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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$1,435,000, <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 />