April 20th Isanti City Council Meeting Update

A couple topics from the meeting last night. We had a request from the C-I Competitive Baseball Association to waive the fee for their usage of the baseball field. The association was notified last October of the fee policy but only recently approached the city. The City charges a $15 fee for a full day of usage of the field which equates to just pennies a day for each player. Several other groups including church groups have paid or are willing to pay this nominal fee. The fee is needed to maintain the field and ensure the field stays open. Several area fields have closed and I want to ensure we continue to have fields for our youth to learn and play on.

2nd item is that the Public Works Union rejected the tentative agreement we had negotiated with their leadership yesterday. We will continue to try to get to an agreement  but the Council will also start working on contingency plans to ensure our level of service at an appropriate cost.

Lastly I want to share of few numbers from our City Audit. Our Administration cost is 33% lower in Isanti as compared to our peer group of cities throughout Minnesota. Our net debt per person has gone from a high $1904 per man, woman and child when I was first elected to $826 per person. This is a 57% cut in debt per capita. We have also had a 24% improvement of debt to assets for the City. We are running the City of Isanti leaner and more efficient than it ever has and this will help us as we face over $500,000 in lost property taxes and state funding next year alone.