I indirectly heard (and will have to catch a rebroadcast) that the mayor and second ward council member will not seek reelection. The fourth ward council member will apparently seek reelection.
I have heard Bob Ramsey is running for mayor. Terry Cleveland at large. I know one candidate is running in Ward 2, Colin, I never really learned his last name but he has been to almost every Comp. Plan session and is concerned.
Jeff Wise is considering running at large. I hope he does. No candidate should be unopposed. Bob Ramsey might be. And the incumbent in ward 4 may have no opponent. Filings close July 15 so things are still open and in flux.
Pied Piper, that's not an elected one. It is an appointed one and one who had a voice in group-think where at least one elected individual was dismissive and disdainful of "negative thinkers" when people (before the Kuraks ever sold Nedegaard's LLC a single acre of Town Center land), said, bad idea, or said, at least consider and plan for downside risk. No. It is the Town Center. It will be GREAT.
Chickens do come home to roost.
Two Pied Piper appointees come to mind. First of course, James Norman, who handled the information flow between the Met Council staff and the city officials, and who was believed at his word for what he told the one about the other. The situation was ripe for anyone in that communication bottleneck to manage it, if overly inclined to manipulate things and feeling entitled to "the driver's seat" by hook or crook. Others for various reasons could fall in line.
Typical of James Norman times even before building of the Norman castle, Sunwood by the Ramp, reporting from Anoka County Union:
Posted: 10/2/03
Ramsey town center moves forward
by Tammy Sakry
Staff writer
After four months and 12 drafts, the Ramsey Town Center development agreement has been approved by the Ramsey City Council.
"It was 13 weeks of pretty intense negotiations," said City Administrator Jim Norman.
[...] The developer also wanted the city to commit to when it would build a city hall on the site, said Norman.
It is something the city was not ready to do, so the clause was removed from the agreement, he said.
The land will be held for the city for 30 years, and it could be used for a performance arts/theater center and/or transit station.
If the city officials and residents decide to build a city hall there, it could use revenues generated by the town center project, said Norman.
According to projections, the city could begin to see revenues from the town center by 2006.
[...] The city will pay for 20 percent of the public improvements, including streets, storm water drainage system, about $16.5 million of the $84 million, said City Engineer Brian Olson.
The city will build the Minnesota State Aid (MSA) roads through the project and the developer will be responsible for the rest of the roads, said Norman.
"We're delighted that the agreement and the final plat has been approved," said Barbara Dunlay, Ramsey Town Center LLC spokeswoman and president of Siegfried Dunlay.
Although the master development agreement has been approved, "there is still a lot of work to be done," said Norman.
The city will work with Ramsey Town Center LLC to iron out dozens of secondary development agreements, he said.
But there should be some businesses open for Christmas shopping in 2004, said Norman.
Anyone wanting to believe such hooey could. Many did, to the extent of calling skeptics "negative thinkers." While no sensible person believed there'd be shopping by Christmas 2004, (and of course there was none), technically it was not lying, because technically no one has a crystal ball when it comes to stating future "expectations."
It was shoveled on, not even laid on or smoothed with a trowel. And there were the willing believers. Worse of all, they were on council. The Kuraks simply counted their money profit -- bought mid 1980's, at $10,000 per acre, sold 2003, at $90.000+ per acre, 173 or so acres. Go figure, they had quite some counting to do.
The rest of us are left with their legacy.
There have been too many of those meetings that consistently dragged on forever, over minutiae placed for no explicable reason at the start of meetings, with the big stuff stuck at the end when people had gotten bored and left but leaving while seeing through that kind of misuse of timetabling.
Efficiency is appreciated most when absent.
I expect meetings next year and onward will be business like. With agenda key items heard first. No more of the other style. New people will want to look as if they're bringing in a broom.
The other appointee Pied Piper strutting a lot at the Town Center Groundbreaking mega tent show was the Met Council appointee, having a big voice then; yet a very, very, very low profile now that market realities are painfully real and apparent.
It is time for a changing of the guard.
May the new ones avoid the mistakes of the nineteen million luxuriant mistake called "Municipal Center." Yes staff needed room. No they did not need that sort of offensive over-spending -- the huge vaulted foyer and giant hallway, the lush finishings.
And forever I will say, there should have been a referendum.
If there were one, there would be no Norman castle.
Kurt Ulrich looks to have little to none of the Pied Piper in him. So the children likely will stay home in good sense, out of harm's way, and not be deluded.
Bob Ramsey sent an email, I asked if he objected to posting it. He did not.
He says:
I purposely waited to respond to your community center piece until I officially filed, which I did yesterday at noon.
Not only would I require a referendum for a community center, I would require and ensure full disclosure to everyone the impacts of it. That being said I would have 1 vote of 7 to authorize a referendum.
I personally am not in favor of publicly funding a community center at all. Wouldn’t that be like borrowing money to buy a lake home (community center) when you can’t pay for your primary residence (TAJ-MAJAL)?
This is the mentality that will change if I am elected.
[emphasis added]. Bob and I spoke by phone about how taxes will likely go up for District 11, middle-school needs and all, and it is part of the whole picture that adding the cost of a community center would fit in with that generally rising tax trend. If he is elected -- that last sentence in the email, because it could be read as "Here's my thinking my mentality and it will change if I am elected," because of that we spoke at some length to be crystal clear - his mentality will be constant.
And he will push to change the mentality of "It will be just another tax increase, no change there, and they will hardly feel it" if public bonding for a community center happens. That is "the mentality that will change if I am elected," (in so far as 1 out of 7 has a say, while sitting at the council table center and conducting meetings). There always will be six other votes.
Other things a new council will need to do: Committee assignments of new and carryover council members will have to be adjusted (and if everyone is not happy by consensus, majority will govern). The big question of televising work sessions, as was done before Jeffrey, Strommen, Cook and Elvig came on council - will it be reinstated? Will finance committee, the money matters machinery, be a meeting to be finally televised, and with minutes?
Many sane and overdue reforms are possible. I hope they are enacted.
But my big concern was seeing a community center being managed far too much the way the Norman castle [aka the "Taj Mahal"] was done - by official consensus only and not by public review and referendum voting. That's something Bob wrote, opposing.
The other thing I think will not happen again with Bob, we did not discuss it so this is only my guess, is the thing where Bonnie Balach had James Norman as a contact person and she lobbied Jim Abeler and others that "Ramsey wanted" a Port Authority - another taxing entity-&-layer in case Ramsey itself maxed out on what it could bond and tax, and the EDA and HRA too, and all that was done when there had been no formal council resolution or ordinance to that effect.
Whether some rump group of insider old boys talked and Norman beleived "Ramsey wanted" a port authority and told Balach that, who knows? Elvig headed the finance committee then. Again, that's not televised nor are there minutes kept, and it ran that way back then also.
The evidence from then was:
1. The council never voted for a Port Authority.
2. Balach in lobbying told Abeler that "Ramsey wanted it."
3. The official contact person Balach as Ramsey's lobbyist had, was James Norman.
Now, one last thought. Get rid of the legislative lobbyist. Look at every "consultant" taking money out of the Ramsey fisc, and winnow thoroughly. There is much that can be saved. There is waste to be trimmed. There is a staff person dedicated full time to TIF matters, and a consultant Mulroony with an overlapping function. There is Tinklenberg Group, Balach, and some consultant over China sister-cities before that was flamed out by bad judgment.
With each consultant: Is there enough bang for the buck?
Are there better people and is a broom needed for the ones there now?
Is there waste and duplication that taxpayers do not need to finance?
I recall when the financial guru, Mulrooney was set to show up at a meeting and report about the fiscal wherewithal of Nedegaard. Instead, he got sick the mayor said, a no show. Yet later after Nedegaard's bankrupty the former city administrator said to reporter Sakry that city consultants vetted him, and he was recognized as under-capitalized but he had attained title to the land. That does not hang together, unless, again there might have been a rump group talking, the old boys, and they shared the info that supposedly had been set for presentation at a public meeting. It goes on in terms of practices that a vigilant citizen could find offensive. But it will soon be history.
I look forward to new people. There is one caution to remember, however. Trimming dead wood is always good, but trimming badly can kill the tree.
It will take a balanced judgment, and situations change.
If Bob Ramsey or anyone else is elected, there are no ironclad promises. It is not feasible. There always will be unforeseen things. He and others can only talk about general intent.
But Bob has said where he is coming from.
I hope others send email too. It was nice of Bob to take time that way.