Category: Archives

February 21, 2018

City of Minnetrista refutes economic principles of marketplace competition:

IT’S CLEAR FROM OUR MEETING LAST NIGHT THAT CITY COUNCIL HAS NO INTEREST IN SEEKING COMPETITIVE RATES WHEN IT COMES TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACTS for engineering services. One council member actually stated she didn’t think it was necessary to do anything that the League of MN Cities didn’t require the city to do. I wonder if she knows the League of MN Cities has no jurisdiction whatsoever over Minnesota cities and never has. The state doesn’t require cities to competitively bid professional services contracts but many cities choose to because they know that without competition prices go up. Minnetrista is sending a message, loud and clear, to constituents that its allegiance is not to taxpayers but to special vendor relationships.

Arguments against seeking competitive bids last night ranged from (and I’m paraphrasing since the video isn’t accessible yet) “We don’t want to lose the knowledge and history we’ve had with our current firm” to “Request for Proposals (RFPs) are expensive and don’t facilitate competition.” My response was we don’t necessarily need to lose the knowledge and history with our present firm. If they want to respond to an RFP with competitive rates we can choose to keep them. RFPs are not that expensive, especially when you consider the likelihood of getting more competitive rates as a result.

Minnetrista hasn’t competitively bid their professional engineering services contract for over 13 years. Is it any wonder our current engineering contract allows them to charge the city $90/hr for general clerical work?

Evidently in 2016 the city council then was concerned with this same issue and asked staff to research other engineering firms and their rates. What was shown to us last night was a 2016 matrix of 3 firms and their ranges of rates for work performed by different positions within each firm. Some of these rate ranges varied by close to 90% between the top and bottom part of a given range. It was evident, to me at least, that given the wide range of prices at which a particular position could be billed out, that it would be impossible to accurately compare these firms by looking at ranges of rates in this manner. This was simply a futile exercise designed to put off the matter without issuing an RFP.

I had hoped that the special presentation last night titled “Professional Services DISCUSSION” would actually be a discussion about the merits of competition in the marketplace, how seeking competitive rates could benefit our community and lower our rising infrastructure costs. What we got was a one-way presentation by the City Administrator giving reasons we shouldn’t issue an RFP. When I asked a question during his presentation I was told by the Mayor to write down all my questions and wait until the end to ask them. Clearly we have different ideas of what a “discussion” is.

Also at last night’s meeting:

COUNCIL MADE A DECISION AT THEIR WORK SESSION TO PROHIBIT SHORT TERM RENTALS in residential areas, defining “short term” as less than 30 days. The number of residents concerned about this issue has been growing in the community. Staff will seek input from the Planning Commission before holding a public hearing on the issue and will then submit an ordinance for council’s approval at a future meeting.

February 17, 2018

IF YOU CARE HOW YOUR MINNETRISTA TAX DOLLARS ARE SPENT YOU WILL WANT TO ATTEND TUESDAY NIGHT’S MEETING (2/20 at 7pm, council chambers) and let council know that it is time to make sure Minnetrista is getting competitive rates on engineering services. We spend a huge portion of our annual budget on roads and infrastructure projects and it has been 13 years since we’ve officially evaluated competitive rates in this market. My sense is staff and council may need encouragement from constituents to make this happen.

I had asked for a work session to discuss rebidding Minnetrista’s professional services agreement for engineering services at a previous meeting and we agreed to schedule it for a work session. Work sessions are designed to allow for free discussions. I just saw there is now a “Special Presentation” titled “Professional Services Discussion” on our council agenda. Special presentations at regular council meetings are usually one-way (hence the word “presentation”) but this item says it is a discussion so I’m hoping that is what it actually is and not just a staff member giving all the reasons why we should not rebid this contract.

I’ve been contacted by several residents that have given examples of what they consider over-priced projects from our present firm and I have encouraged them to attend this meeting to voice their concerns and also to send their documented concerns to other council members. I have expressed my own concerns regarding rates in the past, specifically charging $75/hr for clerical work. Interestingly subsequent to that meeting our contracted engineering firm changed the title of that category to “office technician” and raised the rate to over $80/hr.

I am not making allegations of unethical behavior by anyone. I am advocating that since there are concerns from residents that those concerns be taken seriously. We have an obligation to assure residents the rates we’re paying for engineering services are competitive. We simply cannot assure that when it has been 13 years since they’ve been evaluated.

I have learned that engineering companies often provide ranges of rates in response to proposals from cities and, depending on who performs the work, the rate could be toward the upper end or the lower, depending on the skill level of the individual. I have advocated, should the city decide to rebid the engineering contract, that Minnetrista require specific rates for specific tasks from all the firms that respond to the bid. Skill levels can be categorized and specific rates identified for each. Unless we do that it will be impossible to compare them. Ranges of rates are unacceptable in my opinion and don’t promote competition.

If you can’t attend let your council members know where you stand on this. Minnetrista City Council email addresses: lwhalen@ci.minnetrista.mn.us; sbruce@ci.minnetrista.mn.us; mmolitor@ci.minnetrista.mn.us; pmortenson@ci.minnetrista.mn.us; pthoele@ci.minnetrista.mn.us

February 6, 2018

RESIDENTS IN HUNTER’S CREST EXPERIENCED THE UNFORTUNATE RESULT OF A CHEMICAL PUMP FAILURE IN MINNETRISTA’S WATER TREATMENT PLANT on January 21. The pump failure resulted in too much of a chemical, permanganate, entering the water turning the water pink. Our public works department began addressing the problem immediately upon becoming aware of it, taking the pump off-line, flushing water lines and even visited a number of homes to direct residents in flushing their home water tanks. The failure was caused by a control signal that malfunctioned in the pump.

City Council received a briefing on the matter last night and a member of the MN Department of Health was in attendance to answer questions. We were informed this kind of failure is thought to be rare (although statistics were not provided) and that the pump has been repaired and should be back on-line shortly. The city’s website and Facebook page have been updated with the current information for residents.

City Council now needs to weigh the probability of an event like this in the future with the costs associated with preventing it with additional monitoring/testing equipment, understanding that the costs would most likely be borne by residents that use city water. I think it’s important to know how often these controls fail so we can determine if the risk is acceptable or not. We can’t predict or prevent every catastrophe but we can do our best to understand the risks and make wise decisions in taking preventative measures. Obviously it’s not wise to spend a great deal of money to prevent something that likely would never happen again. Conversely it would be foolish not to install the equipment if the likelihood were high. We need these questions answered before making the decision.

MINNETRISTA USES THE LAKER TO PUBLICIZE PUBLIC HEARINGS AND THEY ARE SWITCHING OVER TO MAIL DELIVERY. If you want to keep receiving The Laker you’ll need to sign up here: https://www.hometownsource.com/…/…/requester__laker_pioneer/

January 17, 2018

1/16/18 Council Meeting Agenda: Capital Improvement Project Discussion:
Despite the fact that 90% of Minnetrista’s roads are in good to excellent condition (road condition assessments provided by WSB Engineering in 2017) and we’ve almost doubled our budget in 2018 for road improvements, the city’s pavement management plan is calling for another 36% increase in 2019. Our road budget in this plan will go from $350K (in 2018) to $800K (in 2022) over 4 years. That’s a 128% increase over 4 years! I have a problem with that and I said so last night. If you’re a Minnetrista taxpayer and these numbers are approved by the council you can expect to see some hefty tax levy increases on your property.

We’ve been able to keep 90% of our roads in good to excellent condition in the past without resorting to these extraordinary increases. I know it costs money to maintain our roads but we need to make sure the costs we’re putting in our pavement management plan aren’t inflated and that’s impossible to do without competition in that marketplace. This is one of the primary reasons I’ve requested the council consider rebidding the city’s professional services agreement for engineering services. That contract hasn’t been rebid for over 13 years.

A couple of quick highlights from our work session Tuesday evening:

Agenda Item 1: Code Compliance/Enforcement Options.
Properties posing a nuisance to neighbors is a challenging area of the law for cities to deal with. Residents want resolution to whatever the nuisance is but often times the legal recourse to address it doesn’t exist, especially in rural areas which comprise a great deal of properties in Minnetrista. My general take in these matters is to encourage neighbors to resolve disputes themselves without involving the city unless the nuisance is an obvious environmental or safety hazard endangering the community at large.

The impetus to all of this was a complaint from neighbors about a rural property with a lot of older vehicles parked around it and the neighbors consider it an eyesore. We discussed the possibility of modifying zoning ordinances, pursuing a civil public nuisance case, and other possible solutions presented by our legal counsel but many carried a considerable cost to Minnetrista taxpayers. We settled on having our legal counsel draft a letter to the property owner detailing the actions the city requires.

Agenda Item 2: Halstead Road Update:
The city had received an email from a resident complaining about several aspects of the Halstead Road project, which, by the way, isn’t complete yet. Complaints centered around the mini-roundabout and aesthetics of the guard rails. After asking the City Administrator how many formal complaints the city has received I was told there was just one, although Council Member Thoele indicated she had spoken to others. Paul Hornby, our contract city engineer, explained the project design and reasons for the mini roundabout and guard rails. There didn’t appear to be consensus from the Council to modify the design which would require costly changes although Mayor Whalen suggested some plantings might help obscure the guard rails.

Who is “Our Minnetrista?”

As I was door knocking for permissions for yard signs the other day, a resident that had earlier been approached by one of the “Our Minnetrista” candidates said to me “So who is this woman council member they’re talking about that is no good? This sign isn’t for her is it?” Laughing, I said “No, that no-good council member would be me, but I’m not running. This sign is for Elroy Balgaard” and proceeded to talk about his views on protecting Minnetrista’s rural landscape, reducing debt, taxes, managing growth, etc. The resident ultimately took Mr. Balgaard’s sign.
sprawl“Our Minnetrista” is an organization promoting both incumbent Minnetrista city council candidates Pam Mortenson and John Tschumperlin. Residents have noticed all the signs and are asking “Who is Our Minnetrista?” Neither their old WordPress website nor the current one at ourminnetrista.com indicate who the people are behind this organization. They are, in fact, a small group of public officials, school board members, ex-city employees and others with a vested interest in maintaining the current power structure and taxing authorities at city hall. One might conclude they don’t want their names on the website because they know being affiliated publicly with the organization could harm their reputations. And they’d be right.
“Our Minnetrista” says on their WordPress site they promote “ethical and independent leadership in our city.” Yet the candidates they currently promote have voted with the Mayor on virtually every vote they’ve cast. Independent? As far as ethics go they operate in the shadows and have discredited candidates and council members that disagree with them by sending private messages and anonymous flyers alleging misdeeds knowing they will never have to provide evidence to substantiate their claims. Ethical?
50 plus acres campus planThey say they promote “effective” leadership, but effective at what? On the front page of their WordPress site they tout one of their past candidates (our current Mayor) championing a 50+ acre city master campus plan that would plunge the city deeper in debt. Thankfully they’ve failed at that so far but they will try again. All of their financially supported candidates have increased your city property taxes every year they’ve been in office. Their candidates have road blocked attempts to competitively bid out engineering contracts and voted for outrageous salary increases (one for 19% last year) with disregard to how these decisions burden the city’s already over-taxed taxpayer.
There is a lot at stake in this election. “Our Minnetrista” is determined to maintain control of city hall, the taxes, regulations and relationships they need to implement their agenda. If you want higher taxes, more debt, growth, regulations and special vendor relationships that don’t have to compete, take one of their signs.