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jimhanson 
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 23 2003,11:33 am |
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Things have been kind of dead on the Forum over the holidays. County Commissioner Dan Belshan posted a newsletter (fact/spin format) at Freeborncounty.com. Go to http://www.freeborncounty.com/ to get to the site, click on opinion/columnists, and click on Belshan's picture.
There are a lot of subjects here, many of which have been discussed on this Forum. Belshan is able to provide some inside perspective on County Board dealings and maneuverings--not always what has been released by County Administration or reported in the media. These are controversial subjects, and should provide a basis for discussion on this Forum.
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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MADDOG
Group: Moderator
Posts: 7821
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 23 2003,1:04 pm |
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Interesting newsletter, Belshan's struck on a few sour notes with the people of the county.
On the issue of highest taxes in the area, I did some research on this myself....IT'S FACT. Much of the proof of this is at taxes
Bathrooms vs Bonding: We do have a thread on this also. What's interesting is the amount of money our commissioners have wasted away again by borrowing the whole amount and only using a portion so far. This revenue bond did not have to be borrowed in its entirety, but could have been borrowed on a "as is" need. $457,959 wasted away on interest paid because this was not done. How suiting for our board to have done this too.
Also note the balance in the contingency fund: $73,486!, they started out with $513,000. Where did it all go already?
On the road transfers, Belshan never gave a negative comment to the townships. I was in the council chambers during the board meeting when Don Koch addressed the board and told them such, I was also standing right next to him (Koch) when Mullenbach and Koch got into an argument over it.
WHERE DOES IT ALL END?
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Actually my wife is especially happy when my google check arrives each month. Thanks to douchbags like you, I get paid just for getting you worked up. -Liberal
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hoosier
Group: Members
Posts: 1476
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 24 2003,8:26 am |
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Thought it might be easier for people to comment about it if it was right here.
FREEBORN COUNTY HIGHEST TAXED PER CAPITA OF ADJOINING COUNTIES, 2003 LEVY
SPIN: The board did everything it could to cut. Chairman says Belshan's comments are out of line.
FACT: Much of the county budget is federal and state dollars, but a key portion comes from local tax levy dollars. Data from Metropolitan Inter-County Assn. shows Freeborn County as the highest taxed per capita local levy of any of our adjoining MN counties in 2003. Our local levy went from $7,839,047 in 2001 to $11,069,216 in 2003, (up 41.2%) according to MN Dept of Revenue figures. On 12-16-03 our board set the levy for 2004 to make a whopping 55.98% total increase since the 2001 levy. I was criticized by fellow board members for not voting for the 9.94% levy increase tentatively set in September and finally set December. In September I said, "I would hope we'd have the discipline to whittle these down between now and December". Despite getting assurances the levy would be lowered, it wasn't. Most of the austerity measures I suggested were discarded.
OPINION: I believe we've gone on the biggest spending spree in the history of the county. And not only have we increased spending, we are dwindling the reserves and increasing our debt load to dangerous levels. Perhaps we should look at other counties for ideas, as our higher per capita levy may indicate poor fiscal management practices. As a knee-jerk reaction to unbridled spending, and
FACT: without seeing a written plan, the county board cut home health care, a budget move affecting county elderly. I didn't vote for that. However, we may increase hours of a nurse for the new jail.
QUESTION: Criminals take precedence over senior citizens?
BATHROOM $$ vs. BONDING $$, (pennies vs. common cents) Hold on to your toilet seats!
FACT: In Oct '03 our county staff touted advertising in the bathrooms of the courthouse as a way to bring in revenue of approx $1800 per year, to ultimately lower the County's tax levy.
QUESTION: Is saving pennies now necessary because common sense in spending wasn't used?
Freeborn County Government Center
Snap shot Construction Budget Update to the Board of Commissioners (from AP, month ending 11-25-03)
(my bold and italics for clarification)
1 Current Percentage Complete 47%
2 County Approved Budget - $25,729,236.00 - amount borrowed
3 Total Paid to Date - $11,985,330.00 - amount needed first year of construction
4 Balance of Committed Cost - $13,670,420.00 - amount unspent
5 Contingency Balance $73,486.00 - held for emergency cost overruns
The County borrowed the total (#2 above) for construction 11-15-02 at an average interest cost of 4.6%. (Interest per week nearly $20 thousand.) We only needed #3. For a year we have borrowed # 4 more than we needed. We are reinvesting that unspent money receiving an average of 1.25% interest, creating a cost to the County of approx 3.35% interest on unspent $$. If the County had borrowed #3 last November and waited until this November to borrow the balance (#4), the savings in interest to the County would be approximately $457,959.00. It would take more than 254 years of bathroom advertising to recoup the interest costs lost in the last 12 months.
OPINION: In other words, we've flushed almost 1/2 million dollars down the toilet, which may have been saved had we just done some research on borrowing and bonding.
JobOpportunityBuildingZone (JOBZ) MAY BE GOOD NEWS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FACT: Freeborn County has 393 acres designated as a state and local tax exempt JOBZ to help stimulate the economy and as an incentive to attract in- and out-of-state businesses.
OPINION: I hope it's successful in bringing a turnaround to our County and we grow and prosper!!
MCLU vs. FREEBORN COUNTY BOARD (1st Amendment Lawsuit-Rule 19)
I'm not allowed to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but the public minutes speak loud and clear where I stand: Nov '99 I voted against Commissioner Mullenbach's motion to implement this rule. I moved 3X since then to modify or get rid of it (1-01, 2-03,8-03). I have stood alone on this issue.
INFO: OAKLAND and MOSCOW TOWNSHIPS NO LONGER GOING TO THE DOGS
A continuing problem in unincorporated, high population density areas of the county has been stray animals, especially dogs. Since 1999 I had been interested in some sort of dog ordinance for those areas and had spoken with the former Sheriff and the County Attorney's office several times, asking if something could be done, but getting nowhere. On 02-11-02 at a joint County/Township meeting (that I requested to be held) the problem was talked about again, and later a Township Association Lawyer answered the question-each township could designate ordinance areas to control their problem. Oakland and Moscow Townships are to be commended for working together, pursuing the idea and doing the necessary legwork to draw up an ordinance, raise funds through license fees, and contract with private animal control. Thanks to the full cooperation of those townships, Sheriff Harig, Austin attorney Lee Bjorndal, and the City of Austin animal control officer, their animal nuisance problem is being solved! The Townships' ordinance is available to other townships-they graciously provided me with a copy, and I'll be glad to share it with the rest of the townships.
SHARING RESOURCES
OPINION: I'd like to form an on-going governmental committee with the City of Albert Lea for the benefit of all citizens of the County. I truly believe we could jointly save taxpayer dollars with shared staff, programs, resources and capital expenditures, ideas for cooperation, and ideas from other cities and counties. We have infrequent City/County joint meetings, and this committee would be an on-going way to bring back information to both groups in a timely manner. There are community committees from which we could draw information, but this would be a joint effort by elected officials who are empowered to make monetary decisions on behalf of tax payers.
FACT: On 11-18-03 I moved "the County Board present the idea to the City Council to form an on-going County/City Resource Sharing Committee", and the motion passed unanimously. I volunteer to be on that committee, if formed.
TO COMMUNICATE OR NOT TO COMMUNICATE, THAT WAS IN QUESTION
FACT: Susan Miller presented her Report of the County Engineer to the county board on 08-21-03, at a budget meeting. Included under Proposed System Changes were maps for proposed turnback of some county roads to townships as a cost savings measure for the county budget. She stated, "I would like this to happen this Fall that we roll this out and get 'em turned back to the township by January 1st." I regularly attend township meetings in my district, and subsequently showed the maps at London and Shellrock Townships' meetings. They were very interested in looking at the plan and had many questions, and asked was this for sure and what was the timeline. I told the townships, "Nothing is written in stone" and they could direct questions to Ms. Miller as she'd said she'd present the plan to them in the next few months. At the 11-12-03 budget meeting I was personally attacked for having spoken with townships about the plan.
FACT: Those attackers, who had not been at the township meetings,
SPIN: said "why did you ruin" the plan for the county, and they "heard" I said negative things about the plan at the township meetings and blamed me for costing the county over $100,000. The administrator said I spread misinformation.
FACT: I didn't speak negatively to those townships about the plan and had not ruined anything. In fact, the 2 townships I'd spoken with were interested in talking with Ms. Miller, who hadn't gone to any of those townships to present any part of any plan presented to our board in August. A township chairman who had been there supported me as not negative or misinforming. I also checked other sources and found that county boards may resolve to turn county roads to townships, but, according to Statute 163.11 every township board member must receive certified mail with 30 day hearing notice, public hearings must be held, every turned mile must be up to county standards, and the county shall maintain the highway turned back for a period of 2 years. None of that occurred.
OPINION: I think it's a sad day in Freeborn County when a commissioner is condemned for doing his job (communicating with townships in his district on something that may have an impact on those townships) and then blamed for the failure of a plan that was not presented to the townships. You judge what money might have been saved for the 2004 budget. It seems we spend an inordinate amount of time covering our behinds rather than being open with info and doing our jobs.
FACT: On another communications item, on 12-02-03, as both night meetings of the county board had received positive feedback from members of the public (and KATE radio, which had broadcast them) I moved to have two more night board meetings. My motion was defeated 3-2.
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The power of accurate obsvervation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw
The devil begins with froth on the lips of an angel entering into battle for a holy and just cause. Grigory Pomerants
We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. Garet Garrett
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hoosier
Group: Members
Posts: 1476
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 24 2003,8:45 am |
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I said it once before, I have not once heard of Behrends, Mullenbach, Mathiason, and Springborg voting against any spending. I seen them all talking about spending more money, some on things we need, some we could do without until we have the money. I also seen them get all over Belshans @ss for asking questions of people that come asking the board for money. The meetings I went to Belshan wasnt really against spending the money, he just wanted to find the money before we spend it. You know, cut somewhere else to get the money you need. But the four idiots have done it again, my god, they arent qualified to hold this position. They nearly crawled under the table in fear when the department heads came up to tell them they cant cut 15 percent, but they have other ideas. Well, that was the easy way out, sorry, but they had some choices to make and they failed badly in doing it. The ideas the department heads came up with are cost saving measures, things that take the whole year to get your money back. Plus, shouldnt it be the departments heads job to save as much money as they possibly can? Why wait until we are broke to come up with ways to save money?
Remember what Pawlenty said when he took office?
If you are a counciler or a board member or a department head and you cant cut 15 percent from your budget, then you shouldnt have the job.
Its probably a good thing that they are running this town and county into the ground, if we were doing better, if we were bigger, if we werent broke, think of all the money that would be wasted because of mismanagement. The four idiots arent qualified enough to sit on a school board let alone a county board. Remember this come November 2004 and get rid of some of the worst county board in the history of the state of Minnesota. We deserve more, we should demand more. 
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The power of accurate obsvervation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw
The devil begins with froth on the lips of an angel entering into battle for a holy and just cause. Grigory Pomerants
We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. Garet Garrett
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 24 2003,12:01 pm |
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No snappy rejoinders from the Belshan Bashers? Hard to dispute the facts--levy up nearly 56%--highest taxes of all surrounding counties--and I would add to Belshan's assertion that we wasted $458,000 in interest in one year--it should easily top HALF A MILLION dollars, as most of the money paid out was in the last half of this year's expenditures--further increasing the interest differential.
The project is 47% completed, but the contingency fund that started out with $513,000 is down to $73,486--86% used up! Where did it go--have you ever seen an accounting? Nearly half a million dollars gone. I'd like to see an accounting for this fund.
Belshan is bashed by the County Administrator and the "lock-step 4" for "always asking questions". Though Belshan doesn't represent my district, I'm glad that SOMEBODY is asking questions--if more of our County officials asked questions, or were capable of independent thought (instead of being given the answers by the County Administrator) we wouldn't have this kind of waste.
Edited by jimhanson on Dec. 24 2003,12:05 pm
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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kid dyn-o-mite
Unregistered
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Posted on: Dec. 24 2003,1:18 pm |
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QUESTION: Criminals take precedence over senior citizens?
In a word, yes. Sadly drug warrior rednecks like George and Sheriff Harig along with many seniors themselves would rather see Jonny in jail no matter what the cost.
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Ole1kanobe
Group: Members
Posts: 1360
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 27 2003,11:36 pm |
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Criminals live longer than seniors, that means there's more money to be made by taking care of the criminals, along with charging them for their stay, than there is by taking care of the seniors.
Sounds rude and crude at first, but actually think about it for a minute before you dismiss it.
Sad but true...
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The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
-Albert Einstein-
Some of what is said here (myself included) is about as tolerable as listening to someone vacuum a cat.
-nphilbro-
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 28 2003,1:13 pm |
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Freeborn County isn't going to make any money from our "pay to stay" program--$8800 billed, $400 actually collected--MINUS the fees for the collection agency. By the time you figure the processing time, it comes out to a net LOSS. This program brought to you by the same County brain trust that proposed urinal advertising!
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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kid dyn-o-mite
Unregistered
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Posted on: Dec. 28 2003,6:26 pm |
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My friend got his second OWI(barely over) and has to do 6 months in the county jail, for which is has recently started his service, but gets out to work. He pays $20-$40 a day, I forget exactly how much, but it's a whole hell of a lot!
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| Post Number: 10
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 29 2003,12:42 pm |
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There is a difference between the Huber Law (work during the day, jail at night) and "Pay to stay" full time incarceration. People have the OPTION of not being released for work--just staying in the jail. I agree--$20-$40 per day seems like a lot, especially if there are no meals involved.
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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