All posts in the topic Reflections (Short link)
Summary
- There are 5 posts — by 5 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Kris Williams at Jun 26 15:21 UTC
While walking to the Roseville Ampitheater last evening I was reminded about
how fortunate we are to live in Roseville. A variety of reflections occurred:
#1- Our beautiful Central Park- Perfect in every detail. The Parks and
Recreation staff should be complimented for their hard and competent work.
#2-The well kept homes- We went by one home that was a mess with high grass
-weeds etc for the past couple of weeks but yesterday it was mowed and cleaned
up. How great it is that we have the Neighborhood Enhancement Program. One
citizen told me that our quality staff had helped get volunteers to come and
help her clean up and improve her place.
#3-Our streets- Well maintained and done with out special assessments because
of money having been set aside some years ago so the income from the Fund can
be applied to the cost on a planned basis.
#4- The pleasant City Staff and Council Members who are always ready to help-
And the list goes on & on- We all can be proud of our City - Roger Toogood
I greatly endorse Roger's message. My wife and I have had the privledge of
volunteering in Roseville for many years. I have owned two different homes
in Roseville since 1966. Have met and enjoy many friendships in Roseville
and consider it a pleasure to have lived in a city where we have such great
amenities. Hope to see everyone at tonight's Rose Fest Parade. I will again
have the privledge of volunteering for the parade. We have some of the
greatest bands in the state in our parade.
Go Roseville!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mary & Denny Harris
Certainly a positive message that I am sure many would like to project to those
outside the community.
I prefer to stick to the cold hard facts. Let me expand upon the previous
comments.
1. Central Park, along with all of our parks, are a community asset. We can
first thank the voters and city leaders back in the 1960's and earlier for
having a high level of community vision in setting aside the land, and
approving referendums to make this happen. I personally believe this kind of
leadership and vision is lacking in most of society today.
The Parks and Recreation staff do their best with the limited resources they
have. Thankfully we have citizen volunteers who step in and contribute.
But when you look closely, you see that there are "issue". Let's face the
facts, you have a park system that has a $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 backlog in
repairs. This isn't small change. The council just recently bypassed voter
approval to approve bonds in the $2,000,000 range for some arena expenditures
and this isn't part of the backlog I am referencing above. Burying our heads
in the sand won't make it go away.
Then you have leadership issues at the elected level where there seems to be a
greater desire to build even more new items rather than place a priority on
fixing what we have. Should we be installing more streetscaping and pathways
which require long term maintenance costs when we can't afford to fix what we
already have?
2. We do have well kept homes in general. The Neighborhood Enhancement Program
really is just window dressing and more to do with public relations if you take
a broad look at this whole issue. The Roseville Housing and Redevelopment
Authority has wanted to really dive into this issue for the past two years but
has been rebuffed by the city council every step of the way. Mr. Klausing
along with staff who do not live in Roseville, have blocked their efforts
numerous times. Just recently, public hearings for many of these issues were
eliminated by the council.
We can do ten times better, and we have volunteers who have stepped up to the
plate to lead the way, if certain people would put aside personal power,
political, and ego issues. The HRA is in an excellent position to take a
leadership position on this issue.
3. Our streets are well maintained. The comment about them being done without
special assessments is false. The council years ago followed state law which
allowed them to bond for millions of dollars without voter approval, by
assessing properties anywhere from 25-100% of the cost. The bonds have been
paid back over a lot of years through increased property taxes. Having new
streets means minimal maintenance in the short term. There is no free ride.
Then from what public works staff has said in so many words, the taxpayers were
overtaxed over many years in order to create some kind of endowment where they
use the interest off of this endowment in order to pay for minimal maintenance.
Let me be clear that this is taxpayer money, not some gift from Guidant, 3M,
etc. Instead of us using this money to pay down our mortgages, car payments,
credit card debt, or sending our kids to college, the city has our money and is
using it. In other communities, they chose to let the taxpayers keep their
money and simply use assessments when projects come along. Again, there is no
free ride.
Government overtaxing citizens and keeping their money is not what I would call
planning or vision.
4. Pleasant city staff does exist. I have personally met many of them.
What is unfortunate is that a few bad eggs spoil the batch. When we do find a
few bad eggs, rather than separate them from the batch, they are protected by
the city manager. The manager uses a loophole in state law to keep
investigations of other employees non-public and out of sight from council
members. This loophole doesn't exist for state level management employees.
The desire to bury problems by the city manager ends up creating an atmosphere
where it appears that all employees are on the take. It also lowers the
standards that other employees feel they should strive to achieve.
Let me give you some examples of what this management style creates. If the
fire chief can run a political campaign website from city hall during the
business day on city owned computers with no repercussions, then certainly an
employee should be free to run their ebay business from city hall on city owned
computers during the work day. If a communications department employee can
make a derogatory comment towards council member Kough during a public meeting,
then why can't all employees make similar derogatory comments to county or
state elected officials in a public environment on city time in their official
capacity as a representative of the city of Roseville.
Then look at the example our council sets for our employees. The council never
holds the city manager accountable for anything. When a police investigator
from the Maple Grove Police Department proved that the city manager broke the
law, the council never even considered disciplining him. Never considered a
written reprimand, a day off of work without pay, or firing him which would
have been the standard action. Instead they let him stay on the payroll as
long as he wanted while he looked for another job. Then the police chief who
stayed silent when emails showed she knew the city manager was breaking the
law, is allowed to continue on as if nothing happened and it was just another
day at the office.
Hello,
I appreciate and agree with these writers. From time to time we may
forget that RIF can be for communications beyond the "issues," and we have
much to enjoy in Roseville.
I am reminded of a bumper sticker I saw recently. I think it was worded
as: "More wagging, less bark." Of course, if you are a cat feeder, you'd
likely word that differently.
By the way, what are residents of Roseville properly called?
Rosevillites? Rosevillians? Rosevillans? Rosevillers? Hmm?
Best wishes,
I just wanted to note that there was a lot less traffic on the side streets
during the parade on Monday. Last year we had a lot of problems with people
wanting to get across Lexington while the parade was in progress. I think that
the letters that were sent out to the residents stating what streets were going
to be closed did assist those of us who were doing security for the parade.
I also wanted to mention this: if the Police, Reserves, CERT or Sheriff's
Reserves directed your children to stay off the street - this was for good
reason. We had a person have their foot run over by a vehicle and a person get
hit in the head with a flag from one of the marching bands. Please remember
that what the volunteers are doing is for your safety and the safety of those
involved with the parade.
Reminders:
Run for the Roses is on Saturday morning and there will be temporary road
closures and runners/bikers/rollerbladers on the streets.
There will be areas of Central Park closed during the fireworks on the 4th for
safety. Please stay out of the areas that are roped off.
Thanks!
Kris Williams
CERT