Good afternoon and welcome to the regular meeting of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee for September 18th, 2025.

I'm Katie Cashman, chair of this committee.

Before we call the meeting to order, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all the members, community members, and uh staff members that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

Please keep your speech at a moderated rate so that the captioners can fully transcribe all of the comments for the broadcast.

Thank you.

At this time, we'll ask the clerk to call the roll to verify quorum.

Councilmember Rainfall is absent.

Vita?

Present.

Osman is absent.

Chavez, present.

Vice Chair Koske.

Present.

Chair Cashman.

Present.

We have four present.

Thank you.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

And if you're here for any of the first four public hearing items, please go over to see Clerk Michael to sign up if you'd like to speak.

All right.

And then as a reminder for committee members, we'll be using speaker management, so please sign in.

We'll start with the consent agenda.

Items five through eleven.

Item five is authorizing a cooperative agreement with the Department of Transportation for the 26th Street and Hiawatha Safety Improvement Project.

Item six is approving an event permit for dinner dinner during Nord event on Nicolette Mall.

Item seven is authorizing a utility easement with the park and recreation board for 53rd and York Avenue South Flood Project.

Item eight is approving the concept layout for phase two of the Upper Harbor Terminal West River Parkway Project.

Item nine is authorizing a contract extension with various community organizations for stormwater, wastewater, and community resilience planning grant.

Item 10 is approving a legislative directive related to the city's recycling rates.

Item 11 is amending a resolution passed on June 18th for the Lake Harriet Parkway Paving Project to update wording related to the minimum design standards and the project road stations.

Colleagues, is there any discussion on the consent agenda or items that you'd like to pull for discussion?

Councilmember Chavez.

I have some questions.

Okay, we'll pull item six out.

Any other items that folks would like to discuss.

Seeing none, I will move approval of items five, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

Those items carry.

And then I think we can take up a couple of questions on item number six before we move into our public hearing.

Um, this is the Dinner Do Nord commercial block event permit, which took place last week.

I did have a chance to connect with some city staff just to ask about what was all included in the permitting because I do know that they go through several several items to make sure that they're getting um all their permitting done and even liquor licenses and and sound permits and everything that was involved in that.

So planning to hear back from DCO uh Jelly in the next couple of weeks about what could be streamlined for permitting such large-scale events in the future.

So I wanted to let you know of that.

Um, and with that, I'll uh recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh yeah, thank you for that overview, Chair Cashman, and that's helpful background.

My questions are more for staff about the event.

I would love to know how much public funding went into uh this event.

I don't believe anyone from I think it's the Office of Public Service.

So uh we could table this for now and see if anyone could come.

Otherwise, we'll just ask for a staff memo for follow-up.

Great.

Yeah, and then I can maybe just ask my questions out loud just in case staff can get here and answer some of the questions.

We'd love to know how much staff time went into this event, and then would love to know the economic impact uh for the businesses in the area and the event in general.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so uh clerk Michael, if you could note those two questions, that would be great, and then we'll see if anyone can come and answer them.

Otherwise, we'll ask for a staff memo for follow-up.

I do know that meet Minneapolis through the community events uh budget line did offer some funding to this event, though I'm not sure how much.

So, um, let's just move that to the end of the agenda for now and move on to the public hearings.

So our first public hearing is a um assessment for sanitary sewer charges.

And if you did not sign up yet and wish to speak, please see the clerk to sign up.

I don't believe we have anyone signed up for this one.

Madam Chair, we have no one signed up for this.

Thank you.

Would you like to, Mr.

Poor?

Would you like to give a brief summary of this item?

Good afternoon, uh Chair Cashman Council members.

Um, today we're here about the assessments on the SAC program.

Uh the SAC program has a deferral program as well associated with this since 2014.

This year we only have six properties that are being assessed, four for non-payment and two were closed.

Uh, the dollar amount is just over six thousand dollars.

Um, and again, for those who aren't familiar, the sewer availability charges are really a pass through for the city.

They go to the MEC council, it comes back to public works for our sanitary sewer system.

And CPED administers the program because we assess, we we document and assess uh what the charges will be at the point of permitting.

And so that's why CPED handles this work.

It's in an agreement that we've had for some years now with public works, and it's worked out well.

And I'll open to any questions.

All right, thank you so much for that.

And I'll just proceed to open the public hearing and ask if there's anyone here who does want to speak on this item that didn't have a chance to sign up yet.

All right, I will close the public hearing and ask if there are any questions from committee members.

Seeing none, I will move this item for approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

That motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next public hearing is, well, two items that we'll take up together.

This is the downtown business improvement district, both a renewal ordinance and a resolution that approves proposed services and service charges.

We will take these items up together.

And as a reminder, if you do want to speak during this public hearing, please see Clerk Michael.

But before we open the public hearing, I will invite Director Swanson to introduce the items.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Cashman and committee members.

My name is Jennifer Swanson.

I'm the director of business administration in public works.

I'm in front of you this afternoon to introduce two Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District items.

First, the public hearing on the renewal of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District, also known as the DID, as well as the 2026 operating plan and service charges.

I'll start with a brief history on the district for the renewal.

The formation of special service districts is a stakeholder initiated process to provide a higher level of service within their boundaries.

In the mid-2000s, downtown stakeholders initiated the process to create a special service district for downtown Minneapolis.

The DID was established by Minneapolis Code of Ordinances, Chapter 465 in December 2008 and began full service operation in July 2009.

One of the checks and balances in the ordinance is an automatic sunset provision at the end of the district's fifth year, unless it is renewed.

The most recent renewal of the district was in 2021.

The district renewal can be initiated through a written notice to the city, which which was received in June.

No changes to the district's boundaries are proposed, and there's just one administrative change to the existing ordinance language to accurately reflect the department responsible for sending out the notice of veto power shifting from the clerk's office to public works.

Public works recommends the committee approve the renewal of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances Chapter 465 relating to the downtown business improvement special service district for an additional five year period.

The second DID action before the committee today is the public hearing on the 2026 operating plan and service charges for the DID.

This is an annual hearing that is required as part of the City Council's review and approval of the district's proposed services and service charges for the next year.

Public hearing notices and the proposed operating plan were mailed to all ratepayers.

The DAD also hosted an open house on September 2nd, which was advertised in a number of locations, including all of the hearing notices in the DAD Nicolet office and the DID website.

The proposed 2026 service charges are 9,176,297.

With that, I would like to introduce Ben Shardlow, Chief of Staff of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District to give some brief highlights and beautiful photos of the downtown improvement district for the renewal and the 2026 operating plan.

Thank you, Miss Swanson, Director Swanson.

And I'll welcome up Mr.

Shardlow.

Thank you, Jen.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the committee.

As Jen said, my name is Ben Shardlow.

I'm chief of staff for the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District, and it's my pleasure to be here today to share a little bit about our work.

And I am my presentation's going to have two parts.

The first is just an overview of the work that we do.

That's since we've been around for 15 years, that's mainly I'm sharing that information so that anyone who's watching the meeting can have a basic sense of our work.

And then I'm also going to highlight some less recognized under some programs where we don't have the level of awareness where I'd love to use this platform to raise awareness of good work that my colleagues are doing.

So the summary of our organization, I'll go through our mission operating model, our geography, and the services that we provide.

Our mission is simply put to make downtown cleaner, greener, safer, and more vibrant.

And we do that in a variety of ways.

A lot of it is entirely reliant on the fact that our business model as an improvement district is assessments to the commercial properties within the 120 blocks of downtown.

So that platform of private investment allows us to take on that work of improving downtown.

And our budget, as Jen just mentioned, this year is below.

I want to give a quick word of thanks to members of the DID budget and operations committee, who are all downtown stakeholders who work with us to figure out what services we can take on, how to pay for them, and how to adapt to changes in the downtown environment over time.

So many thanks to them.

We couldn't do this work without them.

The boundary of the downtown improvement district has not changed since the district launched in 2009.

You can see it there in the green line around that 120 plus block polygon in the middle of downtown.

And the two colors of those blocks reflect different rates of assessment based on how much pedestrian traffic there is in these different areas of downtown.

So the services that we provide with the resources that we gather from commercial properties downtown are our most visible and best known and probably most beloved program is the downtown ambassadors program.

They're the workers, they're the workforce of the DAD, they're out greeting people, leading with hospitality, watering landscaping, cleaning sidewalks, doing whatever needs to be doing, needs to be done out in downtown.

So it's really their work that is the most visible and the largest part of our operation.

Their counterparts are the livability team, which wears the Navy blue uniforms, and they're out and they're trained in more of a social service response to connect people with resources when they're downtown.

We have a right of a variety of safety initiatives and programs.

I'll highlight one in the next section of my presentation.

We do a lot to green and beautify downtown with summer greening, annuals, perennials, planting beds, planters, all of those things, and we've been growing the work that we do on growing the downtown tree canopy as well as decorative greening in the winter.

We do activations.

Our street show program is one of the largest paid street performer programs in the country out on Nickel Mall.

And we're proud of the other work that we do to engage and activate downtown spaces.

We do community engagement, and we have as part of our relationship with the city, if a street is designed to have specialty streetscape items, it's generally our responsibility to maintain those.

So I'll get a new example of that next as well.

Anne Moore is doing a lot of heavy lifting here because I realized I left off economic development and wouldn't you know it my colleague who leads our economic development team is behind me.

That's Lisa.

I'm sure she noticed that I forgot and I did not update the slide we do economic development as well.

So here's a little bit about how that how that looks in terms of beautifying downtown making it a greener space activating it the work of the livability team and a nice shot of the downtown street art festival there.

So a quick word about partnerships one of the good things about being an urban place management organization that's been around for 15 years is that we have built really strong working relationships with a whole host of partners our strongest partnership is with you, the city.

The formal business of the committee right now bears out the fact that we need a we need a relationship with the city to continue.

But we also couldn't do our work without the partnerships we have with downtown property and business owners.

We've really grown and deepened our relationship with the park and recreation board coordinating on the work they do to activate and improve parks downtown grow trees downtown Hannipin County we partner with them on a whole host of things as well we partner with Mississippi watershed management organization because we want trees to grow and they want a clean Mississippi and those things can be solved with a lot of the same investments and improvements to downtown.

And then we work with different departments of the state of Minnesota government as well the the PCA DNR organizations like that.

So just wanted to as we go through this step the business today is about renewal of the district and the budget for next year but we have grown to a point where we really a lot of our work is done through partnerships and we serve as a bridge between private investors downtown and public sector partners at different levels of government as well as downtown neighborhood organizations we have working relationships with every downtown neighbor organization and we have a lot of alignment of interests with those groups where we're always glad to work with them too.

The last part of my presentation I just wanted to as promised highlight some lesser known programs that we do.

The first is the community storage program.

This is a program that grew out of implementation of our 2025 plan and the work that we did bringing stakeholders together to think about how we can reduce barriers for people experiencing homelessness downtown.

And that led to this being an established resource in ramp B which means that we partner with the city and with Mindot to operate this and at any given time members of the community who have personal belongings that they can't store can come can come in here get a tub distorted in and no questions asked their belongings are stored.

Right now we are serving 540 people within downtown over the course of this year we have served a thousand people and we're really proud of this work and we know that based on the fact that it was grounded in research where we interviewed people who were experiencing homelessness about how they felt about carrying their belongings with them all day and the impacts they had on that had on their safety mental health and their ability to be a participate fully in public life in downtown this has really made a huge difference and we know that when people visit downtown Minneapolis a lot of the one of the comments we get a lot is where why isn't homelessness a hugely visible challenge in in your downtown and I would offer up that the community storage program is one reason why that need is addressed in our community and quick shout out to my colleague Essie who runs this program Essie used to be a DID ambassador and now she is working to run the storage program.

And wouldn't you know it?

As I was putting this slide deck together, I didn't realize that this is her picture.

This is not a late night ambassador in a twilight scene on a downtown street.

It's a bit of Photoshop.

But it's the second program I wanted to highlight because it's another partnership we have with the city with the resources through the Ware Health District Live program.

We were able to do something that we had never had the resources to do before, which is have a team of ambassadors out on Friday and Saturday nights in the entertainment district.

Because of that resource, we have a team of ambassadors out.

There were a whole lot of questions about how this would work.

Would there be a need that would be met?

And that program started in June, and it has been very successful.

I just got the statistics on it to date, and the number of hospitality assists that these ambassadors have done is 4200 on Friday and Saturday nights, which is, I just saw some of your eyes get wide.

That was the reaction I was hoping for.

It is it is a lot of, it is a lot of help.

There are a lot of people who are visitors or in an altered state or disoriented or near downtown when they're there on a Friday and Saturday night.

There's a lot of help that we can offer people, and we do see this as really important violence prevention work in the core of our downtown on our uh lively entertainment district.

Um the third thing, the third program I wanted to highlight is the We Are Water exhibits.

I know that some of you on the committee were aware of that.

Um this is not a program that uh took investment from uh DID stakeholders, but it was a program that was made possible because we were doing this work because we're in relationship with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

We've been hosting an AmeriCorps member through the MPCA for the last four years.

That led to a relationship of knowing that they had a museum quality exhibit about the importance of water to our community and raising awareness of water issues, and that it was traveling the state.

We applied to get it, and we were able to host it in the former Panera on NickLet for three months this summer, and over 800 people came into the space, and staff that was running this exhibit brought uh the water bar activation that you might be familiar with, where people can taste test the city of Minneapolis water against other water sources to Pride and Aquatennial and other things.

So it was it was a really great partnership with MPCA that was made possible because we're here, we work, we work with water, we irrigate 500 trees, we manage landscaping, we power wash sidewalks.

Water is part of our work, and water is something that we value, and it was made possible by the fact that we're here and we're building those relationships.

Uh, to the point of water and uh more specifically to the work that we do, beautifying greening uh downtown.

This is a shot of a planter on Hennepin.

I just wanted to highlight this.

We spent a lot of time talking about challenges and unmet needs and things like this.

As time goes on, we're really learning a lot about how to cost-effectively and meaningfully green downtown.

We learned from some of the challenges getting landscaping on Nickelet to survive, and that led to a different design around these planters of curbs and railings.

And if you I would invite you to walk down uh Hennepin Avenue before the season changes completely because uh the need to replace plants in these planters has been very low.

In general, the planting is right in the core of one of our busiest areas of downtown is working because we're learning more about how to uh meaningfully and impactfully green downtown in partnership with our partners at Minneapolis Public Works and downtown property owners.

The last program I just wanted to highlight is that is another thing that we um that does uh quiet work of social infrastructure in the core downtown.

Um for a few years we have operated uh the Nicholet community space in Gabaday, and that is a space that is staffed by uh uh my colleagues at the DID, and it's a space that's open during the week for people to drop in, have access to a public restroom, access to a drinking fountain, access to people to talk to and activities to do and be connected to resources and a lot of uh free public programming.

You might know this as the space you walk by in Nicholet and see people playing chess out on the sidewalk or playing lawn games.

Um, we're proud of the work that happens in this space to help make downtown more inclusive and to again do what we do with a lot of our programs, which is lead with hospitality.

Um those were the programs I wanted to use this opportunity to highlight.

Um I also just wanted to offer a word of appreciation to Catherine Rialli, who is our chief operating officer, and she is retiring at the end of this year, and I believe she has prepared every budget for the DID to date, and a lot of the work that we've done was possible because she figured out how we could pay for it all.

So thank you to Catherine for for her work, and I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Shardlow.

I think we'll have the public hearing first, and then maybe a few questions or comments from committee members after that.

Sounds good.

So with that, I will open the public hearing on this item, which is both an ordinance and uh budget for 2026.

And our first speaker is Dan Collison from Sherman Associates.

Good afternoon, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

My name's Dan Collison, Senior Director of Business Development and Public Affairs for Sherman Associates.

Our company is located at 233 Park Avenue South in Minneapolis 55415.

And I'm speaking today in support of the DID's renewal of the downtown business improvement special service district ordinance and additionally the budget that's proposed for the 2026 operating plan.

Sherman Associates develops, owns, and operates real estate across the entire beautiful city of Minneapolis, including North and South Minneapolis.

And yet our largest concentration of housing and holdings is in downtown.

So we are the private funding side of the equation that Ben Shardlow just spoke to.

And primarily we're a housing and apartment developer for all incomes and all ages with nearly 65% of our apartments and afford as affordable housing for seniors, working people, and individuals with special needs.

With our commercial properties that are current rate paying for these, which include a couple hotels and some commercial spaces, we have a commitment to the city and our city's downtown to be increasingly inclusive, and we believe that the DID accomplishes this through their services.

We firmly believe the DID's professional team and robust ambassador program constitute critical human infrastructure and programming that helps our downtown be everybody's downtown that's safe, livable, clean, and always reaching for greening and sustainability.

So we actually like to say we can't we don't believe downtown can be successful without the DID, and as such we wholeheartedly support the improvement district ordinance and the proposed operations and budget proposal.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for those comments.

Our next speaker is Maureen Michelson.

Good afternoon, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

My name is Maureen Michalski.

I'm with Ryan Companies as an executive, and I'm also on the board of the downtown improvement district and a resident of Minneapolis.

So I'm here to express my strong support for the renewal of the DID ordinance and approval of the 2026 operating plan and budget.

As you all know, a vibrant downtown is critical to our city's health and that of our region.

The DID has been essential in amplifying resources to enhance both the safety and overall experience of our downtown.

The work done by the DID has been a critical piece of the puzzle on driving economic development through attracting visitors, creating an environment where corporations want to bring their workers back, and encouraging private investment in our community.

All of these things support our tax base, benefiting residents throughout the city.

I urge you to approve the 2026 DID operating plan and budget, continuing continuing the important momentum to toward our downtown's advancement and vitality.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Michelski.

And then I don't have anyone else on my list here.

Is there anyone else from the audience who would like to speak in the public hearing today?

All right.

I will close the public hearing and just make a few comments here and have a couple of questions as well.

So very happy to support this today.

So I'll just move both items for approval right out the gate.

The cleaning greening and safety services that you provide for downtown are really exceptional.

I want to appreciate Mr.

Shardlow, Ms.

Middag, and um Chain Zon for being here and for your collaboration with the city.

It's you're really responsive to emerging needs, and I appreciate our monthly uh ability to meet monthly to address emerging issues.

And then uh Catherine Realli, the and Jesse from the operations team have been really great and provided a lot of insights for me this year on how to address economic development and safety challenges in uptown.

So I appreciate that you're willing to lend a hand to other parts of the city too and share your expertise.

So the I had a question about the downtown safety ambassadors that worked nights this summer.

Do you know uh how much of the warehouse district live budget went towards funding safety ambassadors to work at night on the weekends?

Uh Chair Cashman, uh committee members, uh Jesse Osendorf, Senior Director of Public Space Operations for the DID.

Uh I don't have that exact number, it's gonna be in the range of uh 50 to 75,000.

Okay, and that was services for uh every Friday and Saturday night, and what's the season that you have?

Oh, we started um we started in May through September anyway here.

Okay.

The last schedule date is the 27th of the month.

Thank you so much.

That's really helpful.

And again, just have had a lot of great feedback about that for the entertainment district where we have such late night uh such a late night economy going on and so many people out and about, it's been really it's been really helpful.

So thank you for innovating in that way.

Thank you.

And then the other um question that I had for Mr.

Shardlow was just what conversations you've had so far about expanding the DID boundary into Loring Park, which has been something that Loring Park residents have been very interested in, pending some details about which buildings would be assessed and how everyone is able to chip in.

So can you just give a little update on what you're envisioning as some next steps here?

Happy to, Chair Cashman.

Um we have had conversations over the last several years with um a lot of the edges of our existing district, um including Loring Park.

There's some some as you allude to some very focused conversations about expanding into Loring Park.

I want to be clear that the actions before you today are about our existing boundaries and our existing budget and renewing that district.

Um but we did, because we've been getting um it tends to surface as more like one-off questions like hey, could you do this over here or this over here?

Um, and we wanted to approach that in an organized way.

So we haven't commissioned a study of um of the operations and design of our district now and those neighborhood boundaries.

Um, so that process is not finalized yet, but we we are working on it this fall, and we are we have a meeting scheduled with stakeholders in Loring Park to talk about what we've learned so far in October.

Um, and if there was any action taken taken to establish a new district, change boundaries, any of that, that would be work that's done next year to go into effect in 2027 or in the future.

That's the timeline.

Great.

All right, thank you.

We'll stay stay updated on those conversations.

And then lastly was for attorney Spore.

Um, could you help me understand what the process would be like for amending this ordinance if we were to proceed with expanding the boundary and adding new buildings in the future?

Yes.

Thank you, Chair Cashman.

Uh, this would follow the state statute procedure that involves petitioning from residents as well as multiple public hearings and going through that process.

If that process was successful, then it would come before council to amend the boundaries of the DID district, and that would be treated just like any other ordinance amendment.

It would follow the standard procedures there.

Most of it would be outside of the standard procedures of the city and the state statutes regulations for improvement districts.

And then would I be able to request a follow-up memo on what would be needed for the petition, as in like what's the threshold of signatures, and if those are commercial or residential buildings that need signatures, how how many we would need, or how many the community would need ultimately.

Absolutely, I can follow that with a follow-up on you.

Memo.

Thank you so much.

All right, I will next recognize Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair Cashman.

I don't have any questions.

I just wanted to say uh thank you so much to the DID staff and I'll be supporting your items today.

One because so many Ward 4 residents reach out after being downtown and say how much they appreciate the safety ambassadors, and um they compare your program to other things that we have happening in our neighborhoods, and they usually ask how can we get that in our in our neighborhoods.

And I've I've asked before for technical assistance on things, and you all have um definitely helped me out.

But I think it's a great model.

I love the late night safety ambassadors.

I don't know how you find the best.

I I it must be a really good work environment because you get the fun people, the hat like who's happy to be downtown at 2 a.m.

But the safety ambassadors are they're having the time of their life, they're helping people, and every time I walk in the skyway by myself, I get lost, and one of those safety ambassadors just come from nowhere and help me get back to City Hall, and so I appreciate them and that program so much.

Um, and the model it really is is just a superb model, it centers visitors first.

The the entire DID model is just it is exactly what we need in a time where we're trying to get people downtown and feel safe and happy.

And you know, I know you're asking for pretty much the bare minimum to keep the program going.

But if we're ever in a time where we can enhance what you all are doing for the city of Minneapolis and all of its residents, I know it's centered downtown, but people visit from all over to downtown, and I know my ward appreciate appreciates you.

You know, I love that I can ask you all any time for data and you can present it.

You can tell me how many people you've encountered, exactly what they needed, how many police calls were needed, how many um behavior health calls and interactions happen.

And so that is um that is so greatly appreciated.

And and just ending just in closing, thank you for putting our visitors first.

It that's what you see more than anything when you're downtown and you see DID employee, and not just the ambassadors, you all too, you know, like the the um executive staff.

I've seen you at events, I've seen you around talking to folks and giving out directions and uh pointing people to the welcome center and so many different things also.

So thank you for the continued um support and help of our residents.

All right, thank you for that.

And just before we take this vote, I do want to recognize we've been joined by Councilmember Osman, and that he would like to be marked in the affirmative on the consent agenda.

So on the motion to approve items two and three, all those in favor say aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Need extensions, those items carry.

I think we have one more public hearing today, which is the special service districts uh 2026 proposed services and service charges, and I'll welcome up Mr.

Bauer from Public Works to present.

Thank you, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

Good afternoon.

I'm David Bauer, project manager of the city's special service districts and transportation maintenance and repair.

Uh, these are the districts outside of downtown.

Um, a special service district allows property owners in a commercial area to collectively impose service charges on themselves each year to create a pool of funds.

These funds are directed back in the form of enhanced services and special amenities.

The enhanced services and special amenities are over and above what the city ordinarily provides.

Each special service district is guided by an advisory board comprised of property owners or their representatives within a district.

Each advisory board recommends the services, service frequencies, estimated budget, and service charge methodology for the district.

This public hearing is in regards to the 50th in France, 54th in Lyndale, Bloomington Lake, Chicago Lake, East Lake, Lindale Lake, and West Broadway special service districts, all seeking approval for their 2026 proposed services and service charges.

These districts are referred to referred to as 428A districts.

428A refers to the Minnesota State Statute, which grants municipalities the authority to establish special service districts by local ordinance.

All special service districts before you today were established under that statute.

Over the summer, public works staff worked with advisory boards where they were active.

In other districts, staff facilitated direct engagement with property owners through mailings and working groups.

These efforts ensured that each district had the opportunity to collaborate on service priorities, budget development, and assessment methodology.

Each affected property owner was mailed a notice of the public hearing and service charge amount 10 days in advance of this public hearing.

Also included in the mailing was a copy of the proposed operating plan and budget.

Staff therefore recommends passage of the resolution approving the 2026 operating plans, special services, cost estimates and service charges, and the list of service charges for the coming year for 50th in France, 54th in Lindale, Bloomington Lake, Chicago Lake, East Lake, Lindale Lake, and the West Broadway Special Service Districts, and authorizing the Department of Public Works to proceed with the work.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, and happy to stand by for any questions.

Wonderful.

Thanks for the presentation.

We'll have the public hearing first or next.

And we have one person signed up, which is Jeff.

So I'll proceed to open the public hearing and invite up our first speaker here, Jeff Zeitler from Ward 9.

Thank you, board.

I appreciate you uh letting me speak.

Uh I have a business on East Lake Street.

And I'm coming to address uh the issue of the East Lake special service district, uh the increase in service charges, which I have my letter that I got this year.

So the service charges are going up, looks like about 10-15%.

Um I'd be glad to paint if I saw any evidence of anything being done on East Lake Street with this money.

Uh I can paint you.

I don't have any pictures to show.

I can paint you a word picture of what our block between 30th and 31st looks like on Lake Street right now.

We have weeds three and a half feet tall.

We have syringes on the sidewalk.

We have uh fast food wrappers uh pretty much everywhere every day.

I go out and I pick them up.

Um I see the special service district personnel come through maybe three or four times a year, and that's great.

Uh not nearly enough to keep this street clean.

Uh I know the service district also maintains uh empties garbage cans, uh, maintains landscaping.

Uh right now uh the street looks terrible, honestly, it looks terrible.

Uh this money is uh apparently being wasted.

Uh so I object to the increase.

Uh I would request respectfully that you sunset or disband uh the East Lake service district if you're not going to do the work.

Uh if you do the work, great.

Uh but if it's going to continue like this, uh the money that business owners are spending on East Lake is simply uh, as far as I can tell, being wasted.

So I'd request that you either do the work or stop building us.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for those comments.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this this public hearing who didn't sign up?

Yes, come on up.

And please state your name.

Hi, my name is Carl Irwin, and I live in South Minneapolis.

So it's a sad time to for the news, you know, of the encampment.

Um I'd like to echo what that gentleman just said that there's a lot of need that we'd like to see happen.

Uh there's a vacant lot that had a mattress there where people would go and shoot up.

I called the city on a regular basis.

They would tell me to call the police, and the police would tell me to call the city.

So there's a lot of that going back and forth.

And maybe create a system that's a little more accountable with pictures and um.

Well, we're getting the Democracy center, and I don't know exactly the agenda there, but you have a lot of people that care.

And um, and we're we need people to.

There's a lot of need, and um, especially at this time.

I don't know if there's a storage facility near East Lake but shout out to the librarians who help people all the time that want to do business there and great library system that's one of the greatest things about this country and um I did notice that they went to full bullet vest when that encampment happened and I tend to agree with the council member that said it's good to help uh early stages the first person in the tent um and there's a lot of teams that could be formed better than um what's been happening thank you thank you for those comments was there anyone else who wanted to speak on this item yes come on up and then madam chair if I could just interject if anyone um who's gonna be speaking could also make sure to come sign up just so that we could have your contact info or your name sorry thank you and please state your name here hi thank you board I'm Kathleen Rainier and I live in that neighborhood too uh I just have a couple words to say um friend of the family was in his 30s overdosed and died in that encampment um my son-in-law went up to the encampment and retrieved his daughter's bicycle little kid's bike it's it's um not about the bike but about the potential of harm and death to people who are in the encampment let's find a humane way to work with them and get it going also a shout out to the church behind the library which has done soup for you for many many years.

Thanks okay thank you for those comments with no one else uh to speak in this public hearing I will close the public hearing and ask if there are any committee members who would like to address thank you uh recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you Chair Cashman would love to hear I think those are things those are comment made about the service only coming four times a year would love to hear a staff response to that and actually hear like how many times a week a month a year these services go out and what work is being done just the public can be aware.

Particularly when it comes to East Lake Street.

Chair Cashman members of the committee happy to clarify some of these issues.

Regarding the East Lake Special Service District turf maintenance is currently the responsibility of the adjacent property owner with the beeline improvements that went out a couple years back there could be some miscommunication from the project to property owners now that there's some added turf along that corridor um so happy to clear up these issues with uh residents and uh property owners out there currently East Lake Special Service District is performing a pan and broom litter abatement services between uh the front of building and back uh and the including the gutter so gutter tip um so we do that twice a week uh April through October so if you look out currently they're scheduled Tuesdays so if you want to take a look Tuesdays sometimes if they're out there in the early mornings um not to you know disrupt you know pedestrians in those areas uh but yes we're performing litter abatement services we're emptying the trash cans we're maintaining the fence line where the landscaping that we are doing is occurring uh behind the fences that are screening parking lots so if you recognize that Lake Street style fencing that's where we're doing planting bed maintenance um and East Lake has a modest budget and we're trying to get a lot done within that budget if turf TERF uh maintenance was included, their service charges would go up somewhat substantially.

So, you know we're we're gonna reconnect with that board, see if that's something that they're interested in.

It's certainly a service that other districts are doing.

So it's something that you know we're we we potentially could add to their list of services.

Um and again, happy to connect with these these people and clarify personally um what the district's doing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And and ahead of the final vote at full council next week.

Uh my office would like to have a meeting to discuss some of these issues that are being brought up today, particularly because these are some of the issues that I've heard in general, just from the community, folks on Link Street, and I do appreciate the work that is happening.

I did want to at least uplift some of the voices, so the concerns that people in the room are bringing up today.

The other thing that is not related to you, but that was mentioned about I think from Carla, I just and this is maybe for staff to take notes, it's not directed towards you.

But when folks call 311, and then 311 takes a call from a constituent and the constituent has a voice of a concern to then forward it to the council member 311 may sometimes forward that call to a council member, but if a council member doesn't have time to answer that phone call, it will leave the residents concerned.

Like maybe potentially Carlos about a bed on like a bed in the neighborhood, and if the resident doesn't leave a phone number, the phone number that 311 leaves is the 311 number.

So then my office can't call back the resident at all, and there's no way to get a hold of them unless I'm searching them up online, figuring out if their name matches somewhere, and then figuring out how we're actually gonna solve that issue.

And I'm bringing that up today because in this instance, if someone calls my office and there's no voicemail being left, and then 311 took that call, and the issues gets addressed or doesn't, either or, then there's no way for my office to communicate with the constituent, no way to call back, except calling neighbors that might live next to an individual, seeing if the name sounds familiar.

And I'm bringing that up because I think it was brought up today.

There was a concern I didn't have a phone number to call back.

I had to ask somebody else and try to figure that out.

But I'd want to at least mention it here today because that is something that I think has an easy solution.

If we get a call from a resident for the and if that residents concern is gonna be forward to a council member, making sure that we have the name and number copied and sent to the council member's office, that is really helpful.

That's not directed towards you, but I wanted to mention it because it was a public comment about it.

So that being said, I would love a meeting before the final vote on full council.

I will be supporting this item, and I do want to make sure that like some of the concerns that were brought here today about just the services are addressed.

So, councilman, members of the community, Councilmember Travis, you know, thank you for that comment.

Um, just so you know, um, we do get those 311s when they're directed, you know, if it's a district responsibility.

I know we've worked with staff to improve, make improvements to that line of communication over time, it's gotten better.

Um, and we do get a lot of those complaints correctly, you know, it sent in our direction, and we personally follow up with folks and try to you know respond as quickly as possible.

Um, agree it's not perfect, uh, but if you know, happy to connect with you and try to make some process improvements here and make sure that communication's happening.

Yep, just in general, like some receiving like this is the area of service map, staff goes out twice a week on this day, this hour, this is what is usually done, this is the impact that it has on the neighborhood, and this is what residents and businesses could expect on a weekly basis.

With the that usually is helpful.

Thank you.

I recognize council member Osman.

Thank you.

Just to follow up with Councilmember Chase and Chavez.

You know, I'm thinking about bringing special service district on Franklin and see that avenue.

But if the residents are um seeing no improvement, then there's absolutely no point on that.

So as council member mentioned, I think it will be great to see um a proof that work is being done.

Pictures, something that's published, and and uh either in public or or shared it with the council members, and because when you go to those if different areas, it doesn't feel like people have us getting those services.

That's what's just the way the way trash and graffites and everything is just spread uh some part of our city.

Yeah, Chair Cashman, members of the committee, council member Osman, um we do track all these metrics uh within our department.

So every time our vendor goes out, they're keeping track of how many bags of trash they're removing in the public right away, um, how many graffiti tags we take pictures of everything.

Um these are uploaded to the cloud, so uh, you know, every month where we're getting an update of what was done the previous month, and um, yep, just so you know, the annual report that we put together, we file in the spring with uh with the council.

So all the annual reports from all the districts that we manage, uh, those are there, all those numbers are included.

So you can reference that to just understand the scope of our work and the volume of uh work that we're performing each year.

Just to clarify, the city staff is not going there to clean up, it's just the vendor that we're contracting.

Am I going to write?

Uh yes, Chair Cash.

Remember this of the committee, uh Councilmember Osman, that's correct.

Uh we do contract with third-party vendors uh using the city's procurement system.

So all of these districts have competitively bid contracts and vendors that perform the service.

It is not city staff that performs the actual work on the ground.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, council members, for those questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Bauer.

And again, I'm open to continue conversations about how to make these reports more transparent, getting them more more published, more widely seen.

I think that's a it's a good way to just increase accountability over this this system.

And then I do have one last question I think might be for attorney spore, which is what would be the process for adding a new special service district because I do know uh the Bryn Mawr neighborhood is very uh interested in potentially establishing one and wanted to know exactly what that would look like, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

The method for establishing a new service district is contained in Minnesota's statutes 428A.

I can include that in the memorandum to you if you'd like the requirements for that as well as the requirements for expanding a special service district.

Thanks, that'd be helpful.

All right, is there anyone else?

Yes, Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair Cashman.

So was that like an official um staff memo to get uh the information around how many times staff is coming out to clean because I d I guess I I feel like that's not what the person who spoke was saying was that um like nobody's coming to do anything.

I you know, if there are activities and things going around in the neighborhood that are not normally there, no matter how many times staff is coming out, then there's gonna be trash or you know, some of the things that he described.

In my ward, dumping is a huge problem.

And if that someone said there's a vacant lot nearby on the north side, sometimes vacant lots just get dumped on all the time.

It doesn't matter how many times public works comes out.

That happens.

So I'm wondering is if this is a staff memo with questions or can we do that?

Because I don't know that it's about staff not going out enough or this this contract not working enough as much as it is there are other activities going on in this area that don't allow for this area to be clean like businesses and residents want it to be.

I mean, I don't want to blame staff for something that they're not responsible for.

So I would I I would like a memo on um the um the times that they've been out, let's just say in the last couple of years, because you said there's a number associated with how many bags of trash they clean up or whatever activity is going on out there, right?

So like if we find out they pick up a lot of trash, but there's clearly still a need, then maybe it's not working for this area.

Maybe it's something else that needs to happen, and it's not just the special service district.

Um that is a problem here.

Do you want that for just East Lake Street or for all of the special service districts?

It's the person just came to talk about East Lake Street.

I I haven't this is my first time here, and I've been on East Lake Street, and I see what area this person I know the area that the person who spoke about talked about, and I've seen lots of trash and you know stuff thrown out there.

So I would like this specific area.

Got it.

Did you catch that, Michael?

Madam Chair, just to confirm uh a look back for the last few years, East Lake, uh some numbers in terms of number of visits, trash collected for the last two to three years.

Was that is that correct?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

So I will move this item.

Oh, one more council member in Q here recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Yeah, I mean, to be clear, there is not enough trash being picked up on Lake Street.

There is a lot of trash on East Lake Street.

This contract itself is not going to be enough to address the litter across our neighborhoods, and that's just the bottom line fact.

When I worked with Public Works, we did we were on East Lake Street.

I was on a block, particularly 15th and Lake, and I myself had to pick up like six, seven trash bags where I couldn't even do it alone anymore.

And that was not even half of the trash that was on 15th and Lake.

Six bags of trash on my own.

And that was not even half of the trash on that block.

There's a lot of trash going on on Lake Street that needs to be picked up that needs to be addressed that is going to go beyond this particular contract.

So my answer is that there is a lot of work being done to pick up the trash, and it's still not enough.

So, and it's gonna go beyond this contract, which is why public works did that program where they were on East Lake Street, Central Avenue.

I believe they were in some locations in North Side and other places or cultural districts to enhance some of that litter collection that is really important.

We have monthly cleanups with our crime prevention specialists on Lake Street where we're again having to pick up massive amounts of trash.

I go out there with my own teams because it's still not enough.

Um I've hosted my own trash cleanups because it's still not enough, and like ultimately, like one of the reasons why my office authored a budget amendment last December on a uh employment low barrier trash cleanup program for unsheltered individuals so they can have some extra cash on their pockets in the south side green zone was exactly for what we're hearing from folks today.

The Southside Green Zone includes Lake Street, it includes the Phillips neighborhoods where we're dealing with a lot of trash.

We're dealing with no solutions to address unsheltered homelessness to be very clear, which is leaving people to make desperate decisions, and we're dealing with a lot of trash.

And a way to solve that is by making sure we can have low barrier job opportunities for people that are experiencing homelessness.

They can then help clean up our neighborhoods and get paid for that.

And that's one one thing that we can actually do that will solve some of these issues, but I'm gonna be honest that like the reason I'm asking for like how many times we're there a week is because neighbors brought it up saying four times, and I wanted to be able to say is that true or not.

I think I've seen them more than that more than four times a year.

Uh and I think staff will agree that we've seen them more than four times a year, but I think it's important for the public to know how many times we are there, and also understanding that even with all these things that I've just said, it's still not enough to clean up all the trash that we are seeing on Lake Street, and that's just a fact.

And it's gonna take a more comprehensive approach to reduce litter in our neighborhoods to make sure that we are doing more trash cleanups in our neighborhoods, and it's also not just Lake Street, it's it's across our city and other cultural districts that need that support.

So I just wanted to be able to mention that.

Like I even like I said, cleaning up with my team and I almost 12 bags of trash on Lake Street on one block, like there needs to be a better plan, and it's not just gonna be this today.

So I just wanted to say that.

Yeah, Chair Cashman, Councilmember Chavez.

We you know, we meet with these people, we meet with property owners, and we're always trying to strike a balance with what we can accomplish and what people can afford.

And so different segments of Lake Street.

Uh, you know, we do have a different panda broom schedule.

We are, you know, able to do more in certain areas, but it's just a matter of resources, really.

And um, but just know that our crews are out there, they're performing this work.

Oftentimes it is early in the morning, so you might not uh notice them during the day.

Um, something we are trying to do is uh explore different pricing for prime time so that you know there is more visibility and some of this work can happen during you know priority business hours, but right now our goal is to keep these corridors, these commercial corridors clean at the beginning of the the business day.

Thank you, Councilmember Chavez.

And before we take the vote here, I just want to uh mention to you that the first R in the reduce reuse recycle is uh reduced, and there is a big issue with single-use disposable items out in our communities that I think we need to be addressing with fast food restaurants, for example.

I've heard that mentioned in some comments.

So I'm hoping to reopen our green to go ordinance again and put some further restrictions on the ability for restaurants to even give out single-use containers every single day, and um would welcome help with that from the other council members on this committee, too, if you're interested in just getting it doesn't have to be the sort of thing that restaurants are punished, but rather that they're given resources from the city to transition to other types of of like uh food containers.

So there's some solutions that we can work on together from the legislative side as well.

And with that, I will move approval on this item and all those in favor say aye.

And those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions.

All right, that motion does carry, and then we have one presentation left, which is an update on um franchise fees.

So we passed a legislative directive a few cycles ago asking about the use of the franchise fee money towards climate action and exploring ways to increase the franchise fees for improving outcomes of this program.

So I'll welcome up uh Director Megan Hoy to begin this presentation.

Good afternoon.

Excuse me.

Thank you, Chair Cashman, and members of the committee.

Um we're here today to respond to your legislative directive and and respond to the questions you put forward to us.

Um we presented it in kind of a narrative format, which I know you have available to you right now.

So we'll be walking through that and taking your questions.

Um, I'm joined with a team, it'll be myself as well as um two others here.

So um we'll introduce ourselves in turn.

Um we'll actually start off with uh Director Decenza.

Good morning, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

I'm Jane DeSenza, the budget director, and I was asked to respond to some of the more financial questions in this legislative directive.

Um the first question asked about the history of uh franchise fee revenue.

Um, franchise fees have been franchise agreements have been in place for at least over 50 years, and so it was not easy for the city to go back um that entire length of time, but we understood from conversations with the authors that more of the interest was around the portion of franchise fees that are related to the climate legacy initiative.

That revenue was estimated after being negotiated in 2023.

It was estimated to be about 10 million dollars.

And so 10 million dollars of programming for climate legacy initiative work funded by the franchise fees was budgeted in both 2024 and 2025.

What we found is that actual revenues have come in a bit lower.

Um we saw 8.4 million dollars in 2024 that came in as a result of that negotiated increase related to climate legacy initiative.

So the table below, um, for those of you who are looking at the legislative directive, um, we listed out the natural gas and electricity franchise fee recent actual receipts and broke them out by the unrestricted portion of that revenue versus the revenue that is associated with the climate legacy initiative.

So you can see um that in 2024, we recorded um in our financial statements $3.1 million related to CLI natural grass franchise fee revenue, and about $3.9 million related to the CLI portion of the electricity franchise fee.

I do want to note for those of you who are maybe doing the math on that, um 8.4 million is different than that total that I've that I've just shared.

Um, and the reason for that is once we saw those actual receipts come in, the health department worked closely with finance and the utilities to reconfigure how those distributions are shown in the utility statements.

So we believe we'll have a much more accurate picture of the franchise fee uh associated with CLI going forward.

But initially it looked like it was much closer to $7 million.

Um instead, we're using $8.4 million as the planning number going forward for the next budget cycle.

We listed also in this legislative directive, there's a question about where this money went.

Both the budget books for 2024 and 2025 had detailed breakdowns of climate legacy initiative directed spending.

So those are linked in the legislative directive.

There was a landing page in both of those books that showed a summary by department, and then each department page listed a really detailed breakdown of all of the work that they're doing that they were budgeted to do.

And then finally, there was a question about a fiscal breakdown of all revenue sources that the city uses to fund climate work.

And this was a difficult one for us to answer without any more specificity because climate equity work is embedded in many, many levels of the city's operations.

So you could consider housing density planning and CFED to be a climate effort, any bike and pedestrian infrastructure work, all the sustainability work in the health department, building projects that Property Services is doing, all of those could be considered climate work.

And so with a little bit more specificity, we might be able to answer that in a more direct way.

So sometimes those grants are successful, sometimes they are not, but we did recently receive funding notification for a geothermal planning grant and geothermal community engagement work, and that is coming through the state of Minnesota and the Federal Department of Energy.

I'll pass it over to Megan.

Thank you, Director DeSenza, and thank you, Chair Cashman and members of the committee.

I'll just add on to that response also.

We did recently learn of another grant that we received from it's through Department of Energy Funding through intermediaries, where we received another 250,000 to do engagement in the community, focusing on disadvantaged or vulnerable communities and small businesses around geothermal as well as energy efficiency.

So just round that out with some newer information.

The legislative directive also asked about what other sources of revenue or expansions to existing revenue are being considered or recommended to help meet our climate equity plan goals.

And that there have been many revenue sources that have been considered for climate work, you know, going back before my time.

To date, franchise fees have been considered the best funding tool available based on its close association with energy use, which is our largest sector of emissions, and also that they are fairly flexible in how they're used.

Other sources that we included and pointed out were kind of funding sources, sales tax, parking fees and revenues, that there's flexibility there generally per Minnesota State Statute, Section 459.14, biochar uh carbon credit sales revenues.

Um this is a potential source of revenue, although a relatively small source of revenue given the scale of production at this point in time.

Um city bonding and state bonding are optional but um you know highly competitive or um not ongoing sources.

Um we've definitely been in conversations in coordination with the Minnesota Green Bank, otherwise known as Mincifa, on financing opportunities, especially around larger projects, which is what they tend to focus on budget uh projects in the over 250,000 dollars up to kind of five to ten million dollars.

Um, lastly listed was foundation and philanthropic philanthropic funding, and we have relationships with a number of foundations, and uh we are talking to them about some of the conversations and topics that have been of interest to this committee and to community, and certainly to our to our work, weatherization work and resilience hubs as well as geothermal work are two examples.

Also listed, but under a cost recovery fee model was the pollution control annual registration or PCAR fees, and then other permitting fees, and there are a variety of different permitting fees, but those are sort of more restricted in that they are recovery revenue recovery based, so have limited applications.

So the increase to the expense budget in one area would require reductions to other areas of the budget or an increase in revenue, you know, property taxes or other revenue sources.

Policymakers, such as is yourselves, must weigh the trade-offs associated with those changes.

To determine how to proceed, annual franchise fee revenue is highly variable, as Jane alluded to a little bit before, based on consumer demand industry factors, as well as weather.

Many programs could be impacted if this change were made, but it's hard to characterize that impact without more detailed questions or planning at this time.

And we'll also speak to the question about is it possible under the franchise fee agreement to create an opt-in program where ratepayers could contribute to the climate legacy initiative in their Excel or center point bills.

So this concept is not contemplated in our current franchise agreements or our memorandums of understanding.

However, it is understood that this topic has been previously discussed with the utility companies, both Excel and Center Point, based on historical usage in other voluntary programs that we've seen.

It is believed that more residential customers would be the ones opting in or looking to pay fees into a program such as this, thus increasing the cost on residential customers while providing relatively small funding, kind of that value add, and other barriers need to overcome creating such a program, do exist.

In particular, it's likely or essential that changes to utility billing systems would have to change to an enable or support a program like that.

You know, this could this could be looked at and recommended for discussion with the clean energy partnership if that was of interest.

At this point, I'll hand it over to the city attorney's office.

Jocelyn Bremer.

Chair Cashman, members of the committee, my name is Jocelyn Bremer, and I am a senior assistant city attorney with the city attorney's office, and I will be answering question number seven, which was what are the administrative steps needed to be taken to change the franchise fees?

Changing the franchise fees would involve amending appendices C2 and D2 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances, which govern Center Point Ener point energy and XL Energy's franchise fees, respectively.

This would require the city to follow its normal ordinance amendment process, but such as the notice of intent and introduction steps with one additional step.

The franchise agreements, appendices C1 for center point and energy, and D1, XL Energy, respectively.

Also state that no amendment to the front to the fee ordinance shall be adopted until at least 60 days after notice enclosing such proposed ordinance or ordinance amendment has been provided to the company.

And that same language is in both appendix C1 and Appendix D1 for the utility companies respectively.

This means uh notice must also be served by mail or by personal delivery.

As such, the city is required to provide at least 60 days' notice prior to adopting a new fee ordinance, and we will all stand for questions.

Thank you.

So much.

Director Hoy, Director DeSenza, Attorney Bremer, appreciate the collaboration here.

I think a lot of our questions were answered, maybe not some of them, which you know I can always do a better job of explaining the intent behind the questions.

And so I do have some things for follow-up just from here to help us chart a path forward.

So I guess I'll just move backwards from the last question here for Attorney Bremer.

In addition to giving having to give 60 days notice, can you also remind us about the one year moratorium on making changes that prevents us from being able to change the ordinances multiple times per year?

Generally, uh the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has a 12-month requirement where if you if a city or a municipality changes a franchise fee um uh at one point that they need to wait another 12 months before they change it again.

And this is something that the utility companies do uh request we also follow this kind of guideline.

Okay, it's a request, not a rule.

It is kind of a recommended guideline that the PC does.

So and and it does reduce confusion.

Um I think the guideline is generally there to reduce confusion in making multiple requests within 12 month period.

And we don't want this program to suffer because of putting so much burden on the program having to change multiple times.

Okay, that's helpful, and then working backwards from there on the opt-in program.

You know, I can see that having an opt-in program for residential customers might not yield as much because residential customers are only charged, I think the 5.25, whereas the large commercial are charged much higher than that.

But I do think a lot of companies have corporate social responsibility and zero waste goals that they might like to try to hit.

And I'm wondering if if there are any of those customers that we can target with an opt-in program to really yield some um some higher higher amounts.

Is that something that you hear about?

I know you you have worked in this space for quite a while.

Um, Chair Cashman and members of the committee, I um I certainly have heard about programs that businesses are engaged in around clean transportation, um, other giving.

I haven't heard of that exact type of program, um, but it would be interesting to look into that further.

Um, I think that is about the design of it.

Um to the point of what are the barriers to it, um, the billing systems of utility companies are large, large systems, um, and they balance a lot of things that are working fluidly.

So I think the the design is something that we could, it could be looked into further, but uh other consideration for those barriers of what might get in the way of that, um, just to reiterate that.

All right, thank you.

And then just going back to the first page of the memo, we have CLI natural gas at 3.1 million and CLI electricity at 3.9 million, and this is for 2024.

And then so, but when you see unrestricted natural gas at 9 million and unrestricted electricity at 25.4 million, am I understanding correctly that we're taking in, you know, almost 35 million dollars from these fees collectively, but only around 8.4 of them is really going towards the climate legacy initiative work.

Um Chair Cashman, there's a total column on the right-hand side, so it's about for these two franchise fees.

We're seeing 40, we saw 41.6 million dollars total revenue.

So aside from that margin that was negotiated for CLI, everything is unrestricted, and so it goes directly into the general fund, it defrays the the property tax levy.

Okay, so it's less than 25% is going towards CLI.

I haven't, I don't do math on the fly, but uh that sounds about right.

Okay.

Thanks.

All right, so those were my clarifying questions, and then just a few things about how to proceed here.

Um we the last time we updated these ordinances was in 2023, so we're we're well beyond the 12-month uh moratorium there.

So we're good to go to to make changes.

And so there are a couple ways we could make changes to increase revenue, and we've had some discussions about how to do that.

We had a discussion with uh the mayor's office about a proposal to change the categories of um customers who are charged these fees.

So splitting up commercial industrial companies a bit deeper.

And so are you familiar with this proposal and can you explain a little bit what that might look like and what it would yield in terms of CLI revenue?

I can speak to that.

Um thank you, Chair Cashman.

The uh that proposal is looking to align the uh franchise agreements and memorandums of understanding that were adopted earlier this year, um, where there is uh a reflecting of the rate classes.

That's what they kind of referred to, those customer groupings that uh the the public that is uh seen in utility uh rate books and what is kind of presented to the public utilities commission, so it would be just more aligned, and so there is taking our rate classes that were a little bit more clumped together and less nuanced and breaking them out to be more aligned with how the the PUC and the utilities themselves actually make rates and publish rates, and it allows for uh more detailed um uh aligning or assigning of rates fees um to those different rate classes, so it just allows for a little bit more nuance, and it's per the those new agreements.

Okay, so that would be a change to our franchise agreements, not our franchise fee ordinances.

Um that was already uh adopted as part of the agreements.

Um, it's already in the new agreements.

This is just uh the proposal here, as I understand it, is to align the ordinance to reflect that because the rates themselves are in the um uh the the classes of rates are called out in the ordinance, and this would just be an aligning of those.

Okay, I see attorney Bremer might want to respond to this.

We're happy to follow up with more questions and more discussion about any proposed changes to the fee ordinances.

I don't believe that that um that uh that that information is quite finalized yet.

Sure, we're happy to discuss that too.

Um but I would note that the franchise agreements themselves um give the city broad uh latitude in um changing the franchise fee structure.

And that would be changes to the ordinance.

We're not talking about opening up the agreements.

That would simply be changes to the franchise fee ordinance, which is a separate ordinance, not the franchise uh agreement itself.

And how much would this yield making these changes to the ordinance?

How much would that yield in additional revenue?

I am unaware of any final decisions that have been made on that accord.

I don't believe that there have been any final decisions made on what the fee ordinance would be, but again, we're happy to follow up on that.

Yeah, I mean, just some modeling on what different changes would yield so that we can make that decision as policymakers would be really helpful.

And then the other method that I see of getting more money into the bank here is just raising the percentages.

We don't have to parse them out in new ways, we can just raise the percentages the same way that we did in 2023.

For example, residential service customers went from 5% to 6% of gross revenue.

Um, and this is for gas.

And large large customers went from 3.5 to 8.5 of gross revenues, and then all other customers went from 5.5 to 7.75.

So for the sake of being able to make a decision about how to proceed, could you follow up with um some examples of how those pen percentages could increase to get us to uh 13 million, 15 million, and 20 million, for example, in the next year, because right now we're at about 8.4 million.

We were hoping to be at 10 this year, and of course, that didn't happen.

But it's always been the plan of the community and the city to ramp up this funding so that we can really meet the need.

So, in order to ramp that up, we'd like to understand how those percentages need to change in order to get us to either 13, 15, 20 million, so that we can start to create a plan and and transparency about how to do that.

Do you have do you have a sense of that now, or we need to follow up?

Um, I don't have a sense of that now.

I believe in 2018 when the last uh increase was made, like a half a percent was equivalent to three million dollars, but that's the only thing that I'm aware of.

Um it's variable.

Thank you so much.

Uh, next I'll recognize Councilmember Vita.

My question is for you, Chair Cashman.

Are you suggesting that customers' bills are gonna go up to get to this fee?

Yes.

Okay.

So I mean, I just want to be clear that when um these decisions are made, I understand like how the money would be used, but people who live in my water impact it greatly.

The number sounds very low, but lots of people are you know ten dollars away from not eating or paying the current utility bill that they have, and so I I prefer um to maybe look at the fees that we're gonna collect now and use them and go back and revisit than to have to say to folks, you know, on top of the increase in property tax and you know the park board asking for more money and all the things that come with being a resident in Minneapolis than to say that we're gonna add more on to this fee, too.

And and then also, you know, um yeah, just that just that.

So I I just want us to be cautious that it may sound like a little bit of money, but in some communities, you know, even a five-dollar increase is a lot of money.

Yeah, that's a really really fair point.

And maybe we can add to the follow-up just like what the increased monthly bill would be on those percentages.

And again, back in 23, we only raised the residential rate from five to five to five point five, but increased it a lot more on commercial customers too.

So I think there's a lot to consider in terms of who we're actually billing, and then the other piece of it is what are we spending this money on to produce energy bills?

And is it a one-to-one?

Because we certainly should be directing the funding that we're using towards getting the energy burden down, and that's that's what the intention of the the CLI is, and so we need to understand how that's working.

Yeah, like I totally understand that, but there's still a lot of work that has to happen in certain communities to get to that place where the burden goes down, and so despite um, you know, like having the money there, is the community going to use it in the way that some other communities more affluent communities will use those um tools.

We don't know that.

You know, I'm all I'm saying is that sometimes we think it's only five dollars, or it's only five percent, or you know, you're using the word only.

That could be a lot of money, and it can make a lot of a difference for some of the families I represent.

I mean, it it might only be five percent for me.

I'm happy to pay it, but my neighbor does not have the same uh financial situation that I do, and so like using language like only, and you know, not using what we have now is really um is really alarming to me as someone who um represents people who are very much so like one paycheck away from not even having housing.

Next I'll recognize Vice Chair Koskey.

Uh thank you, madam chair, and just to piggyback maybe on some of Councilmember Vita's questions and comments to add to your memo here.

Um I wonder if it might be helpful, you know, you in the increases that Councilmember Cashman described, like to get up to the 13 million, 15 million or the 20 million, what those uh, you know, what that dollar or or cents would be per month.

Um I know that when we were presented this before Luke did an incredible job showing us like what what that dollar um and what that impact was.

And so I think to come over Vita's point, like for the communities to understand, are they getting their return on their investment?

And I guess we it would be good to understand what have we seen thus far for the if right now my understanding is it's about a dollar um per month, and I know that what you had shown was like a help me, I don't remember, but I feel like it was like a 50 times return and what that would look like at least today, and if it were so if you could equate that um with the information that you bring back, I think that would be really helpful.

Um, and then my other question, I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about the funding use for 2025.

I know we're not all the way through to the end of the year yet, um, but can you tell us about the the program funding use?

Has how is it going?

Have how far are you into utilizing that funding?

And do you see being able to use all the funding through the end of the year?

Um, or is it all been expelled?

So would would love to hear that update.

Chair Cashman, uh Vice Chair Koske.

Um I'm not able to speak to that directly in that I I don't know where we stand or where we're kind of exactly headed for the end of the year.

I know that um kind of our community-facing grants program um has been fully allocated as of a few weeks ago, um, or encumbered and um beyond that I don't know, but something that I know that will be presented on in more detail in the uh presentation on October 16th by um Deputy Commissioner Pamlin, um, in his climate legacy initiative update.

Okay, so by then we'll kind of get a better understanding of how the funding has been going.

Yes.

Okay, and I see uh Mr.

Senza is right behind you too here.

Thank you through the chair.

Um I did just want to remind council members also about the mid-year um uh change item presentation that was delivered in August.

Um, those items related to climate legacy are all tagged with that, so you can do a control F and search for climate legacy for a quick um uh quick take on how those contracts are going.

And of course, yes, uh follow-up could could happen with the CLI specific presentation later this fall.

Thank you.

And so you must you do not have that right in front of you, I may see of your computer.

I mean, I have it uh on limbs.

Okay.

We'll take a look at that and follow up, but um, you know, I feel like my overarching understanding is that they have been able to.

I mean, it has been popular programs, and we've been able to utilize them and you've been very efficient with getting the funding out.

Um, and so we'll take a look a little bit closer to that, and we'll be excited to see the report in October.

Thanks.

All right.

Uh is there any other one, any other committee member who would like to speak on this item before we move on to our final?

All right, seeing none, I will ask the clerk to file this report.

Um happy to help out with the staff memo questions uh by email as well, and then we'll look forward to the I think it's a Q3 update on um just the climate equity plan delivery of our those goals with this money um in mid-October.

Thank you so much.

Thank you Chair Cashman thank you committee.

All right so last item here is the dinner event permit I don't know if anyone from Office of Public Service could answer Councilmers Chavez's questions here in real time so we will just draft up a staff memo uh to receive that information by email yep we have them in teams all right well thank you everyone for um working through this agenda today.

It was just a receiving file.

Oh I'll move the dinner do not event permit for approval and ask the clerk to call the roll thanks.

On the on item number six uh councilmember vita aye Osman aye Chavez aye Vice Chair Koske aye and Chair Cashman aye we have five ayes all right that motion carries and seeing no business before us we are adjourned.