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Estimation bill format for Human Resources

good afternoon welcome to this regular meeting of the Minneapolis Board of estimate and Taxation for December 11th 2024 my name is Steve Brandt and I'm the president of the board of estimate before uh we'll begin with an announcement by our clerk uh a matter of protocol before we begin the meeting I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members staff and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation these broadcasts include realtime captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our um proceedings to the community therefore all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast we ask all speakers to moderate the speed and Clarity of their comments at this time I'll ask the clerk to call the role so that we can verify the presence of a [Music] quorum commissioner fry is absent um commissioner Ben here commissioner Payne present commissioner chuk Tai is absent uh vice president prieston present president brm present there are four members present let the record show that we have a quorum I'll now offer an acknowledgement that today we meet on the land that has historically been held by the Dakota people before beginning with the business items on our agenda I'd like to present on behalf of commissioner a honorary resolution for our beloved legislative clerk Lisa Brock who will be retiring at the end of this year I will now read this aloud and we will act on it at the end of our agenda uh resolution 2024 009 commemorating and thanking Lisa Brock for her service and dedication to the City of Minneapolis resolved by the Minneapolis Board of estimate and Taxation whereas the board of estimate and taxation's work is aely Advanced by the work of the city clerk's office and whereas Lisa Brock has served notice that she will retire from the office of city clerk at the end of December 2024 and whereas Lisa Brock has served the City of Minneapolis Faithfully for 15 years and whereas Lisa Brock began her City employment in 2010 in in the demanding role of policy Aid in the First Ward office assisting council member Kevin Reich whereas Lisa Brock was the was thereafter hired as a legislative clerk in the clerk's office in 2021 and whereas Lisa Brock has served diligently as a clerk to the board of estimate and Taxation since 2022 and whereas Lisa Brock has Faithfully assisted board presidents in the exe execution of their duties including guiding them through procedural thickets saving them from embarrassing mistakes and making sure they sign resolutions properly even down to the col of Inc and whereas above all Lisa Brock has been a darn Pleasant coworker who always remembers bus s and parking me passes for board members therefore be it resolved by the board of estimate taxation that the board thanks Lisa for her service and kindnesses and wishes her a long and happy retirement for many years on the board would any um Commissioners like to add to those remarks commissioner priest Inson I have had the pleasure of knowing our clerk Miss Lisa BR from a uh resident of the ward where she would take my calls and my complaints and agitations with such Grace um and then coming into City Hall as a senior policy adviser myself under previous council member Cunningham um the knowledge the wisdom the support um and the mentorship in learning how to conduct myself properly Within These these City walls and know how to walk that line and get people to work together and do it with Grace and with Integrity is something that I have loved and appreciated about her um and so in then becoming an elected official myself it was a a relief to see a very friendly face that I was familiar with to as we said keep me from making dumb mistakes using the right color of ink and even driving to my home when we forgot to sign a thing and waiting for me because I forgot and so um it's for these reasons that I I have so much love and appreciation adoration well-deserved retirement and I look for to seeing what you do next I which I hope priority is relaxation welld deserved um and we we are lucky as a city to have had a public servant such as you um that is served in the way that you have and so I want to thank you for that service um we're we're making the rounds with the card and we we have a few things for you but thank you Miss Brock mayor commissioner fry uh thank you Mr President Le I've known you for a long time and what I've found is that during the most tense and difficult of situations you're always a bright shining light that helps us get through uh you've been a Mainstay here at City Hall whether it's working in the and W one officer managing these meetings and the level of light that you bring uh to again tense situations is so deeply appreciated uh you've always been a great friend and colleague and I just want to let you know that everybody here you know the 4,000 or so uh city employees appreciate you deeply and the 400 35,000 people that have benefited from your service and truly they have they you've helped you've helped a whole lot of people thank you all right um would the clerk like to speak I I would just like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart it has been such a pleasure to work with you and to do this work and um with those of you that I've known for a very long time and and those of you I'm just still getting to know it's thank you so much I H if I say more I'll start to cry so thank you all right thank you we will now continue with our agenda a copy of which was posted for public access to the city's legislative information management system which is available at ls. miniapolis mn.gov board members the agenda for today meeting before us may I have a motion please to adopt the agenda with the addition of the honorary resolution so moved second okay we have a motion and a second before us any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I those opposed say nay guys have it the agenda as amended is adopted next is the acceptance of minutes from the November 13th 2024 meeting May I please have a motion to accept the minutes moved is there a second second second we now have a proper motion before us any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I those opposed say nay eyes have it and the minutes are accepted as presented item four on our agenda today is the acceptance of public comment we have nobody signed up to speak today so we will continue with the next item on the agenda I just want to remind members of the public that there is an opportunity at each Board of estimate meeting to address an item that is on the board's agenda and you can sign up with the city clerk's office for that all right um item number five is receiving the 2024 third quarter financial status report I welcome our city controller George Hargrove to present the report um just take a take a minute here to get the get the presentation up on the screen and then I then I'll start in just a second okay so um yeah I'll start off here now we i' I'd like to I'm happy to present the third quarter uh financial report for the City of Minneapolis I want to give a special thank you to all the staff and finance uh particularly Randy Hagar and r o that uh that helped with this uh helped put this together and so uh so it's so very appreciative of them um just to say a few words about the report in general this report reflects a point in time as of September 30th um it's highly likely the business situations have have changed since then in addition the information isn't audited um and won't be final until 2024 um is closed and we get and uh and we roted it at that point in time Finance recommends this information not be used to make uh you know budget transfers decisions or anything without um without uh you know getting back to the Departments and and we'll do our very best to get back to you right away um should that occur or anything like that I'm just talking about some of the financial highlights at the city um I think as most of you know in August of 2023 uh uh Fitch upgraded our credit rating to AAA which is the highest rating available uh then um since that time uh since the second quarter presentation um in September fit and standard confirmed our AAA rating so that continues I'm also uh I'm also uh wanted to mention that the parking revenues are rebounding are projected to be recovered to near the pre pandemic levels um in addition the property taxes um for 2024 I project to be about 21 million under budg under budget however we do budget the very full amount and we do uh the city usually does assume a 3% uh uncollectible rate that could be caused by either either uh people's valuations being challenged in tax court or people simply not being able to pay and then arer spending um continues uh into 2024 um I would I did want to mention that the city council did pass a resolution uh about a month or two ago um to close out ARP at the end of this year so we plan on um um making a transfer to the general fund and then using our Revenue replacement uh option on the on the federal reporting site to um to uh to uh to report the rest of the spending in that category anything that remains so that'll help us uh totally spend down the 271 million um in terms of our investments and you can um there's more information on our investments that on one of the appendix is one of the last pages of the of the detailed report um but um I I I will say that the that the that the book value of our cash Investments as of September 30th is down about 65 million from the same period last year to about a million 45 and uh Book value is the price that we uh pay for the Investments to start off with as opposed to like current value which is what it is as of today in addition uh there are there are a few funds here that are under our Target um targets that we'd like to keep in terms of having reserves on hand um one is the self- Insurance Fund and um that actually has quite a bit of Assets in cash however it has about over 220 million or so in liabilities and so that's why it shows as a negative fund balance even though it has uh 160 for almost 165 million in cash the next uh area is actually a new area that uh join that uh got on the list this this last uh this last uh period here in the third quarter and that's the fleet services or the equipment fund um there was some rate reductions um I think several years ago and uh there sted to a lot of vehicles that they've ordered are starting to be delivered now there was very very long lead lead times on as I think we all know for vehicles uh during you know especially right after the pandemic and so they've had to pay pay for those and so we expect the cash balance to be about a little over a million dollars at the end of this year which is about 4 million under the target so something that we'll that we'll we'll work on here with with the public works on that uh the parking fund is also uh projected to be below the target um but we do but the um the department is uh optimistic that they'll be able to get that back up above the Target by sometime next year but right now it's about it's about uh 3.8 million under the Target and then Property Services is actually going to go off the list cuz they're above the Target now um just just in this third quarter here uh moving on to the general funds we'll kind of go over you know some of the some of the individual funds that make up the city's uh City's uh Financial records uh the general funds is basically used to account for um all spending that isn't restricted or isn't um like a like a like a business Enterprise or anything like that so it's really our most unrestricted um unrestricted fund uh a lot of it is funded by property tax um uh terms of the cash balance um we're at about 200 uh 200 we're at about 148 million versus the year end balance of about 231 million it is more than it was as of the end of the second quarter mainly due to um the property taxes that were collected um we are projecting a about $170 million uh ending balance in 2024 that's a decrease of the about 40 million of compared to 2023 year end uh fortunately it does exceed the 177% minimum fund balance about which is comes to about 114 million it's about 56 million above the fund Target um the 2024 budget originally had about $18.2 million plan use of fund balance in addition we rolled over another 26 million there so in uh in what's called encumbrances those are generally legally legal obligations of the city such purchase orders or contracts so that made it about 44 million so of the 70 million or so in fund balance that projecting at year end about um 26 million we feel um should be restricted that's generally for the public safety Aid and settlement agreements um so that leaves a little bit a little bit uh a little bit less than that you know as terms of the unrestricted balance and then the unrestricted balance we did calculate is projected to be at about 21 and a half% of the 20 2025 budget so um that our uh certainly our AAA Bond rating know um you know that's one of the factors that goes into that so that is good news right now uh the general fund Revenue um just in terms of like you know a little bit more detail what makes that up you can see almost half of it is property taxes um uh otherwise everything else is generally around the 50 million Mark uh you can see it's we have service charges franchise license permit state aid transfers um if you look at the chart like down below you'll see that the first two categories compared to the second quarter um when uh when we when we did that presentation we're actually down about about $78 million um since that time but then uh fortunately we've kind of made that up in franchise fees and license and permits so that's projected you know to be up about 7 million compared to what we talked about last month when we went over the second quarter in terms of the revenue we're still holding with our projection of about $36 million um under budget um you can see you know how it tracks over the year um not much of it's collected for the first half of the year and the second half um has most of the collections again that's because the property tax comes in that then as well too um we also also because of accounting rules you know we tend to book a little bit more Revenue at the end of the year too CU we we do Bill out in in for anything in December in early January so it's been running about over the last three years about 105% um over the three year you know over budget on average for the last three years then in terms of the general fund expenditures um again you can see um it kind of follows the revenue most of the the spending um occurs in the second half of the year um it's not quite as pronounced as how the revenue go you know how the revenue comes in um it's a little bit more even but um again because of accounting rules in December we end up paying a couple months worth of invoices because some of the invoices are received in January we um we uh charge back to the prior year um they are trending lower a little bit um you can see um from the chart down below um um compared to what we uh what we came here with at the second quarter um it it's about we're we're um we're uh we're projecting a little bit more favorability um especially in internal services in public safety and so we're projecting um projecting the expenditures to be about $40 million under budget Now versus I think 38 million when we were here last month you know through the second quarter so that helps the helps the um little helps the the the fund balance uh go up a little bit compared to what we thought um a few months back and then moreover we can see the the kind of the the trend of the the expenditures um you can see that they're um that uh they they go up you know as we saw in the previous graph through the year um again we're projecting but know the the general fund expenditures to be about um to be uh under budget by about $40 million so that's why you can see at the and that they uh that they tend to be pretty close to the threeyear average that that it's not uncommon to have the expenditures um be a little bit under budget um as everyone tries to to manage their budget that way uh for the special Revenue funds um this is another family of funds uh the the purpose of these funds is for funds that are generally restricted for specific uses uh such as it could be because of the debt that maybe is issue um especially for things like the convention center the Target Center you can see um the the grants are considered you know special Revenue funds again there's usually external restrictions on these funds you can see the total um fund balance um at the end of uh end of 2024 projected about 400 million that's about a $15 million uh decrease compared to the 2023 year end um it's gotten gotten a little bit the retive funds have gone down we've projected the fund balance to go down a little bit since the second quarter um again that's driven by uh the downtown assets a little bit in the cpit area too uh the cash balance is down about uh is that 353 354 million down about 103 million compared to the 2023 year end and as you can see from the second to last bullet point that's mainly due to the arpa funds um that that contained quite a bit of cash cuz that cash was received up front several years ago and now we project it to be pretty much spent down um by that point in time and then the next one is just a is just a chart of kind of uh where the fund balances ended up in 2023 and our projections for 2024 um I just want to point out you know since last time since the second quarter um the convention center is down a little bit mainly due to revenue um in addition the the downtown assets is down a little bit generally due to increase in debt service that's being paid off um the other area that I was noticing is in the community Planning and Development that's down a little bit too as well too so you can see um kind of in a little bit more detail it makes up the numbers that I uh presented on the previous slide internal service funds are more what we call they're part of What's called the proprietary fund family they uh are generally they generally operate like businesses um but in this case they generally their business is generally to sell goods or services within the city to City departments um you can see includes things like the engineering materials and Testing Lab uh the fleet that we talked about a little earlier Property Services provide space to people Public Work Stores um Our IT department our self Insurance funds um that cover um some of the major liabilities here at the city um the total uh net position um again the net position is um uh you know assets assets less the liabilities so um those things we look at at both you know the the assets such as cash and the liabilities and you can see um we're projecting about a a a net position of about 79 million which is about 10 million under the 2023 year in projection most of that I I should say the 2023 year end actual net position and most of that's related to to Fleet as well too um cash um we're projecting yearand at about 187 million that's a little increase um from uh from the 2023 and again it's driven uh that's driven by our self Insurance Fund as well as our our Property Services area and it as well too so um again we we try to you know we we try to keep this fund with consistent SP in you know to keep within the budget amounts and to kind of keep within the target balances we need you know just like any business needs it needs a certain amount of reserves to to operate and then you can look at a little bit more detail here on this chart of all our internal Services funds you can see the the biggest change from the second quarter was the equipment services or otherwise known as Fleet that's down about $10 million for both cash and net position so that kind of means that the that the liabilities didn't really change much but it's more um you know spending on on Capital Equipment there um that's a little bit offset by the intergovernmental Services which is mainly it that's up about $6 million and then finally we're down to our last uh group of funds here that to talk about today it's our Enterprise funds these are are the closest to um I'd say a a private business in that they operate like a business and they also sell services um to the outside public as opposed to mainly internal you know for the last group of funds we went over so a lot of this comes from utilities that the city operates such as the sewer the storm water regular water waste recycling and parking and then as well as we have a small amount of uh funds in the cped Enterprise fund so total net position project at year end is about 1.14 million that's about a $9 million increase from 2023 that's generally driven by parking services and water and sewer and then cash um as of the year as of 2024 projecting at about 93 million which is a $7 million decrease from um the end of 2023 last December uh that's driven by storm water and waste and so this again this is fairly fairly stable um they certainly need enough cash you in working capital to operate and so we try to keep that pretty consistent and then finally um just to give a little bit more details into the Enterprise fund um you can uh you can see that the the sanitary sewer the storm water the water you know that makes up the really the bulk of the net position I mean these and again they have quite a bit of assets it's not really liquid assets but it's um in terms of we can spend them or anything but it just means they own a lot of Capital Capital Improvements a lot has been invested into those into those uh into those areas um in terms of just how how things uh you know compared to when we were here a month ago talking about the second quarter um sanity sewers down by about uh down by a few million $3 million or so uh revenues down by about 5 million expenses down to as well a little bit to uh generally um that's that's uh because of the uh downward shift in their proceeds from long-term liabilities um storm water the revenues have been down about 5 million but spendings down also about 11 million or so on Capital from what we projected uh as of the end of June and then the other thing I'd mentioned is the water water Enterprises are up about $10 million or so and so um the last thing I would mention is I have run some special reports at the request of the city council so those are available in the in the hopefully in the in the packet um of reports that you got today um otherwise I do have responses that that I'll send out to the whole board for the qu for the the second quarter questions I'll take care of that as soon as I get back into my office I did get some questions from president brand earlier today so those ones um I'm going to need um some help from some of my colleagues so I will uh get back to you on that but I will uh I will send those out for for comment and compile a response to all of you but otherwise um I stand for any other uh questions you may have at this time thank you thank you for your presentation uh before we continue with comments or questions I wondered if the Kirk would please note that commissioner chukai has has joined the meeting in progress are there any questions for Mr hardgrove I have several as you mentioned and number of them require consultation with other parts of the budget but there are perhaps some that either you or um Mr um Allan could uh uh deal with Mr hoppy um the property tax collection that's down 6.7% obviously we don't know how that will turn out for anything that's under appeal in court but uh for the portion that is not subject to that kind of appeal does the city typically collect those eventually either when the taxes are paid as a result of the property being sold and the new owner new owner having to make up the back taxes or when the property goes tax forfeit yeah I saw that question I I do want to for that onto the cessor office I believe that might have some more information uh what I would say at this point um obviously the tax Court ones um we would we would it's unlikely we probably recover um for the other part of it for things that are delinquent I guess you never really know like how much Equity is going to be in somebody's property at the end that's kind of my first observation of it but I would like to talk to the to a few people in the in the that handle you know handle the assessed value and things like that to find out to see if they have any data on uh on how much actually they do end up recovering in the end yeah yeah so I will try to find out more for you very good you also referenced the uh both restricted and unrestricted uh fund balances for the general fund I believe it was and uh believe you mentioned that the projected 143 million at the end of the year would leave us at 21.5% of the uh of the U general fund expenditures which is you know a margin above the 177% standard that's in the city's policy is is that in the eyes of a bond rating agency are those are restricted funds sort of put off to the side in terms of measuring the city's Financial strength and ability to meet its expenses or and do they only consider restricted unrestricted rather or is the total of both considered in terms of the city's Financial Health yeah I did want to um good yeah thanks thanks president bran I did want to consult with um with uh Mr hoppy on that a little bit I do think I think just by definition unrestricted means you know I guess if you at your you know your own Personnel finances if you had you know I need this money because I have to pay it you know in 6 months you know that's not worth as much as something where you don't have any liabilities against it but some I got feeling is yeah I I I think un restricted does count a little bit more but but I but I do think they both have some you know some impact on the rating okay and uh you noted that through quarter three the sales and special taxes work very strong um do you have any feel for whether that is continuing in the two months of quarter four that have been completed now or whether it's even strengthening at all yeah president Brant Commissioners um I haven't had a chance to look at the books yet on that one so I do need to send that out to um there's actually quite a few departments that uh that that contribute to that that uh Revenue category so I want to I want to get a complete picture so I can get back to you on that all right and then I think I also asked about the $6 million drop in tort liability that was not in the report um that's of course good news um and I think looking back at your quarter two answers you suggested that the city views uh the bump in uh liability uh claims and payouts uh surrounding the events of 2020 as um as an anomaly and U there's a sense that the claim's experience here is returning closer to normal so this would tend to bear that out president brand Commissioners yeah I think I think that is an early an early sign that uh that maybe just maybe you know but those liabilities will start to go down thank you do my colleagues have any answer questions or comments all right thank you for your presentation uh seeing no further discussion I'll ask the clerk to receive and file that presentation and item six is passage of resolution approving the board of estimate and Taxation 2025 budget appropriation and Levy as you'll recall we approved the 20 preliminary 2025 budget appropriation and Levy at our May 22nd meeting no changes have made since then so this resolution is essentially identical to the preliminary one uh it's possible that actions we take today will lead us to amend the budget uh sometime next year but for now I I uh believe this stands uh may I please have a motion to adopt the resolution all moved is there a second second okay we have a proper motion before us is there any discussion all those in favor say I hi I oppose okay that item is approved um excuse me you have to do a roll call for this President Brant because it's a resolution of course all right uh will the clerk please call the role commissioner fry item number six correct uh that is correct commissioner aen I commissioner Payne I commissioner Chuck tag I vice president prieston I president Brent I there are six eyes so that item is approved after all and uh we now move on to discussion items item seven is a passage of resolution authorizing a job listing for an executive secretary I'll welcome Brenda Miller and Rick stenerson for a brief presentation [Music] I'm RI stenerson with the human resources department I'm director of total compensation thank you for having us today Brenda Miller is also with me in case there are questions that she may be able to answer we are here to talk about the senior advisor position for the board of estimate and Taxation um this position the duties include educating the bet on City and parkboard finances so it understands the basis for setting the maximum levies and approving certain Bond issues representing the be between board meetings on Levy budget and bonding discussions with Finance the mayor's office and the park board leading research on topics related to the city Levy and bond authorization as assigned by the BET advising the bet on matters related to departmental budgets prepared and recommended by the city council mayor and Park Board president in the context of funding requirements to support those funds thank you and working with inter governmental relations to review and inform the BET of legislative actions which may impact the funding sources available to the BET and to communicate any bet recommendations for statutory changes I just wanted to provide some background information on the situation with this position so I do want to recognize and acknowledge that there was some miscommunication on our end and I want to express my sincere apologies for that happening and I hope that clarifying some of the information today will allow us all to move forward with the position as we have it revised so the the jaq or job analysis questionnaire was initially submitted to classifications on September 10th 2024 with the request to interview the following members of the hiring committee and those members are listed here it included Steve Brandt Samantha priest tinson Aisha Chuck Tai Duan D Alan hoppy Julia wisman we then um gave the position to our external consultant that we normally use for many of the higher level positions at the city and he asked to schedule interviews with both president brand and then Tony sturl who was the last in the the last person in the BET position the consultant following those interviews then determined that he had enough information to complete the report and therefore he did not interview the other members that were requested of him to interview he then submitted the report to our classification and compensation manager and without knowing that the original intent was to interview that full group the manager assigned the salary schedule and submitt it to president Brandt once that report then was shared with the committee HR became aware that the others that were requested to be interviewed were not interviewed and so we went back to the consultant and asked him to schedule the remaining interviews and revise if necessary the report based on all of the findings and including the input from everybody not initially included So based on the completion of those interviews the consultant revised the report finding that the points for this position are at 535 and the grade is grade 11 um the consultant submitted the final report to our compensation manager who then assigned a new salary schedule and again I want to apologize for the delay that this has caused and that we did not include those initial people before the first report was released once the uh interviews were completed and the report was advi revised as I said the the position came out at a grade 11 the consultant the consultant's opinion is that the job is part-time because the number of hours work fluctuate significantly based on the frequency of the BET meetings so as a part-time role the 2024 pay schedule would be the following the hourly rate would be 55.9 up to 66.2 um we just calculated an average of 20 hours a week that would be the range from 58161 to 68 947 and while the incumbent would be a city employee the job is not in the classified service and therefore not subject to Civil Service rules just as information points the the decrease in points from the first report to the second there were three categories that had um small decreases they were in decisions relationships and efforts and I believe we did send out the report earlier so you should have that as background information there were also things that he noted as far as core Finance functions that had moved that had moved to finance property and services from when the previous incumbent had the position so that also changed the grade of the the position as far as part-time compensation op options there would be two options to pay a part-time exempt employee option one would be the pay based on scheduled hours regardless of the number of hours actually worked so the schedule hours would be stable week over week the exempt employee must make at least the salary threshold for exempt employees in 2024 that was 844 per week and in 2025 it's 1,128 per week option two would be to treat the employee as a non-exempt and pay on an hourly basis in this scenario the Inc the individual would just submit the actual hours worked every pay period and he the he or she would be paid for the is actually worked there's no minimum payment required from an exemption standpoint option two is probably the recommendation that HR would recommend for this position and with that that concludes our portion of this presentation on the position we will stand for questions be happy try to answer any questions that you have thank you for the presentation are there any questions specific to HR or the presentation Commission commissioner prieston comments fair enough um thank you um I just want to note that um thank you for apologizing for the miscommunication um but I just want to also name that it's Troublesome to me because it was it it went against what this body voted on of and of what we wanted to happen um so yes it's a miscommunication but also that it was in direct conflict with what this body voted on that we wanted the CNY why like for example I'm an HR professional director in my day job um I will also just comment I have other things but just to start out um I spent an extensive amount of time on a drop of a dime due to said miscommunication um and very little of the analysis included much of what I said um that's concerning to me um and well yes there's functions that move to find and Property Services and we've discussed this many times before that doesn't take into account the independent nature of the board and that regardless of whose responsibility is like to perform the function on behalf of the city by the nature of this board um and the responsibility of it we may it's not rework it's asking them to to it's not rework and we've kind of had this conversation back and forth and I just want to acknowledge that piece about the move to finance and Property Services um as a form of who ultimately responsible yes but what we may ask them to do um in an independent nature which is the purpose of one of the purposes of this board I just would like to note that and then also I do think it's important for the public to know because we didn't name it here kind of what the process has been especially since this iteration of bet wasn't who we started with so I'd like to name that we inherited um for context We inherited this decision from the previous previous bet who felt it was important to allow for us the incoming bet to decide um and so we had some discussion back and forth and like I've also mentioned many times before this body doesn't have the um uh we don't have another person to break a tie and so in this body we we have to come to decisions and work together um and so as a result um uh of being at this kind of standstill between part-time and full time and then there was a few other things as well it was mayor fry that was able to come to a compromise and offer let's let's try going with a a firm and see how that goes um and so we did um it it didn't quite work for us for various reasons and so that landed us back here again in which we had a different iteration of folks at the seat due to a change in leadership in Council within the budget chair um and our council president um and so it landed us back in these conversations in which at that time we didn't take a vote but there was a majority of our body um at least a large curiosity in which to um explore a full-time nature of this role and and I think we're all aware of where we stood for the reasons for why for that so I just wanted to add um some context there um just give me a moment I wrote some things out but I don't want to be duplicative um I think that's enough for now I'd like to let my colleagues weigh in and then I think I do have um outside of the vote there there are just some procedural things um like just do for like a continuous Improvement thing I think that there's some um after discussions that we can have about how to who knows what the future holds and like how we can um I I often say that when difficulties like this happen it's it's not a people issue it's usually just a systems and process issue um and so I I have some ideas about some things that I'd like to see as a result afterwards as far as process um but I'll I'll I'll turn it over to anyone else that might have comments and then see see what else sticks that I might that I might want to share thank you do other members of the board have comments uh commissioner uh Payne thank you Mr President uh thank you for that background and uh context uh it's this is obviously our first cycle at least myself and vice president Chu TI's first cycle uh on the BET and I did follow along a little bit with this discussion about uh staff support um in my capacity on City I'm also the chair of the audit committee which is you know another independent uh body from city council and the mayor and uh but obviously all of these different bodies have this interplay and I think one of the things that we are very much learning about experiencing in real time is this separation of power and independence from these various bodies that make up the whole of how this institution works and you know my kind of General uh stance on how these bodies should function is that they should be very high performing bodies and if they're or we should relook at whether they exist I've had pretty extensive conversations with President Brandt about some of the history of the BET um the desire for some folks to actually want to abolish the bet I'm of the position that if we're going to have a board of estimate and Taxation it should function very well and I think that a full-time staffer would support that and and support the independence of that and I'm wondering if um some of the existing members who have been through a few cycles of this have any perspective that they would want to share when it comes to whether or not it's appropriate uh to move forward with a part-time position versus a full-time position and I know I feel that the mayor and previous discussions had maybe suggested that you know our staff within the finance department would be sufficient to support this body but again I think there's I I think Independence is important I think if we're going to have this body exist it should exist fully and with all of the capacity that it has the potential to have or we actually should have a conversation about whether or not this is the appropriate body for doing this work uh thank you uh one the thing before I get to my additional comments I would also like to add context that um the reason for why the two options I just want to add that it's not randomized um there there was a federal statute that changed around um classification of um for examp employees and so including the own organization and I'm the director for for HR we had to decide whether or not everybody should stay as salaried or whether or not want to be hourly so it just kind of depends on your budget and what you want to do and that I just wanted to give some context to why the two choices um and say that I would agree with that that those are the two choices um to choose from based on um this is something that everyone is facing it's been um a slow phase in most most organizations and companies were already in compliance but this last phase that goes into effect at the beginning of the year is when most people are having to make this exact decision we see ahead of us so I wanted to give that context uh the other thing I will say is that uh yes coming into um even with my background and working at City Hall being a firsttime elected official and serving as president for the first two years um well those um individuals are there for support uh Direct in the way that we're allowed to direct um just to be clear um it it's very uh it's frustrating and very slow to get information that you need in real time to make decisions and have information because you have to send it to the head of of that department who then decides on their time whether that's a priority within those folks workload and who's going to get back to and obviously you would have other questions based on what comes in and so um it it was very slow it was quite frustrating um it's not the way like yes I'm an elected official but it's not the way that I would like to see anybody that's new to anything be on boarded um into something that has this level of responsibility um and so there there were um without having the background I had and understanding Robert's Rules and how things work uh it could have been a little bit of potential nightmare for a new elected official um but with all that being said um with having somebody in place for a very small amount of time um Mr sturl um it was what I needed um for support it was what we all needed and again we have a right to have information in an independent nature the way in which we would like to see it the way that we need it the way that we need it broken down I don't think any of us are financially illiterate but there's no qualification for any of us that we have to have a certain Financial background and so even the breakdown of information that we need and different spreadsheets um we we need it how we need to see it um and it shouldn't be an argument and nobody should have to give their firstborn child in order to get information in the way that they need to see it and digest it in order to make decisions um um inform decisions and and have the information in the ways that they need to see it broken down and and perhaps uh disaggregated um and so from speaking from the point that um council president Payne just asked from um and also knowing like any elected official every elected official runs on on some sort of a platform and they come into office trying to move things that is not new um it's not novel and so with that being said even within these seats um folks might not think there's things that people want to move but they do and we have and I did uh the public housing Levy being one of them um and so the work and the research and the coordination between intergovernmental bodies doing that with uh a firm uh certainly wasn't helpful um they're not here they don't have access to information they also have to ask and so it was just another group of people to be left with the same frustration I had that got paid way more money than I do to do this um and it was quite costly and cost us more than if we had just hired the full-time person um and we'll be transparent to say that was with wanting to do a capital audit and so that that was part of the reason for the larger expense so I'm not going to pretend that that wasn't a thing but even take that out it actually still cost us more due to the payment schedule of depending on who was touching the work uh their payment schedule was the the more qualified that that person was had to touch it the more that they cost so everybody within their org would touch it and for several hours and it was costly when we could have just done this um I I am I'm happy that we found the middle ground and that we tried it a different way and that even in a different form of this body we were willing to try something different um and and I I would like to break the theme of that it's it's not always one way and that we're we're we're willing to give we gave one way it'd be nice to go another way but it is also in the best interest of not just this set of elected officials we may not be sitting here a year from now but whoever comes in is going to need that level of support and coordination and research and the ability to move whatever agenda that they have if it's the will of the body um to include managing a work plan I will also say that if we keep it as it is at this level of pay given the things that we're overseeing and this is an employee who should be developed who should be overseen um who should be managed properly who should have somebody they report to that is available we would be looking at increasing our pay because $400 a month to man to to properly supervise someone at this level um I don't think that's fair or Equitable at all and I I rather not have that conversation when we're raising taxes as it is um but you know that's the give and take of this and so I think putting this at a full-time position where someone's not doing the same thing that well uh president Brandt is retired now but it's certainly not doing the same thing as me where do give this role the attention and the the priority it deserves and you know I'm also managing my full-time job um certainly um you the the you can't a living wage in this city is not $400 a month and so and this person needs to be here and be able to do all of the things to include the fluctuation that you could give every single one of us a task up here and it would take us a different amount of time to complete it based on our approach and what we need to get it done so there are deviations in just simply how people work and their approach to work the level of their relationships and there's fluctuation and so I I just professionally do not agree that there's so much fluctuation that this isn't at at a this isn't full-time work I I don't believe that it is it's not just my opinion it's also in my professional opinion um as an HR professional that is a director in my full-time job and if I was if I was doing this work that I do on a regular basis in my this would be a full-time position um and that is where I stand and I think that is in the best interest of this body future iterations of this body I think it's in the best interest of of City staff that that doesn't need to be bothered with prioritizing these requests because our city staff is stressed specifically our budget office and and our our finance office that's not new that was the case even when I was a staffer here and I think it's just in the best interest of everyone especially the people that they serve that especially the people that are elected to this role have the proper support that they need in order to meet their obligation that they when they raised their hand and took an oath to do this job thank you any other comments all right um I would like to comment um and i' just like to encapsulate some things I've said over the years about this position in 2019 uh when the previous incumbent uh full-time executive secretary uh retired um the decision was made by the board at that time not to uh replace him with a full-time person uh Mr hoppy uh was hired and uh lasted in the position for a period of time and then made a probably economically rational decision to um assume full-time position with the finance department uh and then the board hired another part-time executive secretary Mr sturl who's been referenced before and he found that the lack of benefits was and put him in an untenable family situation and so he left for another position so we've had two part-time people in this job uh the previous board the board that uh commissioner uh priest enson and I replaced in 2022 early 2022 was poised to uh boost the position to fulltime and at the last minute uh punted the decision to the new board uh commissioner priest senson and I came in and recommended a full-time moved a full-time person in the position uh the board deadlocked at that time um we went to the mayor suggestion of a consultant which I believe was made in good faith um it cost us at least $130,000 uh I think we found out through experience that was just not a coste effective way of of managing the position so for most of 2024 we've been uh without a bet staffer um uh and I find that I feel as if we are working backwards we do not have institutional memory in the position uh we do not have a a record kept in the same way that a full-time employee uh such as Mr quy did um before his retirement in 2019 and I think it's time to try another the door and so I have brought forward a resolution today and I have actually a substitute uh which would adopt the pay schedule that is in the jaq except it would uh boost it to 40 hours a week and I um do I need to offer that as a substitute do we need to vote on that okay um may I have a motion to offer that substitute commissioner pay uh thank you Mr President I was just curious uh I see that we also have on our agenda adopting our uh budget for bet are we going to have to make an amendment to that as well to uh reflect any action we take here uh yes I I mentioned earlier in the meeting that um we would uh eventually need to amend our budget but I think the appropriate time for that would be when we are at the point of uh bringing somebody on so that we know how much of the year we'll have toay pay for the person's salary uh does that sound acceptable to you yep thank you all right is there a a motion so moved okay is there a second second all right the U resolution is before us labeled Brandt amendment is there any further discussion okay seeing none all those in favor say I I I I ex president presid roll call excuse me calling the role on President brand amendment to item seven is this correct substitute on substitute yes substitute sorry commissioner fry go commissioner aen hi commissioner Payne I commissioner Chuck t i vice president priest Stinson I president BR I there are five eyes in one name so now we have the amended or the substituted resolution before us is there any discussion all right uh all those uh let's see we will need to call oh okay I'm sorry commissioner Benny thank thank you president brand I guess I'll just weigh a little bit you know I wasn't here the first year with this with the two elected director elected uh members of the bet but I do think you've given it the old College try and I would say we have a couple of examples where outside Consultants have missed the mark and I I don't mean that disrespectfully but it sounds like this HR review partially and then um um and then really I think we had some issues with some of the FI the report that we got on the the capital investment in the city so so I think having someone that is available to you know focus on this work and prioritize it because I think that's been the problem again no shade this is a busy organization um if it's not a primary Duty it may sometimes fall away so I think that would be a benefit um I Heard also I think um vice president priest tinson mentioned the original the pre the the retired man's duties included some things that have rolled into Finance I don't know if it's possible to eventually look and see if there's other duties if could come back if if it made sense I and I'll say one last thing I I did have some good um interactions with people in the finance department in this calendar year um during our during this cycle of work but it would have been nice to have a more robust opportunity to have some questions um actually explored a little bit more deeply so that's why I'm supporting this any further discussion all right the Kirk will call the role commissioner fry no commissioner a Ben I commissioner Payne I commissioner Chuck type I vice president priest sson I president brand I there are five eyes and one name okay that item is approved item eight is approving the information request memo uh protocol I'll welcome uh the city clerk Casey Carl to speak to this item good evening Mr chair and vice Vice chair priest Denson Commissioners uh this was an item you'll recall a few months ago that was brought forward as a means of ensuring followup on questions that the uh board and its members may have respecting the duties and functions of the board of estimate and Taxation and I wanted to uh sort of level set by saying this is based on a new process that the city council debuted this year it was council president Payne who developed this process and we have used it I think fairly effectively this year during the council's uh first of the two-year term that we're in currently uh the process is really intended to do five things first it closes communication Loops between the elected body and with the administration and staff it assures public transparency and access to information it provides equal access to all members of the body in this case the Commissioners uh fourth it enhances the public record of the BET's business and its transactions and I think fifth uh um per perhaps most importantly helps to inform your decision-making I heard that mentioned uh by the Vice chair and so wanted to say that yes this is something that I think has the impact of helping to inform your decision-making there is a memo in your packet sort of that outlines the process that we uh put together this mirrors very much the process that exists for the city council uh a few key differences this is uh a process that would be limited to of course your own staff uh a way for the body to formally ask for information follow-up or details from the executive secretary once that position is hired and then also could be used for follow-up Communications and responses with those staff who have a direct relationship with the board of estiment Taxation and as it says here that specifically is the Chief Financial Officer who is also the Chief Financial Officer of uh the board of estiment of Taxation the City attorney who is the attorney of the board of estimate and Taxation and the city clerk who under your bylaws is the clerk of the board so uh in addition to the executive secretary who is this body's uh position or employee there are the three additional employees that could be uh requested to provide follow-up information uh in response to this anyone else within the administration any other Departments of course under the mayor's Authority that request would be directed to the mayor uh and in the procedures put forward out sort of the process and how it works uh the clerk's office uh tends to be the I'll say switching Center where things come and go in terms of sending out the requests to the appropriate individuals and then Gathering the responsive information back and making sure that it's timely shared with Commissioners uh on the back you can see an example of what this memo looks like so we have a process of submitting to all of the Commissioners um an email the email will have a subject heading line to make sure that we're communic ating back it was this agenda item it was this subject matter we ask the clerks to very carefully document the specific questions that are asked they document those questions send them to the responsive um official or Department we ask that the Departments take those exact same questions and put their responses beneath those questions so it really is a very tight closed loop between what the body is asking for and the information that the staff can provide so that's a highlevel synopsis of the process that is exists for Council what we would OS to mirror for you and how that would work happy to stand for any questions if there are any commissioner PRI tinson I just want to thank you for adapting that you you heard our call and I I will also say that I also like that this maybe not eliminates but greatly reduces the ability to accidentally break Corum with all the replying and replying and so I love that it makes us compliant and I wouldn't expect anything less from our trusty clerk Mr Carl um but I I do appreciate this it was greatly needed and I think this will help especially in the interim until we get someone in I think this will greatly help for us to get some of the need that we've been asking for and so just appreciative that you heard the call and made some adaptation and thank you for that absolutely this looks good to me is there any other discussion all right I have a question um thank you for working this up for us I appreciate the work um how do we proceed to adopt this as our protocol I don't see a resolution on our agenda do we just um do I ask for a motion to adopt the protocol would that be appropriate president uh brand you can simply make a motion to adopt it and will that require a roll call vote no okay all right I will make a motion to adopt the protocol as presented by uh city clerk Casey Carl second all right is there any discussion all those in favor say hi hi hi hi opposed all right thank you the protocol is adopted you guys have it uh and now we have the honorary resolution that was presented at the beginning of the meeting uh concerning our clerk Lisa uh Lisa Brock and I wondered if uh all the members of the board would like to join with me as uh authors of this resolution hearing no objection uh that will be so done and um any further discussion all those in favor say I I it has to be a roll call vote president oh yes resolution another resolution all right we will call the rooll Qui please call the rooll on the resolution pring the clerk commissioner fry hi a Ben hi Payne I trick Tai I vice president prieston I president brand I there are six eyes all right the resolution is adopted uh we next have on our agenda the announcement section and at the risk of tearing fresh scabs off of fresh wounds um because this body did uh vote on a maximum Levy earlier this year and for some of it it was a tough vote to support 8.1 or in some cases 8.2 or three um I read that the um city council has acted and I wondered if first the council president could bring us up to date on where the levy ended up and U if the mayor has any comments to add I'm perfectly uh willing to hear from him as well thank you president Brent um yes so as we all recall uh or maybe I should say this more for the public uh the mayor recommends a budget uh that comes out in August we took action on that budget uh and Levy recommendation in September during our September meeting uh I brought a motion along with vice president Chuck Tai to increase the levy to accommodate some of the requests from the Minneapolis Park Board specifically to address uh some some of their labor costs through their new negotiated agreement and uh youth programming uh and we made uh some soft commitments if I recall around using our role on city council to to interrogate uh the rest of those spending uh proposals in the mayor's recommended budget uh through our deliberations that wrapped up very late last night around midnight uh we were able to find uh roughly over uh $7 million in the mayor's recommended budget to reduce the levy so uh in August the mayor's recommended Levy was 8.1 uh we took action on this body to increase that number to 8.3 uh and then through the work of city council we brought that number down to 6.8 that was passed late last night at midnight uh the clerks were still compiling the uh packet to deliver to the mayor for his consideration kind of as I was coming upstairs it's been delivered uh but we did get an announcement from the mayor through a press release that he he did have intentions on vetoing that so we will we will see what happens tomorrow when we take up uh that veto on city council mayor fry do you commissioner fry do you have anything to add uh thank you Mr President yes I appreciate and support the uh council's appetite to decrease the levy uh I supported these 6.8 or 6.9% Levy would have also supported a 6.4 uh% Levy which I proposed in a motion uh I signed the levy increase at that 6.9 figure um my opposition in general stemmed from the fact that the amount of spending very significantly increased uh about 6 and A5 million and that $6.5 million does impact tax payers in the coming years and so that doesn't go on the levy this year because it's additional spending that was available in the form it was it was Reserve funds largely um but there are other funds as well uh but certainly that will have an impact to the tax levy next year or perhaps even the years after so the money is money uh and none of it's free all right commissioner priest sson just a point of clarification I understand the reserve funds just a quick question is just so that last part that you said I just want to make sure I'm hearing it correctly being that it's not the 8.1 you proposed wouldn't that have also been money as money like that are you saying it's just by the nature of what they were how the money was moved that that particular thing would have come from reserves or is or would that also have been the same case in your higher Levy I'm just trying to understand the reserves and the money is money part is what was different about what you proposed versus what they proposed is it theirs is coming from a different funding source I just want to make sure that I'm understanding what you're saying in proper context uh I think I understand your question uh uh Madam vice president the there were increases to the council's proposal in addition to the levy reduction there's a levy reduction but then there were increases which in large part were paid for out of reserves and so uh we have to have reserves and those reserves are generally funded anytime we spend money whether it's in the form of ongoing or one time it has an impact on our ability to draw down the levy for the following year and so this would have an impact here okay that clarified that for me and then just one quick followup um uh are the what is the if if you know hypothetically that this moves through are are the would the reserves move to a level of concern f