05-13-1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 4 • May 13, 1996 Mounds View City Council Sara Weeks, 2653 Scotland Court, stated she is opposed to the purchase of the Be1Rae Ballroom. She stated she believes the number of those in opposition to the purchase is far greater than the Council would like to believe. She also believes the Council Work Session on May 6th should have been publicized. Ms. Trude explained that the Five Year Goal Plan in the Focus 2000 sets a vision for the community. One of the goals was to have a community center for Mounds View. The purchase of the Be1Rae Ballroom was first discussed two years ago. She noted that she had received several telephone calls over the weekend from residents who would have been disappointed if the city had lost the opportunity to purchase the property. She explained that another party had come forward and offered the owner of the property a larger sum of money. Failure to act on the purchase could have resulted in the city losing the purchase opportunity. Ms. Hanker stated she wished to add some comments, which she requested be included verbatim in the minutes. Her comments were as follows: "I am submitting these written comments to the Mounds View City Council minutes and for the general - public because I believe that the residents of Mounds View should be given information regarding the way business is being conducted by this city council. Within the last eight months this city council has made very large expenditures with very little public input. The first time was October 1995 when action was taken to spend $190, 000 on a pedestrian bridge. The item was already moving through the budgeting process and would have been part of a public hearing, but the council decided to not notes the public and taken action at a different time. No public hearing was held before action on the expenditure was taken. It was done when it was known that I would be out of town on business. The general public and one council member received virtually no advance notice. On May 6, the council called to order in a posted work session and took action to purchase the Bel Rae Ballroom. Mayor Linke, Council members Trude and Blanchard voted to buy the Bel Rae. Council member Quick voted against it. They said it was a crisis situation. No public hearing was planned nor held. The general public and one council member were not given proper notification of possible action. The council knew that I would be out of town on business for my employer. The following is a list ofpoints I want to make concerning the purchase of the Bel Rae: Sequence of Events A. The council adopted a resolution giving staff authority to have the property assessed and to begin talks with representatives of other public entities that might lease space. The Mayor objected to talking with others but ultimately agreed to it in a public meeting. Council received an appraisal and very little other substantiated information. B. On April 22, council approved an option to buy agreement that would expire on July 9, 1996. This route was chosen because it would tell Mr. Jambor that the city was interested enough to put some money • down and to allow itself to go through the necessary planning steps to determine if the purchase would be worthwhile for the city.