July 5th Council Meeting

The July 5th Council meeting will have several important items for discussion.

The first item is the Cambridge Medical Center's request for Council input on placing a clinic in the City of Isanti. I have long advocated for more medical and professional services in Isanti to provide needed services and higher paying jobs.

I will however not speak on this particular request since my wife works for Alina. She is far from any decision making position on clinic placement but I believe we must maintain the highest level of integrity. I for one take Isanti's Conflict of Interest Policy seriously.

The second issue is nuisance ordinance enforcement. We will once again be discussing the priorities to enforce current ordinances on the books. Many of these trash, weed and parking ordinances are not being enforced.

The third topic that will need further investigation is joining with Cambridge on a joint industrial park. This might very well be a good idea. I am concerned about the oversight and criteria set for industrial placement. I have been advocated higher wage and job criteria for Isanti's current industrial park. One of my criteria for approving this project would be a livable wage and higher job creation goals for those businesses asking for a public subsidy.

The last item is the proposed change in sewer rates. The current proposal is a 12% reduction in the fee. I still believe that we can and need to lower the rate by 20%. We can not continue to collect more in fees than is needed. If we do this it will get spent sooner or later.