05-13-1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 6 . May 13, 1996 Mounds View City Council The action taken by the Mayor and Council members Trude and Blanchard results in the following: - A $750, 000 expenditure without public notice and input. No public hearing was held. The public was given no advance notice of pending action. - A $750, 000 expenditure with no market study or needs analysis. Questions about what would be a successful use have no answers. - A $750, 000 expenditure with no survey of residents as to what they would want and support. - We now own a facility and have not identified a revenue source to cover unidentified operating costs. - We now own a facility and have not identified renovation costs including the removal of asbestos. - We now own a facility with no firm agreements with potential partners. • - We now have staff spending time on the development of this project without deciding what in city business will not or cannot be done. This may take additional staff at an undetermined cost. - The building and property will be taken off the tax roles which means you took money away from the county, school district and the city. This means either budget cuts or added costs to other property owners. - You ignored the advice of your own Economic Development Commission. They recommended keeping it on the tax roles. This was a very real possibility. - You ignored the advice of your own staff who cautioned against moving too quickly with not enough information. You put the staff in a very d~cult situation. It appears to me and other residents that what we have to say does not matter than that you have no desire to consider our viewpoints except when it is convenient to you. Two other examples are: - When the council was considering the water meter change-out at the cost of about $580, 000 council member Trude insisted that we needed many pubic meetings to hear residents' concerns. In that case we had a one year study that gave us necessary information. We all agreed to have many public meetings. Why wasn't this done in the case of the Bel-Rae? - Earlier this year at the work session the council agreed 4-1 to transfer the administration of the golf course from Parks and Recreation to Administration. The Mayor left town and asked council members Blanchard and Trude to table the item because he wanted to be present. They made every attempt to do just that. They would not allow me to complete my statements about the issue and said that we should wait for the mayor to get back. It seems they are unable to make decisions without him. Why is it all council members are not given the same courtesy to express their view and the views of those people they • represent?