Who Has The Right to Decide What One Can Do With Their Private Property?

CENTERVILLE’S DEBT

2004 $5,710,000
2009 $ 11,272,000
A 97% INCREASE IN FIVE YEARS!
What do we have to show for it?

As the current Mayor & Council continue to push forward a downtown redevelopment vision, they have delegated the Planning & Zoning Board to have a Public Hearing in regards to recently rezoned “nonconforming” downtown resident’s property. Even though the City can no longer legally eminent domain private property (exception being roads, bridges, parking lots and trails ) they are currently holding hostage many residents in the downtown area. The nonconforming designation stops the citizens from making improvements to their property which might increase its value as these homes wait to be purchased by a developer. Although The Beard Group has backed out of the Downtown Redevelopment citing the poor economy and there are STILL NO OFFERS on the table to purchase these properties our four members of Council and the Mayor continue to hold these fellow Citizens at their mercy.
In their glorious wisdom, they have voted to punt the nonconforming issue to the Planning and Zoning Board for a decision. Could it be that the Mayor and Council believe this board is more qualified to make that decision or is it a duck and cover move?
This push is exploding our debt, property taxes and we ALL are paying the price!

The Planning & Zoning meetings are no longer televised. Ironically, in the interest of "saving money" the Council voted to discontinue this important public service last year.
UPDATE 03/03/2010
The entire Council (excluding Jeff Paar) sat in on the Public Hearing/Input Meeting last night. City Attorney Kurt Glaser and City Administrator Dallas Larson were also in attendance. More information to follow soon.

US Home Construction Sinks to New Record Low

Construction of homes falls to lowest on records dating to 1959 as builders cut back.

Construction of new homes plunged last month to the lowest level on records going back nearly 50 years as U.S. builders slashed production while Wall Street nosedived.

Embattled homebuilders, who enjoyed a five-year boom, are now building new homes and apartments at a record-low pace, according to government data released Wednesday. New building permits, a barometer of future activity, also plummeted to the lowest pace on record.

The results were the lowest on government records dating back to January 1959. Previously, the slowest pace had been in January 1991, when the country was in recession and going through a similar housing correction. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected construction to fall even further to a rate of 780,000 units

Wachovia Corp. economist Adam York forecasts that construction will fall to around 650,000 units by next summer. While that's going to be painful for the nation's homebuilders, it will help stabilize the overall U.S. housing market, he said.

"The broader housing market needs fewer homes," York said in an interview. "We built too many homes in the United States and building less is one way to work off the excess inventory."

Story Here

Yet our Merry Band of Leaders have vowed to carry on with the Centerville downtown redevelopment...

Photo above is another vacancy in Circle Pines owned by the Beard Group.

Centerville's City Administrator...

Council votes 5-0 to dismiss Larson
The Beacon/Cannon Falls, MN

9/16/2004
Council members comment on resignation request

9/17/2004
Larson confirms: two council members ask him to resign
Dallas Larson, longtime administrator for the city of Cannon Falls, confirmed this week that two members of the city council have requested his resignation. Larson declined to identify the council members, but said he’d give his decision this Thursday, Sept. 16, during the regular council meeting.

9/27/2004
Mediator hired to resolve city issues

10/14/2004
Special meeting to evaulate performance of Dallas Larson

10/14/2004
City council meets in closed session to evaluate Larson

10/21/2004
City, Larson work on separation agreement

10/28/2004
City council meets; no Dallas Larson

11/10/2004
Council votes 5-0 to dismiss Larson

The 2005 sitting Council (Capra, Lee, Lakso, Paar and B-Vickers) was aware of this information during the hiring procedure. Mr. Larson does currently reside in Cannon Falls, not Centerville.
City Council Minutes 3/9/2005
Mayor Mary Capra indicated that after the second round of interviews there was consensus to offer the City Administrator position to Dallas Anderson.
Motion by Council Member Lakso, seconded by B-Vickers to authorize Lynn and Associates to offer the City Administrator position to Dallas Larson.
Council Member Tom Lee indicated that it is his intent to oppose Mr. Larson as City Administrator.
Vote
Ayes 4
Nays 1
Motion carried.

1/13/2005
Larson's future still up in the air

1/13/2005
CF grows, changes during Larson's tenure

1/26/2005
Larson has until Feb. 3 to accept agreement

2/10/2005
Larson agrees to $40,000 settlement

A Citizen's Battle with the City - Oh, and by the way... Welcome to Centerville!

We moved to Centerville in 2004. Since moving here we have had to deal with a variety of issues that have caused us great inconvenience and aggravation: City water connection, The redevelopment plan, and Zoning.

When we purchased out home we called the city to ask about being hooked up to the city water system because we had a concern over the existing well. At that time we were told that all water concerns would be taken up by the city council when the road construction issue on County Road 14 was settled. We were repeatedly told that this matter would wait for the road construction and that we could get on city water when the road in front of our house was dug up sometime in 2008.

This spring we lost almost all water pressure. Our situation was grave. We called again and demanded that something be done because the lack of water had become a quality of life issue and a potential health hazard. We then found out that we could not drill a new well and also found out that our being hooked up to city water actually had nothing what so ever to do with the road construction in the front of our home and that water would come in through the back.

When we discovered that we could not dig a well but that we could get a city water hook-up we requested to proceed with the hook-up. It took the city of Centerville 6 months to begin the process.

We have been given all kinds of erroneous information and spent hours on the phone trying to find out about the bidding process, how we could be hooked up to a hydrant if need be, what the assessment would be, who would be responsible for acquiring and paying for a check valve, etc. etc. When a contractor was finally hired they gave us a date and were ready to start work immediately. The day that the contractors were to begin it was discovered that no one from the city had acquired the appropriate permits from the health department. This meant another 3-week delay. Not only was this inconvenient for us, it also cost the contractors lost time and money.

When the contractor began work on the project it was discovered at the end of the day that the wrong fittings had been used. The inspector sent by the city did not catch the problem when he made his inspection. The job had to be re-done leading to another delay. After all of this we had to wait for a chloroform test and a hydrostat test to be run.

In the end, the city council did agree and maintained our residential zoning. However, it should have been clear from looking at a map that there would never be a commercial interest in our property. We should not have had to speak at a council meeting in order to express this concern. A few months later, we were again informed that we were going to be re-zoned to mixed use rather than residential. If the city deemed this inappropriate once and nothing has changed, why are they now including our property in the second phase of the redevelopment project?

When we bought our property we were zoned as a residential property. If this proposed change is implemented we feel that our hands will be tied. If we are rezoned to mixed used any potential new owners will be faced with being non-conforming and will not be allowed to make any changes to the home. No developer will be interested in buying our property unless all of our neighbors also agree to sell. We feel that we are being unjustly placed in an unfair and unreasonable situation.

Conclusion
We would like to see the city prove that the market can substantiate the current plan before taking on an even bigger proposal. If it can be proved that the City Of Centerville can support all of the commercial and residential growth and development of the existing Comprehensive Plan over the next five or ten years, we think it would then be reasonable to consider further action. But, given the current declining economy and markets, we do believe that a fiscally conservative approach to development is warranted over the next few years.

OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Here are the thoughts of another citizen that has issues with our current council.

In an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press dated 9/21/08, Mayor Mary Capra is quoted as saying, "Residents leading the petition effort are doing so for personal reasons. Those backing the petition have either been directly or indirectly upset with an action of the City." Of course it is for personal reasons and because of actions of the City. Everything you do as an elected official affects our personal standard of living as a taxpayer of Centerville. This statement of yours drives wedges and mistrust. When citizens lose faith in local government, it is personal.
In 1776 our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence and then in 1786 they ratified the constitution championing the rights of the individual and rejecting concepts like divine right of rule and aristocratic entitlement. A government of, by and for the people. The founding fathers knew the nations success depends upon the citizens being well informed so they made sure information could flow freely. The first Amendment protected and granted the right to peaceful assembly as well as free press. Our ancestors were in an unprecedented position to be able to exchange their ideas and opinions. This freedom assured that rule of reason prevailed. They trusted the people would make the right choice where it mattered most. In the voting booth. When freedom of speech falters and the market place of ideas fail it is almost impossible for us to fulfill the most essential civic obligation we have, making informed voter decisions to keep our government in check. Unfortunately there is no quicker path to voter disfranchising than being excluded from the process.
I have witnessed Centerville's government not listening, demeaning, and not respecting it's residents. When we ask questions, emails go unanswered or we get vague answers where we need to ask more questions. My wife was accused by Council member Lee of "causing all the animosity" at the May 1 public hearing. Call me crazy but I think the $20,000 assessments and the forcing of hooking up to water at an additional $7500 +/- had something to do with that, not my wife. Centerville is 7.8 million dollars in long term debt. You can minimize it all you want, it is still a substantial amount for a city of 3800. The need for a third party to get involved with a state audit is warranted when the citizens lose faith in their elected officials.
So, yes Mayor Capra you are right when you say residents heading the petition and those backing it are doing so for personal reasons because our founding fathers have afforded them the right to do so. I hope more people with personal reasons and citizens that have either been directly or indirectly affected by an action of the City, vote a new Mayor and two new council members into office. Everything you do at City Hall affects all of the citizens of Centerville. The list of the disfranchised is growing. We may not have been paying attention a few years ago but we are here now, so start listening to us. Don't walk on the rights our forefathers granted us.
Citizens of Centerville, please sign the state audit petition and make our local government accountable. It may cost us money but think of it as an investment in our future and the future of Centerville.

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Have City Officials Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew?

One story of the many citizens here in Centerville that were going to have property seized under eminent domain... That is before the Governor changed the law in 2006. Here is a letter to the current Mayor.

Mayor Mary Capra
1810 Fox Run, Centerville MN 55038
Dear Mayor Capra:
April 28, 2008
We feel privileged to be part of a smaller town/community. Typically a small town affords City government more personal contact with it’s citizens. We feel that is true for Centerville - a town we have truly loved for many years. Thus, we felt that writing to you personally would be appropriate and welcomed.
First, we understand that Centerville City Council has been facing and will continue to face challenging decisions over this next year. We wanted to express some of our concerns regarding those decisions. In specific, how the Council’s decisions have affected us.
This is our personal story in a nutshell:
We built our home on Centerville Lake at 1580 Sorel Street (several doors down from St. Genevieve Church) in 1994 and moved in May 7th, 1995. We were excited when LyNae’s parents (Lloyd & Diane Hansen) built next door to us (1588 Sorel) one and a half years later. Our intention was to look after them as they grew older and that by living next door, we could most adequately do this.
We began our own electrical company the summer of 2002. We are a small company and desire to remain small (2 employees). From the onset, our personal 3-car garage posed ‘space problems’ for all our electrical materials, along with our boats, trailers, etc. We had been looking for property close to home for storage and as an investment. We had talked with the owner of 1688 Sorel Str (across street from front doors of St. Genevieve Church and only ½ block from our home). We bought the property 2004, which at the time was zoned R-2, with the intentions of tearing down all the existing buildings and putting up two new homes (for rental and overflow). We also had every intention of following all and any guidelines set up by Centerville regarding covenants, etc. Then the Council changed the zoning ordinance from R-2 to "Mixed Use", which then led to the Council setting up the moratorium, then another rezoning and well, you know the rest. Originally, we never wanted to sell our investment property to the City. But when the City stated ultimately they would implement Eminent Domain against us (at the Beard & neighbors meeting), we felt we had no choice. The effort, stress and risk it took for us to purchase an investment property only to have the Council tie our hands and eventually relinquish it all to the City has been egregious.
In addition, the Council was making plans to put in high density housing and shops only ½ block away from our residence for the purpose of bringing in more businesses & residents, thus creating more tax revenue for the City. By this time, our small-town-"warm-fuzzies" were fading fast.
We did not want to live next to high density housing and shops, although we have always been advocates in "cleaning up" the downtown area. We believe however, that the ends do not justify the means in this case: entice developers by taking taxes and giving it to the developers (Beard) for the next 20 years. In our opinion, this "corporate welfare", along with the taking of one’s property by government (Eminent Domain), is unconscionable.
So, feeling quite hopeless, we sold everything in 2007. More importantly, we left our hopes and dreams: moving out of our dream home and away from Mom & Dad and selling our investment property (1688 Sorel) to the City.
We have moved to a home we bought in 2003: 7216 LaValle Drive, Centerville, across the lake from our Sorel home we sold. To be sure, this much older home does not have the same appeal to us as our 1580 Sorel home that we ourselves built from the ground up. Nonetheless, we feel fortunate to continue to be on the lake and in Centerville. That is, until recently.
Now we are facing another Centerville ‘taking’ in this home! The Council is considering turning our 1 block, dead end private road (LaValle Drive) into a public street, which we understand would quite possibly mean that the City of Centerville would once again take part of our personal property. The Council has stated they will not force hook up to City water, yet if we decide to move, it would be required to hook up before we could sell, and all of this at a cost of around $14,000-$20,000.
We enjoy our well water and believe it to be superior in every way, including safety and taste. It is one of the reasons we chose our property on Sorel and why we purchased our current home. We are not interested in being forced to hook up and drink chemically treated public water when our natural pure well water suffices. We are not interested in relinquishing our private street, hooking up to City water or capping our well. Certainly, those of us currently with wells should be allowed to keep them indefinitely, especially those of us on a private road! There is no good enough reason, at least to us, that the City of Centerville should take our private road and property.
Mayor Capra, in truth, we just want to be left alone. Please reconsider this forcible hook up and taking property that ethically is not the City’s to take. This is more than a personal issue for us, it’s a moral one. We believe Centerville Council would be overstepping, once again, the bounds in which government was originally intended.
Finally, we are firm believers that, for the most part, those that serve the citizens do so with good and right intentions and bear an enormous responsibility coupled with much work. Indeed, we believe this is true for the Centerville Council. And so, that is why we often pray for all our leaders that govern us, both locally and nationally. We are grateful for your service and time.
Sincerely,
Erick & LyNae
7216 LaValle Drive, Centerville MN 55038
cc: Centerville City Council, P & Z

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County 14 Additional Spending By City Officials

This is an email response from the Anoka County Commissioner, Rhonda Sivarajah regarding the county road 14 budget and how our officials chose to increase spending. It may be time to call for a State audit to see exactly what else they have been up to. We wish to extend a thank you to Rhonda for her assistance!

Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: Centerville Budget--additional information

I also wanted to pass along this information regarding the County Rd.14 Main Street project. As you can see in the article below, the administrator seems to be trying to put blame on the County Rd. 14 project for large tax increases. This is not an accurate statement. In fact, if you look at the information provided by our highway dept. at the bottom of the page, you can see that for the entire road project, they actually have very little cost after taking into account the federal dollars and the $125,000 they will be reimbursed for the trail after completion. The greatest costs they are incurring are costs that the county is not requiring as part of the project, but rather are a city decision to add streetscaping to the project. If you look at the dollars being spent you can see that Centerville's costs that are required are just a small fraction of what they are choosing to spend. Here is the article from the Citizen printed in June 2008 Extra Tax Burden Of Project Considered Every home in the city will face an extra $364 on its annual tax bill if a scaled-down version of the 2009 street improvement project goes ahead. That was the result of analysis done by city staff on the tax burden facing residents next year if a smaller project, costing $4.5 million in total, is given the go-ahead by the Centerville City Council. The findings were presented to the council at its May 28 meeting. The figure of $364.11 is calculated for a typical $250,000 property and is made up of $148.20 for the shared, city portion of the street improvement project, $107.95 for the city's share of the CSAH-14project and $107.95 for the city's share of the Backage Road project. Citizens face having to pay the CSAH-14 and Backage Road portions of the total regardless of whether the council orders the 2009 street improvement project. Below is a breakdown of expenses related to the road project as outlined by our highway dept. Below is a summary of Centerville's costs associated with items required for the reconstruction of Main St. (CSAH 14).
Total Project Construction Cost
- $13,485,213.49
Centerville's Total Responsibilities
- $1,211,496.49 (8.98% of Const. Cost)
Federal Funds Prorated/Credited to Centerville
- $272,410.00
Centerville's Cost for Upgraded Utilities
- $163,700.82
Centerville's Cost for Streetscaping
-$517,007.80
Centerville's Cost due to County Project
$258,377.87 (1.92% of Const. Cost)

Of the $96,919.72 we will charge the city for engineering & administration of the contract that is in addition to these construction costs, $54,456.69 is due to the city's enhanced utility work and streetscaping. Note too that the trail and sidewalk costs are included in the city's> costs due to the road construction (not identified as a city option), and they will be reimbursed $125,000 for a portion of the trail costs via the Metro Trail grant program after the trail is completed which will further reduce the city's total obligation towards the project.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Sivarajah
Anoka County Commissioner
763-274-4213

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 City Administrator Lives in Cannon Falls... Huh?

What is the salary for the City Administrator? Is one reimbursed mileage (50.6 each way) to travel for meetings? Inquiring minds want to know... Here is a little history (The Quad Press declined to report) that will make your head spin!

Council votes 5-0 to dismiss Larson At Thursday night’s meeting, the city council approved by a vote of 5-0 a motion to dismiss Dallas Larson as the city administrator. Also on a 5-0 vote, the council approved a separation agreement between the city and Larson, setting November 19 as the effective date for his separation from the city. As of Tuesday of this week Larson had not accepted the separation agreement, which, among eight conditions, calls for payment of four months of salary and other benefits, including continued health, life and disability insurance through March 18, 2005.The motion to dismiss Larson as the city administrator contains 14 reasons as “a representative, but not comprehensive, list of reasons” for his dismissal.
Included on the list of reasons are claims that:
• Larson “has not adequately implemented the City Council’s policy directives.”
• he “has not communicated well with the City Council and has failed to keep the City Council adequately informed…”
• his “management style does not meet the City’s current needs.”
• he has, at times “completely failed to provide critical information to the City Council.”
• “the City Council no longer trusts the City Administrator.”
• “the existing relationship with the City Administrator has eroded to the point where it is difficult for the City Council to do its job.”
• he has “a poor working relationship with members of the public and the business and development community.”
• he “improperly used City letterhead, implying the consent and approval of the City to conduct non-City business on behalf of a private corporation.
”The reasons also include claims that Larson gave “false or misleading information to a potential developer,” that, without informing the council and without city council authorization “instituted negotiations to purchase property;” that he “failed to provide critical information to the city council during the budget process about the nature and extent of various city funds,” and that “if the city council had full disclosure, the city council may have made the city levy lower.”All five council members present at the Thursday meeting voted in favor of the two motions. Those members are Andy Hochmuth, Lisa Wilcox-Erhardt, Mike Bateson, Peter Bodette and Gary Thomas. The sixth council member, Karl Hochmuth, was absent.With input from council members both motions were prepared for council action by Elliott Knetsch, who serves as the city attorney. He told the council that neither Larson nor Larson’s attorney have accepted the conditions of the separation agreement.Larson could not be reached for comment this week.Mayor Glenn Weibel, who cannot vote on a council motion except to break a tie, challenged the accuracy of some of the contents of the two documents and said there were several statements in the documents with which he did not agree.The mayor complimented Lanell Endres, the assistant city administrator who has been serving as the acting administrator during the absence of Larson, who technically is on vacation. Weibel said Endres has been doing an “excellent job.”The city of Cannon Falls may or may not have a new interim city administrator. A city official from a Twin Cities suburb has been selected for the position from among several candidates, but as of early this week had not accepted an agreement approved for her employment by the Cannon Falls city council.The candidate, who has served at different times as the administrator of four Minnesota cities in the Twin Cities area, met with Cannon Falls city officials on Monday of this week but reportedly had not decided as of Tuesday to accept the offer to serve as the interim administrator here.
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