The presumption is that when dotting "i's" and crossing "t's" in late stages of negotiations (even in situations where relatively small amounts of wealth may be put at risk), details tend to show themselves in ways that earlier had a less consequential appearance. Or that earlier were unknown. This is the stage where a bad deal can flip, and a good one consolidate. There are a million reasons and ways a deal can be bad, from the fundamental risk picture being bad - my view of the Ramsey ramp rental wrap - to uncertaities that suggest postponement might be prudent even if a deal does not flip. Due diligence is an all-along thing but the stage of double and triple checking something can often disclose detail overlooked previously. Overlooking things from one side to the other can be intended or negligent, but if questions arise they need to be nailed down.
Work Sessions. Presumably what would have been an interesting Monday session before formal televised Tuesday meetings will now be consolidated into the Tuesday work sessions, sequentially the council as such, and the council as HRA, in parallel to the meetings that happen later and are televised.
The work sessions ARE public meetings and earlier in the day so that late evening situations can be avoided by citizens who visit the work session and then view a rebroadcast of the latest of happenings in the formal HRA session, which for some reason has been made second in agenda despite it being the present seat of the city's most serious conduct of affairs.
So, attend the Tuesday work session to know what will be happening later on television.
In the past, under other councils with other wills, work sessions were televised so that citizens could see more of their government in action without any added inconvenience. And now the inconvenience of attending work sessions is greater for most of Ramsey's people - city hall is no lnoger centralized as when it was on Hwy 5 opposite Ramsey Elementary, and now there is getting through a bunch of new traffic lights to the now not centralized city hall, and driving the speed-patrolled Sunwood Drive in Town Center where, and this is laudable, there is not the deliberate speed trap mentality one sees in Champlin. Ramsey has not taken on the appearance of having the public safety function tasked to turn a profit from traffic surveillance.
That is good.
Now if city officials could collectively have a bit more of a hoarder's instincts with public cash flow dollars - not obsessive, but prudent. And not regarding little-ticket salary situations here or there - but with the multi-million big ticket risks that may waylay them.
And there should be extreme caution over the fees to outside privatized planning, where if nothing else, an objective cost-benefit connection with reality is prudent. Keeping a due focus upon what is a track record vs. what is said or suggested or forecast out of advisory guesses aimed at "informing" known council member hopes, is what I mean by "connection with reality."
There is a fiduciary duty in informing, and it is a most necessary thing that the flow of material information is not filtered but conveyed, with the ultimate decision maker to be best informed of downside facts suggesting caution as well as upside possibility being touted.
