6.1. SR 06-07-2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Long -Term Financial Planning As part of a yearly budget process, the City Council reviews the updated Financial Management Plan. The Financial Management Plan provides a long-range forecast that brings together future expenditures, revenues, and development of the City. The Council has been diligent in maintaining a level tax rate. This plan provides the information needed to develop in a manner that will sustain or expand City services while keeping the property taxes stable. Department heads take part in this process to estimate staff additions, service levels, and capital needs for the next ten years. In addition, the City Council continually reviews cash flow analysis and long-term planning as part of the comprehensive Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process. The CIP is a 5-year planning tool that forecasts the City's capital needs based on the City's long-range plans, goals, and policies. Relevant Financial Policies The City Council has adopted a comprehensive set of Financial Management Policies that provide the basic framework for the overall fiscal management of the City. The Financial Management Policies include revenues, property taxes, investments, purchasing, financial reporting, reserves, fund balance, capital investment, and debt policies. The City's policy on fund balance states that the City will maintain an unassigned fund balance of not less than 40- 45% of budgeted general fund operating expenditures. The percentage of unassigned fund balance on December 31, 2020 is 45%. Since property tax payments are received by the City in two installments in July and December, the City needs adequate cash reserves for cash flow in order to avoid short-term borrowing to finance operations. Major Initiatives Through the state's Corridors of Commerce program, Highway 169, which runs north -south through Elk River, was selected for $157 million state transportation funding. The project will redesign and reconstruct three miles of Highway 169 to a new freeway by removing five stop lights through Elk River. During 2020, the `169 Redefine' project team consisting of MnDOT, the City of Elk River and Sherburne County completed the preliminary design layouts, hosted public information meetings, and began utility relocations in preparation for the three-year construction project that will begin in 2022. When complete, the estimated $157 million project will increase capacity, improve overall traffic flow, and improve accessibility and safety. Updating the city's Comprehensive Plan began in the fall of 2020 and when completed will be the long-term plan for city development. The goal of the update is to address anticipated changes resulting from the Highway 169 improvements, with additional focus on transportation and urban service area plans and create a vision for Elk River's continued growth and development for the next 20 years. As part of the $35,000,000 Active Elk River projects, the city completed construction of the 150,000 square foot multipurpose recreation facility that will provide year-round ice, a synthetic turf field house, community event/banquet rooms, and dedicated senior citizen programming space. Park improvements were also completed to Lion John Weicht Park which include two lighted ballfields, modern restrooms, and a picnic/concession pavilion. Improvements for Orono Park and the Youth Athletic Complex were designed in 2020 for construction to begin in the spring of 2021. The Lake Orono dredging project to remove 125,000 cubic yards of sediment to restore fish habitat and recreational improvements got underway late in 2020. (3)