Budget Committee - May 13, 2026   5/13/2026

St Paul, City Council,

St Paul, City Council,

St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee

Roll call, please.

Council President Aker.

Here.

Six present, one absent being Council Member Kim and one expected shortly being Council Member Bui.

I'm here.

Thank you for having me.

We just can't get sick of you.

I know, I'm just putting this as a standing item on my Wednesday calendar.

Did I mess that up?

Oh, got it.

So why I want to show you this slide is just some things happen both years, if that makes sense.

I really appreciate, I appreciated this slide a lot just to see how it worked when it comes to like

Or do you have a way of estimating that gap out two years ahead?

I think it's a shift in mindset.

and some things people had to wait till the second year so there are things that we already know are going to be additional things that we're going to be expanding or doing but those don't those don't happen so so they're technically you know some people got things right away but other people had to wait a year in order to get some of those additions so if that helps a little bit too

And just wondering how you guys currently do that process in the county, too.

So between the quarterly projections, the year-end look, and then we get to the second year.

On the staffing end, can you speak at all to the department staffing when it comes to actually being able to pull those numbers together and just like what staffing looks like for that?

and I would say in terms of staffing that's one of the main jobs of this controller role is to make sure that they deliver on those FSRs for us every quarter.

Council President Thanks, Chair.

Just to be clear, once the levies are set in December for the next two years, the levies cannot change.

The second year levy can change.

Every year the board has to set a levy.

And then we would work on those things.

But worst case scenario, you're not

and then the planning is you don't run a full process so this year none of my departments are running a budget process right now this is the performance here they're thinking about what are their performance metrics how are they going to present them how do they tie to their budget they're looking at those pieces not the budget so if we were to change something in the budget it would be something coming down from the state coming down from the federal government or from our board chair or the county manager saying hey this one thing we really need to change and that's what we would do

as a part of a levy increase or want us to make harder decisions within the budget that they've already passed.

in that moment of having to maybe make an adjustment to spending or make a hiring freeze decision or just like in when you're thinking about how things change so quickly and when you need to respond to them in a dual budget cycle is the process really just that it comes to you County Manager and then to the board?

specific thresholds where we have to go to the board if we have to move, and you'd be able to speak more to those types of things.

There aren't very many things that would have to come to the county board unless there was a change in total intent of the money or FTE, major FTE changes.

Do you currently have reserves that you fund, or do you fund your county reserves in that relation, or is it the $2 million contingency that kind of serves that purpose?

We go to the board, explain that to them, and they have to approve it.

Those are great questions.

Okay, and so then in a biennial budget year when the County Manager presents the two-year budget,

You're in a constant state of budget planning which makes it hard to reflect on the work you're doing.

So there's stronger long-term planning, right?

We close out a year, and we start a new year.

That's important.

And then estimating bargaining and state budget impacts can be harder depending on the three-year and two-year cycles and how they line up with our budget.

you know we're just kind of like staying on top of just getting getting the book out you know what I mean so I really benefited from it as a new County Manager it's been really I think help us be more strategic and to really make the budget not just numbers and sense but really a value statement of what we believe in because until you can step aside on the metrics part it's harder that way you know

Council President.

And then secondly, I know none of us were here in 2006, but wondering if there's any institutional history that you can either share now or later about what that transition from an annual budget to a biannual budget entailed and how much time elapsed between starting to think about that and actually being able to make the transition, because we're

Did you want to add?

It's been a while.

Yeah, but yeah, thank you for your interest I mean we'd be happy to you know talk to you about anything around this process as we go forward Yeah, could you share just like which systems you currently use to track kind of when it comes to The city databases and things like that of like how we currently are using what we use to see where our funding is What do you use of the county that tracks just like how actually people are spending and

It'll be great to have a new system that's more automated than what we do, but our work won't change significantly due to that.

So there's no carryover, not even of programs that maybe just are on spent dollars, or just like what exactly doesn't carry over from the general fund per year.

And those are four bigger things, and that's how we manage things that will last longer than one to two years.

I see Council Member Yang's hand.

I'm wondering in the timeline here can you talk a bit about what community engagement looks like whether it's driven by the county at the staff level or commissioners?

so I hope that's helpful a little bit but I kind of see and hopefully you know you guys too with your elected roles I mean your job is to listen to your constituents every day of the year and so it's our job as staff to make sure we're prioritizing and building in those considerations into the things that we're bringing before you for consideration and investment.

With those budget presentations from the different departments, do you make sure that all of those are completed before the vote on the maximum levy?

You could go on either side of that max levy number technically on those department presentations.

are there other pools of dollars that you're thinking of too that's hard to project and then how do you plan and prepare for that?

The rest of

So we try to get a lot of information and make very informed forecasts.

And could you share a little bit more of an example of just like when changes are made to the general fund or just like department changes, what does or does not go to the board?

But your question was about department priorities and different things within that.

that's kind of a relic of a past organizational operation.

And if people are thinking and there's extra questions that come up, don't hesitate to reach out to them directly.

So to the extent that contingency funds remain unutilized, you don't need them, you did not access that pool, so are those funds applied to the general fund balance at the end of the budget cycle or are they carried forward and adjusted within the next budget cycle?

Thank you.

I know.

I'll see you next Wednesday.

Good morning.

Today I have two updates for you about telecast services.

With that, I'll pause for any questions that you have on simulcasting of YouTube.

and YouTube is exactly the opposite so this was something that was really exciting to be able to actually meet with them a couple weeks ago and say since the last meeting where you mentioned this we are now going to be on YouTube and it's really exciting.

Great, thank you Council President.

Council Member Bowie.

Would it apply to all of the city or committee meetings or would it just solely be City Council?

I'll just note that the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners has not yet made the decision to simulcast on YouTube, so for now we'll just be St Paul City Council.

to our staff as well that worked on trying to get this together because this is much easier to send to my mom and to my constituents to watch than the link to Granicus.

Thank you for that feedback.

Or are you going back to a certain date and want to make sure everything's uploaded to it?

We just wanted to kind of close out our testing period this week, get some additional feedback from Council staff and then align with Director Wilms on that decision of officially when we're going to cut over.

Like, for example, all public council meetings in 2026, for example?

And there will be an archive both on YouTube and on Grancas.

Thank you for the clarification.

Wonderful.

I want to invite Bonnie to just share a little bit of information about her team.

I'm sure as you all know and I'm sure it hasn't been without some of its bumps so we do appreciate you know as we navigate this new process for us to that you've been understanding so yeah I'm super excited

With that I'm happy to answer any questions.

I see a question from Council President Baker.

what happens with our staff who were doing this work from OTC is the idea that they are now free to do other things like kind of give us the sense of how this all financially and operationally breaks down.

for other departments in the city as SPIN works on the partnership for telecast services.

And will a corresponding amount of those hours be specifically for the council or do you anticipate those being spread out more broadly?

Yeah, so I think they'll be available to all of our partners in the city who use the services and OTC for communications.

kind of introducing folks to, especially because we have some Ward 7 residents on the comms team, but I think it'd be really cool to know, especially now with the council hiring a communications person, just what that partnership could look like and what information you might need from us to know just what we'd like to see or our desires would be.

But always happy to have a conversation with any of you on your communications priorities and projects that are coming up.

And just to clarify, too, are we currently, for the county, do we, they haven't signed on to do their broadcasting through YouTube, so they're not a part of the partnership right now?

And we'll be able to support that transition.

Okay, but currently the city staff is doing their broadcasting still?

Yes, and so St Paul Neighborhood Network, that transition fully over to spin will happen at the end of this month.

Council President.

They are, yes.

And we are doing their meetings as well.

and Council Members.

So I anticipate that great relationship will continue and I'm looking forward to that comms lead person leading, channeling our voice, but also working with the expertise on their team.

Alright, that's the items that we have, so I know that we'll, yes.

So I'm happy to have direct communication for things that you feel like we should be at or covering or having communication with.

We are adjourned.