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8 • 1 We discussed.Northwest Suburban, D.A.R.E., VillageFest, and the Recycling Center. 2 I myself think that one of the actions we should take March 24th is to eliminate all 3 overtime. If you want that from us, Tom. I don't know. 4 TB: I don't know that we can eliminate it because we still have the situation where an 5 officer has to go to court, or watermain breaks. And if it does snow....but certainly 6 for the things that we can, we will limit the use of overtime. 7 DF: I'd just like to know what they could do next year because isn't this just about it? 8 TB: No, HACA. If they go after the HACA, we're looking at another $200 plus 9 thousand. 10 DF: One of the things that some people say that if you're doing this it wouldn't be 11 necessarily to hurt here it's to help somewhere else. They're talking, for example, 12 about in stead of having our own police department, merging. Is this part of it? 13 TB: Well, you know we went through the whole consolidation exercise and, to some 14 people's displeasure, the outcome was bigger is not better. We looked at costs of 15 providing basic services and you can compare us to other communities and we may 16 be high on one side, we may be low on the other side, but overall our costs are less. 17 Remember the Citizen's League Report talks about the 96 metropolitan communities 18 and how we rank. We've ranked always within the bottom 10 for our taxes. So taxes 19 in St. Anthony are low. If we go to a consolidated service,we're talking about higher 20 costs and less services. What this plan is talking about is ultimately higher cost and 21 less service, but it takes away accountability. As a taxpayer, when you have a 22 problem, let's say with the plowing of your street, do you think you're going to get 23 the same response if you call a Ramsey County Commissioner? 24 DF: No, I don't. 25 TB: Or any other commissioner in any other county? Or calling a state representative? 26 I've been trying to get through to our representatives for a week. It takes time. 27 They have such a big area that one person's voice is very small. Are they pushing in .28 that direction? They may be trying. 29 DF: That's what I mean because, see, then the control shifts, that's all my point is. 30 TB: I don't know about that. The state would be taking on a bigger problem than they 31 realize. Also, I think for many of the residents, the services we provide here are very 32 near and dear to them. The state has the ability to take that away from us, but will 33 the people stand for it? I don't know if that's true. 34 CR: What is your name again?