Agenda Packets - 2005/01/10 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council December 6, 2004 Regular Meeting Page 4 1 Council Member Stigney stated that what the Council is suggesting is for staff to sit down and 2 formulate the survey with Decision Resources. He indicated while Mounds View Matters may 3 not be the best way to distribute a survey he still feels there are other options they should pursue 4 before authorizing this funding. 5 6 Mayor Linke indicated he has been trying to get a survey done for two years, and there is always 7 a reason to wait. He stated while it is too late for this Council to use the information to make 8 decisions it is time to get it done so the next Council can use it. He indicated he knows a lot of 9 people in town and talks to a lot of people in town but some of the answers to the 1992 survey 10 surprised him. He stated things have changed a lot since then and the Council needs to know 11 how the residents feel. He indicated that for the golf course he thinks they can ask generic 12 questions and see how people feel about keeping or selling it. 13 14 Council Member Stigney stated that the information provided to the residents on the golf course 15 has always been flaky; no one knows what the City is doing with it. He indicated the golf course 16 is nice but they have to do something to increase the tax base. 17 18 City Clerk/Administrator Ulrich asked Mr. Morris if he had experience with other options that 19 may work. Mr. Morris indicated that with paper surveys the best response he has ever received 20 in a city is 17%. He stated that with mailed surveys they find the demographics of those returned 21 do not match the city because only those passionate about one or two questions will take the time 22 to fill them out. He explained the results from one city that ran parallel surveys with the phone 23 survey being accurate versus the mailed survey results. 24 25 Council Member Quick noted that the money for the survey is in the budget. He stated he has 26 been advocating for a survey for six years. He indicated the Mounds View City Council has been 27 working with the funding on the golf course for six years, and has spent over $60,000 in the last 28 four months on land surveys to see if they can sell the golf course. He stated they still do not 29 know if they can or if they have a willing buyer. He indicated this is only $10,000 and at least 30 they will know what the residents want. 31 32 Council Member Marty stated it has been six years since they started talking about this. He 33 reiterated he found the results very enlightening. He noted that the last several years with budget 34 cuts they have not pursued it, but this is information the Council needs to help formulate their 35 decisions. He stated when they found out there were some questions they could not put on the 36 ballot it became clear that now is the time to do this. 37 38 Council Member Gunn indicated she is in favor of doing a survey over the phone, and agrees that 39 it needs to be done. She stated that as for the golf course, whether they have a buyer or not does 40 not matter; they need to know if the people want to keep the golf course in the city. She 41 indicated if the residents do not want it they can pursue other options but if they want it the City 42 may have to rethink their options. She stated that in regards to a mailed survey she thinks the 43 demographics would be skewed, noting there would likely be areas in the upper part of town that 44