Dumping fourteen grand on a junket, and not having courage enough to vote on record. Ben Dover does not like any consensus that does not send him to Vegas for fun, entertainment, sun and relaxation. And the budget did not even mention buying T-shirts or not.

Rip me off my concrete pedestal. Let me get mine in Vegas.
Where the painted flat metal show girls abound.
Mine. My due.
And a neat looking T-Shirt that will fit on my pedestal.
Only Sixteen Bucks. Supersize it.

Okay, ha-ha funny. Now to the sobering stuff.

Feb. 21, 2012 - Our council [in part] wearing their HRA hats, doing their HRA mischief. Agenda detail first, the projected cost of a Vegas junket - they work so hard, they've earned it, (you and Ben paying - you and Ben Dover, the Ramsey taxpayer). Click a thumbnail to enlarge and read. Lazan memo first, then the budget - wow, savings galore, but that's only in comparison to last year's Vegas profligate follies financing:

Next, minutes. Special meeting minutes, HRA, two agenda items addressed. Both special? Mayor must have been NoDaking, Strommen not there, Tossey in opposition, five present, four needed to express a "consensus" (but not guts enough shown to put an actual vote on record).

It makes you proud:

I diligently searched to see if there was a follow-up council meeting to approve the HRA "consensus" by vote. Zippo, as best as I could tell. Fourteen grand down the rathole on glitz and neon, no vote, this link. Here. This image, Preston Bailey's blog. (Maybe Preston was there again and they bumped into him, Darren picking up design and promotion pointers and such as he could benefit from. "Endurance and transformations"  it sounds Darrenish already.)

___________________________
Randy, my man, by voting no you could have killed the junket. DOA, or table it to put the mayor on record.

Randy, you held the hammer. WHY DID YOU NOT USE IT? Go along to get along? "Curb expense abuse," said for the record. Is that it? What?

And all of you guys, why was there no formal vote? 

It is not as if these guys did not know how to put a vote on record. They have been doing it for years and did it on agenda item 1, while item 2, "Let's just glide and slide." Didn't at least one of you DEMAND there be a vote?

Or did Tossey in opposition believe the matter tabled, not knowing there'd been some form of magic consensus conjuring - brought to birth before his very eyes? A conjured consensus inferred, somehow, some way ... reading tea leaves? What?

Election day is coming. The deadline to file to run in opposition to the questionable status quo will be next Tuesday.


READER HELP REQUESTED

I have tried to pin things down and the public data responses to requests from the city have helped, to a point. Here is the email trail sequence.

From City Clerk ["CC] responding to EHZ email:

W/re to Vegas - Mr. Ulrich is going to Las Vegas as is Darren Lazan, Councilmember Colin McGlone, and Patrick Brama, the City's Management Analyst. The ICSC Conference in Vegas is scheduled for May 21 through May 23. Please let me know what type of information you are looking for - and I will be happy to supply you with that information - or share with you where to find it.

I hope this helps - I will wait to hear what specifically you would like w/re to information on the trip.

EHZ to CC:

One last point - on the Vegas conference, will the City pay for booth space and be in attendance for the full span of the conference, and has special promotional literature been prepared? If so, could you forward e-copies of such brochures or hand-outs, as that would be easiest for both of us rather than visiting city hall and doing hard copies, etc.? I appreciate the quick email responses and I did post about the window of opportunity, for filing for office.

Forgot to include - If there's any slide show presentation visuals, could you send that package too?? And do you know whether Cronk is going?

CC responds:

Hi Eric - The City will pay for booth space and will be in attendance for the full span of the conference. We purchased two full conference tickets to allow a couple people to go to any or all of the sessions, etc. We received a few (not sure the number) conference passes (limited admittance) with the purchase of the booth. I honestly don't know if we had new brochures or hand-outs done for this Conference. I will refer your question to Darren.

I will ask Darren that as well - and yes Ryan Cronk is attending. Sorry - I forgot to list him when I sent you the list from the City.

Hi Eric - as per an email from Darren (below) - the materials are being developed now and right up to the conference - so it doesn't sound like anything is really available right now.

Darren's email to CC:

We are developing materials now, and up until the conference. We can address his request after the conference.

CC responding to EHZ request re minutes/aganda trail:

You may see the case report that was brought to the HRA by going to our website - click on Agendas & Minutes (sidebar) - then click on the archives portion - Housing and Redevelopment - 2012 - February 21, 2012. Let me know if you have any problems getting there.

Case #2: Consider 2012 ICSC ReCON Attendance and Budget

Note from online city records, there are no posted HRA minutes subsequent to what CC response above identified:

Then, Council member Tossey, responding to EHZ inquiry, would he have voted no had there been a formal vote:

Would I have voted no? Does the sun rise in the east? Of course I am opposed and vote no. I think it is pretty clear that I would have voted no. Furthermore, there was a second discussion about this if I recall. And I think there is a formal vote somewhere, or at least a more complete discussion. If I recall, I not only expressed my opposition, I expressed it vehemently

That's about it. No further HRA meeting minutes have been transcribed/approved as final. I could not find any mention of the Vegas follies in Council minutes [same individuals, but with council hats on, not the HRA hats]-- EHZ email to CC:

could not find "the consensus" of that meeting and the expenditure for Vegas approved by the Council, sitting as council, not HRA. I will publish as if it never happened, asking help of readers, if it ever went to a formal council vote.

CC responds:

I don't believe it had to go through the Council since the money is taken out of the HRA budget.

EHZ acknowledges CC response:

That was/is my guess. I was not asking for any further help. Just letting you know what I had not found. Notice, rather than a request of the city.

That's as far as rats got skinned. Any reader who can help with detail supplementing what the public data response included re the approval of the junket - if there ever was a formal HRA or Council vote - is asked to provide info via a comment or an email.

Do you miss me yet?

To have never had a formal vote would be highly irregular. I doubt any such egregious a gap in procedures ever happened during the several Gamec terms as mayor. However, minutes of subsequent meetings, once transcribed and formally approved as city records, may shed light on what is otherwise, for now, left very murky.


UPDATE: What I do recall from the Gamec years is Mayor Gamec requesting an official opinion on the spending of city money on his sister-city trip to China. He requested that from the State Auditor, Pat Anderson who was Auditor at that time. He took that step after the council had approved the expenditure, if my memory is correct. There was deliberate care in proceeding that way.

______________FURTHER UPDATE____________
While possibly harsh in my judgment, the program for that Vegas confab is online with the city, this link. Have a look, I recommend scanning it, not studying it in any detail. It's easy to quickly get the drift. Again, I can be judgmental, but that brochure brings to mind this video. I see a parallel others may not see. As with the brochure, a quick look at the video is enough to get the drift, no need to study the video either, and you either see a parallel or not.

____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
What we have here is a failure to communicate? Obviously Darren failed to understand the request in emailing the City Clerk that marketing materials for Vegas were still being prepared. Nelson, in February (per the minutes at the opening of the second case that day) - Vegas - after all stated, "the marketing materials used for the conference were stocked and ready to be shipped." Lazan apparently was unaware of this. But we can trust he shall rectify things once returned from Vegas - unless what is shipped to Vegas stays in Vegas.