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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-6-17 FOC Meeting MINUTES HERO TRAINING CENTER MEETING MINUTES 6/17/2025 FACILITY OPERATIONS COMMITTEE 10125 85TH STREET SOUTH COTTAGE GROVE, MINNESOTA 55016 Regular MEETING – 2:00 P.M. (HERO Center Conference Room A) MEETING MINUTES Pursuant to Minn. Stat. 13D.02 sub. 1, FOC member Brenda Malinowski will be attending remotely from her home due to illness. 1. CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order by FOC board chair Jennifer Levitt at 1408 P.M. The meeting was held in the conference room A at the HERO Center which is accessible to the public with all doors unlocked. 2. ROLL CALL Pursuant to Minnesota State Statute 13D.02, Subd. 1, Jennifer Levitt noted that FOC Board Member Malinowski would be attending this meeting remotely from her home due to illness. HERO Admin Training Coordinator Bri Zeterlu took roll call. Committee members present: Jason Posel (Woodbury), Jennifer Levitt (Cottage Grove), Angela Gorall (Woodbury), and Brenda Malinowski (Cottage Grove). Others present: Dan Anselment (HERO Manager), Bri Zeterlu (HERO Admin Training Coordinator), Capt. Brad Petersen (Cottage Grove). 3. CONSENT AGENDA A. HERO Financial Statements – 2025 Budget to Actuals Recommendation: Receive information Gorall inquired about the Rasmussen contract refund? Anselment stated that in the original contract language from 2020, it states that if Rasmussen provides six months’ notice, then they can obtain a refund from HERO if they do not have a fifth cohort. This has been refunded every year since 2020 due to no fifth cohort. Levitt asked if there were any other questions about the financial statements? No one spoke; Levitt moved forward with a motion to approve. B. HERO FOC Special Meeting Minutes – March 18, 2025 Recommendation: Approve the meeting minutes from March 18, 2025. Motion to approve the consent agenda made by Gorall and seconded by Posel. Administrative coordinator Zeterlu called the roll: Levitt- Aye; Posel-Aye; Gorall-Aye; Malinowski-Aye. Motion carried 4 to 0. 4. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS A. Approve payments from 3/12/2025 to 6/12/2025 in the amount of $163,173.37 Motion to approve the disbursements made by Malinowski and seconded by Gorall. Administrative coordinator Zeterlu called the roll: Levitt- Aye; Posel-Aye; Gorall-Aye; Malinowski-Aye. Motion carried 4 to 0. 5. REGULAR AGENDA A. HERO 2026 Budget Proposal Recommendation: Preliminary review of 2026 Budget and provide direction regarding 2026 Budget. Anselment informed the group that there were not many things that differed from the previous year’s budget approval process. According to the business plan, we are supposed to review the full time sworn peace officers for each owner agency as of April 30th from the previous year. Anselment was advised that Woodbury has 76 and that Cottage Grove has 48. Posel stated that Woodbury has 74 sworn peace officers not 76. Malinowski advised that this number would be for authorized sworn peace officers as of April 30th 2025. Anselment stated that the agencies are currently sitting with Woodbury paying 63% and Cottage Grove paying 37%. Otherwise moving forward, our annual tier membership contracts remain at a 3% increase, which calls for a 3% annual escalator. Oakdale PD's contracts are renegotiated every two years, this was their decision. We have updated the pricing for Oakdale PD so their contract will run out on December 31st of 2027, and we will renegotiate at that time. We also have our Tier one Educational, and our Tier one County contracts as well. Those are still the original contracts that were signed and they have been on a 3% escalator each year. Anselment then advised that revenues are based upon the updated 2026 pricing on what we believe will be rented out by agencies. There was a minimal increase in all the facility spaces for pricing. One area that we will have as a factor is that our owner agencies are using a considerable amount of space, in 2025 owner agencies have rented out $358,000 worth of space. We are seeing an increase in both cities’ fire departments using HERO as well as explorer post and academies. Levitt inquired about credit card fees for HERO users. Levitt asked if he was concerned that if you charge the credit card fee, you'll turn off customers? HERO is spending $10,000 on credit card fees, should HERO start charging this to the customers? Anselment responded that some of the large transactions are actual agencies paying for their rental spaces. Several Federal groups use a P-card to make payments rather than checks which are more difficult for them to obtain. I can speak with these groups and see if the charge is added to the pricing to rent the space if that will affect them training at HERO or not. We are also switching our credit card reader/payment processor which will assist in lowering some of these costs. Levitt asked if HERO was getting more accurate with utility usage expenditure estimates? Anselment advised that he has been taking the last eight months of 2024 and then the first part of 2025, trying to average the utilities out to give us a ballpark estimate for the next year. The current estimate is $100,000 for 2025. However, this is subject to the rates going up or down. Levitt stated that her next question was regarding the workers compensation change in pricing. Anselment informed the committee that the group initially classified all staff as “range” employees which is in a higher bracket. After speaking with the State everyone agreed that the manager position would be labeled as municipal, while the maintenance and administrative coordinator spots would remain labeled as range. Bri and Jim are now logging their cleaning hours to illustrate how often they are in the office vs in other portions of the facility. Malinowski stated that HERO will be meeting with the auditor in June of 2025 to discuss the classification pricing. Levitt asked if the lease with Woodbury was for the HERO vehicle? Anselment stated that this was the tentative estimate for the HERO truck. Gorall confirmed that they were still awaiting the final number for the vehicle. Gorall then asked about the interest on investments. HERO appeared to do well in 2024, are we comfortable with putting in $3-5K? Malinowski informed the committee that there was some cash in the funds in the years 2023 and 2024 with high appreciation. At that time, our cash balance because we go to the partner agencies of Cottage Grove and Woodbury. At the end of the year, the cash balance has gone down. We can potentially put 1.5% in there for interest. Gorall stated that a major concern is that the revenue over under expenditures is going in the wrong direction. The goal would be to at least break even. Anselment advised that training landscape has changed. There is a larger need than what was ever anticipated for both owner agencies to utilize the facility. There is a significant amount of space that's being reserved and held by the owners that we can't sell because of that. It is equivalent to about $360,000. Levitt inquired if there would be a way for owner agencies to scale back their use of the facility to allow for more revenue opportunities? How do HERO’s rates compare to the rates of the surrounding facilities? Anselment stated that HERO’s rates are matched by the surrounding training facilities. Levitt asked if there could be a rate increase for all facility spaces or would this cause agencies to train elsewhere? Anselment stated that the Federal groups would most likely remain, but he is uncertain about other groups. Rasmussen currently fills a lot of our “shoulder” space on the nights and weekends and renews their contract term every year. Levitt inquired about owner agencies reducing their reservations. Posel stated that the owner agencies are only at HERO when the training is facility specific, it is much easier to train when you can complete all the training in one facility. Petersen asked if HERO knows how much space is being reserved by owner agencies and not being used? Are owner agencies reserving the entire facility on training days of just specific portions? Anselment informed the committee that HERO does keep a no-show log for reservations that are made and not utilized by an agency. The owner agencies have done significantly better in the last year by reducing their no-show reservations. As for the spaces used specifically by the owner agencies, they book the spaces with a purpose such as new hire academies or team training and use the spaces appropriately. Anselment stated HERO could potentially sell another annual Tier membership if HERO was able to provide them with a little more space to reserve for an annual pick. If the owner agencies were able or willing to only bid for their necessary annual training and hold off on more of the unknowns like academies, then we may open up more space for a tier member. Petersen advised that in previous years the owner agencies had waited to reserve space for their academies and then were unable to reserve appropriate spaces for the academies. They have now gone to a model of reserving in advance to ensure that their academies are able to be conducted completely at HERO and not spread out. Petersen mentioned that he understands what Anselment is saying about reducing reservations and would be willing to entertain the idea if there was a customer or tier member lined up but would not be willing to give up the space for an unknown group. Levitt inquired if the owner agencies and Anselment could work together on reducing reservations and report back to the FOC committee so that information can be relayed to the city councils. Anselment stated that there needs to be a balance to ensure that the owner agencies can obtain the necessary reservations to ensure proper training of their staff. We do not want to cause our owner agencies to have to rent space elsewhere due to not having availability at HERO. Posel advised that training elsewhere costs money for the cities too. The fuel, training space and travel time to transport staff is all money. Levitt asked if Anselment has heard any news from the MMB request. Anselment stated that he had not received any information from them since his last email. Levitt then asked if Malinowski had any thoughts or highlights from the budget that she would like to share. Malinoski stated that premium for 2026 is based on 9% increase from 2025's premium. Our regular salaries are based on our settled contracts for 2026 with our unions, which is a 3% increase in COLA and then a 3% market adjustment. Right now, our health insurance is high at a 15% increase. As we get more information from our insurance provider in August, we'll look at that number again and see if we can decrease it. Just a reminder, that facility contribution of $70,000 is based on that Kraus Anderson plan. That is the 10-year monetary amount that is needed for maintenance and repairs on the building. Levitt then provided a recap of items to be addressed by other FOC members such as: Anselment providing the no-show log and potentially another tier member. Petersen and Posel are reviewing their agencies’ reservations needs in an attempt to decrease usage and provide more revenue. Malinowski and Anselment are going to work on the MMB and provide private/public percentage usage for them to respond to. Finally, Woodbury will obtain a final number on the HERO truck. 6. ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Posel and seconded by Gorall at 1444 hours. Administrative coordinator Zeterlu called the roll: Levitt- Aye; Posel-Aye; Gorall-Aye; Malinowski-Aye. Motion carried 4 to 0.