Agenda - Council - 12/12/1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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view - none..In its broadest view - the building activity is 9 percent of our budget. If construction s~pped tomorrow, will we have to make up that 9 percent? You could cut programs, raise taxes, raise fees, and/or use other revenue sources. We have them. We can use them. ~ Is that good government - inteffund borrowing and reserves etc.? We expect that w~. will have enough land in the MUSA for four years, so a reasonable expectation is that growth will not stop, it will slow. Is that bad? Not necessarily. I would rather this be asked to the people - what kind of vision do you have for Ramsey. Commissioner iMam stated she talked with someone who had gotten a survey about that. She inquired if!the results had been compiled. Mr. Schroeder[gave some background on the survey and stated that it had not yet been compiled but ~at it should be completed shortly. Commissioner Marn inquired if the City has a vision. Mr. Schroederi responded that City government has a mission statement. We have our primaxy objec~ves, what we will be doing and looking like by departmental function. As far as a commtlnity vision, he stated he could not say we have that. Commissioner_~Donovan stated the word mischief paraphrases a lot. It makes me think about our phil4>sophy as a Charter Commission. We have cleaned up some language so Council could get and we have removed some language that's a barrier for that. We do not want to try toi stop Council's decision-making process. This issue pops up and our philosophy is qOntrary to people out there. I do not feel this represents the majority and I still have trust in our government. Terry Hendriksen made mean statements - approaching slanderous statements. I find this election contrary to my philosophy. Chairperson S~teffen stated he is still grappling for discourse in a broad sense. This is a broader issue .than just development. The Charter mates the mechanics of authority and checks and bal~ces. We do not agree with this as a Charter. We should be on the broad base issue. Ii feel there is a serious matter about what authority is given the Planning Commission, ~he Economic Development Commission and the City Council and, what if they do not a~ee. I know they are all trying to have joint meetings to get some unanimity. I feel it woulF:lfi't do any good to get the Charter involved. I would like to see us talk about legislation that!gives us the authority to amend the Charter. For the next meeting, we could review statuto~ bases for amending the Charter to see if there ar~ any changes we would want to recommend to legislators. If the Charter Commission agrees on some changes, we could get word to the proper people. Commissioner'~Mam stated that if we do not have a vision, we will have chaos. I do not know what pa~t the Charter has in that, but in making decisions, it's easier with a vision. Mr. Schroeder stated that Ramsey's vision of development is there will be rural development ~torth of 153rd and urban south of 153rd, but I do not know if that provides a vision - it mor4 provides a map for developing. Our comprehensive plan doesn't paint an adequate picture for anyone to sufficiently describe a vision. Discussion ensued relating to development. Mr. Schroeder stated that the metropolitan assumption appears to be that urban is good and rural is bad; however, that can be argued. Chairperson Steffen commented that if the Commission is concerned With a way to get amendments, We should get started. He talked about approaching the legislators Charter Commission/September 7, 1995 Page 3 of 4