Live Blog.

I was going to live blog the Duluth Tea Party this afternoon. I have decided not to do that. One wrong move and in the big drink could go the computer. That would not be a good thing.

You will get my thoughts on it either before or after work depending on when I get home.

Reminder the tea party starts in about 2 hours behind the DECC. 12:15 or so start time.

Winson email.

Yesterday after I had learned that Mark Winson was leaving the city at the top aid to the Mayor I sent a short email to him.

The email basically said thanked him for all of his years of service. Also in the email I had said that I hope he is leaving on his own terms and it was not pressure from the Mayor or any one else in city hall.

Mr. Winson replied to my email. Again it was short there for a short reply.

“John, thanks for the note.  I am leaving of my own volition.  The job of CAO doesn't fit who I am anymore.  The Mayor and I have gotten along fabulously because we share the same desire to make Duluth a better and stronger community than it already is.”

Mark

I agree that both the Mayor and Mr. Winson share the desire to better Duluth. I also think for the most he and the Mayor did get a long. I however had heard that they did not agree on a few key points in the mayor’s plan. Well no one will tell me what those maybe, I wonder if this is why he is leaving.

Yes we need a strong Mayor and to this point I think Mayor Ness has done a pretty good job. No we don’t agree on everything. There are a number of things that I like however that he has done.

I wonder however is the Mayor to demanding on his CAO? This is the person that does the day to day operations of the city. Well the Mayor is off doing his job that entitles a lot on it’s own.

Keep in mind now this is the second CAO in one Mayor that has left that spot. Well it appeared that Lisa left because of issues with the council I wonder if that is the true reason? Lisa Potswald remains with the city in a different job.

Winson going going gone.

As John reported Mark Winson will be leaving the city again. This time it is on his terms he said. Well I am not sure about that.

John and I are both following this close. Neither one of us could believe it. We have talked on the phone about this mornning. It is to bad.

Mark will return to LSC were he left.

More later. I will try to have a post up some time tonight.

BREAKING NEWS: Winson leaving as top aid to Mayor Ness.

Mark Winson is leaving at the Mayors top aid. COA Mark Winson has said he will leave his position with the city. This will happen on May 8th.

I will have more on this later.

Lots going on.

Lots going on. I will try to comment later. I am way busy right now. I will try to post today. Other wise it will come tonight or tomorrow.

Crime up according to police.

In what was a brief discussion the other night a long time police officer told me that he has seen crime on the rise. He said that all types of crime were up in Duluth. He feels a big reason to this is the growing drug problem we face.

He said were he sees the big increase right now at this point is break inn’s. That will is to anything. Business, homes, cars ect…. He also said he believe that violent crimes have been on the rise, not nearly as fast. He did say however if we don’t get this drug issue in check we will see a huge in violent crime we will see those crimes go up with in the next three years.

He said with a young leader like Ramsey he is excited about department and hopes things will improve very fast.

MWC- Ron Stone- Lew Latto.

Just a follow up to the whole Lew Latto issue.

Another very reliable source tells me that it was MWC that made the decision and not Ron Stone to let Lew Latto go. The ownership of the mid-west tolds it Duluth market manger (Ron Stone) that one local radio show had to go on each of it’s two talk stations. Well the MWC ownership did not say they wanted Lew off the air. It seems that they left an impression to that affect.

The Duluth stations have been doing poorly and that is why they hired Ron Stone to take over there MWC Duluth stations. Stone has been a proven leader in there eyes.

The stations owed by MWC here in Duluth have been losing in the ratings to Gal West stations, they have also been losing advertisers.  It seems as if they are doing what they see fit. Stone is just the local manger doing what he is told.

Drastic changes by MWC will they pay off or hurt more?  BTW there is no truth to the rumor that Stone is getting fired. It seems that if he leaves it will be his choice to do so.

Police officer told me crime is up.

Tonight i was talking with a police officer. I will not/can not share his name. He told me that crime in Duluth was up. He has been on the force for a number of years.

More on this some time soon, now however it is off to bed.

Dumb resolution on council agenda for Monday.

I don’t want to say to much about this now. I think I am going to save most of my rant about this for my first segment on Danny Does Duluth. I am not sure however. You will have to turn to DDD on Tuesday to find out my final decision.

This is yet again our council putting it’s voice were it is not needed nor should it waste it’s time doing so.

The resolutions says that all elected officials will buy American when using stimulus money.  Now I agree that we all should buy American when we can. This resolutions again goes to far, http://www.duluthmn.gov/clerk/council/resord09/09-0217R.pdf.

Well I agree with parts of this it is not the Duluth City Councilors place. That is all I am going to say for now. Your thoughts always welcome.

Real community leader.

You  may have heard that there was a stabbing the other day. The stabbing took place in an apartment building on third street.

The stabbing happened in the afternoon. The incidents was over money. The person that did the stabbing Ritchie Rich has 17 criminal cases filled against him in 5 counties in Minnesota.

I would say lets keep this guy here. He sure seems like a real pillar or the community. Sure sounds like some one I want to live next to.

Some information came from the Duluth News Tribune. www.duluthnewstribune.com

Duluth Tea Party.

I am sure many of you have heard about this. Well I don't agree with the people putting this together. I do agree with the message. I think it is important to allow our government to over spend.

The government must spend some money. The way they have been spending over the last 8 years is insane. This has been both republicans and Democrats. The Republicans need to understand that they have been the one's in charge over the last 8 years at least with President Bush. He spend money on a war like a drunken sailor.

I am not sure if I will go this event or not. I do thinks it's message is an important one however. I wonder if the tea party will have any affect on any thing?

Hi Everyone.

I am the new guy here. John asked me to be a part of this blog. He said he wanted to have some one from the other side on his blog as well. Yes that means I am a democrat.

I wanted to just swing in and say hi and let you all know I will blog when I get a chance. It should be fun.

Another at-large candidate to announce.

Beth Olson will announce that she will run for city council at-large. She will be the second person in the last couple of weeks to do so. Beth however is much farther left then Dan Hartman is.

Beth Olsen will make her announcement Thursday April 9th, at 5pm. She will do so at the Harrison Community Center. I will have more later.

Almost a week and a half.

It has almost been a week and a half sense Lew Latto has not been on the air at WDSM. He was fired by management there.

There web site www.wdsm710.com still has him as on there. They have at least updated there shows that go across the top of the site he is not listed there. I guess you can’t ask for to much at one time.

There just has not been much going on.

Not much going on right now. There are a few things I was going to make comments on and may still we will see.

I will post when I find something interesting. As always thanks to all who read this blog. It is greatly appreciated. Now I just wish more would take part in the discussion LOL.

wonders why?

I wonder why blogs have to use fake names? Why can’t they say what they believe with there real name? 

Dan Hartman web site.

As I reported last night Dan Hartman is going to seek the at-large city council seat. There are again two spots up for bid this election.  One will be open well one is held by councilor Jim Stauber.

His web site has an introduction up I am not sure if he is going to do more today starting at 9 or not. In the piece he talks about how the council and Mayor are forward thinking and we need to continue that he says. Well I disagree with him on this thought that we have a forward thinking council.

He say’s we don’t need any drastic changes to move Duluth forward. Well I agree with this in part I also think we do need to stop electing those that don’t work for all of Duluth.  There are councilors on the council now that have an agenda and they want to push. No matter what it may do to the city. These councilors are on both sides.

Should there be anything new on his site starting at 9 I will pass it a long.

 

UPDATE: There is nothing new on the site. It is just the one video. I will have more on this later.

Tea Party specifics.

This is just a reminder about the Duluth Tea Party events. It will take place on April 15th. Yes that is tax day. It starts at 12!5 pm behind the DECC.

Dan Hartman will announce that he is a candidate for the At-Large City Council seat.

Dan Hartman who dropped out the 3rd district race in 2007 because he did not get the endorsement of the DFL will now seek a new seat.

Hartman is going to announce that he is running for the city council at-large seat.  There is two spots up one currently held by councilor Stauber. The other will be an open seat.

Hartman will have his announce on his web-site www.hartmanforcouncil.org.

More tomorrow on this.

Blast from the past.

As you know today is April Fools day. There is not much real news out today. Instead of pulling a prank I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some old post.

 

This was writtien. Friday November 30th 2007.  Your thoughts on if any of this post is true or not.  How do you think the Mayor has done up to now? 

Do we have to watch our wallets our do you think we are safe?

 

Friday, November 30, 2007

Mayor elect Ness showed his true colors.

Mayor elect Don Ness ran his campaign on bringing the community together. He also said that he will bring responsible spending back to city hall. Mayor elect Ness showed his true colors at the council meeting Monday night.
He showed that all of his promises were just that. He could care less about the average Duluthain. He is just going to spend your money and tax you out of your house. That was made way to clear on Monday night. The mayor elect did nothing but vote to raise our taxes and increase utility rates. The taxes will not benefit us at all either. They raised storm water run off by 17% and sewer rates went up 11%. Never gave a reason to why he voted the way he did. Like it or not that is what you get.
I wonder if this silent but deadly treatment is what he will take into the Mayor's office. If this is the type of Mayor he will be then we are in for a long four years. We may want to hang on to our wallets. The type of mayor that is needed now is one that can and is willing to work with a limited budget. To this point it is very clear that Mr. Ness is not willing to do this.
What is clear is that he wants to raise taxes so the city has money to fund unneeded things. These projects may indeed be good, however when you don't have the money you need to take a look at if they are needed.
He showed this again on Monday night with two other votes. One of the two votes was to not override the Mayors veto of the housing investment fund. Whether the fund is a good thing or not is debatable. I think it is in theory but I have some issues with it. Mr. Ness did not vote in favor or over ridding the veto because he thinks the project is a good one. It also helps many people out.
This is true however when we are in a budget crisis we need to focus on the core issues. I hate to say it but this is far from a core issue. The fact of the matter is our streets and sewers are falling a part. The police along with other emergency services are in need of man power and equipment.
The second vote was on if we should conduct yet another feasibility study for a high speed train to connect Duluth with the Cities. The study only cost us tax payers a small amount of $40,000 dollars.

Keep in mind we have already had three studies done. All of them said the project would not be a good one for Duluth to get involved in. I guess it is a classic case of "if you don't succeed; try, try again". This time we can all rest assured that the study will have the "right" results. The study will be conducted by the railroad authorities from many counties.

Mr. Ness said this was a critical vote and we need to support it because we have in the past. It is the wave of the future he said. Calling for a huge come back for trains.
Simple fact of the matter is this project will just be yet another fish tank . I mean G.L.A. ( Great Lakes Aquarium). The numbers will fall well short of the predictions and we will do nothing but subsidise the train.

Posted by John at 4:25 PM

Labels: Duluth City Council, Duluth Politics, Mayor Ness, True Colors