for many, many years.
  • 01:07:37
    It was initially seen as an opportunity to reimagine not only a major transportation thoroughfare, but also the land use around it.
  • 01:07:46
    it has tremendous implications for public
  • 01:08:03
    you know I think in many ways it frustrated the community and felt like they were not being responsive to those most impacted and so this effort is a collaboration with the city of Minneapolis Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota to better understand what more expansive visions of this project of rethinking 94 and of how we conceptualize urban freeways what that could mean for our city.
  • 01:08:25
    So supporting this study, while it is in part about I-94, it's also an effort over the next two years to identify, model, and apply a full cost-benefit analysis to urban freeway capital projects.
  • 01:08:37
    So it would include other urban freeways that are impacting our city and help us develop a fuller understanding of the impacts of these projects and allow us to make data-driven decisions going forward.
  • 01:08:47
    I think it's an important way to show that we're serious about equitable transportation, land use development, and community need.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:08:53
    What's sort of the proposed budget solved that you're thinking through?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:08:57
    And so for the proposed budget solved with that deep certified TIF district coming in right out about $950,000 we are looking at that as a source of the $50,000.
  • 01:09:05
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:09:08
    Is there time for a question?
  • 01:09:10
    Sure.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:09:12
    Just for clarity, is that a city study or a council study?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:09:15
    So the study itself would be commissioned by the City of Minneapolis with the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:09:24
    with funding from multiple sources.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:09:26
    So would we be funding the city of Minneapolis?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:09:30
    Well, it would not go to the city of Minneapolis.
  • 01:09:31
    It would go towards the full cost of the contracted study.
  • 01:09:35
    But they would be the one holding the contract.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:09:37
    And executing the study?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:09:39
    The Center for Transportation Studies would be executing the study.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:09:43
    Would it be a joint study between Minneapolis and the city of St. Paul orchestrated through the center?
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:09:49
    What's the name of the center again?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:09:52
    The Center for Transportation Studies.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:09:55
    Is that the full totality of 94 or is there a corridor that you're looking at specifically or would this be ward wide?
  • 01:10:04
    I'm mostly asking because obviously I-94 goes through multiple wards.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:10:08
    Yeah, so it would be ward wide and metro area wide looking at the impact throughout both the Twin Cities.
  • 01:10:16
    and then also just to add, going beyond just 94, and so looking at urban freeways within the metro area generally.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:10:24
    OK, and is that $50,000 quoted from somewhere?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:10:27
    So that's the ask that we've received from community.
  • 01:10:30
    $500,000 is the full amount, but with the amount that's anticipated from other governmental entities, the ask for St Paul is $50,000.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:10:39
    Thank you.
  • 01:10:41
    Perfect.
  • 01:10:43
    Yes, go for it.
  • 01:10:44
    Council President.
  • 01:10:45
    You may have said this, Ms. Coleman, but is Ramsey County being asked to participate as well?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:10:48
    They have been asked at this point.
  • 01:10:50
    It's unclear to me.
  • 01:10:52
    We don't know for sure if they will.
  • 01:10:53
    Obviously, they are dealing with their own bunch of challenges of their own.
  • 01:10:55
    So while we're hopeful that they'll be contributing, we don't yet know that.
  • 01:10:59
    Thanks.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:11:00
    I think we're gonna keep it moving.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:11:03
    I got a question.
  • 01:11:04
    Well, this is definitely award-winning related.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:11:06
    Yeah, that's fine We have 20 minutes left.
  • 01:11:08
    And so it is just to say we've got one two, three, four five.
  • 01:11:11
    Oh, I'm sorry Councilmember, we have at least five more and then it sounds like Chair Yang had a few that didn't make it onto the list So I'm just I'm just you can ask the question.
  • 01:11:20
    I'm just saying we have now we got 20 minutes left
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:11:22
    Yeah, I totally understand.
  • 01:11:25
    We couldn't talk offline about it.
  • 01:11:28
    But particularly, I'm just wondering to the degree that Chief Resiliency Officer, Chief Climate Officer, Russ Starks is brought into this, because I know he's stairheading the MnDOT PACS process.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:11:42
    Yeah, so we've been in touch with Russ Starks about this.
  • 01:11:46
    He's aware of the study and of the ask, and how it might play into future decision making for the city.
  • 01:11:51
    Is he in support of it?
  • 01:11:52
    My understanding is yes, although I don't want to totally speak for him.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:11:55
    Your understanding is yes.
  • 01:11:57
    OK. You got commitment from him?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:11:59
    That he thinks that understanding this further is a good correction, yeah.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:12:02
    I definitely will talk offline.
  • 01:12:04
    I think it's really important that Reconnect Rondo is engaged in it.
  • 01:12:08
    After talking about people's impacted, the Rondo community definitely have been impacted and experienced harm from the freeway.
  • 01:12:14
    So I think to the extent that that community group is engaged would be really important.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:12:20
    I strongly agree.
  • 01:12:21
    Thank you for those comments.
  • 01:12:22
    All right, moving right along.
  • 01:12:23
    Restore Public Works robotic painter.
  • 01:12:25
    So I'm going to combine those.
• • Saura Jost
  • 01:12:27
    Oh, perfect.
  • 01:12:28
    That sounds great.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:12:28
    Are you going to bring them forward as one then?
• • Saura Jost
  • 01:12:30
    They're separate amendments technically, but when I talk about them, I'm going to talk about them together.
  • 01:12:35
    Thanks, Chair.
  • 01:12:36
    So this item, restoring the public works robotic painter and restoring the public works mill and overlay fund.
  • 01:12:43
    is an amendment that I'm bringing basically to restore two of the proposed funding sources from the council's amendment that was presented earlier.
  • 01:12:53
    So the robotics print machine is about $450,000.
  • 01:12:56
    The mill and overlay money is about almost $319,000.
  • 01:12:59
    So I think these two investments, which were originally part of the mayor's proposed budget, are about public safety and about investments in our infrastructure.
  • 01:13:07
    Our roadway quality and safety is a core function of our city that our residents expect.
  • 01:13:11
    The mill and overlay money is important for keeping up with our street maintenance.
  • 01:13:15
    It's important to the resilience of our roads and as well as a lot of the deferred maintenance on our roads that only gets more expensive if we don't continue to maintain those investments.
  • 01:13:26
    I'm going to spend a little bit more time talking about the robotic prince machine, Road Prince, which I think
  • 01:13:30
    This was presented to us by Public Works when Director Kershaw came in with those giant life-size stencils.
  • 01:13:40
    This is a modernization of what's almost a hundred year old practice for how we lay down street markings.
  • 01:13:46
    So right now it requires three workers to lay those markings down.
  • 01:13:49
    This is for crosswalks, turn arrows, school markings, bike lanes.
  • 01:13:53
    We use about 4,200 gallons of paint per year for those markings with this print machine that would only require possibly two workers.
  • 01:14:02
    and would take workers out of the street.
  • 01:14:05
    So this would significantly increase our efficiency in this process and we'd be able to reallocate staff to other critical public work services.
  • 01:14:14
    And this would pay for itself over seven years.
  • 01:14:16
    I think this is about two things.
  • 01:14:18
    This is, I mentioned road safety, but it's about pedestrian safety.
  • 01:14:22
    is a priority that our council shares and that our city shares.
  • 01:14:29
    We are currently behind in our printed markings.
  • 01:14:31
    You can see them in our roads when you drive through them.
  • 01:14:33
    I saw dozens of them on our way here that you can't even see anymore.
  • 01:14:38
    It's absolutely critical that we catch up on those printed markings.
  • 01:14:43
    These need to be visible for the safety of our streets.
  • 01:14:47
    And the markings, for example, I had some markings installed
  • 01:14:51
    through Public Works in Ward 3, nearby a school, last year in the fall of 2024.
  • 01:14:56
    Today you can barely see them and they need to be repainted.
  • 01:15:01
    I think this is a top issue that I hear about in our city, about pedestrian safety, especially kids being able to get to schools, road safety.
  • 01:15:11
    We get so many requests for traffic improvements all throughout our ward and I think throughout our city.
  • 01:15:17
    This increases safety for all road users.
  • 01:15:22
    With more effective and more efficiently placed visual street markings, it's more affordable and more accessible and safer to apply.
  • 01:15:30
    I'll also talk about worker safety really briefly.
  • 01:15:34
    Just as I mentioned, the more that we can get road workers off the streets, the safer
  • 01:15:38
    that it is fewer injuries and accidents for cars.
  • 01:15:42
    Roadway safety, these wouldn't be used on highways, but when you combine roadway safety with highway worker safety, that is one of the top, most dangerous kind of fatalities that we see for our workers.
  • 01:15:54
    So I think that these two, just to wrap up, this mill and overlay, the restoration of mill and overlay and road prints are about our shared commitment to safety in our city on the job site.
  • 01:16:05
    and on all of our roads, no matter how you travel, if you're a pedestrian, a biker, if you're in a car or taking transit.
  • 01:16:11
    The resource for this right now would be a TIF district decertification, which we think is going to be about $950,000.
  • 01:16:19
    If you do add up the, let's see, one, two, three, four or so items that folks are proposing for that money,
  • 01:16:28
    We're proposing over $950,000, so I do actually have a couple other potential sources that I'm going to look into too, if needed.
  • 01:16:36
    But that's where those would come from.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:16:38
    Perfect timing.
  • 01:16:39
    Thank you, Council Member Jost.
  • 01:16:42
    And we are moving right along.
  • 01:16:45
    OK, so now we've got four minutes.
  • 01:16:48
    Or no, we've got, I'm not doing math.
  • 01:16:51
    We have six more.
  • 01:16:52
    It's 11, 16.
  • 01:16:54
    Everyone still gets two minutes.
  • 01:16:55
    OK, so the first one up, we've got oversight of opioid, which was something that Councilmember Wu brought in this morning.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:17:02
    Do you mind if I just do back to back?
  • 01:17:04
    I could just do all three of them.
  • 01:17:05
    And do six minutes?
  • 01:17:06
    I was prepared to get it out the way.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:17:08
    Yeah, that works with me.
  • 01:17:10
    Hold on one second.
  • 01:17:10
    Let me set this timer for you so you can see.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:17:12
    So I'll start.
  • 01:17:13
    I have three.
  • 01:17:15
    So the first one is opioids.
  • 01:17:18
    Well, actually, if you don't mind, the first one is going to be the Rondo Library.
  • 01:17:21
    And then the second one is Ujamaa Place.
  • 01:17:24
    And the third one is the Opioid Settlement Funds.
  • 01:17:27
    So with the Rondo Library, this particularly is just making sure that there's guardrails to make sure that council is in collaboration with this new administration.
  • 01:17:36
    The real reality is that we're preparing for a budget for a different mayor and for a new transition in a new administration.
  • 01:17:45
    It's really, really important that we have some guardrails put in place to protect our most critical public asset and that these guardrails help us move forward.
  • 01:17:54
    together with clarity and accountability.
  • 01:17:58
    What's really important, as you all know, as a ward-wide representative, the Rondo Library is really, really, truly the heartbeat of this neighborhood.
  • 01:18:06
    And closing it is going to cause some harm to that neighborhood.
  • 01:18:11
    This amendment simply ensures that there's clear guidelines and clear deliverables, particularly ensuring that there's a firm reopening date for the Rondo Library.
  • 01:18:22
    a contractor selection timeline, a community input process
  • 01:18:27
    regarding the design, programming, safety, and services and ensuring that there's monthly updates in the future from the library directors and also a joint department approach, particularly around safety issues on that corner and not just the library, but that surrounding areas.
  • 01:18:48
    So this actually doesn't require a budget solve.
  • 01:18:51
    It pays for itself.
  • 01:18:53
    It's going to be utilizing the existing
  • 01:18:55
    of the library budget funds.
  • 01:18:58
    This is pretty much just putting conditions on the funds in terms of how the funds will be rolled out and how the renovation projects will be managed in the future.
  • 01:19:09
    There's going to be a lot of transition and I think it's really important to make sure that for the community who have uncertainty that this is clear guidelines and making sure people know every step in the process.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:19:23
    So that's, any questions for that?
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:19:25
    The second one is Ujamaa Place, the second chance housing allocation for the last, if you were here at the last, public safety
  • 01:19:36
    Community Wellness Committee meeting.
  • 01:19:38
    We had Minnesota Justice Research Center come and present about the Returning Home program that existed in the Office of Financial Impartment about three years ago.
  • 01:19:48
    That work was incredible.
  • 01:19:52
    It was done under the pandemic and really didn't get a chance to really see the day of light.
  • 01:19:58
    We have heard from
  • 01:20:00
    of the City of St. Paul.
  • 01:20:19
    of the City of St Paul.
  • 01:20:37
    and the City Council.
  • 01:20:52
    I still need to get more information and clarity about it, but I do appreciate your all's support, particularly not only hearing it in the Public Safety Committee meeting, but also actually investing into fair housing in the future.
  • 01:21:07
    Any questions moving forward?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:21:10
    I have a question.
• • Nelsie Yang
  • 01:21:12
    Chair Kim, are we already making this investment into a program like this already?
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:21:19
    There has been.
  • 01:21:21
    One of the sources was Office of Financial Empowerment.
  • 01:21:25
    The city has had one-time investment in it, so it just would be a reoccurring investment from about three years ago.
  • 01:21:37
    So it will still be through the Office of Financial Empowerment, or it could also be from OFS.
  • 01:21:46
    There is a fund through OFS that they can just directly appropriate these dollars to that organization.
  • 01:21:54
    and the next one.
  • 01:21:55
    OK, last but not least, this one has been a really clear pathway forward in ensuring that we have
  • 01:22:11
    We have strong council oversight and controls over the big conversation that we've been all wanting to have as a council regarding the opioid settlement dollars.
  • 01:22:22
    It was some months ago, I do want to appreciate our budget chair ensuring that we hear from Ramsey County Public Health Director regarding the settlement.
  • 01:22:34
    of approximately $14 million that is going to be going through the city.
  • 01:22:41
    But there hasn't been really a consistent, coordinated, centralized plan.
  • 01:22:45
    And that is just really what we have experienced.
  • 01:22:50
    We have been really excited to see what the departments and what the city has in mind to actually address fentanyl.
  • 01:22:57
    We have attended a budget address where there was an announcement of $1 million to go to a federal intervention.
  • 01:23:07
    I have requested on multiple occasions for them to come and present about how that $1 million should be invested into the community and we have not heard anything.
  • 01:23:17
    I think giving the authority that we have moving into the future, we should have strong controls in ensuring that these dollars are secured and ensuring that the departments and going into a new administration the opportunity to actually collaborate.
  • 01:23:39
    and the opportunity for us to make sure our residents have the funds so we can continue saving lives, so we can continue supporting recovery, so we can continue expanding our services, and most importantly, stabilizing our neighborhoods.
  • 01:23:54
    This amendment is a simple commitment.
  • 01:23:56
    Before we go out to spend millions of dollars that have not actually came to Council, we need to have a plan, a real plan, a shared plan.
  • 01:24:06
    So this is I'm asking my colleagues to support me into ensuring that there is council oversight.
  • 01:24:14
    I'm going to be continuously working with our central staff to make sure that we have the proper, excuse me, the proper account mechanism for it.
  • 01:24:24
    But if there's any questions I can definitely answer that.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:24:26
    Sounds great.
  • 01:24:28
    I don't see any questions and we're at 11 24 which leaves I think the perfect amount for the last three.
  • 01:24:33
    Thank you so much for the incredible detail and I think
  • 01:24:36
    I just want to give you all a heads up that I will be making rounds with everybody to talk more about further eliminations of vacant positions.
• • Nelsie Yang
  • 01:24:55
    As I look at the list from HR, there are some positions that have been vacant since 2023.
  • 01:25:01
    and I'm just doing that based off of the things that we've been hearing from community members and even our city staff too, which is we want more frontline staff members, less supervisors, we've always in the council here talked a lot about
  • 01:25:15
    I'm wanting to have a one year mark and I think if a position goes open for longer there really should be an evaluation about what are we doing with that position and are we needed to make some adjustments for example like wage adjustments so that it's competitive.
  • 01:25:28
    There's also some positions that have been open since 2022 as well.
  • 01:25:32
    And then the second thing I have on my list is that I am in favor of fully funding our council office renovation project to make sure that our spaces are safe for our staff and the public too.
  • 01:25:44
    the amount that we see on the amendment list here, I don't believe that is the full amount, but I would be interested in filling the full gap for that and I'll connect more with you about that.
  • 01:25:54
    And then lastly, I am still very committed to lowering the levy even more, so I wanted to let you all know that if there are unused dollars or let's say we know there's new revenue coming in next year, I am very interested in using that to lower the levy more and would love your support on that.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:26:09
    I'm just going to thank you first I think just all of my colleagues in the incredible budget work that we've been doing and I kind of listening and hearing of all these great ideas I think it's just really a testament of the big body of work that is the the best group project but the chairs the chairs proposed budget chairs proposed by that but I can't speak today
  • 01:26:33
    and then also the incredible ideas and the ways that we're really just kind of looking at the guts of the city and I just really appreciate the level of detail and the thoughtfulness throughout this entirety of our budget process and so a very brief and friendly reminder please work with commude and our office we are expecting each council office to submit their resolutions into Legistar we will provide a format to do that they will need to be entered into Legistar with
  • 01:27:03
    and we will take up voting on them on December 3rd with our finalizing our max levy and also finalizing our budget.
  • 01:27:15
    Any other lasting thoughts, questions, or concerns for my colleagues?
  • 01:27:17
    Yes, Chair Johnson.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:27:19
    Thank you.
  • 01:27:19
    I just wanted to, I had a clarified question going back to what's required for the Rondo Library renovations and the oversight of the opioid dollars.
  • 01:27:31
    These don't have budgetary changes, correct?
  • 01:27:33
    They're just, they're- No changes.
  • 01:27:34
    They're reporting resolutions, great.
  • 01:27:37
    And then, but Ojamaa Place would be new additional funding that would.
  • 01:27:41
    and then I think along that vein, just something that I'll flag for our colleagues.
  • 01:27:47
    We will be along the lines of reporting.
  • 01:27:49
    I've asked for a committee to include language in the housing redevelopment authority's budget.
  • 01:27:55
    The overall resolution that would require quarterly year to date budget to actual reporting.
  • 01:28:01
    That same language is my intention still, so to make sure that it's embedded in the city's budget and part of really getting to a place where we are seeing quarterly reports of our budget to actuals.
  • 01:28:11
    and so that's just something that didn't it's not an amendment it's similar to like the reporting mechanisms of what's presented here by Council Member Bui and better ways to ensure that there's like oversight but also transparency just because the way that we're doing our budget to actuals currently when it comes to reporting at least right we hear about them before like in the middle of the year and then we hear about them again after the budget is already passed for the
  • 01:28:37
    for the next year moving forward in a public way, this would change that to be quarterly in both the city and the HOA budgets.
  • 01:28:44
    So that language isn't coming as a separate resolution.
  • 01:28:48
    It'll be a clause within the overall budget resolution that's approved.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:28:52
    That sounds great.
  • 01:28:53
    Thank you so much.
  • 01:28:54
    And again, a friendly reminder to all of our millions of viewers at home, if you heard an amendment that you particularly love and would like to cheer on, please lobby us for those interests.
  • 01:29:04
    All right, with nothing else before us, we're adjourned.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:29:07
    Nice job.