Minutes - 2025/03/03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council March 3, 2025 Special Meeting Page 4 Brian Amundsen, 3048 Woodale Drive, spoke to the Council regarding budgets. He reported last fall he met with the City Administrator, Mayor and Finance Director. He commented on how 1.5% of the 4% of the franchise fees was to be designated to streets in order to fund street improvements. He explained the strategic plan calls for $360,000 to be collected in franchise fees which meant $130,000 should be going to street improvements. He recommended as managers of the City that the Council follow up on this. He stated there is no ordinance in place that says a street levy is allowed. He suggested if a street levy is going to remain going forward, that an ordinance be put in place to make this permissible. Council Member Meehlhause reported 50% of the franchise fees goes to the street fund. Mayor Lindstrom commented on how it was cheaper for the city to levy for dollars than to do a bond. Sharon Kirsher, 8406 Red Oak Drive, thanked the City for allowing Project Ardan to hold their event on Saturday. She discussed how the City’s plow drivers were salt safe. She recommended those individuals who salt the front sidewalk take the same training as the plow drivers in order to reduce the use of salt. Robert Beligensky, 8198 Groveland Road, discussed his grant application for $500 for a new applicant. He felt the program was run poorly and led to confusion. He feared the City had done some things that were not legal when it comes to data practices. He explained the program was first advertised in Mounds View Matters and residents were encouraged to apply noting there would be a lottery. He noted there were no eligibility requirements. He commented there was no protection against a landlord swooping in and having his tenants take a bunch of these grants. He noted he owns a bunch of property in other communities to see if he could apply for similar grants. He reported he had his third kid around the same time the grant was due, but he did get his application in on time. He indicated he sent in two applications, one for himself and one for his wife, asking if a household could receive two grants. He stated the grants were awarded in December and he was notified his wife’s grant was awarded. He indicated this program was advertised so poorly that the City only received 69 applications for free money. He reported he submitted a data request to see who won and if a landlord had swept in to receive a number of grants. Through the data request process, more problems popped up with the City. He explained he received bad information from the City Administrator when Mr. Zikmund stated 72 of the 72 grants were approved. He commented this was suspicious to him that the City had received exactly enough applications for the amount of grant funding. In addition, he questioned why the City was handing out 72 grants when the Mounds View Matters said there would be 74. He stated the fact was the City received 69 grants, with three additional grants that were for duplicate households. He reported he asked for a list of grant winners and the three properties that had been thrown out. He stated he asked for 10 days to see the list of properties that were thrown out and this information was being withheld from him. He understood he was one of them, but wanted to see who else had been eliminated. He commented he made a second data request on January 17 regarding the instructions the City received from the Met Council to administer this grant program and this request has not yet been filled. He believed this was illegal, noting he believed the City had 10 days to respond. He stated he was disappointed with how poorly this grant program was written and administered. He did not believe it was fair his grant application was denied especially when