| Letters to the Editor for Feb. 6, 2009 |
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| Wednesday, 04 February 2009 | |
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City council got it wrong To the Editor: The St. Francis City Council got it wrong. $1,000,000.00 Pacific Gas & Electric (P. G. & E.) subordinated debenture, Councilmember Kane completely misses my point in bringing up this matter. I never stated the city lost money on the transaction. The city was grossly stupid in purchasing an obligation of a California power company at a time when headlines screamed of the turmoil in the California power industry, which we later found was due to the shenanigans of the Enron Corporation. Besides, who can you believe when, the city staff or the staff of the Anoka County Union. I really don’t know who screwed up. Had to put a major correction in the Jan. 16, 2009 issue of the Anoka County Union on their facts and figures about the Pacific Gas & Electric. I ask you, who is giving misinformation or misleading the public? Can even a council member be sure if he is being mislead - intentional, which I doubt - or unintentionally, which is more likely. You know Steve, I like the way you use the word “allegation,” implying I am lying, or something. I won’t challenge your figures because they’re close enough. I don’t call people liars when they have a different opinion than I do, one of my opinions is we could have lost our shirts on P. G. & E. We were lucky. The courts saved us. Purchase and sale of the Poppy Street property to the Village Bank. The city purchased the property for $185,000, remodeled the residence to qualify for public meetings at a cost of $15,000 and sold it to the Village Bank for $145,000, retaining enough land to accommodate a proposed city street from Poppy Street to County 9. The grant funds obtained for a senior citizens’ center were returned to the grantor, leaving the city with $55,000 invested in a piece of land for a road that may never be built. Councilmember Kane defends this travesty, stating the $15,000 remodeling job and the construction of the bank building gave someone employment. It is true they added to their own workforce at the bank. If we had gotten full price, which we should have, we still would have provided those jobs. It stands to reason that the bank would have expanded in their own backyard, which is what they did. I am not proud of this or the city, which had the assistance of the largest law firm in Anoka County, a professional city manager that could sell ice to an Eskimo (one man’s opinion) and a professional financial director. Also, you would think we could negotiate a better deal. I see it this way: The city still has no senior city center, the city spent $55,000 to accommodate some future developer. You see, this all happened when the real estate market was fairly good yet. Failure to monitor the work of the prosecuting attorney. At present the prosecuting attorney for the city does not make periodic reports to the city council. The bill is submitted and it is paid, no questions asked. The city pays around $4,000 a month to prosecute petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors. At present the prosecutor exercises prosecutorial discretion without guidance from the city council. Councilmember Kane is pleased with this situation. The prosecutor should be given guidelines in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion and his work reviewed by the city council monthly to monitor the types of cases prosecuted and the consequences given violations. Heaven forbid we might find out we do not need this Cadillac law firm and that maybe we could get by with a “Chevrolet.” We never know unless we investigate. Permitting employees to make major decisions without authorization. For years the city tolerated an employee making major decisions without authorization. When a resident publicized these actions by writing a letter to the city attorney, the county attorney, the Minnesota Attorney General and the U. S. District Attorney the city council met in camera and put a “letter of reprimand” in the individual’s personnel file. Later the individual job was conveniently eliminated, but he paid no consequences for the unauthorized acts taken with city property. Councilmember Kane’s letter of “correction” ignores the fact that this activity had been going on for a substantial length of time. Failure to enforce the city’s ordinance banning unnecessary clear-cutting of mature, healthy trees. The DNR had no part in the clear-cutting matter. It was a matter of enforcing the city’s ordinance stating developers should make every effort to preserve mature, healthy trees. The city’s ordinance is very weak and in fact the developer of the 39-acre “Rum River Terrace” clear-cut the entire tract. For more information see City of St. Francis planning and zoning minutes, March 17, 2004 at city hall. City budget increase. Councilmember Kane ignores the fact that when I publicized the proposed tax increase and roused 150-200 citizens to attend the city council in 2007 the response of the city council was to personally attack me and ignore the expressed desire of the citizens to reduce the city’s expenses. I feel vindicated in that the majority of the city council subsequently woke up to economic conditions and have made attempts to reduce city spending. Allegations of “inappropriate behavior.” This was nothing more than an old man sticking his foot in his mouth, giving well-intentioned advice. I have repeatedly made apologies to the young lady for any “inappropriate behavior,” but the city council prefers to attack me personally than to deal with the issues of substance I raise. The city council’s bankrupt actions speak for themselves. December 12, 2008 court decision. I exercised my right as a citizen and requested a court ruling on the legality of the recent attempt to recall me. The judge ruled against me and I accepted his decision. I began the case knowing full well that some judges avoid deciding cased involving political questions. The self-appointed “recall committee” and the city councilmembers that support them - which includes Councilmember Kane - should just accept that the recall election failed and get over it and move on. I tried to show the self-appointed “recall committee” that I was not a small, petty person and that I could be an American first and accept the decision of the people by giving them $20 each and a plaque for getting those 741 signatures. Of course, I did not appreciate their motives, but I certainly, as an American and one-time labor organizer, could appreciate the hard civic work that went into this effort. After all, I have covered this city door-to-door roughly a dozen times. I should know how hard they worked. City council “code of conduct.” The adoption of Rule 8 of the “code of conduct” is a blatant attempt to “gag” me and deprive me of my First Amendment right of free speech. The rule stating that city councilmembers should “praise in public and critique in private” is downright un-American! The city council is not a private club, gentlemen we are doing the public business. Openness and transparency are the bedrock of democracy. These are difficult times. The city is receiving less income - tax values are decreasing, state assistance is decreasing and expenses continue to rise. The city council should put personal animosity behind and concentrate on the problems at hand. What is one man’s truth is the other man’s lie. Such is the nature of political opinions. I am sorry folks, a lot of you have heard all this stuff before and you are probably tired of it. I’ll tell you a secret - so am I. Out of political necessity the “recall committee” forced me to run a lot of my 2006 campaign all over again. Steve - save it for the next election! Yours for good government, LeRoy T. Schaffer Councilmember, City of St. Francis Bringing back jobs To The Editor: The main talk around the Capitol is the budget deficit. As of November we were facing a $5.2 billion deficit. When the February forecast comes out that number could top $6.5 billion. Legislative leaders have said the deficit is due to a lack of jobs in Minnesota. They point to figures that show Minnesota could lose over 100,000 jobs from 2007 through 2009. They want to bring jobs back to Minnesota, and so do I. But we differ on how to do that. The majority says we should increase taxes to get more jobs. They made the same promise of 30,000 jobs if the tax increasing transportation bill was passed. Those jobs have not appeared. That line of reasoning doesn’t work. We need to take steps to encourage businesses to locate in Minnesota and to encourage small businesses to grow and expand. We cannot do that by placing a further burden on the businesses we already have or by hurting our families with more taxes. Throughout the coming months there will be many good ideas on how to balance the budget. I would love to hear yours. You can submit your ideas to the Legislature by visiting www.house.mn/budgetsuggestions.asp. Some of the best ideas come from people like you. So be certain to share them with us. Sincerely, Peggy Scott State Representative, District 49A |
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