John Nephew

Site Upgrades

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle N.) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:45:00 +0000

We're doing some upgrades to the JohnNephew.com website at the end of this week, which will require the Atom feed to be discontinued permanently. We're consolidating the feeds, so only the Feedburner feed will work from now on. If you're signed up for the Atom feed, please re-subscribe to our Feedburner feed now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Service Interruption

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Just a heads up: This website may be unavailable for a bit in the next couple of days, as we alter things to accommodate upcoming changes in the way the Blogger service works. Hopefully the transition will be brief and relatively painless.

Purple Heart

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:15:00 +0000

Part of last night's city council meeting made the evening news: the story of a 5th grade class from Maplewood's Weaver Elementary trying to help World War II veteran Russell Anderson get his Purple Heart was the topic of a segment on KARE11's newscast. You can read the story and view video on their website (the video is in the right hand column, somewhat hidden among the ads).

Edit: Here's a better link for the video.

Mayoral Missives

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:09:00 +0000

I see Mayor Rossbach has been busy on his blog this weekend, serving up Maplewood news. Check out his posts on skywarn spotter training, the Extreme Green Makeover, and the impending demise of NEST (North East Suburban Transit).

Report from the 2010 Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:03:00 +0000

For anyone looking for some light weekend reading with lots of bullet points, I've uploaded the Executive Summary prepared by the facilitator following our February 5th council/staff retreat.

Primary and Special Election Date: August 10th

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:01:00 +0000

As expected, the bill to change the Minnesota state primary date from September to August was passed by both houses, and yesterday Gov. Pawlenty signed it into law, as reported by media such as the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press.

The new primary date is August 10th this year. For Maplewood, this means August 10th is also the date for the special election for Mayor Rossbach's former council seat. The Citizen Services department has informed the City Council that, based on the new date, the filing period for special election candidates begins on May 18th.

Longrie to Challenge Rep. McCollum

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Former Maplewood mayor Diana Longrie has announced that she will be running as a Democrat against Congresswoman Betty McCollum. Apparently she and her friends, who have a long history of DFL-bashing, are taking their "MN OPERATION CHAOS" to a new level.

Two years ago they targeted Minnesota Rep. Leon Lillie. Longrie filed to be on the DFL primary ballot (even though she was still listed as an officer on the website of the local Republican party unit), while her long-time ally Bob Zick ran as an Independence Party candidate. As the only IP candidate on the ballot, Zick (who had previously run as a Republican) was able to receive a major party public subsidy payment, to the tune of $3,458.87 (as you can see on his 2008 campaign finance report). He used these public subsidy funds to produce and mail an oversize postcard for the September primary, even though he had no primary challenger of his own. The postcards attacked Lillie and encouraged people to vote against him in the DFL primary -- i.e., for Longrie.

Longrie was obliterated in her primary against Lillie, and there's no reason to suppose she'll do any better in a primary against a popular, competent incumbent congresswoman. It seems equally difficult to imagine she can hijack the 4th Congressional District DFL convention the way she did the local Independence Party last year. But it will be interesting to see what schemes she and her merry band of political misfits hatch in an effort to sow chaos and, if nothing else, attract viewers to their cable access TV shows.

Fuel Under Budget

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:49:00 +0000

Deputy Public Works Director Thompson reported to the city council this week that the city has locked in prices for gasoline and diesel for March through December of 2010. Including tax, we will pay $2.42 per gallon for gas and $2.30 per gallon for diesel. While not as good as the $1.87 (gas) and $2.04 (diesel) that we were able to get in 2009, these contract prices are lower than what the 2010 budget assumes. The result will be savings of about $20,000.

We'll see the actual contracts included for council approval on the consent agenda in March.

Bonding Bill Moves Forward

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:59:00 +0000

This is a somewhat belated update on the progress of the bonding bill, but Minnesota's House of Representatives passed the bonding bill on Monday, after the Senate did last week. In both chambers it had bipartisan support (though Republicans who supported it are apparently coming under attack from their own party). The bill now goes to conference committee to iron out differences between the two versions. Last I heard, the East Metro Regional Fire Training Facility was included in both versions, so it should make it out of conference. Whether it will survive the threatened vetoes from the governor, line item or otherwise, remains to be seen ...

The Queen in Exile

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:21:00 +0000

On that goofy Bob Zick cable show last week, Zick referred to Diana Longrie as "the real mayor" and stated that he does not recognize Mayor Rossbach as anything more than "chairperson." I suppose that's cute, but I'm getting reports that at least one person seems to take it seriously � the former mayor herself. I've been told that she has been seen at meetings sporting a name tag that identifies her as Mayor of Maplewood. And a resident recently complained about an announcement that played on cable TV:

There was a spot on Channel 15 public access tonight [Feb. 15th], Diana Longrie had an �ad� or a spot that was about 30 seconds, encouraging citizens to join her in asking the State Auditor to audit Maplewood�s financial records. Her name and �Maplewood Mayor� were flashed on the screen...

What in the world is going on? Does she have a delusion that she is still the mayor, never mind that democratic process that took place last November? Does she so crave the attention and deference that she enjoyed while bearing the title, she's unable to let it go? Or is this a political ploy to confuse the electorate or somehow sway them as part of her campaign for the council seat in the special election?

The Bob Zick Comedy Hour

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:12:00 +0000

North Saint Paul resident Bob Zick is a regular at our council meetings, always looking to create footage of himself to show on his cable access TV show. At this past Monday's meeting, he promised that he would be showing the video shot by his camera people (primarily the former mayor's husband) at last week's city council retreat and the citizens forum. Wondering what clips he would find to take wildly out of context, I TiVo'd his show out of curiosity and skimmed through it.

As it turns out, he never did play any video from either the retreat or the citizens forum. He played lot of video, but it all seemed to be him talking to the city council at our last two meetings. You'd think that fresh footage (not available online on demand) would be more interesting to his audience. Then again, the retreat was a nine-hour meeting that didn't include Bob Zick talking, so perhaps there wasn't any footage of interest to his regular viewer(s).

I did get a chance to see many examples of how spectacularly uninformed, misinformed and mathematically illiterate Mr. Zick is. For example, he went on about �pre-agenda meetings,� which have not been in place as long as I've been on the council. Those were meetings held the Thursday before a regular council meeting. The mayor and council would review the packet with staff, ask questions, and give staff a couple of days to research answers for the Monday meeting if they didn't have them already.

He also declared that this year's city council was working in secrecy out of the public eye, because we decide things in workshops, which are not broadcast. Umm...except that all our council workshops have been broadcast as long as I've been on the council. If you missed them, because they tend to start at some time between 4:30 and 5:30, all of the workshops since the start of 2010 are or will be archived for online viewing on demand.

Mr. Zick likes to pull amazing numbers out of the air, and declare them to be well-established facts. At one point he announced that the council/staff retreat cost $30,000-40,000; another time he said $80,000. I think I heard him say one point that city employees are paid $80 per hour (that would be $166,400 per year, though state law caps local government salaries at about $145,000), and he then multiplied that figure by the months of staff time he imagines went into setting up the retreat. At one point he claimed that meals at the retreat were �catered� and cost $10,000.

Sounds lavish, doesn't it! You might be imagining some high society party with sterling silver canape forks and servants in black ties.

Well, I never saw the caterers. It looked to me like city staff just set out snacks, drinks (coffee, hot water for tea, a cooler of soda pop), disposable cups and plates, and take-out food from some local restaurants. For breakfast there were a few things of yogurt, some muffins, coffee, two half gallon cartons of juice (pour your own into a paper cup), and some sliced fruit like you might pick up at Cub or Rainbow. At noon we had boxed lunches from Panera. For dinner, some big aluminum trays of salad and pasta, and some Italian bread (not heated like that fancy garlic bread you might have heard of, just cold sliced bread with packets of butter to spread on it yourself) from an Italian restaurant were set out for the five councilmembers and eleven staff members.

It says a lot about Mr. Zick's financial acuity that he imagines this spread would cost $10,000. Let's average $3,333 per meal � maybe less for breakfast (smaller, since department heads didn't join the retreat until lunchtime), more for dinner (what with bread on the side and some fancy packets of optional crushed red peppers for culinary thrill-seekers). I'm going to say there were no more than twenty boxed lunches from Panera (which, let's remember, is located in the same building that Mr. Zick claims as his Maplewood address). Do the math, $3,333 � 20...

So the next time you see Mr. Zick claiming to speak with authority on any topic whatsoever, just remember � this is a guy who convinced himself that a six-inch sandwich, cookie and chips in a cardboard box from Panera Bread costs $167. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust him to buy lunch unsupervised, let alone advise my local government on policy and operations.

My Notes from the 2/5/10 Council-Management Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:13:00 +0000

On Friday, February 5th, a long overdue City Council-Management Team retreat was held all day at the fire station on Clarence Street. The purpose of the retreat was threefold: to set council direction and goals for the next 2-3 years, identify short-term priorities, and build trust and better ways of working between staff and council. While we await a written report from the retreat facilitator, I thought I'd briefly write up my own notes from the day.

In the morning, the city council reviewed the city's assets and obstacles. Using a list of goals assembled from questionnaires the council had filled out prior to the meeting, we discussed and ranked those goals. The following emerged as our top seven:

Re-establish Maplewood's Reputation � restore trust and respect between the citizens, staff, and elected officials, restore a positive image with our residents, the media and other government entitites
Good Government � Make city government transparent and accessible, and operate with an environment of efficiency and mutual respect. Welcome and encourage citizen involvement, but not let the city's path be dictated simply by the loudest and most persistent voices that show up at city meetings.
Parks Department � Reorganize, re-establish, revitalize; possible joint venture with neighboring communities
(tie) Environmental Planning � Further develop processes for �going green�; enhance and fund open space management; includes follow-up on Fish Creek commission recommendations

(tie) Fiscal Responsibility � Manage the city's finances and financial planning effectively, with an eye to providing stability and maximum value in the long term for our residents

Complete the infrastructure upgrade process
Redevelopment

In the afternoon, city department heads joined the retreat. Each councilmember and staff member in the retreat was asked to identify ten short-term objectives or priorities. The following items were on the list of majorities of both group (three or more councilmembers, plus six or more of the eleven management team staff):

Maintain Quality Services
Integration of Parks and Recreation; Parks Funding
Economic Development
Investment in Redevelopment
In-depth survey of citizens
Investment in infrastructure

With nine hours of work and discussion, there was a lot more to it than these two lists, but this provides at least some idea of the areas of consensus that emerged from the retreat. It was time well spent, and I look forward to working with my fellow councilmembers and the staff in going forward to achieve these goals and objectives.

Rossbach on Your Police Report

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:25:00 +0000

This month's Your Police Report, a cable TV program produced by the Maplewood Police Department, includes an interview with Maplewood's new mayor, Will Rossbach. This program is in the schedule of broadcasts on the city's cable channel 16 (for example, at 3:00 PM on Monday, Feb. 8th, if you want to program your DVR). You can also view the current episode of Your Police Report on the GTN website.

Fire Training Facility in Bonding Bill

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:53:00 +0000

We received some good news from the legislature late this past week: The bonding bills in both the House and Senate include the East Metro Fire Training Facility with the full $3 million requested by the city and our partners (which would be matched by $3 million in local contributions). I'm told that the Senate will be voting on the bonding bill this coming week, and the House the week after.

Unfortunately, the facility is not included in the governor's bill, which as the media has widely reported is considerably smaller than what the legislature proposes. I hope that Governor Pawlenty will recognize the importance of this proposed facility, and its value in terms of shared services, increasing government efficiency, as well as improving public safety.

This Week's Review in Review

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:03:00 +0000

The Maplewood City Council gets a lot of ink in this week's Maplewood Review. You can read the articles online about Julie Wasiluk's temporary council appointment, the passing of the sign ordinance (minus two sections for further study and discussion), and the final passage of the amended recreational fire ordinance.

Citizens Forum

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 6th) is the monthly Citizens Forum in the Maplewood Room at City Hall from 10:00 AM to Noon. I will be hosting the event, and the featured department or theme is Community/Economic Development. City Manager Antonen will be on hand, as well as Dewey Konewko, the city's Director of Community and Parks Development. Everyone is welcome to attend, so please stop in for a cup of coffee, say hello, and share your thoughts on city-related matters!

Tuesday Caucuses

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Tomorrow, February 2nd, is precinct caucus day for the major political parties in Minnesota. Caucuses are a great way to meet your neighbors and get involved in politics at the grassroots level.

You can get a primer about precinct caucuses on the League of Women Voters website, or the FAQ on the Minnesota Secretary of State's site. The Secretary of State also offers a caucus finder.

If you live in Maplewood, these are the caucus locations tomorrow night, depending on your political party of choice:

Constitution Party:
The Miracle Centre Church
125 21st Avenue S
South Saint Paul MN

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party:
North High School
2520 E. 12th Avenue
North St Paul MN 55109

Green Party:
White Bear Lake City Hall, upstairs meeting room
4701 Highway 61
White Bear Lake MN 55110

Independence Party:
Mahtomedi District Center
1520 Mahtomedi Ave.
Mahtomedi MN 55115

In addition to the "in person" caucuses, the Independence Party is holding an online caucus (see their website for more information).

Republican Party:
For House District 55A (Maplewood Precincts 1-11):
John Glenn Middle School
1560 County Road B E
Maplewood MN 55109-3609

For House District 55B (Maplewood Precincts 12-16):
Tartan High School
828 Greenway Ave. N
Oakdale MN 55128

Fish Creek Recommendations

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:09:00 +0000

This coming Monday, the city council workshop will include the presentation of the report of the Fish Creek Natural Area Greenway Ad-Hoc Commission (note: link is a 6.5 MB, 40-page PDF with numerous images, which will take a while to download if you a slower internet connection).

The Smoke Clears

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Remember all the controversy about wood smoke? Remember how, right before the election, a few pamphleteers and cable access TV shows purported to have uncovered a secret agenda on the part of mayoral candidate Will Rossbach to ban recreational fires, fireplaces, wood stoves, etc.?

Last night we passed the second reading of the amended recreational fire ordinance. It becomes law as soon as it's published in the official newspaper. Contrary to all the election-season bleatings of Maplewood's conspiracy mongers, we didn't ban wood fires. In fact, most members of the city council told you all along, if you asked, that no ban was ever being considered.

But from the outset of the wood smoke task force, some people (including certain now-former councilmembers) have worked hard to fan the flames of fear with rumors that a ban on wood burning was imminent. Denials could only be seen as proof of the sinister scheme underway, to their way of thinking.

Now that the ordinance has actually passed (and there is no ban, in case that was unclear), the naked dishonesty and cynicism of these conspiracy mongers should be plain to all.

What we actually did do:

Changed the ordinance to conform to state law (which supercedes our ordinances anyway) where they were in conflict. Examples: Our old ordinance permitted coal as fuel for recreational fires, which Minnesota law prohibits; our ordinance allowed fires 20 feet from a structure, while the state requires a minimum of 25.
Extended the permitted hours for recreational fires, formerly from 2 PM to 11 PM, now from 10 AM to 11 PM.
Added a "good neighbor" clause that states "Recreational fires should not be lit or maintained if the smoke therefrom unreasonably causes discomfort or a negative impact to neighboring properties."
Added a wind restriction to allow recreational fires only when the wind is less than 15 mph.

And after all that controversy and character bashing, after turning a minor ordinance update into a political football, how many of those "concerned" people actually showed up last night to comment on the final passage of the ordinance? Zero.

Pioneer Press on Appointment, Special Election

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:15:00 +0000

A Pioneer Press story over the weekend discussed our coming interim council appointment and the plan for the special election to coincide with the state primary.

The Latest Call for Duplicate Audits

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:49:00 +0000

The Sunday Pioneer Press includes an article about a petition seeking signatures to ask the State Auditor to examine Maplewood's books. Leading the petition drive is Elizabeth Sletten, one of former Mayor Diana Longrie's most devoted fans (you may also remember her as one of the candidates in last year's city council primary), and Longrie herself.

Long-time readers of my blog may recall that we've talked about this before. As my term began in 2008, I seriously considered whether we should ask the State Auditor to look at our books, after the mismanagement and incompetence of the Longrie-Copeland era. You can read my entry on the topic from April 7, 2008.

Then-Mayor Longrie wrote an April 8, 2008 opinion article in the Pioneer Press about her wish to see an audit; she ran the same text as her article in the May 2008 city newsletter. Longrie's laundry list of concerns focused not on Copeland's time at the city's helm � rather, she wanted an inquiry to focus on policy disagreements such as the amount of city debt, and bizarre personal obsessions like someone joking about naming a street after Will Rossbach. (Perhaps Longrie thinks "Comedy Police" is part of the state auditor's job description.)

In the new Pioneer Press article, Sletten claims to have obtained more than 400 signatures so far � roughly the same number as votes she received in last year's primary. To meet the required 20% of registered Maplewood voters, she'll need about 4,200. Even then, the scope of the audit is determined by the auditors, not the petitioners. To quote the State Auditor's website:

If a petition audit is certified by the county auditor, staff from the Office of the State Auditor would then meet with a committee of petitioners to review the petitioners' concerns. The audit staff then would review the concerns to determine the scope of the audit. The audit might not include all the concerns identified by the petitioners if the audit staff determined that the concerns were based on decisions within the discretion of the governing body.

I believe the State Auditor would duplicate the work already done by our independent auditors every year � which, let's be clear, has included a lot of clean-up of issues from the Longrie-Copeland era. But staff and auditors have repeatedly told us that there's no evidence of wrongdoing, just errors that we can reasonably believe came as a result of the loss of most of the accounting department, who were driven away by the toxic environment created in City Hall by Copeland and his masters. To emphasize the point once again, a state audit would not just duplicate our independent auditors' work, but the city's taxpayers would have to pay for the cost of the audit in a year when the budget is already stretched thin.

I don't believe that this money would be well spent, especially in these lean budgetary times. Still, if 20% of Maplewood voters want it, we'll indulge the personal obsessions of the former mayor and her cronies on the taxpayers' dime once again. I don't expect anything shocking will turn up, but I do still have my own list of questions, as I wrote in May 2008, that I will happily submit to the auditors if they're going to be examining the city's affairs anyhow.

Town Hall Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:13:00 +0000

Senator Chuck Wiger (Minnesota Senate District 55) and Representative Leon Lillie (House District 55A) will be holding a town hall meeting tomorrow morning from 9:00 to 10:00 AM at the Maplewood City Hall. Sen. Wiger represents all of Maplewood, and Rep. Lillie represents the northern part of the city (as well as North Saint Paul).

From 10:30 to 11:30 AM there were be another town hall meeting at the Oakdale City Hall, hosted by Sen. Wiger and Rep. Nora Slawik, whose district 55B includes Maplewood's south leg.

Streaming Links

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:58:00 +0000

The City of Maplewood website doesn't yet have all the links and directions in place, but streaming of live and archived Maplewood meetings is in fact available now.

Here are links to the archived Maplewood City Council meetings of the year to date:

January 4th Special City Council Meeting
January 11th City Council-Manager Workshop
January 11th Regular City Council Meeting
January 12th City Council-Manager Workshop

Tonight's workshop, in which we will be interviewing a lot of candidates for the new Business & Economic Development Commission, begins at 5:00 and while it's going on it should be viewable online. Later it will also be available as an archive, with those handy agenda links embedded to make it easy to find whatever specific item on the agenda you may be interested in.

Streaming Begins

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:51:00 +0000

Rather quietly, online streaming of city council meetings began last night. It was hard to find the link in the city council page, and I didn't actually realize it was being streamed live (or nearly live, with a delay of a few seconds for the video feed to be processed into the format for streaming over the internet) until City Manager Antonen mentioned it in mid-meeting.

Presumably this evening's 5 PM workshop about the interim council appointment will be streaming as well at the same web address.

All of this year's meetings will be available in an archive online for on-demand viewing, starting in the near future.

Crime Down in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (John Nephew) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:25:00 +0000

According to a message from Police Chief Thomalla to the city council, 2009 was a year of improvement in the fight against crime in Maplewood. He wrote:

Preliminary numbers indicate reported crime was down significantly in 2009 after it had spiked in many areas in 2008. In 2009 we saw a slight increase in Robberies and Theft from vehicles, but all other of the major crimes dropped. There was a 21% reduction in Assaults, a 24% reduction in Burglaries, An 18% reduction in Thefts, a 12% reduction in Auto Thefts and 9% reduction in Damage to Property.