Mayor Ness and some Councilors not getting along?

Well it seems as if Mayor Ness and some councilor's don't see eye to. What are they not seeing eye to on? It would be on how to get rid of the deficit. At least how to make strides to do so.

Yet the mayor has not even announced his plan. Why all the bickering now then. The Chamber held a forum on the issue. According to the Duluth News Tribune there was some harsh words from a couple of councilors and Mayor Ness.

Ness said he’ll present solutions for how the city will address the $5 million budget deficit he “inherited” will be presented to the council Monday night, saying they will be “painful for me personally and painful for people in the community.”

This quote leads me to believe that most of his solutions will be increases in taxes also other forms of increases. I thought the Mayor wanted to cut the size of Government, wait it was a smoke screen.

When it came time for Fedora to speak, he immediately rebuked the mayor.
Nobody inherited a budget. That budget was approved,” Fedora said. “We’ve been pissing away money in the city for years, and the chickens have come home to roost.”

Councilor Fedora is correct, the budget was not inherited by this mayor. Mayor Ness is passing the buck like he always has. Mayor Ness was on the council when the budgets came up for a vote. Yes he voted in favor of them, knowing full well that there was not money.

More to come on this later.

I know......

There is a ton going on in our city right now. I wish there were more hours in a day. I don't have time to blog much now.

I however have to say did anyone see the Mayor look like he was going to cry last night when the surcharge vote failed. Then he said I hope that you who voted no take responsibility for your vote and come up with a solution. To which councilor Fedora had a great response. I toke responsibility for my vote like those before me did. Tossing the ball right back at the Mayor as the Mayor was on the council for eight years.

On a better note for our Mayor. Last night was the third open meeting he held with the public. as I said before I think this is a great idea. I however hope it is not just special interest group sending people to these open meeting times. The meetings with the Mayor take place the last Tuesday of every month starting at 5pm. You get 5 to 10 minutes to chat with Mayor about any issue you wish to.

Should the city council remove city commisners and boards.

This issue is coming about because the comments of one of the planning commissioners. Henry Banks made some comments after a council agenda meeting. Two councilors had basic questions and then Mr. Banks wrote an email to them both saying that the were racist. He also made some other comments.

Now in general I don't believe that the city council should be voting on removing board members from there positions. The board and commission post are appointed by the Mayor and then approved by the city council. In most cases there is no problem with an appointment.

Now as I said in most cases I think the council should restrain from voting on removing board and commission members. I don't think it sets a good standard because like in many cases I think your are opening the door for many questions to your self. I am not saying this would happen but it could. A councilor could have an issues with a board of commission member and they could ask to remove this person from the board.

This case however is different the issue at hand has to deal directly with two city councilors. It also could have long standing effects on the council members. I think that was the point by Mr. Banks. This case also could have an effect on the entire city council and board and commissioner members. You would hope that people would allow time to cool off before opening up an issue that could cause a problem for the city on more then one level.

At this point I am 50/50 on if the council should vote on this or not.

Henry Banks says sorry.

By now many of you know about the email that Henry Banks send to two Duluth City Councilors. Councilor Fedora and Krause received an email from Mr. Banks after being asked questions. The questions were being asked because Mr. Banks was looking to be confirmed to a committee.

Councilor Krause had asked a question about being on two city boards, well Councillor Fedora had questions about a pass application. This promoted Mr. Banks to send the email to the two councilors.

What are your thoughts on this issue? If you want to get more details you can read the paper today http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11FA280E915F6EF8&p_docnum=1.

I do have some thoughts but don't want to be the first to comment because I don't want to dictate the way of the conversation. It is open to you start.

Here are some general questions you can think about. Does racism happen in Duluth? Does racism happen to all people? Should Mr. Banks step down from his current board? Should Fedora and Krause let it go?

You can also vote on the poll on this issue.

Councilor Fedora making waves?

Today newly elected 1st district Duluth City Councilor Todd Fedora asked what was happening with the city's Irrevocable Trust Fund. Councilor Fedora sited the down turn in the stock market as his concern. He said the citizens have the right to know what is going on with the fund.

The New mayor disagrees in a way.


I will have more tomorrow.

You can read the email that councilor Fedora send to John Hall, and the Mayors responce to the email that councilor Fedora sent. Notice how I said Mayors responce and not Hall's. Anyway read the emails here http://www.areavoices.com/shareaphoto/?blog=19750.