Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work

Photo by Deb Barnes The Citizen November 2010

 Judge Orders Retaining Walls Removed in Centerville Criminal Case


CENTERVILLE - It took 76-year-old Norma Essex 14 years to build the block landscaping walls in her back yard on Old Mill Roadone block at a time. But unless those walls are completely removed by June 8, an Anoka County judge will order her to jail for 10 days.

Essex’s parole violation hearing on Jan. 26 was the latest in a series of hearings related to criminal charges filed by the City of Centerville Oct. 2, 2008. “I have a hard time putting my hands around this mess,” District Court Judge Jenny Walker Jasper said.

The city’s actions stemmed from complaints received from one of Essex’s neighbors along Clearwater Creek, City Administrator Dallas Larson told The Citizen in an interview last year. City Attorney Kurt Glaser said two of the walls, which are each under 4 feet in height, were constructed too close together to be considered separate structures, and when their heights are added together, the cumulative height invokes the requirement for a permit. Although Essex has made application, the city has thus far declined to issue the permit

The Experts Weigh In
Essex has said she never placed fill within the floodplain, a statement corroborated by a letter dated July 9, 2010 from Rice Creek Watershed District’s Water Resource Specialist Kyle Axtell. “Our review of the project site (as of Oct. 22, 2008) confirmed that no fill has been placed below the 100-year flood elevation,” Axtell said. “My suggestion would be to leave the retaining walls as they currently exist unless a substantial failure is expected … Disturbance of the embankment to rebuild the wall would undoubtedly cause much more harm to the resource than leaving it alone,” Axtell stated.

In response to Palzer’s (Public Works Director) request that she work with a certified design professional, Essex also obtained an opinion from landscape designer Alan Strohbehn of Goetz Landscape, Inc. “…I strongly believe (the walls) should be left alone,” Strohbehn said. They are in incredibly good shape for being built (14) years ago.” “There is no access for equipment,” Strohbehn added. “The steepness of the bank itself and existing tree roots will make it nearly impossible for crews to get a foothold to dig trenches and handle heavy blocks.”

Complaint-Driven Enforcement
The complaints against Essex were reportedly initiated at Centerville City Hall by her next-door neighbors, Timothy and Lori Glasow. Essex has had an ongoing feud with her neighbors. Last August, she obtained a Restraining Order following a series of incidents that a judge deemed to be harassment. Lori Glasow declined to comment when contacted for this story.

Like many other cities, the City of Centerville—lacking the funds to hire a full-time code enforcement officer—pursues code violations on a complaint basis. Essex and her attorney believe the city’s action was discriminatory. Erickson wrote in one court document, “The filing of the charges against Norma Essex is an exercise in discriminatory prosecution/selective prosecution in that over 30 different residences have been identified as having easement violations (of a similar nature to the bricks), none of which have been prosecuted.” As it stands now, Judge Walker Jasper ordered Essex to remove the walls by June 8 in what she called a “phased” plan. If the walls are not removed, Essex will spend 10 days in jail.
To read the entire story which has far greater detail, please follow this link
By Deb Barnes, Citizen Editor 

Update 3/5/2011

I would like to thank everyone for their support and those who volunteered to spend a night in jail for me. I doubt the court would let you, but many thanks.

The City seems to want to punish me as hard as they can.

The bottom line is, I never needed a permit from the City for the retaining wall because it is under 4 feet. The city is using a 2006 code to justify their venture. The wall was built 10 years before the 2006 code was adopted.

You draw your own conclusion.

Norma

One Resident Questions Why

Her property was assessed $90,000 while the street in front of her driveway was dropped approximately 5 ft due to the Clear Water Creek Development.
Centerville City officials are on record stating the assessment payments would not have to be paid until the driveway was fully corrected. Payments came due last December, ironically the same time this homeowner was hit by a following vehicle while entering the unsafe drive. Prior to the Clear Water Creek Development start this driveway was level with the street and there were no safety issues.
The real question may be who is responsible for repairing the collapsed drive? The City of Centerville or the Developer?

A Little History Review
Per The Citizen July 10, 2008
Fruth had appeared before Centerville City Council at a previous meeting, at which she claimed her drive had been left four feet above street level since the road improvements had been made.
She was offered two options to remedy the situation by the city engineer at the July 10 meeting, but explained she would need further time to decide which course of action she wished to pursue. The City Council voted to delay the passing of a resolution on Old Mill Road residents’ special assessments until a later meeting when Fruth’s situation had been resolved.
The Citizen

Ms. Fruth questions why the City of Centerville is insisting her property is potentially worth over one million dollars while the Anoka County property tax statement shows her property value has dropped approximately $50,000 and Zillow.com estimates a value of $272,500. Ms. Fruth is willing to sell to any developer willing to pay the price (One Million) the current council claims the property is worth.
Why do Council members continue to insist they know everything? We see every day how their pretending to be decorators influenced the colored concrete and street lights on Main Street!

As you can see the driveway issue has still not been resolved by the City of Centerville yet the resident has already been assessed $90,000. Curiously, the Developer (previous member of Planning and Zoning history) has had his assessments deferred.
Additional history Here

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.

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

Quarterly City Newsletter 10/15/2008

You might have noticed a small but significant change to the Centerville Newsletter.
It has been titled just that, The Centerville Newsletter for years.
The new title is... Drum-roll, please!
Centerville's Resident Communicator - Striving to Keep Residents Informed
Could this change be due to City Hall finally listening to the citizens and not an attempt to save face during an election year? Let's hope! Either way, the residents of this city and the supporters of the blog are forcing change!
If the City is really concerned with keeping residents informed, it might want to update the council minutes. As of today, the last published minutes (if you can find them) are from August 27, 2008. They are almost TWO MONTHS behind! This does not jive with the transparent government they always proclaim to be!

Thank you everyone for all your support and hard work! Let's keep it up!

Centerville Residents Challenge City's Spending

Why did the City purchase a new public works building (left) for the sum of 1.4 million dollars while the current building (right) appears sufficient?

UPDATE!
At its July 11, 2007 meeting, the Centerville City Council officially approved the purchase of the old Centerville Redi-Mix site as the city's new Public Works Department base.
The city will pay $1.4 million for the property, with $800,000 of the initial funds coming from the general fund, $400,000 coming from the sewer fund, and another $200,000 coming from the water fund.
The city is planning to receive approximately $400,000 for the sale of the current public works property, although no time frame has yet been established for that sale.
As of today the building sits... UNSOLD!
*The Citizen

Group gathering signatures to petition state for an audit
By Brady Gervais
bgervais@pioneerpress.com
A group of Centerville residents concerned that city officials are on an unnecessary spending spree want the state to audit their city.

There were some rather interesting quotes in the article. Some of the printed story has been omitted online.
"You can say we shouldn't have that much debt," Larson (City Administrator) said. But it is not improper. It was just a decision that was made and a debt that was incurred."

Residents leading the petition effort are doing so for personal reasons, Capra (Mayor) said. Those backing the petition have "either been directly or indirectly upset with an action of the city," she said.

Why was it a necessary "decision" to incur this debt, Mr. Larson? Exactly what was the justification?
Why does the Mayor make her statement? Hasn't every resident been affected directly or indirectly by the actions of the City? Further questioning may be in order.
dlarson@centervillemn.com Dallas Larson
capria@comcast.net Mary Capra

Please read the printed copy for full story.
Partial Story Here

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

Is it The Fault of Others or Just Miscommunication?

A recent comment left by a citizen. There seems to be a pattern of behavior coming from elected officials.

Hello All, I live in the older neighborhood (behind Kelly's) that is slated to be torn down in phase two. I have had to deal with Dallas on a continuous basis. One story I would like to share. My property along with my neighbors is now the home for the additional power lines for the new downtown development. We were given a notice on our doors that all of our trees would have to be trimmed or come down completely (I would have had the most trees lost completely) in our backyard. These trees give us some privacy from the Chauncey Barett Gardens. I ask Xcel energy what easement do you have to take down 6 of my trees? Some of my neighbors had already given the ok but I held out as I knew that I would lose more property value. Xcel told me this, and I quote, "The city told us they [City] already owned all these properties." I told him that I own this house and until I see an easement bought by the city or Xcel, they are not going to get my signature to take my trees. Xcel immediately said they were not touching anything until the city deals with the home owners. I sent an email to Mayor Capra and she forwarded it on to Dallas (I also copied all the news stations and newspapers). Dallas called me ASAP and left a message that this was a miss-communication and it was Xcel that was in a hurry. This was curious because Xcel had no stake in the increase power needed at this time. Unfortunately, Xcel had already taken down trees in an elderly couples yard. Then, Xcel couldn't drive the truck over her neighbors yards (neighbors said no) and so they left the mess for the couple to clean up. The increase power lines now reside in our front yards. Xcel did some trimming but nothing like what it would have been had they run it in the back yard.My elderly neighbor lost the most in the entire ordeal. My question to Mayor Capra is, who is the advocate for the citizens? She never responded to any my questions.
Thanks for the outlet to speak our minds!
Margaret Lee
August 20, 2008 9:06 PM

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