Minutes - Council - 07/22/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Administrator Norman stated that the ordinances were presented to the Council for review and discussion at its regular meeting of May 27, 2003, with a public hearing on June 24, 2003, and brought back for introduction of the Ordinance at the July 8, 2003 City Council meeting. Before a franchise fee can be implemented, the respective utility companies require 60 days to enter necessary customer data and testing. This time period will bring the City to the recommended start date of fourth quarter 2003. Staff has received approximately 15 phone calls relating to a post card mailed out by the North Metro Chamber of Commerce regarding the franchise fees. A few of these phone calls were okay with the franchise fee once it was presented to them about how a freeze on property tax levies work and that there was a three year sunset period and six-month review period written into the Ordinances. The remainder of the calls, which included about four businesses, were adamantly against the proposed franchise fee. Motion by Councihnember Elvig, seconded by Councilmember Kurak, to pull from reserve the money required to balance the budget for 2003, which should be approximately $100,000, and to table the action of initiating a franchise fee at this time. Further discussion: Councilmember Kurak stated that she had received a letter from Dale Johnson, 4829 Waco Street NW, Ramsey, which she presented to the Mayor. Mayor Gamec noted that the City had received over 70 letters and numerous phone calls on the issue. Councilmember Elvig stated that he has always felt strongly that Ramsey has the opportunity to earn their way out of this situation. This Council has put funds forward from last year and made several cuts to the 2003 budget and yet the City is still facing a shortfall of $93,000. He stated that he would like to take some time to scrutinize the 2004 budget, and possibly consider additional cuts. Tabling action will allow them more time to determine if the franchise fee is a necessity. Councilmember Pearson stated that if they take a closer look at the issue and research all the options available to the City, possibly they will not need to implement the franchise fee, but the Council will have to do what is necessary to keep the City operating. Patrick Gruber, 14841 Waco Street NW, Ramsey, stated that he thought the franchise fee was a bad idea and anti-growth. If he operated a business he would not relocate to the City of Ramsey if it had a franchise fee. The franchise fee that is collected will go into the general fund, but what about the people that use propane or generators they will not be required to pay the additional fee. He stated why not charge for garbage disposal as well. The elected representatives balanced the budget and he did not recall a huge uproar on how the budget was met at the legislature. The only people who seem to have a problem with this are the members of the City Council. In the last five years they have more county employees than they did five years ago and the budget has nearly doubled in the last five years when the population has not. If nothing else, the truth in taxation statement tells them how much everything costs, but this fee will not show up on that statement. He questioned if the City was skirting the truth in taxation law. City Council/July 22, 2003 Page 7 of 33