09-10-2003 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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total package when they know what the county budgets are, when the local levies are set and so forth. They feel as we move forward into November and December for all the levies there may be something that is on the table and still can work together between now and then. St. Anthony Not Represented Spring Lake Park Not represented /Sent letter (Attached) Shoreview Terry Schwerm, the City Manager of Shoreview, told the group this proposal had not really been discussed with their city council, however, in general, they have been supportive of the County potentially passing an HRA levy. The city of Shoreview has seen a tremendous benefit from the Housing Resource Center, both because of accessibility and making it well known to the residents. If there were a levy, Shoreview would use whatever funds might be allocated to finance the Housing Resource Center and potentially use additional monies to administer programs and grants as allocations received from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency and other resources have been used up. Because of State cutbacks making certain monies not available, it is important to continue housing programs because they are seeing degradation of theft neighborhoods and need funds for upkeep and code enforcement. Again, Mr. Schwerm stated, in general, the city of Shoreview is supportive of this proposal. One reason is, if they wanted to supplement it, they could do so on top of the county HRA and could actually fund the HRC and put more dollars into it. One issue the city of Shoreview sees regarding the HRC is that because it is located in Shoreview, they, along with Roseville, are the heaviest users. Mr. Schwerm suggested perhaps there should be a second office on the eastern end of suburban Ramsey County so that residents of Maplewood, White Bear, Vadnais Heights, Little Canada and others were a closer to the service. Maybe one of focals could be the County contracting directly with the HRC to provide the service countywide because, for example, the 35W coalition contracts, would see some benefit by taking it off of their levy or general fund and putting it on the county HRA. That would help reduce at least an expenditure that is currently in the budget and general fund. The city of Shoreview feels the proposed county administrative costs of 5% of the revenue are reasonable, and while they might quibble a little bit about how some of the other funding allocations are set up, this is a good start. He stated they fully commend the-County for putting the proposal together because housing is a big issue and the upkeep of housing, especially, is going to be critical as we all come to address affordable housing improvements. Commissioner Weissner asked Commissioner Rettman if the proposal included funding for the HRC.