Blog Comments

I had a lot of comments to post on this blog. I just deleted them all and did not publish them because it was so long sense I was here, but back at it again. Please feel free to comment on any post, it will be published as long as it is on topic, not mean spirited, and not spam. I enjoy the back and fourth conversation and debate so lets do it but in a polite manner.

This Blog Part two.

Hi all just wanted to let you all know that I hope to be blogging here more again. I will also keep going on with the successful facebook blog as well. I just thought it was time to blog here again as well. Well I do hope to keep this blog current, I don't have as much time I would like to blog so I will post when I can. Duluth Politics blog is BACK!

Council pay cut.

Former police chief Eli Miletich think the councils pay should be cut in half. Well I am not opposed in part to this, I do have a few issues with it.

If we are going to talk about cuts to elected officials then the first place we need to look is the top official and that is the Mayor. Regard less of who that is then maybe you can talk about others taking a pay cut. We then need to look at not elected officials pay chief administrator pay is insane. If these two things were to happen then you can come and talk to me about council decreasing there pay.

I also believe that if there is an increase or decrease in pay to any elected office the citizens should vote on it.

14% levy increase.

Well there was no one at last nights meeting that spoke against any part of the levy increase. All of the levy increases passed by a 5-4 vote. Those that voted against them were councilor Stauber, Fedora, Fossile, and Krause. These are the five that supported it councilor Gardner, Cuneo, Anderson, and Gilbert.

I am getting sick of people just complaining and not doing anything. It is time for people to start going to the meeting and voicing there thoughts. It is time for people to call and email councilors. There is a reason these councilors listen to special interest groups. One is money the next is they are the most vocal.

Danny Does Duluth.

Danny has a pod cast called Danny Does Duluth. He asked if I would like to take part in the show and I said yes . Now the show is mostly a play on local media but he will do politics from time to time. By the way he has an open invite to all 35 that put in for Rienert's seat.

I want to thank Danny for having and I hope more people take part in the show. I have to say he was very pleasant and fair. I believe he will be with everyone that would take part in the show.

After first interviews.

Well now that the filing is closed for Rienerts seat it is on to interviews. After tonight's meeting nothing seems clear except for the first part. There will be interviews Dec. 11th starting at 6pm all the people will be interviewed.

After that it now seems it could be unclear as to what happens next as a councilor raised a concern about how to and how many people should be in the final vote. Well the chair of the committee thought she may have had it figured out it may not be. With question asked by councilor Fedora. He asked how many rounds of vote there would and when the final vote was up how many would there be left. Gardner said that would be five or six. Councilor Fedora thinks there should be more.

There for at this point tell it is all worked it is unclear as to what will go on. The other thing we do is that there will be at least one more interview process.

Was the vote decided before hand.

There has been questions on the vote last night about land sale on Park Point. Some seem to think that two councilors promised the there vote in favor of the land sale. why is this? They (she) seems to think that they would normally support something like this. The councilors in question are Tony Cuneo and Jeff Anderson.

Now in a normal situation would Cuneo and Anderson support this no. The better question is would any councilor most likely not. We are not in a normal situation however. Our city is facing huge finical troubles for this year and beyond.

I believe times will not be as bad for citizens and business in our area as it will in many other parts of the state and around the country over the next few month. I do however thing the city government will continue on in a dismal budget situation if we don't take the steps needed now.

This is why councilors Anederson and Cuneo voted for the land sale they understand this. Well councilor Gardner does not. This was about what was best for Duluth it had nothing to do with buying votes like Gardner wants you to think. This is just yet another attempt to make her look good to her supporters. Yet she puts the city at jeopardy with her vote.

BREAKING NEWS: Duluth City Council Approved Land Sale on Park Point.

The Duluth City Council has approved the land sale of three parcels on Park Point. The 6-3 vote helps with the city budget. Should this have failed it would have for sure meant more city cuts and layoffs for the remained of 2008 and beyond.

The sale of the land was meet with some opposition tonight, the small group also fired out false accusations that councilors had promised the administration there vote no matter what. There was a small group of about six citizens at tonight's meeting the did not want the land sales to occur. Well no one spoke in favor of the land sale at tonight's meeting.

When it came time for the councilors to comment most of them did not like the idea of selling the land. Councilor Anderson went as far as saying it was bad practice for the council do this. He then voted in favor of the land sale. Those that joined councilor Anderson were Fedora, Cuneo, Kruase, Stauber, Foslie. The three that voted against the land sale were councilors Gardner, Reinert and Gilbert. Councilor Gilbert went as far as saying these single home project could be as bad as beacon point project was.

Council filing started today.

Those interesting in filing for Roger Reinerts council seat could start to do so today. I know of a few that did already pick up there application well others have not as of yet. You have to the first of December to pick up an application and return it to the clerks office.

The debate on roads is now open.

This was interesting to me. The chamber things that the city should not be in the business of roads, http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/77839/.

Now I agree with part on both sides of this, however right now I have to say I disagree with the chamber. Providing good roads to me is one thing the city should do. Now we are failing miserably at it right now.

This will open the debate once again not only about roads but should the city provide and not provide. Here is in part why I am a bit weary to agree with the chamber if we get out of roads what will be asked to provide? My thought is if we get out of this then why should the city provide anything?

There are also a number of things we need to look into here. Are there any other cities doing this? How many and what is the cost saving? If the city gets out of roads what do they replace it with? There are also a number of others. I will be doing some research on this issue.

Right now I don't agree with the chamber.

Lights on or off?

The Mayor has been asking for citizens and business owners to pay to keep street lights on in the city. The the fee is not huge it is another fee or tax that is not necessary. The fee is set to be $3.50 a month for business and just under that for house holds.

The council passed the administrations proposal last night by a narrow margin, the vote was 5-4 in favor of the proposal. I think the council and the Mayor forgot that Duluth already made headlines on the Jay Leno show for tax issues could it happen again?

This is why we pay taxes to keep lights on and keep roads up and have emergency services. We should not be asked or expected to pay a fee on top of taxes. Yet this Mayor and council saw fit that to do this.

I would rather walk a round with a flash light then have to pay this fee.

Just a question?

Does the union ever stop whinning?

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/content/type/article/id/74973/

300 foot rule or no that seems to be the question?

Sense the ordinance passed a few years ago it has been on the hot seat. The ordiance has been under attack for a long time. Well two councilors defeand it to no end others see it harmful. Yet the council has not been able to rid of the 300 foot rule. Is this a good thing or a bad? It depends on who you talk to.

Here is one that likes the 300 foot rule:


Dear City Counselors,
I am begging you to keep the 300 foot rule. My husband and I have lived and raised our family, for the past 33 years, on Garden Street.

It was always a good place to live, until rental housing began.
On Friday and Saturday evening, of this past weekend, we were awaken at 2 am with kids walking by, drunk and shouting. On Saturday they also were pulling up the parking signs up and down our street. I caught two of them in front of our home. I was not able to fall back to sleep until 5 am and had to get up at 6:30. I will tell you that this is not a isolated incident. We spend every Sunday picking up garbage from the weekend.

If you allow rentals to increase all you have to do is look at what has happened to 21st Avenue and Woodland Avenue. It's is embarrassing when you drive by. Houses are not maintained, garbage is laying around. It is beginning to look like the slums. Is this what you want people coming to our city to see? Please don't allow this to happen to our neighborhood.
Why should you repeal a rule so people can make money and the expense of those that are trying to continue to make this our home. Why should we have to sell our home to live in peace. It's absolutely not fair!!!

We have a home at 135 Garden Street and we would like to stay here.
Thank you for your effort in keeping our neighborhood a civilized family neighborhood.
Sincerely,Mike and Shirleen Hieb

source: Duluth News Tribune

Yet there have been many other thoughts in the paper against the 300 foot rule.

Here is an example from the Duluth News Tribune today:


For the past half-year, Pat Shelton lost $800 a month as one of his homes in the Chester Park neighborhood sat empty. The owner of Viking Properties said the economy has been so poor that until recently he had been unable to sell it. And, because of Duluth’s 300-foot-rule, which forbids new rental licenses within 300 feet of an existing one, he had been unable to rent it.
“That the city won’t let me generate income off of it is ludicrous,” he said. “I don’t understand the philosophy. I just don’t get it.”
Shelton and others have been lobbying the Duluth City Council to get rid of the controversial 300-foot-rule.

As a person who has lived in the East and Central Hillsides all my life this issue is of interest to me and many others. I will have more later but for now chew on this and get your thoughts flowing on what you think of the issue.

Mayor Ness at last weeks Obama rally.

Here is part of what Mayor Don Ness said at the Obama rally last Wednesday. Remember this was on city time in the middle of the day.

"This election must be a referendum on the failure of republican politics. Whether it's the reckless deregulation of the financial industry that requires a bailout of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars on the backs of working men and women, exploding budget and trade deficits that have weakened the American dollar, an energy policy written by oil lobbyists that has resulted in $4-a-gallon gas, or an unprovoked, pre-emptive war, they all undercut the integrity of the principles that make this country great. This election is about big ideas, it's about big direction that our country is headed, and it is time for a change. And it's the Obama-Biden ticket that represents that change. The only change that we've been hearing from the McCain ticket is him changing his positions on the very fundamentals that have created this financial mess that we're in today."

Now I wrote about this last week when it happened http://duluthpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/09/mayor-ness-represents-obama.html. I say the quote on Brandon Stahl's blog http://www.areavoices.com/buzz/. Brandon made an interesting assessment of the speech. He said it was a site of the Mayor we don't see much of. I would say head over to Brandon's blog and read it. Then form your own thoughts. Mine remain what I wrote last week.

Judge rules against the AFSCME

Today the city picked up a win in it's effort to try to balance the budget. As a result of the judgement by the St. Louis County judge it saves 40 jobs. It also makes the 21 full times jobs that were laid off yesterday permanent. At least at this point. The attorney's for the union have already said they will pro sue other angles in court.

Well I am pleased with the judges decision it still sadness me that some workers must lose there jobs. It is clear however that this is a big way to help solve the issue and set up long range planning to continue solving the budget issues facing the city.

We need to stop making sort term solutions that is in part why we are in this situation now. We must work on a long range plan and stick with it.

Passing the buck.

Our Mayor Don Ness has changed his proposal for the the sewer system. This one is even more of a joke then his first plan. He is passing the buck now more then he was before. Some thing this Mayor has done sense he took office this year. Most defiantly something he did as a city councilor as well.

The new plan cuts the monthly surcharge in half from near $10.0 a month to $5.57 a month. However now the city is not going to help pay or pay for the sewer line repair at all and that will cost you a small amount of money. Just 7,500 on average, heck everyone has that much laying around right?

Once again this Mayor just passing the buck. The council does have to approve this. More to come soon.

Brandon Stahl

Duluth News Tribune staff writer Brandon Stahl has been criticized by some. Mr. Stahl covers the city politics for the paper.

Now there are times to be critical of a paper and or it's writer's. However the criticism of Mr. Stahl to me at to this point has been unwarranted. I have heard a lot of people say Brandon does not know what he is talking about. Why because of research he finds. The fact is you may not agree with the research. With that said however you can find our own facts about a story line and write about it then.

It does not need to be for a paper start a blog and write about what ever you want. Mr. Stahl does need me to defend him, I am however sick of the game of blaming some one else first before taking your own action.

I am one that wants to come up with solutions to help Duluth. I don't just want to complain. I can however complain with the best of them lol. I think that we need to move toward looking for solution on the issues that face Duluth instead of playing the pointing game and passing the buck.

Red plan.

Most people know that I am against the red plan. I don't know however if there is a time or not concede that the plan is just going to get stuffed down our throats. I don't think that time has come however I also am not sure that it was time to do this either. A group is suing the city over the planning commission decision to not hold an environmental study.

Now I do think there is environmental issues in this case however I don't think the city can do much about it. The fact is the school district needs to be held responsible for this. To push try to push another form of Government into this is not right.

Why the attack on rental property?

There has always been a discussion about rental property's in Duluth. The discussion over the last few years however has been more an attack instead of a discussion of ideas. The attack many times has come about in the wrong way I feel as well.

By the way I have lived in the district mostly affected most of my live. I have seen areas of town go from family's to rentals and I have seen many positives and negatives with the changes. As some one who grew up living in the East Hillside and then moving to the Central Hillside and back to the area I grew up I understand the events that have happened.

The discussion many years ago was how to integrate the students in to the city, now the discussion seems to be how do we get the students out of here. You hear every politician that runs for Mayor or council say we need to keep the students here, yet they don't practice what they say. When it comes to rentals and students that rent the property's.

Now the discussion has changed to an attack on both rental property and students. Today the talk revolves around what can we do to make our areas less friendly to those tiring to make a living and those going to school. Not only that but those that are on fixed incomes and those looking to start a family.

Duluth has put a limit on how many rentals can be in an area one per every 300 feet. That is about one every block or so. The thing is it does not affect the exciting rentals. There for it is a worth-less ordinance and needs to be repealed. The council also wanted to a moratorium on rentals for one year in an area of town so they could discuss what to do about the problem.

The discussion is all negative about students, party's, noise ect.... the fact is with out collage students Duluth would be in worse shape then we are. I will give you there are bad students however there are bad adults, kids and family's. I have seen more issues with families then I have students. We have focused on the student accept way to long, we need to move passed it. We need to look for real ways to solve this issue. Passing the buck is not the way to do it.

Fact is we all use rentals, Students, single mom's or dad's, seniors, middle-aged. It does not matter.

I will post some ideas I have on how to work on this issue soon. In the mean time if you want to offer your thoughts on the rental property issue go for it.

Don't we pay taxes?

It seems like the City of Duluth and it's leaders at least some of them want us to pay more for our roads. One councilor is bringing up when the assessment comes to those that live on the street being fixed, they should pay more then the 25%.

Councilor Stauber said he believes that when assessed citizens should pay more then 25%. He said that some city's don't pay anything and citizens pay it all. This is a hard argument for me to follow as a citizen of Duluth. We pay so much in taxes now and get little for what we pay.

The police are underfunded and we don't have enough cops to police our streets. As crime increases. Our streets are falling apart before our eyes. Main of our streets are worse then wagon trails were. Our infrastructure is one of the oldest in the country.

We pay city taxes for what reason?