Okay, welcome everyone.

Call this meeting to order.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

All council members are present, Mr.

Mayor.

And Vince is our city attorney is on the line.

Correct.

All right.

Welcome, Vince.

Item three, approval for the agenda and entertaining a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Any comments from about the agenda from the public.

Council, questions, comments?

Please call the rule.

Nehemiah.

Specker.

Tilton Byrne.

Hi.

Wendell.

Doran.

Aye.

Okay.

We'll start with item four, budget workshop number one.

Item four is budget workshop number one.

We will be reviewing budget overview and operating budget and outside agencies.

Samantha Beckman, our assistants of city manager, and Ashley Wrench, our finance director, will present this item.

If I can, real quick, just introduce Sam.

Sam and Ashley have been uh critical part in leading this year's budget process for 2026.

Sam's gonna go ahead and present the presentation, but just know that Ashley's done a phenomenal job helping her with this process, but just as importantly, all the department heads working together on behalf of the organization to bring you forward a recommendation on behalf of administration.

Um course is gonna tell you it's a balanced budget, but at the end of the day, we all work cohesively together to really ensure that we have what we need within the budget, the request for the departments trying to take care of outside agencies and other partner agencies, and at the end of the day, coming to a balanced budget that is sustainable uh and well balanced and financially feasible.

Um so thanks to Sam and Ashley for doing the heavy lifting here and and look forward to the presentation that Sam has for you tonight.

All right, well, great.

Thanks.

It's great to be here.

Um so this is the 2026 budget presentation, and just want to let you guys know to feel free to interrupt me throughout, and we can answer questions as we go, or if you want to wait till the end and answer questions at the end, that's um all right as well.

And we also have our department heads here to answer any questions that might be very uh department specific.

So just feel free to interrupt as we go.

And also for those that are probably waiting for open forum.

You get the pleasure of uh waiting probably 40 minutes um through a budget presentation.

So um good for you.

All right, so on tonight's uh agenda we're gonna be talking about our operating budget and our outside agencies as well as our tenure financial protect projection tonight.

And on September 23rd, we will be going over our 10-year CIP or our capital improvement plan and our fee schedule.

And then on October 14th is an optional study session where we can have any additional uh discussions or recap if you guys so choose.

This slide just really outlines the kind of formal adoption process that we have with the budget each year, starting with uh property tax levy ordinance reading number one, which happened on October or excuse me, August 26th, and then accumulating uh in November with the final budget ordinance and um CIP as well.

So on tonight's agenda, we'll be going over highlights from this uh 2026 budget, uh total budget comparison to 25's budget, and going through our primary revenue sources and our uh budget overview of all of those revenue funds, as well as our tenure financial projections and outside agency discussions.

Giving you guys just a basic overview of our 2026 budget.

This is having to do with every budget that we do as well.

We consider the city council's five focus areas of financial responsibility, safe, inclusive, and connected community, service and innovation excellence, economic growth, and sustainability.

And then this budget also serves as a primary policy tool, really able to guide our operations each year.

And it then also is a really valuable communication device that helps us promote transparency regarding city operations to both the public and then also helps obviously our departments keep track of things.

Our highlights for next year's budget.

The total budget is almost $650,000 less than the 2025 budget, which is really interesting.

But we're seeing about a 3% sales tax growth, 5% property tax growth.

And even though our total budget is less than 2025's budget, our general fund is $1 million in increased from the 2025 budget.

And that general fund increase is really having to do with staffing increases, so wages and training in there, as well as the BMU water treatment plant project revenues coming in and just kind of cost escalations of materials in there.

Through the 2026 budget process, we are not recommending any additional positions being added.

And the budget team utilizes a multi-year actual expense averages to find additional areas where we can trim anything that might be additional line items that could save money throughout this.

So again, kudos to Ashley and Tyler in the finance department, really helping to create that intuitive and sustainable budget moving forward.

All right, a lot going on on this slide, but the percentages on the bars themselves over here and on here, there we go.

Um show what portion of the total budget each fund accounts for, and just a quick overview of all four of those funds up there.

The general fund is your primary operating fund, which includes police, fire, public works, parks, along with several other departments.

And this is the one where you're seeing about a million dollar increase right here from last year.

The enterprise funds operate more like a sustainable business model.

So think of your solid waste division, uh the liquor store, the golf course, and the airport there.

Moving over to your special revenues and your debt services.

Examples of these include the Dakota Bank Center, tax increment financing districts, our bed booze and board tax, our 3B tax, and then moving on to our fourth one over here, our CIP or our capital improvement plan.

This is your second penny sales tax that goes toward our 10-year capital improvement plan to fund those large projects over 25,000.

So the headline on this slide is that we are seeing about a $650,000 difference from 25's budget to 26's budget, about a 1% decrease.

And that decrease is really directly directly related to less anticipated projects in the enterprise funds and uh the CIP funds over here.

So, for an example, in 2025 this year, we had a lot of solid waste master plan projects, like we had a 1.5 million dollar leach aid force main project.

That's just simply not going to happen again.

Um so we're seeing a lot of those projects just as one-time projects.

All right, moving on.

Um, again, gonna go over some of your primary revenue sources here, your sales tax.

We're seeing about um the three percent growth there, your property taxes, about a five percent growth, um, and then your 3B or your bed booze and board tax, and then your business improvement district, which is also called a bid or a pillow tax.

That's the $2 per night on hotel stays that we receive.

In 2026, we are um calculating our sales tax by taking a 3% increase over our 2025 budget to get just over 10.5 million dollars in sales tax.

Again, credit to Ashley and the finance department for continuously monitoring national and local trends here to ensure financial sustainability.

Um, and then compared to our peer communities, our 3% estimate remains very conservative here.

Moving on to property taxes.

Property taxes are actually the city's most stable revenue source.

And we're increasing that by about 210,000 from 2025.

Our property taxes are a formula-driven number based on the prior years numbers plus factors, including the consumer price index or the CPI, which is at 2.9%, and the new construction growth numbers, which are at 2.09%.

And we get that number from the county just based on assessed values that are increasing.

State law caps CPI and growth, both at 3%.

And this year the growth rate is at that 2.9%, so very close, but not at the 3% at this point.

And then again, growth is calculated through the county's community construction data.

The state caps both of those.

So as you can see, Brookings has one of the lowest mill rates compared to other peer cities.

Another example slide here.

If you own a house in Brookings that's worth $350,000, you're gonna pay about $4,500 in taxes each year.

53% of that goes to the school district with about $2,500.

30% goes to the county, about $1,300,000, $1,400 there.

And then the city receives 17% of your municipal taxes there, about uh $770.

Next up our 3B or our Bed Booz and Board.

Uh this primarily funds our economic development agencies and drivers like the BEDC, Visit Brookings, Downtown Brookings, the Chamber of Commerce, Dakota Bank Center, and the Research Park.

Our 3B budget is estimated at 1.39 million dollars for 2026, and that's based on uh adjusted inflationary factors such as CPI in there.

And you'll notice that in 2024, there was a bit of a spike in there.

Uh, we actually had a one-time payment coming in 2024.

So, actually, the curve that you're gonna be looking at is probably right around here.

Our business improvement district or our pillow tax, again, that is our uh $2 per night on hotel stays in the city.

Um, and this is used to fund a portion of visit Brookings.

Uh, your pillow tax shows in the budget as a higher number, as we can only collect up to that amount.

So in the budget, it's shown as about I think $500,000 because if we receive $300,000, we can only collect up to the $500,000.

Or if we were to receive $600,000 and we had only budgeted $500,000, you can only get $500,000.

So we budget higher than we actually receive.

Um pillow tax budget is uh based on the assumption that our growth will remain flat year over year compared to our 2024 actuals.

So we are at this 261,000 here and 261,000 dollars proposed for 2026.

Um we're doing that because there's a continued lack of growth in hotel stays, which we are likely attributing to hesitancy related to spending discretionary money.

Okay, so going back to our general fund here.

We'll get into more details in upcoming slides, but uh your general fund again, that's um primarily based on your sales tax, your property tax, um, things like that, and goes towards funding your police department, your fire department, um, your parks department, all those other um departments that you think of when you think of the city.

And again, the $1 million increase is about a 5% increase compared to the 2025 adopted budget.

Your police fire, public works, parks, all of those account for about 73% of general fund expenses.

And your sales tax, property tax, and transfers account for 82% of your total revenues that go into the general fund.

So what are we doing with the general fund, right?

So this is our primary operating fund that we use.

So you're gonna see some changes in here.

We do have a new city attorney relationship.

We're now using Woods Fuller out of Sioux Falls.

We had previously been using Steve Breitzman, who was a local city attorney for us, who has since retired.

But you're gonna see some increases with the new city attorney relationship.

We are also undergoing an ordinance recodification, which I know is everybody's favorite thing.

It happens once every 10 years, and it's a very big lift on the city clerk's office.

We're conducting a salary survey in next year in 2026, and then implementing that in 2027.

And we're also seeing employee wage increases, and we won't go into those very specifically because we are still in the meet and confer process with the unions at this point.

So once those unions wrap up negotiations there, we can share what those increases will be next year.

And then you're also seeing some large facility increases.

We have the addition of the Fifth Street Gym, so you're gonna have some operating costs that come with that.

And the City County Government Center, this building also has some projects.

We've got some safety and security upgrades and some IT upgrades as well.

So again, looking at the revenue for the general fund.

We're seeing that 3% sales tax increase over here, about a 5% property tax increase.

Your transfers in are increasing, and those are things like we receive money from Brookings municipal utilities, the liquor store, the landfill, our tax increment financing districts, and our 3B.

So those are all in the transfers in.

Your department revenues are increasing here as well.

Those are things like our your permitting fees, uh, fines and forfeitures, and then any changes that we have with any fee analysis that might go on throughout the year.

Intergovernmental revenues, those are things like our state and county shared revenue sources.

There's a bunch of them listed off in here, but your state and bridge tax, your state liquor tax, things like that.

And then other revenue sources for your general fund.

Uh, you got about a 1.6 million dollar increase in here, about a 5.5%.

Um, and those are the liquor store markup, money market interest accounts, um, and then some other fees that might go in there as well.

So you know where we're getting the money, what are we spending the money on in our general fund at this point?

So increases are generally attributed to personnel expenses, insurance, inflation, and projects in our general fund here.

Um so the police department is seeing about a seven percent increase or about $370,000.

That's mainly due to personnel expenses and inflation.

Public works, about an 8.5% increase.

Again, personnel expenses, vehicle maintenance, um, inflation, and then we also have the city county building is baked into the public works department budget.

So you did see that on this slide.

We had some city-county building improvements.

That's shown in this um column over here.

Uh, your parks recreation and forestry department seeing about a 6.3% increase, about 255,000.

Again, personnel.

We also have the operations of the Fifth Street Gym in here, uh, vehicle and equipment maintenance, and then inflationary factors as well.

Finance, HR and IT, about a 3% increase, and then library, also skipping over a little bit, um, about a 2% increase.

Um, those are all gonna be personal driven as well.

So anything under like a three, four percent typically is about personnel and inflationary factors.

Um the administration column over here, we have a little asterisk down here, but um, this is the mayor and council, the city clerk's office, city manager's office, and the city attorney's office.

You're seeing a about a 15.9% increase, about 250,000 increase there.

Again, we had some bigger things happening in these departments this year.

So we have that new city attorney relationship.

We have an ordinance recodification, um, and then we have some uh personnel expenses as well.

Our fire department, we are seeing a 12% increase for personnel, and then increasing fire engine and vehicle maintenance next year.

Appropriations and subsidies, about a $16,000 increase for inflation, and your appropriations and subsidies category.

This is really having to do with your boards and committees and your social service agencies.

And so those are not coming to the general fund this year.

And it's looking really good.

You do see in 2021 and 2022 that those were up pretty significantly kind of into 23 as well.

Those are from your ARPA funds and other kind of COVID dollars that came in, as well as the Derecho insurance dollars that we had received.

So you're seeing a bigger spike in those years, but we have factored in what we would assume for personnel increases and what we would assume for sales tax and property tax increases, and it looks really good in the next 10 years or here.

So we might have to make some adjustments as we go throughout the next few years, but overall we're really creating that sustainable and intuitive finance process here.

All right, moving on to your special revenue and debt services profile here.

The city subsidizes the Dakota Bank Center, and the subsidy budget is for $367,000 for 2026, which is down from 2025 after making some substantial internal cuts for them.

So you're seeing a decrease there.

And then your tax increment financing districts and your storm drainage accounts.

Those are both based on timing of funds for projects as well.

So just very project dependent for those ones.

Here this really goes towards the new economic development merged organization, and then the city communication and some promotional items such as software are in there as well.

The E911 section over here is very personnel driven with the increases in expenses.

But then we also are seeing a little bit of increase in the revenues too, because we did have we were able to keep that $2 per line surcharge that the state increased.

That one we are projecting that decrease and staying flat to our 2024 budget there.

So you're seeing less capital improvement plan projects, which again means then less public art contributions.

So the difference there is that it's going from about $100,000 in 2025 to about $97,000 in 2026.

So a minimal increase decrease there.

Moving on to our enterprise funds, and again, these ones are the ones that are supposed to kind of act like a sustainable business model, right?

So think of the golf course, the landfill, those type of things.

So the let's go with the golf course over here and the the airport are the only two that really require a subsidy.

So the golf course receives about 100,000 from the liquor store, about 200,000 from the capital improvement plan, and from the capital improvement plan, the their contribution goes towards large equipment purchases.

It's also noted for the golf course as $1.2 million expected because we are currently under contract negotiations with a management firm.

And then moving on over here to the airport.

They also receive a subsidy, about $230,000 from the landfill, and about $60,000 from our capital improvement plan.

Our capital improvement contributions will go towards a new snow building, and that is grant contingent at this point.

Enterprise fund expenditures are decreasing by about $2.7 million in general compared to 2025, and those changes again are largely due to less anticipated projects in these categories.

So in 2025, we had a lot of those larger projects.

Again, I noted that Leech 8 Force Main system, about $1.5 million.

We had the equipment storage building at the landfill, which was about $500,000.

And we also had about $800,000 for the golf course water sourcing project there.

So those are just kind of those one-time big purchases and big projects that will not be happening this year.

In 2026, we do have some of those larger projects still happening though, mostly including we've got a $1.3 million set aside for our solid waste division for an excavator, a landfill dozer, and then some other smaller kind of larger equipment pieces there.

Um in funding reserves there.

At the liquor store, hopping back over here.

So there's more modest changes in collections, golf course, and the RT Center due to inflationary factors, personnel costs, and just kind of those timing of the projects here.

Okay.

Moving on, we've got our outside agency funding processes.

We've got two processes here that we do.

Our social service agencies, we budget those each year due to our inflationary factors.

So about a 2% increase for CPI.

And the United Way uh handles that process for us.

Um they have their own application process that other social service agencies will submit applications to the United Way.

And then the United Well, we the United Way will make a recommendation to us later on.

Um, where the city actually receives our economic development applications that go along with the city's budget process as well as other outside agencies that might not fit in the social service agency category.

And we get those applications back to us about June 1st of every year, so that we can talk about those as we go through the budget process.

So there's kind of a few different ways that we fund our outside agencies.

So this is our outside our outside agencies that are funded through our general fund.

So again, your sales tax, your property taxes, that's your general fund, that first one that we had talked about.

Your general fund will subsidize uh things like social human and educational services that are not directly tied to economic development or capital expenditures.

Uh the Brookings School District requested $195,000 and will receive $195,000 in 2026.

The humane society contract will be uh still formula driven based on their services that they provide up to $50,000.

The human or humanities council request, um, that was for the festival of books that happens every other year.

So that's down here a little bit.

Our community band and arts council funding will be consistent with previous years.

And our social service agency funding will increase again by a little over two percent based on our inflationary factors.

And the city council policy calls for a maximum allocation equal to 14% of property tax levy for this category.

Your current allocation is $170,000 over here, which equates to about 12.936%.

So just under that 14%.

Another way that you can fund outside agencies is through your 3B or your Bed Booze and Board tax or your pillow tax, your bid tax.

So I just want to maybe draw your attention to a couple of things here.

In the merge organization, you have those four entities, but you also have the downtown at Sundown request is also incorporated in here.

The SDCU student visitor promotion at $55,000.

And the Dakota Bank Center at about $367,000.

And that one they were able to lower their ask from $435,000 to this $367,000, which is an amazing, amazing feat that they had to undergo there.

So you got about $1.45 million in this category.

That's again coming from your 3B, your Bed Booze board, and your pillow tax.

And then lastly, over here, your other outside agencies that are funded through other funds, right?

So your funding through your capital improvement plan, your liquor store, and your storm drainage accounts here.

These top two over here, the SDSU PAC and the Brookings Health System payments.

These ones you're obligated to pay through 2027.

So in the 2028's budget, you will not have to pay for them.

The scholarships are funded through the liquor store at 100,000 a year, and this is your five of five.

So you will need to discuss during next year's budgeting process if you want to continue on with uh funding the scholarship program.

And um $80,000 of the hundred goes towards SDSU and $20,000 goes towards South Dakota Tech Colleges in that category.

And then we also have the Big Sioux Water Festival that has been uh historically funded through the storm drainage account each year.

And then wanting to draw your attention then here to this bottom number, this $3.1 million dollars.

Um your total outside agency funding at 3.1 almost $3.2 million there is 4.33% of your entire $72 million budget.

That was a lot of information, throw a lot at you guys, but do you have any questions for me or any of our department heads that are here tonight?

Thank you, Samantha.

Does public have any questions or comments on this item?

Council have any questions at this time?

Councilmember Specker.

I have required please come up to the mic, sir.

State your name and address.

Yeah, my name's Tim Kay.

I just wondering if they're gonna use some of this funding to train officers in the police department.

Because we have several officers here who don't understand South Dakota stand your ground law.

They think it only applies if you're in your house.

Me having been arrested falsely once for standing my save that for the open forum, sir.

Okay.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Specker.

Yeah, if you go to the early on the sales tax budget for 2026, and I know I've asked you and Ashley this question before, but that it really kind of bothers me when you know normally when you're doing the projections, things tend to follow the line more, but here you have it, you know, flat.

I mean, if you could just explain that.

I mean, I kind of know why, but I think an explanation because we can add these are actuals and adopteds, but why isn't the proposed based on the past actual?

So that you would see more of the proposed, like it would be higher, I would think for the 2026 Yes.

So each year we we propose a lesser amount than what we actually receive to be fiscally conservative.

So then anything over and above what we have budgeted, then will fall into the city council of financial policy projects for the next year.

Um so right now we are budgeting this uh three percent increase over 2025's budget.

Um so you're we are doing it a little differently this year.

However, you're right, it does look a little interesting this way.

Um but we do this um so that each year we are remaining conservative and that we don't want to overpromise things and then under deliver.

So the the 2025 actuals are likely to be higher than what was adopted.

At this point, they they are looking yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um first, thank you to Sam and Ashley for your work on this presentation.

I really like how digestible and transparent it is.

I just have a couple of small clarifying questions.

Uh so the first is on slide 17.

Um I'll flip to it too, really quick.

Uh I just wondered with the city-county admin building, those uh improvements.

Is that just on the city side, or is this in common areas that will share the cost with the county as well?

Yes.

So these will probably yes, these will be with both the city and the county.

Uh the county pays for 52 percent, and the city pays for 48 percent of improvements to it towards this building just because the county's got just a little bit more space, um, and there's a joint powers agreement that we have that written out in.

Okay, perfect.

And then um I also wondered in our selection process and interviews with the um our new city attorney, we talked about that it's it's going to be expected to see an increase.

I was just wondering, since it has mentioned throughout the presentation, was the increase percentage about as expected when we began discussions or after we got into the the relationship, has it increased even more than expected?

Just kind of wondering about a check-in on that.

Yeah, I could I could talk about this one.

Um the increase was anticipated uh because we have more attorneys working for us.

Uh what wasn't anticipated was the amount of work that we're now seeing.

Uh, there's a lot of projects in the hopper.

Just give you an example.

This year is the th in August alone is the third highest building month we've ever had in the history of Brookings.

So we're seeing a lot of construction, a lot of development, but also potential litigation, um, questions uh that are popping up that we've never seen before.

And so we're utilizing the legal services.

What's great is we have a number of attorneys on the bench that could help us answer these questions so we're getting a fast turnaround, a very thorough turnaround, but that's coming at a cost.

Sure.

Andrew said that it was a pretty high workload, so I appreciate that.

My final question is more of a of a broad stroke here.

Um so you had mentioned on a few slides, you know, how hotel stays um continue to decrease.

Uh we have caps on different uh funds that we can collect.

I'm wondering in your opinion, are there areas of potential budget stress or vulnerability that you see in the near term with our general budget or our overall budget, I should say.

Yeah, I would say with our uh our 3B and our pillow tax, it's really interesting to see the numbers as they come in each month.

Um and what we're seeing currently is that people are coming to town, they're eating, they're you're spending their money, um, you know, they're buying alcohol, but they're not necessarily spending the night here, so we can't necessarily collect that $2 a night on the hotel stays for the pillow tax.

Um, and then there's also a lot of the building activity that's happening here.

So we have a lot of construction workers that are staying, so if they stay over, I think it's 30 days, then we do not collect on that pillow tax either.

So I think those are kind of some of the constraints that we're running into with those funds.

I would I would add to that that it's interesting when you look at the sales tax, the pillow tax, the 3B tax.

I think the story that it's telling you is that we're not getting a lot of visitors from out of town to stay here, but we're having a lot of economic activity from our locals and within proximity to Brookens as well, with the addition and development of the marketplace.

Our hope is to keep a lot of that money here locally uh rather than seeing it leave out throughout the community.

The things that are unknown are the tariff impacts, the administrative impacts, and the things that maybe would concern me a little bit more is impacts to our local non-for-profits and other agencies throughout the community and legislatively impacts we might see on the horizon, such as pure property tax impact and maybe unfunded mandates.

So those are some of the unknowns, things that give me concern.

But as Sam said earlier, we use very conservative budgeting so that we can take care of those nuances as they occur, as long as they're somewhat minor, uh, we can adjust.

Sure.

Thank you for that.

Um and I'll just add my comment on um our outside agency requests, especially social services.

I know it's a pretty minor percentage uh that can get talked about every year, but I really do appreciate that we continually add that into our budget and we adjust because it all outside agency funding really does assist in making Brookings not only livable but enjoyable as well.

So I appreciate that that is always highlighted each year too.

Thank you.

All right, thank you much.

I think well, Councilmember Specker.

I was just kind of standing back in case somebody else wanted to ask something.

Um speaking of sort of the unexpected things fiscally on the projections that go out.

You're getting really close there, and I'm just wondering how much these projections take into account, or do you have like an unexpected or um emergency funds included in those projections?

Yes, we do have our our sinking fund that is currently um we can allocate up to a million dollars to our sinking fund.

I believe we're pretty close to that cap in 2026.

Um where we can um you know utilize that funding for emergency purchases of equipment if something fails, or um, you know, if you know something in this building were to fail, we can utilize our sinking fund.

Um, and then we do have uh the conservative numbers in here.

So we do have budgeted in the you know three percent sales tax growth, and we do have our our wages for employees budgeted into this factor as well.

Um, and then any of those kind of emergency purchases, we would then use the sinking fund to um alleviate those stressors at that point.

So Sam's talking about the equipment seeking fund, which is one um opportunity to make sure that we're we're held whole.

The other one is the reserve within the general fund.

You have actually two reserve policies, one at 15% and one an additional five percent.

And then beyond that, you also have the city council financial policy projects that you could dip into as well.

And so you could be very fluid into the future, just assuming that the future councils are as frugal as as you are in the budgeting process.

Thank you very much.

Okay, Sam.

Thank you very much.

We'll see you on the 23rd again on this project.

All right.

Item five is open forum.

Are there any members of the public who wishes to address the council on an item that's not listed on tonight's agenda?

Please come forward.

State your name and address, sir, and you have three minutes.

Well, three minutes ain't gonna cover it, but my name's Tim Kaya.

I've been in Brookings since 2004.

And some of you I voted for, some of you I didn't.

I don't vote based on party line, but this is my daughter, August 7th.

She was assaulted in Brookings.

The police came.

I was assaulted as well.

And I didn't call the police due to prior bad experiences where I was falsely arrested for standing my ground in my house, and the state's attorney declined to charge me.

So I didn't call the police, I don't trust them.

The police came.

The person that assaulted her, my disabled daughter, and me called the police.

The police came conveniently, falsified their probable cause arrest affidavits.

I've been trying to get a hold of the chief.

I buy police cars all over the country.

I can call a chief of police any day of the week, but not this one.

I'm demanding an outside agency be appointed to investigate Officer Cora Olson, who falsified her probable cause arrest affidavit, Officer Weinreich who falsified his probable cause arrest affidavit, and Officer Easton Thurry, because this department cannot be trusted.

The chief can never be talked to.

I don't even know why we have a chief if you can't call and talk to him, like I said.

I buy police cars all over the country.

I can call a police chief any day of the week and talk to them.

I used to run a missing page and call in tips, call police chiefs all over the country, but in Brookings, we have a police chief you can't never talk to.

I'm demanding an outside agency.

Everything's on body cam.

The police have covered this up.

Instead, they want to arrest me, they submitted probable cause arrest for me for trying to get my daughter away from this woman who I still don't know if she sexually assaulted her.

The police refused to do DNA swabs on her.

And your chief has done nothing.

Your officers have covered this up, and I'm demanding thurry Weinreich and Olsen be suspended pending an investigation by an outside agency so I can get justice for my disabled daughter who does drunk, intoxicated, bisexual woman assaulted in the bathroom of the wild hair.

Thank you for your comments.

You're welcome.

I think I would just like to comment that for members of the public that have concerns about the police department, there is a process that the public can follow.

All of our policies and processes are listed on the city's website.

We encourage public to follow those processes.

And so I don't want to speak any further than that, but I just want the public to be assured that we do take all matters serious, and we encourage the public to follow the process that we've identified in the process that's outlined within our website.

And take mine serious.

Yeah, I have another one unrelated to this.

You had your three minutes, sir.

This is a completely different matter.

We're going to move on to item six, consent agenda, action on the consent agenda.

There are any items that need to be removed from the consent agenda.

Entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Council have any questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Neymar.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell.

Avery.

Doran.

Hi.

Hager.

Aye.

All right.

Move on to presentations and reports.

And I have a proclamation, suicide prevention month.

I invite uh Nikki Inning, Tara Nelson, and Heidi Cullikson to come up.

Okay.

Whereas in South Dakota, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death and the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 10 to 34.

And whereas in 2023, South Dakota reported one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, with approximately 20 deaths per 100,000 residents, well above the national average.

And whereas local leaders, schools, health care providers, nonprofits, and community members continue to work together to reduce stigma, promote protective factors, and expand access to mental resources, mental health resources.

And whereas research shows that connectivity connectedness, early intervention, trauma-informed care, and reducing access to lethal means means that can save lives.

And whereas the City of Brookings supports the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, behavioral health programs, and community-based prevention efforts.

And whereas during Suicide Prevention Month, we remember those lost to suicide, honor the resiliency of survivors, support families affected, and commit a culture where seeking help is seen as a sign of strength.

Now, therefore, be resolved that I opke Garrett Nemeyer, the mayor of City of Brookings, do hereby proclaim September 2025 as Suicide Prevention Month, and call upon all residents to learn the warning signs to reach out with compassion to those in need and join in our shared responsibility of presenting suicide and promoting hope.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Neymar, for this important proclamation and for recognizing the significance of suicide prevention in our community.

Here in Brookings, we know that suicide touches far too many lives.

Whether it's a friend, a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor.

Behind every statistic is a person.

And behind every person is a network of loved ones forever changed.

At Brookings area United Way, and alongside our partners in schools, health care, faith communities, and local nonprofits.

We are committed to building hope and creating stronger connections.

Suicide prevention is not just about responding in a moment of crisis.

It's about making sure every person feels seen, supported, and valued every single day.

This work takes all of us.

Together, we can break the stigma, open the conversation, and remind one another that help and hope are always within reach.

On behalf of Berkings Area United Way and community partners, thank you for standing with us today.

Your support ensures we keep moving forward towards a Brookings County where no one feels alone and every life is valued.

Thank you.

Okay, item 7B, the report from the South Dakota Student, South Dakota State Student Association, Anna.

And I see that we have our esteemed student association president, Sophie, here with us too.

Hi Mayor Newmeyer.

Good to see everybody.

If you guys don't know me, my name is Sophie Spear, the obviously the SDSU Student Association president, like the mayor just said.

Um I'm just joining today to introduce myself as well as get to know the city council as well a little bit.

Um I'm a currently a sophomore pre-pharmacy major with a minor in political science, a little two opposite ends of the university that I get to attend every day.

Um I just again first want to start by thanking you for obviously letting us join you every week at the city council.

A couple things that I wanted to talk about is um I believe there was last week the tree situation on Sixth Street was mentioned at uh the city council meeting in which trees are being vandalized at um the expense of the homeowners as well as the city.

I just wanted to acknowledge that I have recognized that and contacted the collegian as well to uh write an article contacting the city as well as myself to um recognize this issue as well as address it with the students.

Happily, one day for state was last week on September 4th.

We were proud to raise over three million dollars for SDSU and have 5,000 over 5,000 donors participate in that day.

Our enrollment announcement will be tomorrow sometime, hopefully, so we can get to know um what numbers we have for this year.

Thank you.

This week we will also be hosting our interviews for new Senator at large applicants that will be tomorrow night and Thursday night as well.

And then our committee, excuse me, our committee assignments have gone out, and some of them have started to meet.

Our finance chair and our finance committee have started going over our internal budget to see ways that we can improve that and also work on it to support more of our organizations on campus.

And then coming up this weekend, we also have a football game against Drake at SDSU's stadium, and then soccer also plays on Sunday.

End of report.

All right.

Any questions for Sophie or Anna?

Thank you, ladies.

Thank you.

Have a great week.

Now we can move on to ex official reports, BMU.

BMU.

So the biggest thing that happened at yesterday's BMU board meeting was a review or proposed first reading of their capital improvement highlights through 203.

And I just want to highlight what's happening with a couple of the utilities in terms of rates.

For electric, they're proposing a 3.5% average overall rate increase for 2026 and 2027.

Then a 5% overall increase in 2028 through 2032.

The past six years, they have not had any rate increase in electric.

And they do get their electric from both MRES and WAPA, and both of those are increasing their rates.

So that that's leading to this increase that we're going to be seeing.

When you look at other comparable communities, Brookings is 14 to 15% less than the average customer in the comparable cities in this area.

As far as telephone and video, there's going to be no local rate increases, although there will be some changes coming in the future on streaming.

And the rates are comparable to other areas.

As far as wastewater, there's will be a 5% average overall rate increase that's being proposed for 2026 and 2027, then a 3% increase in 2028 through 30 203.

These rates are about 1.7% above the average cost of other communities.

And part of that increase, you know, the higher rate is that there is a future phase two upgrade in the treatment plant that's needing to be planned.

The water increases for the past two, well, from 2023 through 2025, there were 10% annual rate increases.

Those are going to draw or being proposed to drop to a 2% rate increase from 2026 through 203.

And that 10% increase in the past has been because of the new water treatment plant.

That plant is expected to be online the end of October and functioning.

They will be talking about an open house or having more of a public viewing of that plant later in the spring because there'll still be some minor construction going on at the site, but it will be operational in October, and they're expecting to take down the old water plant in December, is currently what they're talking about.

Also, I think I mentioned this, and I think Wayne has mentioned it as well.

So you'll be seeing that in the bill.

Thank you, Bonnie.

Yep.

Do we have a report in the hospital?

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

So the Yorkshire Medical Building have their ribbon cutting yesterday, and that's the new iClinic in store as well as the occupational physical therapy in partnership with Avara.

It's a really great building if you get a chance to see it, uh, and that will elevate the service provided to our community.

Just a reminder that the project that is done, the building that is built, that is actually just phase one of the overall project.

They're also working on capital requests and starting their budgeting season as well.

We're entering cold and flu season soon, so practice good hygiene, and they're working on upcoming flu clinics for the staff and public.

They're continuing the transition to Epic for technology, and uh they've actually seen that more workforce has been trained in EPIC coming in, and so this transition has actually assisted with workforce retention and recruitment too.

Um couple of statistics for you.

We had a small baby boom of 45 babies during a four-week period.

Um they have also analyzed the instant trends of strain by fall slip and struck by, and those dropped significantly in 2025, and then July ended with the highest number of surgical services cases thus far in 2025 with 343 cases with workforce retention.

They're also looking at matching the resources with the increased interest in high school and really showing all of the employment opportunities in the health care or health system.

Finally, there was a few different discussions around Medicaid and the one big beautiful bill.

With the bill, states are currently working on rolling out and administering everything preliminarily.

It does look like it's going to have a fairly negative impact on the state as well as the organization.

There's a lot of multiple moving parts with different things taking effect at different times.

And they're working on more discovery.

So the total impact is unknown at this point, including the funds that will be direct directly allocated and others that will need to be applied for through the state and then allocated locally.

Furthermore, the Department of Social Services and South Dakota Medicaid is in the process of updating and changing their reimbursement methodology for payment to acute care hospitals within our state.

This change is appearing to be about 140,000 less reimbursement to the Brookings Hospital.

And they're also working on more discovery of the impact of the hospital and other facilities across the state.

Finally, the CMS or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services updated the 2025 hospital star rating.

Scores are measured against peer grouping of about five different measures.

The data released this month shows an overall star rating of four stars.

Last year was three, so they are continuing to improve in the health system.

End of report.

All right.

Thank you.

Any questions for Brianne?

Rihanna?

I mean, did everybody pick up on what you had?

All right.

Let's move on to eight contracts and change orders.

Item 8A.

Action on resolution 25-077 and resolution awarding the bid for the 2025 11 STI Capital Improvement Street and 32nd Avenue Sanitary Sewer and Road Project.

Charles Richter, our city engineer will present this item.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Charlie Ricker, your city engineer here to requesting approval of resolution 25077 for the award of the 2025-11 STI Capital Street and 32nd Avenue Sanitary Sewer and Road Project.

This project will install sanitary sewer on Capitol Street to allow for future development.

The city will be coordinating construction with the MyPlays Hotel, Whiskey Creek, and the Dakota Bank Center.

All these improvements will be completed prior to the opening of Target.

Bids for this project were opened on September 2nd when we received nine bids.

The lowest bidder is Rounds Construction from Brookings with a low bid of 517,533.

Sufficient appropriations exist in this year's uh fund 20 213 capitals project and economic development funds for this project.

Public work recommends that rounds construction be awarded a contract for this project.

Thank you, Charlie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Chief has already meet the way we have to do it, sir.

Is there any public other public comments on this item?

Council questions, comments.

Please call the roll.

Specker.

Hi.

Tilton Burn.

Aye.

Wendell.

Hi.

Avery.

Doran.

Aye.

Hagar.

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Item 8B, action on resolution 25-076.

A resolution awarding the bid for the public drop-off Z-Wall construction project.

Charlie Kuhn, our solid waste manager will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor.

City Council members, uh, Charlie Kuhn.

Um item 8B is proposing a resolution that will award the bid for construction of the public drop-off area and authorize the city manager to execute the contract and any associated change orders.

Uh, as recommended in our 2023 Solid Waste Master Plan, the city solid waste division will install a public drop-off area at the Brookings Regional Landfill.

Uh conceptual conceptual drawing is shown on the overhead.

This area will allow for residents to drop off their garbage into roll-off containers instead of driving up to the landfill's working face.

Keeping smaller vehicles away from the working face will improve traffic flow throughout the facility, improve safety for the residents, commercial drivers, and equipment operators, and increase the overall customer experience while at the Brookings Regional Landfill.

On Thursday, August 14th, the city published the bid notice, and on Tuesday, September 2nd at 1 30 p.m.

Staff opened and read each bid.

In all, full responsive bids were received.

Staff reviewed all bids and determined that Clark drew construction operating out of Brookings, submitted the lowest responsive bid in the amount of $217.

$217,800.

Clark Drew's bid is approximately 35% lower than the next lowest bid, as well as 38% lower than the engineer's proposed estimate of cost, and 44% lower than the approved budget allocation.

Staff recommends approval, and that concludes the presentation.

Thank you, Charlie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council questions?

Council Member Specker.

Yes.

I'm just curious exactly where this is.

Like if you look at this map, and are the do people then get weighed when they come in.

You'll go past the main building, and instead of going up to the landfill, which is up on the right, it's actually immediately to the north of the main building behind it, though.

So right now it's like tires and scrap metal and like where all the white goods are, like the air conditioners and refrigerators.

Um we're just gonna we're adding it into that area and kind of redoing that whole area.

So that'll be the public drop-off area.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Well, it was hard to tell on your picture.

Thank you.

I just wanted to comment how excited I am about this project.

It not only takes customers away from uh the landfill and the facing where we're doing a lot of the equipment with our heavy equipment and operations, but also it's about customer service, allowing one place where customers can go to drop off their goods.

I'm just truly excited about this project.

It was outlined in your stormwater mass or your solid waste master plan that was adopted here just about a year and a half ago, and so this is a major project coming forward, and I think our customers and our residents will be very happy with it.

So thank you.

It's gonna be great.

Charlie, is this project slated to be done at this fall?

Yeah, it should be done by the end of October.

Okay, cool.

Any other questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Tiltenburn, aye.

Wendell?

I Avery?

Aye.

Doran?

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemier.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

All right.

Move on to 9A or item 9, first readings.

Item 9A introduction first reading on ordinance 25-028.

An ordinance to change the zoning within the joint jurisdictional area surrounding the city of Brookings.

Address is 21625 4747 Avenue.

Mike Struck will present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Ordinance 25-028 is a first reading for rezoning in the joint jurisdiction area just south of town.

The applicant is Austrian Excavating in 2021.

They purchased properties south of town for their expansion of their contractor's business.

They're underground excavation company, and they needed a large area with space.

And it's one component of their operation, they do concrete crushing.

It's not their primary, but it is a component of it.

Recently, earlier this year, we changed some of our zoning regulations to address concrete asphalt rock crushing type operations.

They're currently zone B3.

That use is not allowed within the B3 zoning.

They're seeking a rezoning from B3 to I-1 simply to be in compliant with our zoning regulations, and that's kind of what initiated the rezoning request.

Staff supports the rezoning request, and uh this does come to you with a favorable recommendation from the joint planning commissions of both the city and the county.

The city's vote was uh unanimous.

With that, I'd stand for any questions you may have.

All right, thanks, Mike.

Is there any public comments on this item?

Council questions, comments at this time.

All right, second reading will be on the 23rd of September.

Now, on to second readings and public hearings.

Item 10A, second reading in action on ordinance 25-030, an ordinance certifying the 2026 City of Brookings property tax levy to the Brookings County Finance Officer.

Ashley Rynch, our finance director will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council.

This is the second reading of ordinance 25-030 certifying the 2026 property tax levy to the Brookings County Finance Officer.

State law requires that municipalities certify tax levies included in the annual appropriation ordinance to the Brookings County Finance Officer by October 1st each year.

The city's levy is computed by taking the amount that was certified last year plus factors for growth and the consumer price index, which are provided to us by Brookings County.

To calculate the levy for 2026, the factor is uh for growth is 2.09%, and the consumer price index factor is 2.9 percent.

The total property tax increase for 2026 is 209,516 for a total of 4,408,219 dollars.

No changes have been made since the first reading, and staff recommends approval of this ordinance as presented.

With that, I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council questions, comments.

Councilmember Specker.

I just uh am uh just maybe a little bit confused why these percentages are different than what was in earlier tonight.

Is that what's like it was 2.94, I think, and two point something for the growth factor?

2.

Yeah, I'm not sure why on the presentation that it's different, but it's actually on the growth factor is 2.09 and the consumer price index is 2.9.

These are the these are the um percentages from last year.

So good.

I'm not completely losing it.

Councilmember Hager.

I really just wanted to draw the public's attention to what we actually saw during Sam's budget presentation.

There were a couple of slides in there that I think are very, very helpful for folks as they're trying to understand things relating to their property taxes.

So this is more a comment more than anything else.

But there was one of the slides that really showed what our property tax levy is compared to other peer communities here in South Dakota.

And so really the only cities that are lower than us is Spearfish and Watertown.

So I think that's something to draw people's attention to.

But then you know, also just that graphic that kind of showed what your property taxes look like in terms of a home that is valued at $350,000.

And again, just kind of showing that 17% or about $700 goes to the city.

So that just shows how you know we're trying to do the most with those tax dollars.

All right, public I can open back up.

What do you need?

Um come up to the mic, sir.

Come up to the mic, sir, and you're not gonna be heard on the ones.

Councilmember Wendell.

Thanks, Mayor.

I just wanted to note that the documents that are attached to the agenda, both the memo and the ordinance, do have the correct percentage and dollar amounts noted.

So for folks that were comparing the slide to those, the documents do have correct percentages on them.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh please call the roll.

Wendell.

I.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

All right.

Move on to item 10B, second reading in action on ordinance 25-031.

An ordinance authorizing budget amendment number seven to the 2025 budget.

Ashley will also present this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is the second reading of ordinance 25-031.

Amendment number seven to the 2025 budget.

This amendment transfers 100,000 in general fund reserves to the City Council Financial Policy Projects Fund from that fund to the fire facility capital project fund to initiate the engineering and soil testing for replacing the downtown fire station.

According to the preliminary schedule, the council and public presentations and community engagement as well as the design phase will occur this fall with bidding plan for early next spring pending site determination.

No changes have been made since the first reading, and staff recommends approval of this ordinance as presented.

I'll stand by for questions.

Thanks, Ashley.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council of any questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Hi.

Haker.

Aye.

Nay Meyer.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell.

Aye.

Okay.

Item 10 C public hearing in action on a special event temporary alcohol application from the Brookings Area Chamber to host a downtown SDSU watch party on 300 block of Main Avenue on October 4th.

Bonnie, you want to present this item?

Mayor and council members.

This is a special temporary alcohol permit.

This is a second or third year, I cannot recall that they've done this SDSU watch party downtown.

They would like to do it for another year running.

This is put on and hosted by the Brookings area chamber.

Staff does recommend approval.

All right.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Open public hearing on this item.

Is there any public comment?

If you're gonna make a comment, sir, go up to the mic.

Just so the public knows.

You know.

Geez, with all the problems with alcohol, wouldn't it be safer to have a marijuana party downtown?

Much safer than alcohol.

Any other public comments?

Council having questions, comments?

I attended the one last year.

It worked well, went well very well.

So please call the roll.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemaier.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

All right.

Item 10 D public hearing and action on resolution 25-003.

A resolution authorizing the city manager enter into a 10-year on-sale liquor operating agreement with Rayas Aranda.

Latina Grill.

Leak La Catina Grill LLC.

DBA Latina Grill.

Bonnie will present this item.

Oof.

Mayor and Council members.

This is uh giving the city manager the authorization to enter into a 10-year liquor operating agreement with Reyes Aranda.

He is the owner of La Cantina Grill.

La Cantina Grill has purchased a property and is in the middle of transferring the liquor operating agreement from the former Applebee's location on La Fever Drive.

La Cantina did have two prior alcohol compliance check failures at the current 6th Street location, but they have not had any additional violations since April of 2024.

Mr.

Arondas is present this evening.

If the council has any questions for him, staff recommends approval.

All right, thanks, Bonnie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Open public hearing on this.

Is there any public comment?

Council any questions, comments?

All right.

Please call the roll.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemaier?

Aye.

Specker?

Aye.

Tilton Byrne?

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Norren.

Aye.

All right.

That pretty much concludes the business of the city this evening.

Our next meeting will be a study session next week on the 16th.

Some of the items in that study session will be discussed.

Is uh our economic agency updates?

Uh we'll be talking about elections and discussion of when we have to change our time from April to either June or November.

And then uh our city clerk is going to give us a presentation on open meetings review.

Open meeting law review.

Then we have September 23, our next stated meeting.

Obviously, the first request readings we had this evening.

We'll have second readings on.

Um addendum to volunteer listing and public arts commission appointments on the consent agenda.

And then we'll also have uh Sam's second presentation on the and that'll include the CIP and consolidated fee schedule.

And then we have at 5 30, we have the joint jurisdiction meeting.

So our meeting will start at 5 30.

Regular meeting starts at 6.

All right.

And that being said, any uh items that the city council members want to bring up for a future meeting.

Okay.

Uh we will be going into an executive session.

We will not be making any any uh scheduled uh action afterwards, so we will be adjourning as soon as executive session is done.

Item 13, executive session pursuant to SDCL 1-25-23-2.3 for consulting with legal counsel or reviewing communications from legal counsel about proposed or pending litigation or contractual matters.

I entertain a motion to enter into executive session so move.

Second.

Those in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

We are in executive session.