03/08/1976 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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34 March 8, 1976 The regular meeting of the Lino Lakes City Council was called to order on March 8, 1976, at 8:05 P.M. by Acting Mayor Zelinka. Council members present; Karth, McLean, Schneider. Absent; Mayor Bohjanen due to illness. Mr. Locher was also present. The minutes of February 23, 1976 were considered. Mrs. Elsie Wood, from the audience, corrected the minutes of page 4, second paragraph from the bottom, as follows; 'delete the word "No" and add "she said all but three families had signed the pet- ition and she was sure it represented more than 35 %" Mr. Karth moved to approve the minutes as corrected. Seconded by Mr McLean. Motion carried unanimously. Acting Mayor Zelinka introduced Mr. Robert Burman, Anoka County Commissioner, who had asked to attend this meeting to explain the establishing of the special service district for taxing purposes. Mr. Burman said this Resolution had been brought before the Board without having been placed on the agenda. He had voted for the Resolution without the full knowl- edge of how this would operate. After some study, Mr. Burman had made a motion to recind the Resolution but had been unable to get the motion passed. At the present time the Resolution is tabled until all communities have been contacted. Mr. Burman introduced Mr. Ralph McGinley, Executive Secretary to the Board, to explain how this taxing district would work. Mr. McGinley asked where he should begin? Acting Mayor Zelinka asked that he explain the entire program. Mr. McGinley explained the law allowing the establishment of the suborniate taxing districts. This law gives the Board of Commissioners the authority to designate certain parts of Anoka County to be set up as service districts and have a mill rate levied against that district. He felt it was a simple law and the legislature is looking at it with the possibility of giving all other counties the same authority. Mr. McGinley said the law has never been implemented until the Sheriff's office ran into financial problems. One 18 hour contract with the Sheriff's office had been cancelled and one contract had been cut back to 8 hours. This had created a $60,000.00 deficit in the budget for that department. The Board of Commissioners had looked at this law as an alternate to contract service with communities. They felt this would provide a more stable base than the contracts. Mr. Burman said some communities do not levy any amount for law enforcement. He felt the action taken on this matter was backwards. The request should have come from the communities. He felt the communities will not accept this without some say in the operations. Acting Mayor Zelinka said the Council had heard some statements to the effect the service districts would not follow community boundaries. Mr. Burman said there had been no thought of not using community bondaries. Mr. Burman was asked, if a community has it's own force, can the service district encompass that community and Mr. Burman said, there was no interest in assuming the responsibility for law enforcement in communities that have their own depart- ments. Mr. Schneider asked about communities with only part -time forces, with only 16 hour coverage, would the County take over that community. Mr. Burman said, No, if