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Mounds View City Council January 28, 2002 <br />Regular Meeting Page 8 <br /> <br /> <br />Ayes – 3 Nays – 1(Marty) Motion carried. <br /> <br />MOTION/SECOND: Stigney/Marty. To Deny Item 6H as Presented. <br /> <br />Council Member Stigney commented that he did not feel it was appropriate that the Mayor had <br />asked to expend monies for an out of town convention when the City is concerned with <br />expenditures and cutting health insurance benefits for its employees. <br /> <br />Naja Werner agreed with Council Member Stigney’s comment and said she feels the City should <br />be “tightening its belt” as everyone else is doing. She then commented that the City may have a <br />“lame duck” Mayor in light of all the negative publicity. She further commented that there are <br />wonderful educational opportunities in the twin cities and the Mayor should explore those <br />options. <br /> <br />Council Member Marty said he was surprised that the Mayor had requested authorization for this <br />trip in light of the financial outlook for the City with the potential for more state aid cuts. He <br />commented that the money budgeted for the convention does not need to be spent just because it <br />is in the budget. He then commented that he does not think any Mayor or Council Member <br />within the last 10 years has incurred as many bills as the present Mayor. He further commented <br />that the Mayor spent $3,349.67 last year on two out of state conventions and he feels that is <br />totally out of line. <br /> <br />Mayor Sonterre explained that the basis for his request is that this has been an expenditure for as <br />far back as the City has been a member of the organization and noted in previous years the City <br />has sent two representatives to this convention. He commented that he serves a representative to <br />the National League of Cities on crime prevention and this meeting is one of two mandatory <br />meetings and there are four others that he does not attend because of the cost and a lack of <br />benefit to the City. He then commented that, unless you have been to one of these events and <br />gone through the training and informational seminars included in the registration fee, you would <br />not be in a position to discuss the benefits. <br /> <br />Council Member Thomas commented that there is a difference between what we need and what <br />is nice and even though she feels there is a benefit to attending the conventions the timing is not <br />right in light of the possibility of the loss of more funding sources. <br /> <br />Council Member Stigney commented he did not feel it was appropriate that one individual would <br />be using well over 3/5ths of the national training budget. He then commented that, as a taxpayer <br />and a Council Member, he feels the City needs to concentrate on saving money to plan for the <br />possibility of more reductions in state aid rather than spending money like it is “being made in <br />the basement.” <br /> <br />Ms. Werner referred to an article from the StarTribune that ranked Mounds View as number 12 <br />out of 109 cities for highest taxes paid on a home valued at $130,000. She then commented that <br />the taxpayers of the City should be very concerned about that.