Category: Archives

Council member admonished for asking questions about WSB on camera

Minnetrista’s Mayor appears to prefer council members not ask difficult questions or make comments at public meetings (on camera) about WSB Engineering, Minnetrista’s contract engineering firm. The video below shows Councilor Molitor being admonished (respectfully??) for not asking his questions prior to the public meeting regarding the costs of a WSB proposal. He exhibited considerable restraint. Watch the interchange cued up below:

 

A strategy long employed by the city to keep controversial topics out of view of residents is to have the City Administrator call each council member the morning of each council meeting. Council members are encouraged to air any and all questions during this scheduled call. While this practice helps the city control what’s brought up at the public meeting it deprives all the council members of hearing each other’s questions and concerns.

Minnesota has an open meeting law preventing serial communication among a quorum of council members outside of a public meeting. The city of Minnetrista violates the spirit, if not the letter, of that law by using the City Administrator as a conduit, fielding questions and influencing council members outside of public meetings.

Controlling the conversation

puppetsAn observation watching the LWV’s Minnetrista candidates forum: Not a single question posed to candidates mentioned taxes, fees or debt growth. Something else noteworthy is there was NO information online ANYWHERE about the scheduling of the forum. It wasn’t on the LWV events calendar, City of Minnetrista events calendar and doing a search the morning of the event turned up nothing (I’m good at searching). Yet, the room was packed with “Our Minnetrista” people supporting the incumbents. Since when are public forums by invitation only?

Striking differences in Minnetrista council candidates

I picked up literature from all three candidates and noticed something profoundly different about them. The flyers from the “Our Minnetrista” supported incumbents Pam Mortenson and John Tschumperlin have all the political platitudes expected on a flyer but don’t give any insight into how they make decisions about matters that come before the council. Who doesn’t support our police and fire services, road maintenance, and promise to listen to residents?

Balgaard flyer small
Flyer prepared and paid for by Elroy Balgaard for City Council, PO Box 103, Minnetrista, MN 55359

I was struck by the difference in Elroy Balgaard’s flyer that actually declared his core, fundamental principles and values: His support of private property rights, determination to stop wasteful spending and debt growth that drive up taxes, and putting an end to the conflict of interests of special vendor relationships at city hall.

As a city council member I know how difficult it can be to stand on principle. I’m not very popular with the tax & spend “Our Minnetrista” crowd, staff or mayor. I suspect Mr. Balgaard won’t be either but he’s the only candidate running that isn’t afraid to say what he thinks and he proved that at the candidate forum last Thursday.

incumbent flyers

 

 

Were candidate forum questions given to incumbents ahead of time?

Were the League of Women Voters candidate forum questions given ahead of time to incumbents? It certainly appears that way. Watch the two clips below and decide for yourself. I can assure you they were not provided to challenger Elroy Balgaard. Also note how the questions were designed specifically for incumbents starting off with eliciting gratuitous praise of current council members.

Mortenson indicates a question will be coming up:

Mortenson again knew the question was coming up:

It appeared answers were memorized and rehearsed rather than extemporaneous. Residents want to know who candidates are, not how well they can memorize “Our Minnetrista” scripted responses.

Minnetrista preliminary tax increase highest of all surrounding cities

I attended the League of Women Voters city council candidate forum at Minnetrista city hall Thursday night. Once the video is available I’ll post it and give a recap. For now just wanted to post some information city council candidate Elroy Balgaard shared that night on the surrounding communities and how their preliminary tax levy changes compare to Minnetrista’s.2019 surrounding cities preliminary leviesThis information didn’t go over well with the incumbents who asserted these communities can’t be compared but it should be noted that the city of Orono is quite comparable to Minnetrista in size and growth yet their increase is 40% lower than Minnetrista’s. Yes, there’s always a chance preliminary tax levies may come down before they are adopted in December but I’d be shocked if Minnetrista’s increase came down to even Wayzata’s at 4.29%.

Minnetrista grew 2.5% last year. Why do we need a 6.01% budget increase to pay for that?

Even though there will be a public hearing on December 3, the Minnetrista final 2019 tax levy will most likely, given history, be adopted without change that same evening and the public hearing is not likely to influence that. Sort of makes one wonder what the point is of having a public hearing.

Why would “Our Minnetrista” delete their WordPress site?

It seems our friends at the “Our Minnetrista” organization have deleted their WordPress site after Minnetrista Governance Blog quoted statements from it here calling into question their support for “independent and ethical leadership”.  Now is that something an organization with nothing to hide would do? I suspected they might. Glad we screen captured it all. #ElroyBalgaardForCityCouncil

our minnetrista deleted WP site
Our Minnetrista organization has deleted their WordPress site

More fee increases recommended for 2019

Minnetrista residents seldom hear reports on council work session meetings because official votes are rarely taken there but direction is, nonetheless, given to staff and decisions are made, however informally. A glimpse into our work session last night where council was given a recommendation by staff to increase both the Sanitary Sewer utility rate (3% increase) and the Storm Water fee (7.7% increase) for 2019:

manholeThe largest expense increase used to justify the utility rate hike request was for the Met Council’s wastewater charge that amounted to an increase of around $26K. When I asked how much additional revenue the city would take into the Sanitary Sewer Fund from all the new residents added this last year the answer came to around $40K in new revenue. Isn’t $40K more than enough to cover a $26K increase in the Met Council’s charge? Council directed staff to bring back a 0% increase Sanitary Sewer budget for council’s review.

A similar discussion around the city’s storm water management (SWM) fee followed. City residents saw a 10% increase last year and an 8.5% increase the year before in 2017. They also pay storm water management fees to the county and state via their private waste collection bills. Asking for another 7.7% for 2019, even though it was argued the dollar amount per household is small (SWM fee would increase to $112 annually from $104), just doesn’t appear justified. I asked if there were no increase in the 2019 fee would the city still be able to meet it’s obligations and complete at least some of the SWM projects [the highest priority ones] planned. Council directed staff to bring back a 0% increase storm water fund budget showing projects prioritized for consideration.

None of the above means there won’t be an increase in either of these fees for residents in 2019. But it is a good sign the council knows, in this election year, that voters are paying attention.