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uNAPPRov Mounds View City Council E December 28, 1998 L Page 3 6. RESIDENT'S REOUESTS AND COMMENTS FROM THE FLOOR David Janke, 8428 Eastwood Road, asked if staff had gotten an answer to his earlier question in regard to the Community Center development meeting the guidelines of the City Charter. Mayor McCarty said the guideline that Janke was referring to is in the Chapter on public improvements. "This simply means that once a public improvement is approved, if the Council is seeing an increase in costs on that public improvement, an assessed improvement, if there is more than a 10 percent increase in cost, from the time of hearings and adoptions,they must reissue, they must redo the public hearings and allow the community to have input on that. That doesn't mean that there would be a 10 percent threshold attached to a purchase such as the Bell Ray Ballroom. The Bell Ray Ballroom vote was an advisory election. It was not a binding election because there was no bond issue involved." Mr.Janke said he was disappointed in the results of the Golf Course litigation. He said the only winner in that episode was the City Attorney,who apparently got paid more than the City recovered from the litigation. Janke said he was disappointed that the fee on utilities had not been reduced, as promised. He said he was disappointed in the "heated exchanges" that had been displayed by Council Members in regard to "micro-management." Janke suggested that maybe the City does need to be micro-managed. He added,the City needs to be run like a business. "Everybody's got to be accountable for what they do," he said. In response, Mayor McCarty, said the energy tax is on a schedule to be eliminated. This schedule is on track and each two-year period the tax will be reduced by .05 percent until it disappears. This will give the City the time it needs to pick up the revenue slack from other sources, most notably the property tax. Mayor McCarty said if the person that wrote the "anonymous letter" wanted to make himself or herself known,then the City could respond in an appropriate manner to the complaints stated in the letter. Mayor McCarty said temper flare-ups are a natural process of group communication. The important thing to keep in mind, he said, was the end result of the discussions in which these temper flare-ups occurred. When the vote is taken the Council moves on and doesn't dwell on the disagreements. From the Council's perspective, "Mounds View is in good shape and always has been," Mayor McCarty said. Mr. Janke expressed his concern that the Golf Course operation will never pay for itself as had been the original intent when the development occurred. He expressed the same concerns in regard to the Community Center development.