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Mayor Kuzma added that the salaries could be even higher than what they are accounting for as <br />they have not finished negotiations. <br />Finance Director Lund shared that she used the average numbers from the North Metro Cities and <br />the calculations from LELS to come up with the average salary numbers. <br />Mayor Kuzma asked if they have placed the order for the new fire truck. <br />Fire Chief Kohner said no. <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if the fiscal disparities number could potentially go down. <br />Finance Director Lund said the fiscal disparities number that calculates into their tax rate is not <br />known yet from the County so she is not sure what this number could be. <br />Councilmember Riley noted that with the personnel wages and benefits increase being $1,43 5,000, <br />this would make up about 9.6% of the overall 23% increase being just for personnel. He said they <br />need to do something different to come up with different, better ideas to not have such a large <br />increase. <br />Mayor Kuzma agreed with Councilmember Riley. He noted that they will need to adjust their <br />salaries as they have fallen behind the market rate. He asked department heads to go back and look <br />at their requests and come back with their 'bare bones' requests. He said they have had large tax <br />increases over the last three years, and they need to find a way to tighten things up. <br />Finance Director Lund explained that the market rate adjustments would be keeping all employees <br />in their current steps rather than moving onto the next step. <br />Councilmember Howell suggested freezing all of the top wages for all department heads and the <br />City Administrator. She said she would also like to look at the Council budget to see what could <br />be cut. <br />Councilmember Specht agreed that they have had many large increases over the past few years, <br />and something needs to be done to change this. <br />Councilmember Musgrove explained that she believes they got so far behind on wages because of <br />the way the market is changing. <br />Councilmember Woestehoff asked if there is an opportunity to decrease the pavement levy for <br />next year. <br />City Engineer/Public Works Director Westby said they already have all of their projects for next <br />year loaded into this so they would have to make major modifications to it. He shared that they are <br />really making good progress on the streets and if they cut back, they will likely get some negative <br />feedback and backlash. <br />City Council Work Session / July 23, 2024 <br />Page 6 of 12 <br />