01/04/2006 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • • CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION JANUARY 4, 2006 APPROVED 1 COMMUNITY SURVEY UPDATE 2 3 City Administrator Heitke advised at the November 28, 2005 special work session, the 4 Council reviewed and approved the questions for the community survey. On December 5 19, 2005, the Council approved having Decision Resources, Inc. add to the survey to 6 determine public opinion on Anoka County holding a referendum prior to the 7 implementation of a county -wide sales tax to partially fund a sports stadium. Decision 8 Resources Ltd. (DRL) has drafted questions to ascertain public opinion on that issue. 9 City Administrator Heitke advised this week, staff from the Anoka County Library 10 System inquired as to whether it would be possible to survey the public's interest in 11 having a county library as part of the Legacy at Wood's Edge Project. Since this question 12 is very similar to the one contained in the 1996 survey related to having a YMCA in the 13 town center project, DRL offered to draft the question for consideration. 14 15 City Administrator Heitke reviewed the draft questions regarding the proposed stadium 16 and a library in the Town Center at the Lake Drive and Interstate 35-W interchange area. 17 Staff is seeking Council acceptance of additional questions, enabling DRL to finalize the 18 survey. 19 20 Councilmember Carlson expressed concern that the proposed stadium question does not 21 address the referendum question. She distributed two alternative questions, one prepared 22 by her and another prepared by Mr. Dan Dobson of St. Paul. Councilmember Carlson 23 stated that her question makes the referendum issue more clear and coincides with the 24 Reinert Resolution. 25 26 Mr. Ron Holch addressed the Council and stated that the survey had been described as 27 being "scientific" in the newspaper, but the proposed question isn't scientific because it is 28 not quantifiable. 29 30 Councilmember Reinert stated that it's obvious that this process is going to be attacked 31 and suggested that all the Council can do is forward the results of this discussion to 32 Decision Resources and see what they come up with, however, it will delay the survey 33 and results. 34 35 Councilmember Carlson stated that the County Commissioner in Lino Lakes was quite 36 surprised by the wording of the question. 37 38 Mayor Bergeson stated he is concerned that survey questions that the Council hasn't even 39 acted on are being passed out. He is concerned that there is clearly an effort underway to 40 prepare people for the survey by letting them know what the questions might be and 41 coaching them on answers, and_the longer the City waits to conduct the survey the less 42 accurate it is going to be. He stated he is in agreement with the stadium question as 43 proposed by Decision Resources, Inc. 44