Donna Schmitt For City Council

Here are some highlights from the agenda:

• Approval of a peddler’s license for APX Alarm Company. I’m trying to understand why they are considering these sales people as peddlers when under their own definition of a peddler, a peddler is someone who carries the product and immediately delivers the product.  Peddlers do have to be licensed.  But a solicitor, such as your Avon lady, someone that takes an order and typically delivers items at a different time, doesn’t need a license.  What kind of alarms can be sold that way?  Maybe it is a new style of alarm that I have never heard of?

• It seemed ironic that the council was approving the acceptance of the Comcast transfer of studio equipment to the school when the equipment at the city council chambers was not working.  They said the meeting was being taped but because our equipment is so old and not functioning correctly they couldn’t broadcast live.  The monitor that Adam uses has not been working for a long time, so he can’t see what he is taping unless he comes out and checks the camera.  If the city had been using the money they have been getting from Comcast over the years to upgrade our own system, rather than putting the money into the general fund, there wouldn’t be the problems that we have now.  That is being a little shortsighted on the council’s end.

There was the comment made a couple of times that the meeting would be taped and that tape would be available for check-out at the library.  The only problem  is that these are VCR tapes and THEY DON”T SELL VCR PLAYERS ANYMORE!

• The owners of the NE Bank Building had sent around a petition and got 22 signatures asking for Excel Energy to correct the problems that area has had with power outages.  The city has agreed to help them work with Excel to get this problem resolved.  They never presented the signatures, so I am not sure if these were business owners that signed this petition or residents that live in the area.  Hopefully, this will help reduce the incidents that they have been having.  I think it is great if the city can help them in this situation.  It would not be good if businesses moved out because they couldn’t resolve this.

• An ordinance amending Chapter 7, Section 72 of the City Charter was approved at tonight’s meeting.  I would like to point out one section:  “Section 72. BONDED DEBT AND DEBT.  No bond shall ever be issued to pay current expenses or to refund certificates of indebtedness issued to provide for emergencies in the revenues to cover current expenses,...”

This is good to know.  Now, let me show you a line from a memo dated August 2, 2010, from the assistant financial director in Columbia Heights.  Joe stated, “It should also be noted that the borrowing that resulted in this $17 per person increase in annual interest expense permitted the City to continue to meet some basic needs during these difficult economic times,…” There is a fine line differentiating that the city is bonding to meet “basic needs” or whether we can say that the city is bonding to meet current expenses, which is illegal under our city charter.  Hopefully, they did follow the charter in this instance.

• The city council voted to suspend the tobacco license for Pyromaniacs. There was a display of several items that were confiscated from the original drug raid on June 15, 2010.  With four citations against the store the city ordinances does allow for the city council to suspend the license for a period of time, no less than 7 days.  The council, under direction of the staff chose to suspend Pyromaniacs license until the end of the year.

I know some of you are saying ‘yeah’ or ‘it’s about time.’  I do question the timing of the vote.  Omar, the owner of the store, is a devout Muslim and the city chose to do this during Ramadan.  Did the city really need to rush this through this month?  Why could they have not waited a couple of weeks until Ramadan was over and that would have allowed Omar to come defend himself in this case.  I doubt that the council would have changed their vote but by putting this on the agenda now was prohibiting him from coming to defend himself on this issue.  That is showing that the city is either insensitive to a person’s religion or maybe they did this purposefully.

• The city also suspended the license for Hot Market for 3 citations of selling tobacco to minors.  The owner came with an interpreter and presented his side of the case asking for the city to wait because two of those incidents are coming before the courts in September.  He stated that at least one of those cases was that he either sold the item to an adult, who then gave it to the minor or the minor came in with a fake ID.  In either case the officer did not witness the sale and the citation was based on the minor telling the officer that the item was sold to him from Hot Market.  This was another case where maybe we could have put this on the September agenda rather than rushed it through in the August meeting.

• The city approved the Resolution 2010-68. This is approving the city to continue on in the Housing Incentive Account Program under the MET Council.  Who did the negotiations?  This is the stupidest number and requirement I have ever seen in my life.  To allow the MET Council to get away with this and require you to add 231 affordable housing units (by affordable we mean approximately valued at $160,000, per Scott) is the reason we are living in the poorest city in Twin Cities.  This is part of the reason that we can’t get upscale companies and businesses to move into this area.

Here is a quote right from the resolution, ” It is important to remember that these housing numbers are goals, and do not represent a commitment to the Metropolitan Council.” So according to this comment this whole goal is really a sham.  Apparently, everyone knows this is a sham and it is an accepted practice.  It would be interesting to note if our city met any of its previous goals or how many cities truly meet these goals?

• The city council also approved Resolution 2010-79, adopting the 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Bruce made a good point, they adopted this but never had a final copy in front of them to look at before they approved it.  But this is the copy that the MET Council approved so the council did need to approve it just so they can move on.  The city is supposed to be giving the final copies to the Planning and Zoning Commission and to the City Council now that it has been approved by the MET council and the city council.

The meeting was quite long tonight.  I ended up leaving before the public forum was over but the ‘public’ part of the forum had already been lost.  What was supposed to be a time for the public to get up and speak ended up being more discussion amongst the council members.  I appreciate Tami, in the middle of this discussion, at least stating that she thought there were more people that wanted to make comments from the audience.  Hinting that the council members should stop and let the public continue on in their portion of the meeting.  The council had over 3 hours to share their opinions, the public should have been allowed to have their 5 minutes.

Thanks for your support!

Donna Schmitt

A campaign going around the blogging world is asking for supporters to send ten bucks to a conservative candidate on Fridays, between now and the election.  The idea is to coincide this with paydays.  Think of what a difference you can make if you make a donation every payday, between now and November!

I would love to be a ‘receiver’ of your Ten Buck Friday!  Thank you for supporting my campaign.  Donations of any size can be sent to:  Donna Schmitt for City Council, 4260 Tyler St NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421.  Thank you!

(Obviously paid for by Donna Schmitt for City Council, 4260 Tyler St NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421, 763-788-4905)

Thank you for your support at the primary!  Because of you, I will be going on to the general election in November.

Over the next few weeks I will be ordering more signs and getting another brochure ready for door knocking.    We will be scheduling coffee parties with question/answer sessions starting in September and trying to focus on specific precincts that we weren’t able to get to this last time.

THANK YOU!

Donna Schmitt

P.S.  I love the article from the Sun Focus News, if only it were true!  Blessings to the Sun Focus, but I came in third, not second.

Polling Place Hours and Locations

The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the following locations:
Precinct 1:   John Murzyn Hall, 530 Mill Street N.E.
Precinct 2:   Immaculate Conception Church, 4030 Jackson Street NE
Precinct 3:   Parkview Villa, 965 40th Avenue N.E.
Precinct 5:   First Lutheran Church, 1555 40th Avenue N.E.
Precincts 4 & 6:  Highland Elementary School, 1500 49th Avenue N.E.
Precincts 7 & 8:  Valley View Elementary School, 800 49th Avenue N.E.

City Council Candidates
Councilmember – two 4-year Terms – (vote for one or two)
Stan Hoium
Tami Ericson Diehm
Donna Schmitt
Bruce Kelzenberg
Steven Hofer

Who Is Eligible To Vote?
In Minnesota, to register and vote, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old on election day,

• Be a citizen of the United States,

• Have resided in Minnesota for 20 days immediately preceding election day,

• Not be under guardianship in which the court order revokes the war’s right to vote

• Not have been found by a court to be legally incompetent to vote, and

• Not have been convicted of a felony without having your civil rights restored.

Register to Vote
Information on voter registration may be obtained from Anoka County by calling 763-
323-5277 or at http://ww2.anokacounty.us/v4_elections/registration/default.aspx

You will need to register again anytime you move or change your name.

If you are unable to register in advance, you may register at your new polling place.

Authorized Proof of Identity Required to Register
Single Identification

• Minnesota driver’s license or learner’s permit or receipt for either that has acurrent address in that precinct, or

• Minnesota identification card (issued instead of a driver’s license by theMinnesota Department of Public Safety) or receipt that has a current address in the precinct, or

• Student ID, student fee statement or registration card with current address in the precinct, or

• Prior registration in the precinct shown on the roster, or

• Notice of late registration sent by the City Clerk or County Auditor, or

• Authorized Tribal ID

Two Part Identification

• Utility Bill (from cable TV, electric, gas, phone, water, garbage or sewer service), due within 30 days of the election and has the voter’s name and current address in the precinct.

• Minnesota driver’s license or Minnesota identification card with a former address; or U.S. Passport; or U.S. Military ID; or Minnesota Student Photo ID

Vouching for Residency
If a voter does not have any authorized proof of identity, on Election Day, the voter can still vote by having someone who is registered in the same precinct “vouch” for his or her residence. In this case, the registered voter signs an oath attesting to the new registrant’s residence in the precinct. A person may vouch for up to 15 people.

An employee of a residential facility, who has been certified to the County Auditor by the operator of the facility twenty days or more before Election Day, may vouch for facility residents, without having to be a resident of that precinct. The certified employee may vouch for an unlimited number of facility residents.  (Residents of nursing homes all around the city voted last Tuesday.  They had election judges come to the nursing homes and residents were vouched for and then voted.)

Election Results
Results for the Primary will be posted on the Anoka County and Secretary of State web
sites.  http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=4

(Taken from the City of Columbia Heights website.)

Apparently some of the city staff did not appreciate my letter to the editor in the Sun Focus on July 29, 2010.  They sent me a letter and copy of an in-house memo trying to say that I wasn’t giving out the whole “truth of the interest expense.”

Here is part of my response:

On complaint from the city of my rounding up $961,392 and saying that it was ‘almost a million”:

On page 19 of the 2009 report it listed interest on long-term debt for 2009 at $961,392.  Anything over $950,000 is almost a million in my eyes and many other people.  I have sat through many city council meetings where numbers are rounded up or down by the presenter.  This is an accepted practice.  Of course, this is not an accepted practice if you are the accountant.

On the city’s response being that property taxes only raised about $17 per person:

To say that this only resulted in a $17 per person increase is another interesting perspective.  The 2000 census data from the city’s website show that we have 18,520 residents.  Multiply 18,520 X $17 = $314,840.  Yet your letter stated that the figure was actually $314,000, which means you are also rounding a per cost estimate.  The other part of that $17 that isn’t being presented is that of the 18,520 people that live in this city, not all of them are paying property tax.  I do not know of any household in the city where their city portion of their property taxes only went up $17 or even just $16.96.

On the comment in the memo that the citizens could have petitioned to stop the building of the public safety building:

The point is not that these projects were ‘bad’ ideas.  I don’t know of many people that would deny that we needed more space for the police and fire.  Though I have heard over and over from citizens in reference to the new building, yes, we needed it, but we didn’t need a Taj Mahol.  The point is that we cannot sustain this rate of increase of spending into the future.  I think that was made very clear in my article.  What my article did not say, for lack of space, was that a new city hall, a new public library, walking paths in our parks are all wonderful things but at this time we cannot continue borrowing money at this rate and especially borrowing money to meet our basic needs.   There will have to be more cuts.

On the city’s claim that 55% of the long-term interest and debt is paid for funding  received from other jurisdictions:

Your point that “55% of the principal and interest on long-term debt for tax increment projects is paid with funding received from other jurisdictions” is a good point.  But I also look at that in this perspective:  If your son or daughter took out a loan for $10,000 to buy a used car and you, as their parent, co-signed, you are ultimately responsible for that loan.  The City of Columbia Heights is kind of like that.  We have been promised all of this money for projects from outside sources.  But we cosigned that loan and if those outside sources default on their portion of the loan we are ultimately responsible for the full amount.

The second part of that is all those other jurisdictions are just another tax that has been paid in another way to our county, state and federal government.  So we are still paying.

As a city we could go bankrupt.  Even if we don’t, if a city around us goes bankrupt it will destroy the reputation of the surrounding area, ultimately hurting our credit rating.  That is a very real possibility, whether it is Hilltop or Minneapolis that defaults on their loans, we would be effected.

Concerned about spending:

Am I concerned about spending?  Yes!  Can we continue to see the same rate of increase of borrowed money over the next four years?  No!  The next four years are not going to be fun years with lots of fun projects coming forward.  If we can just maintain city services without going into bankruptcy we will be accomplishing a lot.  When things start to look up, that is when we can look at adding new projects, but not now.  Now is when we need to pay our bills and get back to a common sense budget.

Here is information about Columbia Heights, straight from Wikipedia: The medium income for a household in the city was $40,562.  The medium household income for Anoka County was $57,754.

Here is some information about our schools straight from Food Service News:  65% of our students are on free or reduced lunches.  Compare that to statewide, 33 percent of public school students are on free and reduced lunch.

Did you notice something about this data?  Columbia Heights is not a rich city.  Columbia Heights has always been a blue-collar suburb and the majority of our homes are labeled affordable by the state. As our residents age, add to that we have a large group of retired individuals on a fixed income.

Our largest employers in Columbia Heights are Public School District 13, Crest View and the City of Columbia Heights.  Two of those three employers are funded by the households that are earning less than the average household in Anoka County.

As a city, we will not be able to sustain our current spending and it will need to be cut and cut soon because at this moment we are in freefall and will be unable to meet the basic needs of our city unless cuts are not put into effect, across the board.  Our bonded annual interest debt has increased from $118,000 to almost a million dolars over the past four years.  This is just the interest that we are paying on long term debt.  (Per CAFR 2009 report, page 19 and CAFR 2007 report, page 25.)  All of this when people are losing homes and jobs.

Let’s get our priorities right and make a difference in how our city is run.  Make sure you let the city know that they need to start making serious cuts.

For a couple of years the City of Columbia Heights has been purchasing older homes, paying to have them demolished, and then sitting on the vacant property in anticipation of selling that property when values have gone back up.  Many times the cost for these purchases and demolition ends up costing the city around $50,000 to $60,000.  The idea is to remove from sales homes that are hazardous to live in.

The concept is commendable but maybe it is not necessarily the best one.  Some of the problems are:  1) You have now eliminated that property from the tax rolls so less income for the city. 2) Now this property is becoming a debt to the city because it has to be maintained on a seasonal basis.  3) These properties that have been taken off the tax rolls mean the rest of us will have our property taxes go up because the city’s budget has not decreased.

I proposed another plan at the city council meeting on Monday night.  Why not take that $50,000 to $60,000 and offer a $10,000 to $20,000 grant to a purchaser to rehab that home.  That way you keep the home on the tax rolls, the home is fixed up to current code and it helps the neighbors by upgrading the home’s value.  By offering up to a $20,000 grant you take that same $50-$60 thousand dollars and have fixed up 3-6 homes rather than torn down a single home.  You also are allowing a family a way to purchase an affordable home and yet providing a way to make sure it is a ‘safe’ home.

There could be several stipulations on that grant.  You could make sure that the rehab is done in a timely manner.  One way to do this is to decrease the grant if the rehab is not completed within 4-6 months.  You can also offer a larger incentive if this is an owner rehab vs. a property flip.   But I would also recommend a smaller grant, possibly $10,000 offered to someone that rehabs a home and sells it to someone else just because it still is accomplishing the same purpose, refurbishing homes and making the safe for families.  This also could be offered to groups such as Habitat to help them with projects in the city.

With a $10,000 to $20,000 grant the purchaser could even pay to have that home demolished and build a new home on that property.  But the difference is that all of this is done while still providing property tax income to the city and eliminates the need for the city to maintain that property over the years.

For anyone that has watched DIY, HGTV or faithfully watched ‘This Old House’ over the years you know that anything can be rehabbed.  To say that a house is not fixable is not being realistic.  Can anyone fix up a home?  No!  Are there times you need to call in an expert?  Yes!  With this type of grant you are providing more incentive for the purchaser to get it done quickly and getting that home back into a livable condition, and keeping it on the tax rolls.  It is a win-win situation for the city and for the purchaser.

There are other home improvement programs offered but all of these have limited funds and are usually grabbed up quickly.  This would be a great idea to sell to realtors and get them to help market this idea in our city.  This would be just another incentive and would work especially for those homes that are in foreclosure.

This is the time for the city to re-evaluate it’s demolition goals.   The City of Columbia Heights has set aside funds for demolition over the next couple of years.   We need to make sure that we are getting the best value for our dollar and a home improvement incentive grant could be what we need to improve our home values rather than what is currently in place.

Over the past week I have been looking at the CAFR – the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2009 that will be discussed at the upcoming city council meeting on July 12.  It has been interesting comparing that report with the 2007 report.

A couple of items that I have noted is that the city took in an additional $2 million in property taxes compared to 2007, in the midst of foreclosures, vacant homes and businesses closing.  It is no wonder that many residents have complained about their taxes going up!

The other thing that I have noticed is that over the past four years we have seen an increase of our long-term interest.  It has jumped from around $118,000 to what it was at the end of 2009, to almost a million.  This is just the interest!  What happened to common sense spending?  What happened to budgeting?  What happened to cutting our budget to live within our means?  This council needs to get this under control, immediately, or we will be unable to fund our basic services.  We can not depend on the federal or state government to bail us out.

Monday’s meeting will be interesting but could be very long.

Sorry this is out late but with the Campaign Launch Party on Tuesday I had several items I needed to wrap up from that before I could get this out.

• Just a comment: Why does it take a month for the EDA minutes to be posted and approved by the city council?  The EDA is dealing with items that need to be acted on in a timely manner.  Why are the minutes taking so long to be posted and approved?  The minutes from the EDA meeting of May 25, 2010 were not included into the City Council minutes until June 28, 2010.  Compare that with the Planning & Zoning Commission minutes that are included in the council minutes by the next week.

• RE:  The purchase of 2 A2B Electric Bicycles.

For those not familiar with an A2B bicycle, that is a battery-operated bicycle with the option of pedaling when the rider chooses.  Typically, the bike weighs an additional 70 pounds just from the weight of the battery.  Top motorized speed is 20 mph on a level surface.  Since Columbia Heights has a number of steep hills, you will not be able to go 20 mph up a hill unless you also pedal.  Going down one of our steep hills, there is a potential of going faster than 20 mph.  The battery life is about 20 hours before it has to be recharged.

With a purchase price of almost $4,000 for each of them it seems a little steep for something that can only be used for a few months a year.  It almost seems like a small motorcycle would be a better investment.  I do understand this is ‘grant’ money so the purchase probably needed to be ‘green’ friendly.

Just because there is ‘free’ money out there doesn’t mean we should be applying for it just so someone else doesn’t get it.  We still need to be wise in our choices.  Any grant money is money that taxpayers are paying for.  We need to take care and be wise in all of our decisions.

Can we use these bikes?  Probably.  Are they just a fad?  Definitely.  Could we have potentially purchased something that would be more practical for our city, considering the terrain?  Yes. 

• RE:  Renegotiating Contracts

This is something Bruce Nawrocki and I have been stating for a long time.  We need to be going out and getting bids for our contracts on towing, car washing services, and auction of surplus items.  Thanks to staff that took the time to get bids on these services.  Thanks to the city council for taking the time to look at these bids and come up with common sense reasons for their choices.

There was a practical reason for the city not to take the lowest bid on car washing services.  They chose Auto World because of their 24-hour service.  It makes sense to have car wash services available in the middle of the night for our local police.  None of the other companies offered that option.  As for the other services, the lowest bid was taken.

• RE:  2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

This will be discussed at the July 12^th City Council Meeting.  I haven’t had time to look at the report but this is an important report that needs to be thoroughly analized.  The city council work session for July 6 has been canceled because only two council members would be available for that meeting.   Because of the budget discussions that will be handled at the July 12^th meeting, expect a long meeting that evening.  The council will have the material to look at for two weeks, but there is a holiday in the middle of that time so in reality they will only have a week to look at this material.  Not a lot of time for something this important.

• RE:  Paid Bills

The city paid out $312,000 over the past couple of weeks for our pedestrian bridge.  Hopefully, this will be reimbursed to the city from the state or federal funds as have been promised.  It would be interesting to see how much we can attribute to this bridge that wasn’t supposed to cost Columbia Heights a lot of money.  Originally, it was estimated that the city’s portion would be around $500,000.  I know we have spent several thousands just for looking at the proposal and also for construction.  Because of the condition of our federal and state finances reimbursement should not be depended on until we have the money in hand.

REMINDER:  Next city council meeting is on July 12, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.  After the meeting the City Council is scheduled to look at city union contracts.  That may be an extremely long meeting!

Thank you to everyone that made it to my campaign launch party at Puerta Del Sol. We got enough donations to start working on a new brochure. Time to get busy!