12-11-2023 City Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING December 11, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 9 City Administrator Edwards said the budget was provided to the Council in September and tabled. The budget that evening is an adjusted budget. The end number remains the same. The distribution has changed. Long Lake acknowledged the reduction of the Navarre area which reduced Orono’s allocation. He said there would be two actions so that Veach could recuse herself on the second as she is married to a firefighter. He said the duty crew program would be new and will need to be refined. The reduction of the Navarre Service area as of July 1, 2024 created a new allocation formula. The budget also increases the hourly wage of the fire fighters from $13 to $15.65 per hour. Johnson said he supports the allocation and pay increase. In regard to duty crews, the planning document which is dated July says there would be an update in the next three weeks to the duty crew model. Fire Chief Van Eyll said the Long Lake model differs in that Long Lake plans to have a rotation of fire fighters who have volunteered to be part of duty crews on duty. Orono’s plan will be to hire fire fighters for the day shift, part time at first and eventually full time. They acknowledged the long-standing problem and are seeing improvements, he said, although he does not think they have achieved a two-minute response time yet. Johnson said the Long Lake model uses the same fire fighters that they already have and are finding that it is difficult to staff. Walsh said the Orono model is based on Minnetonka and Plymouth as they found problems with the volunteer model because they were then short for on-call response. Edwards said it would be unrealistic to expect the Long Lake model to meet all their goals in three months. Johnson said Long Lake had not responded to questions and won’t use any of Orono’s resources during this period. He said he is not in support of the duty crews based on where they are today. Edwards said Long Lake has been providing updates to the fire advisory board since the July document. They are getting a better response at Station One than Station Two. Walsh said this needs to move forward and he is confident the Orono and Long Lake staffs can continue to work together to resolve questions. Walsh moved, Benson seconded, to approve the Long Lake Fire operating budget for 2024 less the pay increases and duty crews. VOTE: Ayes 5, Nays 0. Walsh moved, Crosby seconded, to approve the Long Lake Fire 2024 pay increases and duty crews. VOTE: Ayes 3, Nays 1 (Johnson), Abstentions 1 (Veach). 21.FINAL LEVY 2023 COLLECTIBLE IN 2024 - RESOLUTION 7436 Finance Director Olson said this is approval of the final levy for taxes collectible in 2024. He said he wanted to respond to a comment made at the Truth in Taxation meeting that to not pay down the City’s debt is fiscally irresponsible. He said the City is paying the full amount legally required on debt service. The tax levy will go up 12.6 percent and will cover the Orono Fire department, operating budget and general fund and fully covers debt service. The tax rate will go down slightly.