Labels: environment, parks
Labels: council politics, environment, public safety
Labels: campaign 2010, media
If a petition audit is certified by the county auditor, staff from the Office of the State Auditor would then meet with a committee of petitioners to review the petitioners' concerns. The audit staff then would review the concerns to determine the scope of the audit. The audit might not include all the concerns identified by the petitioners if the audit staff determined that the concerns were based on decisions within the discretion of the governing body.
I believe the State Auditor would duplicate the work already done by our independent auditors every year — which, let's be clear, has included a lot of clean-up of issues from the Longrie-Copeland era. But staff and auditors have repeatedly told us that there's no evidence of wrongdoing, just errors that we can reasonably believe came as a result of the loss of most of the accounting department, who were driven away by the toxic environment created in City Hall by Copeland and his masters. To emphasize the point once again, a state audit would not just duplicate our independent auditors' work, but the city's taxpayers would have to pay for the cost of the audit in a year when the budget is already stretched thin.
I don't believe that this money would be well spent, especially in these lean budgetary times. Still, if 20% of Maplewood voters want it, we'll indulge the personal obsessions of the former mayor and her cronies on the taxpayers' dime once again. I don't expect anything shocking will turn up, but I do still have my own list of questions, as I wrote in May 2008, that I will happily submit to the auditors if they're going to be examining the city's affairs anyhow.
Labels: council politics, finance, media
Labels: events
Preliminary numbers indicate reported crime was down significantly in 2009 after it had spiked in many areas in 2008. In 2009 we saw a slight increase in Robberies and Theft from vehicles, but all other of the major crimes dropped. There was a 21% reduction in Assaults, a 24% reduction in Burglaries, An 18% reduction in Thefts, a 12% reduction in Auto Thefts and 9% reduction in Damage to Property.
Labels: public safety
Labels: council politics, media
Labels: environment, media
How would property values be affected?
What about the extreme cold on the chickens we have here in winter?
What is the benefit vs. cost of this idea? Could we instead support local farm raised natural/organic chickens? Also, it seems like it benefits most people with a larger size property who are able to abide by possible rules about footage between coops and neighboring houses, etc. Is this fair to those who don't own enough property but want chickens? What is the economic benefit?...
Interesting idea, maybe a good one if enough and the right restrictions guidelines and enforcement are put in place...or maybe not.
I do have to say though that a barking neighbor dog and piles of dog crap like we find so often on sidewalks and streets around here are much worse than a well-cared for chicken coop might be.
I would love to have a couple of chickens as pets and for eggs, I have always wanted to do this.
[We] both support the practice of having controlled chickens in the city. They are a good source of eggs and meat. The manure needs to be addressed in some way. It does make very good fertilizer.
We were listening to a rooster this fall from somewhere in our neighborhood. We think....
I would like to stress my opposition to the idea. First of all we do not live in a rural area. I am all for having gardens but raising chickens is whole different story. If chickens were allowed then one could argue a few pigs should be OK. The story stated they could sell eggs to the local stores- Maybe they could but one must ask how many chickens would someone have to have to make it worthwhile. I would be very upset if the council ever decided to change the law to allow raising chickens once again and if I ever had to look out my window and saw chickens running around a backyard. We are a frist tier metro area not a rural area for many decades.
Labels: environment
| Election | Ballots Cast | Turnout | Cave Votes | Change | Rokke Votes | Change |
| 2005 Primary | 2228 | n/a | 796 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2007 Primary | 3543 | +59.02% | 941 | +18.22% | 793 | n/a |
| 2009 Primary | 4268 | +20.46% | 871 | -7.44% | 828 | +4.41% |
| Election | Ballots Cast | Turnout | Juenemann Votes | Change | Llanas Votes | Change |
| 2005 Primary | 2228 | n/a | 1047 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2007 Primary | 3543 | +59.02% | n/a | n/a | 200 | n/a |
| 2009 Primary | 4268 | +20.46% | 1759 | +68% | 1415 | +608% |
Labels: campaign 2009, council politics
Labels: campaign 2009, events, photos
Labels: campaign 2010, council politics, process
Labels: campaign 2009, council politics, media
Labels: media
The revenue bill that the governor vetoed would have balanced the budget based on the anticipated receives forecast in February 2009. The governor used unallotment rather than calling a special session of the legislature or vetoing the appropriations bill to balance the budget. He did this after signing numerous spending bills which taken together, he knew would not balance the budget unless revenues were raised. He used the unallotment statute to address a situation that was neither unknown nor unanticipated when the appropriations bills became law . . .
. . . [T]he Governor crossed the line between legitimate exercise of his authority to unallot and interference with the Legislative power to make laws, including statutes allocating resources and raising revenues. The authority of the Governor to unallot is an authority intended to save the state in times of a previously unforeseen budget crisis, it is not meant to be used as a weapon by the executive branch to break a stalemate in budget negotiations with the legislature or to rewrite the appropriations bill.
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