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<br />Public Works Director Olson stated the notices should not necessarily be eliminated, as they <br />would still want to notify the people that will have impact to their street. He does not think they <br />would need to do both notices and they would not need to include a notice in the paper. <br /> <br />Councilmember Look asked if the notification could be done in the Ramsey Resident. <br /> <br />Public Works Director Olson responded in the affirmative. He indicated the elimination of <br />assessments could save two months in the time required to wait for the counter petition. <br /> <br />Councilmember Dehen stated as a City they perform these functions and tax the residents for the <br />functions, and they should perform these tasks on schedule as they have always done. He is not <br />opposed to timely repairs; his issue has been going through this process of assessment. It seems <br />it is an inherent City function to take care of roads without the residents paying in addition to the <br />taxes. <br /> <br />Councilmember Look provided an overview of an analysis he prepared of comparable taxes by <br />city (based on a $200,000 market value residential homestead). The analysis included the cities <br />of Ramsey, Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids, Andover, Elk River, and Burns Township. The <br />analysis compared the following data from each city: annual tax $; levy rate %; and city portion <br />$. The analysis included information on which cities assess for sealcoats and overlays, and <br />which cities do not assess for either. He pointed out that Elk River uses street crews and sweeps <br />and recycles the rock to reduce costs. Councilmember Look reviewed his conclusions from the <br />analysis as follows: <br />· Ramsey is one of the highest taxed communities, not factoring in the assessment for <br />sealcoat and overlay. <br />· Ramsey is the only community that assesses for both sealcoat and overlay. <br />· Elk River manages to keep the cost reasonable by using their street crews. <br />· Burns collects little taxes and considers sealcoat to be basic service. <br /> <br />Councilmember Look stated his argument is that Ramsey residents are already paying for these <br />services. He does not feel that they should be assessing and charging the residents an additional, <br />in essence, tax to do what comparable neighboring cities provide as a basic service in this area. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig stated he can agree with a lot of the overall gesture. However, in <br />comparing taxes Burns is not even a City, it is a township. Burns does not have a police or fire <br />department. To compare taxes with Burns, the services are considerably different. He has done <br />a lot of these tax comparisons and did not see Ramsey as being that upside down. He suggested <br />Finance Officer Lund perform a review on this comparison. He stated he has tried to keep his <br />eye on the ball with how Ramsey compares with other communities. As he recalls, in <br />communities of their size Ramsey is about in the middle, and is certainly not on the high end. <br />The number of employees is a factor in this, and as the City grows there may be more synergies <br />and the ability to get costs down. Ramsey has added a tremendous amount of equipment in an <br />effort to reduce costs. He stated he is on board with finding a way to affordably eliminate the <br />assessments, but does not want to raise taxes to do it. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / May 15, 2007 <br />Page 3 of9 <br />