The Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night and were presented with some levy options by City of Crookston Finance Director Angel Weasner. The options ranged from a zero percent to a 7.6 percent levy with one or two street projects and various deferred items, with option four preferred with a few changes explains Weasner. “I did present five different options because there has been a myriad of discussion on where they want the levy to be set,” said Weasner. “I have been very aware of how much the reserves have been used in the past. I’ve been weaning the city off those reserves, so we’re not reliant upon that on an annual basis. Option 4 was the main one that we were working off of. Council has now decided that they were wanting to work off a different one, so I will be preparing some information and bringing forth their request. It’s a hybrid of different options that were presented for council.”
Option 4 had a five percent levy, with a $20,000 cut from Park and Recreation (Alexander Park playground equipment) and several other deferrals including IT network expansion, Police Department office furniture and speed trailer, Fire Department drone, Emergency Management siren reserve, and the Public Works lighting reserve. There were two additional requests added to the option. Councilman Jake Fee said he didn’t want to see the street project for Stephens Dr/Radisson road deferred which would add an estimated $150,000 to the levy. All the councilman agreed that the street project was probably the most dire and should be included. What they didn’t necessarily agree with were Fee’s suggested cuts in other areas to make it happen. Fee suggested cuts to the parking lot at the Fire Department ($10,000), the interview room at the Police Station ($10,000), garage at the airport ($10,000), not funding the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at $15,000, forgoing the IT intern ($5,000), taking $5,000 from IT for workstations, taking $20,000 from pool improvements. Fee said one of the toughest parts of being a council member is going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb and determining the wants versus the needs. “It’s one of the toughest parts, probably, about being a council member is that you have to go through with a fine comb and figure out what are the wants and what are the needs,” said Fee. “We never want to take away the needs, but there are a few areas I think I found that maybe are some wants that we could maybe cut from the budget rather than cutting infrastructure projects like the one on Stephens Dr that was talking about being deferred. It’s not my preferred. I think we can make cuts in some other areas, bring some money in from reserves and still keep the levy around 3 percent to keep the tax burden pretty low on our citizens.”
The second request as Fee mentioned was to lower the Option 4 levy to 3 percent by utilizing reserves which Weasner estimated would require about $229,353. Councilman Dale Stainbrook also suggested another cut be to go to two sheets of ice at the Crookston Sports Center due to lower numbers and keeping the turf in place year-round which Weasner estimated would save $30,000-50,000. The figure often used by Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle for the cost of ice is $5,000 per sheet, per week, which might put the value closer to $70,000 in savings. Fee also said several times he’d like to not have the city fund $15,000 a year for three years to the SBDC, as $15,000 a year have also been requested from CHEDA. Fee said if the City and CHEDA both funded that request, they would collectively be providing $150,000 to the SBDC over its first five years. Fee said $30,000 a year in taxpayer funding is an area for a cut in his eyes because the city hasn’t captured a return on its investment. “I think the City of Crookston probably has a place to play with the SBDC,” said Fee. “But we do have an EDA (CHEDA). And the EDA did request a stipend of $15,000 more. It will be up to their board to decide if they feel like it’s an area where they feel like we are getting some benefit from it. On the city, side to continue to go forward with a $30,000 a year in taxpayer money to fund that, we haven’t captured any return on our investment there. So, that’s an area that I’m eyeing as a cut. Again, it’s a very difficult decision, but we either can have roads or do ongoing subsidies with some of these things that we’re doing.”
City Administrator Shannon Stassen told the committee that the city staff takes pride in holding as flat as they can on their budgets and producing amazing results across the board while also warning that deferring too much could mean a double-digit levy down the road. The committee elected to have another budget and levy discussion Wednesday, September 4 at 5:00 p.m. before setting the preliminary levy on September 9.
During the regular Ways & Means Committee meeting in the Council Chambers, the committee voted to accept a proposal from Bob Herkenhoff to trade the 28-acre natural park he’s created to the city in exchange for the completion of Eickhof Blvd out to County Road 11. With the completion of Eickhof Blvd, Herkenhoff said he’ll have 14 lots for development. “We’re making progress,” said Herkenhoff. “The County Road is going to be rebuilt by the arena next year, so we have to tie in a turn lane on part of my development. We had to come up with a plan for the street with 14 lots. Seven overlook the park, and seven overlook my CRP to the east. It should make a pretty nice development. And we need an answer because the county road is getting designed this winter and ours will be now as well as long as the council passes it. Ways & Means passed it, so that’s a good start.”
Herkenhoff will donate northern part of the property now with the southern pond given down the road with the intent the park is never developed and remains a community asset forever. “The northern pond would be donated right away,” said Herkenhoff. “And the southern one will be signed over to them; it’s just the timing of it. It could be down the road a few years, or a number of years, who knows, but it will be theirs upon my death for sure. And they’ll have a 28-acre nature area out there. We’re designing trails and figuring that out. With luck, probably starting next spring you’ll see some activity out there.”
Herkenhoff said the new lots could start being built on next fall if the road is complete. “It could be late fall,” said Herkenhoff. “I’ll probably start selling [the lots] in the summer. It depends on the deadline on the road project, that will be up to the city. We used to do a two-year abatement. This is quite a ‘spendy’ project, they all are, and that will be up to the city to decide. But I think the city shouldn’t have a two-year abatement on this. They are putting enough money in there. We have to get some tax base back. If somebody buys a lot, they will have two years to build, or they will be hit with assessments. But if they build right away, they can go, and that will be waived. It will be an encouragement to get them to build.”
The committee also voted to approve a donation request for three sirens put on surplus last week to Many Point Scout Camp, to replace the pavers that were pulled up around the driveways at Subway with concrete, and to accept the 2018 audit report which they will get a report on in a future meeting. They also approved a process for appointing a Ward 6 Council Member. All council members and any Ward 6 resident interested in sitting on a selection committee should submit their interest by September 9. Candidates interested in filling the remainder of the unexpired term can express their interest by submitting their name, address, and any other information they feel is pertinent to City Hall by September 16. The selection committee will then review and interview candidates with the possibility a candidate could be appointed by September 23 and no later than the October 14 City Council meeting.
ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGET
The committee also reviewed the remaining city budgets, Administrative Office ($251,394), City Clerk’s Office ($307,671), Ordinance & Proceedings ($7,500), Professional Fees ($205,000), Legal Expense ($122,000), and City Hall Expense ($49,287).
The Administrative Office budget has an increase of $8,311. Fee asked what the $10,000-line item for Council Approved Budget was and Stassen explained it was discretionary funds for council requested projects that is never used but available if needed. The increases are related to salaries and benefits.
The City Clerk’s Office budget has an increase of $14,697 with a large portion of that being bank charge increases from $1,200 to $8,400. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten asked what the city was charged for, and Weasner said everything. Fee asked why they had increased, and Weasner explained that the city is paying bank charges with their new banking services in exchange for a higher interest rate which is generating thousands of dollars for the city. “When we did our RFP for banking services one of the things, we did look at was the interest rate the city obtains for the funds available,” said Weasner. “We have changed the format so that we are now paying some of the fees, a lot of it used to be waived, but we are gaining a larger interest rate on the money we do hold in deposit with the bank.”
The Ordinance and Proceedings budget had no change, but Weasner said there was a list of ordinances that would need to be reviewed and possibly changed. “We do have a list of ordinances that we need to review,” said Weasner. “And there are some new ones that may be coming up. So, next year, we want to make sure that we have the same amount available for all the legal fees, publications, and work that needs to be done for any ordinance changes.”
The Professional Fees budget was reduced by $5,000, a $20,000 reduction in professional fees and a $15,000 increase in transfer to other funds (CHEDA Stipend). The $20,000 reduction was because the city hasn’t had many cases of needing to go through the court system to rehabilitate someone’s property. “We have some funding available if we to go through the court system to rehabilitate someone’s property,” said Weasner. “I did lessen that in that we haven’t had many of those that have to go that far. So, I was very cognizant of where the budget sits. We also use professional services for our services required with Polk County ($30,000). The other portion is the stipend to CHEDA.”
Legal Expense remained the same. A councilmember asked what substitute attorney fees ($10,000) were used for. Weasner explained those are used for attorneys who specialize in something the City Attorney does not. “Our City Attorney does not specialize in like labor negotiations,” said Weasner. “So, we do have alternate attorneys that are more specialized to assist us at different times.”
The City Hall Expense budget decreased by $9,650 with the zeroing out of the line item for other equipment, which was at $10,000 in 2019.
