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Ramsey incorporated as a City in 1974, and is organized as a Home Rule City under a City Charter originally adopted in 1984. The City Council consists of a Mayor and four Councihnembers, and is elected at large on a non- partisan basis. Elections aze held in November of each even numbered year. The terms of office are two years for the Mayor and four years for Councihnembers, but not more than two Councilmembers' terms expire in any one year. The Council is responsible for enacting ordinances, resolutions, and regulations governing the City, and appointing the City Administrator, City Attorney, and members of the various advisory boards and commissions. The City provides a variety of municipal services. These include afull-time police department, a volunteer fire department, engineering services, street and park maintenance, building inspections, planning and zoning, public improvements, general administrative services, and public water and sewer utilities in the urban service areas. Since 1990, the City of Ramsey has been attempting to provide improved services to a dramatically increasing number of households in a time of fiscal constraints at the State level. It is estimated that Ramsey's population will have increased 45 percent between the 1990 census and January 1998. At the same time, aids from-the State of Minnesota have increased at the lesser rate of 16 percent. The consumer price index, as one measure of the normal cost of doing business without any population growth, has increased in excess of 20 percent over the same period. As a result, the City has struggled to maintain and improve services while keeping property taxes at reasonable levels. The property tax rate (expressed as a percentage of tax capacity) between 1990 and 1997 has increased. In 1990, the local tax rate (City only) was 15.193 percent. In 1997, it was 20.454 and 1998 is projected to increase by 4.50 percent over the 1997 rate, to a tax rate of 21.374 percent. While the tax rate is in fact higher than five years ago, the portion of the tax dollar paid to the City is still about 17¢ for every dollaz collected. The other 83¢ is paid to _ Anoka County, the School District (either Anoka-Hennepin District #11 or Elk River District #728), and special taxing districts such as the Metropolitan Council. The year 1997 was characterized by continued construction activity with a major emphasis on commerciaUindustrial development. Residential construction has continued but at a somewhat reduced pace from the last few years. The City Council, volunteer Commissions, and Municipal employees strive to provide services, at the levels desired by the public, at reasonable costs. general erations Ramsey has a long history of fiscal conservatism when if comes to the general operations of the City. Using the 1997 population estimate of 17,850 residents and 5,411 households, the City levied $112.28 per capita and $370.40 per household in taxes for 1997 (this amount is net of HACA). The City's staffing level is similarly conservative at 2.86 full-time equivalent positions per thousand residents. All three of these measures are significantly below the average in the Metropolitan Area and below all but a few similar communities: One way the City maintains a low staff-to-citizen ratio is to use temporary part-time employees, volunteers and contract services. In order to attract and maintain qualified employees, the City has adopted a compensation policy with the goal of paying salaries at the median of mazket rates. City employees are represented by two labor unions - - and benefit packages aze negotiated through them. The City is committed to continuous improvement of customer service. Investments in technology make it easier and faster to retrieve information and respond to citizen requests. That investment is reinforced by employee training. A recent review revealed that eighty-five percent of the City's regular employees received some type of - ii