Josh Rausch and Ben Eldridge attended the Paullina City Council meeting to share the changes to the structure of youth baseball and softball throughout the communities of the South O’Brien School District. Every community; Calumet, Paullina, Primghar and Sutherland have age groups in which a team cannot be fielded. The South O’Brien girls’ junior high is short of players so 6^th grade players are being brought up. That leaves the “Majors,” 5^th and 6^th grade unable to field a team. The 5^th grade girls will not have a team this year, as things stand. They will practice with the 4^th grade. The solution proposed by a group of parents from all communities was to join the clubs into one.

The plan includes practices and games in each community. Coaches would also come from each community. The group decided to go to jerseys turned in each year and reissued rather than t-shirts. The thought is that would help unify the team across all communities. A $40 fee funds the club for equipment and other expenses. Paullina is the only club with city support. The budget is $7000.

Councilperson Nichole Jacobs questioned if other communities will be supporting their youth baseball/softball. She went on to ask if Paullina should do so if other don’t. Each community cares for the ball parks.

Some of the details are still being worked out. Official organization is underway.

The Paullina ordinance for downtown second floor housing is under review to match the state’s statute. No action was taken. Kelly Top, Superintendent of Utilities, explained that several neighboring communities have SAM/GIS location for their utilities. He updated council that to start up its own costs $4200.00. The city currently pays $1500.00 per year.

Discussion of summer part time help was held. Randy Riedemann was approved for 25-30 hours per week at $16 per hour. A second part time seasonal person will be considered.

A police officer candidate was approved to extend a contract offer contingent upon testing outcomes. It was noted that the candidate is the chief’s brother-in-law. Council approved the request.

Paullina held a public hearing for its 2027 fiscal year budget. One member of the public and media representative asked several questions. The stated estimated tax levy for the 2027 budget was printed at $9.21228 on the published budget. When asked about it, City Clerk Michelle Wilson, after clarifying the maximum allowable levy as $8.10 per $1000 and the city could not go higher on its levy due to valuation growth said that number is $7.9 per $1000. That discrepancy was not explained.

Wilson implied that she should have been asked the questions prior to the public hearing so “I could be prepared.” Wilson minimized the zero dollar reestimated 2026 TIF as reestimation and then said that that was given to her by the county. Wilson declined to give any of the tax sources from the line item “Other City Taxes” without her budget book to which Council member Jean Unrau said, “absolutely,” to the idea that Wilson should have her book to answer questions at a properly called budget public hearing. The public hearing seemed to become confrontational after being asked if revenue from the line item “Charges for Fees and Service” corresponded to the spending line item “Business Type/Enterprises.” It was never made clear. Wilson did say propriety services, generally utilities, can only be spent on propriety activity. For example, electric bill revenue can only be used to pay for direct electric expenses. She also noted that revenue to that line item can also come from things such as building permits. That revenue line item is budgeted at $2,015,480. The Business Type/Enterprises expense line is budgeted at $2,236,460. Because there was no explanation, it is unclear if the $320,980 more in the expense line than the revenue line is a loss to Paullina’s proprietary activities.

Wilson and Top both shared that the $1.2 million fund balance reduction over the most recent 3 years was due to the large utility projects the city took on and paid for out of revenue.

Wilson called the next morning and explained that the zero in the reestimated current year TIF, according to Department of Management most likely a wrong cell pulled into the form or formula.