The inside story on Minnetrista local issues: This blog is to inform citizens and give them a perspective on matters of importance in Minnetrista, MN. Opinions posted here are my own and do not reflect official positions of any public body or official.
Author: Minnetrista Governance Blog
Blogger, Shannon Bruce, writing about matters of civic importance in Minnetrista, MN. BA, Political Science, University of Colorado-Denver, Graduate work at University of Colorado Masters in Public Administration program. Former AT&T Government Affairs Specialist; Internship National Conference of State Legislatures, Denver. Minnetrista city council 2017-2020.
I met with Three Rivers Park District representative Marge Beard today at Gale Woods Farms to talk about past and future land acquisitions in Minnetrista. I found Ms. Beard easy to engage with and sensed a sincere desire to serve our community to provide access to open space, parks and trails that enhance our quality of life.
I look forward to working together in the future to make sure we preserve our natural amenities that Minnetrista residents value and continuing future plans to connect trails that serve our developments, rural areas and connect regionally across the county.
Minnetrista may be growing but we must make sure we maintain our parks and open spaces. After all, that’s why so many want to live here. I’m grateful to have an advocate like Ms. Beard working on our behalf.
There is a League of Women Voters (US) rule that when there are two candidates vying for a seat and only one is willing to participate that the candidate forum will not be held with just one candidate. Is it surprising they don’t follow the rules in Minnetrista? I declined their invitation for reasons specified here and they held the forum anyway with only the incumbent mayor.
There are some very clear differences between the Minnetrista mayoral candidates. Transparency is a big one.
One of the Minnetrista candidate forum questions was “What does the word ‘transparency’ mean to you?” I didn’t participate in the forum for a variety of reasons which can be found here, but I’d like to answer that question.
Transparency, to me, means honesty, openness and a commitment to the public that nothing in our city policy making process will ever be hidden from them. It means decisions will never be made behind closed doors before matters are discussed with the council and open for public scrutiny. It means controversial issues will not be relegated to the very end of council agendas when the public has gone home or the council is too tired to engage. It means the title of agenda items will never obscure sensitive issues. And it means information will never be selectively distributed to avoid dealing with different perspectives.
I received an email from the Superintendent of Westonka Schools, Kevin Borg, regarding the invoice that showed Lisa Whalen’s campaign materials were invoiced to the school district. That invoice was found during the discovery process in the lawsuit against Mayor Whalen and her campaign committee and exposed over a year and a half ago. I have not, until today, received any correspondence or concern from Westonka Schools about the invoice.
The timing on this correspondence might be construed as politically motivated, if I didn’t know better, as it is, after all, two days before voting begins in the Minnetrista Mayoral election.
Mr. Borg’s email says “I am asking that your campaign immediately remove and post corrections toall false claims involving the Westonka School District.” and demands a response by Friday. Considering the fact no false claims have been made (by me), he didn’t have to wait that long for my response [emphasis added in bold]:
Mr. Borg also expressed his wish was to resolve this matter in private. However, when I asked if he had shared the email he admitted he had shared it with the school board. Well then, I guess this isn’t private after all. That might explain why one of our school board members is attempting to censor my social media accounts tonight.
This election is important. Minnetrista deserves better than this.
Ever know a family that hummed along just fine until someone dies and there’s a contested will? Normally rational, calm, level headed people can transform into unrecognizable personalities clamoring for a piece of the windfall. It’s a situation no one prepares you for and if the will isn’t clear it makes the situation all the more volatile.
Well, that’s exactly what our friends in Congress and our state government have done with the CARES Act and distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars of Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) to cities with vague, undefined rules that are shifting and changing as we speak. So far the only ones benefiting, at least from Minnetrista’s CRF $579K, are the attorneys wading thru it all.
Minnetrista hasn’t made a decision on how to allocate these funds but council and staff have already spent many thousands of dollars in our collective time on the matter. I started writing about it back in early August and have attended multiple workshops on CRF reporting requirements, spending rules, and countless hours in council discussions. I have no doubt it will be on our agenda again next week.
I’ll make a prediction that a decision won’t be made until after the election. Wagers anyone?
There are three seats in Minnetrista up for election in November: two council seats and the mayor. The Minnetrista council is comprised of 5 people (mayor and four council members). In order for the council to act on a matter it requires a “quorum” of at least three members to agree. Each member has one vote, including the mayor. That’s important to understand because a mayor is helpless to implement policy or accomplish anything without the support of at least two other council members. Please check out council candidates Ann MacGregor and Cathleen Reffkin below:
Cathleen Reffkin Facebook: Reffkin for Minnetrista City Council @reffkinminnetristacitycouncil
There is one other council candidate, Damian Young, but he doesn’t appear to be actively campaigning. I’ve seen no evidence of signs, a website or Facebook page for him.
Since our city council meetings have been held online since March, citizens had been told they could no longer speak during the Persons-to-be-heard part of our meetings but that they could address the council by sending an email to the city administrator for him to read. I had questioned this change months ago and suggested we allow citizens to actually speak but it seemed I was the only one.
At our last meeting 9/8/20 I asked to add an agenda item to discuss reinstating the participation of residents in our council meetings by allowing them to actually speak to the council. Hearing no objections to having the discussion it was put on the agenda.
We heard several logistical challenges from staff about how to manage the calls but none of them were insurmountable and they were directed to figure it out so future council meetings will include the ability to actually speak, rather than have an email read, during the Persons-to-be-heard section. This is important because an email doesn’t allow the council to ask questions or for citizens to elaborate on important topics.
Last night’s council meeting was notable in that two “firsts” occurred. One, it was the first time since elected in 2016 that I voted to approve the city’s preliminary tax levy and the reason I did was it would actually result in a net decrease in most resident’s property taxes. Two, it was the first time Mayor Whalen voted for a preliminary tax levy that would result in a tax decrease since she was elected Mayor. I’d like to think it was because she knew it was in the best interests of Minnetrista property owners but something tells me this dichotomy with her past voting record won’t happen again for another four years if she’s re-elected.
I predicted here that this election year would prompt a political change of heart for a mayor facing a challenger in a community less than happy with the steady tax increases she’s supported every year.
One of the budgeting games played by administrative bureaucracies, since they’re always seeking to increase resources, is to under-estimate projected revenue and over-estimate projected expenditures in the budget. Doing so always ends up with a tax increase being the only way to “make ends meet.” We saw that in the council’s budget work sessions where, seeing that permit fee revenue was underestimated, I was successful in getting the city’s 2021 projections for permit fees increased to more accurately reflect a higher number based on past and anticipated growth. As a result we were able to add those dollars to the road budget without increasing anyone’s property taxes.
That’s a win-win. We don’t always need to increase taxes to pay for what we need.
It’s an election year and strange things happen in election years. Mayor Whalen has voted every year since she was elected to increase the city’s tax levy to the point of increasing your property taxes. Every. Single. Year. But this is an election year and even Whalen understands voters don’t like seeing their taxes go up year after year after year.
I predict this will be the first year Whalen votes in support of a tax levy that doesn’t increase your city property tax. But remember, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Rest assured that will hold true for the next four years.
Past city levy increases have far exceeded Minnetrista’s growth rate. Since elected I have voted against each and every one. The growth we are experiencing, and are told will continue, should generate more than enough revenue to support city services without increasing anyone’s city property taxes. The city also has several “special funds” not reflected in the general fund (where levied revenues and expenditures appear) with hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting idle. Some of these funds should be re-allocated to roads instead of using roads as an excuse to raise taxes every year.
Our council meeting Tuesday night will likely include a vote on the 2021 preliminary tax levy. Anyone willing to wager it will be the lowest since Whalen took office?
One thing everyone knows about me is everything I say or write is public, available for everyone to read and I don’t distribute campaign material secretly or selectively. That’s not been our incumbent Mayor’s pattern, however.
Door knocking this past weekend several people shared Whalen’s flyer with me and after asking around I found it had been selectively distributed. None of my neighbors received one and neither did many in other parts of Minnetrista that I contacted.
The flyer has the statement from Whalen saying “My leadership style is quite different from that of my opponent.” I couldn’t agree more.
If I have something to say I will say it directly and am not afraid to call out corruption, deceit, or pay-to-play politics…all too many of which have been documented with evidence on this blog. Whalen, on the other hand, pretends to be positive, civil and respectful on camera but then secretly distributes hit pieces like the one below on her last opponent. This was the artwork on her campaign’s invoice to the Westonka School district:
Artwork associated with Whalen campaign committee’s invoice to Westonka School District
Old habits die hard and we see the pattern continuing with selective distribution of Whalen’s 2020 campaign flyers implying her opponent is “dismissive or divisive.” Anyone that disagrees with Mayor Whalen is labeled or discredited, but not openly. Secret postcards appear in mailboxes, mailing lists are scrubbed to eliminate those that might challenge misinformation and on and on the pattern repeats.
Someone once told me that people with nothing to hide, hide nothing. I’ve always believed that’s true. Selectively communicating to residents reveals a troubling pattern that’s not likely to change.
I believe every Minnetrista resident, whether they agree with me or not, deserves to know what I’m saying about Minnetrista or the election.
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