Agenda - Council Work Session - 06/14/2022

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The City provides a variety of municipal services. These include a full-time police department, a volunteer fire department, engineering services, street and park maintenance, building inspections, planning and zoning, public improvements, general administrative services, and public water and sewer utilities in the urban service areas. The City adopts an annual budget for the General Fund and the EDA Special Revenue Fund. Legal level of control is at the function level. Department heads may transfer resources within a department as they see fit. Transfers between functions,however,need special approval from the City Council. LOCAL ECONOMY The City has an unemployment rate of 2.2% in comparison to the state average of 2.6%. Ramsey has an employed labor force of 16,261. Anoka County, in which Ramsey is located,has an employed labor force of 196,309 and an unemployment rate of 2.5%. There are approximately 7,313 detached single-family homes and 2,513 multifamily units located within the City. In addition,there were 168 single-family homes and 15 multi-family units constructed in 2021. Five hundred and eighty-one businesses call Ramsey home; those businesses employ nearly 7,100 people. In 2021,approximately 31,000 square feet of retail space was added in the City. The new retail included a multi-tenant retail building, Gigi's, a luxury salon and an O'Reilly's Auto Parts store. There was over 132,000 square feet of new industrial development completed or under construction in 2021. The largest industrial project was for Anderson Dahlen with the construction of a 64,000 square-foot building. The City has two major industrial districts containing multiple business parks with a combined capacity of 320 acres and 25 businesses. A 115-acre business park, west of Armstrong Boulevard,began construction in 2017. The business park is estimated to generate about two million dollars in total annual property taxes and create about 3,000 jobs. In addition, the city is actively developing a city center known as The COR (Center of Ramsey). The development vision for this 400 acre area located in the heart of Ramsey is for it to become the region's center of retail, restaurants, service and office space, outdoor entertainment and parks, community amenities and housing. The city completed construction of anew 92,300 square foot public works campus in the fall of 2021. The campus houses all operations of streets,park and utilities. LONG-TERM FINANCIAL PLANNING The City of Ramsey prepares a ten-year capital improvement plan in an attempt to anticipate major capital expenditures in advance of the year in which they are budgeted. The City has a policy to maintain unrestricted General Fund balance in an amount equal to 50% of the following years adopted operating budget. This policy is designed to establish a fund balance at a level which is sufficient to avoid issuing debt to meet current operating needs. RELEVANT FINANCIAL POLICIES The City has a comprehensive set of financial policies that provide the basic framework for the overall fiscal management of the City. The City had no unusual occurrences affecting these policies. 16