What is Happening With The State Audit of Centerville?

Here is what we know today. (Re post of April 1st)

The audit was completed between November and January.
Centerville will be charged approximately $60 per hour for the investigation. We do not know how many hours will be billed.

The audit is currently under review.
Centerville will not be charged for the review process.

The review completion is done in multiple steps.
The audit of Cambridge was not released for nine months.
Link to audit Here
At this time we are waiting for a phone call from the State and have no inside information as to the approximate completion date.

Per Minnesota Statute 6.715
Data that support the conclusions of the report and that the state auditor reasonably believes will result in litigation are protected nonpublic data or confidential data on individuals, until the litigation has been completed or is no longer being actively pursued.
Link to statute Here

Whether the formal proceedings against a Centerville business is related to the audit or simply coincidence is unknown to us at this time.

CENTERSTONE TITLE LLC
Respondent created and controlled sham affiliated business arrangements; and provided other forms of kickbacks to referral partners in exchange for the referral of title insurance business.
Link to findings Here

Thank you to everyone that has supported the State audit. We will continue to do our best to keep you informed of our findings.

Council Members Moving Forward With Finance Director Replacement

While many question the necessity of hiring a new full time replacement, the council will conduct the first round of candidate interviews Saturday, May 9.

“I’m not aware of anything [concerning Meyer’s job performance] that would raise any huge red flags,” Larson told The Citizen. “If he was resourceful enough to generate a few dollars on the side in a consulting business, that’s fine, as long as it didn’t affect his job here.”
Full Story Here
Mr. Larson was the supervisor of our last finance director and as such, isn't he obligated to investigate all information available? Maybe Centerville can survive with only a part-time director or hire a consulting firm on an hourly basis.

"City Administrator Dallas Larson and Mayor Mary Capra confirmed that Meyer concurrently completed work for other cities, but Larson said none of the work Meyer did outside of Centerville presented a conflict."

Read More About Work With Other Cities Here

"Capra said Meyer was a good employee who brought in more than $3 million in grant funds for the city, and that resident inquiries into Meyer’s personal file are costing the city tax dollars because of attorney fees."
Full Story Here

What Capra does not mention is how much money Centerville must spend in matching funds for these grant dollars. She also does not state why the City is spending money for attorney fees in this matter. Why not allow the residents to view the personal file (attendance records) of a former or current City employee that is known to work with other cities?

"Larson said the blog has “nothing good to say about Centerville, ever.” (Link Above)
The City officials have always been encouraged to contact the blog regarding information they consider incorrect.

How Does Centerville Compare With Other Cities?

Comparing Property Taxes on Average Value Homes in 117 Metropolitan Communities, 2007-2008
The link shows how well our City officials have been managing your money. The nearby City of Columbus with similar population ranked 94 while Centerville remained at number 3.
Bear in mind that since the chart was created, our officials have been busy with:

Increasing Centerville taxes by 6.6%
(The highest allowable by law)
Imposing 4+ million dollar street improvement assessments.
(Still no dedicated road fund)
Chasing a downtown dream and placing bets.
(Approving hundreds of thousands in engineering fees)
Link Here
Link Here
Creating a"Fire Protection Fee" for those without City water.
(Not considered a new tax)

Read confirmation email from the City Administrator below.

Monday, January 5, 2009 9:21 AM

From:"Dallas Larson"

To: Centervilleblog@yahoo.com

Your blog states that the city water charge of $84 will apply to all residents. The charge at $80 is already on the bill of the majority of residents (all who are connected to city water) and for them only the 5% increase will apply. This fee will be new to those that are not connected
to city water, but receive benefits due to the fire insurance rating.

Dallas Larson, Administrator
City of Centerville
651-429-3232

City Council/Finance Director History Circa 2005

Click the above images to enlarge and read the approved City minutes.

Mary Capra, Tom Lee, Jeff Paar and Linda Broussard-Vickers all questioned his job performance (section two) in January 2005. A full six months before he accepted a position with Lightowler, Johnson and Associates. Today they claim there has never been a problem?

“I’m not aware of anything [concerning Meyer’s job performance] that would raise any huge red flags,” Larson told The Citizen. “If he was resourceful enough to generate a few dollars on the side in a consulting business, that’s fine, as long as it didn’t affect his job here.”
Several council members, including Tom Lee and Mayor Mary Capra, say they were aware that Meyer had a consulting business, a fact that Lee says was disclosed at the time of Meyer’s interview in 2004.
The Citizen


For a little history (section three) on our City Administrator
CLICK HERE

The Citizen 4/15/2009

Does Centerville Need A Full-Time Finance Director?
By Deb Barnes

The Centerville City Council is actively engaged in a search to replace former city finance director John Meyer, who retired last January for health reasons. But some Centerville citizens question whether the city really needs a full-time finance director.
Since Meyer’s departure, the city has relied on intermittent assistance from Abdo, Eick & Meyers, the city’s auditors, to keep its financial wheels turning.
Centerville is counting on cost savings realized by Meyer’s departure to help whittle its budget in 2009; even after accounting for the costs of temporary help until a new finance director is hired, it appears the city will be $22,000 ahead. But although the city may have been paying for a full-time finance director, Centerville resident Stephanie Blomseth wonders if it had one.

Records show that while Meyer was employed by the city of Centerville he actively pursued other work, both as a consultant to Minnesota municipalities and as a part-time employee of an engineering consulting firm in North Dakota.
Lightowler Johnson Associates in Fargo, N.D. lists Meyer as an employee on the company’s Web site. Meyer has worked up to 35 hours per week as Project Developer/ Finance Advisor for the architectural/engineering firm since July 1, 2005, sources say.

“I’m not aware of anything [concerning Meyer’s job performance] that would raise any huge red flags,” Larson told The Citizen. “If he was resourceful enough to generate a few dollars on the side in a consulting business, that’s fine, as long as it didn’t affect his job here.”
Several council members, including Tom Lee and Mayor Mary Capra, say they were aware that Meyer had a consulting business, a fact that Lee says was disclosed at the time of Meyer’s interview in 2004. But how much outside consulting he did, or whether Meyer arrived at City Hall “refreshed and ready for work” as the Personnel Policy requires, has apparently never been discussed.
Meyer did not return a phone call in time for this story.

To be fair, the above is only part of a much lengthier, detailed story. Of course, we chose to shorten it up for the blog. To read the entire article
Link HERE

2009 Street Improvement

Bid Opening April 14, 2009 - 10:00 a.m.
Apparent Low Bidder to Apparent High Bidder

Rum River Contracting $1,237,968.09
Forest Lake Contracting $1,337,737.25
Knife River Corporation $1,358,740.30
Dresel Contracting, Inc. $1,368,097.75
Tower Asphalt, Inc. $1,404,004.00
T.A. Schifsky & Sons, Inc. $1,579,013.99

The new bid amounts are apparently much lower than expected. Will the savings (approximately $300,000) be passed on to our assessed residents?

Centerville Property Values Drop 10.3 Percent Over Year

Taxes are payable in 2010
by Loretta Harding
4/14/2009
CENTERVILLE — The Centerville City Council heard appeals to the payable 2010 property tax assessments prior to the April 8 meeting at City Hall.

As required by state law, at least three council members became board certified to address property owners who take issue with valuation and classification of their property at the annual Board of Assessment Appeal and Equalization Hearing. City Assessor Ken Tolzmann attended the meeting to answer questions, and Diana Stellmach represented Anoka County, as required by state law.

Assessors in Minnesota use real estate sales in a given community between October of 2007 and September of 2008 to determine current market value of homesteaded residential property. Qualified sales for purposes of market valuation don't include bank sales, foreclosures or sales to relatives.
Full Story Here

Do City Officials Care When the Employment Policy is Violated?

Apparently they all have turned a blind eye to it here in Centerville! Our last finance director John Meyer, split town (citing health issues) in the midst of a State audit and left us high and dry on the 2009 Centerville budget. It has come to our attention that the Centerville City officials (including Mayor Mary Capra) knew our former finance director was working with other cities at the same time he was employed with the City of Centerville. They also knew he owned his own business upon choosing to hire him in 2005. Mr. Meyer did all this with their knowledge even though it most likely was a violation of Centerville's employment policy.
See actual policy documentation above.

To learn more about his activities while working for us,
CLICK HERE.

Maybe it's time to question what is going on behind the walls of City Hall during working hours and the judgment of our elected officials. To some, this appears to be further evidence of selective enforcement. To others this is a violation of public trust and reckless use of taxpayer dollars.

Suggestions Being Accepted for Naming the New Road

The City Council is looking for resident suggestions for naming the "Backage Road" located 20th Avenue and 21st Avenue. We will be accepting names via email at tbender@centervillemn.com until May 31, 2009.

A Finance Director Is Needed... Why?

Could the positions of City Administrator and Finance Director be combined? If the Finance Director has to "step up" to fulfill the role of Administrator in his absence, why is our Administrator unable to fulfill the role of the "subordinate" Finance Director position?
Finance Director Employee Position Description Here
What exactly does our City Administrator do for the $90K+ salary (with full benefits) he receives?
Incidentally, the Finance Director position pays another 80K+ with full benefits.

In the interest of saving money and covering our current $120,000 budget shortfall, is this a bad idea for a city of our size?

What About That State Audit?

We have been hearing from residents questioning the status of the State audit. Here is what we know today.

The audit was completed between November and January.
Centerville will be charged approximately $60 per hour for the investigation. We do not know how many hours will be billed.

The audit is currently under review.
Centerville will not be charged for the review process.

The review completion is done in multiple steps.
The audit of Cambridge was not released for nine months.
Link to audit Here
At this time we are waiting for a phone call from the State and have no inside information as to the approximate completion date.

Per Minnesota Statute 6.715
Data that support the conclusions of the report and that the state auditor reasonably believes will result in litigation are protected nonpublic data or confidential data on individuals, until the litigation has been completed or is no longer being actively pursued.
Link to statute Here

Whether the formal proceedings against a Centerville business is related to the audit or simply coincidence is unknown to us at this time.

CENTERSTONE TITLE LLC
Respondent created and controlled sham affiliated business arrangements; and provided other forms of kickbacks to referral partners in exchange for the referral of title insurance business.
Link to findings Here

Thank you to everyone that has supported the State audit. We will continue to do our best to keep you informed of our findings.
Have a great weekend!

Centerville Anticipates Up To $120,000 In Budget Cuts

No Word Yet On State Audit Costs
By Deb Barnes

CENTERVILLE – Although the City of Centerville isn’t quite sure how big the 2009 budget funding gap is going to be, one council work session on the topic has already been held. City Administrator Dallas Larson is getting the city’s ducks in a row to meet the shortfall, which he says may be as high as $120,000, or almost 5 percent of the city budget, set at $2,604,320 last December. That number, however, does not include charges for the state audit report, which is still under review by the Office of the State Auditor. Since that time, it has become clear that some expected revenues will not be headed for the city’s coffers aft er all. City officials anticipate that $63,500 in 2009 Market Value Homestead Credit revenues will not be forthcoming from the state, and staff is taking steps to deal with that expected loss.

“We need to cut a minimum of $80,000, perhaps as high as $120,000 [from the budget],” Larson said. Those budget cuts will be accomplished in a number of ways. The city will see at least a net $22,000 in savings because of the vacancy in the finance director position following John Meyer’s retirement in January.

The Citizen
Full Story Here