The St. Paul Park Council met Monday, Dec. 15 at city hall in St. Paul Park.
On the night's agenda were several items, including the 2026 property tax levy, an EMS contract, and consent agenda items.
As for the new 2026 property tax levy for St. Paul Park, it was set at 9.8 percent after initially being proposed at 14.9 percent.
“We made a number of changes to realign us with the community’s needs and I think this levy will allow us to do that,” City Administrator Hugo McPhee said in explaining the change.
Following McPhee’s explanation, motion to approve the 2026 property tax levy was made by Mayor Keith Franke seconded by Council Member Jeff Haggerty.
St. Paul Park residents were given a chance to speak prior to final levy adoption, with Martin Carpenter speaking to the council on his tax assessment notice.
"I received my tax assessment for proposed 2026," Carpenter said. "Went up 25.9 percent. That's what they're proposing. About 180 of it which is probably about 12 percent of it is Washington County Schools. I expected an increase, they said to expect it. The largest increase is from the City of St. Paul Park, and that would be close to another 15 percent on top of that. And I'm wondering where the money's going and why they're lopping it on top of an already large increase. I don't know how many people got a property tax assessment this year for 26 percent. I've been living here for 34 years and never seen anything like it. My jaw dropped when I opened the letter. I can't believe that everyone else is being charged, because I think they're would be more people here. I can't help but feel singled out a little bit. And what threw me is they assessed my house at another $30,000 last year. And all I did was paint my garage."
Carpenter went on to elaborate.
"I'm 65, I'm on a fixed income, I'm retired," he said. "I'm getting pushed out of my house. If this is true and this proposal comes to fruition, I'm not going to be able to live down there. And that's what you're doing to all the people in my position, fixed income. Senior citizens. That's all I have to say."
"Thanks Martin," Mayor Keith Franke said. "I will just throw something in quick for you Martin and then we'll move on. That's the initial levy set for St. Paul Park which we did set at 14.9, at least as far as our end. And we don't have anything to do with the valuations or any of that stuff. But St. Paul Park went through a lot last year with losing all of our department heads, but we've been able to work with city staff and we've reduced our portion by almost five percent. So that's what we're doing tonight is we're reducing that 14.9 down to 9.8."
Tax bills include multiple taxing jurisdictions to arrive at the cumulative total.
"I'm trying to figure out how painting your garage adds a value of $30,000 in one year," Carpenter said. "I've never seen an increase like that or a projection like that."
Franke shared a story on price valuation.
"I'll just add a little story and then we'll move on," he said. "They rose the price of my home here in St. Paul Park that's really old by $30,000 some dollars a couple of years ago. And I was looking at my statement and I was like $30,000 on some outbuilding, and here that old shed on my property that used to be the Sunday School house, the County told me was a garage. And I said that's a falling down shed that I just don't have the will to tear down because it was the original Sunday School house in town. It should be torn down, I have the door nailed shut. The only thing kept in there were my campaign signs and other stuff. And the lady was like 'I thought it was a garage.’ And I'm like, 'well then you never even drove by my house.’ So then they ended up reducing it at least for that year by $30,000 some dollars because it wasn't a house."
Residents are able to dispute their assessed property valuation during the board of review and open book hearings. Next to speak Dec. 15 was resident Gene Matter of 1133 Marshall Avenue.
"I haven't been here in while," he said. "That Third Street, that's kind of--I thought they were going to improve it, they made it worse," he said. "By the post office. It's so narrow there in front of the post office with the sidewalks and everything. And they still have parking in front of the post office, but you have two cars meeting, especially in the winter, it's very narrow there for whatever reason. I don't know if you've heard complaints about it or not. And I know they can't do anything about it now, it's all done, but it looks like they want o put new sidewalks on the side. I'm sure the bar on the corner lost parking spots too...It's too late to complain. I don't know who thought that up, but what can you say. They made it worse."
"Thanks Gene," Franke said of the comment, then addressing the matter in greater detail.
"I guess I'll address this now," he said. "We held multiple meetings on Third Street. I've heard a few things, not too much. I'll just say and then we will move on but for the Third Street project for anybody out there listening, anyone sitting here, we held multiple community meetings. We had multiple planning commission meetings. We had multiple meetings here at the council level.
The reasoning for narrowing Third Street was to reduce the speeds, especially for the trucks coming out of the mines and then also with that being state funded money, we
wanted to use that as fiscally responsible as we could. And we were able to extend by narrowing it to just parking on one side of the street, which almost every citizen I've talked to which lives on Third Street that I've talked to was okay with. So we were able to extend that project, not just asphalt but water and sewer a few more blocks," he said. "Thereby saving the citizen's money and investing back into our community, and hopefully reducing the speeds will help with the safety and some of the accidents and things of that nature. And then expanding the trail was to encourage more people to use it was families and then keeping some of that travel, pedestrian travel off the road and putting it on to a wider sidewalk to where more families could enjoy it and people could traverse it more easily. So that was the thought process on Third Street." Franke said the city had conversations with the post office as well.
"They are talking about redoing the parking lot to make it more accessible," he said. "Because I didn't know it but the post office is owned by someone else and the federal government leases it from somebody...that's some of the thoughts and processes behind the process and why we did what we did. If you want to talk about it afterward I'll be more than happy to go over it some more."
In other business from Dec. 15, the St. Paul Park Council adopted the night’s consent agenda, including the city fee schedule for water and sewer rates, 2026 council meeting schedule, payment bills, several liquor and other licenses, a lawful gaming permit for St. Thomas Aquinas Church on Feb. 15, 2026, non waiver of statutory liability limits for the city under Minnesota Statute 466.04, budget amendments, subdivision ordinance amendments, and payment of Geisslinger and Sons for the Third Street Reconstruction Project.
Haggerty moved to pull out item O for further discussion, prior to consent agenda approval, with motion to approve with the exception of item O made by Council Member Jeff Swenson and seconded by Haggerty, passing unanimously.
As for Item O, it referred to adoption of ordinance Number 783, related to B-2 Assembly Use Ordinance Amendments and authorizing publication by title and summary of the same.
“I like everything that’s in here, except I would like because of citizen concerns, for these assemblies running too late.” Haggerty cited language from other cities including Cottage Grove to recommend the ordinance state Sundays to Thursdays until 10 p.m. and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
“I think we should add that to this agenda,” Haggerty said. It was made known from a question by Council Member Tim Conrad that requests to run later for banquet halls would be handled under a special event permit. Motion was then made by Swenson seconded by Haggerty to approve the ordinance.
Next on the consent agenda was the EMS contract, rejected by the city of St. Paul Park as discussions continue.
“I will let everyone out there know that Hugo and I met with Cottage Grove again last week” he said. “We’re having ongoing discussions with our neighbors. Once again this is a very touchy subject when you’re dealing with life and death. And unfortunately Cottage Grove got in this business, and that’s what it is, a business. And without getting too far in the weeds on this we are going to be continuing discussions. We’re always open to working with our neighbors. We have been working closely with Newport and Grey Cloud. Newport and Grey Cloud have also already rejected the contract as proposed. Not to say that we are not working with Cottage Grove, which we are. We are looking to potentially get the Council together. I’m still waiting to hear back from Newport on a finality of whether we’re going to do that but this needs to be a greater discussion than just a contract put before us and some Facebook posts, a very hurried and rushed discussion when we’re talking about something as serious as this matter is…we’re looking for clarification, we’re looking to work with our partners. Let’s let the professionals work on this a bit and bring it back and see where we go.”
Franke said he wanted solutions.
“I want solutions,” he said, the goal to seek a long term solution to the present situation.
The council then voted to reject the EMS contract as currently proposed, passing unanimously.
Franke closed with an appeal for greater public engagement.
“We get the feedback in this age of social media,” he said. “We need people on these commissions.”
Several openings on city commissions are available, with interested residents asked to contact council members or city hall.