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Mounds View City Council January 24, 2000 Regular Meeting Page 3 neighborhoods. With the help of a group of residents making up the Streets Committee Task Force, this Council adopted a resident-first policy for streets. Instead of having the project formulated by engineers and consultants who may not even live in the City, the new policy sets up a three-year process by which City staff meets with residents to discuss the wants and needs of the neighborhood in regard to its streets. Also, gone are the days of the cookie-cutter “one size fits all” mentality, which imposes a single standard for width and extras, without regard for the needs and desires of a particular area and neighborhood. The new standard is to start with a more realistic approach to the size and character of the streets, and that is, to begin at a point where the road presently exists, unless you and your neighbors, and/or City staff determine that something different is needed. This policy puts the power back in the hands of the people, which is where it always belonged. When discussing the ongoing needs to rebuild and improve the streets in our City, this Council took on the task of finally setting up a long-term fund to help pay for all of the necessary street renovations that will require to be done in the future. This is an aging City, with a variety of infrastructure needs, and road repair is one of the most basic of those needs. This Council sought to look far into the future, and provide for future Councils and future residents, a funding source that will help offset the steep cost of such repairs. And so, for a one-year period, this Council increased the franchise fee on utilities by one and one-half percent, or approximately eighteen dollars per year, per household, on average, in order to raise the seed money needed to start such a fund. The franchise fee was not increased without serious consideration of the situation. Nobody likes fees to increase, thus nobody on this Council is jumping up and down with glee over the prospect of a fee increase. However, facing the future of increased needs for street repair, along with limited sources of money for street renovation funds, the Council saw this need to prepare for our City’s future as a goal of very high priority. We are not just planning for today, we are planning for our City’s future. This Council recognized that because a previous Council set up a bond payment schedule for our golf course that made even our successful course unable to meet its debt obligations, additional sources of revenue had to be sought. It was decided, after much discussion and debate, that billboards would be permitted on golf course property for a limited period of time, so as to provide some or all of the necessary funds to pay down the debt of those golf course bonds. Again, nobody on this Council is a big fan of billboards, however, the limited use of billboards was seen as the most cost-effective means of raising some or all of the additional revenues needed to counter a poorly constructed debt arrangement at the golf course. However, even now, I want to remind the people that our golf course is doing very well, and is being operated at top efficiency by golf course staff. The original development and financing package may have been dreadfully done, however, the course itself is exceeding all expectations, and is viewed as one of the best executive courses in the region.” Mayor Coughlin spoke to the issues the City continues to face, as follows: “Probably the most disheartening of conversations that I have had in this past year, were with local officials and staff of other municipalities. The perception of our City from the outside is