Interesting turn of Events

I was able to present the Mayor's Choice award to the Isanti Cub Scout Troop tonight. A great part of being Mayor is to help promote the positives of Isanti and be a Goodwill Ambassador.

Now for the interesting turn of events--- The discussion centered on the proposed fee increases. The arguments that were given I expected such as CM Larson and Johnson making initial statements that they would never vote for any developer or builder fee increases. I countered with the points I raised at http://georgewimmer.blogspot.com/2007/07/isantis-fiscal-future-part-1.html stating that current residents should not subsidize developer cost.

The unexpected argument made by both CM Larson and Johnson was that a reason for what they deemed as high city developer cost was city employee inefficiency.

I was frankly floored. That these two were the ones to raise this concern after they have in the past accused me of being too critical of City staff. I am not sure where their argument will lead but it is interesting.

Staff keeps very good records of all the activity generated by processing developer request. The vast majority of the activity that is generated is by the developer. Some of this is by the natural development of any project. Particular items may change. These changes need to be reviewed. We cannot simply rubber stamp what is presented to the city.

Let’s be very clear. Isanti’s developer fees are low and in some cases the lowest in the area. The fee increases are justified by both the findings of an independent audit and in comparison to our neighboring cities. We face grave financial issues to be sure but these were caused by Council past action and inaction.

The one developer that did come to the meeting stated he knew fees had to rise but wanted them to be time delayed to January 2008 and perhaps not as high as being proposed. I was contacted by developers and builders and all understood that Isanti has low fees and that some type of increases were coming.

So to sum up we have an independent audit saying we have extremely low fees, we are not covering our basic cost and developer and builder community are not fighting tooth and nail against the proposed increases. We are losing money on ever development that is being processed by the City.

We have a simple choice to make. Development pays for itself or the city taxpayer continues to subsidize residential development. I feel like Don Quixote sometimes tipping at windmills. I have made the argument 100 times but we face difficult financial times and we must make residential development pay for itself.

We left the item tabled until the next Council meeting so some of the questions raised tonight can be answered. Then we will make our collective decision about what to do. I did find it ironic that the Council tabled the item…perhaps showing some inefficiency of our own.