No minutes for this date are in the archive yet; minutes appear in the following month's packet. What follows is from the agenda and packet.
What happened
- No minutes exist for this date; the record consists of the agenda and packet only.
- Work session set for August 29, 2024, 5:00 pm at Kenyon City Hall; packet cover agenda dated August 27 is labeled a Special Session.
- Classification plan uses nineteen grades scored from job descriptions; compensation plan shows twelve pay steps per grade, updated every two to three years.
- Adoption would extend 2024 pay adjustments to the fourth of four employee groups; all groups covered starting in 2025.
- Proposed 2025 preliminary levy of $1,400,000, up $122,035 (9.55%) from the 2024 levy of $1,277,965.
- Statewide comparison: Minnesota cities' 2024 preliminary levies averaged an 8.4% increase.
- General Fund operating expenditures projected to rise $256,435 (17%) to $1,763,565; projected revenue stream $2,623,081.
- LGA essentially flat at $665,114 for 2025 versus $664,265 budgeted in 2024.
- Legal and engineering budget line raised from $25,000 to $50,000; EDA requested a $20,000 increase for the facade program.
- Debt service tax levy for taxes payable 2025 of $323,207, up from $276,515 in 2024, due to new bond issuances.
- Preliminary levy due to the county by September 30, 2024; final levy certification due December 28, 2024.
What was asked 21 raised · 7 settled
Every question, assignment, pending figure and unsourced claim from this meeting, quoted from the record, each checked against the county, census, listing, bid and budget data we hold.
The 2025 preliminary budget includes a net tax levy certification for taxes payable in 2025 in the amount of $1,400,000.
Core figure of the 2025 preliminary budget presentation.
The arithmetic is exact. $1,277,965 plus $122,035 is $1,400,000, and $122,035 on that base is 9.549%, which rounds to the stated 9.55%. The council then adopted that exact figure as the final levy by Resolution 2024-28, so the preliminary maximum became the final number with no reduction.
taxes/levy.html; 1-14-25 council packet · taken up again 2024-12-10
The preliminary levy must be adopted by the city council and preorte to the county no later than September 30, 2024. The maximum levy must be certified (adopted) by the Council by December 28, 2024.
Statutory deadlines for adopting the proposed 2025 levy of $1,400,000.
Both deadlines were met. The council adopted Resolution 2024-21 setting the 2025 preliminary budget and levy at a maximum of 9.55% on a roll call of Bailey, Sjolander and Ryan all aye, for certification to Goodhue County by September 30 2024, then adopted Resolution 2024-28 setting the final levy of $1,400,000 payable 2025, carried 5-0-0.
10-8-24 AGENDA; 1-14-25 council packet · taken up again 2024-12-10
SOURCE OF FUNDING: Various funds REQUESTED COUNCIL ACTION: As the city council is aware, pay adjustments for 2024 have already been made for three of the city’s four employee groups. Adoption of the two plans by the city council would allow comparable adjustments to the last group.
Pay adjustments for 2024 were already made for three of the city's four employee groups.
The plan reached the council as new business on September 10 2024 and took effect, since a 2025 Employee's Compensation Plan with grades and steps was in operational use by June 10 2025 when the council moved Joshua Johnson from Grade 10 to Grade 12, step 3, retroactive to April 15. Pay adjustment schedules appear in the November and December 2024 packets with totals of $9,100.00 and $17,420.00 in parentheses, each carrying a note that a missing calculation does not signal any intent to skip future adjustments.
9.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda; 6-10-25 COUNCIL PACKET Updated · taken up again 2025-06-10
If the City Council concours, it may be appropriate to work with the City Attorney in an effort to refine our cost assumptions to reduce these associated costs.
Legal and engineering fees have historically been over budget, so the line was raised from $25,000 to $50,000.
Legal spending fell sharply in 2025 after the line was doubled. The city attorney legal account stood at $17,142.10 spent by the June 10 2025 packet, 34.28% of the $50,000 budget, against a 2024 figure of $68,326.50 in the same reports. If the 2025 pace held, the year would finish near $41,000, roughly 40% below 2024. No revised cost estimate from the city attorney appears in anything we hold.
6-10-25 COUNCIL PACKET Updated; 4-8-25 council packet · taken up again 2025-06-10
Within the General Fund, Legal Fees and Engineering Fees have historically been over budget, the City will increase the budget line to a more conservative number. The City opted to increase the fund from 13 $25,000 in 2024 to $50,000 for 2025.
General Fund budget adjustment for professional services.
Doubling the line was not enough. The city's own reports put 2024 legal spending at $68,326.50 in one set of statements and $75,216.50 in the January 2025 statement, against a $25,000 budget, so actual ran 2.7 to 3.0 times budget and above the new $50,000 line as well. The 2025 spend then fell, standing at $17,142.10 or 34.28% of budget by the June 2025 packet.
The same 2024 legal figure is reported as $75,216.50 in the January 2025 statement and $68,326.50 in the April, May and June 2025 statements, a $6,890 restatement with no explanation in the record.
2.11.25 Council Packet and Agenda; 6-10-25 COUNCIL PACKET Updated · taken up again 2025-06-10
Overall Levy Increase Based on the proposed 2024 budget a 9.55% final levy increase would be recommended. This amount could still be lowered before the end of the year.
Noting the preliminary levy is a maximum that can be reduced before final certification.
The levy was not lowered. Staff recommended the final stay at 9.55% and the council adopted exactly the preliminary maximum, $1,400,000, on or before December 30 2024. The city has since used the headroom the other way twice, cutting the 2026 levy from a 9.93% maximum to 9.18% certified, and the 2027 levy from a 19.50% opening draft on July 14 2026 to 10.34% on August 6 and 9.26% certified.
12.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda Updated; taxes/levy.html · taken up again 2024-12-10
Beginning in 2025 the compensation and classification plan as well as the performance evaluation plan will be applicable to all groups at the beginning of the year.
Forward-looking commitment tied to adoption of the plans.
The plan applied but the step component broke down within a year. The 2026 budget carried the 3% cost of living increase and omitted the step increase the city had historically given, which Administrator Lehner said would cost about $41,000 to add. The council voted to pay a step increase for 2026 retroactive to the first payroll of the year, and Lehner recommended a cost of living increase each January with steps on employee anniversary dates beginning in 2027.
2-10-26 Council Packet; 3-10-26 Council Packet Updated · taken up again 2026-02-10
Health insurance premiums have not been provided to the department heads at this time however, there is an increase of approx. 15% as we are anticipating a larger increase due to adjusting our year end date from 6/30 to 12/31. EDA EDA is requesting a $20,000 increase for the façade program. General Fund: The General Fund reflects a projected revenue stream of $2,623,081. The 2025 General Fund Budget is funded primarily from ad valorem taxes (property taxes in proportion to the value) and Local Government Aid
2025 budget assumption for employee benefit costs.
No carrier premium quote appears in anything we hold, so the 15% anticipated increase was never confirmed. The assumption dropped sharply in later years, to 5% for the 2026 budget and 5% again in the June 2026 known factors. Our ledger shows the city administration medical, dental, life and disability line at $88,069 actual for 2025 against $73,310 budgeted for 2026, so budgeted insurance has run below actual.
9-9-25 Council Packet; 6.9.26 Council Packet and Agenda; budget tables
The goal for 2025 is to create a detail Capital Improvement Plan for all departments to ensure fund balances are properly funded for any improvements that are needed beyond the 10 year street projects.
Capital Project Funds cover General, Police, Fire, Streets, Library, Parks, and Pool.
No departmental capital improvement plan document appears in anything we hold. What the city did instead was commit capital fund balances by resolution each year under GASB 54, adopting Resolution 2024-29 5-0-0 and Resolution 2025-30 4-0-0, both contingent on audited final figures. By September 2026 the council was still moving capital money between departments, resolving to return the $90,000 transferred out of the Fire Fund in 2025.
1-14-25 council packet; 9-8-26 Council Packet
Resolution 2024-19: Committing Capital Fund Balances
Listed as business to be discussed and possible action.
Resolution 2024-19 appeared as item F of new business on September 10 2024, but neither its text nor a vote on it is in anything we hold. The practice it belongs to is well documented: the council adopted Resolution 2024-29 committing capital fund balances 5-0-0 and Resolution 2025-30 the following year 4-0-0, both explained as GASB 54 requirements to commit year-end balances before year end contingent on the audit.
9.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda; 1-14-25 council packet
The 2025 General Fund Budget is funded primarily from ad valorem taxes (property taxes in proportion to the value) and Local Government Aid (LGA). The 2024 LGA increased slightly to $665,114, from $664,265 in 2024 budget.
Local Government Aid figure used as a General Fund revenue source.
The $665,114 figure is confirmed as the 2025 budgeted Local Government Aid in the city's own revenue ledger, and $664,264.50 appears there as the 2024 amount received. The comparison was mislabeled, because the 2024 budgeted figure in the same ledger is $640,500, not $664,265. Measured against budget the aid rose $24,614, or 3.84%, rather than the $849 the memo implies. No state certification notice is in anything we hold.
The memo calls $664,265 the 2024 budget figure, but the city's own ledger shows $640,500 budgeted for 2024 and $664,264.50 actually received.
6-10-25 COUNCIL PACKET Updated revenue ledger
The 2024 LGA increased slightly to $665,114, from $664,265 in 2024 budget. The General Fund operating expenditures are expected to increase by $256,435 (17%) in 2025 to $1,763,565.
Explaining the driver of the levy increase, attributed to the compensation study, 3% COLA, step increases, and health insurance.
The arithmetic is internally consistent. A $256,435 increase to $1,763,565 implies a prior base of $1,507,130, and $256,435 on that base is 17.01%. The line-item detail behind it is not in anything we hold. The personnel assumptions driving it persisted, and in 2026 the council found the budget had dropped the customary step increase, voted to pay one retroactive to the first payroll of 2026, and was told it cost about $41,000.
2-10-26 Council Packet; 8-29-24 work session
The amount required for funding COLA and benefits for personnel is estimated at approximately $ 1,215,326.00 within the General Fund, which is an increase of approximately $225,000 from prior year.
Personnel cost estimate driving the 2025 General Fund increase.
Personnel accounts for nearly the whole levy story. The $225,000 personnel increase is 87.7% of the $256,435 General Fund operating increase, and the $1,215,326 estimate is 68.9% of the $1,763,565 of operating expenditures, implying a prior-year personnel cost of about $990,326 and a rise of 22.7%. Payroll detail by position is not in anything we hold.
8-29-24 work session budget memo
The tax levy for debt service for taxes payable in 2025 $323,207 which is an increase from prior year as there was new issuances of bonds, $276,515 in 2024.
Debt Service Fund portion of the proposed levy.
The debt service levy rose $46,692, or 16.89%, and at $323,207 it is 23.1% of the $1,400,000 total levy. Bond schedules and the debt service worksheet are not in anything we hold. The pattern continued and then dominated: for pay 2026 the city's general tax rate fell 0.38% while its bond rate rose 35.91%, so essentially the entire rate increase that year came from debt.
taxes/levy.html; county auditor rate document
**Data estimated from LMC
Table of estimated residential tax impacts by home value, noted as estimated from LMC.
The table overstates the city tax a Kenyon homeowner actually pays. Our parcel data puts the median homestead city tax at $1,457 on a median estimated market value of $210,000, which is $6.94 per $1,000 of value, so a $250,000 homestead carries roughly $1,735 in city tax, about $840 below the $2,573 estimated for 2025. The series also grows at exactly the levy increase each year, 6.8% then 8% then 9.58%, which ignores growth in the tax base and so overstates the effect on any individual property.
The estimated $2,573 city tax on a $250,000 home is roughly 48% above what our parcel-level data implies for a homestead of that value, and the memo labels the figures as estimated from the League of Minnesota Cities rather than from county tax capacity.
taxes/data/kenyon_tax.json; dashboard/data/benchmarks.json
In our case the consultant divided the plan into nineteen vertical grades. The more points the higher the grade of the position.
Describing the structure of the consultant-prepared classification and compensation plans.
The grade and step structure is confirmed in operation, since the 2025 Compensation Plan was used on June 10 2025 to move an employee from Grade 10 to Grade 12, step 3. Neither the count of nineteen grades nor twelve steps per grade appears in anything we hold. The consultant's plan document itself would settle it.
6-10-25 COUNCIL PACKET Updated
EDA EDA is requesting a $20,000 increase for the façade program. General Fund: The General Fund reflects a projected revenue stream of $2,623,081.
2025 budget request line within the EDA fund.
No council decision on the $20,000 facade program increase appears in anything we hold. What the record does show is EDA spending pressure going the other way, with the CEDA contract rising from one day a week to two at $53,580 for 2025, and an interfund loan from the Electric Fund to the EDA appearing in the 2026 budget. The adopted 2025 EDA fund budget would settle whether the facade line grew.
12.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda Updated; 12.2.25 Special Council Meeting · would settle it: Council decision on the EDA budget line
By comparison, the preliminary levies submitted by all Minnesota Cities in 2024 averaged a 8.4% increase. 12 Review Proposed 2025 Budget and Levy The purpose of the work session will be to review the levy portion of the 2025 draft budget.
Comparison used to frame Kenyon's proposed 9.55% levy increase.
We hold no statewide dataset of Minnesota city levy increases, so the 8.4% average cannot be checked and Kenyon's 9.55% cannot be ranked against other cities. This is a firm limit on our records, not a gap we can close by inference. The League of Minnesota Cities or State Auditor preliminary levy survey for 2024 would settle it.
/Users/casa/mn-small-towns coverage note · would settle it: The statewide preliminary levy survey source (e.g., LMC or State Auditor data)
EDA EDA is requesting a $20,000 increase for the façade program. General Fund: The General Fund reflects a projected revenue stream of $2,623,081.
Overview of General Fund revenues for the proposed budget.
We hold no General Fund revenue detail schedule, so the $2,623,081 projection cannot be reconciled. It sits $859,516 above the $1,763,565 of General Fund operating expenditures stated in the same memo, a gap that the revenue schedule would have to explain through transfers or capital items. The 2025 budget packet revenue detail would settle it.
8-29-24 work session budget memo · would settle it: The revenue detail schedule in the budget packet
Notes- The notes help the reader to understand how the compensation/classification plans operate. The two plans are typically updated every two to three years to keep up with changes in the marketplace.
Notes explaining how the plans operate and are maintained.
We hold no update history for Kenyon's classification and compensation plans and no consultant notes, so the two to three year cycle is unverified. The only comparable statement of practice in our records is that the city invites its financial advisor to review capital plans every few years. The consultant's methodology notes, or a second study commissioned after Bjorkland's, would settle it.
5-13-25 council packet updated · would settle it: The consultant's notes and past update history
SOURCE OF FUNDING: Various funds REQUESTED COUNCIL ACTION: As the city council is aware, pay adjustments for 2024 have already been made for three of the city’s four employee groups.
Request for Council Action funding line for the compensation plan.
No breakdown of which funds absorb the compensation adjustments appears in anything we hold. The city used the same unspecific funding line elsewhere in the same period, writing Various for Resolution 2024-21 and Various including potential grants in December 2024. The adopted plan's fiscal note, or the 2025 departmental wage budgets, would show the split.
9.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda; 12.10.24 Council Packet and Agenda Updated · would settle it: A breakdown of which funds absorb the compensation adjustments
Decisions
- No minutes on file for this date; no formal actions or votes are documented in the available record.
- Agenda listed possible action to approve the Classification and Compensation Plan for Kenyon (outcome not recorded).
- Agenda listed possible action on Resolution 2024-19: Committing Capital Fund Balances (outcome not recorded; no resolution text in the packet).
- Work session agenda called for review only of the Classification and Compensation Plan and the proposed 2025 Budget and Levy.
Who did what
| Person | At this meeting |
|---|---|
| Whitney Kyllo Finance Director | Authored the 2025 budget memorandum proposing the $1,400,000 preliminary levy and explaining the drivers of the General Fund increase |
| Holli Gudknecht Deputy City Clerk / Administration and Finance | Submitted the agenda items and posted the work session agenda on August 26, 2024 |
| Frank Boyles Interim City Administrator | Listed in the budget directory of officials; co-identified as submitter of the classification and compensation plan request for council action |
| Douglas Henke Mayor | Addressed as recipient of the Finance Director's budget memorandum |
| Mary Bailey Councilmember | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Molly Ryan Councilmember | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Kim Helgeson Councilmember | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Lee Sjolander Councilmember | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Wayne Ehrich Public Works Director | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Jeff Sjoblom Chief of Police | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Michelle Otte Library Director | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Matt Bartel Bar Manager | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
| Randy Eggert Operations Superintendent | Listed in the 2025 budget directory of officials |
Organizations named: City of Kenyon, Kenyon Economic Development Authority (EDA), Kenyon Utility, League of Minnesota Cities (LMC), Goodhue County (levy certification)
Figures
| Amount | What |
|---|---|
| $1,400,000 | Proposed 2025 net tax levy certification |
| $1,277,965 | 2024 final certified net city levy |
| $122,035 | Proposed levy increase, equal to 9.55% |
| $2,623,081 | Projected 2025 General Fund revenue stream |
| $1,763,565 | Projected 2025 General Fund operating expenditures |
| $256,435 | Increase (17%) in General Fund operating expenditures for 2025 |
| $665,114 | Local Government Aid for 2025, up from $664,265 |
| $1,215,326 | Estimated General Fund funding for COLA and personnel benefits, up about $225,000 |
| $50,000 | 2025 legal/engineering budget line, raised from $25,000 in 2024 |
| $20,000 | EDA requested increase for the facade program |
| $323,207 | Debt service tax levy for taxes payable 2025, up from $276,515 in 2024 |
Said at the meeting
The 2025 preliminary budget includes a net tax levy certification for taxes payable in 2025 in the amount of $1,400,000.
Whitney Kyllo, Finance Director · packet, verbatim
The majority of the increase is based on market rate increases that resulted in the compensation study completed in 2024, cost of living adjustments (3%), step increases, and health insurance premium increases.
Whitney Kyllo, Finance Director · packet, verbatim
Within the General Fund, Legal Fees and Engineering Fees have historically been over budget, the City will increase the budget line to a more conservative number.
Whitney Kyllo, Finance Director · packet, verbatim
Adoption of the two plans by the city council would allow comparable adjustments to the last group.
Finance Director and Interim City Administrator (Request for Council Action) · packet, verbatim
The 2025 Budget is a credit to the resourcefulness and dedication of the City's Leadership Team.
Whitney Kyllo, Finance Director · packet, verbatim
Agenda
Each item links to where it appears in the packet.
- I. Call to Order
- II. Agenda
- II.A Agenda
- III. Business to be discussed and Possible Action
- III.A Approve Classification and Compensation Plan for Kenyon
- III.B Resolution 2024-19: Committing Capital Fund Balances
- IV. Adjourn