Centerville Citizens For Ethical Taxation and Representation: Sep 17, 2008

Upcoming Meetings of City Council, Committees & Commissions

Per City Website
Link Here

The City website is not always the best at keeping the citizens informed with their "brief" list of upcoming sessions.

All Council sessions are held on the second and forth Wednesday of each month (if not rescheduled) at 6:30 and are open to the public.
Remember, you will not be allowed to speak unless you have previously arranged to be on the agenda or a request to address Council for two minutes is approved by Mayor Mary Capra in advance. Speaking out of turn is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

Government of the people, by the people and for the people?

Residents may watch each previous session on North Metro Cable (15 or 16) as they are replayed.

Tues, Wed and Sat
@ Noon

Sun, Mon and Thurs
@ 6 p.m.

Not Televised:

Planning & Zoning Commission Meetings

Parks & Recreation Committee Meetings

State Auditor Suggestions For Centerville Officials

The city should consider opening up a competitive request-for-proposal process for things such as engineering services to "demonstrate impartiality."

It should provide more oversight of employee-reimbursement funds such as mileage to ensure information is recorded accurately.

It should do more monitoring of the city administrator's and finance director's time spent working and revise if necessary.

Could this last statement have something to do with our past Finance Director?

LINK HERE
For the skinny on the last Finance Director and our City Leadership.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by the Centerville Citizens for Ethical Taxation and Representation bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not always reflect the opinions of the CCETR. We are not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the comments made in this blog.
This blog is an outlet for the citizens of Centerville to have a voice and freely express their opinions, as guaranteed under the First Amendment.
The CCETR reserves the right to remove any threatening or profane comments made on this blog. It is our intent to provide the most accurate and current information regarding the City of Centerville. We invite The City Staff and its Administrator to "correct" or comment on any info. they see misleading or untrue.

Quotes From Citizens

Recent Statements from the Centerville/Lino Lakes Blog
Link Here

Consolidation is the right thing to do. I have done some research and spoken to the league of cites in St. Paul. In order to get a consolidation to a vote to the general public, you need a petition signed by 5% of registered voters that voted in the last govenor election. 1603 citizens voted. That would amount to aproximately 80 signatures. Once the signatures are done, it is then presented to the city council which by statute they must post the consolidation to the citizens of centerville for a vote. If the majority vote in favor of the resolution. The consolidation moves forward. Taxes will be lower, our police service will be moved to Lino lakes which patrols all around our city, and the cost will be significantly reduced. Citizens you must know, our taxes in this city will always go up. We have no business, nor will we ever get any business. Lino lakes has the corner market on incentives for business. I love this city but hate the tax burden that is placed on all of us. We can do something about it. The time is now.
August 21, 2008 6:38 AM

Remember, Consolidation with Lino Lakes would mean that Centerville would dissolve and we would become part of the city of Lino Lakes and fall under their city government and rules.
August 21, 2008 12:50 PM

Let's do it. We can do it the same time as the state audit petition. We need our voice back in the this City.
August 21

I agree and so does my husband. He has said this all along.Centerville has 45% budget for Police??? Do we have enough residences for this amount of police force? I have a great birds eye view of Centerville Road and Main Street at night and you should see the amount of police cars doing 80 mph down Centerville road. You would think I live in the inner city.Do we have a candidate for Mayor? We should have a meeting about this soon.
August 21, 2008

I agree, lets go for it. Now is a good time. It seems that alot of voices in this city have fallen on deaf ears. I love this city,but our taxes just keep going up and up,something has to be done.
August 21, 2008 3:01 PM

Taxes keep going up because the City is trying to turn us into an Edina. We don't have the land share for this type of community. I see an beautiful old neighborhood that could be really quaint and charming but instead the City wants to bull doze it down and create a sudo town. They were hoping we all would just leave. I don't think we are going anywhere though!
August 21, 2008 5:56 PM

These statements are direct quotes found on Topix.com

"The February informational meeting was one of the biggest lapses of leadership I've seen in a very long time. A resident was given the microphone to speak his thoughts in front of the community. The resident was interrupted by a heated side discussion between city council rep Jeff Parr and another resident. In my opinion the man with the microphone should have had the floor. Dallas Larson was given back the microphone and at that point should have proclaimed order in the court, but instead allowed this heated discussion to continue. It was at that point that Mary Capra left the room to contact the police. They showed up shortly afterwards. In my opinion, what we needed was someone to step up to the plate and call a meeting to order. Instead it turned into a frustrating display and lack of leadership. Being that I am new to the ways of how our city works I hope that this was just an anomaly and not an example of leadership in other instances".

"If you think your taxes are high now just wait until they pass this Proposed 7.8 million dollar Road Improvement Project. They tell us the "City" pays 70% of this project. Guess what, that's us, the tax payers. Tell the council how you feel about this project at the Public Hearing on May 1st, it may be our last chance. Power in Numbers. Also, please sign our petition that asks the council to re-asses the scope of this project in these difficult economic time".

"Centerville city council just can't stop spending the taxpayers money. Bonds, new roads, buying buildings and parks, putting in trails. When will it end. We need new people for council and mayor".

"Wow - What a great turn out at the May 1 hearing. I'd say 400 people plus. I don't see how the council members or Mayor could pass this project as is and still sleep at night. The message was the same over and over. This is not the time for such an extensive project. Only do what is necessary at this time. If they pass the project as is I have to question their morals and ethics. Also if they pass it as is, we need to get them out of office because they obviously are not representing the people of Centerville".

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/centerville-mn

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Media Coverage in the Pioneer Press

In this Sunday Pioneer Press newspaper, Centerville Citizens for Ethical Taxation is expecting an article written about our Petition for a State Audit. Please check it out!
Stay tuned here for media coverage on the citizens push for change!

Centerville Has a Dedicated Road Maintenance Fund?

City Council passed the preliminary 2009 road budget during the September 10th meeting.
A whopping $25,000 will be set aside for street reconstruction and reserve. We know that the City needs $60,000 just to cover the seal coating projects scheduled for next year. This still leaves us short $35,000 but hey, it's a start.
Thank you to all the citizens that have been so involved. Together, we might be able to get the fund increased to the $100,000 Council Member Broussard-Vickers stated we need.

How about slashing part of the $84,000 budgeted funds the City spends on Park Programs and Maintenance for the SIX parks we have in a 2.2 square mile radius?

Contact us privately with City information, news and personal stories. All contact information will be kept private and not posted on the blog unless requested.
Email Centervilleblog@yahoo.com

What Results Can We Expect From a State Audit?

We can not say with any certainty what a State audit will reveal. The reason we are requesting one is to determine if our City is being managed properly. Citizens want to address the debt and understand why it has increased over a million dollars for each of the past two years. The audit will also address spending. Why did Council spend $517,000 for unnecessary streetscaping which caused an additional bill of over $54,000 for engineering and administrative costs? Why do we now own a second public works building at the cost of 1.4 million dollars? Are the people behind the walls of City Hall managing the City correctly and being good stewards of our money? The audit will answer these questions!
The City will be billed hourly by the state. Hugo is expecting a price tag of under $20,000. If Centerville spends this much but the audit reveals how to save $50,000, isn't it worth it?
The following links detail the results of a State audit completed for each city. In reviewing the audits you also get an understanding how each city is managed.

Cambridge
Crosby
Bena
Kenyon
Phillips
Ronneby
Harris
Albany
Stacy

Contact us privately with City information, news and personal stories. All contact information will be kept private and not posted on the blog unless requested.
Email Centervilleblog@yahoo.com

State Audit Meeting a Success!

Thank you to all the residents that turned out last night! The room was almost unbearably warm but the crowd of 85 stayed for the entire meeting.

In fact, many people remained far after the meeting ended and visited with their neighbors. New friendships were made and new alliances were born. There was a sense of community that has not been felt in a long time. The very reason many of us moved to Centerville was reaffirmed last night!
The concern expressed for our city was overwhelming. There are many intelligent citizens in this city and many informed questions were asked. Although we are just beginning our journey, the first steps were taken last night, by many residents.

Citizens had the opportunity to meet four of the candidates last night. First we heard from Stephanie Blomseth, running for council. Next was Ben Fehrenbacher also running for city council. Council candidate Neale Rawlings attended the meeting and left early with his adorable 18 month old twin boys. His platform was left for the residents to review. The two candidates running against our incumbent Mayor spoke; Bryce Wasiloski and Laura Powers. These candidates are going to give Mary a run for her money! It should be an exciting election!

When the meeting ended, many citizens volunteered to walk the petition and took the needed excess spending fact sheet. Unfortunately, we are unaware of which areas will be walked and hope they will follow up with us here.

We need to obtain the signatures of 423 registered voters before we send the petition to Anoka County for certification. As we move forward, we will keep a running total of the number of signatures we have and keep you updated on how many more we need to comply with the state audit laws.

This is an exciting time for the citizens of Centerville. We have the opportunity to change our local government and make it work for us, as intended! Thank to everyone who participated last night to what WILL BE a great start to reform!

Government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Gettysburg Address ~ Abraham Lincoln

Contact us privately with City information, news and personal stories. All contact information will be kept private and not posted on the blog unless requested.
Email Centervilleblog@yahoo.com

Centerville Citizens For Ethical Taxation and Representation

Watch Council Meetings Online

The Last Council Decided

Failure To Do The Paperwok Leads to Lawsuit

Tribute To Our Senior Citizen/One Brick At A Time

Upcoming Meetings of City Council, Committees & Commissions

State Auditor Suggestions For Centerville Officials

Contact Us

Voter Remorse?

Comment Rules

Email City Officials

City Contacts

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Disclaimer

Tax Day Tea Party St. Paul 4/15/2009

Minnesota Tax DayTea Party

First Annual Adopt a Family!

Food Shelf Information

Increased Taxes Will Bring More of The Same!

Links of Interest

Blog Archive