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Page 2 - January 22, 2002, New Brighton Council Minutes New Brighton is a fully developed community. The recently completed census indicates that our community lost one person during the past decade. The Census also indicates that we are becoming an older community, with now over 112.6% being over the age of 65, up 33% in 10 years. We have always worked to remember who and what our commun ity is, as well as. the needs and desires of our residents in the delivery of public services. The future will be no different. . .. And in fact, may become even more important! Last year, the City Council and Department head staff established 8 strategic themes that will be our guiding principles as we head into the next several years. As I report on many of our accomplishments during the past year, let me organize them under our strategic themes, so that you have a better understanding of how our efforts are supporting these long tenn strategic themes for our community. I Financing ofMunicioal Services. . The State of Minnesota's approved changes in school financing and shifts in the overall property tax system had a significant impact on how needed to view the financing of the services we provide. While some of these changes were positive and allow us to be more accountable for the costs oflocal services, the state also put unnecessary restrictions on our ability to make decisions locally. The current discussions lU1derway at the State level regarding reducing our budgeted revenues for this year. . .2002. . ... ha<; the real potential to directly impact our ability to continue current service levels to you. I will address this issue a little more later. The Council and staff spent a considerable amount of time to prepare a budget that operationally increased a little over 3%, mostly reflecting cost ofliving increases to our municipal staff. . We hired a new Director of Finmlce mId Support Services, Dan Maiers toward the end oflast year. Given Dan's skills and extensive City Financing experience, we are very excited about having Dan all our team to help us ensure that our financing system is moving our organization fOlWard. . An Alternatives Revenue Task Force was appointed and will be getting underway shortly, with Dan's leadership. This Task fOrce will assist us in exploring alternative and creative ways to finance local municipal services and will also help to review our policies and practices as it relates to improving how we manage our reserve funds. . The City received an unqualified year -end audit, and continues to enjoy a bond rdting of Aa, based on our excellent financial management and condition. . As thc State of Minnesota works through its budget problems, it will be very important for every citizen and business owner to pay close attention. There will be significant dialogue regarding dIe reduction of revenues New Brighton receives from thc state dlrough municipal aid. These reductions are proposed to come from the budget we just approved! 'lhc currently suggested mnnber we would need to finmlce some other way is around $700,000. Since our levy ha<; already been set for 2002, a loss of this amount of revenue would require us to seriously consider reductions in service levels, as alternative fulmlcing options are very limited. It represents a very serious challenge to us and we will be very engaged in this budget discussion to try and ensure that the ~iate doesn't rely on city's to resolve state level budget problems. We strongly communicated tlus message to our ~1'ate legislative delegation lm.i evening in a work session. 1 Strong Neighbomoods . New Brighton is comprised of active and well-kept neighborhoods. We know that people sometimes connect closer with their neighbors and issues impacting them directly in tlleir neighborhcx:x:1s, so we focus on our involvement and communication atthe neighborhood level. · A great example of neighborhood involvement is tile City's recognition as being first in the state and fifth in the country for Neighborhood Night out Activities, and evening for neighborhood get-togethcrs mId piCIUCS, an evening we really enjoy. This past year, over 120 neighborllood gatherings took place around our community. A special thanks to the 200+ crime watch captains. · The City implemented a more pro-active property maintenance effort to address and support interests in keeping properties and neighborhoods clean and well kept · To ensure that our multi-family residential facilities are maintained and mmmged in the same manner as our single fmnily neighborhoods, we revised and implemented a licensing ordinance that places more accountability on tile owner's mld managers of multi-family facilities. The revised ordinance language was unique in the state and one that will be undoubtedly used by other communities across the state. Community Development and Redevelopment · It would be a significant understatement to say that we were busy with COlllillunity development and 2002 State of the City Address