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Liberal 
Group: Moderator
Posts: 11451
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,11:00 am |
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At a meeting last night about 50 people seemed to be in unanimous agreement that people need to quit talking so negative about our town.
Personally I figure that if we correct the problems that people are complaining about then we won't have to worry about people talking bad about the town.
It seems to me if you have a dog that $hits in your business and you take no action over it. People are going to eventually quit shopping there and they are going to start telling everyone else that your business stinks.
Now once everyone has quit shopping at your business you can do a couple things. You can get rid of the dog, clean up the place, put a fresh coat of paint on it and let everyone know that things have changed and that you got rid of the old dog and your business no longer stinks. Or you can just sit there in your stinking failing business with the same old dog driving customers away and just pretend it doesn't smell that bad.
It seems to me that our city is taking the second option and we are going to have one hell of a time turning things around when we pretend problems don't exist.
A perfect example is the speaker last night telling the group how lucky we are to have Pam Bishop in Albert Lea and that other towns are constantly trying to lure her away from us with job offers. When he said this I heard someone in the audience say under their breath, "bull$hit".
You have to wonder which one is causing more damage to our town. The person pretending there is no problem or the person that made the negative statement?
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The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
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| Post Number: 2
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Try the positive
Unregistered
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,11:41 am |
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I agree that just turning the other cheek when there are problems solves nothing and in fact perpetuates the problem. However, dwelling on the negative does its own damage that may even be worse. A change has been made. Is it the right change? Will our town start anew and grow and bring in better jobs? Will we continue on the same path, only with a new driver (or rearranged drivers)? We won’t know until we give it a chance.
This is the first major leadership change in the management of the city and the way economic development will be done in 25 years. In the previous 25 years many people feel they have been wronged, lied to, mislead, etc. There is no wonder why there are hard feelings and bitterness in this community. Let’s let the past be the past and give the new structure a chance. Let’s give it some time. How much? I don’t know. I would guess that it will take at least 6 months to find a new city manager and then Sparks would be starting as the full time PA. I would guess that after a year we, as a community, should be able to gauge how the new set up is working and if any changes need to be made. This should be something that will evolve, it wont just happen overnight.
In the mean time lets try and see the good in the community. If you are not from here, what drew you here? What do you think would draw others to this community? What would a business see here that would make they want to locate here? These are the things that we as common citizens can point out that will assist the people working to bring jobs and growth here to point out to the perspective businesses.
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| Post Number: 3
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Liberal
Group: Moderator
Posts: 11451
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,12:24 pm |
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I would guess that after a year we, as a community, should be able to gauge how the new set up is working and if any changes need to be made.
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By then there won't be a damn thing you can do about any of this ALEDC crap. There is going to be no public input, no public meetings and no accountability and you want us to just give them a chance and if it doesn't work we'll try to fix it later? How will we correct this problem later? Are we just going to ask them to give us our voice back in economic development? Or ask them to start holding their meetings in the light of day again while they spend our tax dollars? Come on let's be realistic, this isn't a move that can be easily reversed and this group is making sure of it.
Before we start off on the long journey to economic recovery let's take some time and make sure we are heading in the right direction because if we're not heading in the right direction we're just going to be that much farther away from a solution when we finally decide to face our problems.
You want citizens of Albert Lea to be positive thinkers then give them something to feel positive about. Taking away their voice in economic development is certainly not making anyone feel more positve about this town.
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The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
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| Post Number: 4
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Try the Positive
Unregistered
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,1:09 pm |
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How many residents of Albert Lea know how economic development works? How many had ever been to a port authority meeting before, or a greater jobs meeting or even a city council meeting? Before all this came up, did you even know what all the agencies were that are involved in economic development? Did you know about their assets? Did you know what each ones function was? I would bet not.
Do you know what should be done for economic development? Do you really think that companies want all their business dealings public when they are looking to locate to a community?
Just like there are computer programmers, engineers, doctors, etc. there are economic developers. What I mean by that is that some people are trained to do something while others are trained to do other things. If you really believe that just any common citizen could lead the economic development for this or any other city, you my friend are mistaken.
There will still be an advisory board for the new economic develop structure. The Citizens can force them for the change, just like they did for the current change. Their will be two city councilors and a county commissioner on the board, sounds to me like we have some voting authority in the economic development.
Again, the past is the past, let’s put our best foot forward and see what we can then accomplish. If you want there to be more council over sight on the economic development than I suggest that you go to the council meeting this Monday and voice your concerns. Complaining about them here is not going to do you any good. Go and tell the people who will make the change what you think. That my friend is how a democracy works.
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| Post Number: 5
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minnow
Group: Members
Posts: 2243
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,1:36 pm |
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You don't get it do you...It's NOT going to work until we clean house real good. The old guard has failed and won't get out of the way.
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| Post Number: 6
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Bubba
Group: Members
Posts: 94
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,1:49 pm |
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Hey Lib, why didn't you speek up last night. Roger Bok did. Tony Trow did. Don Sornson did. Each expressed some concerns but nothing like what you are writing today. Ralph Peterson, who I believe has been on past Jobs boards, even express concerns about what was being discussed.
Is what Don said true? Is it pointless to come to these meetings, and if you should come do you need to hold your tongue? Your points needs to be discussed! I don't know that I agree with you but I do know that it needs to be fully aired if anything positive is ever going to come form this process.
My concern last night was that the process would maintain proper accounting for public moneys, and that the new entity has continued public oversight. I think I feel better about that, but I would feel much better today if you had expressed your issues and they had been discussed. If this is how you feel, come prepaired to discuss facts, issues, and incidents. Leave out the dogsh*t and the bullsh*t referances and get it out. Be prepaired to hear from people who may disagree with you. Hopefully when it is over we can move forward together, but if we continue this after the fact fragging this community is going no where.
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| Post Number: 7
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big talker
Unregistered
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,1:52 pm |
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Liberal is much like others that post on here regularly, all talk. when they actually have a chance to voice their concern they don't. You see, that way they can always complain, if they don't try to solve the problem they can always disagree with whatever happens. Typical complainer additude.
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| Post Number: 8
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Liberal
Group: Moderator
Posts: 11451
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,1:53 pm |
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I may go to the council meeting on monday and voice my concerns, but, I'm smart enough to realize it won't matter. This decision has already been made and the council is just going through the motions at this point. Puppetmaster Paul has pulled all their strings and the council will fall in line and put him in charge of economic development just like he says. But hey, if anyone doesn't like it we can force a change. (we just have to figure out how to force that change since the board will only be 1/3 elected and 2/3 appointed.)
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Do you really think that companies want all their business dealings public when they are looking to locate to a community?
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Would you care to back that statement up with facts. Give me the name of one company that hasn't came to this town because our port authority is subject to the open meeting laws. If that statement were true why is it that every business that has shown interest in this town lately has tried to play us against another town?
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Just like there are computer programmers, engineers, doctors, etc. there are economic developers. What I mean by that is that some people are trained to do something while others are trained to do other things.
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Are you seriously trying to tell us that Paul Sparks is a trained economic developer? If you really believe that we need a trained economic developer in the port authority then why is Albert Lea looking for a city manager instead of a full time trained economic developer?
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The people are masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it!
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| Post Number: 9
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Bubba
Group: Members
Posts: 94
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,2:05 pm |
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You may go. You may voice your concerns.
Dam, you are nothing but a big chicken!
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| Post Number: 10
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minnow
Group: Members
Posts: 2243
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Nov. 07 2003,2:12 pm |
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And Big Talker...that includes YOU because you can't even reg a name...typical AL hypocrite.
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