07-07-2003 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Administrator’s Report July 7, 2003 Billboard Update. I received an update from Clear Channel yesterday (Wednesday, July 2, 2003) that MnDOT has decided to simply wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the billboards rather than dismissing their appeal as Clear Channel had requested. The ruling was posted this afternoon and I am unhappy to report that the Supreme Court has overturned the court of appeals decision. I have already spoken with Clear Channel and will be meeting with them next week to assess the options, if there are any. I am attaching the ruling for your review. The one thing of note is that the decision was split four to three. The dissenting opinion was very strong and supported the issuance of the permits. The basis for the denial, it seems, is that the majority of the court felt that the golf course was not a business as defined by statutes. I’ll keep you updated. http://www.courts.state.mn.us/opinions/sc/current/opC011695-0703.html Harstad litigation. I was going to attach a status report from Jim Thomson, the attorney selected by the League to represent us in this litigation, however it was not yet available. I will provide this to the Council prior to the meeting or as soon as I receive something. (Check your boxes Monday.) Farrell Variance Request. You may recall the situation on Greenfield Avenue recently that resulted in signage being posted to restrict parking just south of County Road I. The issue stemmed form the businesses operating at 2402 County Road I. One of the conditions of the resolution approving the no parking was that the property owner (Steve Farrell) apply for a variance to allow two more parking stalls on the lot. Mr. Farrell has submitted the variance request and the Planning Commission denied the request, as they believed Mr. Farrell is the cause of the problems. Mr. Farrell will be appealing this decision to the City Council, along with a request to modify the provisions of the original resolution (Res. 5527) approving the development. Mr. Farrell keeps his garbage outside and was unaware that the previous owner agreed to keep the garbage INSIDE per Resolution 5527. Look for that on your July 14th agenda. Humane Society Invoice. I received a voice mail message from the Humane Society late last week. They will generate a new invoice at half the amount originally invoiced per the City Council’s direction ion June 9, 2003. Dealing with the Deficit. On Thursday, June 26, 2003, Sherry Gunn and I attended a meeting of the Ramsey County League of Local Governments with other City and County elected and appointed officials. It was interesting hear what the County and other communities are doing in response to the budget cuts. There was some discussion about doing more cooperative purchasing between Ramsey County, the City of St. Paul and the other suburban municipalities. One such opportunity is RiverPrint, a joint endeavor between the County and St. Paul. RiverPrint is a full service printing facility which would be able to produce our newsletters (Mounds View Matters) possibly cheaper than with our current vendor. We’d need to enter into a joint powers agreement (JPA) to utilize their services, but before we do that I’ll get a quote on the newsletter to determine if it would be worth the effort. Voice Mail Update. The technicians from Action Systems were successful in resurrecting our old voice mails from the hard drive which they inserted into a temporary machine to “tide us over” until a permanent fix can take place. We’ve asked them to provide us with a list of options and alternatives and we hope to present this to the Council as soon as possible.