Agenda Packets - 2005/08/22 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mounds View City Council July 11, 2005 Regular Meeting Page 15 issue and if anyone thinks the Council has lost their integrity, ethics or values they are sadly 1 mistaken. He stated that he has thought long and hard on all of the issues and concerns and that 2 he took in all comments, feedback and information and made the best decision he could for the 3 City with the information he had received. He explained that he compared the golf course’s 4 previous earnings to what it is today; he reviewed and studied the benefits Medtronic could add 5 to this community; and he considered what the people had to say about the golf course and about 6 Medtronic. He agreed with Council Member Stigney adding that no one wants to say anything 7 about the $5 million the City would receive, all they want to talk about is the $43,000 a year in 8 property taxes and that isn’t enough. He stated that he believes the deal the City has now with 9 Medtronic is as good a deal as the City is going to get. 10 11 Council Member Thomas stated that there is one correction that is necessary to make. She 12 referenced Mayor Marty’s statement that the Council was not in on the decision regarding other 13 properties and other offers and expressed concerns that he would make this statement. She 14 agreed that Staff could say, in their opinion that the options did not rise to the level the City 15 should be pursuing. She acknowledged that this was Staff’s opinion adding that they brought the 16 options to the meeting to review with Council. She stated all five Council Members were at this 17 meeting and all agreed that the options did not rise to the level of what the City should pursue. 18 She stated that they discuss how the plan could be divided and how things could be done. She 19 stated that the Council did discuss all of the issues and asked how Mayor Marty could say that 20 the Council did not take part in the discussion. She stated that Council did agree in a group 21 consensus that the offers received did not rise to the level of pursuit. 22 23 Council Member Stigney stated that not only did the options not rise to something the Council 24 should consider, nothing was brought forth that had the wear withal to do anything about the 25 County Road J corridor, the road improvements or the bridge. He stated that it took legislative 26 action noting that Medtronic worked real hard to get legislative action on all these issues. He 27 stated that just because someone says they are interested, they wouldn’t have been able to provide 28 the access. He stated that with Medtronic there would be access and improvements that are 29 needed on County Road J. 30 31 Mayor Marty referenced the golf course losing money, as Bill Werner mentioned, after the golf 32 course opened they had a law suit. He stated that the City won the lawsuit but still had to pay 33 attorney fees and court fees, which put the golf course behind before it ever got started. He 34 stated that they have the billboards noting that the contracts were negotiated and the billboards 35 were put in place last year. He stated that six billboards generated approximately $250,000 a 36 year with a 4-percent inflation factor built in for a twenty-year period. He stated that last fall the 37 land was appraised at $10 million and asked what the land would be worth ten years from now 38 noting that property values continue to go up. He stated that no one on the Council liked the idea 39 of the billboards adding that they saw it as a means to avoid raising property taxes to pay for the 40 golf course. He stated that right now with the bond debt and the internal loans the City owes 41 approximately $4.2 million, which includes everything. He stated that the billboards are up there 42 for twenty years and in order to negotiate out of the billboard contract, now in the current 43 agreement the billboards will be in Mounds View for thirty years. He stated that they can only fit 44 three billboards north of Highway 10, which means the other three billboards will be placed 45